Vlka Fenryka - The Sixth Legion at six models

Put this on:

VLKA FENRYKA composed by Martin Boris, aka Dreambient


Then look at the pictures.

5th and 6th model 99% finished. I am still working on the gun nozzles and testing a metallic knot work pattern for the gun casings.

I eventually owe you more pictures, there are lot of tasty details to discover, like bionic, wolf claw leg , or the banner poles detail. 

This time I started painting these listening to the "soundscape" from Dreambient that had been inspired by models. It in turn really established the mood for the faces in particular. Which also deserve more pictures sooner than later.

Right now the priority is to keep pushing the project along. With the holiday shutdown ahead of me, I should have one of the most productive weeks in the hobby calendar ahead of me. 

Vlka Fenryka - almost there with two more, and plans.

Thought I must say something. I'm 99% there with the two new Sky Warriors. A tricky banner proving more time consuming than thought. The balance of having enough resolution, but to really show wear and tear and gore and sweat has taken a lot of fine tuning.

These will bring it to grand total of 6 models, a 5 man wolf guard unit and a wolf lord with a thunder wolf.

I got my box of assembled Drop pods and Storm Wolves from Frontline gaming too, but have been too anxious to open it, after the preview shots showed a few gaps between parts. Regarding my hopes of attending the Las Vegas Open, one of their events, this will be a make or brake thing. To have a playable army in February is already crazy ambitious, but if I have the mother of all gap filling work outs ahead of me, it's game over.

Pictures hopefully coming soon and hoping Curze is here soon to kick start the next full squad of five.

migs

Vlka Fenryka - Curze

Just ordered this to turn into my Void Claw pack Leader.

Thank you Forge World. We will have so much fun together these coming years!

Vlka Fenryka - Recharged and the Emperor's Gift

Apologies for missing one monday update. It was time for a holiday, some sun, swimming and sleep. The batteries are fully charged now and there is a lot to discuss.

Firstly, I read the Emperor's Gift by Debmski-Bowden. Thanks for the recommendation Kampfrogt. It's a sort of must read for anyone serious about the subject matter of Grey Knights, Inquisition and the Wolves. I would assume most of the readers of this blog. Not his best book, but immensely bold, entertaining and ambitious. It renders the differences in the three organizations in a very Gothic fashion.

I would love to talk about the book after more of you have read it.

Secondly I've made progress and have two new Sky Warriors built and in primary colors together with the bone surgeons. I've attached a quick picture of them after Airbrush work. The whole affair still feels like a glorious form of cheating - so fast and such amazing effect that after all the bush work is completely hidden, yet lends an aura of light and shadow and speed I absolutely adore.

With one of the two Wolf Guard, I did the first genuine mistake in the project, and didn't realize he is based on the smallest (of the massive) Vorbak models, and unlike of of his friends thus far, is the only model on a completely flat base, which calls the difference out more than anything else. I will have to  live with this minor thing and hope it blends in the army as he is still a giant compared to the humans to come and regular Citadel Marines.

On the conversion front, things are taking a turn for crazy. I didn't exactly think I'd be going this bonkers with the new models. Getting serious on a few Iron Priests and their Thralls, and will be hard to finish painting models first. I've got a cool idea for Long Fangs, a very characterful Ship Captain with silly gothic retinue to fly the Company Strike Cruiser and am overloading the bit box with different model concepts. Are Adeptus Astartes ships flown by Imperial Navy captains like the Grey Knight ships?) If not, that Captain will turn for rogue trading and the Solar Auxilia will be his very fitting personal militia.

Finally I am really getting into Christmas mood, listening to Bing Crosby as I write this, and waiting for Santa's Forge World delivery. The Christmas holiday will hopefully provide a few extra hours of model making.

Vlka Fenryka - The Fournival

This is where it gets controversial. Where I will be publishing fragments of whole. I decided to do it anyway, because I will be painting one or two models at a time and I think people will enjoy seeing steady updates. It won't be until Christmas when I would have had the first full squad of models to share and be able to share the full vision as intended.

Finished now are Iron Priest in Terminator Armor, carrying a massive rotator cannon, and the first Wulfen, with a thunder hammer and storm shield. They are first two of in total 10 wolf guard terminator rules using models that form the bulk of the army and study and push the boundaries between a Sky Warrior and the Canis Helix gone rogue and millennia in the Eye of Terror.

Vlka Fenryka and the Las Vegas Open?

How does completely crazy turn to clinical insanity?

I just bought a ticket to the Las Vegas Open. I have always wanted to go. Now I hear subconscious  whispers about the impossible. Would it be possible to have a playable Army by February 2015? Maybe by bringing the Knight I already have? Maybe. ?

Not sure what exactly triggered this impulse, maybe the Solar Auxilia models I got in the mail yesterday. They are really really excellent. Forge World has really done an amazing job creating a fantastic Void Combat suited guard in 20 unique poses - and this is just the opening salvo. I am looking forward to building an Allied Guard continent of these guys.

Or the fact I finished the 3rd and 4th Space Wolf model. What ridiculous parody it is to feel such a sense of achievement after finishing all of four infantry models. (and a wolf)

Next step is to convince my crazy friends Spikey Rat Pack's Kari and Mikko to fly to Vegas with me.

Who else is in?

Vlka Fenryka - Visions of War through a mist of paint, and sting of super glue.

I'm tired.

But energized.

Clearing out glass domes for new.

With every single army or squad project I've ever done, I've taken a new step - usually for the better. Some of the biggest failures have led to the biggest successes. Like the utterly plain and lifeless first take on Inquisitor Silas, and the explosion of bravery that turned him into such a visceral piece that immediately spun a retinue of grim darkness. I have purposefully tried to learn or achieve something with each project. Tried to combat mannerism, the plague of even the greatest of artists. I see an incredible amount of extremely talented painters who've completely stagnated to repeating what works for them (and at times very well I should add). I am too curious to stop experimenting and searching. With the Rout it is the same, yet different. I worked on Legion for so long, and learned so much, while staying at a fairly constant level in terms of quality that this reset has been fantastic.

Going from a water painterly work on white undercoat, to zenith oomph, understated realism, with very intense and deep metallics and plenty of flat bone and deep red in the mix. It's a fundamental new style, yet recognizably mine I think. The first 4 models I've been painting have each though me something important.

The fact that this time it's going to be a very curated collection, a very clear vision and not a collection of sub themes that span years, makes it quite interesting. I want to put the entire lot together in a year. I feel almost like a movie director might, or so I'd imagine ;). The kind who writes his own stuff and shoots it too. Different pieces are coming together. Ideas need to be evaluated on a whole new level. Not just that a good idea is great, it needs to be the RIGHT idea. Something that enhances everything else in the army. One key challenge is to do this without the backdrop. With every unit a centerpiece in its own way.

I'm guessing that a beautiful collection of calm Solar Auxilia could be the follow on to create the calm.

I'm enjoying building, painting, narrating the storyline and working out the army mechanics. All at the same time. I'm hand picking key drivers from Abnett's Prospero Burns, and each and every edition of the Space Wolves codex. There are some real gems in there. The way the current one describes the things that hunt the vast labyrinth of the Fang, or how the previous talks about the 13th.

It's becoming clear my Company is returning from the Eye of Terror changed. And with a direct link to the lost. The Taboo of all taboos for the Sky Warriors. Yet also what they have been searching for. The premise for the next great hunt, and a study of good and evil, of those deepest grey areas of loyalty. It's clear there is something in the subject matter that deeply attracts me. Like Alpha Legion, like the Inquisition, all so horribly grey to do good. I love the added twist of Space Wolves' hatred against the Inquisition, and even the Ministorum. The Vlka Fenryka history is ridden with bloodshed against the tyranny and dogma of said institutions... one of the very very few forces in the universe who can go unpunished.

The fact that these feral, savage beasts, are the most noble, honorable and humane defenders of the imperium of man. That the All Father's executioners are it's most keen defenders of the weak is a fantastic storyline.

Hold that thought.

migs

PS. I have progress on the Wolf Priests bone crafters. A special order to tend the Wulfen perhaps. There is still a lot of detail to add. I have purposefully added detail that will force me to paint something I haven't tried before. Like glass orbs filled with blood and healing balms.