# The Great Company of Sven Bloodhowl



## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I've never really liked the Space Wolves that much. I suppose it's odd then that I'm building an army of them. After a couple commission projects, I realized these were probably some of the best plastics GW has made to date, and I've had enough fun working on the commission projects I've had that it seemed like a good idea to make a 2000-point army of Space Wolves for myself.

Honestly, I doubt I'll ever play the army, partially because Codex: Space Wolves is so over the top and ridiculous, but partially because I'm just much more into Fantasy these days. It's really more of a modelling project.

I generally make up my own characters (or, Chapter, in the case of Codex: Space Marines-- it's still an outstanding project to be working on my Chapter, which is at about 500 models these days.) But, this time, I decided to go with something that was provided in the Codex. Sven Bloodhowl caught my eye, partially because of the icon of the fire-breathing wolf, which I thought was kind of cool, and partially because the description of how his Company acts off the field is suitably bombastic and obnoxious for the Space Wolves, but doesn't reek of Viking influence, which I never much cared for. On a modelling end of things, I always liked the red paired with the Space Wolves grey. I don't usually like red and blue together, but in this case, it sort of works, and it makes sense in terms of heraldry since Fenris is a world of fire and ice (red and Space Wolves Grey, respectively).

The army list at 2000 points looks something like this:

HQ/
Sven Bloodhowl, Wolf Lord
-Dual Wolf Claws, Runic Armour, Belt of Russ, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Saga of the Bear

HQ/
Sigurd Greyhewn, Rune Priest
-Rune Axe, Bolt Pistol, Storm Caller, Living Lightning

ELITES/
Sven Bloodhowl's Wolf Guard
-Distributed through the army.

ELITES/
Old Ulfghar, Dreadnought
-Twin-linked lascannon, dreadnought close combat weapon/storm bolter, extra armour

ELITES/
Eijar Ulriksson's Wolf Scouts
-5-strong. Meltabombs; One meltagun

TROOPS/
Erik Redmane's Grey Hunters
-8-strong. One meltagun, one power axe, one plasma pistol.
-Erik Redmane, Wolf Guard, armed with a power fist and bolt pistol.
-Rhino APC with extra armour

TROOPS/
Strom Stormchild's Grey Hunters
-8-strong. One meltagun, one power axe, one plasma pistol.
-Strom Stormchild, Wolf Guard, armed with a thunder hammer and bolt pistol.
-Rhino APC with extra armour

TROOPS/
Norri Cloudbreaker's Grey Hunters
-9-strong. One meltagun, one power sword, one plasma pistol
-Norri Cloudbreaker, Wolf Guard, armed with a thunder hammer and bolt pistol.
-Rhino APC with extra armour

TROOPS/
Herald Wulfhelm's Grey Hunters
-9-strong. One meltagun, one power sword, one plasma pistol
-Herald Wulfhelm, Wolf Guard, armed with a thunder hammer and bolt pistol.
-Rhino APC with extra armour

FAST ATTACK/
Land Speeder
-Multi-melta

FAST ATTACK/
Land Speeder
-Multi-melta

FAST ATTACK/
Land Speeder
-Multi-melta



In addition to the 2000 point army, I'm probably going to end up getting at least a single unit of Blood Claws, a Land Raider Crusader, a unit of Long Fangs, and a Wolf Priest, if only because as a modelling project, I want to at least do one of each of the different main types of infantry, a Wolf Priest, and at least one tank that's not just a Rhino.



To start things off, this is the finished unit of Eijar Ulriksson's Wolf Scouts.


















I haven't quite gotten the highlighting on the power armour to where I want it, but I wanted to show the shoulder pad with the Great Company marking, and just give a general idea of what's going on with the Grey Hunters.


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

They look to be to your usual standard. Excellent work. Comparing the photos to the list, you are going to be busy for a while.Rep
4000 posts, that is rather a lot.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Couple updates-

Land Speeder:

























Erik Redmane's Grey Hunters:
-Rhino
I realized I left an 'r' out of the runic name on the top of the vehicle-- I downloaded a rune font for Microsoft Word, and was just copying from that, but I must've made a typo, because there's one too few characters to spell out "Firebreather"


























-Grey Hunters



















Sven Bloodhowl, Wolf Lord


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

I love models with darker tones. All this flashy colours nonsense makes the whole hting look comical.

I much prefer your more 'earthy' approach to colouring.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Beautiful looking models Horus, great to see someone else using lord Bloodhowl, especially for a project.


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## Mordeth (Aug 26, 2008)

AARGH! My eyes! They betray me! Again!

I really need to stop looking at peoples space wolves blogs... if they had all been as cool as this one I'm sure I'd start one myself, and I really haven't got the time!
Now your painting is surprisingly pleasing to look at, not so bright and shiny... and I REALLY like the runes and markings on the rhino, great job indeed! k:
About the only thing I'm dissapointed in is the gold, which looks very dull and plain boring.  I know I said it was nice with something not so shiny, but you gotta drag the line somewhere... maybe a brown wash and then a drybrush gold would help at least define the gold better?


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Some of it may be the pictures-- my camera is pretty junky, and they don't show the blending or the definition at all. 

I do tend to do very dark golds-- brass is really closer to what it ends up looking like. I tend to start with Reaper Master Series Ancient Brass, and then wash it with a fairly dilute Chestnut Ink-- I'm on my last fifth of a pot from GW, and when it's gone, I'm not actually sure how I'll do gold after that. Then, I highlight it with Ancient Brass again, and depending on how reflective I want it to look, I then do edge highlights with a mid-tone silver. 

I decided I wanted the gold tones to be a bit darker and tarnished for this army. I sort of picture the Space Wolves taking the detail bits on their armor from fallen heroes' suits, as sort of charms or whatever-- maybe the fallen hero from their favorite saga will lend them strength if they wear the brass runic stuff from their predecessor's armor. Anyway, it seems like that stuff would end up rather tarnished and dulled, even if the rest of the suit of power armour is relatively new. 

There'll be some updates soon, I imagine-- I had a commission project to knock out the last few days, and another one that I need to handle before I get back to the Wolves, although I've gotten another Grey Hunter with a plasma pistol painted in the meantime, and I'll post him when I get a chance in the next day or so.


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## Dar'kir (Jul 11, 2009)

i dig the work thus far, no termies??


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I considered Wolf Guard Terminators, but there's no good way to deliver them without making them the center point of the entire army build. Basically, they either walk (which is out of the question), they ride a drop pod (which means that the army needs to be in drop pods, otherwise they're going to get cut off and overwhelmed, as good as they are), or they have a Land Raider, which is a significant investment of points. For the same points as the unit of Wolf Guard Terminators armed the way I'd want them (admittedly, they'd average about 40 points a model-- not as expensive as you'd imagine) and mounted in a Land Raider, which would be the more appropriate way to field them given how the rest of the army is set up, I could bring almost two ten-man Grey Hunter units (it's a difference of about fifty points, I think). The thing is, those twenty Grey Hunters are going to do a lot more than five Terminators and a Land Raider of any persuasion will. 

I do, however, have some Wolf Guard Terminator models, which were going to be part of the original Space Wolves project I was going to do-- and the ones that weren't modelled as named characters may end up forming the basis for a Wolf Guard Terminator squad. We'll see.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Couple new models- 









-Erik Redmane, Wolf Guard

















-Erik Redmane's Grey Hunters
Grey Hunter with Plasma Pistol









Redmane and four Grey Hunters


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I thought I'd post a step-by-step guide for how I've been doing the armor-- partially so I can just look it up on here and get rid of the paper on my desk with the mix ratios, but partially because the tone seems to be different than what most people do, and someone else might like giving it a whirl at some point. 

I paint using Reaper Master Series paints, by the way-- generally, I can come up with a fairly accurate mix using GW paint that approximates the tones, but really, GW doesn't make anything that mixes similarly at the moment.

1. I start from a black undercoat. 

2. Next, I basecoat the model with Military Blue. I don't worry if the basecoat isn't particularly even on flat surfaces-- it's mostly the recesses that need an even, strong color.

3. Blending time! The base for the blending is 50/50 Military Blue and Weathered Blue. From there, I work through the following stages:
--straight Weathered Blue
--50/50 Weathered Blue & Snow Shadow
--75/25 Snow Shadow & Weathered Blue
--straight Snow Shadow

4. Edge highlights. I mix a bit of Ice Grey into the Snow Shadow-- it's not a precise mix, but it's in the area of 80/20 or 75/25. Rather than highlight the edges of the entire model, I pick out the hard, sharp surfaces that have no flat curve to them-- the cuffs on the gloves, the edges of the rims on the shoulder pads, the edges of the top of the backpack, and if there's not a beard covering it, the armor's collar.

5. I then go back with a mix of 50/50 Grey Liner and Blue Liner, and dilute it with about 80% water. I glaze the armor with it. A 50/50 mix of Asurmen Blue and Badab Black from GW would probably be pretty comparable, and cut with less water (33% Blue, 33% Black, 33% Water). A straight blue glaze will give the armor too much of a blue tone, while a black glaze emphasizes the places the stages of blending change, rather than blur them.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Couple more Grey Hunters finished for Erik Redmane's Grey Hunters pack-

















I'm sort of iffy on how the power axe came out. I always liked the look of Space Marines with great weapons of any persuasion, but something about the pose seems a bit too passive. Maybe I should've gone with running legs for the model.

And the squad, with their Rhino and Sven Bloodhowl-









Still have two more guys to paint for the unit-- one with a meltagun, and one more with a pistol and sword.


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## Fumble Tumble (Oct 3, 2008)

looking good mate well done


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I've finished Erik Redmane's Grey Hunters, and also painted up a Wolf Priest as something to do in between squads-- check back later for pictures, as my camera is currently being a choadsmoker.

In the meantime, however, I have to figure out the pack marking for the next unit of Grey Hunters I paint. I'd appreciate any input, as I'm not particularly well-versed on common Viking/Germanic/general barbarian designs. It needs to be distinctive enough from the single black slash that the finished Grey Hunter unit has as its pack marking so that the units can be easily identified on the table, but simple enough that it's fast to paint, consists only of basic geometric shapes, and uses red and black as its only colors.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Here's a better picture of the completed squad.


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## Dar'kir (Jul 11, 2009)

once again, i digg. u also had a good point about those termies.


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