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First project in years and i wanted to start with an army i've always been interested in but not enough for a full force, the Space Wolves, more specifically My Interpretation of the Wolves. This will be small non-scenic diorama comprising of 5 or 6 models (to start with) of my brand of Space Wolves. This is a return to the hobby of sorts and i feel i need some encouragement from the community that used to be such a reliable source of it!

The 'Wolves are very evocative to me in very specific ways, some of the artwork really gets me going other parts of it do not. Yes to Wolf Scouts; veterans who forego power armour to be disruptive skirmishers, Yes to Lone wolves; tragic outcasts who seek a glorious death and Yes to the Grey Hunters, stoic marines with a savage edge. No to bejeweled crystal canons, giant wolf cavalry and ginger mohawks. On a more general note i really loved the 'irregulars' feel of their rules in 5 edition, small squads of diverse loadouts, often mechanized along with lots of Long Fangs providing cover.

The first miniature is a Contemptor, the leader of the hunt, an ancient who knows the tracks he crushes under gargantuan feet better than anyone else.


This is the FW Contemptor and it is certainly one for the advanced hobbyist, maybe a poor choice for my first major assembly . The idea is that he is to be pointing the way whilst making an implacable advance, there is certainly enough posability in the model to achieve this (i believe i have thus far). The fingers can even be posed into a point gesture which is great. I went for the two fists, it does help when creating good looking poses to have good arm analogues. Though primarily i've always hated 'Gun arms', probably stemming from the 9-year-old me lamenting that the Cyborg Ninja had equipped himself with a Goofy looking arm-railgun in Metal Gear Solid I also don't care for arm blades or hooks either, i assure you that it comes from no prejudice against prosthetic users!

With each model the idea is to finish the core assembly and then move on to conversion work. Although i am not going for bejeweled swaroski marines for the 'Wolves, i like the idea of rune talismans and pelts.

There's not much to give feedback on as of yet but i'd love to hear it Tell me, what do you like/dislike about the Space Wolves?

I dislike that they made a Santa Claus model for them. It's like games workshop isn't taking itself seriously anymore.

I can't wait to see you tackle the wolves!

Great posing for your contemptor. I love the lore behind their construction and the marines who are entombed within. They are depicted as being far more lucid with the contemptor being an extension of who they once were, over a tank/tomb of the 40k era dreads.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work

~Azalle

Thanks Azalle , that's a cool little tidbit of lore, gave me no shortage of ideas!

I see what you mean Warboss Waaazag, it looks like something Meatloaf would enter the stage on during an 80's live show .

Just finished the core assembly today, put superglue to resin so to speak. Made one or two errors during assembly, most notably the storm-bolter hopper, which should be underslung. Had to pin more or less every joint and would recommend doing so for this kit, alot of weight on a lot of weak joints. It was a pain to assemble but from what i've seen of the new plastic Contemptor i'm glad i've got this one, the proportions are just a little nicer and with it's frankly unnecessary level of articulation it can achieve any pose you desire. On a more subjective note i find alot of the detail on the Betrayal at Calth dread to be 'soft' and unsightly, particularly the motto around the gorget and the 'Corinthian' style petals on the knee guards





Will work on a couple of the marines next, get their poses down and move on to the detail work. For the Dread i definitely want him to have a big warhorn somewhere about his person, part of me want's to go a bit crazy and go for one of these:

(spoilered: large)


I've seen them before somewhere in sci-fi/fantasy but i forget where. My google research told me it's called a 'Cornu Horn' if you wish to look it up for one of your own projects.

Feel free to leave any thoughts, what's your favourite type of dreadnought? Any edition or iteration.

Nice pose there, a definite sense of motion!

Dreads are like Terminators to me, I just can't pick between them (apart from Tartaros Termies, they do nothing for me compared to Indomitus/Cataphractii pattern armour). Contemptors are awesomeness incarnate, the new Leviathan Siege Dread is fething brutal, but the standard Washing Machine On Legs is so iconic and wonderfully impractical!

Looking forward to a more subdued take on the Wolves, while I'm one of the few that likes the new Logan and Thunderwolves and all that (though those Wulfen are tripe!), it's always the stoic, badass warriors that have drawn me to Wolves more than the over the top stuff.

I rather like the Tartaros terminators, i actually own some, the only aspect i don't enjoy are the massive combi-bolters, and the Power fist arms being just a teensy bit too short. I think they would look fab if i could bodge some way to get them to hold weapons two-handed, be it the large bolters or heavy weaponry.

The Cataprhactii terminators suffer from many subjective issues i can't suffer. Decorative raised edges everywhere, something i don't particularly like (although it makes it a bit easier/more fun to paint), i just don't like the helmets and the Roman looking *ahem*, dangly things that poke out of the shoulders are definitely a marmite feature, not a fan personally.

Always LOVED the OG terminators helmet design though, the 'Warthog Stormtrooper' as i like to call it.

Made a little progress, kinda dubious about posting this as they don't look much just yet. I've done the poses for two marines. Some of the epoxy looks really ragged and horrible and i will clean it up.



For the bolter marine i tried to go for a 'tactical' stance. I was watching some of the videos on the 'Vicker's Tactical' youtube channel and i liked the way he moved when he was on the range with assault rifles, the gun tilted towards the chest and the rear of the reciever very close to the chin. I have never handled any fire arms so i don't know if it's the real deal but it looks cool, (I think he's ex-navy seals though). I think it would look better with a weapon that had a butt-stock and a gun with a much smaller foregrip, i actually considered trimming the bolter's one off. Luckily the left arm was just long enough to get under the ludicrously sized bolter.

Something i like about some of the newer mini brands on the market like Infinity and Anvil's 'Afterlife' range is that the guns are far smaller, less dakka yes but i believe it helps to create more dynamic poses. It can get annoying posing marines when more often than not the bolter is either dragging along the ground or 2 foot over his head but enough complaining...... On a related note to quickly mention another great youtube channel i remember concept artist Feng Zhu saying that he discouraged his students from depicting weaponry on their concept designs for vehicles and mecha etc as then it becomes about the gun, 'anything you design should look cool without a gun'.

For the second marine i have begun the surgery required for a more natural walking pose. I figured the way to do this with the least sculpting overhead was to fully rebuild the feet and remove some material from the groin and inner thigh. Something i think GW should take notes on is the fact that most other 'functional' power armour designs leave a hemispherical gap in the inner of the thigh armour, it's more obvious in Computer games as naturally, their designs have to move, see Master Chief from the Halo series for an obvious example.

Feel free to leave any feedback, I've mixed and matched some armour marks to make my marines, what is your ideal mash up of Space marine armour marks?

Very natural poses, I think! One definitely ready for combat, one more passive, definitely works. I've never been brave enough to do more than the simplest conversion work on SM legs, so I'm very impressed with what you have done there!

Love the posing! And you have the grip right on your bolter marine. Grip end closer to the chin, barrel pointed down until there's a target.

The 'Wolves are very evocative to me in very specific ways, some of the artwork really gets me going other parts of it do not. Yes to Wolf Scouts; veterans who forego power armour to be disruptive skirmishers, Yes to Lone wolves; tragic outcasts who seek a glorious death and Yes to the Grey Hunters, stoic marines with a savage edge. No to bejeweled crystal canons, giant wolf cavalry and ginger mohawks. On a more general note i really loved the 'irregulars' feel of their rules in 5 edition, small squads of diverse loadouts, often mechanized along with lots of Long Fangs providing cover.

Amen to this. I used to love the Wolves. The modern incarnation sucks.

The posing on those marines is very nice. I agree with the Afterlife comments.

Thanks Azalle, had a look at your blog, rather smashing, although it seems i have a rival in the kitbash marine stakes

I'm glad we're on the same page Fifty, especially from someone like yourself, a veteran of the hobby/site. (btw not saying you're old or nuthink' )

Just a quick update with an axe head that took far longer than i would care to admit to create, at points i actually felt like some kind of medieval blacksmith grinding his forged steel into a blade. I went for a minimalist 'long-bearded' axe, i've always thought they looked cool. This probably the first Space Wolfish thing, i think it also illustrates what i'm going for rather adroitly.



If anybody is interested i could add a step by step on how i did it, although i made a ton of mistakes making mine i think i have figured out a good process. It would work for any single-bladed axehead you were considering.

That's neat, nice to see a practical weapon on a Marine for a change! Not that I don't love massive double-headed chainaxes that are probably on fire as well, but sometimes, the old ones are the best ones!

I like it, and i agree with Paradigm, refreshing to see something simple but still fits well aesthetically.

haha and yes, a little bit of kitbash rivalry indeed. However, your modeling/creating skills are far better than mine!

Still need to get started re-sculpting the feet, but i thought i'd finish the pose of the second walking marine and do them both at the same time.



The legs on this guy were my first attempt at re-posing and i found it incredibly off-putting, i had to almost completely re-build the groin (in so doing having to re-create that bum plate thing on the back), build the thighs from scratch and finally still re-create the feet. Luckily some symmetry is maintained by keeping the shin guards untouched.

I gave him one of the other space wolf features that i love, the crossed daggers sporran thing. I think it's been with the 'Wolves since the beginning, appearing on some old, old, models.

Very nice job with the posing , I especially like the running bolter guy.

Wow, a lot of work, but it looks like its paying off, love the stance!

Welcome back mate,liking the longaxe

Thanks, Neil, i must catch up on your blog/artistic projects, not something that will only take a few minutes mind you, there's always plenty to digest .

Decided to put some paint on the two more finished conversions so i can get a better idea of what's missing, i am quite pleased with them as it turns out. Just needs a little bit of filing here and there. The studded buckler gave me some ideas for viking style shields on the dreadnought, perhaps some triskelions and what-not. The pelt fit almost perfectly over the boltgun, initially i thought it might be a bit foolish in case he needed to quickly get at it in battle but then i realized guns really should be covered when not in use.





I've still got to add some details to the third marine and assemble two more so i don't think i'll paint them just yet, i find i get my best results when batch painting anyway.

Very promising.

Out of curiousity, will you be going with the original quite grey grey for the Wolves, or the more modern almost-blue colour? I assume from your original post it will be true grey rather than quite blue?