Thunderwolf Cavalry with a Bionic Arm. painted

This post could easily have an alternative title, called "A long series of  small, but annoying and avoidable mistakes". I should know better than to try to paint while tired, but then again, knowing the smart thing to do and then doing a different thing altogether is something I almost take perverse pride in.

 

I made some adjustments to the model since the last post about it, the most noticeable of which is the wolftail plume on the rider's helmet. Generally speaking, once I have made a post on a model, the final sculpt is done, unless I specifically mention otherwise, but in this case, I simply wasn't satisfied with the stock Mk. V helmet.

 The grooves on the rider's legs posed a dilemma for me. Usually, I keep my models' legs in the standard Space Wolves grey scheme, but the markings clearly invited a more intricate colour scheme. Since the Thunderwolf Cavalry are supposed to be the inner circle of the Wolf Lord's retinue, I decided to go for the black and yellow Wolf Guard marking colour. Together with the shoulder pad, this gave the model's left side a lot of character.
In hindsight, I'm not so sure the Gjermundby-influenced helmets on the mounts were such a great idea. Having Space Wolves' doggies wearing their own space viking helmets just may be a little too adorable for what they're supposed to be. It doesn't bother me enough to try to modify them at this point, but I think I will look towards historical horse barding for influences regarding Thunderwolves' armour plating in the future.

 The Storm Shield is a good example of a completely avoidable mistake. I started painting it yellow with a black wolf's head, despite knowing full well how poorly bluish runes work on yellow background. By the time I came to my senses, the rune engravings on the shield were pretty much clogged, and I had to find an alternate method of signaling that the shield is powered. It works, and I did get the chance to try out using white together with Temple Guard Blue, but I'd still prefer to just have glowing runes.

For the chainaxe (which represents just a normal close combat weapon, albeit with Rending), I painted some simple knotwork on it to make it stand out a little
The base is my by now usual model, with cork pieces, grass tufts and modelling snow to give it some character.

It looks like this model's 60 mm base was the final straw that forces me to expand my miniature shelf with some plexiglass or something similar. Of course, that will lead to me havin more room on the shelf, motivating me to build and paint more, thus filling the shelf, forcing me to build new plexiglass levels etc...
What I'm saying is, no end of models in sight. That said, I have some posts planned in the future that may not involve a model showcase. No details at this point, though.