The Wolves of Caliban

Just before the New Year I finally started to put paint onto the Lion.  Having decided that I was going to put plenty of effort into painting him and not rush this job it has taken me 2 weeks to complete painting the model.

To help reach some of the hard to reach places I left the model in sub-assemblies:

• Lion
• Shield
• Backpack
• Watchers
• Base

There are multiple steps in each part with many highlight layers applied with mixing of paints into intermediate colours to get the gradiant right.  Everything started out with a flat grey primer from Halfords.

The armour is Vallejo Metallic Black, wash with AP Dark Tone and then dryburshed with Vallejo Chainmail., further highlights came from Vallejo Steel and Silver.  The cloak is Citadel Caliban Green, with highlights working through Warp Lightning to Moot Green.  The Watchers are AP Chaos Red, with a Strong Tone wash and then AP Pure Red mixed into AP Chaos Red to produce the highlights.  The base was washed with AP Soft Tone and then drybrushed with AP Uniform Grey and AP Sky Grey.

Not sure why it has taken me so long, but I’m finally got around to finishing off my Librarian in Terminator armour and my squad of 5 Infernus Marines.  Had a play to try and show the power lines running through the Terminator armour with green rather than the original blue.

This weekend I also decided to paint up an Imperial First Assault Intercessor, I must admit that I really like who it turned out.  The Hazard strips were something my son kept talking about.

So I finished my Cataphractii Terminators.

The black armour is painted from a start of AP Matt Black spray, followed by AP Chainmain spray.  This was then painted over with GW Contrast Black Templar, drybrushed with GW Leadblecher and then washed with Nuln Oil.  The red parts are GW Mechrite Red (guess I’ve had the pot a while as I had to give it a really good mix to get a decent first coat.

The shields are based in Vallejo Sky Grey, and then AP Army green with a heraldic icon taken from the Green Stuff World range.

As I continue to up my basing these have some 3D printed rubble and some Geek Gaming Base Ready – Grimdark City Rubble.  This was all finished off (including the feet of the Terminators with MIG Concrete pigment.  There is also a tuft taken from the Warpainter Scenics Landscape Tub.

Whilst I was finishing these I tidied up the Vindicare Assassin as well.

The summer holidays, they might nearly be over but there is still time before going back to work.  Over the summer the Wolves of Caliban have returned to the painting table, 10th edition’s arrival pushed me to get them out along with an end of year present from a co-worker.

One of the main things that I have wanted to do with this project is get the chapter iconography on the miniatures so this summer I tried to print my own decals.  I’ve had a sheet of inkjet decal paper that has been sitting around for quite some time that I finally decided to print on to.  When I put the decal onto a test shoulder pad the image was not visible.  So I ordered some more paper up and re-printed in a lighter grey shade with the same problem.  That’s when I realised that with a dark background (Dark Angels Green) you need to print white underneath the colour of the decal – can’t do that at home.  I ended up do a search on google and finally found someone who would print the decals as I wanted, so I finally have the Wolves of Caliban icon ready to go.

To save on the squad markings, rather than go with the same light grey I have for the logo I decided to use the white GW one’s I had lying around.

Well in the last two weeks I finished off the Infiltrator squad, painting the last 6 figures and also moved on to complete the Captain and Lieutenant from Indomitus as well as a squad of three agressors for the 3rd Company.  I’ve now run out of assembled Primaris and the wife doesn’t like the smell of polycemete so no assembly for me for the moment.  I’m going to put this project on hold for now until I get more time to assembly my remaining figures from Indomitus and a squad of Incursors.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photograph of the last few figures so when I get back to this project that will be the first up.

In all I’ve completed 73 figures for the Wolves of Caliban (that is counting vehicles as one) this year which is considerable progress for me.  Still time for something different.

Following the Eliminators last time I have continued with the painting of the Shadowspear figures and have completed the Captain, Librarian and Lieutenant, along with 4 of the Infiltrators.

I decided to go with the standard blue armour for the Librarian, starting with A PP3 blue (can’t remember the name) then an old Citadel Blue Wash (still in the hex pot with the blue flip top lid), finished off with some highlights of the original blue with increasing mix of white.  The sword had a base of contrast yellow, a bit of watered down blood angels red and then some AP Red Tone to finish it off.

Managed to sit down and do some painting this week, life has been rather busy since term started and having to drive into work (first time regularly since March) has eaten into precious time at home.  So I cracked on with the Outriders, the Landspeeder and 3 Eliminators from Shadowspear.  A few bits to finish them off, including getting on with the custom transfers.

Tried to put in a heat effect on the landspeeder’s Multi-melta.  I painted up with barrel with Gun Metal (Vallejo), then washed with Dark Tone (AP), I came back and highlighted with Steel (Vallejo).  After that the heat effect is a bit of drakenhof nightshade (GW), purple tone (AP) and soft tone (AP), working progressively further from the end of the barral.  I also put some on the exhausts of the Outriders.

So I finally finished off the painting of the smoke trail bases for the inceptors, as a first attempt at this I think it isn’t too bad.  3 more smoke trails to go for the suppressors so a bit more practise coming.  I also assembled one of the outriders, I’m not sure on the design of all those rods that run across everything they make it difficult to not end up with a gap in the centre (thank goodness for a bit of model putty!).  Finally I have started work on a landspeeder, undercoated in AP Space Wolf Grey and now drybrushed in Fenrisian Grey.  Next week it will be the details on it and maybe another outrider assembled.

A quick photo of my progress on this project is below.  This last week I’ve added Cypher, a Captain, and a Redemptor Dreadnough.

I’ve done a bit of update on the background, which is the first post of this project.

The history of the Wolves of Caliban

I’ve completed 8 more intercessors for the Wolves of Caliban and have nearly completed all the figures that I purchased through the 40K Conquest partworks.

Same technique as previously.

I need to sort out decals for the shoulder pads yet so will try to work on that as well in the next couple of weeks before term starts again and my hobby time disappears.

More painting work and I decided to add some more highlights to the Captain and Chaplin.

Captain Cunobelinus of the 3rd Battle Company of the Wolves of Caliban stands ready to defend the Cantiaci sector of the Imperium, alongside him stand the company Chaplin Adminius.  The battle company is now reinforced with a squad of hellblasters ready to soak the enemy in lovely plasma.

Just after the Indomitus box arrived (thanks to Warren and the gang) I finished another 8 marines, mostly reivers this time.  I’ve used mostly contrast colours and allowed the contrast with the zenith spray to give me the highlights etc.  I want these on the table top and so I’m happy with the quick and simple job.

Well I ran out of primed Primaris marines this week, and to be honest I couldn’t be bother to get the airbrush out (it’s kept in the shed and I have to haul the whole lot down to the house to use it).  So, after a bit of research I realised that the Velljo Black surface primer that I used on the other Primaris could be brushed.  Now I haven’t brushed primer on since the days of the Citadel Smelly Primer and my first lot of acrylic miniatures.  Of course since those old school days miniatures have got a lot more fiddly, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway.  Here is the result of primer being brushed on, I learnt a few lessons whilst doing it.

Lesson 1 – don’t pour out too much primer it started to thicken in the pallete.

Lesson 2 – clean the brush regularly the primer thickens on it as well.

Lesson 3 – don’t expect to cover everywhere, some space are just too small to reach.

These have now undergone a zenithal highlight at 45 degrees with Halford Grey Primer and then from directly above with GW Wraithbone.  I might try using a grey primer to start with, before painting the black primer on.

Friday night is our hobby night, so tonight I cracked on with finishing a pair of landraiders, an old predator and an old vindicator.  I’ve also made progress on a dreadnaught.

I need to get the airbrush out to black undercoat the next batch of marines, seriously with Indomitus coming I have to get on this the Primaris part of this army.

Whoops I think I got carried away!

So I’d printed replacement doors, new sponsons etc and then I stumbled across something else entirely a Anvilarium Pattern Landraider.  I decided that I was going to have a go at printing it.

Whilst preparing one of the extra Land Raider Crusaders for painting the Hurricane Bolter assembly started to come apart – this was one of the metal versions of this kit and to be honest I didn’t feel like pinning it to pieces.  So I went hunting for a sponson to 3D print to replace it.  I came across a number of options but settled on the Prometheus variant on thingiverse.

I sliced it up and added the Wolves of Caliban shield on the side to finish it off.

Whilst hunting I spotted a Twin linked assault cannon which I decided to use on the same Land Raider to give it a few differences.

Whoops – I’ve not done anything on this Spring Clean in 12 months, but whilst painting the other day I decided to paint some more 40K.  I had a couple of Primaris Marines sitting awaiting to be painted so I got on with them.  The Intercessor was given a Zenithal highlight, the first time I’ve really followed through with it and got somewhere.  Contrast paints help leave the undercoat colours coming through.  So a base of Black, followed by 45degree of grey and then Wraithbone from the top.  Space Wolf Grey for the main part, Dark Angels Green for the shoulder pads, Blood Angels Red for the chest eagle, Creed Camo for the bolter.

Yes this colour scheme is different to that planned and tested, but close enough that I think I can blag it for some gaming in the gaps!