On the Hunt

Busy times in the Fang. The kids started school again (thankfully it has all gone well so far, knock on wood) and I came off vacation to head back to work. Oh yeah, and I got the rout ready for a 1500 Pt tournament which is happening tomorrow!

But how could I have possibly gotten 1500 points in time when my painted point total currently sits at around 200? Well, I bought some local reinforcements! When I signed up for this tournament, called the GameZilla Eternal War Series (more on that later) in August I quickly realized that I was not capable of producing the points deficiency within a month. But I still wanted to take the rout for a spin. What to do, what to do..

After putting out some feelers on various facebook groups I was elated to see that a guy I have played against locally had a first born Space Wolves army that he was willing to sell. Some quick negotiation and a few trades later and I was the proud owner of mutiple packs of Blood Claws, Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard Terminators, Murderfang, Bjorn (in bits) Long Fangs, and a Smash Captain. Most of it is painted to a high quality in the Horus Heresy scheme of dark red and grey which has really grown on me.

My original paint scheme in the front, purchased ones in the rear 2 rows.

The other half of my list.

After cataloguing and checking each model I got down to creating my list. I needed 1500 points and set myself a goal of running as many first born marines as I could in anticipation of them receiving 2 wounds when their codex supplement drops later this fall.

This is what I came up with:

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Imperium – Space Wolves) [82 PL, 1,499pts, 12CP] ++

• Configuration [12CP] +

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [12CP]

Detachment CP

• HQ [19 PL, 395pts] +

Arjac Rockfist [6 PL, 115pts]: Foehammer

Ragnar Blackmane [7 PL, 125pts]: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Frostfang

Wolf Lord [6 PL, 155pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Jump Pack [1 PL, 20pts], Mountain-Breaker Helm, Saga of the Hunter, Storm shield [10pts], Thunder hammer [40pts], Warlord

• Troops [27 PL, 331pts] +

Blood Claws [8 PL, 119pts]
. 4x Blood Claw [60pts]: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Chainsword, 4x Frag & Krak grenades
. Blood Claw Pack Leader [25pts]: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Power fist [10pts]
. Wolf Guard Pack Leader [2 PL, 34pts]: Frag & Krak grenades
. . Wolf Claw (Pair) [15pts]: 2x Wolf claw

Grey Hunters [6 PL, 85pts]: 4x Chainsword
. Grey Hunter Pack Leader [25pts]: Bolt pistol, Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Power fist [10pts]
. 4x Grey Hunter w/Bolt Pistol [60pts]: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Boltgun, 4x Frag & Krak grenades

Grey Hunters [13 PL, 127pts]: 4x Chainsword
. Grey Hunter Pack Leader [25pts]: Bolt pistol, Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Power fist [10pts]
. 4x Grey Hunter w/Bolt Pistol [60pts]: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Boltgun, 4x Frag & Krak grenades
. Grey Hunter w/Plasma Pistol [20pts]: Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Plasma pistol [5pts]
. Wolf Guard Pack Leader [2 PL, 22pts]: Chainsword, Frag & Krak grenades, Storm bolter [3pts]

• Elites [23 PL, 503pts] +

Murderfang [8 PL, 135pts]: Heavy flamer, Storm bolter, The Murderclaws

Wolf Guard [7 PL, 142pts]: Jump Pack [1 PL, 2pts]
. Wolf Guard [34pts]: Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Thunder hammer [15pts]
. Wolf Guard [34pts]: Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Thunder hammer [15pts]
. Wolf Guard [19pts]: Boltgun, Chainsword, Frag & Krak grenades
. Wolf Guard [19pts]: Boltgun, Chainsword, Frag & Krak grenades
. Wolf Guard Pack Leader [34pts]: Boltgun, Frag & Krak grenades, Thunder hammer [15pts]

Wulfen [8 PL, 226pts]
. 4x Thunder hammer & Stormshield [76pts]: 4x Storm Shield [16pts], 4x Thunder Hammer [60pts]
. 4x Wulfen [112pts]
. Wulfen Pack Leader [38pts]: Frost claws [10pts]

• Heavy Support [7 PL, 150pts] +

Long Fangs [7 PL, 150pts]
. Long Fang [31pts]: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Missile launcher [15pts]
. Long Fang [31pts]: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Missile launcher [15pts]
. Long Fang [31pts]: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Lascannon [15pts]
. Long Fang [31pts]: Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Lascannon [15pts]
. Long Fang Pack Leader [26pts]: Chainsword, Frag & Krak grenades, Plasma gun [10pts]

• Dedicated Transport [6 PL, 120pts] +

Razorback [6 PL, 120pts]: Twin assault cannon [40pts]

++ Total: [82 PL, 12CP, 1,499pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

I had most of the models required, however, I did not have any Wolf Guard with Jump Packs. Jump assaults intrigue me and I really wanted to try them out so I set to work. Over the last week I managed to take the models from sprue to finished, which is a record time for me. While they are lacking the parade ready look, highlights will come later, I am pleased how they turned out.

Arjac and the Wolf Guard. I based the models later on.

So now after dillegent packing, cleaning the house like crazy for the the babysitter and re-reading the 9th edition rules I am ready to go. It could not be more exciting. COVID cut our local escalation league short, but now I will finally be able to get back out there and roll some dice. I am looking forward to learning how to play the wolves and just have a good time. As always I have to thank my loving wife for supporting my passion and drive to get out there and play some 40K!

Playing with Contrast

Well that vacation sure went by fast. Multiple day camps for the kids, a few dentist appointments, and routine housework combined to make the days pass in a blur. Regardless, I did manage to get some hobby in. (As an aside I have started using Hobby as a verb, perhaps a byproduct of watching too many Games Workshop broadcasts.)

I spent the past week working on the Primaris Ragnar Blackmane model from the Prophecy of the Wolf box set. Those long time readers will note that this is in the fact the very first Space Wolves collection that my wife purchased for me as a present and it is the box set that got this blog and subsquent effort to build 2000pts by December underway.

Ragnar is an iconic Space Wolf character in the lore and one that needed an update. While I can’t be positive, I only recently got into the 40K hobby, I did read that Ragnar may have had the same model (below since 3rd edition).

Old School Ragnar

The new sculpt from GW looks amazing. Ragnar got the full Primaris treatment, while still maintaining the characteristics and details of his armour. While some believe Ragnar’s current pose makes him look like he is serving a tennis ball, I think it fits right in with the lore from The Saga of the Beast.

A quality sculpt and a quality GW paint job.

So what paint scheme would befit such an important character in my burgeoning army? I started to experiment with contrast paints with my blood claw packs awhile back, but I wanted something with richer detail, that produced a lighter blue-grey look. Searching through various content creators brought me to this awesome example:

I resolved to give it a go. While I did not have the Apothecary White, I did manage to mix up a subsitute using White Scar and Contrast Medium. Overall, I felt the process was simple and produced decent details. Basically just like GW advertises with their contrast line. My model currently looks like this:

Up next this weekend is finishing up the base, then moving on to a couple of trial paint schemes. For the base I am attempting a sandstone recipe given to me by GW Nick this week during a Hobby Clinic Twitch stream. I will post a gallery when the model is finished/based.

Also coming up this week on the blog:

I detail a recent purchase of some reinforcement units for an upcoming tournament

A discussion of 2 possible paint schemes to use on the army

A birthday post

Stayed tuned!

Back At It!

Its been awhile since my last post. Things at the homestead were busy and work was equally hectic. Fortunately, I am heading into three weeks of summer vacation and will be getting the rout painted up and ready for the fall.

Why does my Vlyka Fenryka need to be ready you may ask? Well, I aiming to get out on the tabletops in a local tournament. Where I live was not hit that hard during the first wave of COIVD and our re-opening was far faster than other regions. However, only recently has the local tabletop scene sprung back into action. There was a test tourney this weekend and it must have been a sucess because the organizers are running another one in September. I could not be more excited to get my first game of 9th Edition and to get the wolves onto the table. If you are in the New Brunswick/Atlantic Bubble you should check it out: https://www.facebook.com/events/607139426654176/

The last few weeks between posts were not wasted. I made some small progress towards finishing the Blood Claw pack I started. The four Blood Claws and a Pack Leader with Power Fist are painted and based (minus a few pack markings). I am pleased with the base design and will adopt it for the rest of my army. It is supposed to represent a snowy wasteland with some blue etheric warp on the ground; I think it works. Here are some pics! (bases were tidied up afterwards)

Games Workshop even rewarded me for painting up these Blood Claws last week. A recent Warhammer Community announcement revealed that non-primaris or “original” marines were going to move to 2 wounds vice 1, which is a big change in the game. Chainswords are also going to AP-1 as well All told it will make a Blood Claw a S4 T4 W2 4A at AP-1 on the charge. Thanks to Saga of the Beast they also get 1 additional hit on an unmodified rolls of 6 when the assault doctrine is active. While I don’t think I want to have them come in as reinforcements, I do think that I will be pairing them with a Wolf Priest to re-roll those melee hits!

Now that I am staring down three weeks of vacation the hobbying, and as a result, this blog are going to ramp up. I will be aiming for a minimum of two posts a week, hopefully three. Next up in the hopper for projects are:

Wolf Guard Pack Leader with Wolf Claws

Then it will be onto the Assault Intercessors from my Indomitus Box!

If you like the blog please subscribe and join me on the quest to get this army complete!

Busy Summer Days

What a week. Work got busy. The kids were busy. But, just as importantly the hobby of 40K was busy!

Let’s start with the awesome news. 9th edition is now here. 8th is dead, long live 8th. While it may be the edition that I started in, I never really got all that many games in with the 8th rules. I am sure in the future I will remember 9th edition as the edition were I really got into 40k. I watched the preview streams for it, read all the spoiler articles, and joyfully purchased 1.5 Indomitus boxes to mark the occasion (.5 Necron, 1 full box, shout out to Mike Henry for splitting a box). I can’t wait to get painting on the Indomitus models in August as well as convert the Captain and Judicar.

With the launch of 9th edition came model reveals. The one that caught my eye, and certainly the eye of my son was the Gladiator armoured vehicle. A souped up, primarisified version of the Predator, the Gladiator looks like it is going to be one sweet model. It sports 3 variants of main armament as well as 3 different sponsons. Not that will make much difference to my son who is obsessed with armoured vehicles and begged me to get it so we could build it together. Watch for it this fall!

Not only did my hobby progress pick up this week, so did my dive into the 40k/Horus Heresy lore. 2 of my Black Library orders came in this week. The first was the print to demand run of hardcover Horus Hersey books 20-25. I have the limited edition of the Sons of the Selenar so I am happy to get ahold of Angel Exterminatus and read the backstory. On the Space Wolves side of the house I ordered in the story of Ragnar Blackmane and The Ashes of Prospero. Both are in the hopper after Angel Exterminatus.

But what of the models?! Well last week I stated that I hoped to have a pack of painted Blood Claws done for this post. It was not to be. I spent more time figuring out the colour scheme than i bargained for. However, I made some excellent progress. The new goal is to have the pack painted and posted up in time for the NB Wargaming facebook group painting pledge by 31 July. The pledge is something a few people are doing in order to keep themselves on track for their painting goals. And let me tell you I will probably be the last one to post their completed pictures, but as long as I get it done, its all good!

Chainsword inlay blue is Thousand Sons Blue…the irony!

Once the blood claw pack is done I will probably finish up the Start Collecting box, that is of course unless my Indomitus box gets here. Then its Indomitus time!

Thanks for reading. Check back in next week for the (hopefully!) finished Blood Claw pack and more crazy thoughts as I march towards building a Space Wolves army by December.

The Wolf Lord Rises!

An army can’t fight without a leader; command is critical to battlefield success. Fortunately for me, my lovely wife bought a leader for my Space Wolves army (Called HQ unit in 40K). I am proud to announce that after a week of gluing, painstaking painting, and agonizing over how to get the wet blend on the axe just right the first HQ for my Space Wolves army is complete. Say hello to Wolf Lord Krom!

Krom is the result of months of painting trial and error. As I mentioned previously, when I first started collecting I built Thousand Sons. The first few models turned out alright, but I had a lot to learn about brush control, dilution of the paint, and colour schemes! After working at it with Blood Angels and some Sisters of Battle I believe that my painting skills are slowly coming around.

Krom is the first model that I planned out the scheme before painting and let me tell you it sure helps! In order to prepare for painting Krom I tested a few base coats on some spare intercessors I had laying around. Classic vs Contrast, Light grey vs Dark Grey. These are all questions I felt I needed to answer before putting paint to Krom. In the end, the “Space Wolves Grey” contrast paint won out and I decided to base the power armour in contrast.

With the armour based, I need to determine how I would approach the rest of the model. I recently watched a Squidmar video on Space Wolves were discussed how when he paints models to look competition level, he focuses on one area at a time. I decided to adopt this approach. First up was the axe. If the axe doesn’t look awesome, then I thought it won’t be much of a Space Wolf! After finishing up the handle and the shaft, I turned my attention to the blade. I wanted it to look like a power blade and I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice the Wet Blending technique demonstrated in a Tabletop Minions I have watched several times. Video is below, check it out! (Full Disclosure I became a brush licker after trying this technique).

With the axe complete, I tied up the cape and the trinkets around the power armour. Brush control and small strokes were a must. Finally I also painted my first ever base. I aimed to represent a planet with Warp energy on the ground, perhaps one where the wolves were fighting the Thousand Sons.

So what is next? This week I am working on 5 Blood Claws and a Wolf Guard Pack leader. As well, I will probably write something up on what Black Library books I am reading at the moment. If you want to stay up to date on my journey to build this army be sure to give the blog a follow or engage with my Twitter or Instagram account. The links are on the main page. So long until next time!

Reinforcements Inbound

It has been awhile hasn’t it. Fortunately, I haven’t been negligent with updating the blog for lack of interest in the project. Nope! In fact over the past few weeks I’ve recieved reinforcements at home to help me with the kids and for the hobby table to help me with bringing the dream of a painted Vika Fenryka (Space Wolves) army to fruition. With the arrival of these reinforcements I decided to put the project on hold for a few weeks.

The first reinforcement that helped me out was my mom. She graciously took the time to brave cross country travel to come help me take care of the kids/get the house in order while I started back at work full time. To say that she saved the day would be an understatement. Working full time and looking after 3 kids had me living in a state that my wife and I endearingly call “survival mode.” You make sure everyone is fed, bathed, and that the minimum amount of laundry and dishes are done to ensure operations continue. It doesn’t leave much time for special projects or house upgrades. With my mom in the mix I was motivated and now free to get some things done. So we buckled down for 2 weeks and when it was all over I had some happy kids, some baked goods in the freezer, and a clean and useful garage! If you are reading this mom, thank you!!

Now onto the Warhammer reinforcements. First up on the show and tell list is some painting accessories additions that my awesome wife bought for me and had shipped from overseas! When I initially got into the hobby I devoured the Duncan Rhodes Warhammer TV videos in an attempt to learn how to paint. Of course by joining the following of “he of two thin coats” my initial painting set up was the Citadel Palette Paper and paint pot. Several minis and Youtube videos later I realized “hey this wet palette thing is probably the way to go for painting.” Not covinced that my skill level was at a height deserving of a good palette I made the old DIY tupperware one with parchment paper, and for a time it worked.

But times of changed. We are in the Indomitus era now. Necrons threaten the galaxy and I need to paint some sweet looking Vika Fenryka to lead the charge. Enter this bad boy:

This is the “Painter” Everlasting Wet Pallette from RedGrass. Let me tell you this bad boy has changed the way I do business. Even the chunkiest paints become smooth like butter on this palette. The white “Wavy” pot accessory is magnetic and snaps onto both ends of the palette. Overall, I am loving working with this. Hopefully it will help me produce some good looking minis. Spoiler: it has already helped with blending a power axe which I will show at the bottom of this post. If you are interested in checking this product out more the site is here: https://www.redgrassgames.com/everlasting-wet-palette/everlasting-wet-palette-painter/

Along with a sweet new palette came some awesome additions to the Spaces Wolves army. First up was the awesome Wolf Lord Krom and a Start Collecting box sent to me by my wife. I love the look of the Krom model and spent the better part of the last week building/painting it. I painted the power axe with a wet blending technique. It turned out fairly decently for my first try! Once Krom is complete I will write up a post detailing the process/colour scheme/trials and tribulation involved with finishing the model. For now here is a sneak preview.

The other reinforcement I received was from my old LGS, Border City Games (BCG). When I lived in Alberta I got hooked on played Magic in the store and during COVID the opportunity arose to help support the store by purchasing my models through them. I figured I needed another hero for my pack, so I ordered an Arjac Rockfist a few weeks back. It came in the mail this week and looks great. After I finish Krom, I am sure that Arjac will be the next project to tackle.

That is it for now. This week I will be aiming to post the completion of Wolf Lord Krom as well as the Intercessors I started a few weeks back. For now, I will leave you with a picture of this week’s reinforcements!

Slogging Through It/Thoughts of Kitbashing

Not much to report in terms of progress in the last couple of days. I took the kids for an outing on Sunday which wiped all energy to hobby at the end of the day. Last night looked promising but it appeared that gastro reared its ugly head in our house so the evening was spent looking after kids and washing sheets! Its funny how what seems like small stuff in retrospect wipes away your energy to paint and hobby at the end of the day.

Tonight I got back on the horse. My second attempt at the White Dwarf Space Wolf colour scheme on a Primaris Intercessor is progressing nicely and I expect to have pictures of the finished product up by the end of the week.

Until then I figured I would share my vision on how I am going to tackle converting the Marines in the Indomitus box into proper Space Wolves. If you are not tracking what the Indomitus box is, it is the launch set for the 9th Edition of 40K, which is expected to arrive this summer. The box features both Necrons and Marines. For the purposes of my articles I will focus on the Marines (although I did conclude a deal today for the Necron half of a box, but that is another story.) Let’s get into it!

Primaris Captain

First up is the Primaris Captain. When talking about designing the new style of Primaris Marines, Games Workshop designer Jes Goodwin noted that the design team aimed to introduce Primaris who have picked up the gothic style from their older brethren. The new Primaris models were to look “Knightly…and Dark Gothic..” Goodwin intones that these models aimed to reflect the fact that the marines had picked up the Imperial faith along the way on their crusades. For an excellent discussion of the new design check out the original clip on Twitch athttps://www.twitch.tv/videos/649619567?collection=hI4zp7JkDhZiHw&t=0h52m48s

This design is awesome for certain armies. Awesome for Ultramarines and even better for Black Templars. However, it doesn’t seem to fit that well with Space Wolves. The Wolves traditionally deviate from the typical image and style of a Space Marine. They are non Codex Astartes (organizational rulebook) compliant chapter. The majority of their heraldry is modelled after Norse style mythos. They wear furs, pelts, and carry axes. Space Wolves seek to glorify themselves through recording their great deeds into sagas. It just doesn’t jive with our well designed Primaris Captain, which is actually called a Wolf Lord in the wolf terminology.

What to do, what to do…Well I can’t accept the Wolf Lord model as is. I will need to attempt my first foray into converting a model. Fair warning: I have never done this before and will be learning as I go.

First thing will be to swap out the head for something more appropriate. I am thinking nothing to fancy, I will just pick up some spare heads that are for resale from kits like this:https://www.games-workshop.com/en-CA/Space-Wolves-Primaris-Upgrades-2018

If I can replace the shoulder pads as well I will attempt to do so although I am unsure if it will be workable. The model is a “push fit” which means its designed to go together with minimal to no glue, thus presenting less opportunity to remove small parts.

I am torn on changing the shield. On one hand the design is awesome. He is carrying a literal skeleton on a shield! On the other hand it is not very space wolf-ish. One thought that occurred to me was to potentially file down the skeleton and then use greenstuff to sculpt a fur cloak/pelt on the front of the shield and top it with a Wolf’s head. If you are like me and are unfamiliar with greenstuff and how it works, check out the video below:

Specifically I will be looking to do something like this:

With a head swap, pauldrons changed to Space Wolves, and the shield modified to a wolf pelt I think the model will look really good and be ready to lead the forces of Russ on the tabletop! I will post pictures of the project when I get the box later this summer.

What do you think? Any suggestions on what modifications could be made to help make the Captain a true Wolf Lord?

Stephen

Life is a beach…and then you paint!

It was a busy day in the household. After getting up and opening up the veritable zoo I had just enough time to put on a pot of coffee and tune into the Warhammer TV Twitch reveal of the Indomitus box. Boy was it worth it! The box looks great, the models are awesome, and as hoped for the 9th Edition rulebook will come with the box. I will most certainly be picking one of these up in the future! If you haven’t seen the contents of the box take a look at the Warhammer community site article here. I am thinking that a future article this week will dissect the Space Marines contents of the box with an eye to which I will potentially convert to join the Wolves of my army.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/06/13/warhammer-40000-preview-whats-in-the-boxgw-homepage-post-1/

I managed to get some hobbying done in the afternoon. The Infiltrators in the Prophecy of the Wolf box are still waiting to be put together as I received priority orders from my son: build the Ghazghkull Thraka. Let me tell you when your 5 year old son takes an interest and requests that you build orks first, you build orks first. Fortunately that project is almost complete and I will probably post pictures on here when Thraka is going through the painting process.

However the boy’s focus on Orks did not mean that I wasn’t able to advance the main goal of building up my Space Wolf army. I happen to have a 10 Primaris intercessors put together and primed. They will be my test subjects for paint schemes prior to getting the Prophecy box Marines together. The first one is complete and pictures are below. Check it out!

Overall, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The paint scheme is mostly contrast, with some metallic and edging done to finish it off. I do think that I will change up the basing scheme in the future. Those red and yellow grass tufts don’t really go well with the snow so I think I will switch to a brighter green for the next models. This afternoon also gave me the time to start on the next Intercessor and I got most of the base paint and contrast done (below). So that’s one down, one in progress, and many more to go. I should start a points counter on the main page…now to figure that out….

And one of the best things about today was that it was a nice balance between hobbying and getting the kids outside for an adventure. After the littlest one woke up from her afternoon nap we packed up the truck and headed out to our local lake. The water was cool but not freezing, there was a light breeze, and some interspersed cloud cover. The perfect conditions for playing in the sand! The kids played themselves out, we picnicked for supper, and headed home. One of those days where you feel like its going to be a Monday tomorrow because it felt like an awesome lazy Sunday.

On that note I am going to wrap this entry up. I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to be notified whenever I put out a post hit subscribe on the main page. I will also be updating the Instagram and Twitter with the day’s work.

Stephen

The Start of the Journey

“..so you are abandoning the sisters for wolves..”

My wife upon hearing of this project

This is the start of a six month project. Who knows if it will come to fruition? I don’t, but if I heed the words of the Primarch quoted on the main page I just might have a chance to complete it.

My name is Stephen and I am a relative newcomer to the all-encompassing hobby that is Warhammer 40K. In the fall of 2019 I became interested in 40K after watching a few games at my LGS. Reading the first few novels of the Horus Heresy got me hooked and a few months later I was painting my first miniatures, a box of Rubric Marines (I know, the irony right!?). Throughout the winter my wife became somewhat interested in taking up painting and we bought the Sisters of Battle Army box. A local escalation league started in February and I committed to building up the sisters into a respectable force. Then, two things happened.

One: COVID. Yes yes we all know what COVID is now and we all know the terrible toll it took, and continues to take, upon the world. Much like everyone else that I knew I found myself at home for a few months. Do you think I completed my backlog of shame? Did the sisters rise resplendent in fresh coats of paint? Haha nope. Although admittedly part of the reason for that is because of the second thing that happened.

My wife left. No no not like she walked out and took all the stuff left. She has a unique job that comes with additional perks of sometimes working outside of the country for months at a time. So in anticipation of her imminent departure we did what most families would do. We made lists of things that needed to be done, housework and preparation that needed to be upkept in order to help me parent our three awesome kids. And then we sat back and did none of it! Well not none, but close to it! Instead we enjoyed each other’s company and spent a lot of quality time as a family. I don’t regret a second of it.

But what about 40K? Why am I hearing about this dude’s family stuff? Stay with me here. You will see.

So my wife takes off in May and leaves me in charge of the zoo. Really, I think the house could literally classify as one. I found myself in charge of three kids, two dogs (Big ones!), two cats (lazy ones!) and a hedgehog. Yes, a hedgehog. Things were going alright but my wife knew that I had rarely found myself in this situation without her help, certainly not for 6 months at a time!

So she did what any loving wife would do. She sent me a care package. Knowing that I loves surprises and randomness she picked out some minis for me, a White Dwarf subscription, and the paints I needed to paint these suckers. She kept me on edge. What faction did she get me? Well I was told it was an army I did not have. Was it Xenos? Was it loyal sons? Only time would tell.

And time certainly did tell. One fine spring day the magical package appeared on my doorstep. You know the one. Perfectly brown and bland cardboard with the weird “Not a children’s toy” label on it. Excitedly I bring it to the table, somehow force myself to sit still through another team’s conference, and then crack it open!

Prophecy of the Wolf! Space Wolves! Orks! They were sitting on my kitchen table awaiting production. I salivated at the thought of putting the Space Wolves together and of course the first thing my son does when he sees the box is beg me to put Ghazghkull Thraka together. Honestly I don’t blame him. It’s a cool model.

But as I started painting a test wolf, reading about the wolves and their exploits, and reading the lore of the Prophecy of the Wolf I knew I had a mission. This box was special. My wife picked it out. It resonated with me. It was my destiny to build this army in my offtime.

So why a blog? Well for one I wanted to keep myself honest. I enjoy writing and showing off pictures of WIP minis and I thought that by keeping track of the journey on here (and possibly Instagram/Facebook) I would be motivated to put in the work, finish the army, and have a cool record of what is going to be a crazy time in my family’s life.

I hope that you will join me on this journey. Daily blogs are probably unreasonable, however, I will aim to put up daily pictures of my progress. I would also love to engage with anyone in the 40K community. Tell me your stories. Do you love the wolves? What paints are you finding work well? Excited for 9th edition?? Subscribe to the madness on my main page on let me know!

Well that’s the end of the introduction. I hope you stick around for what will hopefully be some interesting hobbying stories, intermixed with possible tales of how to create an army and keep a literal zoo intact.

Stephen

A test scheme based on the White Dwarf recipe that I used on a spare intercessor I had.