Two Grey Hunters and a Pack Leader, painted

As I stated on my previous post, my plan originally was to paint these models and finish another group for this post, but turns out it didn't work like it did with the Fenrisian wolf pack. The wolves are very simple to paint, involving mostly just drybrushing. Grey Hunters have a few different coloured layers, as well as talismans, pelts, individual markings etc. I should have known that just based on the fact that my previous pace was three painted models per week, but as usual, hindsight tends to be very sharp.

 The bareheaded Grey Hunter was largely a very standard model with standard bits, with the exception of the custom-sculpted head and left pauldron. I had only sculpted a moustache on him, but I didn't want him to look too neatly-shaven, so I mixed some Stormvermin Fur with Lahmian Medium and painted stubble where his hair and beard would be. I'm fairly satisfied with how the overall effect turned out.

 I didn't take a picture of his axe pre-painting, but it was fully custom-sculpted, too. I decided to make it look like the axehaft was mounted at the end of the femur of some large animal. It could be the Fenrisian Wolf he hunted down to earn his promotion to a Grey Hunter, or some other native Fenrisian beast.

 One problem I have with the Mk.VI helmet is that the smoother shape makes it somewhat harder to paint identifying marks on them. In this case, I decided to leave the conical face area black, instead of painting it in the standard Russ Grey. I like the effect.
Assembly-wise, this was the simplest of the three models, consisting of all standard parts, but it works fine, proving that though I like to add some custom sculpting to as many of my models as possible, it's not strictly speaking necessary.

 I didn't want to paint the pack leader's skin in the standard pale skintone I so often use for my Space Wolves, so I decided to go for an olive skintone instead. The glow effect on the power spear was achieved with Temple Guard Blue, as usual.
I recently bought some new, darker grass tufts, and I'm not sure if I actually like the effect with the frozen earth bases I use. I will have to try using them together with the darker winter grass before I form my opinion.

Here's the whole trio in one shot. The smaller bases these three still use all fit well on the pedestal I use, even with these poses that are less than economical with their use of space. I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out. Each one looks individual enough to be a Space Wolf, yet is clearly part of the same unit.

Two Grey Hunters and a Pack Leader

I recently purchased a pack of Mk.VI armours from Forgeworld. I like to use some older models of power armour (generally just Mk. IV and newer, though), as it helps reinforce the sense that the chapter has had a long history over which it has accumulated ancient armours and weapons. Also, while Mk. VII is by no means a bad looking armour, it does get a little boring if other models aren't occasionally seen.

I decided to continue building up my most recent Grey Hunters pack. My aim is to make the pack 10 models strong, with close combat weapons and as much melta weaponry as possible. The pack's task would be to drop right next to a heavy or medium vehicle, shoot it to slag on the first round and then force the opponent to either deal with them or have them charge at their infantry.

 The first of these three Grey Hunters is a fairly standard model with a bolter, bolt pistol and a close combat weapon (mag-locked to his power pack). I decided to leave the model relatively clean shaven at the sculpting phase, with just a moustache to remind that he is, indeed, a Space Wolf.
The left shoulder pad follows the pattern occasionally seen on older Space Wolf armours. I assume this type of shoulder pad was in wide use among the Rout during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, but has since been mostly supplanted as the Chapter has been supplied with new armour from the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some traditionalists, however, would still remain.

 This model was done very simply, just by throwing pieces from different kits together. Mk. VI helmet, Mk. II shoulder pads, the rest is Mk.VII (Fenrisian variant). I did glue a targeter to the bolter, though.

Finally, my Pack Leader is armed with a Combi-Melta and a Power Spear. I keep trying to include spears in my army, though it's probably not a great idea to use them as normal close combat weapons, as that might easily be confusing, especially since I don't usually paint too overt glow on my Power Weapons.
The torso comes from Forgeworld's Space Wolves upgrade packs. It's Mk. IV and hence more treasured than most armours, but for Wolf Guard, that's to be expected.

I plan to paint these three at some point in the coming week. In fact, I believe my future schedule will largely be an unpainted model on Sunday, then the same model painted during the following week. There will be exceptions, so don't take that as a law, but more like a vague plan at this point.

Second Pack of Fenrisian Wolves

I have previously made a post of my earlier pack of Fenrisian Wolves, albeit only painted. That one was made fairly simply, with no customisation beyond swapping some of the heads within the same kit (barely even counts) and by filling in the gaps with Green Stuff, with some fur sculpted to make the seam between the heads and bodies seem less obvious. Painting was mainly just drybrushing a couple of shades of grey. It was a simple project and took little worktime.

The downside to that was that since I had done very little to customise the models, the next pack would need some more work, or it would look like a copy & paste job. Fortunately, my earlier Wulfen project taught me some tricks for reshaping plastic in an oven, as well as reposing limbs away from intended positions.

 The bodies of the wolves consist of two hollow halves. Reshaping them with heat necessarily opens some of the seams on the models. I filled in the gap with Green Stuff, sculpting some new fur on top of it. The seam isn't perfect, but should work fine with darker colour back.

 Due to the body's rather extreme position, this one was challenging to reshape. I did manage to get it look fairly different eventually by swapping the tail with another model and by reshaping the ankle of the paw on the ground, making the whole model look more upright (the original one did always look to me like it was about to nosedive). I also did some minor repositioning of the legs on the left side, but nothing too drastic.

 Repositioning this model was possibly the subtlest and easiest of them all. The body was originally curved towards its left I straightened it and reshaped the front paws. This made it look clearly different from the standard model. and by extension the other model in the previous pack with the same original body.

 This one accidentally ended up being somewhat too similar to the other model with the same body at first. I hadn't noticed that I had used the same head on the same body on both models, making them look unfortunately similar. Though I did repose the front paws and the back ankle, this didn't make the models look distinct enough, so I decided to give this one a lot fluffier neck. I also cut a couple of pieces of plastic off from the head to make the transition from head to body seem more natural.

 The same model from the other side. I did also swap the tail with another model in the pack, but as it happens, both bodies had very similar tails, and the more curved tail was on my Cyberwolf, so that did little for the overall effect. However, the thicker fur coat around the model's neck did the job.

 Finally, my Cyberwolf. I knew I wanted it to look very different from its packmates, so I decided to reshape it a fair bit more than the others. I did this by cutting and extended all the legs by a few millimeters at several points, then resculpting the model at the seams.
At first, I misremembered the Cyberwolf's profile, thinking it had S and T of 5 instead of 4, so I made the model somewhat bulkier, too. I also added some armour to the head and chest to reflect Cyberwolf's better armour save.

To represent the cybernetics, I gave several of the wolf's joints external mechanical components and added a couple of pieces of thick guitar string to represent power cables (these wouldn't really be great to have hanging outside of the wolf's body, but it looks appropriate).
I wanted the pose to have somewhat werewolfy feel to it. It has been implied that Fenrisian wolves are actually Fenris' mutated original human settlers. I imagine this individual having some degree ot atavism, making it slightly more anthropomorphic than others of its species, but not overtly so.

 I had the idea of painting two of the wolves in more or less opposite patterns, with one having a white head, legs and body and dark grey or black rest of the body, and the other having white or light grey fur where it's longer and otherwise black.

 With the same palette used in opposite ways, the end result was that the wolves seemed clearly distinct, but parts of the same pack.

 The wolf with added extra fur around the neck ended up being fairly dark coloured. I didn't want to make the coat look too unusual, as it would have otherwise seemed like it didn't really belong in the same pack.

 By this point, I was trying to come up with coat patterns I hadn't used in this or the previous pack of five, and one that was available was white face, sideburns and belly, otherwise black. I'm particularly satisfied with this one's overall effect.

 I already had one white-coated wolf, but I decided the extra bulk, pose, cybernetics and armour plates would set the creature sufficiently apart. I also used some Ushabti Bone between Stormvermin Fur and White Scar, because naturally white fur is usually very slightly yellowish. I'm pretty satisfied with the model, though it does look fairly static compared to rest of the pack. It's not disturbing enough to be a problem, though.

Here's the full pack in a class portrait, though I mean them to be fielded together with the previous five, possibly either in one unit joined by a character on a Thunderwolf, or two supporting each other.

Dreskor's Fifth Skybolt

And so I've used up my five Mk.V jump packs. Most people would just continue building the pack with the standard jump packs, but I'm not most people, and since jump packs are as dominant a feature on the model as they are, I want them to match within the unit.

The way I rationalize the use of an antiquated jump pack model in the 41st millennium is the difference between Space Wolf and codex organization. Usually, Assault Marines are already established warriors capable of looking after their equipment. Skyclaws are not, and they need equipment that can be repaired again and again reliably, even from situations that have gotten their users killed. Mk.V equipment, already being a mishmash of various models, could be more rugged and easily repaired, which would be more important for Skyclaws than thrust power or fine control.

 I decided to make the model bald-headed again, but this time with a couple of eyebrow piercings. It would make sense for a Skylaw to have a shaved head, as they deal with wind more than most Space Wolves, apart from maybe Swiftclaws and Land Speeder crew. That said, it would be more important for a young Sky Warrior with everything to prove to be recognised than to have a practical haircut, so if he wants to be known as the guy with the long, flowing locks, getting them blasted at his face is just the price he'll willingly pay.

 I again decided to use practice of chaining the weapons to their armours. Again, for a Skyclaw, who won't want to drop his weapon while mid-air, this makes sense, even if this isn't a habit Space Wolves are known for (I think it's primarily the Imperial Fists and their successors who do that).

The model is actually very un-wolfy in many respects: the only Space Wolves specific accessory is a bone-handled knife from the Wulfen kit, and he doesn't even have a beard or a long hair. I intend to make up for this in the painting phase.

To other news, I'm now officially changing my update schedule to once per week, specifically, Sundays. I plan to make longer, more involved and hopefully less hurried posts that I keep honing throughout the week and then just finish and post on Sunday evening. The subject won't (usually) be a single miniature, unless it's a vehicle or an otherwise bigger project.
We'll see how this will turn out next Sunday.

The Blackmanes' Grey Hunter with a Bolter, painted

Grey Hunters present an interesting painting challenge in that their more advanced age should somehow show, being between Long Fangs (who I generally paint with all-grey hair) and Blood Claws, who I'm in the habit of sculpting myself to make them look appropriately young and beardless.
I usually do this by painting some grey in Grey Hunters' beards or hair. Of course, not all Space Wolves ever go grey, Njal Stormcaller being a canonical example. In this model's case, I decided his hair would have kept it's colour, but not the beard.

 I painted the plate over his lost eye bronze, both on his face and on his helmet. The helmet's "face" was left black.
I painted the model's hair slightly reddish brown, with plenty of gray in his beard.

 The wolf's head on this model of bolter has always been something I've struggled to decide on, until now, when I simply painted it in the same metal shade as the rest of the weapon. The solution was simple and effective.
I painted the forward grip in deep red, as I usually do.

The helmet's crest ended up having a red zigzag-line on it.

I now have four models in this Grey Hunter pack. Just one more and it's rules legal.

The Void Claws Formation

I have been meaning to do a post on a whole unit or formation for a while now, and thought today is the day. At first I intended to post about my Wulfen unit, but as it turns out, one of the models had lost his backpack and I have no idea where it could have gone and will probably end up just making another one to replace it. So, an older unit it is, and a formation to boot.

 The Void Claws are a unit of Wolf Guard Terminators, who, unusually for Space Wolves, specialize in deploying by teleportation. They are also used for fighting aboard enemy spaceships, hence the name (and my decision to give them all helmets).
I had also originally made a Terminator-armoured Rune Priest to go with the formation, but it is somewhat unclear if a Rune Priest could actually deploy with them, considering the Formation's benefits include being able to Deep Strike on turn 1 and to reroll the scatter dice, something the Rune Priest would not be able to do normally. I don't think this was covered in the Space Wolves FAQ either, so it would pretty much depend on if the opponent would agree to it.

Here's rear view of the unit, which the controlling player would see most often. I rarely put anything too special on the backsides of my units, though I do paint them to pretty much same standard as the front.

On a different note, I have been thinking about changing my update schedule again. I haven't decided anything yet, but there's a fair chance I'd only do one post per week in the future. This weekly post would be somewhat bigger than most of my posts so far, as it might include two or three units, or possibly both assembled and painted pictures of a single model, along with more detailed information.
As I mentioned, I haven't decided anything yet, but it would make sense from my perspective, and I think it might work well for the readers, too.

Dreskor's Fourth Skybolt

So far, my Skyclaws have looked worryingly levelheaded, no more berserk-y than other Blood Claws. I decided it was time to fix this, so I started to sculpt on a somewhat wilder-looking head. Here are the results.

Sticking out one's tongue is a pretty effective way to look crazy and possibly somewhat intimidating, or at least silly. It wasn't really any more difficult to sculpt the model with its tongue out than any other head with an open mouth either. I may try this again with another model in the future.
I have also been wanting to have a Space Wolf with Obelix-style braids for a long time now, and decided this guy would be the one to have them.

 Again, I didn't want to use any of the more decorative shoulder pads, so I took one from a vanilla Marine kit and sculpted the wolf's head symbol on it myself.
I also decided to carve some runes on the jump pack.

The Mk. VI helmet may look a little out of place on the model, as it came from the Devastator kit and has the extra targeting bits on it, but I didn't want to use another Mk.V helmet, nor any of the more decorative Space Wolf helmets on a Skyclaw. I decided that during his more lucid moments, this Skybolt is an exceptional marksman, and will become a fine Grey Hunter if he lives long enough to temper his rage.

The Blackmanes' Grey Hunter with a Plasma Pistol revisited

I have been putting off posting about this model for a while now. I usually choose a model I have just finished, or a much older one that could use some touching up. This one, however, I managed to finish pretty satisfactorily the first time around, so it was sort of an inbetweener. This time, however, I don't have a finished model to post about, nor many that need touching up, so here it is.

 The face was painted before I had developed my current method(s), mostly by drybrushing. The effect was a little more cartoony than I usually prefer, but I like it.
The white wolf's head on the bolter was a choice I ended up on when I didn't want to paint it bronze. Eventually, I decided that it's a personal memento from the white Fenrisian wolf the warrior slayed before his acceptance to the Grey Hunters.

 The red around the mouth grille was inspired by the Imperial Armour 11 book. Now, those forces were in fact Redmaws, for whom a red maw makes more sense, but I don't think it looks out of place on a Blackmane either.

One of the few touches I added to the model, in addition to varnishing, was adding the Evil Sunz Scarlet on the pack marking.
The pose of the model was designed to clearly show the plama pistol, but not to make it too much of an issue, hence the model aiming primarily with the bolter.