Dreadtober Blood Axe Dreadnought (Part 5)

At the end of the part 4, I promised some outside natural lighting pics. And today I was able to find a moment to make that happen.

Natural lighting in a sea of moss.

I still may or may not toss a few decals on this thing but time has yet to be available to do so. And I am OK with that simply due to indecision on my part. So for now this shall remain as is.

Check me out on the good side here..

The olive drab does cameo this model well, something that other orks shun but the sneaky Blood Axe gits totally get a kicks out of.

And that wraps up this year's Dread/Ork-tober event for me. I am thinking next year I will paint up a traditional Goff Ork Dreadnought, but my mind could change by then. Thanks again to the guys at the Dreadtober page for inspiring and organizing this year's challenge!

Intercessors of Fenris (Part 2)

I was recently able to do some more work on the new recruits for my Space Wolves. I worked up the bases for the Intercessors, but while doing so I found that I had the desire to double-up and so I built another squad.

More recruits.

This are the starter guys from the starter set. I built these guys and applied a few Space Wolf flourishes (or do you guys prefer "accessories"?). So after I glued gravel, and a few skulls, to their bases it was time to prime them. But I needed a new place for priming models. Finding some unused cinder blocks and a slate from a recently retired (i.e. destroyed) dog house, I created this Alter of Priming.*

The Alter of Priming. 

OK, so before I get called out on it, the first sacrifice to the Alter of Priming, if you can tell from the big green spot, was actually the Dreadtober Blood Axe Dreadnought. I just didn't think about taking pics or discussing it until I was about to start priming miniatures for this project.

The Primaris Marines await their priming.

After the primer was fully dried I decided to just jam out a single marine. Sadly I didn't get further than the basecoat, but so far I am digging how it looks like this may turn out. Hopefully by the time I post Part 3 this model will be finished.

Base coat on the first Intercessor. 

*It can only hope to aspire to achieve the legendary status of The Brick of Scrutiny. -Gotta have goals!

Dreadtober Blood Axe Dreadnought (Part 4)

Finding a few fleeting moments last week, I have managed to complete this model. Well mostly anyway. I have some decal ideas I want to try out. But here it is 95% done.

Done but for the decals.

The finals steps to get me here are next. The first step being painting the hatch. This didn't take hardly any time at all.

Hatch applied and painted.

Next I painted the windows. It still cracks me up that these dreads would have windows, but hey, there they are!

Windows painted.

Then I focused on the weapons. I chose to make this one's fuel tanks a brighter red that last year's dread.

Fuel tank painted.

After a few touch-ups, I decided that this was actually done! So after finishing the painting of the base, grass tufts were added.

Tuft love.

There are two skulls, 'umie of course, that had to be finished also.

More grass tufts.

Pretty much done! 

I hope to get some outside natural lighting pics soon, however it was raining when I last had the opportunity to do that. Since I have some decal ideas this is probably for the best anyway.

Terminator Basing (Part 4)

Here is Joshi Krakenbite, completed sans decals. He brings the fire and thunder to his unwitting foes.

Joshi Krakenbite, assembled for battle!

I tried to make the flame patterns on his Heavy Flamer as seen on the 40k 2nd edition era Space Wolves Codex.  I think it's pretty close... but I will let you guys judge how well it's turned out. You can view that cover back in Part-3.

"Fire! Fire!!!"

Rear view.

It didn't take much from the previous post to get this guy done. Well done sans decals anyway. I won't decal these Wolf Guard until I get them all done.

If I had a hammer...

Next up is Bori Stonepaw. This guy carries a Cyclone Missile Launcher. I had hoped to have him a bit futher along for this post, but I hope you can appreciate how far he has come along regardless.

Bori Stonepaw

Progress shall continue, but in the meanwhile I have a Dreadtober pledge to finish up...

Intercessors of Fenris (Part 1)

Greetings! Recently I split a boxed set of Tooth and Claw with Doctor TSG taking the Space Wolf half. I originally wasn't going to incorporate the Primaris into my aging Space Wolves force, having decided a year ago to use them with my Ultramarines instead. But the decision to split a set ot Tooth and Claw, and the release of the 8th Edition Space Wolves Codex have changed my mind. I like the fluff aspects of them being reluctantly accepted into the Space Wolf ranks and the majority of them traveling to Fenris to take the Test of Morkai to prove their worthiness. So despite the fact they are not true Fenrisians, it is cool that they are embracing the styles and customs in an effort to assimilate properly into the Space Wolf ranks.

The gathering.

 I really enjoyed building these guys. Despite their limited options, I was taken back by how advanced the multipart Intercessors kit is. The squad leader has a lot of arm choices especially.

Spuad Leader.

 My favorite guy is probably the auxiliary grenade launcher. His pose seems to me to be the most aggressive. Also, it is nice to see the auxiliary grenade launcher return after all this time.

 This guy came out good too. I think this is a Mordheim head from the old Mordheim boxed set. Regardless, I think it looks good. This Intercessor has fully embraced the Fenrisian style.

This guy is the most standard looking one of the group.  I call him Steve. I chose to arm these guys with standard Bolt Rifles as they seem to be the most versatile option. I really like the other two options and If I get more of these guys I might make some with those options.

This guy was tricky to assemble but ultimately I sm satisfied with the results.

To make them easier to paint I am leaving their backpacks off for now.

I added some bitz from the Space Wolf Primaris Upgrade sprue. The leader of this pack has gotten the bulk of the goodies.

Extra heads are nice for an assortment of different things and since my first RTB01 marines back in '89, I like to put a helm on the belt of the bare-headed marines. Too often you'll see Space Wolves modelled or depicted in art without their helmets and I marvel at the wreckless and vain nature of this practice.

That is it for now, weather and time permitting, I hope to get these guys into the painting queue soon.

Dreadtober Blood Axe Dreadnought (Part 3)

The month Is still young and I have made more progress on this thing. Remember, the spirit behind the Dreadtober event is to try to get at least one Dreadnought (or Dreadnought sized/class) model fully painted in the month of October. Here is it's current state, followed by the steps that got it this level:

Current stage. 

Moving on from the previous post, I picked out some areas in black that will likely be painted in a metallic color. I also went hog wild on the base, almost finishing it.

Black basecoats and a mostly painted base.

 Next I decided to darken the recesses and grooves by applying some ink. I mixed a classic Citadal Green ink with black Game Color Wash, with another dot of yellow. The result didn't turn out the way I though it would however. I wasn't sure quite why. And since it was still wet, and colors can look distorted while still wet, I decided to sleep on it and check how it turned out in the morning.

Dark green ink...

 Looking at it in the morning, it was apparent to me that had unintentionally performed an amateurish faux pa so grievous that could lose my art certifications: I highlighted the lowlights and lowlighted the highlights!!!

Luckily I immediately determined the solution. I went over these areas again using Agrax Earthshade. And wow, and I am super pleased that I did! This really kicks up the Olive Drab while also giving a dirty/rusty/worn vibe to the whole thing.

Agrax Earthshade to the rescue.

And this is where we are at currently, we will see where it is at come the weekend or next week. I say that because I have a careeer change occurring this week that may challenge my hobby time.

Dreadtober Blood Axe Dread (Part 2)

Dreadtober  continues! 

The Jolly Green Dread.

As you can see, considerable progress has been made. Um, assuming one actually considers an Olive Drab spraypaint prime/basecoat progress. But as nutty as life has been lately, it's the best I could do.

Backside. 

 I tried to give it a good solid coat, but I am afraid I may have to blast on another layer as it isn't quite matching how I visualized it. Still, I am excited to finally start my quest to have a Blood Axe detachment like I discussed in Dreadtober Part-1.

Bird's eye view of the open hatch.

Note that, unlike last year's Dreanought, I have decided to not have the pilot visible on this one. Once I track down the hatch, I intend to seal it onto this one. Just to be diffrent I suppose. However I will paint the interior (somewhat) in case I change my mind. Also, I neglected to talk about this in Part 1: the las cannon is upside down on this Dread. This was done to allow the top arm to be able to swivel (yes,  the model is fixed, it can't actually swivel) without busting it off. And I also think it looks cool. But the real reason was because back in the 2nd edition (which was the current edition way back when I first assembled this) when the Ork Dreadnought was attacked, a table was randomly rolled on to determine which location on the Dreadnought was struck. It seemed I was always either loosing both my Klaws, or both of my shootas! Mixing this up seemed to help this thing survive a bit longer.

Basecoat of Real Brown on the base. 

A dark brown paint, specifically Folk Art Real Brown, was used for the base layer on the base.

Territorial Beige.

This was followed by Territorial Beige on the next layer. Curiously, those green rocks have given me some ideas for a Wood Elf project I want to do at some point. They remind me of mossy rocks, and that intrigues me for some reason. On this model however they will likely end up being painted in a grey scheme. 

And that was the extent of my progress on this model so far, hopefully I will get much further in the next installment...

Dreadtober Blood Axe Dreadnought (Part 1)

It's October, and it's time to celebrate two things: Ork (Orktober) and Dreadnoughts (Dreadtober). And just like last year's Dreadtober challenge , I am once again going to try to have a dreadnought fully painted before the month is over. Yes, this is the same miniature as last year, just with the arms positioned differently. I got them both as a set.

Rogue Trader era Dread #2.

This year's model however will not be painted as another Bad Moon dread as I originally envisioned it would be. No, this one will be a Blood Axe dread! The inspiration for this comes from the very first White Dwarf I ever owned: White Dwarf 119! One day I might do a top-to-bottom retrospective review of this issue, but for now I am just focused on the cover.

White Dwarf #119. 

The cover features an army of Blood Axes in the heat of battle while a mekboy works to get a Dreadnought operational again. It is an awesome painting and to my knowledge it has never been reprinted anywhere. I came across this issue again recently, and after taking it all in again, decided that I needed to paint a chunk of my Ork army in this scheme. But to start it off I wanted to paint my last unpainted Rogue Trader era dread like the one on the cover of #119.

Rocks added to the base.

I first had to address the base. Or rather dress it up actually. Unlike last year's model, where I used greenstuff to smooth out the topographical differential between the round and square base, I just glued a bunch of rocks down along the  edge where the two meet.

Grit glued on. 

I then used thinned PVA glue to apply the rocky grit to the base on the areas where the base was bare. And now the miniature is ready for painting. But we'll get into that in part 2!

Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about Dreadtober, head over to the Dreadtober blog to check it out and see what all those other participants are doing this month as well.