Unit Profiles: Lord Hakon Thrydwulf

So I'm punching allot of posts out this week. The reason is I'm trying to get down allot of thoughts from the last 8 months.

Today Im going to go through the list Unit by unit and talk about some of the elements of each model and some of the approaches I took.

Ill start with some thoughts on the list entry and the options chosen and then the models and any Hobby elements I used.

Ill also use this as a format to introduce New units as well and Promise to take WIP shots as well and keep notes from now on!

I currently have about 2000 points painted and constructed and plan to take the list to 4000 points for Apoc Games.

Without any more delay then lets get started!



 Lord Hakon Thrydwulf

I spent allot of time working on different models for the wolf lord, with different weapon options. I have on occasion used some of the special characters, and while they are fun I decided to go with a standard Lord rather than use a special character.

I have had feedback that doing that hurts the competitive part of the army, but I'm inclined to disagree.

In the end I settled on a Terminator Lord with storm shield and Wolf Claw.  The weapon in question could also be used as frost weapon and I may try that combo as well in a few up and coming game.

He has the saga of Beast-slayer and a wolf tooth necklace so always hitting on 3+ in combat.

I used the lysander model as a base and custom build the wolf claw using the Sanguine Guard power fist as base. I wanted a Lightening claw similar to what you get in the Chaos lord kit but a little less bulky look.  I combined it with claws from the wolf guard power fists (yes I will butcher models to get the look I want!).  What I really liked is the sleek but still aggressive look of the lightening claw (well i think so anyway!)

The banner was the next thing I have spent allot of time on, and 1st up I'm not good at freehand.  If anyone out there could show me but for the most part I done have very poorly when I have tried.


 So I worked on using decals to achieve what I wanted instead.  I then finally got to use allot of the decal sheets I have collected as well as source some interesting ones from the web to use.

Using Vallejo Decal Medium has changed the way I look at banner painting for the free hand challenged at hand.  Applying the decal like normal, I then dab the water off with a small cloth being careful not the damage the decal and or move it.

I then load a largish brush say a 0 with the decal medium and apply it across the decal and area around the decal.

And then let it dry.  Its simple and effective and you do not get the glint off the decal paper.

Follow that up with a Humbrol Matt varnish and the banner "looks " freehand but is in-fact a decal.  True this may limit some creativity but with blank decal paper and photoshop and a printer the options are endless!

Expanding on this I then used the same approach on the back of the cloak with the cross and was really happy with the outcome.

Again the same approach and it really makes allot of the free hand challenges I was facing in earlier test miniatures a breeze.  This has really opened up some serious options for more intricate work, using graphics programs and decals to get the desired effect I'm after.

Lastly the storm shield is from forge-world, I cant get enough of their stuff and I have a Venerable Dread waiting to be painted.  Ill look at the snow effects and the weathering techniques I use when I look at the Rune Priest.

Anyway till next time.

Next post should have a battle report (Wednesday Game nights!)  then ill look at the Rune Priest.

Cheers

JP

Background Story and Campaign setting

Alongside my own personal project my mate Harley also built a chaos space marine army that has seen it become a constant adversary to the Templars.

Recently I've decided to look to build some narrative around the forces and allow me to build a back story for the Ulfhen.

So without much more blabbering here is the starting point for the story of the Úlfhéðnar

Arctic  Templar’s

When the Imperial Fists made land fall on Halldorr the society they found had regressed to archaic an society of feudal government with a distinctive warrior cult that thrived on challenges and was built on a strong tradition of oral history of saga’s.

The world was settled as a recruiting world, the existing society remaining untouched while recruiting officers would locate and recruit the best of the warrior class.

The Halldorr warrior’s though had a genetic tendency unseen by the Fists known as the Úlfhéðnar. 

Select warriors showed an ability to build themselves into a trance like state, this state seeing these warriors able to move faster, hit harder and seem to do so in a quite state. More commonly known as blade masters, they would train and meditate in enclaves away from main society.  

Some would look on them as close to berserk as they would sometimes be observed as laughing as they carved a bloody swath through the ranks of enemy warriors.

The genetic modification that all Astartes go through would see this genetic variance in warriors from Halldorr rise in the ranks of the legion as warriors of repute with almost a psychic sense  in combat and able to even in the ranks of the space marines achieve martial feats unmatched.

After the Heresy and with the agreement to split the legions, the small group of Halldorians left almost 150 of them returned to their home world.   Led by Alger HRÓÐGEIRR the marines set about forming a new chapter with strong links to their home-worlds traditions and culture and thus the Arctic Templar’s where formed.

The companies where formed into great hosts each set with tasks of crusades across the sector to weed out traitors and subdue the worlds affected.

And thus the chapter was born with years of war and great saga’s ahead of them.

The current hosts that are recorded as active are the Wolf Host, Falcon Host and Raven Host with the other 7 hosts stationed on Halldorr.    

Recent surveys by the administrative services of the Imperium have recorded that Wolf Host number approx 120 marines and show a distinct lack of adherence to the codex Astrates.

The  Astral Wolves:

The Arctic Templar’s have seen an increase in the raiding of this sect of traitors in their sector, with some sensing that the current leader of these raiders is an ex Templar who is seeking revenge against   his old chapter.

Lord HÁKON  Thrydwulf and the Wolf Host have currently been dispatched to the Ice World of  VOLUNDR a remote ice world where Astral wolves have set up a base of operations for their raids in the wider sector.

The host grows!

So I am finally getting a little better at taking photos of the lads.

So here we have Guard Squad 1 Squads 2, 3, 4  as well as Long Fang Squad 8 as well as my Rune Priest as Wolf Lord.

Cheers

The Gods of dice and why they hate me !

So today I had three very tough games against my best Friend Harley and his chaos space marines. Suffice to say he is a hard person to play against but when the gods of dice desert you he become even worse!

The first two games where a complete white wash with reserves not showing up, units failing all sorts of tests, and antitank weapons completely missing all the time.  It was like my lads woke up and started falling over deceptively flat surfaces while paying attention to rocks rather than the large lumbering red guys on the other side of the field.

Anyway the third game had some redeeming factors but trying to enjoy some success when your spooked by the  man who does not know how to role under 3 for power armor saves kept me on edge till we counted the kill points.

9-8 in my favor in the last game with some crazy moments like wolf guard discovering they can hit the side of the barn, and my Wolf lord nearly impaling himself on a dying Kharn the Betrayer! (he got him in the end but nearly failed all his invulnerable saves.)

All in all I clearly didn't sacrifice enough tim tams to the gods of dice and the grudge match that is chaos marines v imperial marines continues!

Anyway tomorrow ill go through some of the fluff for the army and throw up some unit shots and character shots.

Concept Schemes

So when I began the project I used the Bolter and Chainswords to work out the basic color scheme, the key elements I set up for the scheme where as follows:

*Unique color scheme
*Uses influences from Knightly orders  from the medieval period

I started with a pretty basic scheme one thing I was looking for was influence from the medieval period, i was after something which would give a strong theme, but not rely on a single color.

Looking through my Osprey's I liked the look of the quartering scheme,  and getting a sense of the colors I wanted to have Grey (probably closer to Black), white, and blue.

It would have a link back to either German and or Gallic color schemes.


With that in mind I started to mess around with a few more approaches.

The above 3 where close to where i was going I really liked the dark color on the armor on the third image so in the end I settled on this image as a basis for the tester model. 

This then translated in this below image, it may seem odd but  I started with a terminator, being as that was one of the 1st box's i bought, space wolf terminators no less:

So while this guy is no more (he got used for other parts down the track) he represents the basic scheme that runs through the whole army. 

New Blog New Army

After what seems an age of painting Historical armies, mid to late last year I decided with a mate to return to the game system that started it all for me.  

With that in mind I wanted to test my painting skills as well as my imagination. So there was not going to be any blue marines or yellow marines running around, Instead I decided A) I wanted to do the good guys and B) I wanted to do a unique Space marine force. 

Nearly 8 months down the track Im now close to completion of a 1750 point force, but have plans for so much more with this army. 

I decided to start this blog to track the games i play and celebrate the victories and lament the losses, share my approach to painting these guys. 

Over the next few blogs ill walk through the initial design approaches, original color schemes and test models. 

Post up (hopefully) some quality pics of the lads as well as some shots of them in action. 

Ill also share with you the fantastic chaos space marine army my buddy Harley has put together and which forms the opposing force for Wolf Templars. 

Anyway here are a few shots of models 

Cheers

Jon-Paul