Well, I’m just a rebel. Not only did I decide to do a “wash” to increase the contrast on the lines on just part of this model, I decided to form the hair tufts completely different! I saw the graphic on the back of the package and really liked the way they looked there, so I decided to try to replicate it. And I think I succeeded. And I also wanted the dire wolf to pop out that much more, so I did the black-line wash on just that part of it.

And now I have to confess something… I spent a good bit of time trying to clean this model up after building it. I don’t ever wear gloves or finger cots while building models, but I kinda wish I had with this one. There’s so much open and unetched surface on the front and back of this that any fingerprints or skin-oil buildup (as was the case for me) just screams in your face. And so I spent some time with some alcohol and cotton swabs trying to clean all that off, at least as well as I could manage. So… be warned!

Now, this is actually not too hard of a model, an easy one-sitting build. But it looks great when you are finished! I especially like the inclusion of the dire wolf etching on the back of the shield. The most challenging part, at least for me, was dealing with the tiny pieces of fur hanging off the lower jaw. And forming the jaws themselves, that was kinda guesswork, to a certain degree. As for the rest, it’s pretty straight-forward, and I love the fact that the swords are two-sided (at least at the top) and are folded down the middle for extra dimensionality. Of course, that comes at the cost of having to do a really, really long fold.

So, yeah. Honestly, this is a lot easier of a build than it looks. Each layer of the fur on the wolf goes on fairly easily. I did spend the extra time bending each tuft of hair before attaching it. In fact, I bent each tuft twice, once inside, and once outside. I’m not sure that makes much sense, maybe the color-coded picture below will help. Basically I valley-folded it along the inside edge of the outermost line of tufts, then mountain-folded them on the crease at the middle of each tuft and valley-folded between the tufts. Finish up with a bit of establishing the right curvature, and then it’s just lining up the tabs to the slots and securing them. Seems like it should be just as easy, if not easier, if you choose to curve the tufts out, like suggested in the instructions.

After that, you get to work on the head itself (part 5), which is kinda complicated to fold. I had trouble getting the nose to look right, but it eventually looked alright. The lower jaw (part 6) was what gave me the most trouble, though. Aligning the “gums” (for lack of a better word) with the teeth, and then attaching it to the rest of the head. It was super loose and floppy, at least until I had attached the whole assembly to the shield. To complicate that, there are two little tufts (parts 7 and 8) of fur coming off the bottom of that jaw that I had a little trouble attaching, because the jaw was loose and wobbly. I kinda wish that I had attached them first, and then attached the jaw to the rest of the head.

And, I really don’t know what else to tell you about. The rest of the model seemed pretty straight-forward. The swords go together well, and I like how they attach to the shield in a pretty-simple way, and that the middle sword actually attaches directly to the base on the bottom. The “stand” holding up the shield/sigil is also secured well (much better than the guitar stands, haha) as it’s integrated into the back of the shield.

So, yeah. That took me around an hour and 15 minutes to build, excluding the time it took me to do the “wash” on the wolf parts. Which I did have a little trouble with. I think I really need to get some of that Tamiya Accent Panel Liner stuff and try that out next time I decide to do something like this. You can watch the build video, embedded below, as silent as ever.