Ragnar Blackmane

This is an old project and one of the first conversions I started on when I got back in WH40k a couple of years back. It was always obvious to me that even though I chose Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company to be the backbone of my army, I wouldn't be using the official GW model. A classic it may be, but it just doesn't sit well with the more modern pieces.

 The Frostfang conversion visible here is actually the second version of the weapon I sculpted, the first one ending up being far too clunky-looking to my liking. The version I ended up with was finished just slightly before GW released the Space Wolf upgrade sprue with a nearly identical chainsword.

The piece shows its age in the ProCreate/Green Stuff mix I used to originally sculpt the wolf head on his left pauldron, as well as his pelt, though I did enhance the pelt with some better Green Stuff details later on.
The model is now nearly ready to be painted. Soon enough my army will have a living leader and Bjorn can get back to sleep. About time, too, he was getting a little cranky.
See the first attempt at painting the model
See the model as it eventually turned out

First of the Void Claws

To get started, I decided to choose one of my latest projects, a Wolf Guard Terminator armed with Wolf Claws, of Logan Grimnar's Great Company. First of (at least) five, he is the starting point of my Void Claws formation.

 I liked the idea of a group of Terminators specialized for boarding actions, and thought I might want to make use of these guys with the Space Hulk board later on, too. I decided that I would model the whole formation wearing helmets, in part to offset the otherwise very bare-headed appearance of a Space Wolves army, and in part just because I have always liked the way Terminator helmets look.

I also pretty much refuse to make the standard choices when it comes to modelling and painting, and although (or because?) the Void Claws were pictured to be buildable using standard parts, I decided I wanted to make things differently. That's why I decided to sculpt a fur apron with a tooth necklace (loinlace?) and to add extra cabling using guitar strings. I also added extra metal studs on his right lower leg and added a bunch of purity seals.

The stage is set...

After what seemed like ages, I finally managed to build a set for my miniatures to appear on. I felt like just having them on a dirty piece of MDF would have been dull, so I bought some modelling clay and used it, a piece of aluminum mesh and some decorative effects to make a sort of a platform. I'm fairly certain this won't be the final form of this set, but it is a start.