The Lazy Man's Guide to Painting Space Wolves

There's always something to do the night before a tourney...

I've got pictures of Warpcon to upload and a report to type up so before that gets done I'll add something to fill the void. Seeing as I finally had a fully painted and based army I figured I'd show how I went about it.

I'll say straight away this probably won't win you any prizes for best-painted army, but it is something that you can churn out relatively quickly with little more than paints straight from the pot and water. I couldn't be bothered with the fancier techniques used by people like LeGeneral with his Eldar and Blood Angels.

No, no: I'm far more a gamer than a painter and I'd rather get my stuff finished for use on the tabletop quickly.

Step 1
Here I've started with a black undercoat.

Right Shoulder Pad, Eyes, Purity Seal (upper): Mechrite Red.
Left Shoulder Pad, Purity Seal (lower), Pouches : Calthan Brown
Metal bits: Boltgun Metal

Note that I also painted the vents and the exhausts on the backpack with Boltgun Metal too. I've painted them the same as the rest of the metal so you can apply that to those parts of the model too. I did this as I find it easier to paint from the inner parts of the model out to the prominent areas. 

Step 2

All of the Marine's armour that was black has been painted with Fenris Grey.

I water it down as it can be quite thick when taken from the pot (its got lots of pigment in it so its meant to be thick) but I don't use much water as I've found it can change the colour slightly, which can be very annoying.

Step 3

The brown was washed down with the old Chestnut Ink.

I'm not sure if there's a comparable colour now but I'd look at Devlan Mud for a dark wash to make the brown pop. 






Step 4

Red Areas: Blood Red*
Left Shoulder Pad: Layered Iyanden Darksun, leaving the brown showing through at the edges.
Purity Seal (lower): Edged Orc Brown*
Pouches: Layered Bestial Brown
Armour: Layered Shadow Grey

*These are the old colours made by GW but again I'm not sure what I would recommend to replace them. The Blood Red should be fine with the latest range, although I'm not 100% on this as I've got 4 very different colours all in GW pots that are called Blood Red...

Step 5

Red Areas: Highlighted with Blazing Orange
Left Shoulder Pad: Layered Bronzed Flesh* leaving the brown showing through at the edges.
Pouches: Layered Bestial Brown
Metal: Drybrushed Chainmail

*Again this is the old version of the paint but it doesn't matter as much here. You simply need to make sure that the layer is as even as possible or the paint will go on lumpy, causing problems for later layers.

Step 6

Red Areas: Washed with Red Ink. The eyes are given a spot of Skull White.

Left Shoulder Pad: Layered Sunburst Yellow still leaving the brown showing through at the edges. It'll go on properly if the other layers are even too for a lovely and flat colour.
Pouches: Edged with Orc Brown.

Step 7


Red Areas: Washed with Chestnut Ink but don't bother doing anything with the eyes. They're fine as they are.

Left Shoulder Pad: The brown at the edge is given another coat of Chestnut Ink to clean it up and even it out as the Yellow might have covered some of it.

Purity Seal (lower): Layered Skull White
Pouches: Chestnut Ink
Black: Edged with Codex Grey
 


Step 8

Left Shoulder Pad: The brown at the edge is given another coat of Ogryn Flesh but you should let this overlap so that the brown blends into the white.


The metal is washed with Badab Black.




 

Step 9 

The armour is edged with Space Wolves Grey. I like this effect as it makes a big improvement to a model while being fairly quick to do. If you don't have a flat brush then feel free to drybrush the edges of the armour.

I bought a paintbrush from the local art shop for €1 and because of its flat shape its perfect for edging models, especially Marines with their long lines.

You might also notice the Brown/Light Brown/Yellow blend on the shoulder pad more. 

Step 10

Base them. I got my basing sand from the local builder's merchant for sweet f.a.: about a kilo of it for €1. I knew there had to be an upside to a recession.

The guy behind the counter looked at me funny when I went to pay for it - he must have thought I was making explosives or something.

I added it with some Wood Glue. The base's edge is given a wipe of Chaos Black to clean it up and hide any of the other paint stains. I'd recommend that you add some static grass to give it some colour.



And you're pretty much done. I managed to get the two of these done in a few days by working for an hour or two a day in addition to the stuff on my worktop in the picture at the start. All told I got all of the stuff above painted in the week before the tournament so I was happy out.

Ya baby - work it!