Wulfen with Frost Claws and Stormfrag Auto-Launcher

It's not March yet, but I managed to get my hands on a Wulfen kit earlier than I hoped. Unsurprisingly, I started working on it pretty much immediately. The kit itself is pretty nice, with high level of detail and relatively large number of various options. There are alternative ways to assemble models to those shown in the instructions, though it takes some trial and error to find them, unless you're willing to use green stuff, which I am. 
A video by TemplarsCrusade01 on YouTube was what actually convinced me that I could start with the kit and end up with something distinct. Had I not seen that, I'd probably have been more conservative with the way I ended up posing the models.

 The starting point for the model is Wulfen #2 from the assembly manual, but after gluing the torso to the legs, I heated the model in my oven for a short time (heating plastic models for reposing them is pretty risky, and ending up with a ruined, shapeless lump of plastic is a very real possibility) and twisted it to the shape I wanted. I also repositioned the arms slightly, and used green stuff to fill in the gaps. The end result ephasizes the Wulfen's speed and ferocity.
Finally, I added a short piece of chain for decoration, gluing a wolf skull from my bits box and one of the medallions supplied in the kit on it.

 I decided I wanted the Wulfen to tie in my 40k and 30k Space Wolves, latter of which will be started at some point in the future. To this end, I decided to give all the Wulfen in this pack at least a Mk. II left shoulder pad. In the book, the Wulfen are stripped of all the remaining pieces of their power armour, which I didn't really like. So, I elected to ignore that particular piece of fluff and decided that my Wulfen would be otherwise re-equipped, but keep the shoulder pads bearing their ancient Great Company badges.

The thin pieces of cabling didn't survive the conversion process, so I resculpted them. The Wulfen's foothold piece of ground warped slightly during the heating and reshaping, so I used green stuff to fill in the gap.
Generally speaking, I'm pretty satisfied with the model. I may add a couple of wolf teeth to the chain over his chest and other stuff like that, but nothing major, as I'm pretty impatient to get these painted. I'd expect I'll have my first pack modelled and painted in a relatively short time, and am pretty sure this one won't be my only pack of Wulfen.

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...

The Blackmanes' Fifth Blood Claw, painted

I haven't read Curse of the Wulfen rules too carefully yet, but Ragnar Blackmane's Blood Claws seemed to get a boost, which I like, as I prefer to make my armies based on fluff, rather than by optimising everything, and having Ragnar Blackmane lead a bunch of grumpy, old Sky Warriors just feels wrong. I still have at least ten of these left to build and paint in this pack alone, so I didn't want to waste too much time between modelling and painting.

 I like how maniacal this guy looks. The way I see Space Wolves, their emotional range should cover berserker rage, stoicism and gleeful joy of battle. GW's kits cover the heads well enough for the first two, but the only example of the last one that I can think of is Lukas the Trickster.

I wanted a model with very light blonde hair, so I continued highlighting the hair to almost completely white, and might have continued up to include it, but didn't want him to look like he's greying.
I also painted several red and yellow individual decorations on the model.

The pack markings came out a little asymmetrical, but since correcting that would have been pretty tricky on a yellow background, I decided to let it be.

The pack is now large enough to be fielded without a Wolf Guard pack leader, yay! I don't think I will, though.

The Blackmanes' Fifth Blood Claw

My only Blood Claws pack is currently four-strong. The impatient and unskilled rookies aren't very useful in small numbers, so there's a lot more work to be done.

 I posed the miniature to look like he's keeping his chainsword ready in front of him, while he fires his bolt pistol. I still have some old Blackmanes' shoulder pads left, and plan to use them up on the Blood Claws, such as here.

 I chose a simple, relatively undecorated backpack for the model, planning to save the more elaborate backpacks for Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard and Long Fangs.

 As usual, I glued his helmet on his thigh. Blood Claws would want their faces to be seen when they fight, as they have everything to prove and want to be seen making their kills.

 I hadn't actually tried sculpting grinning faces before, other than my first attempt at Lukas the Trickster (which I have decided to redo, as well). I think this one turned out fine. Seems like the key is in sculpting the cheeks, rather than the mouth itself.

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.

Preparing and planning for the Wulfen

Since the Wulfen miniatures and rules are now out, and it's a pretty big thing for the Rout, I decided I should prepare to do something with them, too. Notice the word "prepare", as I haven't yet actually bought a kit, and it will probably take about a week for my copy of Warzone: Fenris to get here, as well. However, it's not too early to start planning.

My drawing skills are a little rusty, but I think this gets across my general idea of a Wulfen's face. It would be surprising if I didn't end up sculpting at least one Wulfen head, so I decided I should familiarise myself with their facial structure. The general expression is very ork-like, especially when you can't see their skin colour or (facial) hair (speaking of, it will be tricky to sculpt them a moustache that does not look like enormously long nose hair). The main difference is the subtly muzzle-like shape of their mouth and nose. The chin is conisderably smaller than that of an average Ork, and I may have drawn this one a little too tall. Also, the teeth are more regular and less hippopotamus-like than those of an Ork. Other than these, though, I will have to use hair, skin colour and possibly facial toattoos to make the Wulfen seem distinct from the greenskins, face-wise.

I find that imagining a creature's skull is helpful to get a clearer mental picture of what the facial structure is supposed to be like. Obviously, a Wulfen skull would look like it's somewhere between a canid and a human. Pictures of other primates' skulls would probably be useful references. I also used a troll skull from Skyrim for inspiration, obviously omitting the third eye socket on the forehead.

This little exercise thas led me to currently believe that the Wulfen heads would probably look pretty good if I simply sculpted a human head with a clearly distended jawline and a muzzle-like nose and mouth. The nose would have to be extra wide and flat, and luckily, at least at first, anything I'm not sure of can be covered with thick hair.

Obviously, though I've looked at pictures of the new models online, I won't really be sure of how they look until I have them in my hands. That's also when I'll be really sure about the scale of the models. The Wulfen models are probably going to be pretty significant for my army, and I'm pretty sure I won't be even remotely satisfied by just following the assembly instructions in the box. If nothing else, I'll at least repose the pack leader. The standard pose looks honestly pretty goofy to me, and I expect I'll be replacing it with something more threatening and savage looking, as opposed to the model straight from an all-yeti production of the West Side Story. And since I'm complaining, I'm pretty sure I won't be buying the new Ulrik the Slayer model, either. It just looks way too static for the warrior who earned the repepct of the Khornate Daemon Primarch Angron.

I'm also seriously considering making another model of the Redmaw, to visually tie the character in with the new models. I probably won't do that until I'll have at least one Wulfen pack ready and painted, and definitely not until I've had a chance to take a close look at the new models, so not before March, I'd guess.