Hairy Barbarians: Trite conformity in modelling Space Wolves

[FuriousFerret]

Hullo,

 

this is a frank and earnest inquiry, so please don't flame me:

 

Is it just me, or do a lot of Space Wolves players go for that samey look for their Wolves? "Lots of hair, please, and wrap them in furs while you're at it."

 

I sometimes want to do a SW force, but am not into all that SW bling. Will other players point and laugh when my Marines wear helmets, go without their fur coats, and leave their wooden shields at home?

 

I find that sort of thing tiresome, and would rather go with the Rogue Trader and early 2nd ed. schemes - they had a bit of SW bling, but paradoxically, they looked much more cohesive than many SW forces I see nowadays. The paradox I'm referring to is that many SW forces in my experience look more like barbarian hordes in fur than a SM force.

 

Your thoughts?

[Thorgad]

I personally abhor most of the un-helmeted marine models, and thus prefer that most, if not all of my marines are wearing their awesome helmets. However, I think that the whole barbaric viking-like theme is an important part of the army, and I don't see the point with making a wolf army without any sort of vikingy gimmicks. Runes, wolf-tails, and totems hanging from the armour is O.K in my force. Coincidentally, that's also why I love the 2nd edition metal models.

 

I would note though, that the beards, braids and long fangs of the space wolves are some of the more iconic features of the chapter, and as such I completely understand why there are so many forces of bare-headed, howling bearded space barbarians.

[Wolf Guard Hengist]

For me its all part of why I love the Space Wolves, if I wanted a standard looking Marine force I would go Ultrasmurf or one of their off shoots. But if you want to uniform your Space Wolves I would never criticise a Wolf Brother.

[Dark Bjoern]

My SW have a nice mix of helmets and without. But a lot of fur and other wolfy bling bling is a must for me.

[Spacefrisian]

I use quite a few bald Spacewolves in my army.

 

HINT: their is a difference in Vikings and Barbarians.

[Skaldnir]

Actually I love the whole futuristic viking feel of the army. It's actually why I started playing Space Wolves to begin with.(If it wasn't for these Nordic Marines i'd be playing eldar and no one wants that)

[Max_Dammit]

You can do what you want, make your bases look like a moon and your fighting in a vacuum, so they have to ware there helmets, make it lava and the air is to toxic to breath.

 

I love my pelts and hair, but there is no one telling you what to do.

[Combat_Vet]

I can understand the reason for the long hair and fur coats. It's the easiest way to show the feral aspect of the Wolves. Any method would work just as well.

 

HUGE difference between a viking and a barbarian. We are the sons of Russ. That means heavy on the barbarian and light on the viking.

 

Better days,

[Combat_Vet]

++EDIT - Of course this is only my opinion. You should do your army the way you want to. As long as the armor is a shade of grey, you should be OK - EDIT++

[Ullr Direfang]

most of my models don't have much Wolfy-ness to them. i tried to make sure that the space wolf sprue stuff was space out over the squads i made. there for i have a lot of helmeted heads, and not many pelts, for i am not a good modeler. but i think you answer is in the fluff. some space wolves don't like to use their helmets because they feel it limits their senses. and the only "real" way for a space wolf to get a pelt is for him to kill the wolf it comes from. i am sure wolf tails and runic pendants are handed out left and right but i don't think every wolf would be decked out in furs.

 

but like everyone is saying, it is up to you how you make your army.

[kittenofdeath]

personaly i half agree with the original poster, throwing so much SW stuff at the army that you could paint them blue with gold trim and people would still think they're space wolves isnt the way i do things in my pack.

 

i believe that there should be levels of it, my blood claws have one or two peices of flashyness each, and no helmets, their to young, beserk and unruley to be putting a helmet on, all that tactical data on the HUD would just confuse the poor dears. my grey hunters on the other hand, have helmets, they have been around long enough to know that stray las fire is at its least effetive when somehow managing to hit your armor, as opposed to unprotected flesh, and a headshot is even worse, and i throw a little extra wolfy bits on the models i like. the long fangs get covered in glue then dropped in my wolf bits-box, theyve been about so long they would have accumulated the cool stuff, and they go helmetless because of the long hair and beards. the would guard are half way inbetween, and the helmets are on some, off others, they always struck me as more indovidual, so i try not to turn them in to a cookie cutter build. the scouts i give a good deal of flash, but not to much, their meant to be all stealthy, they cant afford to weigh themselves down with all the pelts and what not. and any of the HQs get as much as i can get on them.

 

but the day i put a wooden sheild on one of my space wolves is the day i cut of my hand so i can never make such a badly thought out model again

[Max_Dammit]

but the day i put a wooden sheild on one of my space wolves is the day i cut of my hand so i can never make such a badly thought out model again

 

And why would putting a wooden shield on a model be a bad idea? It can be a piece of his old history and the iron priest put in a shield generator, I like wooden shields, I just dont use shields in my army.

[obs0l3te]

I go with how the 1st codex looks. (cause most of my army consists of the original metal blood claws grey hunters etc.)

 

basically what I do is, the older the wolf the more ferral.

 

Bloodclaws are basic, clean cut, few space wolf decor.

 

grey hunters have more, some with long hair beards etc more stuff (earning the right)

 

etc.etc.

[FuriousFerret]

@ all: thank you for your replies.

 

I found some marines - Valerian's contribution to the SW Painting sticky - that I really like. They're subtle, and actually quite like the older SWs from back in the day (mid-nineties, I am getting old!)

 

LINK: Valerian's awesome Blood Claws and Grey Hunters

 

@ Kittenofdeath & obs0l3te : I like your approaches to blinging up your SWs.

[lunchb0x]

Hullo,

 

this is a frank and earnest inquiry, so please don't flame me:

 

Is it just me, or do a lot of Space Wolves players go for that samey look for their Wolves? "Lots of hair, please, and wrap them in furs while you're at it."

 

I sometimes want to do a SW force, but am not into all that SW bling. Will other players point and laugh when my Marines wear helmets, go without their fur coats, and leave their wooden shields at home?

 

I find that sort of thing tiresome, and would rather go with the Rogue Trader and early 2nd ed. schemes - they had a bit of SW bling, but paradoxically, they looked much more cohesive than many SW forces I see nowadays. The paradox I'm referring to is that many SW forces in my experience look more like barbarian hordes in fur than a SM force.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Agreed, thats how ive done up my wolves SINCE 2nd edition!! LOLOL I always thought it looked good then, and still do!!! Plus my first "army" was a squad of Termies...assaultcannon/cyclone missle launcher combo for the win!! LOLOLOLOL

[Scy]

The more hair and fur the better as far as I'm concerned. My whole Space wolf army will be helmetless bar a squad of terminators with storm bolters who I want to look like they come under a hell of alot of punishment.

[Grey Mage]

*shrugs* To each their own. I think space marines without their helmets are a little silly... but on the other hand I couldnt pass up the oppurtunity to use them. So each of my packs has about 1/5-1/10th of its members without helmets. However I wont let my WolfGaurd or IC's be so silly.... stray shots to the head will kill you.... if they dont, I might.

 

On the other hand I only give pelts to ICs and WG. Vehicles get some, as a distinction of service. Only half my dreadnaughts have one.

 

Runes on the other hand..... well everyone has atleast one. I use them as my pack markings, and many have more on them. But, I love runes.

[MaveriK]

I love the old 2nd edition models, their one of the reasons why I started playing Space Wolves. How you model your army is up to you, how you view your Space Wolves is also up to you, just as long as you stay true to them and RUSS. At the same time, the technology and process back then in 2nd edition were limited to what they can do now with plastics and metal figures making each army unique to what you as a player want your army to be like.

[Growler67]

Your Army, have them how ever you wish. If anyone gives you words over them, take them to the field of battle and flog them mercilessly in front of the the other nay sayers.

[TAVAAR]

I personally use the helmets on almost all of my SW's. I don't think that many of the un-helmeted heads look even so much as decent (not to mention when I Have an army to paint I hate painting faces, especially seeing as I like painting by far the least of anything within the hobby). As much as I would like to go more with the "fluff" of SW's not liking to wear helmets because it dilutes their superior scent and hearing, I still can't bring myself to model more than 1 in 15 of then without a helmet.

[Vash113]

Like some of the others, the older the wolves the more "bling" they get. The Blood Claws are the only ones silly enough not to wear helmets for the most part, a few of the Long Fangs go without helmets but I didn't model them so oh well.

 

Lots of my models have pelts, everyone whose a "Pack Leader" and/or Wolf Guard and up gets a Pelt. I also add a lot of other details to the armor in the form of markings, runes, heraldry, kill markings, campaign badges and so forth. Blood Claws don't have any but the more veteran the model the more of their armor is covered by markings, adds a nice contrast to the dull grey.

 

My Ultramarines are uniform, each of my Space Wolves is more unique.

[muzzyman1981]

Let me say first off that it's YOUR army and you can do whatever you feel like with how it looks.

 

I however personally try to use as many bare heads as possible because Space Wolves rely much more on their ability to operate like a....well....wolf. They have a greater sense of smell, possibly better hearing and eye-sight (those last two are probibly marginally better, or maybe not) than other Space Marines. Which is why I prefer them without a helmet, it "lets them use their senses" to the fullest. If you take the Ragnar books as fluff, then it also lets them communicate to a degree with scent, which is hampered by wearing helmets.

 

But that's my opinion....

[Marek Grimfang]

My wolves have black armour, not grey, and have yellow pads.

 

I dont kit them out with "SW Bling" aside from what comes on the sprues. Im not into the beardy hairy look and right now, pretty well no mini is bare headed.

[JEFF4i]

Whelp, you must come from the warmer regions of Fenris!

 

This wolf finds his hair essential for the cold climates of the Fang.

[Vash113]

The cold? Bah the cold's no concern, we all know beards serve a highly important function. Namely catching spilled ale. :huh: