What color base coat do you use?

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Planning on starting on some of my primaris Space Wolves, was curious what color base coat do you use for your models? I don't have an airbrush I generally just get a bottle of spray paint. For my DW I just use flat black and then do touch ups with Abbadon Black. I've got some Space Wolves Grey contrast that I want to use. Was thinking since I painted my old wolves just a grey color I could do the same but use the contrast over it but wanted to get some feedback from the fang before I do start. The grey I had used on my old marines they discontinued this was back in the early 2000's, was thinking if I did do grey base coat I could probably use the SW contrast over my old models I painted years ago and maybe it would match better than stripping and repainting them.

[Guest]

If you are using contrast maybe Grey Seer? I am not sure if you can get in the USA but I use a spray can by Hycote called grey primer which is really good.

[Dark Shepherd]

Space Wolves Contrast over the Fang spray comes up nice for me, nice blue grey colour

[Bryan Blaire]

I use a basic black primer, and then brush a basecoat of Mechanicus Standard Grey (also eeriely similar to sprue grey), but I don't use any Contrast paints.

 

From what I remember of the demos I've seen, you aren't going to get a lot of 'Contrast' result on a mid-tone grey like Mechanicus though. You would probably get a visible Contrast result using Administratum Grey with darker results than Grey Seer.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Ya I kind of don't want a real hard blue tone, that's why I painted my wolves grey ages ago I wanted to be different than the norm. But I may just pick up a few different ones you mentioned and do a couple test runs, thank you all!! 

 

I'm pretty new to contrasts myself I've never used them before but I watched a few videos of people using it and it looked like it might be good to use on armor that's not black.

[Guest Triszin]

I use mechanicus grey, I just wish they had eshin grey as a spray Edited January 1, 2020 by Triszin

[Wispy]

i spray on dawnstone using an airbrush Edited January 2, 2020 by Wispy

[Chazzmos]

I use Vallejo Dark Sea Green out of an airbrush.

 

If you're interested in using Contrast paints, have a look at Darren Latham's most recent YouTube video, he paints a Space Wolf in 30 mins and uses Contrast for the armour. I think he sprayed Grey Seer then used white from the top as a zenithal and then used the Contrast paint.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Ran out of likes, thank you all for the feedback going to order most of these paints and just do a couple test models and see how it turns out. Unfortunately I don't have an airbrush so I can't do the Zanithal thing unless you know of a guide of someone doing it with a brush that would be cool. At this point tabletop quality is good enough for me I just want to get my army painted and get to learning how to play and playing and then eventually get better at painting.

[Wispy]

you can do zenithal with spray cans, fyi.

[Chazzmos]

Definitely. If you've got the Contrast paint already I would recommend priming using Grey Seer, lightly spray white from the top down, then use the Contrast paint.

 

That's pretty much what Darren Latham does and it looks pretty good, just watch closely how he applies the Contrast paint so that t doesn't pool too much and how quickly he works.

[Ciler]

I do a black undercoat then the fang spray. 

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Ahh that sounds cool I'll have to look into that too I watched a couple more videos about using contrast paints, still pretty new to using them.

[Chazzmos]

I think they're quite a technical paint in that the results vary greatly depending on application and surface.

[Cpt.Danjou]

I spray mine black, and then base coat them with Vallejo London grey.

Edit: added picture.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Cpt.Danjou

[GrFlur]

Zenythal priming without airbrush or cans

 

https://youtu.be/vHRMnJce4b8?t=874

 

I hope this helps :)

 

Also if you use some Contrast medium you get the glaze efect on each contrastrast paint (blink blink)

[Karhedron]

I do a grey primer (halfords) and then a spray can of The Fang as the base coat. From there I highlight up with Fenrisian Grey and White Scar.

The Fang is not quite the same shade as the old SW base colour I used (first it was called Blue Grey and then something else in between). But by controlling the highlights I can end up with a shade of armour that is a pretty good match for my units painted in the old way. In the pic below, Bjorn and the RBs are painted "old style" while Njal and the Hellblasters are "new style". The shade is not a perfect match but it is very close and good enough for me.

[PeteySödes]

Stylnrez grey and black for me! Hit it with grey then the black on the base. Any overspray is shadow anyways but it ensures the base stays a bit more muted.

[sbarnby71]

I use Grey Seer as my base and my main colour is Fenrisian Grey - I know it's a Layer Paint, but it's my main colour.  I find Grey Seer allows me to use just 2 very thin coats of Fenrisian Grey whereas trying to go over The Fang would take lots of coats.  Also I find Grey Seer applies so easily (that was the aim of the new base coats and I think GW have nailed it).

 

Here's an example of my Space Wolves colour scheme

My shading is done using The Army Painter Blue Tone mixed with a Matt Medium/Filtered Tap Water. 

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Excellent painting there guys, I might try both was as I ordered a good amount of the colors you guys posted so I can see they are. Almost all of my new SW marines are primaris. I have a good couple squads from the early 2000s that are the regular sized but they were just painted Citadel Grey I believe was the name. Going to see if there's any easy ways to try to make both the regular squads and primaris look similar to each other. Just have to wait til the paints get here to run some trial and errors on the old models vs new models.