The Thunderwolves are nearly ready for paint!

All three are assembled and the conversions are nearly complete.

Read on for more photos!

The Scale of 40k: Learning Illustrator

     Hey everyone! So I have seen a lot of discussions (debates) about what the actual sizes of things in the Warhammer 40k universe. Even when people agreed on the sizes, It was always expressed as the height in feet, meters, km, etc. That is great, but I want to be able to get the sense of scale as it is described in the novels (the way a normal human feels tiny next to a space marine). I thought the best way to do this (that was within my skill set) would be to make up a bunch of silhouettes of vehicles, weapons, and armour and place them next to each other.
      Eventually I want to make an animation where it starts zoomed in on a human, and slowly zooms out all the way to an imperial battlecruiser! I'm also planning to do some for xenos races as well. 
     The way I have been determining the scale was by following the diagram in the back of the Imperial Armour books. I'll have to use some other methods of finding the size of the things that aren't in there (xenos stuff) but that shouldn't be too hard if I use the models as a guide, or any other references that I can find. Since the models aren't to scale, I only use them as a starting point.
     So what do you think? The Land Raider and Rhino actually look like they would be able to transport the amount of troops that the rules say, boltguns are huge, and a powerfist is the size of a human torso! This really helps me to get an idea of just how big things are in 40k. Make sure to view the photo full size, and let me know what you think, or anything specific you'd like to see sized up against everything. Thanks for reading!
    

Deathwing conversions: Belial, champion, and sergeants

      Hi everyone! I just wanted to show you a little update on the Deathwing. The picture above is my take on Belial. Like many of you, I really wan't a fan of the finecast Belial, and the deathwing box has so many great bits that It wasn't a problem at all to make my own. The model is just held together with stickey tack right now, and I had to photoshop the thunderhammer on there too. I didn't like the pose of the sergeant that came standard. It was just too stiff and static, so I swapped his legs with one of the others (it was much harder than you might think) to give a bit more movement to the model.  Read on for more!

Plans for the Space Wolves

    

     Hello again everyone. I just wanted to show a few of the photos that have inspired the Space Wolf army that I'm currently working on, and show where I am currently on the project. First off, I have to make a confession. I used to hate the wolves. They didn't do anything wrong or anything, but I couldn't stand the baby blue color that GW paints them. I mean, they would look more at home in a brand new baby's nursery than in the grim dark future of Warhammer. But alas, I have been converted. When 6th edition was fresh off the press, I picked up the big rulebook and after excitedly pouring over the new rules, I took a look at all the great artwork and models at which point I saw these beauties:

     I really liked the dark grey armour, and the multitude of conversions all packed into a nice little viking army. After that I took a look at their rules and found that they really enforced the raw power that I saw in the models. So needless to say, the vikings in space had won me over. And next thing I know, my brother got me a box of grey hunters and thunderwolf cavalry for Christmas! So now I had the problem of figuring out what my army was going to look like.
     Although the space wolves in the rulebook were the first to catch my attention, I wasn't fully in love with everything about it. I saw the picture of the space wolves contemptor and really liked the color scheme.

     So that was it. Dark grey with black shoulderpads and a touch of red every once in a while. I'm going to be avoiding the yellow, but the long fangs will probably have some white here and there.
     It wasn't long before I found the awesome blog Poingo's Projects which has some amazing space wolves:

Every model is different, and he has written a backstory for each of them too!

HUGE chainsword! Awesome.

      His color scheme is pretty close to what I'm looking for, but what really caught my eye was all of the incredible conversions. I knew that I wanted each and every one of my space wolves to be converted at least in some way. There will be no assembling straight out of the box for this army. And it is really the perfect army to do this with because they come with so many extra bits, and the models are just demanding to have extra character built in.
     So what exactly am I planning for my army? Well as I said before, the armour is going to be dark grey with dark red here and there.

      My current army is very clean, so I wanted to mix things up and make these guys look like they have been out in it for a long time. Their armour is going to be extremely worn and battle damaged like this land raider by John Beech.

     The details are going to be in a corroded bronze similar to the model above by Brandon Griffith.

     I'll be adding a bunch of details in greenstuff like these wolftooth decorations by Night Runner. I'm also thinking of adding some chainmail as well because that would look really cool and fit well with the viking theme.
     And to further the image of brutal warriors, there will be blood on all their weapons using Tamiya clear red as in this tutorial by Lonewolf.

     For the bases, I am definitely wanting to add some snow, and the method that I am liking the best is the one that Poingo uses in his tutorial using baking soda. But you need something to put the snow onto, and for that I am using pine bark as rocks which I learned from 3T Studios who have some incredible tutorials (don't be put off by the first picture, it's an example of what not to do). I will also be using some sculpey like I did with my Cultist Champion so I can add some runestones.
     So now, onto my stuff! I got myself some spears and axes from the chaos marauder horsemen kit which I am using to give them some close combat weapons other than chainswords.You can see one of the axes that this guy is carrying.

      I put this picture in black and white so the bark on the base actually looks like rock. I love how all Grey Hunters have a close combat weapon, bolt pistol, and bolter. Not only for the extra attack, but also because it is much more interesting to make them models when the whole squad is holding different weapons.

     I also made this thunderhammer for the thunderwolf cavalry. The head of the hammer is made from super sculpey which I carved into a boxish shape. It's going to be painted up to look like the space wolf carved it himself out of stone. I'll probably carve some runes into it as well.

     One of the other thunderwolves is going to be throwing a spear with a few more strapped to his back. It seems like a spear would be a better weapon than a chainsword when you're sitting on the back of a 6' tall wolf.
     So that is the current direction of my space wolf army. Now that school is just about out I'll hopefully have some models converted and ready to paint soon. Thanks for reading!

Pixel Art

      Hi everyone, I just wanted to show you all some things that I made the other day. I was over on Dakka Dakka the other day looking at all their little orkmoticons and all their other smilies. I noticed that there were no terminator icons, so I thought I'd see if I could whip one up. Well as you might expect it wasn't as easy as it looks. I made one that was 40x40 pixels (above) which wasn't too bad, but when I tried to make the 16x16 pixel ones that Dakka uses i ran into some problems. Mainly that it is really hard to take 256 little squares and make them into something that looks recognizable as a terminator helmet. But eventually I did it! And here it is:

     You may have noticed that I added it as the blog's favicon (I just learned that is what the little icon on website tabs is called) which is pretty nifty. I also attempted the deathwing symbol and got this:

     So what do you think? Kinda look like a terminator? I actually had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to make these, so i think I'll keep going. I think I'll try to make a Rhino next, and then maybe a Land Raider, and who knows what else! Thanks for reading!

Fixing the Power Spear/Lance

     

     So I'm not sure about all of you, but the power lance seems like one of the biggest wastes of 15 points. I even forget that it exists sometimes because the sword, axe, and mace are all that I use or hear about online. I really like the idea of a power spear for my Space Wolves. Imagine a pack of Thunderwolf cavalry charging with a power spear! That would be pretty awesome. But as it is, i would probably go with the chainsword instead. So I thought we should talk about why it is rarely (if ever) used on the tabletop and how it can be improved to bring it up to par with the other power weapons. Read on for the revised rules:

Custom Warlord Traits Part 3: Imperial Guard

     Well I am back again with another set of custom warlord traits! This time it is the Imperial Guard. As always, let me know if you have any ideas for improvements or replacements, or if there are any that are over/underpowered. Enjoy!

Army List: 1750pt Deathwing

     In honor of (almost) reaching 10,000 views (Thanks everyone!) I am putting up an army list that I'm pretty excited about! So first of all, I'd like to let you all know that the top three things about 40k that have fascinated me since the start are terminators, jump packs, and dreadnoughts, and the two armies that I have loved since the start are the Blood Angels, and the Dark Angels (and I've recently found that I also love the Space Wolves). I've never used more than 5 terminators in an army, but between the Assault on Black Reach and Dark Vengeance starter boxes and the Assault Terminators that my wife and brother got me for my birthday last year I found that I had the makings of a nice Deathwing just in time for the new Dark Angels codex to come out. And when I saw the Deathwing Knighs models I knew that I would have to get myself one of those eventually. Well folks, eventually has arived! With the Deathwing Knights in the mail, I present to you my first draft of a deathwing list. Enjoy!

Army List: Blood Angels with Dark Angel Allies

     Here is an army list that I have been playing around with for a while now. It includes a main force of jump pack Blood Angels, with Dark Angel allies. This army is designed to be a fun, varied army with a bunch of different element and units that I really like. I'm not sure how competitive it is, but since I'm not out to win any tournaments that isn't a bit deal (although I sure do like to beat my brother's Grey Knights). Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments!

Custom Warlord Traits Part 2: Grey Knights

    Here in part 2 I have the warlord traits made especially for the Grey Knights. For those of you who missed the Blood Angels' warlord traits, here's a quick explanation of what this is. The new 6th edition codexes have interesting and fun warlord traits that are made to work well with the strategies of the army. But all the armies that still have pre-6th edition codexes have to use the main rulebook's warlord traits which more often than not are almost useless in your army (Master of offence for a gunline army, etc). So I decided to make up traits for the armies that haven't been updated yet for use in friendly games.
     So without any more rambling, here are the warlord traits for the army that I play against most often, my brother's Grey Knights...

Custom Warlord Traits Part 1: Blood Angels

     I haven't really liked the warlord traits in the main rulebook. Your gunline army could just as easily get "Master of Offense" as your assault army could get "Master of Defense". Both are (mostly) useless to those armies. But now that we have a few 6th edition codexes, I am starting to see that the warlord traits are a very fun part of the game that really adds something new. The only problem is that most of the armies don't have a set of warlord traits tailored to their specific strategies like the Dark Angels, or the Tau do. And that is why I am making some myself.
     Below I have an initial draft of a set of Warlord traits that I've written up for the Blood Angels (since they're the main army that I play). Eventually I'd like to make a set for each of the armies that don't have their own to tide them over until their new codex comes out. Let me know what you think. Are there any of these that are just too over/underpowered? Any better ideas to replace one? Any tweaks to make the rule better? Obviously these would only be for friendly games, so if anyone tries these out in a game let me know how it worked, and if you have any ideas for an army that I haven't done yet let me know (and maybe leave a little explanation about why it would fit with that army too). Read on to see the traits!

Warlord Trait Cards by Eryx_UK

     I just stumbled upon an excellent set of warlord trait cards by Eryx_UK. He has a set made up for each of the new 6th edition codexes, the traits from the rulebook, and a set of cards for the warzone traits. I think this is an incredible idea, and I don't know why GW doesn't make a set of these themselves because I think they would sell. I have the links below to each of the different sets so go check them out!

Hobby Update: Thunder Hammers, Wolves, and Apothecaries

      Just a quick post to show a few of the things I have been up to. For Christmas (I know, it was forever ago) my brother bought me a box of Space Wolves grey hunters, and a box of thunderwolf cavalry. I have been having too much fun converting these guys so I haven't even come close to painting them yet. I have really caught the converting bug. I'll be posting up many more photos of the things I'm working on starting with these. Enjoy...

Using Photoshop to Test Color/Conversion Ideas

     Hi everyone! It has been quite a while. I'm just about to go into my finals week (I blame school for my lack of posting) so hopefully I'll find some time to update the blog with what I've been doing over the past month. Today I'm just going to give you all some examples of how I use photoshop to help decide what type of color schemes, or even conversions would look good on particular models.  More below...

MathHammer Part 6: Assault Ranges

     I figured that It might be time for another MathHammer since I haven't done any painting to put up on the blog. Today I'm going to be looking at the 6th edition assault ranges. More below...

Hobby Update

      It's been quite a while since my last post, so I figured I'd just do an update of what I'm working on right now. I don't have much to show as far as finished models, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working this month. I'm putting together the box of Thunderwolf Cavalry and Grey Hunters that my brother got me for Christmas, and I've also been building some more of my Blood Angels troops. And I've been working on something else to add to my skills... 3d printing!!! More below...

WIP: Blood Angels Librarian

      Hey everyone! So I am working on my custom Blood Angels jump pack librarian today. Right now he is in the early stages of construction, but I think it's looking pretty cool so far. Read on for some more info...

MathHammer Part 5: Thunderwolf Cavalry

     Well I'm back with another MathHammer article! I was putting together my new set of Thunderwolf cavalry, and i was wondering which would be the best special weapon for the pack to take. A power fist is an appealing choice with 4 S10 attacks, but I really think that the Space Wolves look much better with an axe (which also gains an extra attack). So, which is the best weapon? Read on to find out!

2013 Hobby Resolution and 2012 Recap.

  
 2012 has a big year for me. I married my beautiful wife, graduated college, started my masters degree. And on the hobby side of things, I started this blog three months ago with my tutorial on painting an Assault on Black Reach Captain for my Blood Angels army. The blog has recieved 4748 views with 25 posts, and 26 followers so far! It has had a much better reception than i was expecting, which has been great!

Dreadnought Plasma Cannon Conversion

 

     So I have an Assault on Black Reach dreadnought, but I've always used the multi-melta arm as a plasma cannon stand in. Since I got the dark vengeance set, I realized that I have one more plasma cannon than I need, so I figured it was time to make a real plasma cannon. There is a great tutorial that gave me the idea to do this over on Da Rollin Waaagh!. I'll give a quick rundown of what I did, but if you want a more in depth tutorial, head over to his post. More below...