Andy Chambers' Path of the Renegade

It took me a while to get around to Path of the Renegade by Andy Chambers. Part of the reason why is a leeriness toward more former Game Designer fiction. It some times almost feels like insider fan fiction. Just look at any of the Andy Hoare books. Path of the Renegade is the story of an Archon who has decided he can no longer live under Asdrubael Vect's rule, and decides to do something about it. In typical Dark Eldar form, he creates an intricate plot, with numerous allies to be manipulated into following out his plan, either unwittingly or not. Taken on the whole, I thought this was a well executed book. It offered great depictions of Dark Eldar society and Commoragh in general and did for the Dark Eldar what the Gav Thorpe novels are doing for the Craftworld Eldar. Being a big Incubi fan, the character of Morr was exceedingly cool to me. At the end of the day, this is an entertaining book, worth the read. Hopefully, Mr. Chambers will put forth some more offerings.

Wolf Guard Squad Leaders

I decided to build tow Wolf Guard to lead my Wolf Scouts and Grey Hunters. While they could got to either squad, I envisage the thunder hammer Wolf Guard going with the scouts, and the power weapon Wolf Guard going with the Grey Hunters. I mix and matched bitz from the Grey Hunters and Tactical Squad boxed sets to build these models.

While I currently have a sheet of the Harald Deathwolf Great Company transfers now, I did not when I built these models. That being said, I opted to model the wolf head shoulder pad and paint it red as one of the company alternatives shown in the Space Wolves codex. The other shoulder pad I decided to use one of the Wolf Guard shoulder pad examples from the codex as well, using one that was a pretty simple geometric pattern.

The gray was painted with old colors, P3 Ironhull Gray, Trollhide Underbelly and GW Space Wolves Gray. The red uses the new GW Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red. The yellow was painted with Averland Sunset,Yriel Yellow and Flash Gitz Yellow. The black is Abaddon Black and the bone is Ushabti Bone, Agrax Earthshade and Screaming Skull. The silver is old GW Boltgun, Agrax Earthshade and Chainmail. I'm finding I like the pigments, coverage and consistency of the new GW paints. However, I still hate the paint pots, they need to make something that stays open.

Architect of Fate

It took me a long time to plow through Architect of Fate. When I say plow, I mean it. This was a hard book for me to read through. There are four stories, each is tangentially related to Fateweaver in some way. Only one really has Fateweaver in it though. All four also feature different Space Marine Chapters, the Star Dragons, Imperial Fists, White Consuls and the Imperial Fists. Of them, the stories with the Imperial Fists and White Consuls are the best, but that doesn't say much. If you haven't picked up this book yet, I would pass on it,

Black Consul's Land Speeder Storm

When I decided that the Land Speeder Storm would be the last unit I build for the black Consuls, I knew I wanted to re-purpose the scouts for use as a squad in another project. To that end, I decided to use the assault cannon from the regular Land Speeder and mounted it on the bottom of the Storm's chassis.I also omitted the four rear riders, as well as the gunner from the model.

I started out priming the model black,d then painted the silver and bone areas. The silver was painted with layers of GW Boltgun, Devlan Mud and Chainmail, while the bone was painted with layers of the new GW Ushabti Bone, Devlan Mud and Screaming Skull. The cloth on the scout was done with just a layer of old GW Shadow Grey. The red was done with new GW Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red. Finally the black was done with layers of new GW Abaddon Black, P3 Coal Black and old GW Codex Grey.

I used a .005 Micron pen to free hand the numbers and Black Consul's insignia. Then I painted them with layers of new GW Ceramite White and White Scar. Finally, I glued the flying base and post together using canopy glue.

Arjac Rockfist

Arjac Rockfist is one of the coolest Space Wolf figures in the current range. As soon as I saw the model I had to have this homage to Thor. Since at some point I do want to add in some Space Wolf terminators, if for nothing else than to be able to play with the bitz, I knew it would be a worthwhile purchase.

The model is a fairly easy build, and the Finecast resin didn't have any problems. While Arjac doesn't really fit in with the Harald Deathwolf theme, I figure sometimes Logan Grimnar sends his Wolf Guard on missions to act as his observer, voice or simply as extra reinforcements for tough or critical missions.

Like the other Space Wolves, I started out with Black Duplicolor Primer. I then painted the silver with layers of GW Boltgun, Devlan Mud and Chainmail. The bone was painted with layers of P3 Hammerfeld Khaki, GW Devlan Mud and Bleached Bone. The White wolf symbol was painted with P3 Morrow White, and the grey was painted with P3 Trollhide Underbelly, and then GW Space Wolves Grey. Finally the gold was painted in layers of GW Dwarven Bronze, Devlan Mud, Shining Gold and Burnished Gold while the brown was layers of Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather.

Black Consul's Scout Squad

This will probably be the last scout squad I do for the Black Consuls. I chose to model them in a shooting role, with Bolters and one with a Heavy Bolter. This squad is well suited to have Telion added to it to make it an even more robust squad.

In painting this squad, I realized I had not made a first squad yet, so with a few deft strokes of a Micron pen, squad one was born. I then used P3 Morrow White to paint the white, and Chaos Black to cut in and clean it up.

I had not used any of the new GW paints when I built and painted this squad, so the layers all follow old GW paint and P3 paint schemes I have used in the past.

Space Wolf Lone Wolf

There are so many bitz on the Grey Hunter's sprues, as well as the Thunderwolf Cavalry sprues; it is hard to use them all in one build. As I was building my yet unpainted Grey hunters, I was thinking about other units I wanted to add to the army. The Lone Wolf is something that speaks to me on a lot of levels. For one, there is the idea of survivors guilt - the Space Wolf who seeks death because his pack has died and he was unable to join them, for one reason or another.

I decided that this Lone Wolf has dawned a Wolf Helm, partly because it is a cool bit with a nice throw back look, but also as it makes the model a little more enigmatic. I also wanted to use the lightning claws as his weapons, but add the buckle with combat knives as well. Wolf tails were added to Space Wolf-up the normal marine legs as well.

I used the new GW red paints on this model, so all of the red is layers of Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Red and then Wild Rider red. I like these new reds, but I had not acquired a new orange shade yet at this time.

Iron Hands Dreadnought

For this dreadnought, I wanted to build something that would offer the army ranged support as it advanced against the enemy. For that reason, I chose a missile launcher and lascannon build.

With this dreadnought build, I wanted to be able to use the larger pieces of brass etched from the Iron Hands Brass etched sheet. I chose to use one of the larger Iron Hands icons for the front of the chassis. For the weapon arms, I chose one Mechanicum symbol, and one for the Clan symbol on the missile launcher arm.

I began to use a few of the new GW paints for this model. For the base, I used Stirland Mud, then the old Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather. The black is Abaddon black, with P3 Coal Black and Codex Grey for an edge highlight. The silver is still layers of Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail. However, the white was done with layers of Ceramite White and White Scar. Overall, I like the coverage of the new GW paints, they are formulated better for one. The coverage is better on colors that are traditionally harder to get smooth single coats on black primer; like white, yellow and red. However, I still dislike the paint pots themselves.

Eye of Vengeance

I find that I get a lot accomplished when i am listening to the Black Library's audio dramas. I was able to finally put a half squad of Iron Hands to rest while listening to Graham McNiell's Eye of Vengeance the other night. I really enjoyed this story for two reasons, the first is that it is about Ultramarines. That always is a plus in my book. The second is that it picks up the disparate threads of the Chapters Due and builds upon them without giving anything away from the larger novel. It is set during the invasion of Quintarn and is the story of Telion and his scout's part in the war. My only qualm with this audio drama, is that the voice used for Telion sounds like Cary Elwys, and I spent the whole time wondering if the Dread Pirate Roberts was going to duel the Chaos Warlord to the pain. For me the voice just didn't work and that did detract from the overall enjoyment of the story. In all seriousness, I enjoyed this audio drama. It is definitely worth picking up for a listen.

Space Wolf Thunderwolf Cavalry

The Thunderwolf Cavalry boxed set is a treasure trove of Space Wolf bitz. There were so many it made choosing the chest pieces, heads and weapons pretty difficult. In the end, I went with the Thunder Hammer (although the power axe is pretty sweet) and chainswords for the riders. While they all come with bolt pistol and bolter as well, I opted to model a holstered pistol and a magnetized bolter onto the legs, allowing the off hand to be holding the reins (which are invisible), wanting a somehwat more realistic pose.

The wolves were built somewhat ahphazardly, and it was only in the end I relaized how extensively bionic they could be. They were mounted on the bases they come with and a mixed coarseness ballast was added. The sergeant got the ruined Thousand Son torso.

The wolves are painted with GW Adept Grey, P3 Ironhull Grey and an extreme highlight of codex grey. The Space Wolves have layers of P3 Ironhull Grey, Trollhide Underbelly and Gw Space Wolves Grey. The silver and bone are respectively painted with GW Boltgun and P3 Hammerfeld Khaki, a layer of Devlan Mud and then a final layer of GW Chainmail and Bleached Bone.