The Wild Hunt begins - Immersturm's Cavalry WIP Thread

[Frater Cornelius]

Oh, see them ride, crossing the skies
The Aett's warriors are raising the storm tonight
Oh, hear afar, howling in the dark
The Wolves are preying throughout the night

 

 

Welcome brothers! The Wild Host has been unleashed!

 

 

After talking about it for a while I formally declare this my WIP thread. I have finally decided what my army will look like. No surprise, a lot of Cavalry and Hunting Hounds.

 

In here I will primarily focus on the models themselves, so little to no fluff available. You've got to wait until I finish my models and open my Lost Company thread showcasing the army and telling their story.

Here I will post my progress on the army and the inspiration for every model. I rarely do something idly. I will explain why I did certain adjustments and modeled things in the way that I did to give a bit of insight.

 

So, let's get right into it!

 

First up, the most basic thing:

 

Inspiration for the Army

 

I have been going back and forth between what and how I want to play my Wolves. The funny thing is, me building a Cavalcade now wasn't a conscious decision until the very end. Actually, it was a series of coincidences that lead me here.

I started playing during the 5th edition but I used a friends army in the UK. He played Wolves and they instantly appealed to me since I was a massive fan of the Germanic and Nordic mythos. So naturally, I wanted my own army when I got home after finishing school.

When I bought my own army at the start of the 6th edition, I wanted TWC. They were my favourite unit. But they were incredibly expensive, so I looked for alternatives. I finally found an interesting picture on the web and decided to use Chaos Knights as my TWC.

And this is where it all began.

Of cause, some of you know that I stopped played Wolves in the last year of the 6th edition and tried many other armies by buying them, converting, using and selling them. Tau was the only force I actually wanted to keep, but it still wasn't quite there.

Then, during the darkest hour, I accidentally clicked on the GW website in my bookmarks and saw the new SW release. That shocking surprise basically gave me the push to come back to my Wolves.

Keeping with the theme of my TWC, I made my Wolf Lord a horseman and actually continued the conversion until he looked pretty much like Wodan.

Some time later I stumbled on an image of the Wild Hunt when browsing the web. It caught my interest and I looked up what it is. This was at the time where I did not know what direction to take my army and was experimenting with a TWC build.

Well, it turns out the Wild Hunt, or Ride of Asgard, was a Cavalcade of spectral horsemen on the hunt, which is usually led by Wodan himself. You can read up the details on Wikipedia.

But basically, this is where it came together. COF allowing a fully mounted build, me having TWC horses, the Lord looking like Wodan. This is where I basically said "full TWC"!

 

So I basically consider it my calling now to commit to that TWC army.

 

As mentioned, it is based on the Germanic/Nordic version of the phenomenon called 'the Wild Hunt' so will see a lot of references to a WH40K version of Valhalla and terms like 'The Wild Host' and 'The Ride of Asgard'.

And, since it includes fallen warriors and Valhalla, it will also include Spirits. The new Spirits Hosts that got released with the Nagash series in WHFB, which I coincidentally bought because I liked them and had no idea what to do with them until now. But more on the Spirits later.

 

As for the models themselves, I enjoy having a compact, low model-count army, because I can focus more on each of the models.

What I am attempting to do is sort of forge my own narrative. Each rider will have a set of equipment that he carries on his ride. You may see a Bolter, a Chainsword, medical equipment, a Plasma maybe.

This is supposed to mean that those rides actually dismount from time to time. When boarding a ship or storming a bunker. Their backpacks will show their role when fighting on foot. And foot units in Kill Team and other games might actually represent a rider in his dismounted form. A lot of work, but this will add a lot of character to the army, I am sure.

 

Well then, let that be it for this post. Later I will post my current line-up and dive a bit deeper into what I am planning to do with the models.

[Augelmir]

Sounds like this is going to be alot of fun, looking forward to future posts and progress

[CatSmasher]

You must drink a lot of coffee. 

[Frater Cornelius]

You must drink a lot of coffee.

Actually, I hate coffee. I more the green/herbal tea guy

Edit: And honey. Herbal tea with a spoon of honey. That's the stuff right there ;)

[Jochteas]

Not gonna lie Immersturm, you're a big inspiration to me. I'd love to see the work you do as you progress, you have been a wonderful source for ideas and I would love to see the work you do.

[Rift Blade]

Gotta second everybody here Immersturm. Looking forward to this.

[FenrisWolf]

Add my voice to the looking forward to it.

[hmk17]

Will be watching this, with great interest

[Jagdwulfe]

Jumping on the bandwagon. Looking forward to seeing your army. And, like Jochteas says, you've been a great inspiration!

[Frater Cornelius]

Well then, here is my starting point. The models are mostly assembled the way they should be but are otherwise bare-bones. They are now ready to get the Green Stuff treatment and all the other conversions as well to make them look Space Wolf-y.

The Jarl

http://i.imgur.com/DzeXVee.jpg

The Iron Priests

Iron Priest 1

http://i.imgur.com/POcTGva.jpg

Iron Priest 2

http://i.imgur.com/S1XBoyH.jpg

Iron Priest 3

http://i.imgur.com/JRiklEz.jpg

The Thunderhoof Cavalry

TWC 1

http://i.imgur.com/c9X90ZU.jpg

TWC 2

http://i.imgur.com/1BlzEqt.jpg

TWC 3

http://i.imgur.com/yuhhEpi.jpg

... I really need a better Camera

Anyway, the 3rd TWC unit is still missing one member. There will also be a mounted WGBL with 2 hounds, 3 Servitors and a Stormfang.

The next step will be adding the Bolter and Bolt Pistols to everyone that carries either one of those. After that I will be starting to apply Green Stuff, SW insignias and personal equipment as well as backpacks and in the process covering up all those Chaos symbols.

You know, in hindsight I should've called this 'My Little Pony - 40k Edition'

[Jochteas]

My little pony-40k edition? Neigh 

Also I don't think i will ever not be jealous of your model of the Jarl, it is so fantastically done. So fantastically done.

[FenrisWolf]

immer, from the sound of your description are you magnetizing the torsos onto the mounts so you can dismount them and give them a leg base?

[Frater Cornelius]

immer, from the sound of your description are you magnetizing the torsos onto the mounts so you can dismount them and give them a leg base?

 

No. I am mainly going to use them as Cav. For those rare occasions that I don't I just get myself a few Chaos Warriors. The main point was the equipment on the horses.

[Casual Heresy]

Oh gawd dat jarl! Permission to borrow the idea if I ever get round to my howling griffons space marine/wolf army?

 

They are all looking great. The marines don't look to big for the horses and they just work well. Excellent work sir.

[Frater Cornelius]

Oh gawd dat jarl! Permission to borrow the idea if I ever get round to my howling griffons space marine/wolf army?

They are all looking great. The marines don't look to big for the horses and they just work well. Excellent work sir.

You think you got what it takes to build a Lord like that? Then do it! Valhalla will be watching and assessing your worth

If you want a Howling Griffon thematic, may I recommend that you take a look at the Empire Demigriffons from WHFB.

BTW, regular Marines would be too small actually. Those Barbarians must be around 1 head larger. Must be their manliness

[Casual Heresy]

 

Oh gawd dat jarl! Permission to borrow the idea if I ever get round to my howling griffons space marine/wolf army?

They are all looking great. The marines don't look to big for the horses and they just work well. Excellent work sir.

 

 

You think you got what it takes to build a Lord like that? Then do it! Valhalla will be watching and assessing your worth ;)

If you want a Howling Griffon thematic, may I recommend that you take a look at the Empire Demigriffons from WHFB.

 

BTW, regular Marines would be too small actually. Those Barbarians must be around 1 head larger. Must be their manliness :D

Yeah I was planning on Demigriffs for the TWC but I was looking for something a little more epic for The Lord.

[Frater Cornelius]

Oh gawd dat jarl! Permission to borrow the idea if I ever get round to my howling griffons space marine/wolf army?

They are all looking great. The marines don't look to big for the horses and they just work well. Excellent work sir.

You think you got what it takes to build a Lord like that? Then do it! Valhalla will be watching and assessing your worth

If you want a Howling Griffon thematic, may I recommend that you take a look at the Empire Demigriffons from WHFB.

BTW, regular Marines would be too small actually. Those Barbarians must be around 1 head larger. Must be their manliness

Yeah I was planning on Demigriffs for the TWC but I was looking for something a little more epic for The Lord.

An actual Griffon then?

[Frater Cornelius]

Okay, I could use some modelling advice. I am looking to make my SW look more chainmail-ish. They need to keep their Power Armour obviously, but I wanted to incorporate chainmail and leather elements to make them look lighter and faster.

Besides, Vikings, Berserkers and all those dudes never wore plate.

 

So yeah, throw me your ideas ;)

[FenrisWolf]

Could you do thin sheets of green stuff that you lay a pattern of holes on (like rolling it out and then rolling it with a patterned roller, to use a baking analogy)? Then you could apply the sheets on the armor.  That'd be a lot of work though.

[Rift Blade]

Don't know if this really works but something I heard a while back. Lay out your greenstuff on the model over the areas you want to look like chainmail & take a coarse wire brush(can usually find these in the paint section of most hardware stores) & press into the greenstuff. The metal bristles wont bend & put holes in the Greenstuff mimicking chainmail. Supposedly. Keep meaning to try this bit never get around to it. LOL!!!

[ORKILL]

Don't know if this really works but something I heard a while back. Lay out your greenstuff on the model over the areas you want to look like chainmail & take a coarse wire brush(can usually find these in the paint section of most hardware stores) & press into the greenstuff. The metal bristles wont bend & put holes in the Greenstuff mimicking chainmail. Supposedly. Keep meaning to try this bit never get around to it. LOL!!!

Don't forget to wet the bristles first, this will keep the green stuff from sticking.

[Frater Cornelius]

Thanks. I have done Chainmail before in a similar manner. I will definitely try it. But how does it make sense? I mean just slapping it on the PA just makes them heVier but replacing PA defeats its purpose somehow.

[FenrisWolf]

So call it energized chain and give it an energy field in the fluff.  Has the same armor protection, but less weight for the calvary and is rare due to the difficulties in maintaining it or creating it, thus leading to it being used only by the elite.

[Dantay VI]

Only partially cover them with chainmail... Only part chainmail, you never go full chainmali.

 

For my scouts, I go with a PA torso and bare arms from the marauder sets (Catachan arms are too square and clunky). Doing something like that and maybe coating the upper arms in chainmail? That way it looks like a chainmail coat with a plate over the top.

 

Would that work for your Wolves?

[Frater Cornelius]

Both Marauder and Catachan arms are too small. The riders are basically as big as a SM should be compared to a guardsman. But you guys gave a pretty good idea. I'll be working on the Iron Priests (sans dogs) first.