Mr. Dandy's "Battle-Wolf War Mounts"

If you have not heard of Mr. Dandy's resin Thunderwolf Cavalry models, then you need to visit his website and fall in love with his models. So far I think they are the best Thunderwolf variants circulating on the Internet both when it comes to quality and price. There are 5 different poses: baying, sentry, rearing, tracking and lunging. A full set of 5 (or whatever 5 poses you want) runs you $90 + $5 shipping. Each individual wolf is $20 otherwise.

About a month and a half ago me and my buddy ordered 17 of them. O_O
Yeah, I know... tons of money... but money spent well nonetheless.

I am here to describe the process of assembly and to post some pictures of the assembled Thunderwolf Cavalry. Also included are pictures of 5 out of my 6 guys on Thunderwolves. My Wolf Lord is not yet assembled.

They were out first resin models. At first we were worried and bought some masks to protects us from airborne dust particles, but we never ended up using them.
The Thunderwolves came in Ziploc baggies. Each one contained the pieces needed to assemble the models, a resin base and for the dynamic poses the sculptor included clear plastic rods for support.

Sentry Thunderwolf with Bolt Gun

To get rid of any chemicals stuck on the models we filled each baggy with some liquid soap and lukewarm water. We then closed each bag and put them in a cooler filled with lukewarm water outside for about an hour. Proceeded to scrub each and every piece with a brush and some liquid soap, then rinsing them in some more water. It is very important to clean each individual wolf and take your time. Do not forget to put them back in the baggies so you don't mix the parts.

Tracking Thunderwolf with CCW/bolt pistol.

There was plenty of flash that was very, very easy to remove and of course lines that had to be filed down using a GW file or a hobby knife. We then carefully rinsed each wolf with water and dried them using paper towels (again, placing them in baggies).
The followed assembly was a piece of cake. Each leg is labeled whether it is left or right, all tails (except for Sentry wolf) are identical and positioned the same way. I really recommend GW's new Super Glue with the applicator - it did wonders for gluing the tails on. No pinning was necessary, although we had to green stuff a lot of cracks.

Lunging Thunderwolf with CCW/Storm Shield

We pretty much had to fill in any connection points with green stuff to hide the gaps. For example, there were visible gaps where the jaws connected to the head, where legs and tails attacked to the body. However, green stuffing over fur is a piece of cake. All you need is some patience, green stuff, the sculpting tool and a hobby knife and you are set.

For the lunging and rearing, we had to drill a hole in the body to put the plastic rods in and then used green stuff around the area where it connected to the base and the body. These wolves were also pinned to the bases for extra stability.

Baying Thunderwolf with Thunder Hammer

 The rider legs are universal Space Marine legs. They are all the same and fit on every wolf. We had to make a little ball joint out of green stuff on top of the legs, because the flat, rectangular surface did not match the oval part of the Space Marine torso. Some filing was needed to make sure they fit. We used super glue to connect the legs to the saddles and the legs to the torso. If there were any weird gaps, we just sculpted some fur accessories. You might need to pin/use green stuff on the rearing rider, because he'll end up leaning waaaay back.

Rearing Thunderwolf with Melta Bomb

As you can see, the Thunderwolf models look phenomenal. I personally think that they are worth the money and the extra work, because the models are so spectacular-looking and good in the game. It is a shame that Games Workshop has not yet released their own official models for the Thunderwolf Cavalry unit from the Space Wolves Codex. The big, bulky monstrosity that is Canis Wolfborn is too static and awkward for me to spend 40+ dollars on, jsut to chop it up and cover most of it with green stuff. I cannot wait to start painting them.