Astronomi-con 2012 Prep work

So time has run through and it became obvious to me that I would not have the Nid army I wanted for the Astro tourney this year. Something about having to power paint four monstrous creatures and about 30 termagants just did not appeal.

So I started looking at what else would be available in my collection and the Wolves caught my eye yet again. Yes again. Last year I found an interesting special character from a FW book and that image drove the army I threw together for it. 

For this year there is only one model that I have completed that would also serve as an excellent center piece model and that is my converted Space Wolf Storm Eagle (shown in earlier posts on this blog). I originally was considering using both the Eagle and my newly acquired Caestus Assault Ram, but the two vehicles alone accounts for almost half of my points. Instead I have made a list using a small termie unit being led by a rune priest in the Eagle, 2 dreads in Lucius Drop Pods, and 2 Grey Hunter squads in drop pods. I have dubbed the list the Space Wolf Falling Circus.

The list has a risk of being wiped out in turn 1. I figure that the look of the army is more important to me and besides, that just means I have more time for socializing and relaxing. Now the question of the army's display base came to the fore.

The idea I had was of the staging area on the SW ship with the squads dispersing to their pods. The Storm Eagle was the only stand out as I had no idea how to incorporate it into this base. So I settled on the idea of building as hydraulic cradle that would move the Eagle within the ship to its staging and launch areas.The piece is intended to be a part of my long desired but barely started adeptus mechanicus terrain table.The base was designed as I went and is ultimately a bunch of card stock and foam core. The cradle itself is  warped due to the "as I go" nature of its construction but still looks good enough to use and should look fine once painted. 

I have photos below of the army in progress as well as a ton of shots of the base and the cradle. I am hoping to get into the painting this week with a completion date of next weekend as the target completion date. I need time to paint the base as it is now a fairly complex build. Here are the shots: