The Blackmanes' Grey Hunter with a Bolter and Chainsword, painted

In the Horus Heresy novels, the Mk. V Power Armour is described as an umbrella term for all the non-standard suits of armour cobbled together by the Isstvan V survivors. It's also used to describe a type of armour that was rushed into use during wartime emergency when its design was still unfinished. In my headcanon, I have combined these two to mean that Mk.V featured a wider variety of various non-standard solutions to design problems than most other marks, possibly excluding Mk. VII simply because it has been in constant production for far longer than all the other models combined, and during that time the various self-sufficient Chapters have had far less authoritative oversight than the original Legions did, giving them more opportunities to customize their suits of armour.
That went on a bit of a tangent, but my point was that I think suits of Mk.V can diverge a great deal from the standard model and still be described by that term.

The spectacled helmet on this Mk.V suit is one example, though truthfully, even Ultramarines customize their suits more than that without a second thought.
The Mk.II arms are more unusual for a later suit, though it would make sense for an Astartes specializing in close combat. Mk. II limbs are described as being more protective than the later models, though more difficult to mass produce, and the weapon hand is often the most vulnerable target on a fighter's body.

 The weapons themselves both came from a Thunderwolf Cavalry kit, which makes the gauntlets hodling them Mk.VII. The gemstone on one of the gauntlets was painted red for a greater contrast with the cold grey armour.

I find the wolf paw symbol on the pack marking still a little tricky to paint. However, each standard Space Wolves transfer sheet only contains one of those symbols in black, and the pack is supposed to have 10 marines, so it's either freehanding them or trying to sculpt them before painting, and I need to practice my freehand painting.

Early Medieval / Late Iron Age North-European Swords and Their Use

As I've mentioned repeatedly on my blog, Warhammer 40k is not and does not aspire to be realistic. However, I still find that studying how weapons have been used and designed historically and how they are used and designed now gives me new insight to posing and sculpting my miniatures. Since my main army is inspired by historical (and fictional) Vikings, early Scandinavian sword is a good starting point for this topic for my blog.
I should point out that I'm by no means an expert on this topic, but I have done some reading.

Typically, the Scandinavians used very similar swords to rest of Northern Europe. Most often, they were double-edged, about one meter long cutting weapons with wide blades and a single fuller (also sometimes erroneously called a blood groove). They were nearly always used in conjunction with a fairly large, round and flat centre-gripped shield. The swords and shields changed with time, with Vikings in the late 11th century often using kite shields similar to those made famous by the Normans through the Bayeux tapestry, but for now, I'll focus on one of the more archetypical sword styles (and not on the shields much at all).

 This is a (somewhat crude -- it was drawn quickly, and I haven't drawn anything for quite a while) sketch of a fairly typical Scandinavian or Frankish sword hilt with a five-lobed pommel, widely used for a couple of centuries, up to the 10 century. The grip is characteristically very short, so that an ungloved hand just fits in (as a sidenote, complex metal gauntlets didn't appear until several centuries later). If I imagine Space Wolves using similar weapons, it stands to reason that they would factor in the extra room taken by Power Armour's gauntlets (or even Terminator Armour's, though that would mean warriors in Terminator Armour couldn't use the same swords as they did in Power Armour, unless they had them modified).

There are no known surviving swordfighting treatises from this period in history, but it has been suggested through experimental research that these swords were used by holding the little finger in contact with the pommel. This contact point would then function as a fulcrum point when the blade was swung forward in a relaxed grip. Instead of muscular strength, the power of the sword swing would come from blade acceleration.
Obviously, this would take a lot of training to get the blade alignment right (ie. hitting the target straight on with the edge), but at the time, a sword was a fairly large piece of steel, and the warrior wishing to purchase one would often be a nobleman, who could dedicate his time to practicing fighting instead of doing manual labour.

There were other hilt designs, and some Vikings also used single-edged swords, though, as I understand it, those were always in the minority compared with the double-edged design. Anglo-Saxons also had similar, but still distinct hilt designs on their swords. Also, by the end of 11th century, the typical sword had a small disc pommel that would not facilitate this kind of attack, and there are pommel types that could be considered transitionary between these types, so there were probably many different swordfighting techniques in use by the Vikings.

Dreskor of the Skybolts, painted

We're currently celebrating Midsummer in Finland. You can tell by how the few population centres that exist are nearly empty and people are in their cottages drinking (as opposed to most Finnish holidays, where the people don't leave their hometowns before getting drunk). To celebrate this, I'm presenting a miniature of a stubborn man who's been in disproportionate number of fights for his age and doesn't think there's anything wrong with that. He might be a Finn if he wasn't Fenrisian.

 I sculpted most of the model's scarring on one side of his face and specifically around one of his eyes, so I decided to paint that eye red to show that he has actually lost the eye and has had a bionic replacement put in. Presumably, this took place when he lost his original arm as well, and managed to solidify his reputation as the alpha of his pack.

 I decided to paint the chainsword yellow for a change. I had also planned to add some decorative patterns on it, but decided against it, as the bright yellow colour looked fine on its own.
I painted lightning bolt tattoos on both of the model's temples. I imagine he's fond of the design and got to decide his pack's markings.

 The model's battle helmet also had the same thunderbolt patterns painted on it in Blood Claws' colours. When and if he lives to be a Grey Hunter, he presumably has those repainted in black and red.

Dreskor brings the pack's strength up to three models, so not large enough to use in a game yet. Also, in Codex, the pack strength was listed at 10 men, so I will have to get another kit of Mk.V Assault Marines. I probably won't leave it at that either, since I already have quite a number of the newer jump packs.

Grey Hunter of the Blackmaws with a Bolter, Bolt Pistol and a Chainsword

I have mentioned several times on this blog how much I like the Mk.V helmets, but Space Marine helmets do need a little something to make them suitable for the overall style of the Space Wolves. I have often tried to avoid this by giving the Mk.V helmets to Blood Claws, who wouldn't have earned their identifying marks yet, but I had to think of something. As it happens, I also like the visual style of the historical Gjermundbu-style Viking helmet and decided to see if the two can be combined.

 The fact that this model looks a lot like a Silver Age comic book hero (or, considering the mean look of the helmet, more likely a villain) didn't escape me. The darker material of the "spectacles" resembles a domino mask more than a little. It remains to be seen how it will look like once it's painted.

 I decided not to use a ready-made shoulder pad for the Great Company markings, preferring to sculpt one myself instead. I've found that The Blackmanes' shoulder pad, at the detail level fitting normal power armour scale, isn't too difficult to sculpt, nor does it take long. It helps that the wolf's head doesn't need to be completely flat by any means.

 I had assembled the Mk.V torso with the Wolf Cloak a good while back, and it's good to finally find a use for it.
I just noticed that the arms (Mk.II) and the backpack (Mk.VII) are the only parts on this model not of the Mk.V type. Occasionally, models gets themes through happy accidents.

The Blackmanes' Grey Hunter with a Meltagun, painted

I plan to finish my Blood Claws pack at some point, but I'm running low on the standard Space Marine legs, and as I've mentioned, I prefer to save the more wolfy parts for the Grey Hunters and other senior members of the Rout. For this reason, I also don't like to use the legs in the Sternguard Veterans kit for Blood Claws, since those tend to be way too decorative for whelps. I'm considering ordering a set of Mk. VI armour from Forgeworld, to somewhat balance out the disproportionate number of Mk. V armour in my current army, but a Space Marine Assault Squad is something I intend to buy in the near future, for my second Skyclaw pack (I know, I'm still not even halfway through with Dreskor's Skybolts). It remains to be seen what I'll go with, but for now, I'll keep building up this Grey Hunter pack.

 I thought the head's featured called for a little darker skin, so I used a derivative of the olive skintone tutorial I used on a previous model. To make sure the model with with the rest of the army, I painted some runes on his scalp.

 I thought the left shoulderpad had some extra room on the bottom, so I painted the model's name (Anundr) in runic writing. I also personalized the helmet with some knotwork.

The model is a part of the same pack as the earlier Grey Hunter with the Power Sword with the tip broken off. The marking is straight from the Codex.
I also painted a knotwork animal pattern on the chainsword.

According to the Codex and my plans, the pack is supposed to have 10 models, so eight more to go.

Cathedral Wall Backdrop, main structure

Foamboard may be one of the easiest terrain building materials, but it still certainly takes some time to learn to make anything out of it. I have been building this terrain piece occasionally, but the progress has been fairly slow. Fortunately, I have enough material and it's cheap enough to waste some of it on some occasional mistakes.

After the previous post, I tried to make the previous flying buttresses a little thicker, but just couldn't get them to look right. Eventually, I decided they just needed to be remade. The new ones are somewhat more elaborate, constructed in two pieces each.
I also added a windowsill and some pieces of wood to frame the window.

 The windowsill came from GW's Cities of Death Floor Pack, which I intend to use some more on this project, too. The flying buttresses are still uneven, as can be seen on the right.

After fixing a few minor issues, the next step will be to work on the decoration. I have some plans regarding that, but I'll leave that information to myself for now.

Skitarius Vanguard with an Arc Rifle, painted

Every once in a while, I like to build and paint some AdMech models. I don't expect to have a functional army any time soon, but I'm not in a hurry, and eventually, I'll have enough to play a small game with (especially if amended with my House Taranis Knight).
I particularly like the Skitarii models, as they can be built either as Rangers or as Vanguards, and both types have a distinct look of their own.

Most of my Vanguard models are modeled either running or currently firing, to differentiate them from the Rangers, more specialised for ranged combat. I decided Arc Rifle should be currently fired, as the cable running to the backpack doesn't allow a lot variation in poses. The electric glow on the Arc Rifle was achieved with Temple Guard Blue.

 I also decided to add some glow to the backpack, since it's supposed to be powering the rifle. I painted some yellow stripes to one of the cables from the backpack.

I paint the metal armour on the Vanguards first with Warplock Bronze, then drybrush it with Leadbelcher, shade with Nuln Oil and finish by drybrushing it with Ironbreaker. I like the dark metal look, so I don't use Runefang Steel or Necron Compound on most metal pieces.

The Blackmanes' Grey Hunter with a Bolter

I recently started working on my second Grey Hunter pack of the Blackmanes' Great Company, so I decided to keep building it up. I doubt all of them will have custom-sculpted heads, as I actually have surplus of GW's standard heads, and I don't think I'll show them all pre-painted, either, unless I've actually done something worth mentioning at that stage. However, one of the helmets in the Devastator Squad kit I recently bought (I believe I mentioned there are some Long Fangs coming) inspired me to sculpt this head.

 The helmet has a covered right eye, and I think it makes most sense if the wearer has lost the use of his right eye. I could have used one of the heads from the Wolf Guard Terminator kit, but I have already used that one for another Grey Hunter. Besides, it gave me an excuse to only sculpt one of the eyes, and it's always a little tricky to get a pair of eyes to match.

 Other than the head, the model is somewhat standard Grey Hunter. I may add a bolt pistol somewhere on the model before painting, though.

The right foot is a little elevated, since I wanted to add at least some flavour to the model's otherwise vanilla Astartes legs.

In addition to this and the previous model, I've been thinking about assembling one more Grey Hunter to undercoat them all at the same time. There is the third Skyclaw, too, though, so I'm not sure about that. Remains to be seen.

The Blackmanes' Grey Hunter with a Meltagun

I've focused on Blood Claws a lot lately, probably because they pretty much need to be fielded in large numbers to get anything done. However, Grey Hunters are still the backbone of any Great Company, and my army currently sorely needs a pack armed with melta weaponry. I'm planning to make a ten-man pack armed with two meltaguns and a power weapon, as well as a Wolf Guard pack leader with a combi-melta, a total of 11 models. The model with the power weapon can be replaced with the pack leader, or if preferred, one of the bolter-armed models can be left out.

 I originally only intended to use all custom-sculpted heads for one pack of 15 Blood Claws, but the more aged features of Grey Hunters presented some interesting challenges. The younger a person is, the smoother their face usually is, too, so Blood Claws would generally have very subtle facial features. Grey Hunters, on the other hand, typically have a clearly defined adult person's face. I plan to make some Long Fangs in the future, and it will be interesting to sculpt their deeply lined faces.

 I wanted to use a different shoulder pad, so I added the Great Company badge on one of the ones included in the Space Wolves Pack. The chainsword is from the Mk.V Assault Squad kit. It would make more martial sense for him to wear it on his hip, but it's easier to fit it to the backpack.

The meltagun is a Legion Meltagun from Forgeworld. That would mean that the Grey Hunter must be highly respected to be trusted what is a relic from the age of the Great Crusade.

The Blackmanes' Blood Claw #10, painted

The Blood Claws pack now stands at 10 men strong. One of these is armed with a flamer, but I also have a Wolf Guard pack leader, making the pack usable as a full-fledged assault unit. Of course, at WS 3, Blood Claws aren't the most effective fighters against elite units, but I prefer to either assault softer targets or use them to tarpit tougher ones.

 I'm fairly satisfied with the way the model's face turned out. The sculpt was clean and allowed neat shading. The nosering ended up looking pretty good, as well.
I'm less satisfied with how I painted the Blackmanes' shoulderpad, though. In my opinion, the one included in the Space Wolves Pack kit has a little too shallow and not crisp enough form for painting. Of course, I could have just painted it more carefully, but that would have taken a lot more time and effort.

 Once again, I went for the sawtooth pattern on the helmet. It really doesn't serve to distinguish members of the pack from one another anymore, but I suppose that's yet another reason for them to go bareheaded.

The pack still could use a few more models (five, specifically) to enable me to field them either as a tarpit (especially if coupled with a Wolf Priest to make them Fearless, as well as to increase their survivability a little) or a moderately scary assault unit. As it is, it fits in a Drop Pod, which are now free of points in The Blackmanes' Legendary Greatpack, though I still need some more Grey Hunters and various Claws to be able to field one.

The Blackmanes' Skyclaw #3

I usually give my Blood Claws very few Space Wolfy parts, such as pelts, talismans etc. I consider those to be something a Space Wolf has to earn, and Blood Claws are so thirsty for battle because they still have to prove their worth. However, every Grey Hunter, Wolf Guard and even Wolf Lord has at some point been a Blood Claw, and have proved their worth during that time. It stands to reason that a few of the Blood Claws should show some great promise they may yet live up to, should they live long enough.

The pack I'm currently building mentions a leader by name, and while the leader could be a Wolf Guard assigned to them for an extended period, I like to think Dreskor is a Skyclaw who has shown that he may yet prove to be a legend among Space Wolves, if he lives long enough.

 The idea started with the bionic arm holding a chainsword from the Space Marine Commander kit. At first I thought I'd use it for a Grey Hunter or another more experienced Space Wolf, but then I had the idea of how a Blood Claw, and a Skyclaw at that, might prove himself, and concluded that it would probably involve being wounded in battle. I sculpted a scarred face to go with the bionic arm, and gave the model somewhat more decorated legs.
I did end up having a little more trouble with the head than usual, as the toothpick it was attached to broke while I was still sculpting it. For that reason, I will still have to touch up the head before painting.

 I also wanted to personalize the model's jump pack, and decided to simply add a couple of small wolftail talismans from the Wulfen kit. I may end up also adding some decoration in the painting phase.

Since Dreskor has proven himself to be a tough fighter, though still not levelheaded enough to become a Grey Hunter, he has been issued with a Phobos pattern bolt pistol. Partially due to his hotheadedness (he is a Skyclaw, after all) and partially because he travels with a jump pack and doesn't want to drop things, the pistol has been chained to his vambrace. The sword is not chained, as I imagine the bionic arm can be counted on to hold on to it even when the going gets tough.

The Blackmanes' Blood Claw #10

So, I read the Codex and this time tried keeping my eyes open while doing it, and it turns out you only get two Special Weapons in a full-strength Blood Claw pack. So, this guy is armed with just a bolt pistol and a close combat weapon, instead of a flamer as I was planning.
Anyway, we're up to double digits!

 I have thought of giving my Space Wolves piercings before, just never actually gone ahead with it. This is mostly because sculpting them is really very fiddly business. The nosering took a few tries to make, and it's just one piercing. It won't be the last, but we'll see how common they'll end up being.

The model's pose followed the usual Blood Claws style of enthusiasm over capability. I imagine him spraying bolts from the pistol as he's running, none too concerned over actually hitting something.
Also, I remembered the helmet, again!

I recently bought another Space Wolves Pack kit, and it came with the older, smaller bases, so I'm in no hurry to cross over to the larger ones. That's good, since I recently got started with another Grey Hunter pack. Also, this way, I won't have to worry about having different base sizes in this large pack.