So I decided to do a "blister bash"- it's not exactly a kit bash since they're just small, single figures. Njal was the obvious choice for the pieces I wanted from him, but I wasn't sure what other model made sense to go with him. I scrolled through a lot of pictures and suddenly the option was clear: Inquisitor Coteaz.
He was perfect. Really awesome armor, that nice big pelt, and best of all- a perch for Njal's Cyber Raven! I was so stoked for the project at this point (more on what happened after in a bit). After all was said and done, I ended up with this:
I have dubbed him Alfric Icefang, Chooser of the Slain. I took Njal's staff, Cyber Raven, wolf head, and pelt paws to add to Coteaz. From Coteaz, I subtracted his hour glass, his 47 Inquisitorial "I"s, his belt buckle, purity seal, the eagle, and his hammer. I also added a belt piece and wolf tail from the Wolf Pack box for a little bit more wolfy flair.
I did a very rough test fit (thank you, blue tack) with everything to make sure it looked the way I wanted. I debated between two different belts, and asked Twitter for some help. Twitter responded overwhelmingly in favor of the belt I ultimately chose. It really does look nicer with this belt, thank you for your opinions.
Then I got started on the green stuff work, mostly on his back with the wolf pelt to blend the 3 pieces (head and two paws) into the pelt on the model. Because Njal uses his staff with both hands, I had to scrape off both of them and sculpt him a new hand in a different spot along the staff. I cut a few extra runes into it, where the hands had been.
As I plan to run him with the Chooser of the Slain option, I also made him a swanky special marker to use for it. I pulled out the Blu Stuff for this, so I could duplicate the Cyber Raven that came with Njal. It didn't come out super great (I misaligned the two parts of the mold just a tad). But he's good enough, and best of all, he didn't cost me anything.
I'm honestly pretty enthusiastic about painting him, too. The tree bits came from Secret Weapon minis, part of a fall foliage kit I bought a while back.
Now for the depressing part. It was a PITA to get these two models. They're both "webstore exclusive" so I couldn't go to my FLGS and pick them up. Then Coteaz was out of stock on GW's site. I found one on eBay, but had to wait almost a week for the auction to end and then waited another ten days for it to arrive.
But there wasn't an unassembled Finecast Njal on eBay. He had to be Finecast in order for the project to be anything approaching practical. So I ordered him from GW. I had him shipped to store, because I wasn't going to pay $9 for shipping. Then he was suddenly out of stock on the site and my order was pending for two weeks before he shipped. This was all incredibly annoying.
So nearly a month after I wanted to start working on it (in which time I found out about, fell in love with, and preordered Stormclaw, I might add), I finally had both models. I'm really frustrated by all of this (and with Stormclaw's slow meander across the country). I don't think I will buy anything directly from them again, limited edition or otherwise.
Overall, I'm very happy with how he turned out (despite the difficulties). After the green stuff has had time to fully cure, I'm going to prime him and then it's time to start painting. He and my Imperial Knight are the only projects I have to finish in time for the NOVA Open next month. Rumor has it the new Space Wolf codex won't be out for several weeks still, which means it'll be too late to use it at NOVA.
The good news is, I won't be adding anything last minute to the army due to codex changes. The bad news is, I will have to use the old codex at the tournament. While disappointing, they set the cut off date as 30 days prior to the event, which is entirely reasonable. It's just bad timing.