Ah, the joys of having a gaming wife......

Okay, so because of my ever busy work/school/life schedule, the wife and I have been talking about her gaming with me again.  A long time ago, she was the proud owner of a very large Dark Angels army that only ever saw the light of day on the garage gaming tables.  Needless to say, after the store, that army went away, but here we are again, talking of resurrecting a Dark Angels army for her.  Putting together a Deathwing/Ravenwing Strike Force list was pretty fun, and it will have very little in the way of model count, but will be bike/landspeeder/terminator heavy.  To get the painting juices flowing on the army, I through together a little painting walk through for the Guardians of the Covenant Dark Angels Successor Chapter.  Looking forward to Rich Van Meter's update.  He is using my walk through for space wolves to lay down his base coats and will be bumping his models to level 2/3 soon!

Step 1

Boltgun metal (GW) base

Step 2

Repaint robes with Red Gore (GW), Chaos Black (GW) to the shoulder pads, Brassy Brass (VGC) to select icons

Step 3

Wash the entire model with Badab Black (GW)

Step 4

Pick out the belt ropes and other details in Jack Bone (P3)

Step 4

Wash the bone with Gryphonne Sepia (GW)

Using the principles I set out in my previous post - used a limited color palette and gouped my colors by what could be washed all at one time.  Total paint time on these 5 models was about 10 minutes.  So if I were block painting a unit of 10 Marines, I would have these done in probably less than 30 minutes

Speed Painting 101

Here are just a few of my hints for being an effective speed painter.

1. Keep a simple, restricted pallet. My normal pallet of colors per color scheme will be 4-5 colors, not including washes.
2. Keep multiple water jugs handy.  I use 3 - one for dark colors, one for light colors, and one for metallics.
3. Use multiple brushes - Again, same as above.  1 set for dark, light and metallics.
4. Accelerate drying times - invest in a little high velocity fan. After each base coat or wash, position the fan about 8 inches from drying models and then flip it on.  Speeds up paint drying times by about 50%.
   
5. Get and use a tank brush or equivalent - GW stopped making them, but there are regular art store brushes that are the equivalents. This one here is a favorite of mine.  Its a flat, making painting large areas easy and smooth, and with the narrowness, makes it easy to base coat rank and file.
6. Know your paints! - Know which washes shade what colors and what colors highlight them.  By grouping these colors together, you can base 2-4 colors and then wash them all at once.
   
7. Heavy pigment - Heavy pigment paints are best, and allow for cleaner coverage.  P3 makes a really nice range of paints and they are heavy pigment, just steer clear of their metallics unless you like really heavy flake.
8. Always prepare a test model. - Always assemble an extra model or two just to get a feel for the paint scheme to make sure it is looking the way you want it to.

Just remember, speed painting is a technique and may not work for everyone.  It is also a very nice base for more advanced techniques like highlighting, etc.  These are just a  few tips to help all of us out there get more painting in so we are fielding painted units faster!

Space Wolf painting step by step

Hey Rich, here is that step by step you asked for.

Step 1 - Prime black

Step 2 - Base with Grey.  In this case, P3 Ironhull Grey.  AS I am using a Preheresay color scheme, and these terminators are joining the army.

Step 3 - Paint on all metallics.  I used GW Boltgun on the worky bitz, and  VGC BRassy Brass on all the ornamental bits.  For the Crux Terminatus, I used Codex grey.....This is suppoed to have parts of the Emperors armor and his stuff WAS NOT BONE COLORED! (lols).  Once all of this is dry, wash the entire model in GW Badab Black.

Step 4 - Add Bestial Brown to all wolf pelts/tails, followed by a light drybrush of bone.  I use P3 Jack Bone, but GW Bleached works fine.  Another fine dry brush of GW Skull white towards the ends of the pelts/tails. Paint all Tooth trophies, mini wolf skulls, etc with Bleached Bone.  Wash those areas with GW Gryphonne Sepia.  For my paint scheme, I use black backgrounds, so I blacked out a kneepad and shoulder pad background with GW Chaos Black.  Added GW Iyanden Darksun stripe to kneepad and a platte on the helm.

The finished product.  Basing will be GW Skorched Brown, washed with GW Devlan Mud, with a light GW Skorched Brown drybrush.  followed up with spots of static grass, and Happy McSlicy hands here is ready for play.

Total time for paint (without counting drying sessions) 15 minutes.

IG 1 - SW 0

So just returned from Empire Games for a quick game for the weekend.  2250 Guard vs 2250 Space Wolves

Or at least I had thought I was running 2250, until I returned home, finding I was 250 points short!

Oh well will teach me to forget my army list....Anyways

DJs IG army was pretty well appointed and put together, plus they looked good. This is going based on my recollection of the game, so it may not be entirely accurate, by hey, close enough for a good read.

KPs / Dawn of War

Turn 1

Mike - Deployed Grey Hunters in Rhinos
LRC with BC and Lord and WG in RB drive on
WG Temies in DP, Wolf scouts in Reserve
LR drove on, just out of firing range, same with RB
Rushed my Grey Hunter Rhinos forward, disembarked and Shot up some IG.  Killing 2 squads
My mistake...... under committed to deal with IG, not prepared for orders.....
DJ - Deployed 2 Infantry platoons (4 squads each), Cmd HQ
3 Vet Squads in Chimeras and 2 LRs drive on
1 Demolisher in Reserve

Using Orders, he poured tons of Las fire into my Grey Hunters and dropped both units, taking 1 to 1/2 strength, the other completely slaughtered.

SW - 2 KP

IG - 1 KP

Turn 2

Mike - Reserves came in, Termies to the IG fireline, deployed behind the DP - Wolf Scouts - deployed short side.  LR and RB scoot forward.  RB popped smoke, deployed WG squad. LR shot some IG with TLAC.  Remaining GH move forward to assault.  Assault phase got 2 IG squads run off and destroyed by GH, consolidate into cover. Dreadwind launcher form DP obliterate a guard squad

DJ - Demolisher in on reserves, came in short side next to end of IG fire line.  Vet Squad with meltaguns Pen 6 LRC, remaining Vet Squads pour Plasma fire in, killing 3 BCs.  LR 1 destroyed Rhino #1 - LR #2 Destroyed RB, misc las fire killed 2/5 of the WG termies. Las fire continued killing GH squad to a man, and then some lasfire into the WG squad, killing 2.  Assaulted Scouts with a IG squad, was beaten and ran down.

SW - 5 KP

IG - 4 KP

Turn 3

Mike - Lord and WG squad, WG termies move forward to engage in assault.  BC squad moves and loses 6 models in Dangerous terrain rolls for leaving the crater of the LR.  Scouts Melta blast LR#2 - can't move or shoot.  Assault phase - Lord and 3 remaining WG squad assault 2 units of IG, wiping out 2 more squads, but losing another WG. Termies hit 1 other squad, breaking them from combat res. Consolidate into cover by the Drop pod.  Scouts assault damaged LR with meltabombs, pen 5, destroyed.  BC assault Vet squads, killing one more IG squad, but losing all but 3 remaining BCs.

DJ - Shot Lord and WG, but armor saves held.  2 x Vet squads shot down the last 3 BCs.  Termies splattered with Demolisher fire.  Killed 3 scouts with massed las fire. Wasted last GH with las fire. Killed DP with LR fire.  IG squads with LC kill last Rhino.  Remaining IG squads kill 1 more scout

SW - 9 KP

IG - 9 KP

Turn 4

Mike - All that remains - 1 Lord, 1 WG, 1 Scout.  Move Lord and Guard into combat against CMD HQ - Scout moves to target Demolisher with Meltagun.  Melta fire hit but failed to even glance the Demo at max range.  Lord and WG kill all but Creed in combat, and lived to tell the tale against a real bad batch of rolling.

DJ - Pour fire into the remaining wolves, but I made some great rolls for saves.  Killed remaining  Scout with las fire.

SW - 9 KP

IG - 10 KP

Game ended with victory to DJ.  His army is really well balanced and if I had not committed my Grey Hunters before I had the rest of the army to back them up I could have pulled this off, even with playing 250 points down.  I may drop 2 Wolf Guard Terminators in favor of a Rune Priest in Terminator armor.  The psychic phase may actually keep the termies alive long enough to actually do something.

Rallying the Troops

Okay, so putting together my total list and the total spent for my Space Wolves Army.  Of course this is all Dave's fault, but hey, I welcome the distractions.

Thus far I have purchased:

Land Raider Crusader - Had $50 in Christmas Money so I have spent $12.50 (difference and tax)
Wolf Pack Box #1 - Trade Dal with Timothy
Wolf Pack Box #2 - Christmas Gift from Rich VM
Old School Wolf Pack Boxes - Trade Deal
2 x Rhino and 1 x Razorback -  Christmas Gifts from Adam and Corey
Wolf Scouts - Trade from Shane Irons
Njal Stormcaller, Lukas the Trixter, Wolf Guard Terminators, Codex - Dave Hummel

And all I need to complete out a 2250 list for the SW army is a drop pod which I can hopefully be able to pick up from Timothy on a further trade deal.  So pretty much, i spent $12.50 for a 2250 point army........

Priming up some stuff tonight, but I have a paper due on Sunday so the nest few nights will be little or no painting, unless I squeeze some in during the day.

Space Wolf Step by step coming soon too.

Aaaah Vacation....

Okay so I am on vaction this week.  I decided to try getting some "other" models painted in taking a break between corpse carts.

Ork Blood Bowl Team

 

Van Saar Necromunda Gang

 

 Space Wolf Scouts

 

Happy new year

So this year has started out with a bang already.  Got a good 8 hours of gaming in last Saturday.  Got to show off my fantastic Ork army.  And I even got to play 2 games of WFB!  I knocked the dust off Cass's old dwarfs (think 5th Ed models) and was able to play  few games with them.  Got the repaint all planned and test model finished.  On vacation from work this week, new class starting later today, and thought it would be good to finish off a few models!

Finished off the last vargulf for Bill, and got a Corpse Cart done.  Let me tell you, I like the model.  It is interesting to say the least.

Pretty straight forward.  Lots of various dead and rotting flesh, a few rats, and a pile of burning skulls.Will finish the other one up tomorrow night after I get done with the required classwork.  Will also get some pics of my finished SW Scouts and my 1st unit of GH and Rhino i finished off for them.