Space Wooooooolves. In Space!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Hello. I'm currently working on an army of everyone's favourite drugged-up, brainwashed, genetically engineered mutant viking Ubermensch killing machine drunkards.

It's been a while since I last did Space Wolves. Somehow it feels like they've grown since then. Yes, it's going to be an almost-all Primaris army, but painted as to look like the Space Wolves we know and sometimes love. Because Primaris are sneaky like that.

So after brushing up on my Space Wolves knowledge....


...I painted some test figures.







No decals or finished bases as of now, and possibly not the final colour scheme. I'm currently waiting for the gentleman who owns the figures to give his thumbs-up.

Hope you like them!

[OSHIROmodels]

That’s a lovely grey 

[Lost Egg]

Looking sharp!

[Major_Gilbear]

Beautiful painting as always Sigur! 

That’s a lovely grey 

I agree! Hopefully Sigur will let us know which grey(s) he used?

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Thanks, guys!

The order was "2nd edition Space Wolves, but also dirty and battle-worn and grimdark". Well, I got a bit hung up on the first (because I'm a 2nd edition guy), did that to a satisfying end, so I thought "this looks nice, maybe if I show'em like that the gentleman who I paint these for will want them nice and clean". As an alibi I splashed some dirt around the legs of the three guys with the SW logos on their left shoulderpads and hoped that'd be enough.

Well, it's not. Looks like I'll have to beat the poo out of them now, add dirt, chip paint, all that good stuff. Oh well.


As for the grey: It's needlessly complicated, but I like to get things to look just how I want them. It's Vallejo Game Air Sombre Grey, Scalecolor Bering Blue, Vallejo Pastel Blue, Wash, Pastel Blue, Vallejo Game Color Wolf grey. Originally I wanted to use Coat d'Arms paints, because they got a really good match for Space Wolves (Shadow Grey, which is a great colour anyway, Lupin Grey, mix, match put things in between, whatever). Thing is that my stock of CdA paints is dwindling and I would have had to order those paints. There even is a supplier of CdA paints in Germany, but they charge silly prices. One of the many cool things about CdA paints (to me) always was the reasonable price point. Oh well.

BUT I learned to appreciate the beauty that is CdA Barbarian Leather by digging around in the CdA box for Shadow Grey and used that as one of the paints to highlight the pouches and holsters to make them all 2nd edition looking.

Fun fact: Over the years Space Wolves for sure have been the Space Marines I painted the most out of all chapters. Salamanders must be second, Blood Angels or possibly Crimson Fists [that was a large collection, and a really fun one] third, after that things like Ultramarines and Raven Guard. I'm not one who churns out lots of Space Marines armies though since i do all sorts of different things as you know.

[Cacique Caribe]

Space wolves?  Nah.  THIS is Space Wolves:

https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/how-do-these-canid-troops-compare-in-size/

Dan

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Potato, Tomato. The ones you linked to there are really fun figures though. We had plans to do something with 15mm sci-fi years ago, looking at Khurasan figures. Then I had plans to do something X-com like with 15mm figures, again using Khurasan. Nothing happened with either plans though.


Space Wolves(tm Games Workshop Plc. version ) update:



I let them out earlier today, seems like they found a puddle to play in and something horrible to roll around in. But they had fun, and that's what it's all about in the end, right.

[Major_Gilbear]

TAs for the grey: It's needlessly complicated, but I like to get things to look just how I want them. It's Vallejo Game Air Sombre Grey, Scalecolor Bering Blue, Vallejo Pastel Blue, Wash, Pastel Blue, Vallejo Game Color Wolf grey.

Ah, yes, quite a lot of colours and mixes then!     My own experiments to find a satisfactory grey were also more complicated than I'd like... I'm pretty sure the "official" recipe of the time was paler and more blue than the actual studio models were, but then GW regularly fibbed about how the Eavy Metal team painted things. I suspect that the photos were also altered a bit too, which is another reason why matching the colours is harder than it should be.

Originally I wanted to use Coat d'Arms paints, because they got a really good match for Space Wolves (Shadow Grey, which is a great colour anyway, Lupin Grey, mix, match put things in between, whatever). Thing is that my stock of CdA paints is dwindling and I would have had to order those paints. There even is a supplier of CdA paints in Germany, but they charge silly prices. One of the many cool things about CdA paints (to me) always was the reasonable price point. Oh well.

You could try Warcolours Nostalgia '88 range perhaps? They are modern colour-matched paints to the old Citadel colours.

Another place to try would be the Privateer Press P3 paints? As you may know, these were commissioned by Mike McVey for PP, and they were made by HMG Paints in Manchester - the same company who also made the old Citadel ranges, the current Citadel range, Foundry, and Coat D'Arms. (NB: Any differences in quality between the different ranges is down to client's spec requirements, rather than because they they were made in different places or at different times). The nice thing about the P3 range is that a lot of Mike's favourite old Citadel colours found their way into the range with new names. Murderous Magenta is Warlock Purple, Beaten Purple is Liche Purple, Arcane Blue is Hawk Turquoise, and so on. I don't think the old Space Wolf colours are in there unfortunately, but Great Coat Grey mixed with Frostbite, and then blended up to a highlight with a light grey might work quite well.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Quite true about the 'Eavy Metal painting instructions. But that's okay. People gotta develop 'an eye' and a taste and so on by themselves.

Fairly certain the photos were doctored with back then. If I mess with the lighing even a little bit, my photos turn out quite differently between shoots as well.



Thanks very much for the Warcolours suggestion. I read about that range and pretty much dismissed it as "gimmick thing catering to a certain audience and therefore probably is to be dismissed and expensive". Didn't know though that they were located in Cyprus and that the pots actually seem to be priced alright. Good thing to keep in mind.

I use P3 paints regularly. Khador Base and Bloodtracker Brown have been staples in my collection for years (not the least because I like a flip-top). Didn't know some of that background stuff though. Very cool.

[DivisMal]

Wunderbar!

I loved the 2nd Edition Space Wolves…when they were already wolfy enough to be Space Wolves, but not that wolfiediwolf that everything was wolfy. Like Space Wolves riding on wolves-wolfiediwolf!

Love your approach.

[Dags]

Cracking work 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DivisMal: Thanks very much! Yeah, there's that fine line, isn't there. On another forum somebody said these figures looked nice, but they didn't like when Space Wolves are just another colour of armour on regular marines. They should have more distinct units and whatnot. Me, I'm okay with it really. In the end they're all Space Marines. The strife for making them all too different (with that extreme hankering for different rules to go with that) only encourages SM playes to point and laugh at Ultramarines. Which I never got, because if anybody's to be pointed and laughed at, it should be all Space Marines, right? They're all the same, with differently coloured hats and pants. At least that's my IG/Orks/SoB point of view. Anyway, yeah, I wasn't too excited about riding wolves and werewolf people and so on (or putting actual wings on Blood Angels. Or SoB.). But then I'm old and boring. I do like painting Space Marines though. Even those weird, new long-legged ones.

@Dags: Cheers!

[voltan]

On another forum somebody said these figures looked nice, but they didn't like when Space Wolves are just another colour of armour on regular marines. They should have more distinct units and whatnot.

Considering that the space wolves used to be the most codex of codex chapters when they were led by lord Lucan it's funny how things turned out.

[Storm Wolf]

As for the Ultramarinessmurfs

Engage (tounge-in-cheek) rant mode.....

Apart from them being boring, always doing the right thing, always toeing the line, always yadda-yadda my main gripe with them is that every bloody space marine kit from GW now only has smurfs decals, talk about spoon-fed  , what about the good old days where at least 3 or 4 chapters would be on the decal sheet not just the smurfettes

Plus power armour troops riding wolves or on a bob-sleigh - Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Disengage (tounge-in-cheek) rant mode.....

Sigmund wouldn't nay like it!

Glen

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@voltan: I guess they got a book about wolves for their birthday and totally got into that. I'm sure it's just a phase.

@Storm Wolf: Okay, I did not know the thing about the UM-only decals. Sounds like a very odd move on GW's part. On which sets was that the case? The other things you said to me always felt like that's a thing all SM do, but some like to make a bit fuss about their identity while doing so. Just kidding. The latest 40k fluff I read was in 8th edition rulebook, which I actually read front to back, because I did a big review back then. And I laughed quite hard when I read that Guilliman and his incredibly convenient friends in the new bigleg-armour actually had to save Baal, because the BA just didn't cut it. That amused me a lot, because that's a bit of a slap in any BA players' face. Maybe I was spared some of that UM favoritism because I just don't read that much SM-related fluff. Or new fluff in general.

I'll say that though: When I started painting these SW chaps here and saw the colour recipe come together I kinda got in the mood to paint an SW army for myself as well. Then the usual thing happened: I rememberd that I've got several 40k armies I never do anything with, so I proceeded to get to work on the figures I actually should be painting. When I'm done with this army I'm sure I'll have seen enough grey-ish light blue for a while.