Inspiration!

I get my inspiration for my armies from several different areas of the 40K universe. Sometimes it is from blogs... it could come from some cool pictures... a thread at a website... and even something as simple as a conversation with Rik.

My very first inspiration for MY chapter came a couple years ago by reading a simple line in the SM codex...

If you don't want to paint your army as one of these famous Chapters, but rather want to create your own heroes of the Imperium, the examples given in this book should pose a great source of inspiration.


At this time I was not a "regular" at my local gaming store. I mean, I guess I looked really mean (so they say) so no one would talk to me. As I look back on that, and I look at my current demeanor, I would have to agree with them. (haha) Now painting is not very easy. To become good at it, or even paint to a table top quality, is something that takes a good amount of time. I am also like everyone else out there, we see what we do as better than it really is. This leads us to biting off more than we can chew. My only source of painting advice came from a friend of mine, Jimmy. He worked at the store and was the reason other people started talking to me. (haha He prolly told them I wasnt going to murder them even though I looked like I would.) Jimmy, god bless him, would never say my painting was bad. That is a double edged sword. He would say it looks nice and I would be all happy like a 12yr old, skip back to my bar stool and glow with happiness. I would paint the same and my painting never got any better. I realized this one day when he turned to a kid who looked to have dipped his model in a paint pot and Jimmy gave him the same praise. I was like "Dude, that is the same shit you say to me." and he shrugged and smiled.

When I came to Jimmy telling him I was going to paint white, he was honest and said "White is really hard to paint, homey." to which my response was "Fuck you, I am a painting god who has painted for two months!" I really wasnt a painting god, I had just been hyped up like I was. :) Well I went home, built myself up some assault termies and painted them up to take to the store a couple days later. I set them out and asked what Jimmy thought and his response was awesome... "What do you think of them?" I looked at them again and they looked like shit. Complete and utter shit. Like I had dipped them in a white paint pot. :) They were then stripped and turned into Raven Guard. :)

I have never gone back to painting white. I did paint some white helmets on my Raven Guard vets... and all the chests... but never a complete model. It is something that would still be a great challenge to this day.

That is the story of my first thoughts into the inspiration of MY own chapter. My current inspiration comes from something we all should take time to do... Read books. :)

The Sweet Home Brew...

So lately I have been itching to write some stories and things like that... and like most other things that I do, I ended up circling back to 40K and more specifically Space Marines. What started this was the Necron release. I read their new book and found it to be quite cool. I really liked the idea of their new fluff. I liked that they could have personality. That inspired me to make many lists and start some background for a Necron army... but the thing is... if I am going to be anything in the 40K universe, its going to be a Space Marine.

This brought me back to what I am currently doing in the hobby, which is nothing. I looked at the ass ton of Space Wolves I have and determined that I didnt want to play the army. Nothing wrong with them, and I love their fluff, but there are many other Space Wolves armies out there. I then fell back into my first love, the Raven Guard. I really love the fluff of the Raven Guard, but that army is kind of retired. After all of that, I remembered a chapter I wanted do from way back when I first got into the hobby.

When I first thought of this chapter, I saw it as all white with secondary colors. I began to paint up my terminators and quickly came to the conclusion that white was a color I was not ready to paint. :) Then the Raven Guard army was made and that was that... Just recently I began toying with the idea again. Making my own chapter to use and thought up another color scheme. It just didnt do it and then, I picked up an old White Dwarf and spotted my chapter colors.

And there they were...

BRAN REDMAW!

As some of you may know, my company of Space Wolves is the First Great Company led by the great Bran Redmaw. AND as some of you may know, Forgeworld is making the Bran Redmaw model... and boy it looks sweet. This brought about a discussion with my pal Rik.

My stout compadre knows I have a serious jonesing for Furious Charge. I mean, I like it... I like it a lot. :) Rik believes that Redmaw will not have FC. He's about 100% sure for no other reason than he hates me. I, on the other hand, believe he will... for no other reason that I love it. :)

What do you guys think he will do? I think Wulfen will be cheaper or free or something like that. Perhaps some other ability. One thing is for sure, he is still way cooler than Morkai... and even though Kip paints like 8000 times better than me, my great company kicks his ass. :)

Aches and Pains...

It has been a while since I updated anything and there is good reason... Three weeks ago I had knee surgery and with that comes me being ultra lazy. :) Days before I had went back and removed all the basing from the marines I had done before and got them all ready for repainting... They are all still on the table... 70 something marines. lol... Actually, as I look over at the table now, they are all missing. My wife musta got sick of looking at them for weeks.

But after three physical therapy sessions I am feeling a bit better. On the 22nd I get to start walking and when I get to walk, I will get to start hobbying again. I really want to get this army done because I cannot start another until it is... and Grey Knights are looking interesting again. :)

Everyone take care. Hope you are all having fun. :)

So the new color scheme has been chosen...

It will be fenris grey (I use sombre grey), wash it black then dry brush sombre, then 50x50 sombre/Space Wolves and then a real light dry brush of Space Wolves.

That is some fast marines. :) Gunna remove the basing from the ones that were done and then make Rik put the base paint on all my marines. ;)

Will get some pics up of some done marines here soon.

Taking steps to get this damn army done!

So I sit back and look at my hobby table all the time... and just think... I dont want to paint another 70 effin marines. Hell man, I'm having a hard time painting one. lol... But that is how many marines I have waiting to be painted... Over 70... and thats not counting my Land Raider, 2 Preds and 4 Rhinos. I see that and it makes me puke a lil in my mouth.

The newness of the army and playing it is gone. I dont know if you know what I mean, but I can only compare it to a video game. So you buy a new video game and you play the hell outta it... not even beating it, just play the shit outta it for like a week. Like NCAA 12... played the hell outta Michigan and building a crap school into something good... and I havent touched it in forever. That is what happens to me and armies. I get all excited, drop hundreds of dollars... build it all... play some awesome games with it... and then get bored.

So to take steps to finishing my army, I think I am going to repaint even the 20+ I have done and come up with a much faster and easier paint scheme. Something with a base coat that I dont have to mix three different paints for with a heavy wash and a dry brushing. I dont normally dry brush things and perhaps that will help me become a better dry brusher.

Anyone have any ideas on a quick paint scheme? I like the idea of a more blueish color, but I'm also leaning towards a dirty grey... maybe a lighter grey with a black wash? Anything that will look decent, really. haha

Take care!

Sky Claws are done!

So I changed up what my army would look like at the end. I finished making 10 Sky Claws... cause I really dig Jump Packs and the aspect of suicidal troops is good for stories. :P So that means there were less Blood Claws. I made the Blood Claws a pack of 15... cause I just dont use them at all. I mean why would I? Grey Hunters are so much better for the same price.

So my final Space Wolves army will be...

Bran Redmaw
2x Wolf Priest
1x Rune Priest
10x Wolf Guard in Termie Armor
7x Wolf Guard
1x Dreadnought
15x Wolf Scouts
4x 10man Grey Hunters
1x 15man Blood Claws
1x 10man Sky Claw
4x Rhinos/Razorbacks
7x Devestators (2 Lascannons, 3 Plasma Cannons and a Missle Launcher)
2x Lascannon Predators
1x Land Raider Crusader

Now I have to prime them and get them base coated... theeeeeen I might get them all done up. lol I'm struggling to paint! I'm trying to change the way I live... getting up earlier and planning to start working out.. things like that. Now I just have to get back into painting and getting this army done. :)

Now that I look at it, thats a pretty decent army. What, around 2500 points or more? Pretty good stuff.

Have fun.