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Old school Ragnar, Ulrik, and Njal


Wulfebane

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looking good wulfane, but have you considered making him blond like he originally was? it might be a great way to not get his hair mixed up with his blackmane pelt

 

/sigh

 

That question torments me. Should I go blonde or black? The only source that has him blonde anymore is the 2E (and previous) codices. All of the book references have him with black hair and the 5E codex agrees. I find the black more suitable in general, but I'm big on lore accuracy, and am always curious which is right.

 

I'm confident I can make the two shades dissimilar, but I'll open it up anyway. What color do you all think is more accurate, lore-wise?

I would go his black black since he is young and we are led to believe via the Space Wolf series that the Fenrisian wolf he killed was old which would lend to a older charcoal grey coat.

 

To the original topic, I have never wanted to use Ragnar so never aspired to convert him. Seth would be my base.

 

Russ would be one of my projects, working with bits from Forgeworld and the termie box. Not too inspired by him other then when I play a Loganwing list.

 

Njal inspires me. There is reference to him in one of my fluff bits, albeit very small. I don't like picturing him as he has been represented, Gandalf, "Thou shall not pass!!" I would be inclined to represent Njal when he was a bit younger. His true powers tapped, but wildly out of control.

 

To veer off just a bit, Bjorn is one of my inspired conversions as well. I want to capture him post-Prospero and pre-internment. It is my opinion that is when he was at his greatest and most lethal. I would rep him as. WGPL or WGBL, wolf claw and combi-weapon with the feral look from the Visions of the HH artbook.

 

Forgot to add my last inspiration. Not a character or named SW, but what I would call, "Wolf in repose." Several times through the various SW novels their are very brief moments, be it in between action scenes, waves of Chaos spawn, the moment before disembarking, that we have Space Wolves remembering not only who they are, but who they were. A lot of times, the author has simply given you a glimpse into the vast humanity that still remains within the Space Wolves. Might be just a moment of sadness of what could have been in their old life replaced with a feral grin of what purpose their new life has given them.

 

So I wonder if I could capture that moment in a pose, a moment of quiet contemplation either before the storm or while the eye passes over.

Ok, it's nearly there. A few small details and basing (shown @ lower right of some images), but otherwise I'm very happy with how he's turning out.

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And here's some close-up shots. First one is mainly for showing the face detail. Second one is to highlight on the pommel guard.

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C&C welcome. Hope everyone enjoys as much as I have!

He actually looks really good. I have not seen a miniature that before paint had me thinking, 'yeah, not bad' to 'really good' and your basing is still in progress.

 

Loco.

 

I notice you have not chosen yellow for the frost blade....

I notice you have not chosen yellow for the frost blade....

 

I haven't... It was rubbing me the wrong way. I was trying to understand why, first off, a blade called Frostfang was yellow. And now that it's just another frostblade, I had to question further why it should remain yellow. In the end, I chose to paint it how I felt a frostblade chainsword would look like, and not how previous artists had it (who had also painted his hair blonde).

 

Oh, and I should mention, it's not done. I want the colors to be a bit more saturated along the casing of the blade. Also trying to decide if I want to freehand "FROSTFANG" over it, or other runes, or scrollwork, or nothing...

I notice you have not chosen yellow for the frost blade....

 

I haven't... It was rubbing me the wrong way. I was trying to understand why, first off, a blade called Frostfang was yellow. And now that it's just another frostblade, I had to question further why it should remain yellow. In the end, I chose to paint it how I felt a frostblade chainsword would look like, and not how previous artists had it (who had also painted his hair blonde).

 

Oh, and I should mention, it's not done. I want the colors to be a bit more saturated along the casing of the blade. Also trying to decide if I want to freehand "FROSTFANG" over it, or other runes, or scrollwork, or nothing...

 

If you were around from the '90s, you'd remember that GW was quite excited with quality of their bright colours [such as blood red and sunburst yellow] and I think they wanted to use them on everything they could. :P

 

I actually deeply disliked Razorbacks until '09, which was in part because the original Razorback was an Ultramarine one, but had been covered with red and looked terrible, imo, just because it was The Age of Red and the 'Eavy Metal artists felt everything that could have a splash of red on it should.

 

GW had grown away from that, and by the time LoTR came around, they really started to do excellent realistic painting on whole armies. Yum.

 

I would practise doing the freehand before trying it. It is funny how something like that done poorly can cheapen the whole miniature.

Imo, freehand is like having power armour painted in halves or quarters, instead of just one colour. It looks good, but takes a lot more effort for that little boost you get from it. But Seth's Chainsword is nice and broad, so you have more to work on :HQ:

looking good wulfane, but have you considered making him blond like he originally was? it might be a great way to not get his hair mixed up with his blackmane pelt

 

/sigh

 

That question torments me. Should I go blonde or black? The only source that has him blonde anymore is the 2E (and previous) codices. All of the book references have him with black hair and the 5E codex agrees. I find the black more suitable in general, but I'm big on lore accuracy, and am always curious which is right.

 

I'm confident I can make the two shades dissimilar, but I'll open it up anyway. What color do you all think is more accurate, lore-wise?

 

Does it mention black hair for Ragnar in the 5e codex? I'm in the middle of moving, and don't have my codex around to double-check, but I hadn't noticed it written. Can you provide the quote for me, as I'm frankly surprised they would bother to mention the color of his hair.

 

Anyway, all of the kit-bashed Ragnar's on here look great. I especially like how Maximus-92 used the "tripping Wolf Guard".

 

Valerian

Does it mention black hair for Ragnar in the 5e codex? I'm in the middle of moving, and don't have my codex around to double-check, but I hadn't noticed it written. Can you provide the quote for me, as I'm frankly surprised they would bother to mention the color of his hair.

 

It's not mentioned to my knowledge, but there is an illustration (which, based on the shading, I would not consider any lighter than brown) and a painted model with black hair.

Awesome model Wulfebane. Well done.

 

On the blonde vs black argument - my feelings are this:

Old fluff is the best fluff. 2nd edition had him painted blonde, and that's how most looked during that time.

More importantly, giving him black hair reduces the impact of his title! We all know why he's called Blackmane, but if he's also got black hair it becomes a mere descriptive. Like Johnny Grey beard or Eric the Red. He's called Blackmane because he's got a black mane, geddit? (this is what I think happened when he was repainted for 3rd edition) It just seems a little too simple to me, and I don't like it. Of course now we've got black library covers and yet another another codex with raven Ragnar, but damnit - a line's got to start somewhere and I'm drawing it here.

 

On Greying -

Fluff wise all space wolves are heavily tanned and greying by the time they become grey hunters (hence the name) but how many of us paint them that way? GW never have (Ragner, as mentioned, is now painted jet black and Loki has a massive head of Red hair). Also, only darker haired people go 'grey.' Not to say that fairer hair doesn't loose it's colour - of course it does, but without that black base it never really looks 'grey.'

 

All of which is my convoluted way of saying I think the most fluff-accurate way to paint him is pale blonde*.

 

 

Tsuro

 

*apparently 'towheaded' is the appropriate term for this. Thank you internet!

Awesome model Wulfebane. Well done.

 

On the blonde vs black argument - my feelings are this:

Old fluff is the best fluff. 2nd edition had him painted blonde, and that's how most looked during that time.

More importantly, giving him black hair reduces the impact of his title! We all know why he's called Blackmane, but if he's also got black hair it becomes a mere descriptive. Like Johnny Grey beard or Eric the Red. He's called Blackmane because he's got a black mane, geddit? (this is what I think happened when he was repainted for 3rd edition) It just seems a little too simple to me, and I don't like it. Of course now we've got black library covers and yet another another codex with raven Ragnar, but damnit - a line's got to start somewhere and I'm drawing it here.

 

On Greying -

Fluff wise all space wolves are heavily tanned and greying by the time they become grey hunters (hence the name)

 

They aren't called Grey Hunters because of their hair starting to go grey from old age. They are called "Grey" Hunters because they go out to hunt the grey wolves of the marshes as a right of passage for advancement from the ranks of Blood Claws.

 

Valerian

They aren't called Grey Hunters because of their hair starting to go grey from old age. They are called "Grey" Hunters because they go out to hunt the grey wolves of the marshes as a right of passage for advancement from the ranks of Blood Claws.

 

Valerian

 

Yes, they are name it for the progression from Claw to Hunter, but they do go grey sooner than other Marines.

 

+++

 

I think I agree with Tsuro on the hair call - if he has black hair and so is called Blackmane, then he could have been called Brighteyes or Straightnose or something like that, not very cool I'm sure people will agree. Blackmane because he snotted a blackmane wolf = cool. Having not-black hair when being called Blackmane = semi ironic [which is good] and makes his title more striking. The colour separation between pelt and hair makes both more striking too.

They aren't called Grey Hunters because of their hair starting to go grey from old age. They are called "Grey" Hunters because they go out to hunt the grey wolves of the marshes as a right of passage for advancement from the ranks of Blood Claws.

 

Valerian

 

Interesting. I've not read that, I assume it's from BL? Is there a similar bit about the long fangs' famous sabre-tooth tiger hunt?

 

A Space Wolfs' standard progression is based around their age. It may not be spelt out, but when the unit names so closely mirror the physical signs of aging it's more than a coincidence. The new codex lays it on pretty thick in the second paragraph* of the Grey Hunter unit section:

 

As a Space Wolves warrior becomes older...the genetic flaw borne within his Canis Helix begins to manifest physically as well as mentally...Hair begins to grey and fangs to lengthen, skin becomes ever more tanned and leathery and, in extreme cases, eyes yellow and transmute....These are all signs that the individual has come into his heritage as a strong and mature battle-brother at the peak of his powers, truly worthy of the name Grey Hunter...the Space Wolves know that a grey pelt is a mark of the true warrior.

 

But oddly not a single mention of this rite of passage. If that's what they take their title from, surely it would be the thing which makes them truly worthy of the name Grey Hunter?

 

 

Tsuro

 

*The second paragraph of the long fans entry? Talks about their teeth.

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