Wednesday, January 4, 2012

13th Company Grey Hunters Complete!


Over the holidays I wasn't able to get much hobby time in, but now that the schedule is cleared up, its was time to put the brush to to some minis.  I finished up the core of the wolves and so here they are.

(Pic heavy)



Since the idea with this army was to expand my hobby skill set, of course we needed weathering powders.  I posted the rhinos a little while back, but even with the paint chip, they just weren't finished.  Now these are some messy, 10,000 year old rhinos.








I used forgeworld weathering powders mud and soot.  I had four done but there was a tragic clear coat accident involving testor's dull coat and rubbing alcohol.  On the thicker areas I think the alcohol was still there a little so it caused the dull coat to frost just those spots, then I went back to just re-powder those spots and when I dropped the alcohol on it ate the dull coat and turned it white.  It was a disaster.



This is my long fang wolfguard.  I painted him as a single model and put more effort into the small details.  I like how he turned out.  With the hair and face I'm finding myself leaning a lot more on washes than multiple layers of thin color.  It saves so much time and looks just fine.


My intention with the axe was to fade it and glow effect the runes and that didn't work out.  I ended up doing a slight lightning effect and glow effect.  It ended up that it was so messy, you can't tell there isn't anything that works on it and turned into a mottled effect.




Here is each squad with a seperate shot of their banner.  Like I said in past posts, I wanted each banner to be simple, individual, and black based.  I googled wolf images and Nordic art and space wolf designs by other players and mashed it all together to get what you see.



This was a sweet accident.  I broke one of the banners and as I was pinning it thought to myself how much better it would be to not have the giant banner when I was trying to pack up the mini's in their bag.  Then I thought this would save me so much "you used that banner" argument time and bad feelings.  Now when i use the banner, I just remove it.



I like this guy.  For the most part all of the chaos bits were painted red, because most of the armor they'd be piecing together was from thousand sons, so this helmet was painted red.  After wards I was reminded of that red skull villian from superman.





At gencon I took a painting class with Markia Reimer (The crystal brush winner from adepticon) I talked to her about freehand stuff and she was like "If its in a fold just don't try and paint it."  It was one of those 'duh!' ideas that I'm finding more and more in advance hobby work.  The theory behind it is two things; one, you'll never twist the model around to look in those folds to see the freehand.  Second, if you do notice it, without knowing it isn't there your brain with continue the pattern and just think its in deep shadow.  Obviously if you try to look closely you'll realize it wasn't painted, but at a quick inspection you'll get tricked.  I used that theory in this banner.




Now that to core is done I'll leave off with a teaser of what I have planned next.  Yeah, that's a wolf priest on a bike....




He's waiting for his swift claw brothers and fellow rune priest. Rawr!

26 comments:

  1. Those are looking really awesome. I just love the mix of chaos and loyalist parts, and your painting has tied the force together wonderfully.
    Absolute nightmare about the 4th Rhino, are you going to have to go back and start it from scratch? I really hope not.

    I did a similar thing with banners on pins for my 3 Grey Hunter squads, its a huge bonus to be able to remove the banner once its been used to prevent confusion in later turns.

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  2. I squirted etoh (rubbing alcohol) all over it and scrubed most of the dull coat off, but for the most part I'll have to start over completely on it. I tried to save it like an ER doc but had to pronounce it, it really wanted to be saved but despite all my emergency hobby training...it was just too late. The rhino died at 14:23 yesterday.

    On top of the rhino death yesterday I had an ebay disaster too, related to the wolves. I was watching an auction were a guy posted his army but made no mention whatsoever of the 15 wulfen in the army. Crappy pictures too. No mention of even being 13th company. These guys sell buy it now for $90 for a set of 5. He had FIFTEEN. my computer hiccuped and froze up when I placed my 5 second bid. it sold for like $180 with a bunch of other stuff (2 gw trays, 15 wolf, landraider, 2 razor backs.) sad face for the wolves yesterday.

    The pinned banners on 'disposable' banners is necessary. After playing just one game with it I was sold. I'll preech the idea to the lay-people everywhere that use them.

    Thanks for the comment, Andy, I know you've been following and commented on almost every 13th co post. Thanks, I appreciate it a lot.

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  3. Really liking the weathering on those tanks :). The cyclone missile on the Long Fang is sweet also, that a conversion?

    Btw, Red Skull is Captain America ;)

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  4. Nice! Great work.

    I always thought 13th Co. had great modeling possibilities, and it's a shame they can't use the old EoT list anymore.

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  5. Ah yes, he was in the new movie wasn't he? I should have remembered that at least!

    It is the IG sentinel missile launcher. I totally pioneered it. I did not steal if from anyone and I guarantee that OST will post and be all (in a dumb voice) "I did that first on my death wing!" And he's lying. He's a liar. A big dumb liar-face.

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  6. I love the rhinos. The dirt looks nice and real, just dried and nasty and it works with the chipped weathering very well. As to the missile launcher, I borrowed it as well and there is never anything wrong with using a good idea, that is what the blogosphere is all about. (In my dumb voice)

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  7. That must have really hurt, losing a Rhino in that way.

    As to the eBay disaster, 15 WULFEN!!!! In future, may I direct you to www.gixen.com, its pretty much the only way I bid now.

    I've loved all of you 13th company stuff, its been fantastic to see it develop, I'd just love to see it in the flesh one day.

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  8. I am extremely impressed by your Rhinos.... The rest looks great! But does Rhinos are outta this world...!

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  9. Looking outstanding! I love weathered models makes the whole grim dark aspect seem i dont know actually grim dark.

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  10. Thanks for the comments everyone. Weathering powders; they're awesome.

    OST- The missile idea was fantastic and I really like it. Aside from being cheaper, I think it looks just as good as the cyclon missile launcher. The scout one is the best, imo, but since I had the sentinel ones just laying around...so be it.

    Andy- Excellent, smithers, exxxxcellent. I'll be using that from now on. I first went to rixen.com on accident and it was just a picture of a church. I lol'd thinking you meant you just prayed.

    And yes, 15 wulfen and he had no idea what he had there as far as value and I was fully ready to take advantage of that. I have to let it go, otherwise I'll just being eaten by anger. I'm taking my nursing boards tomorrow so that's helpful to distract me...as strange of a priority as that is. Career distracting me from the stress of hobby....

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  11. Very nice indeed! The beautiful banners, detail work, basing and weathering on the vehicles really puts this over the top! Wow!!

    Seeing stuff like this makes me lament for the days of 40K olde. Around 2000-05 were the golden years for me out here in the inter-mountain western US (Las Vegas-Salt Lake areas). These days it seems like everyone is just either running unpainted or blue table specials and more worried about BoLS-Math hammer than they are about how their army looks, its backstory, the conversions and details.

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  12. That's the sad state of things put in a single sentence. I'll publicly state that I hate and love bols; hate it because it proliferates this fucked up nation wide meta yet I love it because it trail blazed the blogsphere. Its become that cancerous tumor ridden dog that you just need to put down.

    OST and I, like many others in the hobby, are getting back to what we love. I've never been happier with the wolves. OST is blowing the dust off his iron warriors. I might lose games because of it, but at least I'm doing what I love.

    Thanks for the comment lord of Excess.

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  13. Wow they are lookin great. I have to agree with old school the rhinos look fantastic. They are dirty. makes me semi motivated to get this bike council done lol.

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  14. I also would like to say that taking a step back from the 3x missile long fangs and I away from the dual lashblitz has made us both look at some other units, builds, weapon loads, ect in a much more laid back way. It motivates me to experiment hobby wise and also give me new perspectives on unit potential in a codex I thought I knew intimately.

    I look forward to many more enjoyable games against the wolves - painted worlves vs painted chaos will be a serious joy!

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  15. Looking good. I'd go with a little more wear & tear on the banner, maybe.

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  16. Those look great Chris. I'd love to give them a run down on the table!

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  17. Okay... so reading through all the comments, I could honestly just start putting in "Ditto" for everythign here...I won't, but I could.

    I'm sorry to hear abotu the rhino debacle, CVinton, and I can honestly say I know how you feel. Snowing 18 Eldar Jetbikes was my biggest moment a few years back :P

    I will say though, that everything you're doing with this army is beyond top-notch, and I can't wait to see it in person.

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  18. well heres my own 13th lol no where near as good looking as yours ><

    http://whitewolfmxc-whitewolfslair.blogspot.com/

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  19. and yeah i have 45 oop wulfens too in my army (now blood claws rules wise )..... sorry for your lost on ebay lol

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  20. PS: CVinton you do commissions ? lol i would love to commission you to do what you did with your thunder wolfs lol

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  21. Ugh! Salt in the wound! 45?! Lucky dog...er...wolf.

    I'm usually a big whore for commissions, but I kind of want to be a greedy bastard when it comes to the wolves. Two fold; One, they are a bitch to make and the time is not something I imagine a lot of people would want to pay for. Second, I kind of like that they're uniquely mine. The second reason is super selfish, but...I like it. If someone want to make their own I wouldn't have a problem with that, I just like that the 13th thunder wolves are mine.

    Tim- Snowing 18 eldar jet bikes beats my snowing of one rhino. That's painful. I will restate that it wasn't the dull coats fault, it was mine for spraying the powders when I wasn't 110% sure the EtoH was dry. Dullcoat is still an awesome product and the best sealer I've ever used.

    Hornblower- Thanks! I have to say that you were the catalyst for kicking off the flood of creativity with the 13th. You bought my wolves and bulked the slush fund to get the demon prince kits. The rest is blog history.

    Andy- Thanks! Sadly I have to wait for my result for like 7-31 days. Thanks state government.

    Da Warboss- Roughing up the banners is a good idea and a good catch. I didn't even really notice how non-cloth they look. I'll have to figure something out with that. Typically on big things like that the black will just naturally low light and high light.

    Seer and Chaos- Thanks! I appreciate the comments, it keeps me inspired. (also, I'll get your valentines tournament up in a few days, but I got your email.)

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  22. Youd be surprised how much i spend on commission Cvinton XD

    anyway , instead of dull coat you can try the matt varnish liquid form from Vallejo paint series , it does the same thing without any of the nonsense of snowing etc and easy to apply by brush

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  23. I have Matt varnish from vallejo and will try it tommorrow. I think the varshish snows because of the porous surface provided in clumped powders as I experienced the same effect today when I tested it on the bottom of a tank.

    Maybe the paint on will be different, so we will see.

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