Aw too bad that Tusk axe is taken, its awesome! Hopefully I can grab a new one soon :) As for the Bristleback hammer: It should work as long as you rig the hammer so the blunt end matches his swing.
I'm going to give the animating a shot, myself and see how I go - I'm curious to learn the submission process for animation! Obviously I'm not going to be animating a courier any time soon but I have some basic animation experience so I think I should be okay :) That being said, if everything goes to shit and my animating…