30k Space Wolves Contemptor

 

Contemptors are just fun to paint. 

Space Wolves On The Painting Table

I finished the Caestus earlier in the week, but lighting wasn't right until today for photos. My original plan to edge highlight the paint chips was dropped due to practicality. I just didn't want to do it! I am painting these space wolves for me, which means sometimes I don't do things the 'right way', but rather the way I want to at the time I am painting. The rhino and the Caestus were meant to be the equivalent of a pallet cleanser for painting, but somehow mid-way through the rhino I decided to rummage around my closet and come up with way more Space Wolves than I though I had. I even have one of those single boom Caestus things GW released in plastic. I guess the question now, is whether I continue painting SW vehicles, or try my hand at some infantry. There is a nice box of SW terminators sitting unopened not far from me.

Happy Painting!
-john

Space Wolf Rhino WIP 2

While painting the Caestus Assault Ram, I bounced back and forth between it and the rhino painting details. At this stage the rhino is awaiting final weathering. The interior needs paint chipping, and the exterior needs to be weathered with mud rather than light colored dust. That is one of the nice things about weathering. I can simply brush off the light earth and try again. I think mud and all of the accompanying splashes will really help this paint job out.

Filming My Painting

I figured it was about time for me to film some of my projects. What you see here is my first attempt doing that. I found it incredibly awkward trying to paint with a camera getting in my way, but I think with a less invasive setup this will work out. As a test video, I did not both to narrate or even finish the model. This is just some simple paint chipping using Vallejo black brown. After the whole model is chipped, I'll get some streaking done on it.

Caestus Assault Ram WIP 1

It has been an incredibly stressful, but very good week for my family. April was a month filled with closure. To reward myself, I grabbed a Caestus Assault Ram which I had been hoarding for years in my forgworld drawer of shame. The is still quite a bit of stuff to paint on this beast. The biggest decision right now is what color to paint the missile pods. I was thinking of adding red, but that may be a bit too much. The missile tips themselves could be red if the housing were not. In any event, I am looking forward to adding smoke stains out the back of the missile pods, where the blast would vent that might necessitate a lighter color like off-white.

I should add, that as an eBay purchase, this model was fairly disappointing. Virtually nothing fit together right during construction. I don't remember my last Caestus being this far out of square.

Space Wolves Classic Rhino WIP Part 2

I may paint more than one of these, so It is time for some recipes.

Yellow

• Vallejo Model Air RAL 7028 Dark Yellow base
• GW Yriel Yellow mid tone
• GW Yriel Yellow + Vallejo RAL 1015 Pale Sand 50/50

Blue/Grey

• GW The Fang Air
• GW Russ Grey Air
• GW Fennrisian Grey Air

Interior

• Vallejo model air RLM 84 Grey  base
• Vallejo model air 70918 Ivory mixed into the above  highlight

Now that the housekeeping is done. The major progress here is on paint chipping, some filters, and some streaking effects. I went with German command vehicle markings to try and tone down the viking child handwriting rune stuff GW Space Wolf vehicles sometimes have going on. I like how the white and red contrast nicely with the pale blue, and echo the warmth of the yellow doors.

In terms of iconography, I've decided to use the SW company symbol instead of that of any one great company. I just think it looks more regal. These guys need to look less wild and more compenent  as they march off to kill Thousand Sons. All the normal space wolf stuff is just too overboard for me. Accent, not feature should be the key here.

Space Wolves Classic Paint Scheme WIP

I decided to take a break from painting WW2 miniature for a while and up a classic Space Wolves rhino. I've been in a pensive mood of late, resigned to the fact that I will be spending the next two weeks in court suing the destroyer of my company. With that in the background, I needed something classic and simple to paint. I've never liked the powder blue space wolves color scheme, but since I already had the GW air brush paints, it seemed like as good a choice as any.

First off, I have no idea what thinner to use with these airbrush paints. I tried X20-A and alcohol. Alcohol caused the paint to clump up. X20-A appeared to do the trick, but I did have drying issued with the air brush needle. Overall, I like the paints. I am impressed with their translucency, and ease of blending. I think the model speaks for itself. Even in just base colors, it looks pretty interesting.

Now that the base coat is down, the next step is paint chipping. I'll follow that with a coat of varnish and then oils. The GW airbrush paint is not terribly durable, so I think it is wise to skip past the details and get some varnish on the surface to protect it. I am concerned about the blue paint cracking due to the varnish drying, but there is not much I can do about that besides keeping the varnish layer thin.

It will be interesting to see if historical model weathering techniques can make this goofy color scheme work.

Following A Tutorial

I've read loads of tutorial's online, but rarely have I seen posts where someone tries a tutorial and posts the results. Tutorial's are difficult to write, and often have little real world feedback from people trying them.

For a while I've been following a commission painter on youtube named Buypainted. This morning I decided to try out his 7 minutes basing tutorial. You can watch the video here.  His tutorial was easy to follow, and I think the results are quite good. I think the entire basing for 5 bases took about half an hour (with the aid of a hair dryer). Kudos to Buypainted!

Thunderwolves and Long Fangs A Break From My Ultras

I am not invested in how these Space wolves turn out, which is totally liberating when it comes to painting. I get to try all kinds of different blending techniques, and not worry about consistency between miniatures. When I painted the first two minis it was really just a way for me to stretch my legs with the new GW paints. I chose Space Wolves because for all practical purposes I had not painted them before (ok--a couple of years ago I painted three of them) A few dogs/wolves later and now it looks like I might end up with a full SW army. In keeping with the long tradition of the SW chapter, I am only kitting my Long Fangs out with missile launchers. Anything less would be un-wolfy.

Now while I am painting these guys with a loose, sort of sloppy feel, I do have some SW minis that I should spend some more time on. I managed to pick up a couple of squads of 13th company a while back, which I think will add some great character to the force.

So, I suppose I have to paint two more long fang squads right........

Wolves

Long before the new running wolves came out for the Space Wolves, I purchased a bunch of what were labeled wolves on the GW site. It turns out they are mounts for goblins I think, and have piggish features. However odd the sculpts were, they are excellent test models for Thunderwolf cavalry which is built and ready to be be painted. Having never painted dogs/wolves before, I did a little research and found a video for painting wolves up on buypainted. I think the link was youtube, but whatever the case, you are pointed in the right direction. These wolves took very little work with the help of the airbrush. The thing to note is that while the colors are a little off due to morning photography, the wolves looked much better prior to adding washes to them. I think 50% is the new 100%, and 25% is the new 50%. The washes glazed the model rather than stay in the recesses, which would be nice if I were worried about pooling, but alas, I am not.

Grey Wolf Recipe

• Base color: Eshin Grey
• Top color: Abbadon Black
• Belly color: Fenrisian Grey
• Nuln Oil 50% strength wash over full model

Tan Wolf Recipe

• Base color: XV88
• Top color: Rhinox
• Belly color: Baneblade 
• Agrax Earthshade 50% strength wash over full model
• Light dusting on the feet and nose of ushabi bone

Brown Wolf Recipe

• Tan Wolf Recipe
• Base color: XV88
• Top color: Rhinox
• Belly color: Baneblade 
• Agrax Earthshade 50% strength wash over full model
• Light dusting on the feet and nose of ushabi boneAgrax Earthshade 100% strength wash over full model

I am out of test models now, so short of dunking these in simple green, I may just start on the big daddies themselves. That is of course unless anyone knows of other tutorials I should watch, or other material I should read before I paint these wolves up.

Space Wolves Painted Using New GW Paints

My painting experiments continue this Adepticon weekend. I had planned to get some games in at the Springfield GW store, but a series of utterly uninteresting house chores held me back. On the other hand, I decided to use my available hobby time experimenting with the new GW paints, and the GW how to paint book/dvd.

As always, my first experiment was to grab an old mini and see how well the new colors would map to my existing BA force. I've got plenty of blood red stockpiles, so I am not particularly worried about finishing the force, or having paint available for touch ups. The mini chosen was one of the old 'Armor of the Imperium' minis, and is slightly out of scale compared to newer GW sculpts. I think the red turned our fairly well, but despite claims to the contrary, watering down the layer paints is still necessary.  This mini was painted primarily by brush, so it does not represent how I paint these days.

My second experiment was to use the GW paint book as a guide for colors, but my airbrush as the the delivery mechanism. I've had a whole Space Wolf army in storage for some time, so I decided to break out some new minis to see what I could accomplish if I applied myself a little bit more. One of the nagging things worrying me was whether I was letting lack of effort affect my opinion of the new paints. Despite the airbrush, I tried to use the paints pretty much as is. The real hang up for me in painting these is figuring out how to use the new washes. As you can see on the Space Wolves, I had a really hard time keeping the washes where I put them, and rather than smoothly shade, they were essentially a really thin paint.

Overall I am pretty happy with the Wolves. I don't know SW heraldry at all, so hopefully these guys are painted appropriately for sergeants of tac squads.

I've been enjoying Ron's photos of his work area, so I thought I would share mine. (It is a total disaster right now!)

Wolves In Progress

I have done some more work on my wolves. I am thinking about basing now, and think I have to go with a greenish plant covered base. I may try water effects. I've found that the basing choice makes a huge difference in how a model is perceived, so getting the right base created is important. I will put up a tutorial on whatever I come up with. I wonder if the failures would be more interesting for people to see though.

I really like painting wolves. I may have to end up playing them.