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...

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.

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.

Grey Hunter of the Redmaws, painted

Slowly, I keep going through my Grey Hunters and finishing them. This one is a rather unsung hero, with no special ranged or assault weapons. Of course, in the fluff, he'd still single-handedly kill a squad of unaugmented soldiers and wouldn't even need his bolter to do it.

 I took the models head from Wolf Guard Terminators kit. Since I have something of a policy to not use a bare head I haven't sculpted on a Terminator model, each box gives me a few more heads for my Grey Hunters (Blood Claws not so much, since I prefer them to not have beards). To further identify him, I painted some runic tattoos on his temples. 

 I make a point of putting at least some sort of individual markings on each model's battle helmet, even if the model is not currently wearing it. Narratively, the model wouldn't want to not be recognised making a saga-worthy kill just because the enemy used chemical weapons strong enough to bother Astartes physique.

I try to remember to give each Grey Hunter a bolt pistol, a close combat weapon and a bolter, or the weapons used to replace any of those. Most often, this means a holstered bolt pistol, and I'm currently thinking about ordering a pack of those from Forgeworld.

Grey Hunter with a Plasma Pistol, painted

I was going to make a post about my Void Claw Pack Leader today, but I haven't quite finished painting the model, so here's an older model instead. I'm sure I'll have the Void Claw Pack Leader finished by Tuesday, though.

 As I've previously mentioned, I wanted this pack of Grey Hunters to have a lot of plasma weaponry to tackle on heavy infantry, preferably with a volley straight out of a drop pod. 

 I posed to model so that he's winding his upper body back to deliver a powerful thrust with his chainsword. Shooting poses tend to be easier to make look natural, but I think close combat poses look more dynamic and catch the eye better. I painted the dagaz rune on his left kneepad freehand, just because I figured there should be something there. In hindsight, painting Ragnar Blackmane's army badge might have been a better choice, tying the squad somewhat together with my main force, but seeing as the rune came out fairly clean-looking, I don't mind. Maybe his name starts with the letter (or more accurately, sound) D.

I wanted the model still to have a bolter to take on targets further than 12" away, and used one of the Umbra-Ferrox patterns from Forgeworld to do that. While mixing different bolter types in a unit might not work for the more uniform Chapters, it works for the individualist Space Wolves.

The Redmaw, painted (Halloween 'special')

Initially, I was going to paint Bran Redmaw's (post)human figure first, but I wanted to have a thematically appropriate figure to show on Halloween, and The Redmaw's werewolfy appearance fits the bill better than the rest.

 The figure itself was shockingly quick and easy to paint. I simply painted the whole figure with Rhinox Hide, then drybrushed the furry parts with gray shades and the less furry ones with browns and flesh colours.

The only parts that needed any accuracy with the brush were the eyes, mouth and, to some extenct, the claws. I wanted to give the eyes a striking appearance, so I used gold instead of yellow.

The figure was based in my usual fashion, with Stirland Mud drybrushed with Mourn Mountain Snow for the earthy parts and Mechanicum Standard Grey drybrushed with Dawnstone for the rocks, adding some modelling snow and a winter grass tuft to finish the look. Finally, I varnished the figure with Purity Seal.
See the model before painting

Grey Hunter with an Aventail, painted

While Elites are a lot of fun to build and paint, Troops form the backbone of an army, and with Space Wolves, the Grey Hunters are the solid, versatile choice. That doesn't mean they should look boring, though.

 Umbra-Ferrox pattern bolters look a lot meaner than the more common Godwyn IVb pattern models, especially with the chainblade attachment. The irregular shape of the blade makes it a little difficult to design any decorative patterns on it, though.

 I don't think any two of the Redmaw company badges I've hand-painted have looked the same so far. Weirdly enough, it doesn't bother me, though I still wish GW would start making shoulder pads with company badges other than the Blackmanes.

With this one, the strength of the Grey Hunter pack with plasma weapons is now at seven men. Many of the ones so far have had their helmets on. Will probably have to change that for the next one, to keep things interesting.

Wolf Guard Pack Leader, painted

I have struggled with painting flesh in the past. I tried using the same method I use for painting everything else, ie. painting a layer or two, shading with ink and highlighting, usually by drybrushing, but the effect has always been somewhat blotchy. This time, I took a more subtle route, by just using the same fleshtone paint for highlighting I had used for the initial layers. I did end up blending it with a lighter shade, but even before that, the results were far better than before.

 Forgeworld's Legion Combi-Plasma doesn't have the magnetic accelearation coils shown on other plasma weaponry, so I decided to put the blue glow on the seam between the bolter and plasma weapon part.

 I wanted to add some bronze highlights on the model's bionic leg, instead of just painting it in steel/iron tones throughout. This makes the model look more interesting.

The knotwork pattern on the helmet's crest was largely a happy accident. At first, I just tried to paint a pattern yellow X's, but noticed that by adding a few thin black lines, I can make it into a knotwork pattern. I'm very happy with the result.

Having just now learned to paint flesh, I probably will have to go back and redo a few earlier models. I'll probably end up showing them in a single update in the future.

The Redmaw, Wulfen-kind

I have to say, I enjoyed this project a lot. Sculpting monstrous creatures is, in a sense,  much easier than sculpting human faces. We generally speaking don't have an intuitive understanding of how a post-human that has succumbed to a condition brought on by a flaw in his genhancements should look, and therefore, there's no standard to compare to. I went for a werewolfy look that bears some similarity to dogs and wolves, but not enough to look off, as it does if I had try and fail to sculpt a human visage.

 I wanted to tie the Redmaw form in with the character's human form, and the simplest way to do that was to simply sculpt them to have similar hairstyles (as well as the wolftooth necklace). I actually sculpted most of the Redmaw before the human form and decided to give it braids, because they fit well with the pose of the model. I also felt like they made it clear it was, or at least had once been, a sapient creature.

The tail ended up curving to the left, which gives the impression that the Bloodied Hunter is wagging his tail while hunting. This amuses me to no end.
His hindlegs ended up being on slightly different levels, so I placed some cork under the right paw. I find the pose works better this way. I also decided that even though I'm running low on resin skulls, which is nothing sort of a disaster in 40k modelling terms, the Redmaw if anyone/-thing needed a skull on the base.

The character currently is in a little weird situation rules-wise because the Imperial Armour book 11 refers to the 5th edition Space Wolves codex, but the Curs'd Lord is at his best in narrative games, anyway. I can easily imagine a scenario where both an Inquisitorial warband and a group of Space Wolves try to capture Bran Redmaw and bring him back to study or to put him to his kennel for a time out, respectively.
Speaking of rules, this project again made me sorry that the 7th Edition codex did away with Mark of the Wulfen as a wargear option. It made for some very interesting modelling projects. The Wulfen Stone is a poor substitute.
See the finished model

Bran Redmaw, the Curs'd Lord

As I have written previously, this character took two attempts (so far, knock on wood) to get right. The first one was waaay too pompous to look like a Wolf Lord known to leave the execution of his battle plans to the Wolf Guard, while hunting alone himself.
For the second attempt, the most challengin part proved to be the modelling of the Runic Armour. There is a precedent for just slapping a few Space Wolf pieces with runes in them together and calling that a runic armour, but I felt like the armour should look like it's more protective than the standard power armour.
To achieve this, I used the thicker pauldrons from the Command Squad kit, extra Mk. IV arms I had around and sculpted faulds to give the upper thighs some extra protection. The decorative backpack from the Space Wolves upgrade kit helps give the impression of higher quality armour, too.

 I gave him the Phobos pattern bolt pistol, just because I felt like a Wolf Lord, even one with a sinister reputation, would have access to more revered relic weapons of the Chapter.

The Axe of Langnvast started out as a Mk. IV Thunder Hammer. I cut off the hammerhead and replaced it with an axe blade (made of plasticard) with a wolf's head hammer as a secondary striking surface, with the ears elongated to a stabbing point. I generally speaking prefer to give the Wolves single-headed axes, because I think they look much more agile and dangerous as weapons than the double-headed ones Games Workshop seems so keen on.

I may not be entirely finished with the modelling phase. At the very least, I'm probably going to add a mag-locked battle helmet somewhere on his body, and am considering to add some extra decoration to his faulds. However, the overall shape will be more or less like it is now.

Of course, the (mostly) human form of Bran Redmaw is far from being the most interesting side of the character. The real reason people use the character is coming up later.

Grey Hunter Plasma Gunner in Mk. V Power Armour

In the 40k lore, Mk. V Power Armour has a sinister reputation, as it's associated with the Horus Heresy. Similarly, Logan Grimnar has the Wolf Priests keep a close eye on Bran Redmaw's Great Company. In my mind, the mean-looking Mk. V Armour fits the most feral of Space Wolves well.

I wanted this pack of Grey Hunters to specialize in killing heavy infantry, which is why they have the maximum number of plasma weapons allowed by the codex (ie. two plasma guns, a plasma pistol and a combi-plasma). This is the first of them.

 Bran Redmaw's GC badge was painted freehand on both the shoulder and the knee pad.

 The crest of fangs on top of his battle helm was made by drilling and gluing a thin iron wire core and forming the fang out of green stuff around it. Visually, it has some similarities with the horned helmets used by Chaos Marines, which is just the sort of vaguely suspicious thing that suits this Great Company.

Grey Hunter with an Umbra-Ferrox Bolter

Another example of my earlier paintwork, this Grey Hunter of Bran Redmaw's Company was among the first I assembled using Mk. V parts from Forgeworld. Incidentally, the Redmaws have the only company badge I'm comfortable painting freehand.

 The pelt on his shoulder is sculpted out of green stuff, as are the fangs and rune medallions hanging off it. I like how the pelt works together feral look of the Mk. V helmet.

 The white and red colour scheme of the Redmaws is fairly eyecatching when combined with the heavily decorated look of the Space Wolves. The whole pack should prove impressive, once finished.

Lukas the Trickster & a return to the drawing board with Bran Redmaw

Imperial Armour 11 may need some updating as far as the rules go, but I have always liked the backstory of Bran Redmaw, and since the book had at least some sort of rules for him, I started working on my model of The Curs'd Lord to lead one of the three Great Companies in my army. However, what I found myself working on would have been fine for some other Wolf Lord, but not for someone about to give in to his inner beast and turn into a monster at any moment.

 I mean, come on, most Ultramarine captains would call that posturing a little excessive.
I expect the torso will make a return in the form of a Wolf Guard pack leader or possibly a Deathwatch Captain, if I feel like thinking outside the box. The arms will probably be used for the final Bran Redmaw model, and someone else was glad to receive the legs...

 Lukas the Trickster, aka the Jackalwolf, is an interesting character, but once again, I didn't really like the way GW's model is posed. Pointing a wolf claw at the sky behind one's head doesn't make a lot of sense. I also thought the doppelgangrel pelt doesn't cover enough of him to be of any use, especially in a challenge. I chose to model and give him an older model of lightning/wolf claw, which I then posed in a way that suggests issuing a challenge. I imagine him saying "May I have this dance?" and then laughing mockingly.

The dramatic pose of the legs works well when the character is canonically arrogant.
I'm still planning to add a battle helm somewhere on his armour, where he can put it on if necessary, and may make his pelt a little longer and more dramatic.

Wolf Guard Pack Leader with a Combi-Plasma and Bionics

The story behind this model is pretty simple: my plasma-armed Grey Hunter pack needed a pack leader. At first, I was going to use one of the default heads, but I had already used a wolf-head helm on another pack leader, so I decided to just go the long way and sculpt him a head of his own. The pelt and necklace are there just to make the default Forgeworld parts (Mk. V torso, Mk. IV character conversion kit legs) look more wolfy.

So far, I haven't really customized any of the weapons. This is probably going to change with future models, but this one will probably keep his vanilla.

 The model is fairly simple, but it works. Hope to have this one painted pretty soon, too.

Redmaw Grey Hunter with an Aventail

The vanilla Space Marine Tactical Squad set comes with a few different kinds of torsos, most of which can be used for Space Wolves as is. However, the one with the laurel wreath may fit well with Ultramarines' Greco-Roman appearance, or Blood Angels' Renaissance Italy thing, but not really the celtic viking barbarians of Fenris. So, obviously, I had to hide the laurel wreath somehow, and since I had wanted to make a marine with extra mail defenses for some time, things lined up beautifully. I'm not sure if aventail is the correct term here, since it really refers to mail defense covering the gap between the helmet and the torso armour, but I thought it gets the point across well enough.

 I also decided to add some studs to the rim of his left shoulder guard, because why not. His bolter is the Umbra-Ferrox pattern from Forgeworld, because I like the chainblade bayonet.

The bolt pistol is also from Forgeworld, specifically the Space Marine Character Conversion Set. I assume it's mag-locked to his thigh armour, as described in the novels.

I never feel sure if a bayonet attachment on the bolter is enough to communicate that the model is also equipped with a close combat weapon, so I tend to also add a combat knife, just to be sure.

I intend to paint him in the colours of Bran Redmaw's Great Company. Many of them are wearing their helmets. In my head-canon, that's because they prefer to hide their faces, in case they are gripped by the curse of Wulfen.