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.

Arjac's Shieldbrothers' Pack Leader (WIP)

I believe that the key to having a really great-looking army is to take no shortcuts. While it's very natural to want to put more effort in the character models at the expense of the rest of the miniatures in the units, giving each one real attention will result in an army you can be proud of.
All that said, I still find myself giving the character models more attention than the rest, especially when it comes to characters in centrepiece units like Thunderwolf Cavalry, Void Claws or, in this case, Arjac's Shieldbrothers.

Now, some of the missing details in this model may be slightly more obvious than others. Glossing over the lack of face, which in this case has nothing to do with the model being shamed for something, I still plan to add some sort of fur apron or something similar to the legs. Also, the bare left leg may or may not get some extra decoration.

 I like to think that the Shieldbrothers each have their Thunder Hammers customized to fit best their individual fighting style. In this case, I imagine the axe blade being used more for hooking action than offending, catching the attacker's weapon right after blocking the attack with the shield, leaving them open for a counterattack (as represented by the formation's rules).

The most labour-intensive part of the model has (so far) been the bionic left leg. I decided that I wanted it to have a lupine shape to it, instead of the more standard ones. It confers no additional abilities, but the high quality is included in the bonuses the model gets from being a part of the Great Wolf's Wolf Guard.
The model's base will be further detailed before painting. If nothing else, I have to use cork to get the bottom of the model's left foot in contact with ground.

Arjac's Shieldbrothers' Land Raider Crusader, painted

This is another model I had mostly finished earlier, and now just touched up the paintwork and varnished. I originally started to work on the model quite a while ago, and this can be seen in certain places, as far as quality of the work is concerned.

 I sculpted the decoration on the front hatch out of Green Stuff. Unfortunately, the sculpt wasn't terribly clean -- a problem that was exasperated by using the final gasps of a spray bottle in a warm weather for the primer coat. This led to the final sculpt collecting a little too much of the washes in its recesses, making the highlights stick out a little more than I'd like. It's not a disaster, but I wish it could have been better. The somewhat rough finish of the decoration called for some weathering on the front ramp. I used rough pieces of sponge to apply some Leadbelcher over the ramp.

 The Wolf that Stalks the Stars was painted freehand just today. I found the thought of painting it a little intimidating, even though I knew that the symbol wouldn't be visible from both sides at once, so perfect symmetry wasn't absolutely necessary. As it is, I think the symbol fits the model well enough.
Decorating a large model like a Land Raider in a suitably Space Wolfy fashion is demanding, but pretty fun. I ended up using a lot of pieces from the Stormwolf/Stormfang kit, such as the decorative chains and shields that I don't think work that well on an aircraft model. I also added some wolf skulls that I glued over the headlights and painted in bronze colour.

 The rear of the model is left pretty much undecorated. In hindsight (no pun intended), having some kind of decorative elements behind the model would have been cool, but it is as it is.

 The left side door had a plastic Space Wolfy bit from the dreadnought kit IIRC. I also sculpted a small Crux Terminatus between a set of bronzed rows of teeth. Again, this was made of Green Stuff, but the finish turned out significantly better than on the front door.
The meltagunner has the Iron Priest torso and head from the Stormwolf/-fang set, but the rest of the gunner comes from the standard Land Raider kit.

 I felt like the top of the model needed some flavour, and after a lot of deliberation, I decided on a loose knotwork pattern. It could have been cleaner, too, but it's not really even close to what I'd call bad.

 I magnetized the side doors so that the insides could (and should) be painted. The small magnets I used can be seen in picture, as I had already painted most of the hull when I came up with the idea. I think the naked magnet look actually works pretty well here, though.

I also painted the insides of the crew compartment. To achieve that, I simply painted the insides of the model before the final assembly, so that both sides of the track and side assembly,floor and the upper part of the model were painted, as well as the assault ramp and the front door.

Now that my Land Raider is finished, the only things to finish of Arjac's Shieldbrothers are the Pack Leader and Arjac himself (canonically, pretty much the same thing, but in terms of rules, a Wolf Guard Termnator pack must have at least two models and a pack leader).

Arjac's Fourth Shieldbrother, painted

I'm not actually putting Arjac's shieldbrothers in any particular order, other than that in which they are modelled and finished, but since I'm not naming them all, I have to call them something.

 The most distinguishing feature on this model is the Thunder Hammer head sculpted from scratch. I carved a few runes on its surface, which I made glow with Temple Guard Blue. I also gave the claws holding the hammer head the same glow, to show that the weapon is definitely powered.
I considered just making the model's hair and sideburns blonde, but ultimately decided to make them grey instead. I wanted to show that the mohawk isn't a phase among the Sky Warriors, though it may well be a sign of unusual ferocity, which would explain why it's so common among the Blood Claws.

 I decided to give his armour's collar some decoration in Wolf Guard's colours. It's also pretty similar to the pack marking I chose for the Shieldbrothers, making it a good fit.

There's still space for another four Terminators aboard the pack's Crusader (which I may have to post about at some point), but after this one, just adding the Pack Leader and Arjac would already make a respectable-sized (and very expensive, points-wise) formation. I think I will end up filling the transport, just to have that option, but I will consider the formation to be "ready" once the pack leader and Arjac are aboard.

Arjac's Shieldbrother with Bionics, painted

I took more risks than usual with this one. The model presented with a challenge to  begin with, having one half of the face bionic and the other natural (relatively speaking). Then, I decided that his shield should be white, instead of red or black, as with the previous two Shieldbrothers.

 White is a fairly demanding colour to shade and highlight. Using inks or shades, it's very easy to just have the end result looking dirty. Also, since you can't really have a piece be brighter than white, highlighting is challenging. I ended up just applying a little Nuln Oil by the rims, and that seems to work well enough.

 I decided to make the cabling to the Thunder Hammer stand out, so I applied the yellow-black pattern I usually use with my Mechanicum models. I also wanted to give the hammer a powered look, so I used thinned down Temple Guard Blue.

Another little touch was the knotwork pattern. I am relatively satisfied with it. Overall, the paintwork could afford to be a little cleaner, but considering what I set out to do, ie. make the model look unique and stand out from GW's stock models, I think I could call it a success.
See the model before painting

Arjac Rockfist, work in progress

Arjac was one of the first special characters I started working on when I returned to 40k hobby a couple of years ago. In the fluff, he is described as a huge man, even by Astartes standards, which gave me the interesting challenge of trying to make a model in Terminator armour look bigger than a Terminator. While I managed to clear that hurdle, the relatively crude sculpting I did at the time discouraged me from continuing to work on the model, until now. Rather than just redoing what I don't like, I decided to take a moment to show what I did back then, before going on to redo the parts I'm unsatisfied with.

 The head of the model isn't actually too bad, though the sculpt could definitely be a lot cleaner. It remains to be seen if the head needs to be replaced, or if it will be enough to just fix the eyes and the brow. The blacksmith's apron will need to be redone, but the pelt on his left shoulder looks actually pretty good and may stay as it is. Foehammer's head definitely needs to be redone.
One of the methods I used to give the model more height was adding extra material to the soles of his boots. Arjac used to be an Iron Priest, so I gave the boots Mechanicum's cogtooth pattern decoration.
Another method I used was adding material to the top of the legs piece, lengthening his torso. I also added plenty of ProCreate to the sides of the model's torso, in addition to the guitar strings to emulate extra cabling.

 Anvil Shield needs to be redone, as well. In addition to looking crude, the shield's decoration just isn't great conceptually. I added the shield boss as something of an afterthought. Contrary to GW's official model, I think the shield should be more or less flat, as it's described as routinely being used offensively, which just doesn't work as well with a domed shield. While the final shield may well end up having a picture of an anvil on it, it'll have to be a lot more stylized.
Speaking of anvils, the anvil decoration on top of the torso needs some touching up, as well. Probably just some decoration, though.

The base was one of the first where I thought of putting something under the foot of the bent leg. It probably won't need much improvement.

Remains to be seen how long it takes to get the model to my liking.

Arjac's Deathwatch Veteran Shieldbrother, finished

The concept of Deathwatch is interesting from the narrative standpoint. The idea of an all-stars Space Marine taskforce is nice by itself, but the real meat of the concept is the thought of how Astartes from various Chapters need to learn to get over their differences, which are many and various. For example, an Iron Hands marine would have very different idea of how to treat civilians caught in a warzone, when compared to a Salamander, for example. Also, an Ultramarine wouldn't very easily find common ground with a Space Wolf, when it comes to tactical doctrine, and Black Templars won't like how highly White Scars regard psykers.

Having adjusted to life in the Deathwatch, it would be comparably difficult to return to one's own Chapter. Chris Wraight's Blood of Asaheim had this as a central theme, with Arjac Rockfist giving a fellow Wolf Guard advice on how to deal with a returning Deathwatch veteran. I decided Arjac would know what he's speaking of because he's been there, and has learned to appreciate a Deathwatch Veteran's skill and perspective.

 At first, I considered just painting the right shoulderpad black with some silver accents, and leaving the arm grey, but then decided 40k miniatures don't have to be subtle and just painted the whole arm with shades of iron and silver. There was a similar thought behind the red Storm Shield.

 At first, I considered painting the pack marking on the small faulds covering the top of his legs, too, but because he had a knee pad on which to paint, I decided it would be just a little too much.

The Genestealer head was meant to be a memento from his time at the Deathwatch, so I went for an old, faded look. Tyranid organisms are generally too alien for Milky Way bacteria and other germs to digest, so it would just very slowly dry out after death, the colour fading with time.

Arjac's Next Shieldbrother

Arjac's Shieldbrothers is potentially a fairly big project to model, especially for someone with my refusal to accept standard solutions. Not every model needs to have a huge gimmick, though. With this Shieldbrother, I had a couple of fairly simple goals: to have a Terminator with a mohawk, and to customize a hammerhead.

 There's not much to be said about the head. It's just a fairly typical male head with sideburns and a mohawk, sculpted to be shouting. Of course, sculpting a head could be a whole topic in itself, but I'll save that for later, in case I decide to make some sculpting tutorials in the future (not a simple thing, sculpting in general has more art than science to it, and using green stuff for the medium doesn't exactly make things more predicatble). For the hammer, I went for a design where four wolf claws hold on to a runed orb and with a fang-shaped backspike.

 The rest of the model uses a mixture of vanilla Space Marine Terminator and Wolf Guard Terminator parts, with pieces of cork on the base. The only other customized part is the shoulder guard, where I sculpted the Great Wolf that Stalks the Stars, or as the less nerdy people call it, that rearing wolf symbol.

This being the fourth Shieldbrother just on this blog, I should probably get around to finishing the pack leader model, not to mention my Arjac conversion.

Arjac's Shieldbrother & a Deathwatch Veteran

Having read Chris Wraight's Blood of Asaheim, I knew I wanted some of my Wolves to have Deathwatch experience. Since the vanilla Space Marine Terminator set comes with a Deathwatch shoulder pad, I figured I would make one of Arjac's shieldbrothers a DW vet.

There aren't that many distinct Thunder Hammer models, even if you combine the vanilla and Space Wolf sprues, so again, I decided to do some customizing and add a backspike, sculpted to look like a large fang.

His head was a fairly straightforward sculpt, pretty much just a shouty bald guy with a long beard at the tip of his chin. I may yet decorate his shield in some way before painting, though I haven't decided how. Probably just by gluing on some small flavour piece from my bitz box.

To further give him some personal flavour, I connected a Tyranid head (from the Scout sprue) and a banner head from one of the vanilla marine sprues with chains. I consider them both to be mementos from his time in the Deathwatch.

Arjac's Shieldbrother with bionics

The idea behind this one is that Arjac and his pack have fought together for centuries, and haven't always gotten through it in one piece. This one has been hit harder than most. Since the shape of a skull is the starting point of sculpting a head, I decided to be a little lazier this time around and leave half of the head at the starting point.

To give the impression that he has been severely wounded on one side of his body and patched up with bionics, I also sculpted a bionic arm. It didn't turn out quite as clean as I would have liked, and I may yet try to improve it before painting.

His left side is fairly standard, with just a wolf pelt sculpted to hang from his shoulder pad.

See the painted model

First of Arjac's Shieldbrothers

As was probably the case with a lot of people who bought the Champions of Fenris supplement, I took an instant liking to the Arjac's Shieldbrothers formation. I like Terminators, I like dedicated assault units and I particularly like the concept of shield walls. It was pretty much unavoidable that I would end up modelling and painting this formation.
This was the first one that I finished, largely because he's the only one in the pack with a helmet on. Not handsculpting a head does make things a lot quicker, even though I did connect a couple of wolf tail talismans to his helmet via chains and sculpted a pelt on his back to give him an individual look. I also sculpted a topspike to his thunder hammer (purely decorative in game terms).

I like the model's relative simplicity. The legs and his pelt flaring out, together with the weapon arm far back, give him a dynamic look. He sets the standard I hope to meet with the rest of the formation.