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...