Individual games of Warhammer 40k are won by successful application of the ordinary trooper. True character may have the capability to harvest more personal kills,… but point-for-point nothing can cause the sort of damage infantry small arms can accomplish. Space Wolves are blessed with everything called for on the field of 41st century battlefields; reliability, resilience to damage, and a flexibility to excel in both fire fights as well as close-in assaults.

While often overlooked in the rush of painting a force for the table top, the common grunt soldier possess a lot of opportunity to define a force’s looks, tactical function, and make the most efficient use of point resources. When I decided to repaint my tournament army I knew I had to pay that extra little bit of attention to them as painting competitions are usually won or lost on not how good an individual model looks but how the army as a whole looks.

This is a typical member of my premier grunt squad, the First hunters. They represent seasoned, well equipped, proven space marines tasked with defensive assaults, aggressive APC support, supporting a close-quarter spearhead, or using dangerous but powerful plasma weapons in concentrated numbers to dominate short ranged firefights with other space marines. I have distinguished each member with an honor mark either on the knee pad, over the eye, or along the muzzle of their helmet to denote different battle decorations and previous pack service.

Brother Ivyr here has the trademark stalking knives preferred by the veterans for stealth assignments as well as a point blank pattern rapid fire bolter. He also has a wolf tail on his belt attesting to his personal accomplishment in tracking and killing a predator of his home world in unarmed combat.