Stu's Wolves and Nids- BUGS! BUGS EVERYWHERE!

[codyrstuart]

She is complete! The beautiful(ly battered) Brünhild! Sure she may look like she took one too many hits, but the iron priests of Fenris keep her in tip top mechanical shape. This marks passing the halfway mark in my vow. Only 6 models standem between me and completion.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160704_205002_zps7xt3qfyx.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160704_205010_zpsx6eghheb.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160704_205017_zpsf4ne0ojr.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160704_205024_zpspkt79i82.jpg

[codyrstuart]

Nothing really special tonight, just basecoating the armor on everything left. Majority of my time was spent trying to make an instamold cast of a Wulfen shoulderpad, on account of hating how my Termie Wulfen look with only one pad. And in the background, you can see leftover putty used for fur on the Praetor tribune.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160705_213756_zpsdf5wjrxq.jpg

[codyrstuart]

Past couple nights have been pointless nights (boo, hiss, ETL, etc.), but not unproductive. I broke out the putty and instamold, and began making more shoulder pads for my Termie Wulfen. I just didn't like the one pad look on them.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160706_210702_zpskp0ti9hd.jpg

 

While I had some left over, I tried my hand at sculpting something not fur, so I took the Mk II casualty from the Khârn the Bloody base and made him all better. May use him as a test for 30k colors. I've sanded it since this photo, and the head is just a place holder

 

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160706_210715_zpsn5kgygrh.jpg

 

Finally, I opened up the renegade box and began working on my first knight. Just gonna assemble the body right now, as I have to figure out how to magnetized ALL the choices.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160707_212946_zpsrzcsy93h.jpg

 

As usual, C&C is welcomed. Thanks for looking.

[codyrstuart]

Hey guys. Long time no post, but do not fret. I come bearing progress on ETL.

 

Finally! The last Wulfen pack is done!

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160725_210953_zps7on4pmge.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160725_211008_zpss09ms62q.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160725_211014_zps9csk2g44.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160725_211023_zpsfsvhbglv.jpg

 

With them out of the way, I can move on and finish my vow the way it started, with a single, kickass character that I'm too cheap to buy the official model of; Ragnar.

[Khornestar]

Some awesome looking daemons you've got there! :D

 

As for Ragnar, I guess cost could have something to do with it, but that ancient sculpt looks so out of place with modern GW minis that IMO it's better to make your own.

[codyrstuart]

Daemons... right... lol. As for Ragnar, I have to admit it was part price, part "I have this old metal SM captain body and no idea what to do with it."

[codyrstuart]

 

Brothers! A daemon must've taken possession of me, for I completed my Ragnar in just two hours (spread over 2 days). What's more, his completion marks the completion of my vow! Behold the final pics!

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160727_210845_zpso0frnlks.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160727_211040_zpsrgcbnuvr.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160727_211203_zps3iamrjiv.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160727_211224_zps8f6jqoei.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160727_211419_zpsx1ca4aug.jpg

 

And a group photo to tie it all together.

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160727_211632_zpsv3t2h97a.jpg

 

That's 1125 pts completed for the Aett and the Rout! I'm taking tomorrow off, then I'll decide if I will take on a smiller 2nd vow.

[Dantay VI]

These look crazy good!!

 

Love the Ragnar. You can tell it is him, even though he is so different to the original.

[codyrstuart]

Thanks, Dantay! He was a old metal salvage job that I kinda just stuck bits to until I found a combination that looked right. It just so happened to look similar to Ragnar, so I rolled with it.

 

So, while I do have some stuff kicking around that could go towards ETL, I'm deciding to take it easy, not test my luck, and prepare for my next task.

 

About a month ago I purchased the Renegade box, and throughout ETL, I've been building on my first knight. I want to take my time and really push some of my boundaries with this project. Not to the extremes of the Queen Bee or Knight of Black Ruin, but really paint something that is unique. To help me decide how I want to tackle the monstrosity, I looked at some of the houses, and decided that none really tickled my fancy. So, I looked to my own personal heraldry, and genius hit me in the face.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/stuart_family_crest_napkin-r431adff1f7ab40d49e94853dda00c50c_2cf00_8byvr_324_zpsgodhwqd9.jpg

 

While there are many variations on the Stuart crest (Jesus help me if I tried to tackle the royal crest), the main theme is a yellow shield with a white and blue checkered stripe. So my plan will to go with the halves that are seen on many Knights (challenge #1), with one half being yellow with a red diagonal stripe (challenge #2), and the other half with the blue and white checkers (challenge #3), and magnetize all the weapon loadouts, including a renegade loadouts ( getting another avenger gatling= challenge #4). Hell, I may write up some fluff for my own house (challenge #5?). This is going to be quite ambitious for me. While progress on my Wolves will still go on, this will be the main effort for now.

 

Guess what I need now is some advice and direction. Mainly, how do you guys paint checkers without developing a migraine, and does anyone have a good tutorial for mangetizing Knights?

[codyrstuart]

Evening everyone, no real progress on the knight tonight, but I did christen the Wulfen in a game vs. Khorne Daemonkin. He didn't take a traditional net list. From memory he had:

 

Gorepack with 4x 5 hounds, 2x 3 bikes

 

CAD- Juggerlord with sigil, goredrinker, and armor of khorne

 

3x 8 Bloodletters

 

3x Soul grinders

 

2x Held rakes with autocannons

 

My list:

 

Firedrakes formation

 

WGBL with armor of Russ, black death

 

5 wolfguard with combis, sword on the leader, asscan razorback

 

3x Lascannon fangs

 

3x Missile fangs

 

3x 7 grey hunters, 1 plasma gun, 2 rhinos

 

2x 10 skyclaw, 2 flamers, 2 mauls

 

4 swiftclaws, 1 flamer

 

Murder pack

 

2x 5 Wulfen, 1 claws, 1 grenade, 2 axes, 2x th/ss

 

Deployment was dawn of war, mission was D3+2 objectives. This was a hard fought battle. In the end he had 2 soul grinders, a unit of letters, and a daemon prince to my razorback, unit of missile fangs, 2 skyclaws, and 2 wulfen. I ended up winning 4-3 in 6 turns. Major highlights was one unit of Wulfen chewing through the Juggerlord, a unit of hounds, and a unit of letters in 2 turns, with one of the th/ss guys making 10 straight invul saves with one wound left, and earning first blood in assault against a KDK list. The Wulfen themselves (440 pts) took down exactly double their points, including a Heldrake, soul grinder, and the warlord. The Wulfen were amazing, Firedrakes not so much. Monster Hunter didn't come into play, but stubborn saved me multiple times. Next one will be with a deathwolves list themed around the Redmaw.

[Dantay VI]

Found a link that you might like about magnetising knights.

 

I put it in the master tips thread

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/322393-etl-v-tips-master-thread/

[codyrstuart]

Thanks for that, man. I'll use that to magnetize the battle cannon. As far as the arms, I found this one you may want to put in the tips thread.

 

http://redkitana.com/index.php/2016/02/05/how-to-magnetize-an-imperial-knight-part-3-replaceable-arms/

[Dantay VI]

I'll add it.

 

As for checker board, if going quite big on a knight, plus a flat area, I would invest in some masking tape and some varnish

 

Pain the area with the lighter of the 2 colours, put in all your highlights etc

 

Mark out the grid pattern n the tape and then stick and unstick the masking tape on the leg of your jeans a few times. (stops the masking tape being too adhesive and ripping off the paint)

 

Stick the masking tape in the area that you want  to play checkers. Make sure it is fully attached. If not the paint will bleed under it and mess up the pattern.

 

Using a sharp knife cut along the grids and then carefully remove each alternate square.

 

Making sure the remaining squares are stuck own securely, paint on the second colour as if it was a blank area, include all your high lights and shades.

 

Peel off the remaining square and if you were consistent with highlight an shading placement, you should have a pretty decent checkerboard effect.

[codyrstuart]

Thanks for that tip about sticking the tape to your pants first. I didn't take any paint off.

 

So here is the first shoulderpad, which is kind of my test for the heraldry of this knight.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160804_211706_zps7unn4axr.jpg

 

Here I thought that painting the checkers would be hard. Not the case. I kinda modified Dantay's suggestion above and just used tape as guidelines, so I would stock the tape down, paint a line, move the tape, etc. The hardest part was getting the basecoat of white uniform, even after almost 6 coats on top of a bone color. Only thing so far I'm not happy with is how thick these GW page paints go on. Yes, they go on with less coats, but I find that they're either too thick or too runny when I thin. I haven't cracked the code yet. But for my first time doing a paint job as complex, I am extremely pleased.

[codyrstuart]

So, I'm on the road this weekend, but I was able to bring my knight with me. Hoping to get all the base colors down by the time I get home Sunday.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160805_214909_zpspku0vpni.jpg

 

Looking at this picture, I realize I seem to have misplaced one of the knee plates. Here's hoping that I left it on my desk back home

[codyrstuart]

Good morning all! No progress to report per se. While this week has been hectic preparing for a trip to DC, I did have time to do this:

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160809_213548_zpsthomgumv.jpg

 

I found a sketch of a Knight on the forum, and decided to get a visual map out of my paint scheme before moving forward. The colors are not exactly what I'm using (averland sunset, kantor blue, mephiston red) but it helps get the point across. I also may try transfers with the black eagles on the yellow and red stripe plates. Let me know what you think.

Edited August 10, 2016 by codyrstuart

[codyrstuart]

Finally got to do some work on my knight. Finished the yellow and most of the red, and laid down a base layer of grey for the white.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160817_221327_zpsdh9bzx4f.jpg

 

And yes, this entire beast is being painted by brush. Tomorrow, I hope to get the white layered up and finish the red, and begin on the striping and checkers. That should take most of the week. Then most of it is clean up, washes, and detail work.

[Dantay VI]

Having done a few knights by brush, all I can say is I Feel Your Pain!!

 

 

Looking great though, you have done a really nice job wit the yellow.

[codyrstuart]

The yellow has been taxing. As well as the red. Watching the GW how to paint a Knight series, I call BS on them painting a black carapace with base paints in one coat. The yellow has taken several coats, and the red used in one coat on the video takes me about 3 coats. But it does come out alot smoother than the first shoulder pad where I had the paint a little thicker.

 

Now I just need to decide which set up to paint first. Both Knights will be magnetized, but for efficiency's sake, I'm only going to paint up one weapon set for now. What setup would work best for a Space Wolves list that is usually short to medium range with some assault elements? I usually don't go whole hog on pure/long-range shooty (not SW forte) and pure choppy (too easy to lose combat effectiveness IMO) with my lists, which are evolving more to anti infantry and light armor from an all-comers role. If they wouldn't be CtA allies with the Wolves, I would just run dual gatling renegades and call it a day.

[Dantay VI]

Battle cannon is a good all rounder and gives you range.

 

Giant melta melts armour but at closer quarters.

 

Never believe anyone which says they painted in one coat.

[codyrstuart]

So, an hour and a half last night saw the white layers finished, the cod piece, hip plates, chest plate, and one knee finished last night. Progress is being made. The Carapace will probably be last of the armor to paint (all that metal

[Dantay VI]

For the armour, I would say spray prime black, then at a 45 degree angle spray with a silver spray, this will five you a nice shadow effect.

 

Then use washes to vary tone, so sepia for brassy bits, agrax for oily bits blue blue and nuln oil for varying the shades of metal.

 

Dry brush with necron compound at the edges.

 

If you want specific metals, then sycorax bronze can be done in areas too.

 

Looks nice and clean.

[codyrstuart]

Dantay, I will remember the spray tip for the next one. This one's body has been basecoated for a while.

 

So I have some photo-worthy progress to report. Only the big items left before I move to the frame. I did a quick mock up just to see the progress and if my scheme even looked decent together. I think it does.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160822_214248_zpskr4i8b6p.jpg

 

Just checkers on the white, red stripes on the yellow, and dressing up the metal and the armor will be done.

 

As for the body, for some spot colors, I'm thinking the same alternating red and blue on sides for the toes, smooth hoses will be red, ribbed hoses will be black, and any metal that isn't staying leadbelcher (which will get drybrushed up) will get a couple things coats of gold to get an aged look.

[codyrstuart]

Good evening everyone! Life has been a little strange lately, and no substantial progress to report other than the shin guards for the night.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160830_214626_zpszqc1rhhy.jpg

 

Bottom is the completed (minus wash in the crevices) guard, and the top is in the process of clean up. I think once I quit being chicken :cuss and try to use the black Aquila decals on the yellow, it will look awesome. Hopefully I will get the last guard done and move on tor the cowl piece above the head.

 

And on another note, it seems like I am a glutton for punishment. I have vowed the Bloodmaws the the Tales of 18 Hobbyists. While not as high demand as ETL, painting a playable 1500 pts list in 6 months will be a challenge. I also plan to begin basing again, just to add a little more to the fire. Here's an idea of Bran's Task Force sent on this endeavor.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160830_213135_zpspmzndcqw.jpg

Edited August 31, 2016 by codyrstuart

[codyrstuart]

Hey everyone. Long time no post. Earlier this week, I ended up dropping my knight. Luckily no armor plates were on it, and it broke at the waist. Working on the main body was not as intimidating now that it is in two peices. In a couple sessions, I was able to finish up the legs.

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah7/codyrstuart/20160907_210011_zpskmlwd6tj.jpg

 

Now I just need to finish the top half of the knight, and I can begin basing my models for the Tale of 20 hobbyists event. Until next time guys.