A hundred readers and the Great Company  

Posted by Hal'jin in , ,

Just yesterday I have finally reached the magical 100 followers mark. Wow. Thanks a lot for your continuous support guys!

But there's something entirely different I wanted to show you. I have been thinking for a while, about turnint my Space Wolf army into a full Great Company. A huge task, not to be achieved soon, but oh so tempting.

Expanding the Wolves is just so much easier and more pleasant than the Guard, at least that's what I feel. Should I want to expand the 42nd Cadian's 3rd Company, I would have to add... hundreds of guardsmen, the company being roughly 300 men(6 platoons with 5 squads each). The idea makes me shiver, thinking of all the painting, not to mention the though of the cost of the entire endeavour. Space Wolves on the other hand have roughyl 120 men in each of their Great Company, at least that's what I managed to find (Some other sources mentioned 150 - 1000.. which is quite a huge margin..), which is much easier to achieve (that's less than the guardsmen I already have...)

But to even start on such an ambitious project one needs a good plan. A great idea by Admiral Drax comes to the rescue however! Here it is, the (stolen!) Sven Bloodhowl's Great Company Chart!



It also makes it much easier to track down names of those characters for future background writing reference. The N/A parts are things currently not even planned, but would most likely be included in the full Great Company. Also there would probably be "a bit" more vehicles (But nothing as crazy as the Company described in the codex having 12 Land Raiders...). I don't know if I ever get to the full company though. Perhaps some other new shiny army will come round. And there's the Guard to expand as well.

Let me know what you think and if you have any idea on how a Company should look like! Also, I am working on a similar chart for the 42nd Cadian, should be done soon.

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How to Make - Combi Weapons  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , ,

Here is the promised first Wolf-oriented tutorial! The exam sessions is giving me a little break, just enough to squeeze it in. The weapons I make are for my Wolves, but of course, the same idea can be used to make combi-weapons for pretty much every army (Imperial that is, not the Ork ones) that uses them! Hope you'll enjoy it.


First of all, what a list of needed things. First, a bolter, any will do (the one I used is actually a bit harder to work with).


In this case I am making a combi-melta, but the same idea can be easily translated to a combi-plasma and a flamer. Generally you will need the other weapon you're attaching. In case of plasma, a pistol would suffice. You don't need the entire weapon just a muzzle and some sort of ammo container. For melta it's the barrel shown below. For a flamer it would be a small tank. For plasma, the cooling system would work great, though it would require a bit of additional work.


Lastly a bit of plasticard. Some green stuff will help a lot too!


Now what? Click below to find out!


First of all, cut the bolter into pieces shown below. Yes, it is not cut into a straight line, but rather has a sort of a "step" there. Do not lose the tiny muzzle, you will need it!


File both halves of the bolter to make sure they're even. Then glue a small plasticard piece onto the "stair". My green stuff was exactly the thickness I needed, yours might need a bit of filing/green stuffing.


Now glue another plasticard bit onto the upper part, this time it should have the length equal to the one between the front of the weapon and that small wheel-thing on the bolter. Also glue a small plasticard piece onto the other half, just like before.


Now glue the two halves back together. Before you do that however, you might want to make a small hole in the lower-half plasticard to represent the shell exit hole(however you call that in military terms).


File the sides if they are uneven. The next thing is to cut off the protracted parts of the shell exit holes on both sides.


Now glue the melta/flamer bits onto their spots. The new muzzle takes the place of the old one, while the bolter one goes below it. The melta container could go a bit more into the middle, but in this case the skull got a bit into the way.
If you're doing plasma, attaching the radiator to the side might not be the best idea. Try cutting off the top of the bolter and attaching it there instead. Make sure it doesn't stand out too much


You're almost done! Now just cover the plasticard bit in green stuff to even it out further. But most importandly, fill in the shell exit.. ports?


And here are some examples of models with those weapons.




And well that's it. Hope you liked that little tutorial. Let me know what you think and if you know how is that shell exit thing called do tell, I will fix it in the post.

Also the end of my exams is drawing near, hopefuly there will be a lot of painted stuff to show soon.
Thanks for reading!


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The Howl  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , ,

Time for some Wovles update now! Got a moment of break between the exams and finished something that's probably the grandest thing in the entire army! Its leader - Wolf Lord Sven Bloodhowl. On a Thunderwolf...

And here he is, in all his glory. Armed with "everything" that is, a Thunderhammer, a Storm Shield, Wolf Tooth Necklace, clad in Runic Armor and sat atop a Thunderwolf.


There are, of course, more pictures!




As you can see I also added a couple of other things, like the sculpted GS cloak with fur on it. I know it's texture is not perfect, but I will use that to make the cloak dirty and soaked with blood of his enemies. Or something. It turned out there isn't much room for anything else so the Runic part of his armor is going to be more painted, than sculpted.

Perhaps you noticed, that I used the same head, storm shield and backpack element as the terminator version of him. I just totally forgot about service studs I've added to the terminator later and so will have to add them here too. Ooops.

And for fun, size comparison with a regular Grey Hunter and a Rhino:


Now, some of you might wonder where did I get that wolf? It's been sculpted by a skilled polish sculptor and sold to one of your bits shops. You can see the other variants/get them here. (Now you guys owe me for a free ad!) I'd contact them via mail before purchasing it abroad though, I have no idea how/if they ship far away. I feel that this sculpt perfectly embodies what a Thunderwolf should be.

I have no idea how to paint it though, as in, what colors. I'll have to do much more research before that. And buy a can of primer...

Coming up next: Psykers Chimera and the first Space Wolves tutorial that you most likely will find handy for a lot of armies.


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I Hate Right Hands - Part 3.5 - Strapped Lasguns Tutorial  

Posted by Hal'jin in , , , ,

What is this? A new post?! Cannot be! Yes, it can! I found my camera, found its charger and finally found some time to post something. There's an exam session going on here right now, but once it's over, expect a flow of posts, both about Guard and the Wolves (And not just regular SW models, you'll see...). But first, the tutorial I promised a while back!

Truth to be said, this one is quite simple and short, however I think someone might find it useful. It is part of IHRH series as it's focusing on IG veterans, once more! This time, how to make your very own strapped weapons, just like the single lasgun available both in FW upgrade pack and the Cadian CS. Without further ado, let's begin!

You're going to need:

  • A lasgun arm (even if you're not doing a lasgun!), one of those "wide" ones, like below


  • The weapon itself
  • A little bit of green stuff



The first step is to cut out the lasgun, like shown below. It's easier to first cut out the weapon leaving the butt and cut it out later.

Be careful not to damage the trigger finger! Now, take the weapon you want to fit. The picture shows a lasgun, and I'll go through with it, being the most popular weapon people will attach. My veteran however, is getting a shotgun.


Now you need to cut off a little bit of the back of the shoulder. The picture perhaps doesn't show exactly how, but it'll be clearer with the next.


Now attach the lasgun to the gap you've made. It is important to have the lasgun at the same level, or below, as the part of the arm that's attached to the model, else you will have problems attaching the arm. Make sure the lasgun "sinks" a little bit into the shoulder.


That's how it looks, with a shotgun, glued to the model. Glue yours too, it's very hard to do the next step without that!


Now roll a single strap from the green stuff and cut it in half.


Take one half and attach it first to the butt of the weapon (or wherever you feel it's best, but that's how FW has done it). You can make a small cut on it there, which, when painted metal, will server as a sort of a clasp. Then attach the other end just below the extended finger. That's why it was important not to damage it! Be extra careful now, we want a smooth strap there, no cuts!

Do the same with the other half, but instead attach it above. If you are having problems attaching a smooth strap to the hand, use a little bit of superglue to make it stick, rather then pressing hard with your knife, tool, whatever.

And that's it! Simple, eh? This is how a finished and almost-painted model looks like:

And that's it! I hope you liked it and will find it useful. The IHRH column on the right will be updated for easy navigation to the article.

What will the future bring? First it's going to be the Numerical Methods test and Assembler Languages exam. Wish me luck!

But afterwards, there's one tutorial for Space Wolf players, a lot of new HQs for that, some tactical rambling... For the Guard there's Psyker Chimera, the 303rd and myself considering getting one of those new Leman Russ kits. See you soon!



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