Space Wolves Escalation Force Update (October)

We're nearing the end of October, so I wanted to sneak in a force update post for the month.  The escalation league itself is dead, as they are wont to do, but I'm pushing ahead on my goal.  Still not sure if I'll push for 3000 points for the Narrative track, or 2000 for the GT for 2013 WGC.  The GT is obviously easier, but I do always have a lot of fun at the Narrative, and get to hang out with the same group of cool people the whole weekend.

My goals for October didn't quite pan out;  I had planned to add a 500 point section to my force, but barring a last minute push to finish my bastion, I'm going to be adding a total of 345 points.  I had to go back and retrofit some models, adding a lascannon to my older dreadnought, as well as doing a bit of work to bring his look into line with the rest of my force.  I also spent some time turning my Wolf Lord's wolf claw into a power fist, something that I've been needing to do since 6th edition came out.

For actual units, I was at least able to get the four Long Fangs from my current series of tutorials painted up, so there's that.

I'm still happy with my progress;  I've got a 1250 point tournament coming up on Nov. 4, and for the first time since I started playing 40k in the mid 90's, I'll actually be playing with a fully painted (by me) army.  It's small (at 19 models), but potent.  If I am able to crank out another dreadnought lascannon arm and paint my bastion, I'll be shifting Bjorn down to a regular dread, and picking up the bastion for the tournament.

Well, that's it for me!  November should be a good month here at the blog;  I'll be finishing up the Long Fang tutorial, as well as showing the final results for my bastion and of course an army update toward the end of the month.  Plus you'll start to see some WIPs from me on my projects for the 2013 painting competition scene.  I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween.  For my part, I'll be binging on store-bought candy and watching old slasher flicks!

Brandon

Space Wolf step-by-step part 3: Faces, Fur & Bones

I'm back with another round of tutorials in my Space Wolf step-by-step project.  This time I'll be covering the face, as well as the bone and fur areas of the model.  I've also done a quick tabletop job on the steel and soft cables on the model.


My Color List for this tutorial (GW is from the Games Workshop Range, VMC is Vallejo Model Color, P3 is Privateer Press Formula P3):

Black (Primer)

Face & Hair
P3 Sanguine Base
P3 Menoth Highlight
GW Tallarn Flesh
GW Ogryn Flesh
GW Astronomican Grey
GW Ceramite White
VMC Iraquian Sand

Fur
GW Khemri Brown
GW Dheneb Stone
GW Ceramite White
GW Gryphonne Sepia
GW Devlan Mud
GW Badab Black

Bone
P3 Thamar Black
GW Khemri Brown
GW Hormagaunt Purple
GW Graveyard Earth
GW Bleached Bone
GW Ceramite White
GW Badab Black (Optional)

Steel
GW Boltgun Metal
GW Mithril Silver
GW Badab Black


Soft Cables
VMC German Grey
GW Badab Black

Now that you've got the paints, lets start off with the face!

1: The face was based with a 1:1 mix of GW Tallarn Flesh and P3 Sanguine Base.  This base will give your end result a warmer look, which will contrast well with the general cold feeling of the rest of the model.

2: Layer on pure Tallarn flesh.

3: At this point we'll start adding in some VMC Iraquian Sand and being more particular about where we place our highlights.  This step is a 2:1 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Iraquian Sand.

4: Continue the highlights with a 1:1 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Iraquian Sand.

5: For the final highlight, we'll add in some  P3 Menoth Highlight.  this 2:2:1 mix (the "1" being the Menoth) should be very selective, touching bone structure, wrinkles you might want to add and other high points light would catch.  I have also added a glaze of GW Ogryn Flesh in the eye area to shade that part back.  This particular head is pretty squinty, so I just used pure Menoth Highlight to line in the suggestion of his eyeballs.

6:  As a Long Fang, this guy has white hair.  I started with a base of GW Astronomican Grey.  Don't forget his eyebrows (as I sometimes do!)

7:  I gave his hair a pretty liberal highlight of P3 Menoth Highlight, leaving the base in the recesses, or in places I wanted to suggest some texture (such as the top of his mohawk).

8:  Finally, a highlight of GW Ceramite White goes on sparingly.

And that's the head!  If you happen to be painting a Grey Hunter or a Blood Claw, simply sub out the white hair for a color of your choice.  On to the steel and soft cables...

This is a pretty quick process for my tabletop models, and one of the areas where I cut corners to save time, but the pictures serve to show you the overall look of the model at this stage.

On the left, you can see my basecoats:  VMC German Grey for the soft cables, GW Boltgun Metal for the steel.  On the right is essentially the final result after both are washed with GW Badab Black.  The final step is a simple edge highlight on the steel with GW Mithril Silver.  This step isn't shown, due to the limited amount of steel on this particular model.

The final process we're going to tackle tonight is for Bone and Fur, which feature prominently in most Space Wolf models.

1: Both the fur and the bone are based with GW Khemri Brown.

2: Wash the bone with a 2:2:1:10 mix of GW Graveyard Earth, GW Hormagaunt Purple, P3 Thamar Black and Water.  Reapply a thin layer of Khemri Brown as a highlight.

Begin highlighting the bottom half of the wolf tail with a 1:1 mix of Khemri Brown and GW Dheneb Stone, followed by a 1:2 mix of Khemri Brown and Dheneb Stone, and finally add a bit of GW Ceramite White to the mix.

3: Gradually add GW Bleached Bone to the mix and begin highlighting the skull.  For tabletop pieces, I save time by layering in the striated pattern you see above, rather than the wet blending I might normally resort to.

Wash the top 2/3 of the tail with GW Gryphonne Sepia.

4:  Continue adding Bleached Bone to the mix, with an edge of pure Bleached Bone on high points of the skull.

Wash the top 1/2 of the tail with GW Devlan Mud.

5:  Add a bit of GW Ceramite White to your Bleached Bone for a selective final highlight along some of the sharper edges.  I also added a wash of GW Badab Black in the nose and eye sockets, to bring them down a little bit more.

Apply one coat of Badab Black to the top 1/4 of the tail.  Once that dries, add a second coat around the recess at the top of the tail.

That concludes our work for tonight.  Kick back, have a pint (or a keg!), and check back soon for the next installment, wherein we'll take a look at the bronze and leather parts of the model, as well as a quick look at rune stones.

- Brandon

Space Wolf step-by-step part 1: Armor Plates

I've gotten a fair number of requests on how I paint my Space Wolves, so I’m taking some time during my current unit project to make a series of step-by-step tutorials for painting Space Wolves to a high tabletop quality.  The method is mostly pretty easy to get the hang of, only moderately time consuming, and yields a good result, especially if you’re looking to jump on the Horus Heresy bandwagon that is currently picking up steam;  most of my models sport pieces of older suits at least, and my scheme is in keeping with the medium grey, limited palette of the chapter during its legion days.  But enough of that, let’s get to the painting!

First off, let me say that the initial part of this process is done with an airbrush. Any dual action airbrush ought to handle the job, and you might find that a single action will also work, as it’s only for the basecoat and zenithal highlighting aspects of the armor plates; everything else on the model will be done with either a brush or a sponge.  If you don’t have an airbrush, you can layer to build up highlights on the model.  It’s more time consuming, but it gets the job done.

Paints you’ll need for this tutorial (GW is from the Games Workshop Range, VMC is Vallejo Model Color):

Black (Primer)

Armor Plates

GW Dawnstone

GW Adeptus Battlegrey

GW Devlan Mud

VMC Pale Greyblue

Chipping

GW Boltgun Metal

VMC German Grey

For your Great Company emblem and pack markings, use what you like, including waterslide transfers.  Most of my work is done in freehand, so that’s reflected here.

Sunwolf Emblem

GW Tausept Ochre

GW Iyanden Darksun

GW Ceramite White

Long Fang Pack Marking

GW Badab Black

GW Astronomican Grey

GW Ceramite White

VMC German Grey

VMC Iraqian Sand

I’ve broken the paints down to what you’ll need for each part, so if a paint is repeated, it’s simply because you need it for additional areas.

If you find you don't have a paint I've listed (most come from before their range overhaul) and need to know what current GW paint is closest to it, check out the Citadel Conversion Chart!

1: The model has been prepared; mold lines are removed, and you can see the conversions made to the model, including a studded left pauldron, a unique banner device, and his right hand has been built to hold his helmet.  I envision that he’s removed his helmet to use his lupine senses as well as the auspex to "sniff out" enemies to target.

2: The model has been primed.  I used black here, as it sets a darker tone for the armor after the other colors are applied.

3: The model has received a coat of GW Dawnstone from the airbrush.  As the model is tabletop, I keep the paint lighter on the underside of the model, allowing me to use the black as the darker underside of the armor.  If you want your underside to not be quite so dark, you can spray a reverse-zenithal coat using GW Adeptus Battlegrey (something I do when working on a model of a higher quality).

4: I’ve gone over the model with a zenithal highlight of VMC Pale Greyblue.  Keep this coat light, going over the top of the model at about a 20 degree angle.  You should get brighter coverage on high points, like the top of the helmet and pauldrons, and just a bit of paint on lower areas like the top of his knees or his feet.  This will conclude the airbrush work for the model.

5: The armor plates have been given a thinned wash of GW Devlan Mud.  I thinned the wash down to 3 parts water to 2 parts paint, as you aren’t looking to deepen the color of the model much, but simply to give the crevices a little more definition and to take a bit of the blue out of your zenithal highlight.  If I were painting a higher-quality model, I would glaze the deeper areas with GW Leviathan Purple and then GW Asurman Blue prior to this step, to create deeper contrast beyond the Adeptus Battlegrey shade coat.

Keep this coat wet until an entire plate receives coverage, as you don’t want water lines if you can help it.  Don’t sweat a couple of them here and there; we have a trick for that later!  Use your brush to pull the wash toward your crevices, so that a minimal amount is left sitting on the plates.

6: VMC Pale Greyblue has been used to line the edges of the plates.  You don’t need to edge everywhere; in fact it won’t actually look very good if you start lining the black part of the model.  Keep your lines thin, and the plates are done!  Now we just have to add a bit of character…

7a: I’ve added my insignias to the model.  The Sunwolf was painted first with a coat of GW Tausept Ochre, and then highlighted with GW Iyanden Darksun, paying attention to the angle of the plate to continue the zenithal highlight on the plates, and to create a bit more definition on the edges of the fur spikes, etc.  Finally, the emblem was edged with a 1:1 mix of Iyanden Darksun and GW Ceramite White, to get a bit of pop and make the emblem stand out better; You probably noticed when you did the basecoat, that the yellow doesn’t contrast well against the grey.

7b:  As this marine is a Long Fang, his pack colors are black and white.  I keep my markings more low-key, and place them on the right knee.  I start by painting the entire area the pack marking will encompass with VMC German Grey, followed by a wash of GW Badab Black, straight from the pot.  I then edge the high points of the plate with German Grey, followed by finer edge with 1:1 German Grey and VMC Iraqian Sand.

The picture below is a digital representation of how I went about adding the white to form a geometric pack marking.

I start by making a 1:1 mix of GW Astronomican Grey and GW Ceramite White.  For this marking, I started with a single straight line, telling me where the point of the first white triangle would land.  From that point, I made two more lines, creating the outline of the triangle, and then filling that space in.

I decided that wasn't enough and went on to make more triangles, using the first as a guide for my angle, to keep everything uniform and symmetrical.  Once the shape was in place, I highlighted the edges hit by light with pure Ceramite White.

8: Along the way, you probably made some mistakes (I know I do).  Maybe you see a water line on your model, or a place where you edged the armor too thickly.  In my case, you might notice a bit of my sunwolf base color creeping out past where I highlighted to define the fur spike better, at the top of the wolf.  This step covers these issues, as well as making your army look like it belongs on the battlefield.  Take a small sponge (I like to use blister foam) and VMC German Grey, dab the sponge in the paint, and then on a paper towel a few times, and then sponge some of the color on the plates, paying attention to places more likely to see wear and tear, and making sure to hit those spots that have been bothering you up to this point.

9: Take your brush and go back with GW Boltgun Metal.  Paint inside the larger splotches of German Grey, indicating where an abrasion has taken the paint all the way down to the bare metal.  For a higher quality model, my additional step is to go back and edge the underside of the splotches with VMC Pale Greyblue, but I’ve skipped this step for the tabletop models, as it’s more time consuming and they are busy enough from 3 feet as it is.

You’re done with the armor plates!  Hopefully you were operating an assembly line, and have a whole pack done up to this point, in which case sit back with a well-earned ale and marvel at your accomplishment!

I decided to break things up a little and give the PC fang a hard earned honor pad to replace his pack marking, as he and his other PC mate (not shown) turned a full 10-man squad of Necron Immortals to slag in one round of shooting by themselves last week.  Ouch!

Thanks for stopping in, and make sure to come back soon, as I tackle more of the model in part 2 of the Space Wolf Step-by-step!

Space Wolves Escalation Force Update (September)

Well, here we are almost halfway through the month of September and the escalation is in full swing.  I finished my required 500 points for August, and jumped immediately into my September additions, so Grey Hunter squads from both months are in this post.  By stretching points on my HQ units, and adding in a previously painted model, I'm able to field 1000 points now, so I can take the rest of the month to get my remaining unit done and not have to wait until the last minute to get in games that I'll get paint credit for.

Anywho, you probably came here to see some pictures...

This is my second Grey Hunter pack for the army.  You'll start to notice a trend in the units, in that I've got several ways to differentiate my units for my opponent to easily distinguish between them on the battlefield.  For flavor mostly, they have a small geometric design typical of the wolves located on the right knee.  Some forgo this in favor of an honor mark on the same knee.

As that alone is pretty hard to see in the chaos of melee, other features are the differing boss poles of each pack, along with the packs having different shoulder pads, the studded shoulders going to the pack largely made up of mark V & VI armors.

My first Grey Hunter pack is identified by the Wolf Helmets, as well as a skull & crossbones device on the left pad.  I painted more of the models with special gear for this unit, so you can see a Wolf Banner, Power Axe and Mark of the Wolfen in this unit.  I ran into a bit of a setback with this unit, as I ran out of Codex Grey, and must now rely on Dawnstone as my midtone.  This has created a noticeable difference in the armor on my two units.  I think I might be able to bring it in line with a glaze of Dawnstone on the crossbones pack, but that's for later when I have more time;  For now, they'll just have to be a little different.

I had a lot of fun painting this banner.  I like to have a lot of banners in my forces, even for models that don't benefit from the wargear option, and I was able to create a layout that was visually striking, but simple enough that I don't spend too much time on it; I'll save that for the Great Company Banner that is carried by my Thunderwolf Cavalry unit.

I'll leave you with a shot of the full army as it stands now, stretching out to make 1000 points.  I'm working on a Long Fang pack to round the force out before I make the leap for 1500 points in October, which will bolster my existing units, and allow me to refit an old piece to fit with the current army scheme.

Unit Breakdown

HQ - Wolf Lord Bran Solfang

HQ - Bjorn the Fell-Handed

HQ - Rune Priest

Troop - 5 Grey Hunters with Plasma Gun, Power Axe, Wolfen, Banner

Troop - 5 Grey Hunters with Plasma Gun

Fast - 1 Thunderwolf Cavalry with Storm Shield

Tutorial: Warring in a Winter Wonderland

Space wolves are always right at home in the snow, but too often I see armies based in solid snow fields so thick, an 800 pound astartes should be sunken to his knees in the drift. I wanted to do something different: a truly wartorn field that, while once a serene field of snow, had been churned and shifted by the tides of battle. The snow has been ground into the dirt, turning it to mud.  Constant artillery barrages have long ago reduced any semblance of roads or paths to upheaved chunks of stone.  Snow patches remain, the result of a snowstorm unwilling to lift.  Snow still drifts down on the warriors from above, clinging to their armor and conveying the temperature of this desolate land they fight over.  Here and there, the corpses of the enemy reveal themselves, whether recently killed, or just shifted back to the surface by the latest barrage of artillery shells.

Let's jump into how I did it.

What you'll need:

1. Woodland Scenics Snow - You can find this most places that sell supplies for HO scale trains.

2. White Glue - I like Elmer's; easy to use, easy to find.

3. Windsor & Newton Matt Varnish - Get this at most Art/Craft supply stores (Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.)  You'll use it a lot at the end of the tutorial, and if you have an airbrush, I recommend using it through your airbrush for your final sealing coat over a thicker aerosol application, such as Testor's Dullcote.

4. Toothpicks

5. A sculpting tool (optional)

And our test subject, a member of the vaunted Thunderwolf Cavalry. You'll want to complete painting the model before moving on to the snow basing.  Notice I've used darker browns for the dirt and more muted tones for the rock, to suggest the the ground is soaked with moisture.

Our first step is to mix a paste consisting of white glue and snow.  Don't worry too much about ratios, just get it good and clumpy.  You'll then use the toothpick or sculpting tool to place clumps on the base, and then mash the edges down to make it conform to the rest of the base.  Pay attention to where snow might gather - around rocks, recessed areas, near a corpse.  Give it a bit of time to dry, and you should have something like this:

Step two is to tie your clumps to the rest of the base, and creates a lighter concentration of snow.  Start by pouring some white glue around your existing clumps, as well as anywhere you think might need a light coat of snow.  Use a toothpick to smooth the droplets of glue out so that the layer is thinner, especially at the edges.  Now take your snow, and tap the container liberally over the areas you placed glue.  leave it to dry.  Once dry, tap the model to get all the excess snow off, and you should have something like this:

Note that in some cases, you may need to do multiple passes of this step to get the coverage you want.

Now's where the Matt Varnish comes in.  Take a paint brush, dip it in a 1:1 mixture of varnish and water, and the dip the brush in your snow.  draw the brush over the model in places snow might land, such as parts of armor.  Pay attention not to put snow in hot areas, such as exhaust vents or plasma coils, as well as focusing more snow in places where it's likely to cling better, such as animal fur or the cloth of a banner.  When finished you'll have something like this:

Now it's just a matter of sealing your model, which is very important;  without it, the snow you brushed onto your model will quickly rub off from use.  As I said before, I recommend running your matt varnish through an airbrush if you have one.  Otherwise, you can use dullcote or the like, but be very light with your passes - the snow has a tendency to absorb more than its share of the sealer, and will turn clear and lose the effect.

It may seem time consuming, but most of it is waiting for glue to dry, so it's something you can easily do in steps over the course of a day while you work on other things.

Try it out!