Wulfen Pack Leader

Like many others, when I first saw the new Wulfen models, I wasn't really sold. When designing werewolf Space Marines, they went for the flatfaced Wolfman type, which I never really liked that much, but more importantly for me, it seemed like GW continued with their style of making models that can only be assembled in one way. Of course, the typical multipart Space Marines are unusually easy to design to be modular, and it doesn't work as well with Wulfen, as they don't have armour plate covering most of their bodies, but looking at the newer Space Wolf character models, the situation doesn't seem to have improved. That's not what this post is about, though, so let's not go there.

 The standard Wulfen Pack Leader pose is, in my opinion, just awful. I can think of no situation where his "who wants a hug?" pose would make any sense, excluding him actually offering to hug someone, which would be just sad, considering that no-one would probably take that offer from a space-werewolf who hasn't showered in 10 000 years. So, I heated up my oven and reposed the torso to hunch over a bit. His loincloth seems to have lost a little detail, but nothing major. To direct attention away from any damage, I glued a medallion from the Wolf Guard Terminator kit next to it.
I hadn't glued his arms or head on at that point, so those were safe.
After reposing the body, I glued on the arms so that they looked like he might actually be fighting, or at least about to fight, with them. I used plenty of green stuff to fill in all the gaps.
Another thing I wanted to redo was the trophy rack. Xenos skulls are nice and all, but this was supposed to be a reminder of the Chapter's past, so I took a Mk. II helmet and remade it into a decorative Thousand Sons helmet. I imagine the Pack Leader having fought him during the burning of Prospero. To tie it in with the "current" 40k universe, I glued a post-heresy Thousand Sons head from the Thunderwolf Cavalry kit on the base.

As customary by now, I glued a Mk. II shoulder pad on his left shoulder and cut some chips on it. The trophy rack behind the helmet came from a ForgeWorld Space Wolves Dreadnought.

At first, I was planning to leave his right shoulder bare, but ultimately sculpted a tri-layered shoulder pad on it.
There's also another Chaos Space Marine helmet hanging from the power pack, to show that at no point after the Heresy did he stop fighting the oathbreakers.
 I may yet continue to add little details to the model before painting, depending on how long it takes before I manage to buy another undercoat spray bottle and how bored I get in the meantime.

Sixth Blackmane Blood Claw

I still haven't bought a new undercoat spray bottle, so while I continue to work on the couple of remaining Wulfen models, it will take some time to finish the pack. In the meantime, I decided to continue to slowly build up my Blood Claws. Slowly, because I still hold on to my decision to hand-sculpt all of my Blood Claws heads. I'd say GW somewhat forced my hand here, though, since so many of the standard Space Wolves heads just don't look like anything that could pass for a youngblood Space Wolf.

 The head admittedly isn't one of my best sculpts, and I may have to improve on it somewhat before painting. Especially the mouth area looks a little off.
The axe is a Phobos pattern chainaxe from Forgeworld, with all the chain teeth taken off and given a slight edge. I wanted at least some of my Blood Claws to have axes, and even if chainaxes would be very Space Wolfy, they're not a valid wargear option in the codex. The next best thing was to modify one. I intend to paint it in darkish metal colour, so it's not confused with a power axe. It also doesn't have the disruption field emitters power weapons have.

 I tried my hand at sculpting what is described as the historical hairstyle as worn by the Normans, ie. a short hair in front and shaved in the back. Historically, this was probably to allow more comfortable wearing of chain coifs, which may not have been worn with padded hood undermeath it back in the 11th century, as weird as that seems. The hair is another thing I may have to improve on before painting.

I wanted to give the model a holster for his bolt pistol. I imagine he prefers to use his axe two-handed on occasion, and doesn't want to just chuck his pistol for that (otherwise, an Iron Priest might chain it to his armour, too, as he did with his packmate) I also noticed that I forgot to include the battle helmet at this point, but will give him one prior to painting (third strike!).

Grey Hunter of the Blackmanes with a Plasma Pistol, painted

Probably the biggest flaw in my Space Wolves army is that I currently have two packs of Grey Hunters, both from different Great Companies. Of course, Curse of the Wulfen brings in Greatpacks that generally allow Land Speeders to be used instead of Grey Hunters, but still, the situation resembles having a Space Marine armour with only two tactical squads. I intend to build at least a couple of Blackmanes Grey Hunter packs, designed for drop pod deployment. In the meantime, here's an older model.

Showing Grey Hunters having close combat weapons can be a little tricky. It's straighforward enough when I model them with chainswords, but if the model is holding shooting weapons in both hands, like here, adding a WYSIWYG close combat weapon takes some more effort. I usually try to model them with at least one combat knife and possibly a bayonet. In this case, I opted to give him two knives on his belt.

 I'm not sure about the bolter's white wolf head. In hindsight, it could have been better if I had also painted the model's hair light gray/white, effectively making him Geralt. As it is, I'll have to leave the witcher-Space Wolf until later date.

I could have made the plasma pistol's glow a little brighter, but again, that's hindsight. I am pretty satisfied with the way the model's pose, with the left arm holding the bolter looking like he actually might be capable of firing it and even hitting something.

Wulfen with a Great Frost Axe and a Stormfrag Auto-Launcher, painted

For once, I'm getting a new unit completed at a fairly decent pace, considering the book only came out last month. With any luck, I'll have my Wulfen unit done by the end of March. Knock on wood, though.

 I wonder if I applied too much spray paint on the model's face, as I seemed to have more trouble getting a clean, detailed paintjob than the previous two. Might be because my spray paint can is nearly empty, and they often act up towards the end. Other than that, though, the model ended up finished in a fairly standard, by now established Wulfen fashion, with a wunjo-rune as the pack marking, a skull on the base and everything as usual.

Still liking the GC marking on the shoulder pad.
I wanted to paint the Great Frost Axe in predominantly cold colours and then contrast those with a bright, fiery red gem in the center. For this effect, I added some Nihilakh Oxide prior to drybrushing with Sycorax Bronze. The oxidisation also works with the fluff, as the Great Frost Axes are supposed to be ancient relics, and the bronze decoration would have somewhat oxidised in 10 millennia, to say the least.

With this model done, I'm 60% through my Wulfen. I still have some work to do to finish the pack leader, and the other model left still needs something to make it a little more interesting.

Why and How to Make a Wet Palette

Acrylic paints, espcially thick kinds, such as the Citadel colours, dry very quickly. This isn't news to anyone who's done any significant amount of painting, but if you use a normal dry palette, you soon stop thinking about how much paint you end up wasting on the palette. The hobby is costly enough if as much as half of your paint ends up drying on a piece of cardboard/plastic/whatever without ever actually contributing to the paintjob.
I must have known about wet palettes longer, but hadn't really thought to make one until recently, and I have to say I feel silly for not having done it earlier.

 All it really is is a shallow plastic container or a tray, some paper towels and a piece of baker's parchment paper. Add water and you're done. I wanted to use a container with a lid, in case I make a larger project with which I have to use mixesd paints. If I stop painting for the night and close the lid, the paint will still be wet enough to paint with the next day, albeit thinned down. It would probably be even better if the container had some sort of seal around the edges when the lid is down, but this works well enough as it is.

The actual "assembly" involves placing the paper towels in the container, getting them wet and laying the parchment paper on top of them. The parchment paper is used as one would use a palette The paper towels will wick water through the parchment paper, keeping the paint from drying. The whole project costs around as much as one or two pots of Citadel's paints, depending on how fancy container you want to use.

Wulfen with a Great Frost Axe and a Stormfrag Auto-Launcher

I'm continuing my trend of giving my Wulfen the Stormfrag Auto-Launchers. Points-wise, they're cheap, especially considering the total points costs of the models, and having enough of them might offset the low ballistic skill of the Wulfen. The current plan is to give one to everyone in the pack except for the pack leader, who would be the only one with a trophy rack instead. This would help distinguish the pack leader from the rest, and would also mean that the pack won't be left without assault grenades after one unlucky challenge.

 I glued the auto-launcher in a more upward position than on the other models. This was partially to get the right effect, but also because of the guy's wild head of hair, which would have gotten in the way if the launcher was too far forward.

 I glued a couple of pieces of cork to the base, and a skull from the Thunderwolf Cavalry kit. The intention is for the model to seem to be running on rocky ground.

I gave the model's backpack one of the medallions on chain from the Wolf Guard Terminator kit, and glued a wolftooth necklace to the shoulder pad. The latter took some green stuff to get a proper fit.
I'm hoping to get the model painted fairly soon, though I have another project underway (well, I always have way too many of those), so I don't know which will the next post be about.

Wulfen with a Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield and Stormfrag Auto-Launcher, painted

The reason I often leave the pack leaders for the last is that it takes some trial and error to get the right feel to a pack, especially if the models are something I haven't modelled or painted before. This was shown true of the Wulfen, as well. I'm much more satisfied with the way the second model of the pack turned out than the first, and can only hope to continue the upward trend.

 I left this model's hair a lot reddish-browner than the previous one's. One could argue that the Wulfen are approximately 10,000 years old and should all be old and grey by now, but it should be remembered that time in the Warp has little meaning. Also, Njal Stormcaller is a few centuries old, too, and has not gone grey at all, so there is a precedent. Additionally, the whole curse of the Wulfen thing is one huge unknown variable, and finally, Warhammer 40,000 is not exactly hard sci-fi, and things generally tend to work the way they do because shut up, that's why.

 I came up with the idea of a quartered design for the Storm Shield, and have to say I really like the way it turned out. This would be a lot more difficult to pull off with some of the other models for Storm Shields, but the regular diamond shape at the shield's center gave me an easy way to divide it into four equal pieces. The colours were chosen because of their association with the Wulfen through their pack markings as well as the 13th Great Company badge colours.

Speaking of, still liking the GC badge on the left pauldron. It works well as a method of  tying in the otherwise chaotic pack.