What do you think of this Space Wolves colour? (pictures)

[Prot]

Hey wolf types,

I have been working on and off on my Wolves. The problem I have is I have been undecided on a recipe. So I thought I would bring it to the forum.

My -first- go was on black primer and I didn't really care for the finished product (unfortunately no pictures).

My -second- go was with a white primer, and I did a pure Space Wolves blue on it.

Now even though the light is definitely bringing this up a few shades, it still looked a little too light for my tastes. So I hit the reset button and worked on a new recipe. On white Primer, a 50/50 Space Wolf / Shadow Grey.

So I thought of going a bit different... I tried some new weathering pattern.... this is wip, but you get the idea:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4559799/Space%20Wolves/Prot-test%20fig%20banner1.jpg

So I kind of went and did up a version of Arjac, now he's similar to the 50/50 recipe, except in recesses of the armour I've used a feathered ink....

But I realize you can hardly even see it... only if you look at the model close up.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4559799/Space%20Wolves/Prot%20-%20Arjac%201.jpg

This is a vehicle done in the 50/50 mix and is pretty close looking to real life shades.

So what do you guys think?

Should I hit the reset button a 4 time? Is this a good balance of what people think would work? Or should I go straight to grey?

I will say the one thing I don't like about grey is that it's hard to show weathering in a subtle manner. However, I've seen armies like Spikey James where the dark grey is well done... just not sure if I actually prefer it or not.

Regardless I'm at a point where I need to make up my mind... this is painful redoing an army over and over! I'd appreciate some thoughts.

[DV8]

Your 50/50 recipe looks good, but the problem is that it lacks contrast between the armor plates. Everything blends together because the armor just looks like a flat color over-all. You need some shading in there, or some definition to pop the various pieces of armor out so that when seen from the tabletop, the detail is there.

 

That's why subtle doesn't necessarily work for an army, because those effects get lost from 3 feet away. An army needs that contrast to catch the eye and show off the detail.

 

 

DV8

[d@n]

i personally dont like the blue spacewolves look but it's all down to personal taste and those models are well painted so it's really what you prefer grey, grey/blue blue. i have seen spacewolves painted really light blue to almost black grey and everything in-between. personally i would just go with a standard colour as your never going to get conformity if you have to mix paints.

[Forté]

Personally, I like the way the tanks look. More for the weathering I think though.

 

Like everyone says, you need something to break up the grey and give the model a bit of texture.

[Prot]

I guess most of my armies have been darker, so subtle has worked really well there.... I've painted a lot of different armies and probably this is the 'brightest'.

I see the re-occurring response is that my base colour is fine perhaps but I have to find a way to further separate the armour with more highlighting OR more depth between armour plates (darkening up).

Now I have to figure out how to do this without 'ruining' what I've painted. When I think of stuff like my chaos or even Blood Ravens this was done with brown (Gryphone Sephia) wash.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4559799/40K%20Pics/Prot-%20Huron%20and%20Corsairs1.jpg

Now how do I do this with this 50/50 mix and be consistent with it on vehicles?

I'm thinking of a purple wash or perhaps the blue one? Black or blue seem to stark.... I would probably try it on these figs and see what happens.

[Master Of Malfeasance X]

They're too clean. I always imagined SW only cursorily clean their armor of blood and effluvia.

[DV8]

I would suggest a brown-red wash (maybe Delvan Mud with a hint of Baal Red?); this'll tie in well with your weathering, and dirty up the armor just a touch without making them too muddy.

 

 

DV8

[Forté]

I would suggest a brown-red wash (maybe Delvan Mud with a hint of Baal Red?); this'll tie in well with your weathering, and dirty up the armor just a touch without making them too muddy.

 

 

DV8

Thought you used purple & blue :devil:

 

Devlan mud is good. Add some badab black for really dark areas.

[Prot]

Hmm, that's not a wash I'd put on the whole fig... I'm thinking just recesses of the armour? That might be pretty hard with the grey/blue larger flat surfaces...

 

Maybe I'll mix it up and water it down... give it a go.

 

DV8 does tend to use a lot of lighter blues but I do have more brown weathering going so it could tie it together. Or so I hope. :(

 

++edit++

You might be able to see in my avatar, because it is a close up, that paint job has a purple/blue wash in the recesses only of the armour. The effect looks great close up, but as you said, it does get lost on the table top a bit.

 

I guess I have to figure out a wash to just add some depth, and whether that wash just goes on in spots.... or consider doing a different base colour, like the darker toned greys.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

I'd go a bit darker, as right now they look like Ultramarines with a slightly lighter blue to me. Maybe black primer instead of white?

[Maximus-92]

You should consider army painter wolf grey primer spray. You can spray directly onto the unpainted models and it gives them a slightly less blue tone than the miniautures you've shown here. And best of all it means that doing a basecoat takes about 2 minutes. If you also want to save time then army painter quick shade is an amazing product. You just coat the whole model in it after the primer spray and it shades very well, though it can have the tendency to pool in large flat areas so when doing tanks you may want to go over it with a Q tip soaked in turpentine about ten minutes after you applied the quick shade and just dab out any areas you think are too dark.

 

Hope that helps

 

Max

[DV8]

@Forte - I use Leviathan Purple, Asurmen Blue, and Devlan Mud on my Space Wolves.

 

@Prot - By wash I never mean just coating the model; feathering the wash into the recesses is always the way to go, as it gives you far more control than just slathering it on.

 

 

DV8

[Forté]

@Forte - I use Leviathan Purple, Asurmen Blue, and Devlan Mud on my Space Wolves.

 

@Prot - By wash I never mean just coating the model; feathering the wash into the recesses is always the way to go, as it gives you far more control than just slathering it on.

 

 

DV8

I've watched your tutorials. Inspiring stuff indeed.

 

@Prot. DV8's models are amazing. He has some really good vids. If your not up to the feathering then just paint the wash into the deep areas and to outline separate armour plates to give definition. That's the way GW paints their marines. But do look at DV8s bits cause they do look much better.

[Prot]

@Forte - I use Leviathan Purple, Asurmen Blue, and Devlan Mud on my Space Wolves.

 

@Prot - By wash I never mean just coating the model; feathering the wash into the recesses is always the way to go, as it gives you far more control than just slathering it on.

 

 

DV8

 

DV8 I don't know if I agree 100% with that... I've found in some cases a full wash with worked up large areas can be stunning, and have excellent results. I think with a base coat as medium-to-light as mine, it probably wouldn't work well though.

 

I do like the effect of the purple/blue washes. I think what I'm trying to do is avoid what someone like SpikyJames has done and do up 3 different armies. So I'm trying to figure out if I should just go back and work some ink into the 50/50 look I've got going which would be a medium tone result.... not quite as light as DV8's but not as dark as the Adeptus Battle Grey variant.

 

If I go with the dark Battle Grey look, I'll be redoing everything.... again. But I'd rather do it now than later.

 

Thanks for your opinions.

 

@Prot. DV8's models are amazing. He has some really good vids. If your not up to the feathering then just paint the wash into the deep areas and to outline separate armour plates to give definition. That's the way GW paints their marines. But do look at DV8s bits cause they do look much better.

 

I think DV8 has a neat take on them too. I personally wanted to get a deeper base coat though. I don't mean to sound like I am against feathering.... I'm just not sure what colours to do, and/or if it's worth it.

 

I am happy with the painted quality of my army, but I'm only human and I admit if I make this army (for a third time) too labour intensive, I bet you a thousand dog biscuits, I'll burn out. The idea of redoing the vehicles alone has me gritting my teeth. :huh:

 

Right now I'm thinking I've got 3 options:

 

-Try some purple/brown washes feathered into recesses for depth. This might just break things up enough for me.

 

- Airbrush a new base with Adeptus Battle Grey, lay off of the weathering (it won't show up very well) and try the latest SpikeyJames variant...

 

- Or try the Army painter base coat (I'm not a fan of the dipping part) of Wolf Grey.

[Forté]

I think you really need to decide which grey you like working with more than anything. I'm going with shadow grey for example but am going to try it with a little black added to see how it looks. Then work out the shade/ highlights after. If you keep changing your base colour, you'll never get anywhere.

 

On a side note too, test your colours on a scrap model or bits like spare arms. Save you ending up with multiple layers on models you really want to use.

[DV8]

@Forte - I use Leviathan Purple, Asurmen Blue, and Devlan Mud on my Space Wolves.

 

@Prot - By wash I never mean just coating the model; feathering the wash into the recesses is always the way to go, as it gives you far more control than just slathering it on.

 

 

DV8

 

DV8 I don't know if I agree 100% with that... I've found in some cases a full wash with worked up large areas can be stunning, and have excellent results. I think with a base coat as medium-to-light as mine, it probably wouldn't work well though.

 

I don't doubt that on occasion a full wash can make something look good (I do it all the time on metallics, bolters for example). But that doesn't change the issue of control, whereby feathering gives you almost complete control of how the wash will turn out in the end. With a full wash, you just slather and pray.

 

 

DV8

[Prot]

I think you really need to decide which grey you like working with more than anything. I'm going with shadow grey for example but am going to try it with a little black added to see how it looks. Then work out the shade/ highlights after. If you keep changing your base colour, you'll never get anywhere.

 

On a side note too, test your colours on a scrap model or bits like spare arms. Save you ending up with multiple layers on models you really want to use.

 

I think you're right, but I think I decided I do not personally prefer the dark grey models.... They look too dark in my eye... too close to Relictors.

 

I think I prefer my 50/50 mix, but like DV8 said, they might just be a good ink feathering away from looking 'great'. I can weather them after, but I think I should take my 50/50 and then do some shading via Purple/Blue/Gryphone.... and then put the weathering work on and I'm pretty sure that would work....

 

I'll have to try a test model next week. I'm just not quite confident on the wash mix to use... It will be darker than my previous attempts which hardly even show up on camera (see my avatar).

[littlbitz]

If it helps any, I use black in the recesses.

 

Though, my paint style is much more exaggerated than yours. It does help break up the armor a bit and also adds some depth to the mini when you are using the 3' rule.

 

As others have said, I think its just a matter of darkening the ink shade you are currently using to give the models more depth.

[Beef]

Wow i love the vehicles, they look awsome, I agree with Littlebitz about adding black in the recesses. Your painting is very nice and smooth

[Prot]

Thank you very much guys.

 

This has been a long process for me, and I have re-started this army several times as mentioned.

 

This weekend I just got back from a tournament with my Blood Pact/Imperial Guard, and I decided by the end of the weekend I wanted to get into a real power armoured army to get back into (even if Chaos!) and I really do like the Wolves.

 

Only this time I think I'm going back to do something I haven't done in a few years, and that is to take real time on the painting. Although I've never 'rushed' my Space Wolves, they are a few hours from being really worthy in my opinion, it is just knowing which way to go with them.

 

Thanks again!

[Marshal Wilhelm]

I think you're right, but I think I decided I do not personally prefer the dark grey models.... They look too dark in my eye... too close to Relictors.

 

In WD 358, October 2009, pg 21, Dom Murray's Wolves, do you think they look too Relcitor'ish?

[Prot]

I think you're right, but I think I decided I do not personally prefer the dark grey models.... They look too dark in my eye... too close to Relictors.

 

In WD 358, October 2009, pg 21, Dom Murray's Wolves, do you think they look too Relcitor'ish?

 

Well it just so happens I have that very issue at my desk at work (don't ask). And the Canadian version is page 92.

 

Dom's are a little on the grey side for myself. While I wouldn't say they are 'reclictor' dark, they are closer to that than I would want. I still like to see a hint of a 'winter' blue in there. His look great though.... very grey.

 

I have a new test model almost done....