Thunderwolf Cavalry W.I.P.

[Elric2k]

Hey guys, newest ebay project, thunderwolf cavalry and wolf lord on thunderwolf.

Here's the inspiration for the wolf lord, from my 2012 wolf calendar (yes i actually do love wolves)

And the Wolf Lord's mount

here are the cavalry wolves

Group Shot

The wolves are basically done as far as fur goes, except for the minor touchups. Im currently working on magnetizing the riders, more pics to come once i have more progess. C&C always welcome!

 

[kathrynloch]

Hi Elric! The Wolves are looking great! Just a suggestion, you might want to add a little wash to the red one's body. The mane looks great and has depth but the body looks a little flat. The same with the gray one, although he has more depth than the red wolfie.

 

[marjedi]

they look great so far, and the Queen Abowe is correct Abit more depth would be great.

I have my first pack assembled and on the way to priming today along side a bucket of other marines

 

[Elric2k]

Kath and marj!! Nice to see you both, havent heard much from either of you as of late! Thanks for the advice, you are of course, dead on. I am going to rework shading and up the highlights on both of those wolves and ill post updates tonight. Im really having a hard time with the weapons on this bunch of space wolves, I just have no idea what to do. Im magnetizing the thunderhammer/frost axe for one of them, and I had planned on puting shields on all 3 since the wolf lord has one as well. I realize that since I don't play the game, that stuff like this is gonna really screw me over unless I start researching and learning

 

[marjedi]

I wouldnt attach the storm shields to the minis if they are for sale. As for weapons it is a bit more muddled and magnets seem like a good idea.

I run my lord with a axe, one of the regular cav with a thunder hammer. And shields on all of mine.

I am pretty busy atm with beta trating diablo 3 and playing mass effect 3. But i try to squeeze in some mini time when i can, and have alot of space wolves built awaiting painting.

 

[Elric2k]

Heres the updated russet and gray wolf pics. more shading, more highlights

Marj youre in the beta too?! I am as well, though I dont play much anymore, can only kill leoric so many times >< lol

 

[kathrynloch]

Much better! They both look very nice! Much more depth.

 

[Elric2k]

Thanks Kath! I hate taking picture SO close, because its not really accurate to how its viewed normally, but it does give me the distinct advantage of seeing things I missed that I can clear up. Here are the riders for all 4 wolves, Skin and eyes are done on all, only the wolf lord's hair is complete, the others just have basecoats thus far.

 

[Elric2k]

Here are the finished wolves (minus the red wolf metal tooth)

And a group shot

 

[Elric2k]

Here's more progress, this time on the rider's. I wanted to give the wolf lord's axe an icy quality to it so thats why the sheen.

I have done the designs on the shoulder/knee pads in the typical space wolves fashion (although im not much for freehand, it came out ok I think)
The armor is done for the most part, but all the gold is only basecoated at this point, and i havent done the steel colors yet.

 

[kathrynloch]

An interesting effect on the axe. I like the colors and the blends on it and the cloak. One thing that concerns me is the debris on the axe. Is your primer going furry? I had primer that did that especially when it is humid out here - which is most of the summer. With you being in Washington, I'm thinking you get a lot of humidity too. You want to get rid of the debris before you paint because if you accidentally paint over it, it's a PITA to fix. Another reason why I'm asking is because you're paints are looking a little on the thick side. If your primer is going on a bit thick, you might be trying to compensate by putting on heavier layers of paint and not even realizing it.

I switched to brush on primer for most of my projects except large items and it's been working quite well for me. When I do have something large I need to spray I've been using Dupli-Color spray primer. For an auto primer it goes on very smooth and light and is very forgiving when it comes to humidity and whatnot. Unlike Tamiya (which is my other favorite primer) it's inexpensive and readily available at O'Reilly's down the street, I really like it and it gives me good results.

Looking good so far!

 

[Elric2k]

Actually there is no debris on the models, what youre seeing on the wolf lord there is that horrible casting quality of finecast hard at work ;/ And since I airbrushed everything in the pics, i know my paint isnt too thick because well, thats impossible But I think if you compare the wolf lord to one of the other close ups of the normal plastic guys, you can see the difference in the cast. Everything else is smooth, while the wolf lord is as porous as a 13 year old with acne. The decals really did me in though, I think i have to re-do them because one of them, especially on the powerfist, has started bunching up on itself which may also make it look like the paint is thick? Or was there something else specific besides the crappy wolf lord?

I HATE FINECAST!

 

[Bloodhowl]

Was yours store bought or mail order? I am curious if all of them are that way, or you just got a bad one. The pictures of naked finecast others have posted looks smooth, except for a few air bubble holes (and obvious miscasts).

 

[Elric2k]

Mine was store bought, and to be honest upon 1st inspection it didnt look this rough, but when i got it under my work light it became quite evident. I had hoped to salvage is with milliput washes but it was just too much, and since I had used milliput on it, i couldnt then take it back. The good news is from the naked eye you cant tell, if i were to take pictures farther away it wouldnt be noticable, but it still sucks because that guy was 41 bucks. I wish they would just offer everything in plastic and be done with it.

 

[kathrynloch]

Some of what I'm seeing could be camera noise too. Mine is awful when it comes to noise. Maybe thinned Liquid Green Stuff would help? I haven't tried Milliput but have had good luck with thinned LSG. It's difficult for me to compare with the plastic because those shots are a little darker and not quite as close. But it looks so much like mine when my primer went furry that it's not funny. Specifically on the axe, there's a tiny bit of debris between the haft and the hose. Then if you look closely at the top - the very end of the haft, and at the bottom - again the very end of the haft, you'll see just a bit of texture.I'm not sure if this will help but I'll give it a shot, I circled the specific areas.
View attachment 12299
View attachment 12300
The bottom two are almost an orange peel effect.It's not a huge deal, I just spotted it because of my primer problems but if it is the Fail-Cast - that's not so easy to fix. I also really like the cloak too. I think that is turning out nicely.

 

[Elric2k]

Ya i checked him over again, its the cast unfortunately. Its the worst on his backpack, luckily its out of focus because im a camera noob and have a horrible time with the focus mechanic of my rebel XTI. It really does look like grain, and its the whole model. The only exception is the cloak, which isnt as bad, but still not great.

The reason i went with airbrushing too, is i tried to do the normal paint on a brush thing, and the cast literally soaked the paint up like a sponge, its rough to the touch and i am quite pissed about the whole ordeal really. But he's staying the way he is, if i started over I'd end up setting my torch to it

 

[Elric2k]

Here's some progress on the calvary, with my gigantic flash mechanism for my camera, instead of relying on my work lights

 

[kathrynloch]

Yeah, you're right that cast is ridiculously bad. Even though you can't return him, I'd still take him in and show the store manager. Although he's probably seen his fair share of FAIL when it comes to Failcast. Now that you know what to look for, if you bust open the blister you'll know to return it forthwith.

So what sort of a flash set up do you have going? It didn't really light the minis but if you don't have a diffuser of some sort, it will wash them out. Another option - if your camera is having a hard time with your work lights. Get a tabletop tripod, then set the timer on the camera. Hit the button and back away - don't bump the table. With the timer, you can move away from the minis and don't have to worry about camera movement. That way you can use a longer exposure for more light without the blurriness of the longer exposure time.

 

[marjedi]

Failcast is quite horrible, so horrible i have stopped buying it. If they make some nice minis that i would have bought normally, then too bad. Ill just not throw money at it anymore, there are too many mini companies out there that do great stuff.

 

[Elric2k]

@Marj - I completely agree with failcast, the only purchase I make for them is for ebay if necessary, but to be honest I think im done even with that. This is just beyond insane for a company to get away with.

@Kath - I am a complete camera noob, i have a hard time with the focus, like if i want to take an in focus shot of say the calvary on their wolves, the wolf's head will inevitably be out of focus, I have a canon Digital Rebel XTI with a Canon Speedlite 430 EX Flash (this was a gift from my father a couple years ago, and although my pics are better than before, im still bad at it!). I do have a table top tripod, and I think this camera has a remote, I just dont know how to use it yet lol. I know the basics of basically lower ISO, and i have tried manually changing the settings I have learned but still to no avail. I know its me and not the camera, i just feel so stupid when i look at it that I want to put it away so it stops looking at me, mocking my stupidity!