Imperial Guardsman

You can check out my latest work over at itsacoyoteworkshop.blogspot.com!

New Site and WIP

You can read the latest blog post at my new site!

New Blog Site!

I've finally gotten the new website near completion, just need a few tweaks here and there along with filling up some empty pages!  Work has been keeping me real busy recently which hasn't given me much time to work on my minis but all upcoming new posts will now be over at the new blog.  I do have a few WIP I'll be showing soon on my wolfy dreadnoughts as well as a pack of Fenrisian Wolves I'm working on!

You can check out the website over at itsacoyoteworkshop.blogspot.com

Changes Coming Soon

As the title indicates, I plan on doing some changes to my blog and probably the name as well.  The original name and design were really more of a temporary experiment that I never really got to fixing it up.  I was never really set on 40kDiary as a blog name either, especially since I'll be blogging about other games and figures.  I'm currently in the works on a new blog design and figuring out a new name, which all should hopefully be done very soon!

Aside from that, I've been working on some work for my first client.  I've so far completed a wolf head and am working on two ravens for Space Wolves Chooser of the Slain ability.  I'm finding feathers on wings to be much harder than fur!

I had to try twice before I got wings at a good size to the body of the raven they're going to fit to.  I used some milliput to create a general wing shape to hold the green stuff as well as a way to gauge how large I need to keep the wings at while messing with the green stuff.

The wolf head pictured doesn't have his ears, but I got his general head completed here.  I took additional pictures along the way so I will try and put together a tutorial for how I made the head!  Unfortunately I still managed to forget to take a picture of the milliput skull...

WIP - Playing with Green-Stuff

Recently I've not had much time to work on painting, but I've managed to get some time in doing some more sculpting with green-stuff and milliput.  It's been interesting trying to learn how to some little bits of sculptingwith both, as each have their pros and their cons.  I'm starting to find that the yellow-grey milliput is too soft for the kind of detail sculpting you can see in green stuff, the milliput likes to break apart easily and stick to my fingers. I do find it useful for filling in gaps and setting up basic shapes that I can then use green stuff on.  Saves me from using the green stuff for those basic tasks.

For example, I'm working on some wolf heads to set up on my dreadnoughts and instead of using a bunch of green stuff to blob together into the shape of a wolf head, I started off with some milliput to create a basic shape of a wolf's skull.  From there I was able to flesh out a basic structure with the rest of the milliput and then start with the green stuff to get the final structure and details on the wolf head.  Unfortunately, I apparently forgot to take pictures of the initial skull, but here is what I've gotten so far with the two wolf heads.

This was the first head I started and I made my first mistake here by attempting to sculpt the whole head at once.  I had nowhere to hold other than directly on the head so I was constantly pushing and smudging green stuff with my fingers by accident.  It prevented me from really attempting to get some of the greater details I wanted, so the first one ended up, in my opinion, looking like a messed up dog.  Note to self: if you want good results, take your time.

The second one came out better as I took more time on working with the shapes.  I also took it by two parts where I worked on the muzzle first then finished the head after that part dried.  It came out with better results.

I used the rest of the green stuff I was working on and created a couple of pelts for the arms of the dreadnoughts.  I've also been experimenting with various methods of creating fur, I'm not sure which one I like better yet, I may have to see after they're all painted up.

Some Updates

Having a blog is pretty useful, it's a great way for me to see how long I've been procrastinating on some of my projects!  I haven't had as much time to work on my miniatures, mainly the Rat Lord, but I'm getting back into it now.  The Rat Lord is primed and ready to paint, I just need to figure out the colors.

Back with the Space Wolves, I've got about twenty Grey Hunters, five Fenrisian Wolves and three Thunderwolf Cavalry to start on, and two dreadnoughts.  I got an Assault on Black Reach box from eBay which somehow ended up with a couple swapped out sprues so I ended up with two dreadnoughts instead of the standard one.  What I've decided to do with them is create the dreadnoughts as Geri and Freki, Leman Russ' two pet thunderwolves.

I've started work on cleaning them up and removing some decorative bits as well as starting on space wolf-ing them up.  I want to give them a very wolf-like look to them, and I've started with the feet and making them look like paws.  This was my first time trying out some green stuff and milliput.  I used the yellow-grey milliput to create the claws and the greenstuff for the fur.  

The fur making part was definitely a challenge, but I started to get the hang of it after a few paws.  One thing I learned is it's helpful to keep the tool moist with water as well as the surface of the greenstuff to keep them from sticking.  

 

Space Wolves Completed

It took me a while, but my latest Space Wolves are complete!  Overall, they're not bad as I attempted a variety of techniques on them.  I guess you could say they were my guinea pigs for painting!  I also spruced up the bases for these a bit, using some cork for stones and the powdery stuff (Army Painter?) for snow.  Up close, they don't look so great as snow, if anyone has any suggestions for the snow I'm open to anything.
Pictures below...

Space Wolves Update and New Stuff!

I've gotten tired of waiting on the shoulderpads and decided to salvage what got messed up by the Army Painter primer.  Luckily I was able to get quite a few and only have three marines left over in need of some pauldrons.  This is where I attempted some freehand for the designs and it managed to turn out fairly well, as you can see below:

Winsor & Newton brushes are really the best and it helped a lot to use one doing something that required this much precision.  I was lucky to grab a few when Groupon had a $25 for $50 deal at Sam Flax :D
For the wolf head on the left shoulder pad, I attempted at first with the decals, but got annoyed with them pretty quickly.  So I decided to freehand those as well.

I've decided to try my hand at participating in a contest over at the WAMP forum, sponsored by Avatars of War.  I want to try my hand at some sculpting and building an elaborate base, we'll see how that goes, I plan to post updates of my progress on it!  Check out the contest here.  And on a plus for having a package actually get delivered to my place, I got the figure I plan on using for the contest, the Vermin Clan Lord!

Busy Week, But Not With Miniatures

So there's not much in the way of anything new here, but I'm attempting to at least keep this blog updated at least once a week.  I'd have gotten some more work done with my Space Wolves, but somehow I found out that when I purchased some shoulder pad bits on eBay using my PayPal account, my old address was used for shipping.  It's been over ten days, and while I did set up mail forwarding, I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever see them.  I don't know who to be more annoyed at right now, Paypal or USPS.

Yep, I'm a messy person.

In the meantime, I've been

Completed: Plague Doctor - Reapermini

While I'm waiting for my Tamiya primer and shoulderpads to come in, I've been working on a friend's minis for D&D.  Here's pictures of the first one I've finished, the Plague Doctor.  I attempted to improve on glowing effects and shading (through layering technique) without the use of any washes.  

Lesson Learned: Proper Priming

Over the weekend I got Army Painter white primer and finally got to use it on shoulder pads for my Space Wolves, which turned out with some interesting results.  I've used Testors grey primer and have used it several times so I know how to properly prime, or so I thought.  I'd looked up information about Army Painter and found some horror stories about melting plastic and I assumed if I primed correctly with a bit of caution, I'd be fine.

More Pictures

So I've been practicing taking more photos of my first Space Wolves, I think they turned out well.  Definitely much better than my first set of photos.  Have a look:

My current work is nearing completion, just got a few more touch ups to do and they will be finished!  Hopefully I'll have pics of them within the next few days...

Space Wolves WIP

I got a small lightbox to use to make pretty pictures, so here's a test picture of my current Space Wolves WIP. They're coming along well, what with the few time I get after work during the weekdays.  I'll probably be stopping at the local game store and stocking up on some Reaper paints they just got in stock.

My Workstation

So it's not the best of workstations, especially by the cats and their tower, but I get some nice sunlight in the area.  I'm still getting things set up so I'm comfortable with the setup.  Ikea is great for finding some interesting lamps.  I've got one more lamp from Ikea that I need to set up but that requires more work.  I also need to set up my airbrush equipment at some point.

I've also been able to get some time in to work on my Space Wolves and they're coming along nicely.  I've also come to the realization that I should really get some real paint like Vallejo, Citadel or Reaper.  Folk Art paint is good, but I've tried my friend's Citadel paints and I can definitely feel and see a difference between the two.  Does anyone have any thoughts or preferences on the different paint brands?  I'm thinking I'm going towards Vallejo which will be great since the local store will soon be stocking them.

Settling In and Slot Boxes

I don't know how it is with other people, but it takes a "while" to get settled in and unpacked in an apartment for my fiance and I.  So while it's been about two weeks since we've moved into the new apartment, I've still got boxes, a bookshelf and a dinner table to unpack and set up.  On the plus side, I finally have a spot set up for my little workshop which I'll post pictures of later.  I'll finally be able to finish my current batch of Space Wolves and hopefully get started on the other miniatures waiting to be assembled and painted.

New Year, New Apartment and Some New Models

It's 2012 and I'm now in a new apartment.  Boxes are everywhere and it's a mess, but I've got my main essentials, the Internet!  I'm looking forward to expanding and customizing my workspace as my previous one was simply the dining table.  Once I'm all set up, I'll finally be able to finish up my Space Wolves.

The other day I finally got a package I ordered, some miniatures from Reaper that I'm painting for a friend for his D&D sessions.  The dragon on the left is mine though :D  These are my first metal minis, so it will be interesting working with these.

Moving

So I'm currently in the process of moving to a new apartment which means the apartment is a mess and all of my paint stuffs are boxed up right now.  Which also means I won't get to do any painting this week and likely most of next week as well.  In the meantime, I'm working on changing the design of the blog and playing a little bit of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. Pretty fun and enjoying the storyline right now, haven't played a shooter game in a while.  My stats on Steam. I hadn't realized I've killed so many orks.

My First 40K Army

It wasn't until recently that I've found Warhammer and the world of miniatures, which has sparked my interest to get back into painting.  I've never played the games, nor have an inkling of the stories and mechanics of the gameplay, but I guess I'll eventually get to it at some point.  Until then, I've started collecting some Space Wolves and Skaven to paint, here are some pictures of my first ever Warhammer 40k painted Space Wolves.