Dark's Space Wolves

[DarkReaper40k]

What feels like ages ago I had set out to tear a part my original 3rd edition Space Wolves army and completely rebuild them by including pieces from the newest line of sprues to give them new life and attitude.

I started off by dumping every miniature in a cleaning solution called 'Simple Green' for a week because it is excellent at chewing away at the paint and leaving even the plastic miniatures underneath unharmed. Now granted for some models which had more than one coat of paint on them (ahem... I was a newbie once... lol) I had to scrub off what paint I could with a hard denture brush before putting them back in the simple green bath for another week to remove the rest.

Once done, it was a matter of carefully cutting the limbs off and in some cases power packs and heads before giving them some new equipment while giving the older pieces to some newer age bodies to give the over all army a bit of new and old school image.

My old 3rd editions rhinos to say the least had seen far better days and since I really wanted to go more armour based for this army, I started asking friends and family to buy me tanks for birthday and christmas gifts which worked out quite nicely despite taking awhile to accumulate all that I required. Either way, I went about building them one after another and go the idea to add bullet holes and gashes in the hauls to look like they were really in the heat of battle. I tried not to go too over board though as you don't want your tanks to look like they're on the verge of being a scrap pile! (Unless your an Ork player... you might then!)

Any who, paint removal, miniature restoration and war torn details complete, I sprayed the entire army a base of Chaos Black and spent a fair bit of time deciding on just exactly how I wanted them to look. I knew right from the start that I wanted to avoid the typical bright space wolves grey scheme as it just doesn't strike me as a rough and tough sort of army. I eventually dry brushed them to exactly that but then covered them in a wash of Badab Black to tone them right down to what I can only really describe as a stone grey and found that I really enjoyed that look. So I went about painting in the details while still deciding on which great company symbol to use and how I'd approach pack markings... which I have more or less figured out now but is always subject to change as I go along.

Now with the story of my long adventure to getting to this point complete, I'd like to share the first photographs of completed work with much more to come in the following weeks as I finish off each pack and vehicle. So to start off, here is my Drop Pod from a front view closed up, side view closed up and finally with all hatches open!

What do you think?  

[Lady Blodwynn]

Nice! More please! blaugh  

[DarkReaper40k]

Thank you kindly, more there shall be... soon as I can get more Badab Black Wash! sweatdrop  

[Lady Blodwynn]

DarkReaper40k

Thank you kindly, more there shall be... soon as I can get more Badab Black Wash! sweatdrop

I think you mean Nuln Oil, seeing as Badab Black has been discontinued!  

[DarkReaper40k]

Are you... seri... oh merciful mongoose... T.T

Thank you Wynny, do you by chance know if it's as good as Badab or have they completely changed it up again?  

[Lady Blodwynn]

DarkReaper40k

Are you... seri... oh merciful mongoose... T.T

Thank you Wynny, do you by chance know if it's as good as Badab or have they completely changed it up again?

Oh dear, where have you been?! The whole range was revised back in April.

You may want to use this comparison chart for future purchases.  

[DarkReaper40k]

Lost in the warp I think, lol.

Thank you.  

[DarkElf27]

DarkReaper40k

Lost in the warp I think, lol.

Thank you.

I feel your pain, I'm still using Inks instead of washes, my paint kit is -that- old. ^^;

Any luck acquiring your new wash?  

[DarkReaper40k]

I discovered a shop in town that actually had a couple of usuable pots of Badab black left, so I bought them up to ensure I can finish my project successfully.

Now I just need to unpack it all again and get back to painting now that my Halloween preparations (and party) are finished, cleaned up and packed away.

The next part of my army to get finished will be one of the Grey Hunter packs, hopefully revealed soon!  

[Zero_2005]

I decided to go space puppies for my first army....ever...

<.< Painting/assembily is quite daunting....

What do you use as the main armor color? i have the 4 paints that citadel recomends.... but have no idea where/how to apply them!

I have these colors.

The Fang
Nuln Oil
Russ Grey
Fenrisian Grey.

Figured i'd get the base/main color down before letting myself get carried away.  

[Vikki Stardust]

Zero_2005

The Fang
Nuln Oil
Russ Grey
Fenrisian Grey.

Wild guess here, but basecoat with the fang, liberally wash with nuln oil, rough highlight with russ grey, then light highlight on top of that with fenris grey.  

[DarkReaper40k]

It really depends on how you want your wolves to look in the end Zero.

Most tend to go the traditional codex colour scheme with that bright space wolves grey colour but I like to be a little different and so my wolves have a darker, more rock/granite look to their armour.

So... that being said, here's my painting order, keeping in mind I'm an old wolf and don't use the latest and greatest paints (until I'm forced too because my old paints run out anyways lol).

I start by basing the entire model with an even coat of chaos black spray paint. Once done, I dry brush a layer of shadow grey on to it followed by a dry brush of space wolves grey. I then take Badab Black Wash and as evenly as possible run a coat of that over the model because what it does is even out all the dry brush work, darker the recesses and make the now painted armour have a sort of rock/granite grey look to it.

After that is done, I go about painting all the details. Most details get a base of scorched brown and then depending on what it is I change up the mixtures. I say mixtures because I don't use straight out of the bottle paint at this point, everything is scorched brown + something for the mid tone and then that same mix now with bleached bone to make a lighter shade. I then hit it with a brown wash to tone it down.

I find for fur pelts I tend to mix red gore or vermin brown to give them varying fur like colours (I generally save black/grey pelts for leaders consider the lore behind Ragnar Blackmane).

With the banners and scripts that adorn armour, I tend to do scorched brown with increasing levels of bleached done with skull white high lights before hitting it with a wash. This is also for the wolf teeth decorations.

If you pick any of your men to have helmets off, painting their hair is much like the wolf pelts... just pick a colour and go for it.

As for the flesh, I paint each guy separately and remix to give each a slightly different skin tone to make it more diverse and interesting. Not just to avoid the cookie cutter look that most guardsmen players fall into (power to them for putting up with painting that many faces!) but also because in the Space Wolves lore, the troops come from all over Fenris and while some are more land based, others are more ocean or mountain based and it is described that different tribes have pigmentation variations as a result, so I try to represent that in my army.

This... was probably a lot more than what you were asking for but hopefully it helps, if you have any more questions feel free to ask. I'm happy to help. ^_^  

[Zero_2005]

Helps alot! biggrin

Here are my first three prototypes. I've painted each one differently as i've tried to improve on what i didn't like.


Left is my first, right is my second, and middle is my latest attempt. I like the middle the best. I haven't painted the heads properly because i lack a snow white type paint, which i will rectify soonlike. I like the first two's bolter's best, which is just white primer with a few liberal coats of nuln oil. the middle is Ironbreaker pure and simple.

 

[DarkElf27]

...Did you put a beard on a Dark Eldar head...?  

[Hoxtalicious]

DarkElf27

...Did you put a beard on a Dark Eldar head...?

It's hard to make out on a Blackberry, but I think both bare heads are from the Wolf boxed set.