Dire Wolves Terminators (W.I.P.)

I love Terminators! They are big, they are mean and they simply look badass! So, no surprise that I want to add two Terminator squads, two Chaos Lords and one Chaos Sorcerer to my army. Again, like my Lesser Daemons, they might not be the most reasonable choice, pointwise. But they are a fun choice. And here is how I made them so far (they aren't finished yet - still work to do on the faces, beards, shields and other details):

I used parts from the Chaos Space Marines (CSM) Terminators, the Chaos Terminator Lord and Space Wolves (SW) Terminators to make my Dire Wolves Terminator squads. I only swapped the SW shields with the ones from the fantasy Chaos range (Chaos Knights and Chaos Warriors) and used different shoulder pads, that I ordered from the Polish bits and miniatures website MaxMini.eu.

The shoulderpads from MaxMini fit perfectly on any Games Workshop Terminator model

Maybe you remember the painting tutorial I did on my power armoured Dire Wolves. The Terminators, I painted differently. I am going to explain how:

1. Prime the miniatures with a black spray primer and let them dry
2. Lightly fog the miniatures with a white spray primer. In order to do that, go further away with your spray can as you would hold it for usual priming and spray the miniatures from a 45° angle (give or take). In the end it should look like light is falling on top of the miniatures. Hint: Do this outside! I mean it!
3. Wash the armour parts of the miniatures with Asurmen Blue
4. Wash the armour parts of the miniatures with Badab Black (especially if the blue turns out too saturated)
5. Drybrush the edges of the armour with Shadow Grey
6. Lightly drybrush the edges of the armour with Bleached Bone
7. Very Lightly drybrush the edges of the armour with Skull White

The result looks very similar to the result I got when I drybrushed the miniatures before washing. I found that spraying is much easier, faster and more suited to my workflow. Why painfully paint what you also can spray paint on a miniature? Okay, I understand how one could have a different opinion on this, but I definitely need to learn airbrushing real soon ;-)

Speaking of soon, I don't know what the next post is going to be about. First, I'm trying to make some more photos of my miniatures and then I let you know.

Dire Wolves: Hounds of Chaos

Yesterday, I introduced you to my DIY chapter: The Dire Wolves


Today, I'm going to tell you about and show you a traitor marine's best friend: the Hounds of Chaos. They are (quite) cheap, easy to make, even easier to paint and can be a really annoying unit for your opponent. I use them as lesser daemons of chaos.

Point-wise, lesser daemons are expensive because you could almost get another marine for one of those dogs. But the day I care point for point efficiency has yet to be invented. I love lesser daemons for the surprise element they bring to the game - almost every opponent in a friendly game forgets about them, which makes me smile even broader the turn they arrive.

They have another advantage: Put an icon of chaos in your troop and those hellhounds will not scatter. They can even charge on the turn of their arrival and thanks to having a 5++ save, they can be a nasty tarpit unit for big bugs, 'uge orks or the like. Sure, the standard marine might be the more reasonable choice, point for point, but they are also way less fun. So, my advice: never go to battle without lesser daemons. But don't forget to bring an icon!

Enough talk about how much fun they are in battle. They are even easier to build together and paint. Hint: Superglue a washer under the bases of the hounds - otherwise they will likely fall over. Done that? Superb! Here comes the painting tutorial:

Painting the fur

1. Drybrush the whole model with Bleached Bone
2. Wash the fur parts with Badab Black or Devlan Mud (for a black or brown fur); HINT: Add a blueish wash if you want black fur

Painting the Wounds and Mouths

1. Wash the (drybrushed) areas with Baal Red repeatedly until red enough ;-)

Painting the eyes

1. Lightly drybrush or paint the area around the eye with the base colour the eye is going to get (e.g. orange, light blue etc.)
2. Paint the eye in the base colour
3. Paint a smaller area of the eye in the base colour mixed with Skull White (1:1)
4. Paint a dot in the eyes with pure Skull White

Yes, it is that easy! I like quick and easy. The drybrush with Bleached Bone and the washes that follow do look quite natural on those models (if natural is what one is going for with daemonic hellhounds). Hope you liked it. The next articles will focus on marines again. See ya!

PS: The "dust" on the models is some leftover from a former snow effect.

The 'Dire Wolves' Traitor Chapter

As promised in my last article, I want to introduce my own traitor chapter to you: The Dire Wolves

I have to admit that my Dire Wolves haven't got any background story whatsoever. And even if they had, I'd struggle to properly tell their story in English. They are supposed to be a traitor chapter that is loosely connected to the Space Wolves and - by getting lost in the warp 13th Company style - somehow wound up being tainted by Chaos, especially by the Bloodgod Khorne.

I wanted to have a Chaos Space Marine army with the norse atmosphere that Warriors of Chaos (WoK) have in Warhammer Fantasy. So, it is no surprise I used a lot of WoK bits. And since I wanted to create some useful tutorials, I am going to explain where the single bits come from:

• Helmets: Khorne Chaos Lord on Juggernaut, Warriors of Chaos, Chaos Knights
• Shields: Khorne Chaos Lord on Juggernaut, Warriors of Chaos, Chaos Knights
• Close Combat Weapons: Chaos Knights
• Extra Shoulder Pads: Chaos Knights
• Legs, Torso, Arms, Firearms etc.: Chaos Space Marines

The helmets fit as if they were made for Astartes warriors. Other parts (e.g. the arms with the close combat weapons of the WoK) need to be cut a bit in order to fit the marine models. But there are no expert modeling skills required at all.

Painting the models was not too difficult. I won't explain all the details, but at least how I did the armour and the metal parts:

Painting the Armour

This is one of two painting methods I developed for my Dire Wolves chapter. I am going to explain the second one, when I write about my Terminator squads. The results are very similar, but this one might be easier:

1. Black Primer
2. Drybrush with Bleached Bone
3. Light drybrush with Bleached Bone and Skull White (1:1)
4. Very light drybrush with Skull White
5. Washing the whole model with Asurmen Blue
6. Washing the whole model with Badab Black

Painting the Brass Trim

I have my own way of painting metal (e.g. I alwals wash gold with green and purple to make it look more realistic) - maybe that's one of the reasons for why I am such a slow painter. I have to mention that the metal effect, in my opinion, looks much better in reality. I'd advise you to try it out on some spare bits you have lying around and decide for yourself:

1. Black Primer
2. Undercoat with Scorched Brown
3. Paint with Shining Gold
4. Wash with Devlan Mud
5. Wash with Leviathan Purple (makes the finish come out much more matte)
6. Wash with thinned down (means: lots of water, not much paint) Hawk Turquoise
7. Drybrush with Mithril Silver

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the first real article in this blog. Expect more Chaos... ;-)

PS: Right now my photo setup is in its experimental phase. Basically it is a box with a sheet of paper and a daylight lamp ;-) I am going to keep making photos with my iPhone, because I am quite content with the results and the workflow is a breeze (I got a DSLR bur no macro lense, so I won't use my Nikon). I will try to get better lighting and focus in future though :-)

Hello everybody!

Another wargaming blog hits this universe. I am a 25 year old communication science student from Germany and currently married to my master thesis. In order to stay sane and to show off my miniatures outside my local gaming club, I decided to write about this hobby of mine.

So, what's to be expected in this blog? I am going to post pictures of my armies and the thoughts behind them. From time to time I want to write tutorials about modeling and painting aspects of the hobby.

I got lots of material that I want to post. But it is going to take a while, because first I want to take decent photos of my miniatures (building a photo box at the moment) and then I need to transform my thoughts into more or less proper English. Yes, English, which is not my mother tongue. I am doing this in order to practise my foreign language skills and to make my tutorials and stories accessible to a broader audience.

The next articles will be about my own traitor marine chapter. Stay tuned for more!

By the way: This blog is called "Bawaaaghria" because I am from Bavaria. Not because I play orcs. I like them nonetheless, hence the name :-)