Painting Space Wolves Grey, the dantay_xv way :) layer & dry

[Dantay VI]

Okay, I was asked how I would paint a Space Wolf, I had a Long Fang kicking around so here we go

First we need our hobby implements:

1: brushes

2: paints - Fang and Fenrisian grey

3: wash - Agrax Earthshade

4: model - pretty vital

5: clean water

6: coffee

7: pallette

This is where my modelling OCD kicks in, I do thiings in 4's, so 4 drops, or brushes or scoops of Fang

Mixed with 4 drops, or brushes, or scoops of water and mix.

I generally go for a 50/50 mix, to a 40/60 mix in favour of water

If I run the brush over the lip of the pallette and the paint drops down smoothly leaving a nice even snail trail, then its pretty good. If it sits without moving ten its too thick, if it drips don and does that crazy separation thing, which felt tips do on plastic and laminate ten your mix is too thin. Left drop is too thick, middle drop is about right and middle right is a little too thin, far right is way too thin.

So now a nice even coverage of Fang across the model, focussing on the ares we are going to paint, nice even thin layers. As the paint is pretty thinned out, it will dry pretty quickly unless it is pooling, infact it was almost ready for a wash straight away., Like I said nice even coat, even if it takes a few layers.

Time for the wash, this will give you a nice shadow and help bring out detail.

I put it on neat, without dilution and I give the whole model a coating or 2 to get the depth of shade I like. Do not target the recesses a invariably something gets missed and then you have to go back and blah blah blah

Still with me?

Acey-pacey

Now we are going to put a layer of fang over the model again. The mix you made earlier should still be quite liquid, but add 1 drop of Fang to it and another drop of water to keep it flowing nicely.

When putting the first layer on, leave areas of deep shadow, such as the under arms where the backpack over hangs or the rocket launcher overhangs well alone. This is where your shadow is. Where light falls give a coating of Fang, leaving a small gap between plates and recesses to help emphasis shadow.

Do not freak out if your paint looks bright, it is the water. When it dries in it will dull down. We are in essence glazing the model, and our paint has a little opaqueness to it, which allows a little of the shaded Fang to peek through, it will help keep the transitions between layers smooth.

Stick on a little music, being relaxed and having fun is key to enjoying painting. If you aren't feeling it or are forcing yourself to paint.

A: It will suck the very soul from you

B: You will paint sub-par and get annoyed at yourself

I like Wolfstone, I also like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4un7Jedpicg

Looking good so far

Okay so now we have our mid-tone set we can move on to highlights.

Using the Fang/water mix we already have, add a drop of fenrisian grey and a drop of water, and mix well

You are going to put a layer on, again aiming for the high spots and leaving a little of the fang showing through, you should see a subtle change in colour, but not overly so.

You can decide at this point how you want your spacing between colours to go. Close spacing means doing more layers giving a smoother blended look, but is time consuming. Bigger gaps get you done faster but you will not get such a big colour change or the layers will be more noticeable, but it is faster.

Congratulations we are now well on our way... Onwards to Glory, or insanity!!! I know not which

[Dantay VI]

Part 2... The sequel!!

 

Okay, so continuing on.

 

Continuing on with using our mix we add another drop of fenrisian grey and another drop of water, and apply another layer, in a smaller area, staying within the previous layer and picking out high spots and where light would fall more prominently.

 

What I would say is do not highlight around every edge the model has

1: It will take hours per layer

2: By the end stages your eyes will go all goofy on you

3: You are neither highlighting, layering or blending, it will actually look like the Space Wolf armour is glowing, which is not what we are going for...

 

Yup you guessed it another drop of Fenrisian grey and another drop of water

 

Same again, gradually building up the colour

 

Almost there a drop of fen  grey and water

 

As you can see we are almost at pure Fenrisian grey

 

One last layer

Add a drop of Fen grey and a drop of water, just catching the edges and Done!!

 

You could at this point continue on and either go another colour up the scale or simply do a final hard edge highlight of pure Fenrisian Grey on th very tips, but for me this is as far as I would go as I prefer the slightly darker look .

 

Not too shabby when beside my Praetor for 30K. I used the exact same method for him, but did it over 3 colours and a black wash.

 

I hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think or if you have any questions feel free to ask

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[BlodVargarna]

This is awesome! Thanks for posting this!

[Dantay VI]

No worries, I hope it helps.

 

I can take him back to Fang and do a drybrush if you want. It is a much faster technique, but requires lots of wrist wiggling.

[Squeaky]

Wish I stumbled on this sooner as I'm painting my brothers bjorn the fell handed at the moment lol Cheers for the awesome tutorial :)

[Dantay VI]

No sweat squeaky :)

 

Look forward to seeing your (brothers) Bjorn. Feel free to post him up here :)

[Dantay VI]

Okay, so continuing on from before, our poor Long Fang can be used to help demonstrate dry brushing. (hopefully).

Dry brushing is fast, it quite literally takes seconds to get each step up dry brushing out of the way and is grat if you have masses of infantry and are just rank & file, I prefer the layering for characters who will come under more scrutiny.but messy and fairly random,

The simple premise is that as you apply the paint to the model, there is so little paint in the brush that you are in effect dusting the model with more or less dry paint from a more or less dry brush. If done correctly then the paint will catch on the hard edges of a model and gin=ve a really nice highlight.

The effect is pretty subtle at first, but the more times you go over the model the more the paint will build up and you will start to get a nice transition from light to dark.

I will be the first to admit that I am no expert on this type of painting and so for me results can be a bit hit and miss, but like with all things the more you do it he better you wull become. For me this technique requires you to get a "feel" quite literally of what the brush is doing.

So lets make a start.

We need our implements of war

1. Our model.

2. Our paints, Fang & Fenrisian Grey

3. Our wash, Agrax Earth shade

4. Brushes, note I have flat brushes. You can use any brushes, but for consistency especially on large flat surfaces, the flat brush is best, I also find quite stiff bristles work best, as they 'flick' off the edges and give a better finish overall

5. Water (clean)

6. Tunes to chill by.

7. Tissue

As from earlier our paint ratio is 4 drops paint to 4 drops water

And we give our hapless test subject a coat or 2 of Fang to give him a good base layer

Remember thin coats, yo can always add more, but its a pain to take away (a bit like my waist-line)

Next up is our wash of Agrax Earthshade. Like the last one, this gives a nice depth of shade to the model, I did 2 coats which may have been a bit much

Right this is where the fun begins!

Depending on how long it took for your was to dry out, add a drop or 2 of Fang paint to the existing mix and a matching drop or 2 of water, a good mix and now dip the tip of your brush in to the mix.

Why only the tip? Because this is going to be the only part of the brush you will use. The next part now is to wipe the paint off your rush on to the tissue, basically until tere is almost no paint on the brush.

Another quick way to check is to run the brush over the back of your hand, if there is a faint line then you are about ready.

Viewing the model from the top down, you will want to go side to side across the model, you will want to feel the bristles flicking across the model quite hard and you want to be even with the stoke across the model, this will give you the same coverage across the shoulders and head.

Just 1-3 times should be enough to get a little colour on to the model

Looking straight on at the model, you want to use an up down motion using the same force as before to get a nice coverage, again 2-3 times is enough to start with.

You see a little colour? Good, remember what i said before that the more times you take the brush across the model the more colour will accumulate? At this point the model is still pretty dark, so using the same mix, use the same process as before, but this time, move your hand a little further back so you strike the model with less contact.

Also tilt the models head slightly away from you.

On the top you will notice more paint build up on the top curve of the pauldron and the back pack and the colour will be the same.

Notice how it is now a fraction lighter than the previous dusting?

For the top half of the body stick to the vertical, but again pull the brush slightly back for less contact. Doing the lower legs tilt the models head away from you slightly again and 2-3 strokes.

Do this again, with slightly less force as you move your hand slightly further back and you will see a definite change in tone, just keep doing this until you are happy with the colour and then we can move on to adding Fenrisian grey

See how we are getting a nice highlight and a shadow across the model.

[Dantay VI]

So when you are ready we can start to add some Fenrisian grey to our Fang mix, I tend to do 1 drop at a time.

Just keep cracking on, angle slightly away, backing off the brush so as not to brush against the model too hard.

 

Another drop of Fenrisian grey and same again, tilt and back off some more, enough swipes of t brush till you are happy with the shade and then move on.

 

At this point we are on the home run, you can go for straight up Fenrisian grey

And the same routine as before

 

In this last picture I tried out some Etherium blue, which is a dry paint. It has a weird texture like  mousse? Dab the brush in and wipe off and gentlest touch to add a final touch. It wasn't needed but I was curious, and I am not sure if I like it, it'll take a bit of getting used to.

 

And DONE!!

 

Hope you enjoyed this second part and it was informative. Any questions or critiques I would be more than happy to hear from you