Lightning Claws for PA

[WereWolf_nr]

I'm looking at doing some dual lightning claw marines in power armor for an army and I want to know how you guys best model them. As I recall, only the Space Wolves have them in plastic.

Are there any other plastic lightning claw pairs and how easily can their iconography be removed if needed?

[SotonShades]

the SM assault terminators boxed set has 5 pairs of lightning claws, and it's really easy to take the iconography off, though a few of the pairs of claws would look perfectly good on space wolves.

[lobster-overlord]

SM Assault Terminators, Wolf Guard Terminators, Wolf Pack (and thus the Battle Force Box), and the SM Commander all include them, although the SM Co only has one, and not a pair.

[WereWolf_nr]

Terminator L Claws don't look right when put on power armor, even if you cut on it to join it at the elbow.

Any idea how hard the PA Wolves iconography is to remove?

[Dezmo1218]

If you wanted to go for the expensive route, there is an older pewter SM Veteran that has dual Lightning Claws...

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1060049&rootCatGameStyle=

And then there's Shrike..

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1060117&rootCatGameStyle=

I haven't tried the Terminator claws method myself, but I could see it working if you could cut them at the wrist where the arm meets the oversized gauntlets. Maybe use guitar string or small gauge wire to redo the cabling from the shoulders to the wrists.. Could be done with some work. I think the Termie claws are still a wee bit bigger than the regular PA gauntlets, so it may look a little funny even when done this way.

[archimbald]

the SW iconography isnt that hard to remove, just a file would do and snips if you want the dangling bits off

[WereWolf_nr]

If you wanted to go for the expensive route, there is an older pewter SM Veteran that has dual Lightning Claws...

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1060049&rootCatGameStyle=

<snip>

I think the Termie claws are still a wee bit bigger than the regular PA gauntlets, so it may look a little funny even when done this way.

I actually have that model hanging around and had forgotten about him. As for the TDA claws, the power fist portion is significantly bigger and looks out of place, I've tried.

[Javsgotyournose]

THe space wolf icons arent hard to file off. what is challenging is changing the position of the arms to do what you want. I scraped off the icons using an exacto knife and was able to get it smooth and even.

[shrike]

This is what I do:
either:
cut TDA LC's off at the hand, and glue onto PA arm.

glue TDA LC arms onto PA body, don't glue on TDA shoulder pad.

[Mes]

I made some decent looking claws for my chaos chosen using regular hands with all weapons removed, narrow sprue, and plasticard.

1) Trim away all evidence of what was previously in the hand. For chaos marines, this meant a bolt pistol and a chain sword. I then drilled away a bit of the remaining weapon handle from both the top and the bottom of the hand, to make it look like an empty fist.

2) Take a short length of narrow sprue, trim the front perpendicular to the length, and the back at an angle, creating a "wedge"with the long end on the narrow side of the sprue, and the short portion on the wide side. The goal is to slope the back of the claw mount into the forearm just a bit, so it doesn't scream "look at me, I'm a piece of sprue!" when you look at it.

3) Glue the bit of sprue to the back of a hand. The sprue has a trapezoidal cross section, you want the narrow side of the trapezoid in contact with the hand.

4) Cut claws from plasticard, and glue them to the sides of the sprue. If you cut an arc into the claws, they will angle up and out from the back of the fist, then curve back down to come in line with the back of the hand. this gives a 2 bladed claw that I'm really wishing I had a picture of right now because it looks a lot better than I can describe.

4b) Instead of the plasticard, you can use a power sword blade coming out the front of the sprue, over the knuckles of the gauntlet. if you do this, make sure the sprue you use is wider than the blade, and cut the slope in the sprue the opposite way, so the wide side of the trapeziodal sprue cross section is glued to the gauntlet.

The results lack the 'bladed powerfist" look, but are very identifiable as claws. No one has ever questioned mine for wysiwig purposes, and I actually prefer the standard power armor hands as I think the twin bladed fists look way to bulky on power armor.