Dana's SpaceWolf Project Blog

Hey everyone Im starting a project blog for my new space wolves army im working on. The objective of this blog is to get some feed back and to keep some pressure on me to keep this blog updated so that the army wont take 5 years to get completed. I dont have a list made yet. I was thinking of going with a logan wing type list to start with then branching off from there so i can play with this army asap.

I have one grey hunter all completed so far and working on a second. The plan is to get a 10 man unit done then do either a rhino up or a drop pod then go with the logan wing theme from there.

I originaly wanted to go with a paint scheme like on the cover of the army book but then paz started painting up mikes army and that idea went out of the window haha.

Thats about it for now ill post up some pictures shortly once I figure out how post up pictures on this forum.

Ok im going with a brown and dark red color scheme. The shoulder trim and other extra little detail will be gold so just ignore the silver shoulder trim

Thats it for now. Ill post up actual work once I write down the colors and things I did so I can better explain whats going on in the pics

You need to get up a pic of the one i saw last night, he looked superfantastic. I have never seen anyone use brown on a marine to such good effect.

Real pics Dana c'mon...

Nice, you got you're blog going. As part of our Deal I'll try to start mine Sat or Sun. Get that pic up of the finished guy! Like I already told you he looks awsome.

mmmmm, shady back room dealings, i am intruiged!

LexMechanic wrote:mmmmm, shady back room dealings, i am intruiged!

Just that we'd both blog to try and push/pressure each other into getting things finished. I do want to paint 2000 points of Guard for Octocon. It ain't gonna be easy. But I've done 1750 of Tau in month before as you know, and went a little crazy doing it!

Ahhh, yea good times. I still cannot believe that you painted that entire army in... what was it again... i want to say a month, but that cannot be right. Must have been a couple... still an inhuman (insane?) feat. Damn i need to finish up my shop so i can coerce you guys into coming over to hang out and paint.

OH!!
I will even supply the energy drinks! Gotta get JUICED!!

Ok by popular demand here are the pics of the first fig of my space wolves army. The pictures dont do the fig justice as they usually dont but they turned out allright. The fig clearly doesnt look like a world eater. Do people even put world eaters in thier list anymore? or did everyone just switch to blood angels since they have thier own armybook?

I start by priming everything white.
On the armor I used Khemri Brown foundation then go over that with graveyard earth. After that I wash it down with Sepia wash. I used watered down chestnut ink in all the joints and low areas then use some watered down black ink to add more depth. I then use a mixture of graveyard earth and white about 1:1 to high light the edges of the armor

For the red bits I use Mechrite red foundation then go over that with red gore. I wash the red gore with Baal red wash. I then use a 1:1 red gore/white mix to highlight the areas needing that and if its to pink or birght ill wash over that with baal red again.

The gold parts I start with a basecoat of Tin Bitz then bring that up with brazen brass then wash that down with a thinned out mix of chestnut ink and water. I then highlight that with shinning gold and for the final highlight use about a 2:1 mix of shinning gold and either boltgun metal or chainmail silver. I may then wash it again with the chestnut ink mix if things need evening out.

The flesh I start with a basecoat of Dwarf flesh then wash that down with Leviathan Purple wash. I then use Dwarf flesh on the raised areas after the wash. From there I start mixing in Pallid flesh with the Dwarf flesh Maybe about 4:1 Dwarf flesh/Pallid Flesh then I just keep adding in more Pallid flesh to bring up the raised areas of the face. After 3 or 4 coats I start adding in some skull white to the mix for a coat or two to the tops of the highest areas. then finish it off with white. I may add some very thinned out leviathan purple along the way to smooth out the highlights.

The Metallic parts of the fig I start with a basecoat of boltgun metal. Then wash it with a thinned out coat of leviathan purple again to give it a little color instead of just a black wash or ink. Then ill highlight that with chainmail silver and then finish that off with mithril silver.

I am planning to go back and re painting the rope on the backpack holding the wolf skull on and having it stand out from the skull more. The eyes need to be re done so they dont look so googley. Thanks to ryan for pointing out thoes two thing to me. Im also trying to work on my free had and trying to improve it. I want the wolf on the one shoulder pad to look more like a howling wolf then a hairy snake.

I would really like some feed back on what folks think I may be able to improve or adjust. If anyone has any questions about how I did things Ill try and explain it the best I can if my little descriptions didnt cut it.

That description was actually pretty damn good.

DANA! You da man!

I love so many things about what you're doing. My fav parts are the fat that you're using some non-traditional colours in your work. Purple on the skin is an AWESOME thing to incorporate.

Adding colours to your metalics is such a sweet, sweet effect. Very nicely done!

Here's some things I think I see.

-Your skully bits. Robyn turned me on to a tech from a white dwarf that basecoats bone stuff in Charadon granite then works it up from there by adding in Bleached bone to the mix. Pure white for a finale. I think if you tried that it would add another dimension of colour to your marine in a subtle way and do things like distance the browny tones from the ropes and such. If you check out the skulltaker mini from GW it's on that mini that I think Robyn got the idea from. I really like it. I personally use it on all skulls and bone. But that is a bit of a personal taste thingy.

-Colours in the metals. Have you tried adding some things like purple into your gold metal mix? Also don't be afraid to use a whole WHACK of different colours in your metal shading and glazing. Check out this article, if for nothing else than to see what the top metal dudes do....

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/649

I've got that one stickied to my quick links. It's awe inspiring!

-Have you tried ever mixing a really dark black red into your deepest flesh shade? I really like that. Also as a personal thing I like Foundation Tallarn flesh vs. any of the other straight from the bottle flesh mixes. It's got a degree of purple in the flesh that I think is awesome. I reccomend using it on a couple marines.

Everything about this mini is painted well. There is nothing to really criticize. You're doing great! After you've knocked off a unit or two and feel like doing some characters can I say I think instead of pure layering (Working from the darkest colour up to the lightest highlight) you give blended colours and shading a go? Paint a mid tone on the mini than add shades and highlights and stuff? You're for sure ready to give it a shot. I think you'll be very impressed with what you can do with that!

Very, very nice work son! <------ That's super condescending on purpose! Suck it!

beautiful dude, best space puppy scheme I have seen yet. Manages to look more viking than viking. metal.

Thanks for all the feed back guys! that excatly what I was hoping for with this blog. Thanks for all the great tips scott you gave me a tone of homework thanks a bunch. Do you know what white dwarf that skull technique was in? I might have it kicking around here somewhere.

yah post up your demon prince robin! I was hoping that with ryan, matt and me having blogs going now that more people will get inspired and post up thier stuff so we can get some excitment for the modeling/painting part of the hobby going.

Looks great. For the shoulder pad given the detail of the design I might suggest getting some decals and laying them on to give you the black outline that you then fill in with paint. Might help you get a bit of consistency with them. Also take a look at micro pens to see if they might help with providing an outline. I use mine when I have to fake the text on purity seals.

I picked up that trick from:

www.awesompaintjob.com

Hope it helps.

J

I really had to dig deep to find this forum again. Well here is an update on how my space wolves are coming along. As usual the process is crawling along extra slow.

So far I have 5 grey hunters finished, 4 bolters and one power weapon guy with a melta gun coming down the pipe. Also One rhino/razor back finished. Im hoping with the team tourney coming up i can get 750 pnts done for it. If that doesnt happen i just hope to get something done.

If any body has any comments or ideas on how i can improve things please post up!

Tough to tell from the pics but I think the rhino could use a little shading on it. I think a little watered down sepia or mud applied on the bottom half of some of the panels might be in order. At least for my tastes. But you paint all your stuff up super clean... forgot about that. Never mind! Carry on kid!

Great looking stuff. The freehand on the rhino top hatch looks great. Good luck getting stuff done, I'm really slow too, but have kids to use as an excuse.

i like the paint scheme, and after i ran a few of your pics through photoshop to fix the color balance, i like the scheme more;

Hey thanks for cleaning up those pictures for me. They look so much better brightened up. Just like ryan I need to get this blog some updates as well. Its been a few months now. For shame

if you like, i'll offer the same clean-up services for your blog as well; just email them to me and i'll fix the pics up and send them back to you guys to post. just make sure you pose them on a sheet of paper and/or with paper behind them. part of the trick is using a backdrop that's 'supposed' to be white, and changing the settings on the files so the white paper is pure white without altering the brightness and contrast of the rest of the photo. if you're not an intermediate/advanced user of adobe, the explanation of how that's done will go over your head though.

also, if you guys backdrop in white paper, i can delete the background most of the time and insert custom backgrounds by request as well. but that takes longer, so i try to only do so on special characters and dioramas/scenics. but really, any smooth matte backdrop will improve the photos you take, as it helps the camera focus on the mini rather than something behind it; if your camera can pick out details behind your model, it'll set its focus point behind the model instead of on it, causing the mini to come out blurry with a crisp background.