Erik Morkai's Great Company -army project (name change)

[Thornoo1]

OK then here we go. 

 

I like the SW fluff and their totally over the top Norse inspired models. My first experience of SW was playing against them in 2^nd ed and they were a really tough nut to crack.  I love how totally customisable their characters from wolf guard on up are.

I wanted to create a playable, competitive SW army at a cost which wasn’t too exorbitant. This project isn’t going to expand past the buying plan I have currently as I already have a full company of Blood Angels with many vehicles, let alone the other 6 armies I own.  I have a huge bitz box collected over 20 years of gaming so I think I can dip into this to flesh out any holes in purchasing I may have.

 

As an Australian it is difficult to source new 40k models at what could be considered a reasonable price so I bought from the USA.  This saved me  $150 straight off the bat.  My total spend has been $350 which I think is reasonable for a fully playable 40k army in today’s pricing structure.

 

I bought (its a done deal):

3 Space Wolves Battle Forces

1 Space Wolves Wolf Guard Terminator box

This nets me 60 +6 marine bodies, 5 terminators, 3 drop pods and 15 scouts. – The wolf pack sprues will provide me an additional 6 torsos to which I have legs for. I may purchase a handful of AoBR termies as the Wolf Guard Terminators comes with enough bits to flesh out two squads, 1 as a fully assault option and 1 as a tactical option. I may also chuck in some kind of wolf box set for war gear purposes.

 

My initial build plan is for the marine and terminator bodies:

15 Blood Claws – 2 cc weapons

30 Grey Hunters - bolters

5 wolf guard in space marine armour, 1 in terminator armour

5 long fangs - I have the heavy weapons in my bitz box

2 rune priests in marine armour, 2 in terminator armour

1 wolf priest in marine armour, 1 in terminator armour

1 wolf lord in marine armour, 1 in terminator armour

The other marine bodies will be various special weaponsoptions for mixing and matching.

 

So I’d like to ask for some feedback.  I will be spray painting with a black the under coat and also spray painting the base coat.  I like the bluer rather than grey versions of models I have seen.

 

What is the best SW spray-paint on the market? I hear that Army Painter Wolf Grey is a good choice.

 

Also does this model breakdown look like a good choice? It'll be a podding/flanking marine foot horde.

 

 

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

...Sorry, I heard "Warhammer 40k" and "Reasonable Cost" in the same sentence, and I doubled up with laughter.  What was the question?

[Thornoo1]

I always apply the gaming console test.  Is spending $600 on a gaming console plus games a better investment than buying a 40k army.  My answer is always no.  40k armies last a lifetime gaming consoles only have a reasonable shelf life of 5 years. 

In this context $350 is a reasonable cost.

 

[mactire]

Army Painter wolf grey is pretty good, its a little bit lighter than the Fang or old Shadow Grey. However I've found that the AP range can be a little hit and miss as I've had some good results and some bad where they spray seems to pool or obscure the details. The new GW spray The Fang might suit you better as in all fairness the GW sprays seem to be consistently of a good standard, I have'nt used this colour myself yet so maybe somebody else on here might have a different view.Hope this helps and good luck.

[Leif-thunderstand]

I took chaos black spray as first coat. My second coat the fang is a beautifull blue/grey which is more blue then grey.

To lighten it up i took russgrey and for the finishing fenrisian grey.

This makes a cold efect of grey/blue. The older clours got that ice blue, ...you could ask around whats the newer name of that collor.. I think it would be blue enoght for your army since they shouldnt look like ultramarines or crimsonfists...

[Thornoo1]

I would like to use GW colours like the fang but I really want to spray the 80 or so models I'll have. It took me 18 months to do my blood angels company and I found that my colour consistency wasn't great across all of the models. I'm an average painter but I can get ok results if I stick to a group of models.

 

I do have a compressor and airbrush but for the life of me I can't get it to work with GW paints even after watering them down.

[Valerian]

OK then here we go. 

 

I like the SW fluff and their totally over the top Norse inspired models. My first experience of SW was playing against them in 2^nd ed and they were a really tough nut to crack.  I love how totally customisable their characters from wolf guard on up are.

 

I wanted to create a playable, competitive SW army at a cost which wasn’t too exorbitant. This project isn’t going to expand past the buying plan I have currently as I already have a full company of Blood Angels with many vehicles, let alone the other 6 armies I own.  I have a huge bitz box collected over 20 years of gaming so I think I can dip into this to flesh out any holes in purchasing I may have.

 

As an Australian it is difficult to source new 40k models at what could be considered a reasonable price so I bought from the USA.  This saved me  $150 straight off the bat.  My total spend has been $350 which I think is reasonable for a fully playable 40k army in today’s pricing structure.

 

 

I bought (its a done deal):

3 Space Wolves Battle Forces

1 Space Wolves Wolf Guard Terminator box

 

This nets me 60 +6 marine bodies, 5 terminators, 3 drop pods and 15 scouts. – The wolf pack sprues will provide me an additional 6 torsos to which I have legs for. I may purchase a handful of AoBR termies as the Wolf Guard Terminators comes with enough bits to flesh out two squads, 1 as a fully assault option and 1 as a tactical option. I may also chuck in some kind of wolf box set for war gear purposes.

 

 

My initial build plan is for the marine and terminator bodies:

15 Blood Claws – 2 cc weapons

30 Grey Hunters - bolters

5 wolf guard in space marine armour, 1 in terminator armour

5 long fangs - I have the heavy weapons in my bitz box

2 rune priests in marine armour, 2 in terminator armour

1 wolf priest in marine armour, 1 in terminator armour

1 wolf lord in marine armour, 1 in terminator armour

 

The other marine bodies will be various special weaponsoptions for mixing and matching.

 

So I’d like to ask for some feedback.  

 

Also does this model breakdown look like a good choice? It'll be a podding/flanking marine foot horde.

 

I'd recommend changing up a few things.  

 

1) I wouldn't bother with making Blood Claws.  At least in our current codex they have zero advantages over Grey Hunters, which literally do everything better, and for the same base price.  I'd use what you've got in basic Power Armour to make 4 packs of 10 Hunters.  I'd probably put two packs in the Pods, and leave two to footslog (potentially one to secure rear objectives and the other to Outflank with a SotH Wolf Priest.

 

2) Use your extra Power Armour bodies to build at least 2 packs (3 is even better) of full Long Fangs.  One pack of Fangs doesn't give you enough long-ranged heavy firepower.

 

3) With your 5 or 6 Terminator bodies, I'd use 3 or 4 of them as Wolf Guard Terminators to go in the 3rd Drop Pod.  Use can use another of those Terminators as a Rune Priest and/or maybe a Lone Wolf model in TDA.  Don't bother putting Wolf Priests or Wolf Lords in TDA, as they can/do have a better Invulnerable Save already, and can get 2+ Armor by buying Runic Armour.  Runic Armour is better in every way than TDA, so only bother with that for the Rune Priest, who doesn't have any war gear options to grant an Invulnerable save.

 

4) Depending on how you want to run it, you can join an Independent Character (Wolf Lord, Wolf Priest, or even Rune Priest) to those Wolf Guard Terminators in the Drop Pod.  If your character is in Runic Armour, then you can also add a Wolf Guard in Power Armour to fill out any leftover transport capacity, and get you another body forward in the Pod unit.

 

So, let's add that up:

 

Wolf Lord in Runic (Power) Armour

Wolf Priest in Runic (Power) Armour

Rune Priest in TDA

 

Lone Wolf in TDA

4x Wolf Guard in TDA

1x Wolf Guard in Power Armour

 

40x Grey Hunters in PA

 

18x Long Fangs in PA (need 15 heavy weapons from your bits box)

 

Looks like you've got plenty enough models to pull this off.

[mactire]

I would like to use GW colours like the fang but I really want to spray the 80 or so models I'll have. It took me 18 months to do my blood angels company and I found that my colour consistency wasn't great across all of the models. I'm an average painter but I can get ok results if I stick to a group of models.

 

I do have a compressor and airbrush but for the life of me I can't get it to work with GW paints even after watering them down.

 

Not sure if your aware of this but The Fang is now available from GW in an aerosol can just like Chaos Black and White. I cant vouch for the quality but if its anything like the above it could be what your looking for. I'm only praying they release it in Ad Mech Grey.

[Thornoo1]

@ Valerian -  thanks for the solid advice. 

 

I hear what you are saying about blood claws not being great these days and that I require many more long fangs.  I have 3 drop pods in BA colours which I was thinking of switching across to SW to round out this army.   I was thinking about the 6^th ed meta a little in which foot hordes seem to be on the upswing, in the SW list the blood claws offer this option with units 15 strong, I was thinking of flanking them with a wolf priest using the hunter saga.

 

I am also aware that I am joining the space wolves clan towards the end of their codex cycle, I expect this army to take me at least 6 months to paint and I am easily able to leave off shoulder pads right up until the final touches when we may start to hear what the new codex might look like.

 

What you are saying about the terminators makes perfect sense and I recon I’ll go down this path.

 

@ Mactire – I’ll go back and have a look on the website, cheers.

 

[Valerian]

You may want to check this out, if you haven't already read it. I've got some more work to do on it that I've promised others, but that isn't likely to get done until after the holidays:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/282223-valerians-guide-to-army-building/

Also, regarding the Blood Claws, you can always build them as Claws, but play them as Hunters if you're careful about your choices (especially since all Hunters come with Bolt Pistols and Chainswords/CCWs standard, in addition to the Bolt Guns - just don't model any with the Bolt Guns). Then, if Blood Claws are improved in a future Dex, you're already good-to-go. If not, you're still good-to-go.

Here is a picture of mine:

Everyone in the pack is completely appropriate as either Hunter or Claw, with the exception of the guy with the Wolf Standard on his backpack, which can easily be removed, or that model can just be reassigned to another pack.

V

[Leif-thunderstand]

The Fang spray is awesome but be sure you shake it mutch more then chaos black before useing.

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Welcome to the Pack Wolf Brother!

 

I second the responses for Army Painter Wolf Grey Primer, and not using the blood claws as blood claws unless using them in a fun/friendly game. Army painter also makes their color ranges a supposed 100% match to the primer spray, it is very close, I don't know if I can say it's 100% but it is a perfect layer that is just about the same shade is the "Space Wolves Special" mix that GW does. That color is my personal favorite to see the Space Wolves painted in. 

It, would technically be fluffy but not as enough impact for the points. 

When I first started buying models for my Space Wolves army I bought a bunch of stuff I thought looked really awesome, and then was disappointed to see they didn't function to well in 6th edition.... (cough land raiders, cough cough) If I could do it all over again, I'd do exactly as you have done and bought the battleforce box sets, I would then aim for Devastators and transports.. since you already have Drop Pods I would continue on and get a good Drop List going, especially since SWs do Drop lists so well. You could go all footslogging, but I'm not a fan of that at all, and if you come up on something like the hell chicken, it will ruin your troops day. Terminators are great units and are some of my favorites, they can be used as a great "hammer" unit if you kit em right or include a character like Logan or Arjac.. or both if you really wanna wreck some face. I like to stick em in a drop pod with some combi weapons and have them come in on turn one and destroy whatever big nasty thing I don't feel needs to stay on the board.  I also really like Thunder Wolves, they are great looking models and give the wolves a very fast and strong punch to use at their disposal. 


 

[Thornoo1]

It turns out that the GW spray paint, the fang, is not available in Australia. It costs €30 to getting mailed here too. What is the best alternative?

[BrotherJim]

I think you should listen to valerian *nods*

everything that guy says is gold!

 

in regards to the colour, I think its well worth looking at the Tamiya range, especially here in aus, because they are easy to source (most hooby shops stock Tamiya colours)

 

follow the link in my sig, mine are grey, but im sure Tamiya will have something to meet your needs. failing this do you have an airbrush? lol

that's right I said hooby!

[Thornoo1]

So lets get to the important stuff then shall we?

Fluff!

I'm not necessarily a fluff bunny but I do like to have a solid grounding for my miniatures. I tend to do video reports for the larger games that my group plays such as these:

http://youtu.be/7Ou4bEPiNRM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELZIHUZtSX8

I am fairly pragmatic when it comes to picking fluff, I want it to be fairly easy to identify but also not be so generic it's the same as everyone else's army. I notice that almost every SW army I look at seems to be Ragnar's with the yellow left shoulder and the wolves head transfer and that Ragnar model, ugh! Not for me.

Looking at the models I have it would seem that because I'm predominately running a drop pod army Ragnar would be a natural fit based on his companies background.

See above.

I could of course invent my own Great Company and build a background but not this time. Looking at the rest of the models I’m getting I’ll be getting 15 scouts and my play style means I’ll inevitably be flanking a unit or two using Saga of the Hunter, scouts in training if you will. Also looking at the transfer sheet I see that there are a limited number of shoulder transfers.

With all of this in mind I think I will settle on Erik Morkai’s Great Company. The two headed wolf shoulder looks pretty cool and Erik’s tactical approach seems to fit my play style. Looking at Erik’s background it would seem he wears runic armour and has two very large axes. This should be easy enough to model up using the axe from the SW terminator box set and an axe from the wolf pack box set. I had initially wanted to go a terminator wolf lord for uberness and survivability but runic armour and the belt of russ achieve the same outcome. To represent Erik’s “tendency to solve problems with swift and bloody acts of violence” I will be giving him the Saga of the Warrior and a frost axe (don’t tell anyone but perhaps one of the axes will be bought as a power sword for gaming purposes, wysiwyg is alive and well shhh).

So there we go Erik Morkai’s Great Company shall inhabit my gaming room’s shelves for evermore.

A quick and dirty crack at the army painter gave me this as a basic colour scheme for my army, probably more bluish but is my first time on the painter.

[Thornoo1]

I guess a painting blog is supposed to have pictures of updates etc. kind of hard to do when I am waiting rather impatiently for my models to arrive.  But in the spirit of such a forum here we go.

 

The first picture is of some guns I had in my bitz box.  I'm going to convert the rockets off my many rhino chassis into missile launchers and I had a bunch of heavy bolters from various tanks which were never used.  So that equips 3 squads of longfangs.  the meltas and flamers speak from themselves but I will be converting a number into combi weapons.

 

The Orks? Well I have to paint something right?

 

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/41589f18-9868-4970-8ca2-fb5627798d30.jpg

 

 

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/05a0309d-9283-4f41-8d6b-1cb8f71e8a47.jpg

[Leif-thunderstand]

I like this landscape fallen thunderbird from the macragebox.

[Thornoo1]

I've been on the road for the past three weeks jaunting up and down the Australian east coast for my Christmas holidays.  I got back today and oh joy of joys look what has arrived.  My order of 3 Battleforces and a squad of Wolfguard terminators. 

 

Let the modelling and painting begin.

 

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/th_3SWbattleforces.jpg
 

[Leif-thunderstand]

I wish you good enjoyment, brother

[Thornoo1]

A well spend Saturday, it got to 40c here in Brisbane today, which is around 110 in the old scale. So I spent the day inside with the air-conditioner on and mucked around with small models and paints, much to my wife’s amusement.

Now I wish I could paint like Tommie Soule as seen in his 250pts a month thread but alas I am a middle of the road painter.

This is the first Spacewolf I have ever painted and I can see where I might improve. It is also the first time I have used snow flock, I feel I need a sharper contrast to make it work. I am using many different generations of paint and I think I need to update my old chaos black as it is getting a little thick and this led me to mucking up the left knee. I swear these models never look good when you put a high powered camera inches away from them , unless you're Michelangelo.

The pictures below are my first Grey Hunter squad which I have entered into this thread as a vow to be completed before 28 February 2014. They are armed with 2 flamers, a powersword and a wolf standard. The pictures were taken before I added their gubbins, such as combat weapons and bolt pistols.

My first test model was:

1. Spray undercoated with Tamiya intermediate blue

1. Washed with Drakenhof Nightshade, the new Asurmen Blue

1. Quick brush with The Fang

My first test model

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/1sttestmodelundercoatwithwash.jpg

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/1sttestmodel.jpg

My first squad of Grey Hunters

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/2ndcombatsquadGH.jpg

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/1stcombatsquadGH.jpg

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/1sttestmodel.jpg

 

 

 

"HRRRNG...  Come on, skull, pop out of my skin!"

[Thornoo1]

Rofl, he is a little earnest looking isn't he. At least I didn't paint him cross eyed like I usually do when attempting eyes.

[Thornoo1]

What do we do during those times when we are not painting?  I bought 5 extra shelf planks for my three for shelves which hold my figures.  This of course required a reshuffle (and much needed clean apparently).

 

So why am I posting this on a painting blog for Space Wolves? Well look closely at the second picture (taken on an iPhone hence the poor quality), up the top in the blue set of  shelves you can see where my new Space Wolves army will live and the solitary figure which I have already painted living snuggly, lord of all he sees. Let me know if you want a tour of my shelves.

This first picture is after I have taken everything off the shelves.

 

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/Preshelfcleanup.jpg

 

 

Whilst this second picture is after the reshuffle.

 

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o112/Thornoo1/Space%20Wolves%20Project/postshelfcleanup2.jpg

 

[Valerian]

You could use some more models.

[Thornoo1]

It has been mentioned by my friends . But this is what happens when you play the hobby for 21 years .

I too used to never be able to afford to rapidly expand my 40k armies when I was in my teens and 20's but now as half of a DINK couple with a well paid job things have changed.

The Chaos Marine/Daemon army (4 shelves bottom right) and the IG army (3 shelves mid left) were both started in 1993, these have been steadly added to over 21 years with a number of repaints (no more green bases ). When I moved to Brisbane 7 years ago I left behind an old 2nd ed/Rogue Trader Tyranid and Ork army as I thought the models had dated badly. Since then I have been buying an army every 18-24 months at about $500-$600 AUD, I tend to buy in one hit and then add single models as required. Bundle buying really is the way to go and picking up unpainted 2nd hand armies/units on EBay. Starter sets are gold. I also tend to buy armies mid to late codex cycle as discount sellers are often trying to shift stock at a reduced price.

• Tau entirely 2^nd hand 5 years a go, remember when they sucked and everyone was ditching them
• BA entirely new 3.5 years ago, small amount of AoBR
• Orks entirely new 18 months ago, most of the troops are from AoBR
• Tomb Kings, half as a gift and half new 7 years ago
• High Elves almost all new spread over 4-6 years ago, Island of Blood filled this out.

There’s also a BA Epic army in there and a Prussian Napoleonic army, both of which cost about $200