Many of the choices I make when building a Warhammer 40k army are done for aesthetic reasons. I have more experience playing a Space Wolves company because the idea of Vikings in powered armor with automatic weapons and the mutual respect of some of the most lethal super predators known to the Imperium APPEALS to me.

These models are nothing more than the dire wolf model’s from Games Workshop’s fantasy range of models. This is the second time these have been painted over as they are part of my recent tournament army renovation. The only thing I did different this time around was to use more dry brushing to bring out the highlights of the fur texture as well as taking a more ‘timber wolf’ direction with their coloration.

On the tabletop their role is largely symbolic. They make the units they are with harder to shoot up, though at the cost of being ablative armor. Their most useful function is if they survive the death of their alpha in battle they negate the victory point loss, which can be really useful considering the majority of expensive characters required by space wolves. (though as sacrificial troops still kind of sad)

Despite being a fairly easy to paint model, I REALLY like the visual substance it loans characters (particularly ones on bikes) and makes a nice natural color palate to off set all the ‘icy blue’ colors of power armour I think. As they do not have a lot of technical looking details they also nice for representing the more pedestrian ‘dire wolves’ found in contemporary fantasy settings.