The Vlka Fenryka – or Wolves of Fenris – are something of an enigma in regards to the Horus Heresy. They are the ultimate sanction of the emperor, willing to do what ever is necessary. Some call them the executioners and rumours abound that they were involved in the 2nd and 11th legion purges.
Regardless, I have always been mixed about the 6th.
I remember days of Terminators with Cyclone Missile Launchers AND assault cannons on EVERY model and that still brings bitter thoughts all these years later. As the years have gone on I have liked them even less as they became wolfy warriors riding wolves with wolf claws and storm wolf flyers with wolf everything. It just seemed a bit cheap and an easy out.
With the Horus Heresy though… we have far less wolfy stuff and more gritty Viking feel. Less baby blue paint as well!
With the Betrayal at Calth Horus Heresy box here, I had elected to get stuck into my word bearers now I get some me hobby time. The fact I can’t get (and don’t have any) Army painter Dragon Red spray put a crimp in those plans. I could paint cultists but lets be honest, I really wanted to build the shiny new marines and see what I could do with the kit.
I was not sure what I was actually going to build legion wise when I cracked out the sprues. Then I remembered I got a bunch of space wolves, all plastic and new on sprue, in a trade not long ago – 30 grey hunters, 5 terminators and krom (the ltd model) and after digging out a couple of the GW spacewolf upgrade packs (with the awesome shoulder pads and massive chain sword!) I decieded to scratch an itch, army wise, I had had for some time – I would build a drop pod force! The fact I have 3 pods sitting in box on my self also helped in this choice!
I have always liked the idea of drop pods and the 6th do it better than just about anyone else. Building the list squarely with Prospero in mind, it was easy to pick the orbital assault rite of war. This is the initial wave of troops – the ones that claim a beach head for the main landings, something the 6th did a lot during the Horus Heresy.
I am keeping the build reasonably broad as we don’t have rules for the 6th as yet – and I am not expecting them anytime sooner than a year or so from now. I am using the crusade army list for the build but when painted, I wont apply pack markings – this should make it easier to rearrange the units when the rules do surface. In the mean time I can run them as sons of horus (Luna Wolves) or just the generic option – stubborn being the choice for me.
I decided to start with just building a squad of 10 tactical marines, a drop pod and the plastic praetor. I also ended up digging out my 2nd edition metal scouts (which a good mate of mine always threatened me with harm should I ever part with them) so I can run them as a recon team.
The recon team was just a single conversion to make one of the models less identical than his 2 other buddies – an arm swap with a catachan plus a 6th legion bolter and he was sorted. The drop pod was likewise uneventful and build to standard.
For my praetor, I could have just built Krom as he came but I wanted to add my own touch to make him mine. A head swap and weapon swap and he is sorted. I can even use him as Ragnar in 40k games!
As you can see he sports a HUGE chainblade now (my paragon blade) and he is more Mohawk and chops than top knot but I really like him! He looks like he is dancing while on the temp base for painting but he will go onto the proper 32mm with scenic part in due course.
For the Tacticals, I wanted to see what I could do with a kit bash – using parts from the wolf sprues that worked for the heresy and combining them with the mk4 Horus Heresy sprues.
In the end, I went fairly mild in the wolf parts – adding hints and pieces here and there but otherwise keeping them much lower key than 40k wolves tend to be. The Sergeant got a wolf cloak and I used 2 sets of the legs and 3 torsos from the wolf kits. I always tried to match them with a set of Mk4 everything else so they looked like heresy era models while still being a little different.
Hopefully you can see what I mean – there are little things here and there that make them more Celtic in feel (like the shoulderpads and the odd trinket) without them being full of fur and wolf talons. The unit Vexilla is one of the Space Wolf pieces so that there is no doubt which legion this unit belongs too and the 2 bare heads are also very norse in their look with beards and grizzled looks. I added pouches, grenades, blades and pistols wherever felt natural as I intend to run them with the pistol, combat blade and bolter. The sergeant got a combi melta and slightly more fancy armour to give him his artificer cred.
You have probably noticed that I have extra bases in the pictures and that the models are on the older 25mm bases. This is because I like to build and paint the base separate to the models and then pin them on at the end when both are finished. It means any washes I use on either piece won’t ruin any work on the other as well. I just tak them on to the small base with a touch of super glue and they come off with a sharp knife easy at the end.
So that’s what I built in the last 24 hours! 16 Bases ready for spray in the morning, 10 marines, 5 scouts, a drop pod and hero. Not bad!
I also did this guy as a test model for the colour scheme – storm grey should be fast to do which is the goal for this force – on the table in a really short space of time.
He is undercoated black, then sprayed Imperial Grey from Army Painter. My hope is that a couple of washes with Nuln Oil should get the desired armour colour with a highlight or 2 following.
Lets see what tomorrow brings! More building I think… though I suspect I am going to hate drop pods by the end of this army!