Wulfen with Frost Claws and Stormfrag Auto-Launcher

It's not March yet, but I managed to get my hands on a Wulfen kit earlier than I hoped. Unsurprisingly, I started working on it pretty much immediately. The kit itself is pretty nice, with high level of detail and relatively large number of various options. There are alternative ways to assemble models to those shown in the instructions, though it takes some trial and error to find them, unless you're willing to use green stuff, which I am. 
A video by TemplarsCrusade01 on YouTube was what actually convinced me that I could start with the kit and end up with something distinct. Had I not seen that, I'd probably have been more conservative with the way I ended up posing the models.

 The starting point for the model is Wulfen #2 from the assembly manual, but after gluing the torso to the legs, I heated the model in my oven for a short time (heating plastic models for reposing them is pretty risky, and ending up with a ruined, shapeless lump of plastic is a very real possibility) and twisted it to the shape I wanted. I also repositioned the arms slightly, and used green stuff to fill in the gaps. The end result ephasizes the Wulfen's speed and ferocity.
Finally, I added a short piece of chain for decoration, gluing a wolf skull from my bits box and one of the medallions supplied in the kit on it.

 I decided I wanted the Wulfen to tie in my 40k and 30k Space Wolves, latter of which will be started at some point in the future. To this end, I decided to give all the Wulfen in this pack at least a Mk. II left shoulder pad. In the book, the Wulfen are stripped of all the remaining pieces of their power armour, which I didn't really like. So, I elected to ignore that particular piece of fluff and decided that my Wulfen would be otherwise re-equipped, but keep the shoulder pads bearing their ancient Great Company badges.

The thin pieces of cabling didn't survive the conversion process, so I resculpted them. The Wulfen's foothold piece of ground warped slightly during the heating and reshaping, so I used green stuff to fill in the gap.
Generally speaking, I'm pretty satisfied with the model. I may add a couple of wolf teeth to the chain over his chest and other stuff like that, but nothing major, as I'm pretty impatient to get these painted. I'd expect I'll have my first pack modelled and painted in a relatively short time, and am pretty sure this one won't be my only pack of Wulfen.

The Redmaws' Grey Hunter Plasma Gunner, painted

I'm not yet quite sure just how I'm going to utilize the Curse of the Wulfen rules. I do plan to model at least a few Blood Claws on whom the Chapter's prodigal sons have clearly been a bad influence. I haven't decided which Great Company they shall be, though I suspect I continue to build up the Blackmanes. That said, I plan to make at least one other The Redmaws Grey Hunter pack, so that I can have at least a Combined Arms Detachment of them, if nothing else. Also, at least the various Priests, Dreadnoughts, my Scouts and Fenrisian Wolves aren't explicitly a part of any GC.
Anyway, for now, let's just finish the first pack of the Redmaws.

I'm not sure how satisfied I am with the pose. This Mk. II arm was the closest I could find to what I wanted, ie. holding the plasma gun on his shoulder in a relaxed, almost overconfident manner. The grinning face looks a little funny, making him look like he's just pulled some great prank, which he may have done, if blasting an enemy's hear off with plasma is considered a prank.

 I very slightly altered my method of painting the company badge by changing the other triangle to a square instead. The end result looks more like the badge shown in the books.

Again, I painted a knotwork pattern on the model's helmet. Considering that these patterns are supposedly used to distinguish the pack members from one another, I may have used the same figure on too many models. However, this one would probably be more readily identified by his weaponry and the two wolf skulls on his equipment, one of which seems to include a targeting array of some sort.
That concludes my plasma pack. Of course, I still need to come up with a transport for then, but let's put a pin in that for now.

The Redmaws' Grey Hunter Plasma Gunner

The Redmaws didn't seem to get a lot of attention in the Curse of the Wulfen, which is a little unexpected, considering Bran Redmaw's and his company's feral nature. However, I'm not starting another Great Company any time soon, and if I ever get around to modelling a full Murderpack, I'd probably field it with the Redmaws. Of course, that requires some Redmaws to field, so on with it.

 I recently sculpted a Blood Claw with a grinning face, and decided I want more of those. For the Plasma Gunner, I wanted a head with a wide grin. It's a dangerous task, and takes a warrior with the courage to laugh in the face of danger. I ended up with something like the Wolverine with Abe Lincoln's beard, which is not a bad combination for a Space Wolf.

 I accidentally gave the model a left shoulder pad from Ragnar Blackmanes' Great Company. That will have to change. Note the Mk. II arms. I like to think Grey Hunters are prestigious enough to earn the right to use some of the more ancient armour and weapons.

With this one modelled (almost, except for the shoulder pad and missing helmet, which I'll add somewhere on him), I have almost finished my heavy infantry-killing Grey Hunter pack. Now just to finish painting it...

The Blackmanes' Fifth Blood Claw, painted

I haven't read Curse of the Wulfen rules too carefully yet, but Ragnar Blackmane's Blood Claws seemed to get a boost, which I like, as I prefer to make my armies based on fluff, rather than by optimising everything, and having Ragnar Blackmane lead a bunch of grumpy, old Sky Warriors just feels wrong. I still have at least ten of these left to build and paint in this pack alone, so I didn't want to waste too much time between modelling and painting.

 I like how maniacal this guy looks. The way I see Space Wolves, their emotional range should cover berserker rage, stoicism and gleeful joy of battle. GW's kits cover the heads well enough for the first two, but the only example of the last one that I can think of is Lukas the Trickster.

I wanted a model with very light blonde hair, so I continued highlighting the hair to almost completely white, and might have continued up to include it, but didn't want him to look like he's greying.
I also painted several red and yellow individual decorations on the model.

The pack markings came out a little asymmetrical, but since correcting that would have been pretty tricky on a yellow background, I decided to let it be.

The pack is now large enough to be fielded without a Wolf Guard pack leader, yay! I don't think I will, though.

The Blackmanes' Fifth Blood Claw

My only Blood Claws pack is currently four-strong. The impatient and unskilled rookies aren't very useful in small numbers, so there's a lot more work to be done.

 I posed the miniature to look like he's keeping his chainsword ready in front of him, while he fires his bolt pistol. I still have some old Blackmanes' shoulder pads left, and plan to use them up on the Blood Claws, such as here.

 I chose a simple, relatively undecorated backpack for the model, planning to save the more elaborate backpacks for Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard and Long Fangs.

 As usual, I glued his helmet on his thigh. Blood Claws would want their faces to be seen when they fight, as they have everything to prove and want to be seen making their kills.

 I hadn't actually tried sculpting grinning faces before, other than my first attempt at Lukas the Trickster (which I have decided to redo, as well). I think this one turned out fine. Seems like the key is in sculpting the cheeks, rather than the mouth itself.

Ninth Redmaw Grey Hunter, painted

My heavy infantry killer Grey Hunter pack is nearing completion, with just the second plasma gunner left to finish. I have accumulated quite a few extra Space Marine and Space Wolf bits, and Grey Hunters are pretty much the best possible use for those. I am running low on Space Wolf bits other than heads, though, so I may have to buy one of the new boxes with the 32 mm bases.

 Apparently, my can of varnish is getting glossier towards the end. It may be time to replace it. Other than that, the miniature is a fairly standard Space Marine with a Thunderwolf Cavalry torso and head, and Mk. II arms. I added a transfer to the legs to wolfify it a little. I chose to paint the model as another redhead, as you can't really go wrong with red manes on Space Wolves.

 The helmet has a sawtooth marking on its crest, which doesn't really show that clearly here. His pack marking is the same as on all other members of his pack (obviously, that's what it's for).

Another little touch I wanted to add to the model was the decorative pattern on his vambrace. It's not huge, but it catches the eye.

As a bonus, I thought I'd explain my method of freehanding the Redmaws Great Company badge. I start by painting with a triangle in black, with slightly caved-in sides. The "fangs" on the bottom don't necessarily have to be added at this stage. Then, I add another, slightly smaller caved-in triangle on top of the first one, with two or three small "hairs" on the top. To finish it off, I add two white slits for the eyes and paint the red on the maw and in the blooddrops in Mephiston Red.

Preparing and planning for the Wulfen

Since the Wulfen miniatures and rules are now out, and it's a pretty big thing for the Rout, I decided I should prepare to do something with them, too. Notice the word "prepare", as I haven't yet actually bought a kit, and it will probably take about a week for my copy of Warzone: Fenris to get here, as well. However, it's not too early to start planning.

My drawing skills are a little rusty, but I think this gets across my general idea of a Wulfen's face. It would be surprising if I didn't end up sculpting at least one Wulfen head, so I decided I should familiarise myself with their facial structure. The general expression is very ork-like, especially when you can't see their skin colour or (facial) hair (speaking of, it will be tricky to sculpt them a moustache that does not look like enormously long nose hair). The main difference is the subtly muzzle-like shape of their mouth and nose. The chin is conisderably smaller than that of an average Ork, and I may have drawn this one a little too tall. Also, the teeth are more regular and less hippopotamus-like than those of an Ork. Other than these, though, I will have to use hair, skin colour and possibly facial toattoos to make the Wulfen seem distinct from the greenskins, face-wise.

I find that imagining a creature's skull is helpful to get a clearer mental picture of what the facial structure is supposed to be like. Obviously, a Wulfen skull would look like it's somewhere between a canid and a human. Pictures of other primates' skulls would probably be useful references. I also used a troll skull from Skyrim for inspiration, obviously omitting the third eye socket on the forehead.

This little exercise thas led me to currently believe that the Wulfen heads would probably look pretty good if I simply sculpted a human head with a clearly distended jawline and a muzzle-like nose and mouth. The nose would have to be extra wide and flat, and luckily, at least at first, anything I'm not sure of can be covered with thick hair.

Obviously, though I've looked at pictures of the new models online, I won't really be sure of how they look until I have them in my hands. That's also when I'll be really sure about the scale of the models. The Wulfen models are probably going to be pretty significant for my army, and I'm pretty sure I won't be even remotely satisfied by just following the assembly instructions in the box. If nothing else, I'll at least repose the pack leader. The standard pose looks honestly pretty goofy to me, and I expect I'll be replacing it with something more threatening and savage looking, as opposed to the model straight from an all-yeti production of the West Side Story. And since I'm complaining, I'm pretty sure I won't be buying the new Ulrik the Slayer model, either. It just looks way too static for the warrior who earned the repepct of the Khornate Daemon Primarch Angron.

I'm also seriously considering making another model of the Redmaw, to visually tie the character in with the new models. I probably won't do that until I'll have at least one Wulfen pack ready and painted, and definitely not until I've had a chance to take a close look at the new models, so not before March, I'd guess.

Arjac's Shieldbrothers' Pack Leader, painted

The Wulfen are the current hot Space Wolves topic, along with the updated datasheets for the old units etc. that are going to change the way the army plays. Naturally, I decided this would be a great time to make a post about something that was topical a year and a half ago, Arjac's Shieldbrothers. The Wolf Guard Terminator pack it mostly consists of now has a leader, which means I could field the unit as a normal pack of Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. Arjac himself still needs some work done before he's ready to be painted.

 Last time I showed this guy, he had no face. Obviously, that had to be fixed before I could start painting him. The model's head took inspiration from the Space Wolves Terminators torsos that used to be on sale on Forgeworld. Specifically, I wanted to give the model a mohawk and a long beard.
The model looked to be a little short, so I added some green stuff to the top of his legs piece, lengthening his torso a bit. He's still shorter than my Logan Grimnar or than Arjac will be.

The same view here, but painted. I chose dark-ish brown hair and beard. I thought the model's right shin looked a little plain, so I painted a yellow diamond figure on it and added a transfer. I wanted to have the pack marking somewhere on the model, so I painted it on his belt buckle. 

I felt like the shoulder pads' triangle pattern needed to be painted in Wolf Guard colours, despite the fact that there was only one triangle on the top row that was visible in its entirety.
The Thunder Hammers' cabling's colour is not exactly an important choice, but it's still surprisingly difficult to make sometimes.. This time around I went with dark blue.

I'm relatively satisfied with how the model's bionic left leg turned out. It looks appropriately wolfy and cybernetic, and is decorative and advanced enough to be used by the Chapter Maste's champion's second in command.
Speaking of Arjac, the model is coming along nicely. I expect the formation will be done relatively soon. Unfortunately, I can't really be any more specific than that.

Space Hulk Brother Scipio

Time to get on with my Space Hulk miniatures. There still are a few Terminators left, plus I have to locate the Librarian, whom I have misplaced at the moment. I seem to recall undercoating the miniature before misplacing it. In the meantime, though, Brother Scipio, the one who is actively smashing the place apart (the place being an amalgamation of a whole bunch of ancient spaceships and nearly impervious to damage, so I say let him).

 I have to say I like the pose. It shows the raw power of a Terminator armour with a power fist/glove, the character tearing huge sheets of metal off the floor. That said, I'm not sure what that's supposed to accomplish exactly, since no rules exist for making impromptu barricades (though that would be cool) and though he has every reason to dislike the hulk he's on, it's not the floor's fault he's being attacked by multi-limbed alien monsters.

 I wanted to repeat the bisected pattern of his right pauldron on his power fist's casing, as the way the model is posed makes it visible to the almost completely opposite direction.
Again, the Crux Terminatus stone on the model is less than brilliantly defined, and the shade doesn't work as well as it could.

The various Purity Seals on the model don't really give an uniform sense of movement on the model. Some are flying in one direction, the others another. It's not going to ruin my day, but GW could have done better here.

Fourth Blackmane Blood Claw, painted

Back to the youthful energy, or as a Long Fang would say it, back to the whelps. The Blood Claw pack is now one model away from being large enough to use. Technically, I could just have one of my Wolf Guard models join in as a pack leader and the unit would be legal, as far as the rules are concerned. Of course, that doesn't make it useful.

 I decided to paint the model blonde with pale skin. He ended up looking like he should be a Blood Angel, but with the Wulfen rules coming out, it seems like Space Wolves are going to be pretty similar to the way Blood Angels used to be, so I guess that's fitting.
Instead of the good old knotwork pattern, I decided to use a geometrical, angular pattern on the chainsword, which ended up looking pretty fitting.

 The bolt pistol looks rather ornate for a Blood Claw's sidearm. That might be why the Iron Priest had his weapons chained to his armour (I decided to make the backstory where he lost his weapons on a mission and was punished for it my headcanon). After all, it would make an Iron Priest pretty upset to hear that a whelp lost the bolt pistol he spent hours on.

I painted a diamond pattern on the helmet's crest as an identifying mark. At first, I thought the pattern on his sword could be repeated on the helmet, but ultimately decided against it.

The Redmaws' Grey Hunter, painted

I have been working on both extremes of the Space Wolves age scale lately, so I decided to center myself, and paint another Grey Hunter. The Redmaws plasma pack still needs a few more warriors, and I had some Sternguard bits lying around.

 The head and bolter were from the Sternguard Veterans kit, while most of the rest of the model came from the standard Space Wolves Pack kit. The head was chosen simply because it was different from the Space Wolves heads, but had enough of a beard to look suitably wolfy. I imagine him being an unusually by-the-numbers Space Wolf, as can be seen from his trimmed beard and a bolter using a targeter.

 I wanted to give the model's chainsword some extra decoration, and once again ended on my standard knotwork pattern.
I'm also starting to learn how to do the Redmaws' Great Company badge relatively quickly. It's not completely unlike a David's star.

I gave the model some subtle identifying tattoos, keeping in line with him being a little on the stoic side, probably sometimes made fun of for being almost codex compliant.
In the real world, not so much: he still needs to be varnished (I had misplaced the can). Gonna go do that now.

Fourth Blood Claw of the Blackmanes

The nice thing about modelling Blood Claws is that they allow me to use up the more generic Space Marine parts that would be a little on the boring side on more specialized Space Wolf models like Wolf Guard or Long Fangs, or even Grey Hunters. I try to keep the number of the more wolfy parts per model small, as well as avoid using power armour parts of the Mk. IV or earlier, as they would be considered relics by the Chapter.

 The most obvious part of this model are the chains attached to his weapons. It makes sense to me that a warrior would want to make sure he won't lose his weapons. On the other hand, it could also be that he has already shown carelessness with his wargear, and an Iron Priest had them attached to his armour using a highly visible and very embarrassing method. Either way, the chains tell a story, but the viewer decides what that story is.

Just to keep things fresh, I went from one extreme to another. The previous model was bald, so this one has long hair. Haven't decided on a hair colour yet.

I wanted to give the model a hairstyle familiar from many fantasy movies. IIRC, you may have seen Gandalf wear his hair in a similar fashion in the movies.