Budget hobby challenge: Update 1/27/15

Well it's been a few days and I was finally able to make some progress on the Stormwolf. It has gone from grey plastic on the frame, to assembled with the first layers of paint. 

After the assembly was done, and the base was built I was able to get some base coat down. 

Today while my youngest was taking her afternoon nap I was able to get started I some of the detailing for this. I'm going for a worn look, with burns from low altitude combat. 

I've got a lot more to go, but I feel that I'm on pace to finish this before month end.  

Budget Hobby Challenge: Brought to you by Facing the Grey Tide

So today as I was scrolling through my blogroll I saw an update from Facing The Grey Tide on their budget hobby challenge. I, like many others in this hobby like to save money where I can while building a new army or adding to an existing one. The idea behind this challenge is that at the end of 6 months, you will have an army and only have spent around $500. They have made some considerations for those of us with stacks of unopened boxes, and will allow participants to 'purchase' those from themselves. This is perfect for me. 

With my recent resurgence into the hobby I felt this would be a great way to give me the extra motivation to complete my Space Wolves. My general plan for this is to complete the list I currently and working on, and if needed make adjustments along the way. I have plenty to do before the Dark Star GT in May, and I need all the motivation I can muster to get the army painted up. Unfortunately I missed the December challenge, but still have a little over a week for the January challenge. I'm going to commit to building and painting 1 Stormwolf transport that the Blood Claws will use as their transport. One other thing about this hobby challenge is that each month you have a $75 budget, but if you have any left over from previouse months you can use the remaining up. Since I did not purchase anything in the month of December I'm going to add a floating $75 to my allotment. This allows me to enough extra funds for the two Stormwolfs that I have in the list. You are also allowed one 'double up' month where you may spend up to $150, but for now I'm saving that in case something major changes in the list or some new fancy model comes out.

For those of you interested, go check out both Facing The Grey Tide, and the Dark Star GT pages (linked above) for more information. FTGT is another great blog loaded with reviews, hobby related articles, and even their own podcast!

Thats all for now, but check back for more hobby progress and army list updates.  

Hobby update 2

The last few days have been full of hobby time, which with a 2 year old doesn't happen all that often. I've found that if I work in small time frames, in between playing and spending time with her, I actually get enough time to knock out a little bit of work. 

The Blood Claws I've been working on are part of the army that I posted the other day, and have yet to see any time of the table. Normally I like to test units before dedicating time to fully painting up a unit, but with the points reduction of them in the new codex, along with my experience with assault troops, I know what to expect out of them. 

I have left the squad with the basic load out, as I like to add special weapons later on and do all options for them. 

I'm basically done with these guys, except for a few details here and there.

At some point I may go back and add some battle damage to them, but not until the whole army is painted. 

Kickin hobby butt!

Today's been a really good hobby progress today. I managed to prime and detail some Space Wolves Blood Claws. I picked up some liquid latex mask to use for the shoulder pads. The mask allows me to airbrush the yellow on to the pads and then prime and base coat the rest of the model without harming the yellow pads. This stuff is amazing and everyone who airbrushes should add it to their tool box. 

More updates to follow as I keep working on these guys tonight and tomorrow.

Hobby update 1

Just a quick update one what I'm doing with my first day off this week. I'm still tweaking the list I posted earlier, but in the mean time before I actually get to test the list I am working on the models for the list. 

On the plate first is 10 Blood Claws, all with the basic pistol and chainsword. These guys will be my late game objective grabbers and will be riding in two Stormwolf transports. 

A new List for a New edition.

I know that most of the normal 'tournament' lists run CoF with heavy TWC and forgo the troops for the most part, but I would like to build a list that has the 

threat of TWC with the midfield advantage of Obj Sec troops. This is only a first draft for the list, and will need playtesting and adjustments to make it tournament worthy.

o    Rune Priest (140pts)

Psychic Hood, Psyker Mastery Level 2 , Rune Sword, Bike, Runic Armor

    o    Wolf Lord (230pts)

Runic Armor, Storm Shield, Wolf Claw, Helm of Durfast, TWC mount

o   5 Blood Claws (295pts)

 5x Bolt Pistol, 5x Chainsword  Stormwolf, (2x Twin-linked Multi-meltas)

o   5 Blood Claws (295pts)

 5x Bolt Pistol, 5x Chainsword  Stormwolf, (2x Twin-linked Multi-meltas)

o   9 Grey Hunters (240pts)

2x meltagun, WGPL(Wolfclaw), Drop Pod

o   9 Grey Hunters (240pts)

2x plasma gun, WGPL(Wolfclaw), Drop Pod

o    Thunderwolf Cavalry (190pts)

3x SS, Wolf Claw, 1x melta bomb

o    Long Fangs (210pts)

4x Missile Launcher(w/Flakk), Drop Pod

The plan is that the Lord on TW, Rune Priest and the TWC all join up to beat face. The Priest will normally roll on Biomancy for the unit buffs, and will provide psychic defense. I know that having only one RP means that against heavy psychic armies my powers are more than likely to be nullified, but I like the option.  I gave the LF's a pod so that I could drop them on an objective or run the pod empty to be able to drop both units of Grey Hunters turn 1. I took the Flakk missiles so that they also could support the Stormfang's with AA, and just all around be a thorn for my opponent. The Blood Claws are there for late game objective grabs, along with making the Stormfang's Obj Sec for them to drop down to grab objectives. In total the list has 8 Obj Sec units (troops and transports), the fast moving TWC/Lord/Priest to threaten early along with the Podding Grey Hunters, and finally some AA and late game objective grabbers. 

Thoughts? Comments?

Blog focus, and things I intend to write about

 It's really hard to believe that 7th edition is already eight months old, and in the last eight months we've had more releases then at any other time in the history of this game. What that means is the environment is constantly shifting and changing with each dataslate and formation released. On top of that with the new codexes seemingly hitting the shelves every other month the competitive environment is shifting more than at any other time.

Rewind to five years ago when I was more actively blogging and some of the topics that I covered were tactics and units and how to effectively use them.

 Now I'm not going to be the first person to cover space wolf tactics or unit breakdowns. There've been plenty of other articles and reviews where people more informed that I have given their ideas on how to use each unit from the new codex. 

What I am going to cover is the way that I use each unit and some possible tactics to get the most out of each unit, or selections of war gear that fit my play style the best. I'm not going to cover every unit in the codex because frankly I'm not going to have any major revelation that others before me have an already had. What I am going to focus on are the units that I use, why I use them, and how I'm going to try to effectively use them. 

Another thing that I'd really like to do with this blog is to interact with the community. While I do write for myself I also write to interact with other people, to get your thoughts and ideas and to share  knowledge so that way we all can enjoy this hobby just a little bit more. 

So please if you're viewing this feel free to leave a comment or send me a message and give me your thoughts and ideas on the topics that I have covered or could cover. 

 

A new beginning, and what I've been up to.

So it's been a really, really long time since my last blog post. The one thing I'm not going to do is apologize for that, because life happens and sometimes we have to take a step back and evaluate what's really important. 

It's crazy to think that my last post was almost 5 years ago, but in those five years a lot has gone on in my life. In June 2010 I married my best friend and soulmate, we bought a house, and began our life together with our two oldest children. Fast forward to April 2012 and we welcomed our youngest daughter into the world and that brought on a whole host of challenges that I didn't think were possible. 

For the last three years since she was born I've been spending a lot of time watching her grow and become an amazing little girl who is far more intelligent than I could've ever imagined. It's crazy to think that every day she surprises and amazes me with something new whether it be a funny remark, or a revelation that she is had. 

So that's what I've been doing for these last five years and now I'm finally getting back to the hobby and trying to tidy up things that have been left undone. I just recently found out that there is a friendly local game store within 30 minutes of my house and my core group of friends is getting back into playing regularly. 

With the release of the newest seventh edition codex my love enjoyment of the Space Wolves has been renewed and I am finally going to play in a local grand tournament. 

Another thing that I'm going to do is blog regularly with progress updates and just general thoughts of where my army is headed and new things that I'm learning about the army. In the next day or so I will post a list of what I intend to take to the local tournament, but as we all know that subject to change based on revelations of strategy and tactical ideas that may come about with play testing. 

Well, that's all for now and they'll be more to come soon!