Prot's never ending Wolves *Army?* Paint Pics

[Prot]

I'm still trying to juggle a bunch of ideas here. Not sure which way to go.

I took in a lot of opinion and advice from a wide range of people too, and somewhere in the middle I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the time/result combo. I always think in terms of finishing an 'army'.

One of the early figs using Enamels:

Above is probably the quickest. But it hides any real work put into the colours. Which is good and bad. Also Enamel stinks! (literally)

This is one of the more 'real' looking, banged up marines though. Which has it's own merits.

Then I moved onto the above scheme. Which has no Enamels but liberal washes with oils. There is more time spent on transitions, and blending (because you can actually see it better without the figure being covered in heavier wearthering techniques). So there is only sponge 'chipping', and a sand weathering wash (I would put them on an orange/cream coloured environment). However, the tie spent on the background is still diminshed, or lost by the weathering.

So then I decided to try the following:

Above: Maximum time spent on transitions. These models go from purple/blue all the way up to green/sky blue. The only wash is a careful oil pin wash.

To keep most of the work visible, it is weathered, but only slightly, with a home made mixture of sand pigments, and a bit of colour. And careful, light sponge/brush chipping.

This does preserve most of the underlying work at least. The problem? This takes a ton of time for me! Finishing an army with this process might be not just... unrealistic, but might fatigue the heck out of me before I finish. But so far I think it is my preference for scheme. The colour here was meant to go from a feeling of a stormy/ice feel.

That's about it for now.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Prot

[DanPesci]

Those are amazing. The quality on your 'test' models is outrageous (but having also seen your work in the admech forum im not surprised!)

 

Personally, i prefer the first one, as i much prefer heresy/grey wolves to the baby blue....but thats just taste and those are some of the best bleu/grey 40k wolves Ive seen.

 

I think you are right that the lighter weathering on the third set helps to preserve your colour work a lot more (especially that final photo)

[beefeb]

I prefer the more colour, pin wash 2 image.  It shows the amount of care taken on the minis.  Your points on timescales though is a big factor.  Theres no point going to this level of painting if you are tired out and apathetic by halfway thru the army.  It will be a lot of wasted effort and opportunity.  As with DanPesci, Im not a lover of the 40k Baby blue colourscheme of the Wolves...I prefer  them as they were in 3rd editiion....grey, not blue.  Its now become the heresy colourscheme but i think greyscale is far more in keeping with the image of the sky vikings rather than the baby blue baby shower look of the modern wolves scheme.

 

A suggestion fir what its worth..If you went for a more grey colour tone, then I assume it would speedup the process a lot, allowing you to have the subtle level of weathering from pin wash 2 and vallejo mix, with select points of colour added as points of interest, in bones, pelts, talismans etc.  I use red bolter casings on my grey marines to add colour interest while keeping them minimalistic armour colour wise as an example.    Perhaps this would speed up the process enough that you can weather to the level you want, and still have an army for the tabletop in a more realistic timescale?

[Prot]

Thanks very much.... I am not sure this is worth the time involved. I did have my first game, and these Wolves feel far more... potent in close combat than my White Scars do. However I do enjoy the speed of the Scars, even though there are a LOT more options for Wolves.

Anyway, this Bjorn model took a dog's age for me to finish (pun intended).

[Valerian]

Those are looking sweet, Prot.  Especially that last pic of Bjorn with the Intercessors.

[Triszin]

Your stuff is awesome

[Kassill]

Indeed, these look excellent! 

[Prot]

Thanks a ton guys. I appreciate it.

 

I don't know what's wrong with me. I keep adding to this army. Exhausting to paint though. Honestly a very time consuming recipe I've settled on for these guys.

 

Now the new stuff...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roaring onto an eBay auction near you!!!!......

[Valerian]

Excellent work.  Love the bases, too; they really set the models off.

[Prot]

Excellent work.  Love the bases, too; they really set the models off.

 

Thank you. I went with high contrast. I know snow is the thing with these guys, but I wanted to try something different.

[Wispy]

don't ebay auction it, you maniac!

[Prot]

don't ebay auction it, you maniac!

Haha. Thanks for the laugh. I needed it. 

 

I am thinking Wolves or Templars. I have not decided yet. 

[BadgersinHills]

Lovely painting. 

[Prot]

Well It looks like the Wulfen are an impactful part of the army and I can't see NOT wanting to always include them. So I broke down and painted a squad.

 

I will admit the level of detail and work on these sculpts is really impressive considering how long ago they came out. (I say this after working on new World Eater kits as well.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I'm trying not to play another "world Eaters" army. Even so I am still working on TWC but after that I need to diverge the list from a WE style. 

[dees]

 Very strong work! 

[Triszin]

Awesome stuff

[Prot]

Thank you very much. Thinking of ways to depart from the World Eaters style army I'm playing, I'm thinking of finally cracking open my Agustus Strike force box, and making the Tshirt launchers for the Wolves. They seem a good fit anyway.

 

Otherwise I do have a squad of Thunderwolf calvary about half done, but I've had trouble being motivated enough to finish them. :)

 

[Lord Ragnarok]

Very striking wolves. I love watching your merry go round of armies. Nice to see you stop on the wolves! 

[Prot]

Thank you, I’m glad you enjoy my merry go round of indecision.  Often I hate what I paint. It’s something I struggle with. 
 

often I miss my many ultramarine amies but I think that’s in part because I felt comfortable with the scheme ( I did 3 UM armies painted over 3k points each to get there)

 

I’ve  been trying to go more shooty because honestly this army plays so similar to CSM but you get more toys with Wolves (since AoO). 
 

I am struggling to find my way with them. I played my Wolves last night with a heavy shooting  element and managed to win vs DA but what a blood bath. My shooting ( added new desalators and melta belt Brutalis) was still quite bad. 

[Prot]

So here's an update to my mad world of army painting.

 

I had a lot of white scars (bear with me, this does lead to Wolves) and I sold 3 very large UM armies (one going back to Mini-Wargaming). 

 

Wolves and me have not been getting along. Sometimes, just too many 'wolfy' elements, and other times I don't like my paint scheme. 

Well here's what I went through.... My first scars were very neat. I really hated that look on them and I started to incorporate more pigments, and eventually Enamels and Oils.

 

And I liked that look a lot better. I noticed more people going that direction as well, and then I reached a point where I thought all the work I was doing preshading/post shading was becoming invisible.

 

When Augustus came out, I decided to revisit the whole idea. I tried touching up older paint jobs with new jobs, and applying different techniques to newer models as well (experimental stuff, including Augustus models)

 

 

For example. The biker is my more common style, but even though the 'pre weathering' weathering work is there, I lost a lot of it with all the weathering techniques.

 

I decided to use a large, flat panel model for testing a different look. I reapainted my Repulsor above. Lots of work, going back and forth, and I made a conscious decision to get into colder hues, instead of warmer hues for shadowing to make it a little more visible.

 

 

I applied this same type of effect and effort to a Storm speeder. Note the cool greys and blues. Still lots of work, but I thought maybe I'll apply this to new models and even though they would be in early stages, I'd get a better idea. So I used the same idea as an early stage on the Infiltrators above.

 

 

I did the same thing to these ATVs. They have the cool preshading, plus lighter enamels.

 

 

 

 

I decided to try the test from scratch on a bigger model again.. the Warsuit.

 

 

In the end I tried eliminating all of that, going back to Ultramarines, and Wolves which are a stark contrast to the Scars.

 

And in the end I decided probably the Wolves... I came up with a new formula for Wolves I liked (this is only a mid stage of painting) and I think I'm done with the scars. No one ever finds them to be nearly as eye catching as my other billion army projects. Which is disappointing but understandable since it is a white fig we are starting with.

 

The reality is this is my last kick at trying to find a Wolves scheme I really like .These are again, just a mid level work that I call a 'storm' recipe. It goes from purple/deep red, up to a few grey/blue mixes ending in green to get a lot of contrast. 

 

I hate to admit it, but after 3-4 giant Ultramarine armies, painting them is like an old glove with tweaks on recipes I've used a 100 times. The Wolves are not quite there for me yet. There's so many ways to do them to be honest. Hoping I find one I like...

[Prot]

Here we go. Some WIPs. These are far from done... just trying to nail down the look. See if I even like it...

 

 

My camera is perhaps a bit too bright. No weathering done, etc... the Hounds are up there to show they are darker (vs Ragnar).

 

The others I have partially repainted many times. The Warsuit, the Desolators, etc.

[dees]

Very good work as always! The OSL makes the models very dynamic. 

[Prot]

Thank you. I'm really struggling with these units. Hopefully the scheme works out in the end. :)

 

[Prot]

Okay finished some models:

TWC I love the concept of, just really dislike the riders so admittedly it was grind to just finish them. (If they ever modernize these with their new standard, I think the sculpts could be amazing.)

 

 

 

Desolators are something I think actually work in Wolves. Much needed anti tank (for 10th too!) and actually I like how they models look.

 

 

 

[Beef]

Amazing work, I love the transitions.  I am trying that on my Ragnar model but thats as far as i will take it as its to time consuming, Hats off to you for doing it.