Galaxy in Flames first Poll question.

I have been working on building my first Grey Hunters pack and it struck me that I haven't chose a color for my power weapons. So I though I'd let you guys help me make up my mind.

Blue is the classic old reliable choice, but green would make for a nice contrast.

Looking at the test mini which color do you think would be a better color for my power weapons?

So vote in the poll and tell me why you chose the color.

Thanks,
Jim

How Big Jim Paints Yellow

I received a couple of requests for the Yellow paint recipe I used on the Ven Dreads pack marking.

First off I always paint yellow over a grey base coat, any mid toned grey will work. I find that painting over a grey base helps keep the color of the yellows with little to no distortion, I use Vallejo medium sea grey.

I use Vallejo Goldbrown as the first step of yellow this will give you a solid foundation for your yellow paint, and give you a shading color for those little recesses that may be in your yellow surface. Once this is dry I paint the entire area with Vallejo Yellow Ochre, this is the base yellow that all your highlights will be built up on.

The first highlight is a one to mix of Vallejo Yellow Ochre and Flat yellow, this should cover one third of the yellow surface. The second highlight is Flat Yellow covering about half of the previous highlight. The final highlight is 3 parts Flat Yellow to one part Ivory; this is placed at the edge of the entire yellow surface.

I hope that helps. If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

Cheers,
Big Jim

SW Ven Dread Painting progress

Painting has commenced! I did the base work for the metallics, blocked out the grey on the Dread except on the CCW. I had started out by paining the CCW red but it was too stark of a contrast; so I'll have to paint the details back in.





I'll do some more work after I get back from my Flames of War gaming session.

SW Venerable Dreadnought Skeld

Here is the Dread bout 95% complete. I still have a couple of things to clean up. The Wolfs head on the AC didn't quite turn out like I had hoped, but over all I'm happy with the conversion. Now that I've done this conversion and have banged out the wrinkles, I will be able to do another conversion like this and it will be much easier next time.

Sculpted SW Great Company badge

I've decided to have a 3d Great Company badge for my Space Wolves. I've chose the Night Runner as my emblem.



So here is the badge I sculpted. It needs a little clean up, but I'm generally happy with it.




Once the badge is cleaned up and dry, I'll make a push mold for it so I won't have to sculpt it on every Marine in the army.

Revised Space Wolves List

Here is an updated list after some great feedback over on the Bolter and Chainsword forum.

I've decided to go the Cheap invulnerable save route. SS for my HQ's for a better invulnerable save on the cheap. I decided to swap out the WP for a RP to give my BC's a moving cover save.

VenDread w/ Assault cannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra armor- 170

Rune Priest- Frost Blade, Storm Shield, Runic charm, Wolf pet, Frag grenades, Melta bombs- 129

Wolf Lord- Frost Blade, Storm Shield, Runic charm, Wolf pet, Frag grenades, Melta bombs- 124

6 Grey Hunters- 5 Bolters, 1 Powerfist, Plasmagun- 174
Razorback TLHB

6 Grey Hunters- 5 Bolters, 1 Powerfist, Plasmagun - 174
Razorback TLHB

15 Blood Claws- 1 Flamer, 1 Power weapon, 2 Powerfists- 248

8 Grey Hunters- 7 bolters, Meltagun, 1 Power weapon, 1 Powerfist- 213
Rhino

8 Grey Hunters- 7 bolters, Meltagun, 1 Power weapon, 1 Powerfist- 213
Rhino

Predator Destructor- Lascannon sponsons- 120

Whirlwind- 85

5 Long Fangs- 1 Heavy Bolter, 2 Missile Launchers, 1 Lascannon - 198

1848 total

Space Wolves List

Here is what I'm planning on building towards at 1850 with my SW project. I know it's not an overly hard list, but it has the right feel to me.

VenDread w/ Assault cannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra armor- 170

Wolf Priest- Plasma Pistol, Frag grenades- 111

Wolf Guard BL- Combi-plasma, Frost Blade, Belt of Russ- 120

6 Grey Hunters- 5 Bolters, 1 Powerfist, Meltagun - 172 pts.
Razorback TLHB

6 Grey Hunters- 5 Bolters, 1 Powerfist, Meltagun - 172 pts.
Razorback TLHB

15 Blood Claws- 1 Flamer, 1 Power weapon, 2 Powerfists- 248

8 Grey Hunters- 7 bolters, Plasmagun, 1 Power weapon and 1 Powerfist- 215
Rhino

9 Grey Hunters- 8 bolters, Plasmagun, 1 Power weapon and 1 Powerfist- 233
Rhino

Predator Destructor- Lascannon sponsons- 120

Whirlwind- 85

5 Long Fangs- 1 Heavy Bolter, 2 Missile Launchers, 1 Lascannon - 198

1844 total

Any suggestions or tweaks would be appreciated.

As promised I've crunched the numbers and decided that this will be the make up of my Great Company.

Logan
Ragnar
Ulrik
Njal Stormcaller (if he makes it back in the codex)
Bjorn
Sternhammer
3 Rune Priests in PA, on bike, and TDA
3 Wolf Priests in PA, on bike, and TDA
3 WGBL 1 in PA, 1 on bike and 1 in TDA
Iron Priest
1 Ven Dread
2 Dreds
10 Wolf Guard in PA
10 Wolf Guard in TDA
12 Wolf Scouts
99 Grey Hunters (12 Packs: 3@6, 3@8, 3@9 and 3@ 10)
30 Blood Claws
8 Blood Claws with Jump Packs
16 BC Bikers
4 Attack Bikes
6 Landspeeders
3 Preds
1 Vindicator
2 Whirlwinds
2 Landraiders
1 LR Crusader
20 Long Fangs

I almost forgot the transports
10 Rhinos
4 Razorbacks
I would like to make or buy enough drop pods for everything to deepstrike.

That's whopping 220 infantry and bikes! I have about 80% of the models on hand I'm waiting for the new Codex and models to buy the rest. Should take about a year to get the GC up and running!

Space Wolves Codex

Finally some official GW confirmation that the Space Wolf codex is incoming!

From WD354: page 13 Right hand Column, second paragraph down:

"Recently we've heard howls of anguish from the games developers, and 'Eavy Metal have been ordering a lot of grey paint. What could it all mean? Keep reading over the next few issues to find out."

I've been searching all over the web and these are the most recent rumors about the New Codex: Many thanks to Shadowphract from Warseer.

If drop pods are taken, the whole army must take them.

Bjorn the Fellhanded has AV14 on all sides, better stats.

There is some mad Wulfen character, who has his own personal drop pod. He can choose who he fights in combat, like a challenge in WFB. No-one else can fight him apart from the person he's attacking, unless said model is killed, in which case his squad can then attack him.

All rules for Named Characters have been rebuffed - all of them can take terminator armour for +50 points. All Named Characters models are getting re-done, if not for the actual release then in subsequent releases.

Any character can take terminator for 50pts, which includes weapons.

-Runic weapons I believe function as Relic blades, but with something else quite snazzy.

Wolf Guard (in terminator armour) with lightning claws rack up 6 attacks on the charge each. A very broken thing to do (think this ill be omitted from the final codex) is put them with Ragnar Blackmane, who gives them Fleet of foot and rending, though dont' quote me on rending.

-Wolf guard in terminator armour with lightning claws are costing 60 points.

Individual Wolf Guard can replace squad leaders - all should look individual.

No model in the SW codex at all has the option to take a thunderhammer and storm shield.

Wulfen are are apparently in the new codex

The Leman Russ Exterminator is gone, but may be replaced by a new Predator variant.

Wolf Guard can still lead Packs of Space Wolves

The Special Characters are getting New models and after seeing the most recent SM HQ minis they should look fantastic.

New plastic upgrade kit similar to the DA sprue. There is also a rumor of Plastic Wolf Scouts.

BoLS rumored plastic Long Fangs and Terminators also.

Rumored for an October release.

Back to the Fang

Sorry for the lack 'O Miniatures updates, I've been working on my FOW Germans for an upcoming tournament.

Anyway I'm back working on my wolves. I've assembled all 5 Fangs now, I still need to finish the GS work. None of the heads are attached, so they are still subject to change.



I started working on my Ven Dread. He is still very WIP.

Wolf Theory

I'm planning on building an entire Great Company of Space Wolves this time around, but there are a couple of common issues.

How many Space Wolves are there in the Chapter? What makes up a Great Company?

Let's start off with what we know from the fluff. The Space Wolves were never a very large Legion during the Great Crusade. After the Horus Heresy the Wolves were only split once into the ill fated Wolf Brothers.

The Space Wolves do not follow the Codex Astartes. A standard space marine chapter has 10 companies while the Wolves have 12 Great Companies plus the Company of the Great Wolf which is said to be effectively another company.

Each Great Company has its own headquarters and territory within the Space Wolves massive fortress the Fang. With its own Spacecraft, weapons, forges and other facilities. In almost all respects, its a separate, self-sufficient body of Warriors.

It would make sense that the Space Wolves have more marines than a standard chapter. I would also venture a guess that a Great Company is larger than a standard one.

With all this in mind I will be building my Great Company along the lines of the old Epic Space Marine game. Here are the contents of the Space Wolf cards from "Space Marine".

The Great Company data card is the basic element of your army it includes.
1 Wolf Lord
20 Wolf Guard
12 Grey Hunter packs (24 bases of 5)

SO full strength a Great Company includes 140 Space Wolves before adding BC's and LF's.

You can then add up to 5 of the following to make up the rest of the Great Company. (Now keep in mind from a fluff perspective GH should be the most numerous pack in the Great Company.)

30 blood claws (6 bases of 5) or 3 full packs of 10
30 Long Fangs (6 bases of 5) or 3 full packs of 10 (remember this was before the first Wolf dex)
10 BC bikers (5 bases of 2) or 1 full pack
Tank squad of 3 tanks
Speeder squadron of 5 landspeeders

So lets just assume we take one of each the BC's and the LF's. That would put a conservative Great Company around 200 Space Wolves. With the Chapter probably maxing out around 2500 Space Wolves.

The problem in getting numbers is that the Space Wolves are not codex and so don’t follow hard and fast rules for numbers… so the above would be a rough estimate that I will work towards myself, and then add the odd extra pack here or there just for grins.

I would also note that during the research for this post I'm now unsure where in the Space Wolf chapter the Wolf Scouts belong. In the 2nd ed codex they were listed as part of the Company of the Great Wolf, but in the current codex they are not. The scouts are also not mentioned in the description of the Great Company in the current codex either.

Next time I'll be laying out my initial army list and what I'm planning on including in my Great Company as a whole.

Mark 4 armor conversion

Here is a WIP of my fist converted Mk 4. I still need to fill in the wrists, but I'm really liking how he's turned out.