Two Deathwatch Veterans

Due to other things taking more of my time recently, I will, for the foreseeable future, make smaller updates. I will keep updating weekly, but instead of making three models at a time, I plan to post about one or two models at a time, with two models for Troops and other more basic models, and one for independent characters. Elites and such will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

I have been wanting to get back to Deathwatch Veterans for a while, and decided now would be the time. Call it a Christmas special.

 I knew I'd want an Iron Hands veteran in the Kill Team, and decided he'd fit the fluff best armed with a heavy weapon. The model is assembled from a mixture of the Kill Team and Devastator Squad kits, with a few Mechanicus bits thrown in there to finish the look. The Devastator Squad's more high-tech greaves in particular fit the Chapter's image well, in my opinion. I also gave him a helmet wih a lot of extra targeting apparati.

This squad was going to be armed mostly with shotguns and frag cannons, and while some of the Chapters in it were fairly obvious (there will definitely be a Minotaur with one of the weapons mentioned), some were less so. I almost made this one an Ultramarine, but decided against it, ending up making him a Crimson Fist. Being known for tactical flexibility and showing orks who is who, I feel like Crimson Fists are like Ultramarines, but without the stink of Mary Suedom on them. Sooner or later, I will have to get over my distaste for the Chapter, but that day is not today. I also consider it fairly certain that any of my Captains or probably even Sergeants won't be Ultramarines.

Three Grey Hunters, painted

I have a new pet theory for why Space Wolves' colour scheme changed. I previously thought it had become blueish gray gradually over time, until I read Leman Russ, the Great Wolf novella, where a new aspirant returns to the Fang, which had until very recently housed a Legion, but now was the fortress-monastery of a Chapter. The aspirant sees people in power armour of a mix of colours, some of them bluish, others gunmetal grey. My current head canon is that as the Wolf Brothers split from the Vlka Fenryka legion, they were given the Legion's colour scheme, and the Space Wolves changed theirs to another shade of grey. It has previously been established that the new Chapter was given fully half of all the men, fleet, and war machinery, and that the new branch was generally treated in a very egalitarian manner, compared to the Chapters split from many other legions, that treat their primogenitor chapter very deferentially. This can also be seen in the second founding Chapter's name, Wolf Brothers.

I don't know if this has already been confirmed or denied somewhere, just thought of this while painting these new three dudes.

 The Mk.VI armoured model was the first to be finished in this batch. I wanted to keep it simple, without many freehand shenanigans. I also decided not to paint the bolter casings red on this model, and maybe not in the whole pack. I wanted there to be some variety in my army in this regard, plus I just didn't want to paint them in such a bright colour.

 I again chose one of the pack markings from the Codex. This pack is named Soergar's Swordkin, which is appropriate, considering they will all have close combat weapons.

 The marine with spectacle protection ended up being one of my favourites. I wasn't sure how to paint the helmet, until I came up the idea of having it mostly metal colour. The slightly raised crest part was given a sawtooth pattern in red and the Chapter's grey.

The final one still isn't finished, due to my recently more busy schedule. There isn't much done, though, and I expect to finish him by the same time as my two latest Deathwatch models are painted.

Three Grey Hunters

Building a 40k army involves modelling and painting a few special characters with exotic wargear, a few elite choices and sometimes a few tanks, but most of all, it involves a lot of troops. To keep things interesting, I try to keep in mind that every Space Wolf is supposed to be a hero of his own right, and by the time they're Grey Hunters, they have a human lifetime of combat experience.

 I still have relatively few figures with long hair and long beard, even though it should be more or less the standard look for Space Wolves. I wanted to do something about that, so I gave the bareheaded Hunter both of the aforementioned. The model also has some grenades and a Phobos pattern bolt pistol on him.

 I ended up assembling a Mk.VI armour almost by accident, but decided to put a chapter-specific spin on it. I gave the helmet a reinforced nose guard (not that I think a power armour helmet really needed it, but it suits the look), put a wolf cloak on him and chose a pair of legs based on the Mk.VI armour from the Vanguard veteran kit.

The third of the models had a mixed armour, with Mk.V legs and Mk.VII helmet and torso. I wanted to have a model with bolter running forward, so I gave him a pair of hands from the Space Wolves Pack kit and an Umbra-Ferrox bolter. I also sculpted some reinforced "spectacle" form of extra protection around the eyes.

I intend to grow the pack to full 10 men, with no special weapons or pack-specific Wolf Guard leader. The plan is to give the pack a Rhino, drive to the opponent's deployment zone and just be a general nuisance.
I should have them painted by Sunday, assuming I still remember how Space Wolves in the newer colour scheme are painted.

Two Human Linemen and a Blitzer, painted

Getting a copy of Blood Bowl was fairly inevitable for me as soon as I found out it was going to be published again. I had only played it on PC previously, and from what I understand, everything that was good about the adaptation was in the source material.
I think my main team will either be Dwarfs, Norse or Chaos, and I may even end up selling one or both of the teams included in the box sets. I still plan to paint them both, though.

 I'm not very well versed in Blood Bowl role, and don't really know the colour schemes of many established teams. Coupled with the fact that I wasn't planning on keeping on playing the standard human team, I decided to just use the Reikland Reavers colour scheme. The biggest change I made was making my Reavers' armour plates look more metallic. I painted the metal parts with Leadbelcher. Then, I painted thinned Atldorf Guard Blue over Leadbelcher, shaded with Nuln Oil and then painted likewise thinned Calgar Blue over that. I finally highlighted the edges of the plates with Runefang Steel.

 I briefly considered buying the new snowy Blood Bowl board and keeping on using the same ice base I always make, but ended up using Lustrian Undergrowth, and drybrushed it in places with Warboss Green, Balor Brown and Gorthor Brown. I chose to leave the edges of the bases black.

The Linemen and Blitzers are relatively easy to paint with their closed helmets. The future challenges of Throwers and Catchers may prove to be more of a challenge, not to mention the Orks.