22 September 2015

Swiftclaw Bikers Wolf Guard Pack Leader

The connection between the Marvel character Wolverine and Space Wolves is easy to make. He's hairy, grumpy, his claws are an obvious source of inspiration for Lightning Claw -type weapon and he has facial hair and a crazy hairstyle. Admittedly, in the comics, he's supposed to be a head shorter than many other heroes (or villains), but in the movies, he's been played by Hugh Jackman, who is about 30 cm taller than the Wolverine is supposed to be. Stretching that by a few dozen centimeters more to reach Astartes sizes wasn't too much of a stretch (pun intended, deal with it).
He's also occasionally seen riding a custom bike, which made the choice of putting him in charge of my bikers obvious.
I had an extra Forgeworld Mk. V torso around I had to find a use for, and because the solid resin torsos are tougher than the standard plastic ones and I knew I'd have to fiddle somewhat to fit the Mk.IV Lightning Claw arms on the handlebars, it came in handy. Fixing the arms themselves involved cutting off at the base of the gauntlet and repositioning them horizontally, as well as a hot bath to set the thumbs right.
I used the drum magazines cut off from extra AdMech Ironstrider Ballistarius lascannons I had, using Green Stuff to tidy up the result a little. The hairstyle is closer to the original comic book style than what Hugh Jackman has had in the movies. While I have nothing against his portrayal of Wolverine -- he was basically one of the people who started the current golden age of comic book movies -- I feel like 40k universe is not a good setting for realism or restraint. 
Having Wolverine as the pack leader was also a shortcut to find a theme for the actual Swiftclaw pack. I intend to research some of the fresher faces currently in the X-men and use them for inspiration for my Swiftclaw squad. It would be very easy to have a serious-looking guy with a visor among them, but honestly, if Wolverine is a pack leader, that would make Cyclops at leasts a battle leader. Same goes for the other classic characters

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