Eldar Harlequin Skyweaver Jetbike

I'm not a big fan of Craftworld Eldar, nor Dark Eldar, but when they put on clown costumes and become Harlequins, they're suddenly cool. I think it's because they're the only kind of Eldar I can imagine laughing at themselves, as well as anything and everything else. Also, Cegorah is possibly my favourite deity in 40k universe.

I find flyers and skimmers look more interesting when they are banking to one side or another, with the pilot looking slightly to one side. I followed this advice when assembling the jetbike.
I decided to arm the jetbike with a haywire cannon for some anti-armour ability, as even though Harlequins can be armed with sort of melta weapons, blowing up enemy vehicles at point blank range doesn't mix well with fragile and numerically few space clowns.

Corvus Blackstar

The retailer I usually buy my 40k stuff from happened to have one Death Masque box set left. Since its story was apparently fairly important in the now-progressing story of 40k, and it included two armies I have relatively recently started collecting, Deathwatch and Eldar Harlequins, I decided to buy it. Of course, it doesn't include a Corvus Blackstar, so this introductory chapter was just a ruse.

 I'm still not sure about what would be the best way to photograph flyers, since they tend to be not only on the large side, but only relatively tall with their flying bases. This time, I ended up taking two separate photos from different perspectives.
Since clean, sleek, and menacing is Deathwatch's style, I elected not to make any elaborate Green Stuff decorations on it. I did glue one of the icons from the accessory sprue on the nose, but that was it.

 I originally intended to magnetize the front guns so that I could swap them from lascannons to assault cannons or vice versa as needed, but it turns out the fit is snug enough to not need magnets to stay on. Also true for the missiles, and the hurricane bolters stay on through gravity alone.

I have no idea when this will be ready and painted. On one hand, it's a very large model with lots of detail, but on the other hand, it's mostly black, and the sleekness demands certain asceticism. I may need to get a new bottle of primer spray first. Remains to be seen.

Second Pack of Fenrisian Wolves

I have previously made a post of my earlier pack of Fenrisian Wolves, albeit only painted. That one was made fairly simply, with no customisation beyond swapping some of the heads within the same kit (barely even counts) and by filling in the gaps with Green Stuff, with some fur sculpted to make the seam between the heads and bodies seem less obvious. Painting was mainly just drybrushing a couple of shades of grey. It was a simple project and took little worktime.

The downside to that was that since I had done very little to customise the models, the next pack would need some more work, or it would look like a copy & paste job. Fortunately, my earlier Wulfen project taught me some tricks for reshaping plastic in an oven, as well as reposing limbs away from intended positions.

 The bodies of the wolves consist of two hollow halves. Reshaping them with heat necessarily opens some of the seams on the models. I filled in the gap with Green Stuff, sculpting some new fur on top of it. The seam isn't perfect, but should work fine with darker colour back.

 Due to the body's rather extreme position, this one was challenging to reshape. I did manage to get it look fairly different eventually by swapping the tail with another model and by reshaping the ankle of the paw on the ground, making the whole model look more upright (the original one did always look to me like it was about to nosedive). I also did some minor repositioning of the legs on the left side, but nothing too drastic.

 Repositioning this model was possibly the subtlest and easiest of them all. The body was originally curved towards its left I straightened it and reshaped the front paws. This made it look clearly different from the standard model. and by extension the other model in the previous pack with the same original body.

 This one accidentally ended up being somewhat too similar to the other model with the same body at first. I hadn't noticed that I had used the same head on the same body on both models, making them look unfortunately similar. Though I did repose the front paws and the back ankle, this didn't make the models look distinct enough, so I decided to give this one a lot fluffier neck. I also cut a couple of pieces of plastic off from the head to make the transition from head to body seem more natural.

 The same model from the other side. I did also swap the tail with another model in the pack, but as it happens, both bodies had very similar tails, and the more curved tail was on my Cyberwolf, so that did little for the overall effect. However, the thicker fur coat around the model's neck did the job.

 Finally, my Cyberwolf. I knew I wanted it to look very different from its packmates, so I decided to reshape it a fair bit more than the others. I did this by cutting and extended all the legs by a few millimeters at several points, then resculpting the model at the seams.
At first, I misremembered the Cyberwolf's profile, thinking it had S and T of 5 instead of 4, so I made the model somewhat bulkier, too. I also added some armour to the head and chest to reflect Cyberwolf's better armour save.

To represent the cybernetics, I gave several of the wolf's joints external mechanical components and added a couple of pieces of thick guitar string to represent power cables (these wouldn't really be great to have hanging outside of the wolf's body, but it looks appropriate).
I wanted the pose to have somewhat werewolfy feel to it. It has been implied that Fenrisian wolves are actually Fenris' mutated original human settlers. I imagine this individual having some degree ot atavism, making it slightly more anthropomorphic than others of its species, but not overtly so.

 I had the idea of painting two of the wolves in more or less opposite patterns, with one having a white head, legs and body and dark grey or black rest of the body, and the other having white or light grey fur where it's longer and otherwise black.

 With the same palette used in opposite ways, the end result was that the wolves seemed clearly distinct, but parts of the same pack.

 The wolf with added extra fur around the neck ended up being fairly dark coloured. I didn't want to make the coat look too unusual, as it would have otherwise seemed like it didn't really belong in the same pack.

 By this point, I was trying to come up with coat patterns I hadn't used in this or the previous pack of five, and one that was available was white face, sideburns and belly, otherwise black. I'm particularly satisfied with this one's overall effect.

 I already had one white-coated wolf, but I decided the extra bulk, pose, cybernetics and armour plates would set the creature sufficiently apart. I also used some Ushabti Bone between Stormvermin Fur and White Scar, because naturally white fur is usually very slightly yellowish. I'm pretty satisfied with the model, though it does look fairly static compared to rest of the pack. It's not disturbing enough to be a problem, though.

Here's the full pack in a class portrait, though I mean them to be fielded together with the previous five, possibly either in one unit joined by a character on a Thunderwolf, or two supporting each other.

Dreskor's Fifth Skybolt

And so I've used up my five Mk.V jump packs. Most people would just continue building the pack with the standard jump packs, but I'm not most people, and since jump packs are as dominant a feature on the model as they are, I want them to match within the unit.

The way I rationalize the use of an antiquated jump pack model in the 41st millennium is the difference between Space Wolf and codex organization. Usually, Assault Marines are already established warriors capable of looking after their equipment. Skyclaws are not, and they need equipment that can be repaired again and again reliably, even from situations that have gotten their users killed. Mk.V equipment, already being a mishmash of various models, could be more rugged and easily repaired, which would be more important for Skyclaws than thrust power or fine control.

 I decided to make the model bald-headed again, but this time with a couple of eyebrow piercings. It would make sense for a Skylaw to have a shaved head, as they deal with wind more than most Space Wolves, apart from maybe Swiftclaws and Land Speeder crew. That said, it would be more important for a young Sky Warrior with everything to prove to be recognised than to have a practical haircut, so if he wants to be known as the guy with the long, flowing locks, getting them blasted at his face is just the price he'll willingly pay.

 I again decided to use practice of chaining the weapons to their armours. Again, for a Skyclaw, who won't want to drop his weapon while mid-air, this makes sense, even if this isn't a habit Space Wolves are known for (I think it's primarily the Imperial Fists and their successors who do that).

The model is actually very un-wolfy in many respects: the only Space Wolves specific accessory is a bone-handled knife from the Wulfen kit, and he doesn't even have a beard or a long hair. I intend to make up for this in the painting phase.

To other news, I'm now officially changing my update schedule to once per week, specifically, Sundays. I plan to make longer, more involved and hopefully less hurried posts that I keep honing throughout the week and then just finish and post on Sunday evening. The subject won't (usually) be a single miniature, unless it's a vehicle or an otherwise bigger project.
We'll see how this will turn out next Sunday.

Dreskor's Fourth Skybolt

So far, my Skyclaws have looked worryingly levelheaded, no more berserk-y than other Blood Claws. I decided it was time to fix this, so I started to sculpt on a somewhat wilder-looking head. Here are the results.

Sticking out one's tongue is a pretty effective way to look crazy and possibly somewhat intimidating, or at least silly. It wasn't really any more difficult to sculpt the model with its tongue out than any other head with an open mouth either. I may try this again with another model in the future.
I have also been wanting to have a Space Wolf with Obelix-style braids for a long time now, and decided this guy would be the one to have them.

 Again, I didn't want to use any of the more decorative shoulder pads, so I took one from a vanilla Marine kit and sculpted the wolf's head symbol on it myself.
I also decided to carve some runes on the jump pack.

The Mk. VI helmet may look a little out of place on the model, as it came from the Devastator kit and has the extra targeting bits on it, but I didn't want to use another Mk.V helmet, nor any of the more decorative Space Wolf helmets on a Skyclaw. I decided that during his more lucid moments, this Skybolt is an exceptional marksman, and will become a fine Grey Hunter if he lives long enough to temper his rage.

Dreskor of the Skybolts, painted

We're currently celebrating Midsummer in Finland. You can tell by how the few population centres that exist are nearly empty and people are in their cottages drinking (as opposed to most Finnish holidays, where the people don't leave their hometowns before getting drunk). To celebrate this, I'm presenting a miniature of a stubborn man who's been in disproportionate number of fights for his age and doesn't think there's anything wrong with that. He might be a Finn if he wasn't Fenrisian.

 I sculpted most of the model's scarring on one side of his face and specifically around one of his eyes, so I decided to paint that eye red to show that he has actually lost the eye and has had a bionic replacement put in. Presumably, this took place when he lost his original arm as well, and managed to solidify his reputation as the alpha of his pack.

 I decided to paint the chainsword yellow for a change. I had also planned to add some decorative patterns on it, but decided against it, as the bright yellow colour looked fine on its own.
I painted lightning bolt tattoos on both of the model's temples. I imagine he's fond of the design and got to decide his pack's markings.

 The model's battle helmet also had the same thunderbolt patterns painted on it in Blood Claws' colours. When and if he lives to be a Grey Hunter, he presumably has those repainted in black and red.

Dreskor brings the pack's strength up to three models, so not large enough to use in a game yet. Also, in Codex, the pack strength was listed at 10 men, so I will have to get another kit of Mk.V Assault Marines. I probably won't leave it at that either, since I already have quite a number of the newer jump packs.

The Blackmanes' Skyclaw #3

I usually give my Blood Claws very few Space Wolfy parts, such as pelts, talismans etc. I consider those to be something a Space Wolf has to earn, and Blood Claws are so thirsty for battle because they still have to prove their worth. However, every Grey Hunter, Wolf Guard and even Wolf Lord has at some point been a Blood Claw, and have proved their worth during that time. It stands to reason that a few of the Blood Claws should show some great promise they may yet live up to, should they live long enough.

The pack I'm currently building mentions a leader by name, and while the leader could be a Wolf Guard assigned to them for an extended period, I like to think Dreskor is a Skyclaw who has shown that he may yet prove to be a legend among Space Wolves, if he lives long enough.

 The idea started with the bionic arm holding a chainsword from the Space Marine Commander kit. At first I thought I'd use it for a Grey Hunter or another more experienced Space Wolf, but then I had the idea of how a Blood Claw, and a Skyclaw at that, might prove himself, and concluded that it would probably involve being wounded in battle. I sculpted a scarred face to go with the bionic arm, and gave the model somewhat more decorated legs.
I did end up having a little more trouble with the head than usual, as the toothpick it was attached to broke while I was still sculpting it. For that reason, I will still have to touch up the head before painting.

 I also wanted to personalize the model's jump pack, and decided to simply add a couple of small wolftail talismans from the Wulfen kit. I may end up also adding some decoration in the painting phase.

Since Dreskor has proven himself to be a tough fighter, though still not levelheaded enough to become a Grey Hunter, he has been issued with a Phobos pattern bolt pistol. Partially due to his hotheadedness (he is a Skyclaw, after all) and partially because he travels with a jump pack and doesn't want to drop things, the pistol has been chained to his vambrace. The sword is not chained, as I imagine the bionic arm can be counted on to hold on to it even when the going gets tough.

Dreskor's Second Skybolt, painted

I've only recently learned to paint yellow properly. The yellows generally aren't as thick as most other paints. I have previously been overthinking it, thinking I need some particular brush technique or something similar. Turns out all I had to do was to use thin layers, but apply more of them. Really shouldn't have been much of a revelation, but we're all dumb sometimes.

 I'm pretty satisfied with the final pose. Appropriately to a particularly spirited, but unskilled and inexperienced assault trooper, he looks enthusiastic to fire his pistol, but his body language implies he's fighting against his own muscles. I doubt he's going to be very accurate with that pistol.
I also decided on the pack's markings. They're going to be Dreskor's Skybolts mentioned in the codex. This means I will also go back and redo the markings on the previous Skyclaw.

 The final old Blackmane shoulder pad turned out well. I painted a couple of layers of Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow over that and finally thinned down Flash Gitz Yellow for highlight.

 I didn't want to leave the jump packs plain, so I painted a combat knife on it, a design often seen on Space Wolves transfer sheets. I also made a mental note to add some details on some of the other jump packs prior to painting.

This was the second Skyclaw model in the pack to have Mk.V armour. While this isn't surprising, considering I prepared for this project by buying a Mk.V Assault Squad from Forgeworld, I'll have to vary the pattern with the rest of the pack. I'm thinking about Mk.VI armours in addition to the standard Mk. VII armours.

The Blackmanes' First Skyclaw, painted

Miniwargaming recently made a video on painting a darker (olive) skintone. Since I happened to have nearly all of the paints used in the video, I decided to give it a shot. Most of my Space Wolves have a fairly pale skin, and since I don't like to make clone troopers, I found this welcome.

I like the way the slightly darker skintone worked out. Because Skyclaws are to other Blood Claws what Blood Claws are to Grey Hunters as far as impulse control goes, I decided the model should be  a little more feral-looking and painted some runic tattoos on his skin.

 I was originally going to paint The Blackmanes' company badge on the left kneepad, but it slipped my mind, and I ended up repeating the pack marking there instead. I don't consider this to be a huge loss, as he still has Ragnar Blackmane's army badge on his right kneepad, showing that he knows whose orders he's expected to follow (as far as Skyclaws are expected to follow orders anyway), and Ragnar is probably okay with not being quite as associated to a Skyclaw. Likewise, the Skyclaw himself might somewhat resent all authority, even a role model such as the Young King.

I intended to take the pack marking straight from the Codex, but made a slight mistake. The model is supposed to be a member of Dreskor's Skybolts, but the marking is supposed to look like a thunderbolt, not an "S". I'm not sure if I'll end up correcting that, though. After all, the markings in the Codex only apply to the specific troops present at one particular battle, and armies go through Skyclaw packs fairly quickly, so it's entirely plausible that Dreskor and his packmates were taken out in a following battle soon after and another pack taking their place. That said, it's also entirely possible this ends up bothering me so much that I change it before moving on to the next model in the pack.

Second of the Blackmanes' Skyclaws

The first model of the pack is already being painted (well, I've undercoated it), so I decided to forge ahead and assemble another one. Since I already gave myself the permission to do so, I decided to just glue a helmet on the guy instead of sculpting a head from scratch.

 With the Skyclaws being basically Blood Claws on espresso, I wanted the pose to reflect activity to the point of recklessness. I did this mostly by rotating the torso far from the neutral position and partially by attaching the left arm in a very tense-looking position.

I don't think it would look too good if the pack had a mix of various jump packs, so I intend to give at least these Skyclaws all older models of jump packs. I did some research on their fluff, and apparently, it's questionable if these older models were still in use anywhere in the 41st millennium, but considering Space Wolves' reluctance to use them, I think at least one pack might be equipped with them, if only because the newer, more efficient models were not available (after all, Skyclaws die like flies, and it takes time to repair the equipment they leave behind).

Part of the reason I made a post of a figure with no Green Stuff anywhere on it was this: I have now officially used my last older model The Blackmanes' shoulder pad, and wanted it documented.

I expect I'll get back to this pack fairly soon, though I'll definitely want to finish the Blood Claws pack at some point, too, and by finish, I mean taking it up to 15 models. That's six more scratch-built heads. Better get to it.

The Blackmanes' First Sky Claw

As I earlier mentioned, I bought a Mk. V Assault Squad from Forgeworld a while back. I obviously could have just used the standard Assault Squad parts, but I like the more archaic look on the older patterns of jump packs. Since Space Wolves generally don't hold jump packs in too high a regard, I thought it would also make sense they wouldn't have bothered to update them too often.
I haven't completely decided on the pack's composition yet, but probably will avoid at least the more expensive updates to make the pack a less tempting target.

The main body of the model is from a Space Marine Assault Squad kit, one of the first kits I bought when I started collecting Space Wolves. I started to build the models in the kit for the fifth edition codex, and this model was supposed to have Mark of the Wulfen. While most people would just differentiate models with the Mark by adding a face tattoo in the painting phase, but I went about it a little differently, by trying to sculpt a different, more bestial face and claws for the model. At the time, I couldn't quite pull it off, though, so the model was left halfway done, with a head I wasn't even slightly satisfied with, until recently.

 I still have one of the old Blackmanes' shoulder pads (with new ones from Forgeworld ordered), but on noticing that the model also has knee pads to paint the Great Company marking on, I decided to use a set of the Mk.V shoulder pads instead.

I like the way the unrimmed shoulder pads look with pack markings, and will have to try them out on the left side with the Great Company markings, too, at some point.
Will have to see how he looks painted, but generally speaking, I like the way the model turned out so far.
By the way, I'm not sure I'll be giving all of my Skyclaws bare heads, and am, in fact, leaning towards no. I'll know more once I've finished the first five models of the pack.

The Blackmanes' Drop Pod & new posting schedule

Of all the vehicles in WH40k, Drop Pod is perhaps the least rewarding as a modelling and painting project, simply because of how static objects they are.
In the fluff, they are dropped from high orbit and accelerate the speed of their fall through the use of a huge thruster, until, through the use of a set of angled, smaller thrusters, they slow down abruptly. In an unusual show of realism from GW, only transhumans like the Astartes can use Drop Pods, because this rapid deceleration would kill normal humans.
Now, in game, you just place them on the field, where they stay until destroyed. Also, if I wanted, I could ally with the Imperial Guard and give them a Drop Pod, which they could use for a group of raw recruits who would be just fine until they'd be outside the pod and something looked at them funny.

 Because Ragnar Blackmane is my main warlord, I wanted to keep it fairly simple. I'm going to have to paint at least a few more of these, and getting too detailed would make that a pain. For once, GW's practice of using The Blackmane's badge as the standard actually works in my favour. I used plenty of black soot weathering powder to make the pod seem like it it has entered the atmosphere the hard way.

For the armament, I chose the Deathwind launcher. I wanted the drop pod to pose an actual risk to something on the battlefield, so that the opponent would have to either ignore it and take casualties, or divert some of their forces to dealing with it. Also, a dropped pack of ten men armed to the maximum can make a serious alpha strike, and the launcher can add to that.

In other news, this will be the last Thursday update for the time being. Starting next week, I will now post three times per week, to have more time to make bigger projects. I'll go more into it later. For now, Happy New Year!

Thunderwolf Cavalry with a Bionic Arm. painted

This post could easily have an alternative title, called "A long series of  small, but annoying and avoidable mistakes". I should know better than to try to paint while tired, but then again, knowing the smart thing to do and then doing a different thing altogether is something I almost take perverse pride in.

 

I made some adjustments to the model since the last post about it, the most noticeable of which is the wolftail plume on the rider's helmet. Generally speaking, once I have made a post on a model, the final sculpt is done, unless I specifically mention otherwise, but in this case, I simply wasn't satisfied with the stock Mk. V helmet.

 The grooves on the rider's legs posed a dilemma for me. Usually, I keep my models' legs in the standard Space Wolves grey scheme, but the markings clearly invited a more intricate colour scheme. Since the Thunderwolf Cavalry are supposed to be the inner circle of the Wolf Lord's retinue, I decided to go for the black and yellow Wolf Guard marking colour. Together with the shoulder pad, this gave the model's left side a lot of character.
In hindsight, I'm not so sure the Gjermundby-influenced helmets on the mounts were such a great idea. Having Space Wolves' doggies wearing their own space viking helmets just may be a little too adorable for what they're supposed to be. It doesn't bother me enough to try to modify them at this point, but I think I will look towards historical horse barding for influences regarding Thunderwolves' armour plating in the future.

 The Storm Shield is a good example of a completely avoidable mistake. I started painting it yellow with a black wolf's head, despite knowing full well how poorly bluish runes work on yellow background. By the time I came to my senses, the rune engravings on the shield were pretty much clogged, and I had to find an alternate method of signaling that the shield is powered. It works, and I did get the chance to try out using white together with Temple Guard Blue, but I'd still prefer to just have glowing runes.

For the chainaxe (which represents just a normal close combat weapon, albeit with Rending), I painted some simple knotwork on it to make it stand out a little
The base is my by now usual model, with cork pieces, grass tufts and modelling snow to give it some character.

It looks like this model's 60 mm base was the final straw that forces me to expand my miniature shelf with some plexiglass or something similar. Of course, that will lead to me havin more room on the shelf, motivating me to build and paint more, thus filling the shelf, forcing me to build new plexiglass levels etc...
What I'm saying is, no end of models in sight. That said, I have some posts planned in the future that may not involve a model showcase. No details at this point, though.

Thunderwolf Cavalry in Mk.IV Armour, painted

You could say I really took my time with this one, though the three months it took between the first time I blogged about the model and now isn't very long at all, compared to the year and a half it took from buying the Thunderwolf Cavalry kit to finishing two thirds of it (the final third is pretty close too, btw).

 I ended up doing fairly little more to the model after the previous post. The most recognisable change was probably changing from the chainaxe I sculpted to a chainsword, which I ended up painting as a frostblade. I did improve the mount's barding somewhat, too, adding a plate to the back of its neck and made the helmet more substantial and symmetrical.

 I also added a couple of small armour plates with runes to the Thunderwolf's hind legs. Other than this, I decided the model was ready for painting.

As usual, the rider's head had the old sculpt syndrome, where his face was not as symmetrical and clean a sculpt as I would have liked. The transition from lower lid to eye was somewhat unclear, and one eye was significantly larger than the other. This may not be so clear from the distance models are usually viewed from, but definitely visible on closer examination. I didn't want to redo the head, though, mostly because I was pretty satisfied with his mouth, beard and hair. 
For the glowing runes on the storm shield, I used thinned-down Temple Guard Blue. I intentionally left it somewhat smudgy, to give the impression of glowing. I might still paint them clean white later on.

At first, I thought I'd just have him wield a close combat weapon, but the double-bladed chainsword has been shown as an example of a frostblade in the codex, and I didn't want to waste the opportunity. To get the message across clearly, I painted the teeth in Caledor Sky, drybrushed with Temple Guard Blue and highlighted with white. I also used the same method for the runes on the flats of the blade as for the ones on the storm shield.

The base was painted in my usual manner: Mourn Mountain Snow lightly brushed over Stirland Mud, finished with grass tufts and modelling snow. The rocks are painted with Mechanicum Standard Grey, shaded with Nuln oil and drybrushed with Dawnstone.
The first post of this model