PHM's Exploding Monkey Brains - Commissar 28/05

[BadgersinHills]

Woah, nice work. The intercessors look super nice and the WP is really nice. I think the stitches on the cloak have the flayed skin cloak look which I'm not sure suits them, but it's a good mini regardless. 

[hushrong]

Solid work on the wolves! I was digging the scouts but I understand the scale issue. Once I started using those primaris guys scale variances bit me deep. Do hope they will serve will in another great company.

 

As for the resent work it’s awesome. Especially the grey hunters and those wolf helms. They already look bad ass! Wulfen are looking good and I like the use of the MoE for the Priest. You made that sculpt fit right on in with the wolves.

[Yosef Hausakluif]

The Wolf helms and the bare arms mixed in on those primaris marines look really good all together! Can’t wait to see them painted up as a unit.

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Woah, nice work. The intercessors look super nice and the WP is really nice. I think the stitches on the cloak have the flayed skin cloak look which I'm not sure suits them, but it's a good mini regardless. 

 

Thanks Badger. I'm looking to do the cloak as leather, animal leather, rather than flayed skin. I'm also still trying to keep that feral feel to the army so I'm hoping the painting will bring it back to SW rather than Chaos.

 

Solid work on the wolves! I was digging the scouts but I understand the scale issue. Once I started using those primaris guys scale variances bit me deep. Do hope they will serve will in another great company.

 

As for the resent work it’s awesome. Especially the grey hunters and those wolf helms. They already look bad ass! Wulfen are looking good and I like the use of the MoE for the Priest. You made that sculpt fit right on in with the wolves.

 

Thanks Hush. Yeah, I was really liking the Scouts too but they really looked tiny and it was driving me nuts. I'm also much happier with the Grey Hunters as they are now rather than as Reivers. The fluff I'm baking up in my head really works with them being Hunters too.

 

Most of the MoE is still the original model, there's not a lot needed to bring it round to a SW feel, especially for my theme. Plus, thanks to the new CSM range being bigger than before I didn't even have to grow him to match the Grey Hunters, major bonus.

 

The Wolf helms and the bare arms mixed in on those primaris marines look really good all together! Can’t wait to see them painted up as a unit.

Cheers Yosef. Yeah, hoping the painting will really pull them together. Mu only fear is that I've not left enough armour on them to keep a strong grey pallet to them. They have more than the Wulfen do tho so I'm thinking it'll be ok

 

Thanks again all

PHM

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Back again. I've been very busy converting something up for the last week and have been holding off posting anything until I had it finished. Now that I have, I am very happy to present to you all my Wolf Lord:

"BRING IT!"

I'm super happy with this guy. I've had the idea floating around in my head from the start of this army and its great to see it finally realised. I'vegone with the Abaddon model as a base again because he's super huge and a great model to work with. I will be using him for EVERY terminator captain/lord/whatever in the future. While not as many parts total as my Feirros conversion (see my Iron Hands thread for full WIP shots) this guy had a lot more work in terms of posing and certainly in greenstuff. The hardest part was gouging out the arms to insert the Wulfen bare arms instead. I kept the small, inner shoulder pad there and slotted the Wulfen arms in instead. I think it gives a realistic enough look at how the armour could still work. The shield is from the Stormfang with a bit of shaving and additions to make it work. Its a good halfway point bewteen the Wulfen Storm Shields and the Dreadnough Blizzard Shields.

Here's also a size-comparrison shot next to the other basic unit types in the army:

He certainly stands above the crowd.

Now its back to the brain-breaking task of converting up the second unit of Grey Hunters as I now have all the various components for it. Here's a little taste of the idiocy I have decided to undertake to make these guys:

Yep, I really make it hard for myself...

Hopefully some more finished Grey Hunters soon.

PHM

[Yosef Hausakluif]

The Wolf lord conversion is great! He fits the ‘lost’ wolves look perfectly. Wasn’t first sold on his non shield arm weapon, but overall it fits the aesthetic of your war band; and makes sense.

 

Didn’t realize your GH conversions included switching out the thigh bits like that; you truly are part of the 13th and lost to the eye! (That’s some patience and converting to get just what you want!)

I think the balance with the GH’s full death sworn wolf helms and the bare arms and all the other detail will work just fine. Dark grey plate will show and contrast nice against it all.

 

Looking forward to what comes next!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work on the Wolf Lord? What's the jagged thing at his feet? A rock formation? Debris from an Aeldari/Drukhari vehicle he wrecked?

[hushrong]

Oh. Snap.

 

Your wolf lord is a unit. Love the scale shot with him, he’s not gigantic but he is definitely large and in charge.

[BadgersinHills]

Wolf Lord is looking excellent. The blending of the plastic parts is really seamless, love it. The Intercessors are looking promising too, are those scout thighs? 

[PowerHungryMonkey]

The Wolf lord conversion is great! He fits the ‘lost’ wolves look perfectly. Wasn’t first sold on his non shield arm weapon, but overall it fits the aesthetic of your war band; and makes sense.

 

Didn’t realize your GH conversions included switching out the thigh bits like that; you truly are part of the 13th and lost to the eye! (That’s some patience and converting to get just what you want!)

I think the balance with the GH’s full death sworn wolf helms and the bare arms and all the other detail will work just fine. Dark grey plate will show and contrast nice against it all.

 

Looking forward to what comes next!

 

Thanks Yosef. I was originally going to have him with 2 wolf claws in that same pose, give him the full Wolverine look, but I was swayed by advice from a few places to give him a shield for that extra Invuln save. Since this army is intended to actually get painted and reach the table top at a tournament I had to dial-down my "rule of cool at all costs" ethos and actually think vaguely tactically.

 

As for the Grey Hunters, yeah, I've really made this an effort for myself. Struggling to get the motivation to cut and fit the last 3 pairs of legs for the unit. Thankfully I made a bit of a headstart and already have all 7 torsos cut and filed down. Gonna be a lot of greenstuffing for both units tho to join the leg sections.

 

And now my stupid brain is telling me to do a unit of Long Fangs the same way, coz...

 

Impressive work on the Wolf Lord? What's the jagged thing at his feet? A rock formation? Debris from an Aeldari/Drukhari vehicle he wrecked?

 

Thanks Bjorn. The base detail is a rocky outcrop. Its originally from the CSM Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour kit and I just hacked up the main 'spike' a little to get rid of the arrow shape. You can't have that kind of pose on a lord and not have him standing on something and I generally dislike having dead foes on my bases.

 

Oh. Snap.

 

Your wolf lord is a unit. Love the scale shot with him, he’s not gigantic but he is definitely large and in charge.

 

Cheers Hush. Odd that you should say he's not gigantic as its the Abaddon model as a base, plus he's raised up on a rock. I guess having him tilted back a bit and not having Abby's giant totem thingy on his back brings the height down

 

Wolf Lord is looking excellent. The blending of the plastic parts is really seamless, love it. The Intercessors are looking promising too, are those scout thighs? 

As always, thanks Badger. On the Grey Hunters I've used Goliath legs for the thigh and crotch sections. I was originally using this idea for Reivers and so wanted to down-armour the unit a bit but still keep a bit of chunk to the models that I feel the Phobos plate lacks. This was my solution and, while I love the end resault, I hate getting o that point, heh

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Greetings again.

Just a few pics today to show I haven't been completely idle these last two weeks. I've been plugging away the second Grey Hunter Pack and am over half way through:

Same idea as the first Pack but this time I've used mainly ETB Intercessors and done waaaaay too much cutting with the hobby saw and knife.

Also started work on a Long Fangs Pack, becuase. I've taken a cue from what I was doing with my Iron Hands Devastators and used Gravis legs to give that classic braced-armour feel to the lower legs. Rest of the models will be the same as the Grey Hunters. These guys are going slower as I'm waiting on more Ork arms. Also my brain is frying from cutting up what has now come to 20 Goliath bodies, 15 Intercessors and 5 Aggressors; plus adjusting lots of Ork arms to fit with Marine bodies and hands. I tell you, gonna be really happy with the result of these units but also REALLY happy to see them done.

More to come soon (?)

Cheers

PHM

Edited June 26, 2020 by PowerHungryMonkey

[Torbenos]

This thread is a lovely and engaging read! I love to see people putting the care and effort into making Primaris embrace the more old school aesthetics of the various chapters. I commend you for it. Some unique ideas in here too, the daemon prince wulfen certainly puts a more terrible spin on the Wulfen which I do enjoy. The same with using the chaos space marine character for the bone parts, often those are the ones people remove because to be frank they look a bit silly. You clearly saw something beyond that, and I do think the circumstance here does save it. Funny how skulls and bones, to my mind, fit the space wolves better than the heretic marines.

[BadgersinHills]

Cool stuff! Maybe introduce some other helmets to make the force a little more varied? As it is, it does look excellent. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by BadgersinHills

[PowerHungryMonkey]

This thread is a lovely and engaging read! I love to see people putting the care and effort into making Primaris embrace the more old school aesthetics of the various chapters. I commend you for it. Some unique ideas in here too, the daemon prince wulfen certainly puts a more terrible spin on the Wulfen which I do enjoy. The same with using the chaos space marine character for the bone parts, often those are the ones people remove because to be frank they look a bit silly. You clearly saw something beyond that, and I do think the circumstance here does save it. Funny how skulls and bones, to my mind, fit the space wolves better than the heretic marines.

Thanks Torbenos. I'm really having fun with this army and I'm glad others like yourself are too. Its certainly a drastic change from the cold, mechanical Iron Hands. I think its stuff exactly like the Thunderwulfen and the Wolf Priest thats drawn me into this army so much. I've really liked the more feral and tribal feel of the Wolves ever sice reading Dan Abnett's Prospero Burns and things like his wolf pack in Imperium Secundus. These really painted the Wolves in a very different light for me and its taken me till now to try to put that on the table

Cool stuff! Maybe introduce some other helmets to make the force a little more varied? As it is, it does look excellent.

Thanks for your continued support Badger. I'm actually really focused on keeping all the Grey Hunters and Long Fangs (basically all the 'normal' marines) with the wolf skull helms. I've got fluffy reasons for this which I will enlighten you all with when I come to painting. At a basic level though, the marines will all be helmeted while everyhting else will not, part of my aesthetic choice to really seperate the two elemets of the army; marine and wulfen.

Just a little update today but one I'm really proud of. The second Grey Hunter unit has stalled as I've used what Goliath legs I had to keep making the Long Fangs. And man I'm glad I did. I'm super chffed with how these guys are turning out:

Obviously still WIP but I can really see the unit now. The flexible resin ammo feeds and cables from Zinge Industries have been amazing and the unit would have fallen flat at the start without them. There's still another each of the Heavy Bolters and Plasmacannons to do up to make the 6-man unit and of course the Pack Leader.

Will keep plugging away but am waiting on another care-package from a mate for the rest of my skull helms and some more SW shoulders.

Cheers

PHM

[Eberious]

Those ammo feeds are a God send, aren't they. :)

[hushrong]

The big guns are looking good so far and those flexible ammo feeds are top notch! Are they easy to work with?

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Those ammo feeds are a God send, aren't they.

Certainly are. There's no way I could have made the plastic feeds work with all the reposing I've done on these guys.

The big guns are looking good so far and those flexible ammo feeds are top notch! Are they easy to work with?

Thanks Hush. I've found them pretty easy to work with overall. There's a few things I've learnt since starting with them tho. They need a lot of surface area where theyre being glued to really stay in position. The rubber flexes a little and so the parts tend to pull away until the glue is really set. Also, again because they are rubber, when you cut them the wire inside tends to poke out the cut end a tad due to the rubber recoiling. This is a bit of a pain when it comes to gluing but I found if you dig into the rubber a little and cut the wire below the surface of your cut end its fine.

Ok. So another major absence from this army as I have been waiting for boxes of Wulfen to turn up. I think GW put all their efforts in to producing Indomitus in the lead up to release and made nothing else. Wulfen have been OOS for months here it seems. That said, I finally managed to back-order some from a stockist and after 4 weeks they have finally shown:

Due to the new points costs for units I've had to cull a few members from most of my units. This has meant my Wulfen units have gone down from 6-man to 5-man units making a total of 15 Wulfen rather than 18. Thus I now have a full box of Wulfen spare to chop up for more bitz. Yay! I'd been unable to finish off a few things due to needing the right shaped arms from the Wulfen kits and now I could finally do it. First up is the second Grey Hunter pack finished off:

Nothing very different from the first pack but now I have my two troops done and dusted. I was also able to finish off what is now my favourite unit in the army, the Long Fangs:

I love how this unit has turned out. The combination of the Gravis legs and beefy Ork arms really makes these guys look chunky next to my Grey Hunters. The weapons worked out better than I'd hoped too. I'd tried to do very similar to this on my Iron Hands but just couldnt make it work. I'm really glad it came together for these ones.

Another little thing I've been working on is a Rune Priest. This whole army started because of an idea I had to make a Rune Priest. Then I dropped it from the list because I liked my idea for a Wolf Priest better. Then I saw a conversion of a Rune Priest I really liked and decided to make one anyway. This Rune Priest tho is NOTHING like my original idea that spawned this whole army. Crazy. Anyway, got him to the Greenstuff stage and I'm really happy with him:

I'd disregarded the Master of Possession model as a base for anything when it forst came out because it just looked soooo Chaos but then I saw another person make a Rune Priest out of it and realised it'd be really cool. Once I finally got the actual model I realised just how perfect it really is for my army theme. This guy is dripping in furs, feathers, runes, trinkets and all that; just what I need from a feral, shamanic Gothi.

So that's all the updates for the Wolves for today. I've still got 10 Wulfen to build, those Thunderwulfen have made zero progress since my first pics of them (even tho I have 2 more Daemon Princes ready to go) and I've also decided to build a Great Company Ancient. Because. So there's a bit to go still. I'll be flitting back and forth between the Wolves and my Dark Mech commission I've just started up so updates may be infrequent. I've also bought a bunch of stuff to make up a Kill Team on a spur-of-the-moment idea so I have to find time to squeeze them in too.

Cheers

PHM

[Yosef Hausakluif]

Your dedication to converting all of these models, down to power cable and ammo belt replacements, is Inspiring!

 

I also looked at using the Master of Possession for a Libby conversion for my Mortifactors coming up; and am excited to see how well it works with some time and care given to make it more loyalist looking!

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Your dedication to converting all of these models, down to power cable and ammo belt replacements, is Inspiring!

I also looked at using the Master of Possession for a Libby conversion for my Mortifactors coming up; and am excited to see how well it works with some time and care given to make it more loyalist looking!

Thanks Yosef. I really didn't do much to make it less chaosy, i just shaved off the obvious spiky detailing on the legs. Other than gouging out the head (which I managed to save intact. I'll find a use for it in the future) the rest was simply using Wolf parts instead of the chaos parts. Obviously there was conversion work to the arms and staff but I intentionally left most of the model as it came. Like I said, it's already got fur, feathers, runes and geegaws hanging off it, all of which I wanted to keep. Even the numerous skulls and bone dagger are part of the original model as they too tie in to the feral, Wulfen feel I want for the whole army.

In fact, the look of the Rune Priest has inspired me to start a little side project thats going to be even more shamanic and fetishy than the Wolves. More on that later tho...

For now, I've spent a little time this week making up a Great Company Ancient. Again, no reason other than an idea germinated and I had to let the roots take hold. I aquired an Indomitus Lt and a FW Space Wolves Ven Dread. Along with the surplus of Wulfen bitz I now have I was abel to make this:

There's obviuosly a lot more to do on him (fill that huge hole in his chest for starters) but I really think he's got the right feel. So many Indomitus-turned-Wolf conversions I've seen the last month or so have left a lot of the gothic and bling aspects on the models and I just felt that wasn't right for the Wolves, especially my Wolves. I hope I've done enough to dial down or even remove that feel from the model and make him less an Ultrasmurf and more an Ancient befitting of the Rout.

Cheers

PHM

[noigrim]

Anotjer idea is turning the tabards into wolf pelts puttying them up

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Anotjer idea is turning the tabards into wolf pelts puttying them up

I've thought of that. I might still do a little down the front like on the Wolf Lord. Can never get the motivation up to do greenstuff tho for some reason. Soon tho hopefully.

So there's been more work on the Wolves recently. I've got a bit of excitment back in me about the army and a few more ideas have come together and solidifide. First up I've managed to get the other 2 packs of Wulfen built. Since I did very little conversion work to any of the Wulfen units they all came together pretty fast. Here's packs 2 and 3:

That gives me 15 Wulfen all up in the army. Rather brutal I feel.

I've also changed direction on my Thunderwolf Cav. Orignally I was going to be using the Daemon Prince models to make giant Wulfen to use as my Thunders but it just wasn't grabbing me for whatever reason. Maybe it was the seriously daunting task of doing so much greenstuff work. Don't know. Anyway, it wasn't going to happen. But, while I'm not using them as Thunders any more, I will be keeping the idea to do as Dreadnoughts instead. I feel that fits better. I've started work on a more armoured version of the guy shown here previously but he's not done enough to show off yet.

What I can show off tho is the new direction for the Thunder Cav. And that is by using Thunder Cav... yeah. Not very exciting but I have done a lot of work on the rider to bring him in line with the scale and look of the rest of my army. What do you think of the Pack Leader?

Still need to add a Storm Shield to him but I'm jst trying to figure out which one and where. Lots of umming an aaahhhing at the moment. I'm happy with the look tho and while I was scared the rider would look too big, I think its ok at this point. I may look at it down the line and think otherwise but that's a problem for Future PHM. 2 more of these guys to get built and 2 Dreads to do up too before I can be happy with calling this force "done" and shipping it off to the painter. I'm getting this army painted for me as payment for building a Dark Mech army (see my other current WIP plog)

Let me know what you think about the Thunder Cav and the scale of the rider. I'd really like to hear what other people think. More to come soon.

Cheers

PHM

[noigrim]

Techno-trolls?

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Techno-trolls?

Huh? You mean as Dreads? Nah, I'm making giant Wulfen out of Daemon Princes for those, there's one I started on the first page to give you an idea. Stupidly tho, I've now decided that sonce they're Dreads they should really be more armoured so I'll be using the marine torso for the DP instead with a lot of greenstuff to get rid of the semi-organic look

[Master Umbra]

Some of the best Wolves I have ever seen. The use of Goliath legs looks incredibly fitting, but I can only imagine the ammount of hacking, chopping, positioning and all around work that have been put on these guys. Also, that Abaddon conversion, holly hell. Lots of trim shaving in the legs I assume? Anyway, simply awesome. You make Wolves look interesting (might be due me being a filthy heretic and your use of CSM parts).

I am also struggling to tackle GS work for my Lord, so I feel you in that regard.

Keep it up!

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Hey, can someone let me know how to change the name and tags for my threads? I want to consolidate a bunch of projects into a single plog so I don't end up with 30 on the go as I flit from project to project.

 

Thanks. There will be actual updates soon