Vlka Fenryka – Wyrd in Progress

by Migs

“He had finished what he’d been doing with the feathers and the trinkets from his pouch. He cupped them in his hands, blew on them, and then threw his hands up. Something black fluttered away into the canopy. Hawser heard its noisy wings. He got the brief impression of a raven, even though he knew no raven could have been hidden about Wyrdmake’s person.”

Excerpt From: Abnett, Dan. “The Horus Heresy: Prospero Burns.” Black Library, 2014-08. iBooks.

Greetings,

Many new things underway and to share this morning. It’s a delicious and critical phase of the project. The baseline has been established, it has generated an incredible amount of positive feedback, (for example 500 likes, 50 comments, and 50 shares in a post at the Space Wolves FB group) and I really see what needs to happen next. Many of you have also mentioned wanting to see more works in progress.

I am really loving building and painting these, and it’s proven out to be the perfect combination of high level thinking and completely immersive, almost subconscious and meditative doing that sums up the hobby for me.

So what does the army need?

  • more black, red, metallics. Overall it is getting too grey unless future models incorporate more of this.
  • wyrd, wyrd and wyrd. I want to reference, but then expand on the quotation.
  • new sub themes. See above, but also the Martian travelled priests of Iron are coming to play, and their thralls will be wyrder that wyrd.
  • some vehicles, rather obvious
  • 2nd ed magic. I believe for all of us, there is something particularly magical about those early days of exposure to the hobby, and going back to those themes with a few decades of learning can be very rewarding. In this case, converting a Wolf Scout inspired by those brilliant 2nd ed metal scout leader models with the targeted back packs.

So I present you a group of different models. Two new Wolf Guard in Terminator armor and a Wyrdman. All conversion. Several Wyrd thralls. A sub theme of a party going in to the forest to perform Wyrd on the foe. And a Sky Warrior scout to lead them. An Iron priest on a “Thunder Wolf” mount.

I’m really excited about the power of some of these simple conversions. The eerie Wyrdman with the third eye, The thrall with a bucket of entrails to make word happen and the thrall who made the raven.

I’ve also included a size comparison shot of Vlka vs. Legion as requested.

Enjoy and looking forward to the discussions.

wipWYRD1 wipWYRD2 wipWYRD3 wipWYRD4 wipWYRD5 wipWYRD7comparisonVlkaVLegion

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Migs

21 thoughts on “Vlka Fenryka – Wyrd in Progress”

  1. Absolutely loving that bird handler! You truly possess the skill to expand the original ideas far beyond! that naturally comes from breathing the 40k mythos as you do;)
    Simply STUNNING!
    Really waiting the2ed. magic! That edition really made huge impact!!!!

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  2. I love your models, but the photography you use makes it really, really hard to appreciate them. Take the black undercoated model on a black background above – the detail is obscured; more so with the finished shots where the abrupt shadow behind a model detracts from some awesome ideas and modelling. I just want to see more, and see more clearly.

    But your imagination is crazy good, and I’m stealing ideas every day!

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    1. A dozen comments for and a few against usually means the balance is just right, that we are doing simething meaningful and a little novel 🙂 i think the photos of finished article have enough information and angles to see clearly.

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  3. I’ve gotta agree with alfred_the_great. Some of the grey scale photographs make appreciation of your conversion work (greenstuff sculpting, etc.) very difficult. Other than that, these are beautiful creations. I was especially excited to see the Wolf Scout- the power armored marines sometimes get too much love.

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  4. The Wyrd and thralls are such smart choices here. The shared parts really reinforce the idea of a cohesive specialized sub-group working alongside the main force.

    Although I always try to parse out the conversions and what parts you’ve used, I actually really appreciate the post-conversion undercoating and grey scale photos that hide the work. The figures become more than a collection of parts, and turn into found objects of a sort with their own artistic expressions.

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  5. There really was something special about 2nd edition, I’ve been looking to add some of that magic to my miniatures myself lately. The Wolf Scout is beautiful but he Wyrds really take the show. Ingenious use of bits, it always impresses me how little greenstuff you use and still make the conversions seamless. My only critique, small but I think critical, is the beak on the bird – the fact that it doesn’t look like a raven takes me out of the narrative.

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    1. I agree, I think I will paint him as an albino hawk. Feels wyrd and the Rune Priest may well end up having a raven/crow familiar anyway. Sculpting a tiny raven head is beyond my capabilities 🙂

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      1. Yes, that’s a good idea. Though I don’t think reshaping the beak would be all to hard, especially since there is some leeway at this scale, the rest of the bird is a bit too graceful to pass off as a raven anyway.

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  6. Quite a cool collection of additional models you are working on. The wyrd thalls are delightful, their grim leather masks and odd assortment of gear. My favorite is the one with the antlers, his skull-like visage and clawing cable veined hands look fantastic, and very sinister.

    I really like how the wolf scout is coming along, particularly the visual cues to that old veteran Wolf scout. The backpack with the straight exhaust vents takes me back, as does the mohawk (I might remove the braid, as I think it clutters his awesome face and would not be favored by a stealthy assassin, however)! I admit though, at first glance, I thought he was supposed to be just a regular marine in full power armor. I think this is primarily due to the fact that he is so bulky; he looks as tall and stocky as most of your power armour conversions (like the lightning claw guy based on the Gal Vorbak next to him in one picture). Currently, the only part of him that does not look like power armour is his arms, although even one of those has a traditional shoulderpad. I think the model would benefit greatly with some more “scout” additions. Possibly replacing that shoulderpad and giving him a rebreather (both would make him look more like that old 2nd edition model), would be a start. Also, although difficult, you could replace his thighs with quilted leather, separating the legs from that of terminator armour. You could also add a shroud/suppressor to his bolt pistol. I know it is a lot to consider, but I really like the image of this guy, strikingly tall and lean, stalking through the shadows, no need for the encumberance of power armour.

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    1. I think those are some pretty good suggestions from Eric — especially since the scout does seem a little long around the middle section — there just seems to be something slightly off with his proportions, even allowing for the fact that he is a scout instead of a full battle brother.

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      1. Good comments guys. Space Wolf scouts are veteran/full battle brothers though.

        He is a little long looking in the middle section. My biggest reservation about the conversion but also the only one close to impossible to change now. Adding the bigger shoulder pad helped a lot. Originally he had two kroot shoulder guards. Going to tweak him a little more and the use the paint scheme to proportion him better. 🙂

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  7. The Wolf Scout is my new favourite! I don’t know where it comes from, but for some reason I tend to like more static characters to dynamic ones.

    There are boring ways to make static poses and then there are startling ways to do it. First ones are just shapes put together in haste, without any thought given. In the latter it may take just a fragment of moment to see what is happening with the character, and when you see it, the thing comes alive in front of your eyes. In this case the small gesture with his axe hand + the point where he looks at is enough to give him the expression he needs to fit in his story. Even usually boring 90-degree pistol arm fits in perfectly and works really well.

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    1. I like him a lot too. Perhaps my second favorite with Jarl Balewolf in the making. I wonder if I like things with some flaws? With realism perhaps. I also vision this really dark and brooding paint scheme for him that sets him apart.

      And incidentally I started reading a Vlka Fenryka novel by Chris Wraight of the Battle of Fang and it’s shaping up to be quite fantastic. And that features a lone scout, and other really great characters. And a lot of nicely rendered ideas about the Aett and perhaps most excitedly the Aett Guard!

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  8. Fantastic stuff as always!

    My favorite is the antlered Wyrd Thrall; he’s just amazing. I actually have a half-built psyker using the same legs and ordered those arms to use on one of my psykers; they’re just so perfect for the force-gathering pose. But your head choice really makes the model.

    The scout is great too, although I must agree that the torso seems too long. It would of course be nigh-impossible to change so your slimming paint-scheme is probably the best choice. The quintessential scouts of my youth also had puffed-and-slashed sleeves, which I think was a great contrast with both their mohawks the full plate of regular marines, but I guess they wouldn’t really fit here.

    The iron priest is also amazing. That head seems tailor-made for your project. You should totally give another of your martian thralls or priests a double-face in homage to the Will Rees artwork:

    I tried to do it but couldn’t pull it off and didn’t have an appropriate mechanicus model to use it in anyway, but I’d love to see it given miniature form. Maybe forgreworld is working on a double-faced dark mechanicus magus as we speak …

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  9. Fantastic looking models all around! I am always amazed at the quality of work you are able to put out in such rapid succession. I struggle to finish converting and assembling a single model in a month, ha ha. I guess when you have a good idea the excitement can often really push you along. 🙂

    I love your work on the Wolf Scout. That old second edition model is a classic. The inclusion of the backpack and the knife at his waist are nice throwbacks to the classic Goodwin model.

    I like what you have done with the two Wolf Guard in terminator armor (those Forge World Space Wolf bodies are awesome!). One thing I am wonder though; do you think that maybe they are a little small when compared to some of the other marines in your growing force? I am not really sure how you could get around the problem though. There really are not too many models in terminator armor any larger…

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    1. Hi Adam. Thanks. Yes the sizing will be a constant balance. Abaddon is a good beefy body (the first of the two) and the second one with the FW torso I lenghtened and used Arjacs legs for. Those are the biggest citadel terminator legs 🙂 the scout ended up pretty massive.

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