Rune Priest in Mk.V power armour, painted and varnished

One of my favourite things about Space Wolves' visual style is how rough and functional pieces of armour and torn pelts are combined with ostentatious decorations. This model represents the cruder end of this spectrum. The psychic hood was intentionally sculpted to look unadorned and functional, and the most striking decorative element on his armour consists of very angular runes.

 I didn't notice the similarity in position to Forgeworld's Sigismund model until after it was already painted. I didn't knowingly imitate the pose, but it's very possible I subconsciously took influence from it.

I like to imagine he has had his nose broken in the past and the piece of metal was originally sort of a splint to help it heal, but he chose to leave it there to work as an additional noseguard. Space Wolves don't like wearing helmets in general, and the Mk.V armour might be more quirky than most when it comes to battle helmets used together with psychic hoods, so connecting extra protection directly to his skull would make sense.

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.

Ragnar Blackmane, the Young King, painted and partially resculpted

As I mentioned previously, Ragnar Blackmane was one of the first models I started making. I finished his head early on, and then left the model half-done for a long, long time, until I recently finished modelling and started painting. Now, while it's fairly obvious that skills improve by using them, what is easy to forget that your expectations of yourself tend to rise more or less at the same pace. So, what had represented the best of my abilities a couple of years earlier, now looked unacceptable.

 Specifically, the part I wasn't satisfied with was the face. Mostly, his nose was the issue, being just a misformed lump on his face, but the general shape of his head was none too pleasing, either. So, I decided to redo the head. I went with Ragnar's trademark howl for his expression on the new head, and added a couple of braids on him. I wasn't sure if he canonically has any facial hair after rising to a Wolf Lord, but I had always imagined Ragnar with sideburns, so that's what I decided to sculpt. His high top knot is what marks him out as who he is, but I also added a couple of thin braids on the model, just because.

Having painted him, I'm still not sure if I like his facial expression, as his eyebrows seem a little too high, and his skull shape could have used some more depth, but I decided this will be good enough for now. This new head is just glued on with superglue, so if I so choose, I can yet again change his head without doing any significant damage to this one.

I felt secure enough with my brushwork to freehand the army badge on his left kneepad (white, fanged skull with crossbones on a black background). Turned out pretty well, actually. Probably because I kept it simple.

  Frostfang turned out well, considering how tough it is to sculpt chainswords by hand. There's probably a trick to it that I don't know, or maybe I should just use different material for weapons.

 His backpack may be my personal favourite part of the finished model. I'm particularly happy with the freehand design on his helmet crest, but the gemstone and the patinated wolf heads worked out well, too.
 See the first version of the model
See the actually finished model

Blood Claw of the Blackmanes & a change to the update schedule

Some time ago, I decided my army needed a large pack of Blood Claws. Fair enough, except that most of the default Space Wolf heads have at least some beard, and in my head canon, Blood Claws are expected to shave their faces until they earn the rank of a Grey Hunter. According to the fluff, most Blood Claw packs are fairly large, and one of the reasons Space Wolves often go bareheaded is so that they can be recognised when accomplishing great deeds. Blood Claws would have greater need to be recognised than most, so it stands to reason that all or nearly all of them would be modelled bareheaded.
Now, that makes a tricky combination: a large group of models, modeled bareheaded, with few heads that fit the bill. I would have to get sculpting.

Sculpting fifteen heads out of Green Stuff was a tall order. I still haven't finished them all, though that was mostly because I got distracted by other projects until now. I decided this one should be the first of the pack to be finished.
I was reasonably satisfied with the sculpt I had previously done, though it did need some cleaning up. I defined his jawline a little more and made his neck a little thicker. I also made his mohawk taller and more hair-like.

 I chose to leave his armour pretty unadorned. I assume that warriors need to earn the pelts, necklaces, totems etc. they wear, and a Blood Claw would have a hard time earning them. On one hand, they are less experienced and skilled, and on the other, their commanders are going to want to keep them hungry for glory. A complacent Blood Claw is not going to be of a lot of use.

 I glued soem pieces of cork to the base, as usual, to make it look a little bit more interesting. It does make him stand out somewhat, which is exactly what a Blood Claw is going to want to do.

His left shoulder pad is from Games Workshop's resin Space Wolf shoulder pad kit that was apparently discontinued when they released the new plastic upgrade kits.

Also, as mentioned in the title, I'm changing the update schedule for this blog. In the future, I'm going to post on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. This is because on average, it takes me longer than a day to either finish modelling or painting a figure (after all, this is not my job), and I need the days off to have something to show. I was able to keep up daily updates so far because of the models I had already finished, but there's a limited number, and I prefer to have some in the buffer. Also, not having to worry about quantity allows me to focus more on quality.

First of the Void Claws, finished

The first actual model I blogged about is now painted, based and varnished. In a word, finished. More importantly, I'm pretty happy with the way it looks.

 I left the helm more or less undecorated, instead focusing on decorating the body. The combination of the Wolf Guard torso and the customised legs, together with the purity seals and extra cabling, gives the model enough character, without appearing too busy (on 40k scale, at least). 

 I was initially going to just paint the rims on his shoulder guards with a metal colour, but then decided to do a little better and painted the alternating triangles in Wolf Guard colours. I'm glad I did, as this looks a lot more interesting. Also, the studded leg looks good, giving the model some extra edge.

The chains are where I was originally going to connect the extra cables, but the part of the model was a little too flimsy for that. I stuck the chains in to cover up the holes. This way, the model's back has something interesting going on, too, even if they do resemble a tail a little more than I'd like.

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.

Mk. IV Venerable Dreadnought with close assault weaponry

Bjorn the Fell-Handed is, appropriately, the HQ unit I have had ready for play the longest now. The dreadnought kit left a lot of pieces over, and I have had my eye on Forgeworld's Venerable Space Wolves Dreadnought for some time. The decision to order the resin body and combine it with the other parts came naturally.

 As awesome as the banner in the kit looks, I decided to leave it out, perhaps using it as a standard for a Grey Hunter squad in the future. I didn't think it would be right if some other Dreadnought had a banner larger and more impressive than Bjorn's.
Standard Blizzard shield looks good as it is, but I still wanted to add a wolf tail talisman, even if it was only out of stubborness.

 I felt like the double-headed Fenrisian great axe looked a little too bulky, so I trimmed it down, removing one of the blades and sculpting a wolf scull in its place. I also sculpted a couple of extra wolf tail talismans to add a sense of movement to the piece

The standard dreadnought chassis looks pretty squat, making it look in a way powerful, but also making it difficult for it to look dynamic. I decided to elevate one of the model's feet slightly. This gave the model a little more life.
The Dreadnought still needs smoke launchers. Green stuff doesn't lend itself too well for making mechanical parts. I'm thinking of sculpting a lot of decoration around the launcher tubes, possibly in a similar fashion to Bjorn's model.