jim's Space Wolves WIP

[BrotherJim]

its the beginning of the end, The Wolftime has come

I have taken some photos of my Space Wolves army. they are still a work in progress, things left to be done are

decals

highlights

battle damage

weathering

I have been playing around with techniques and gaining some confidence.

comments and critics welcome!

[nurglespuss]

Looking good, you've got the colours right, and I like the metal work, it looks well used. I would say in future photos, don't zoom in so much! Its hard to focus on them ;p

[BrotherJim]

Thanks! Im really pleased with the colours aswell

 

I would give my left nut to have the photos appear at half the current size

Its frustrating because the appear perfect in my phone, in my gallery (here on b&c)

On my windows media, when I view the log From my phone, but as soon as I add the to

My log they appear massively oversized

 

If you veiw them in my gallery, or save the photo and veiw it, they are fine.... :?

 

I think manually changing the way I take the photos could sort it out, but I've come to expect more

From technolgy...

There is something im not clicking on yet...

 

Thanks for the advice though! Don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything!

[Rift Blade]

Looking good. Keep it coming.

[deathspectersgt7]

Good Stuff.

[Adeptus-Alaska]

I absolutely love the yellow you got going on. and your posing, spot on. the three that jump out at me, are #'s 1, 4, 6. those have the look of getting ready to up!

well done man.

have you considered joining the Horus Heresy? we could use your vision

[BrotherJim]

thanks guys its great to hear :)

 

furioso-prime - thanks mate, I've put a lot of effort into building these guys so its good to hear it translates.

the yellow is just straight iyanden darksun (sp?) though multiple thin coats

when geedub updated the paint range, the new equivalent averland sunset is slightly off, which I am very dis-pleased about...

 

the horus heresy is something I think about a lot, I lose sleep over it in fact.

 

my dream for this army can be divided into 3 parts

 

1. what I call "new age" space wolves. these guys are built from the space wolves pack, tactical/assault squads and the space wolves accessories sprue (more or less completed)

 

2. pre-heresy space wolves, which will be built from forge worlds armour marks. I haven't begun on these guys yet because I am hoping to finalise my skill set ie highlighting, battle damage and weathering. I really want to be able to build and paint to completion, without interruption or distraction. at the moment everything is very stop start.

 

3. the 13th company, another thing I lose sleep over. I originally wanted to build these guys from chaos spacemarines, but my attempts have left me less than satisfied. im thinking I will build them from forge world's armour, but I'm not certain yet... pretty excited about the supplement that is rumoured (even though I don't have a tablet)

 

I am really excited about kitbashing the Space Wolves characters for my preheresy/13th company,

the last thing I really want to do is convert up some wulfen models to run with the gw ones... thinking i'll grab some beastman arms, I have the feral heads from maxi mini (I think) all I really need is some clawed/taloned hands. this will be a great opportunity to practice some green stuff, furs, pelts etc...

if I ever do get that far I will probably go the whole hog and give them the DTD treatment so they tower over the rest of the army :)

 

does that answer your question? umm not really... I would love to join the heresy, but most of my boys are wearing mk6 or mk7, and so do not accurately represent that timeline...

I really need to pick up Betrayer so I can get a better idea of army structure, performance etc...

 

you tell me, would it be ok to share this army in the heresy forum? rest assured that pre-heresy Space Wolves is my ultimate goal and I will be more than happy to contribute - just try and stop me!!!

 

got an early mark from work so I am going to spend the afternoon finishing Grimnar and Njal :)

 

(god the massive photos are really putting me off hey, anyone who is interested, its much easier to view them in my gallery, just click the "large" tab next to the "thumbnails" tab and scroll down, no waiting to load or anything! and you can actually see the whole miniature at once!)

[BrotherJim]

alrighty guys its update time!

I have decided to break the army up into bite size blocks, that way I will be able to set and outline my goals and hopefully bring a bit of focus to the project.

so first up is troops! Grey Hunters and Blood Claws. Yesterday I sat down and looked at my photos and tried to write up a little review of what my ideas and intentions were, things quickly spiralled out of control, I will do my best to keep things concise but chances are I will forget some important details, feel free to ask questions if something confuses you...

Grey Hunters - its worth noting that in a Space Wolves army the Blood Claws are the initiates (scouts are elites!) so a Grey Hunter is a warrior who has survived long enough to be deemed useful enough to wield a boltgun. they are cunning and stout, and have tempered their ferocity with wisdom gained from years on the front line.

the squads are 9 dudesman armed with a power weapon/power fist, plasma gun, wolf standard and mark of the wulfen, they will probably have a wolf guard to lead them and roll in a rhino. if I don't take a wolf guard I will throw in an extra plazma gunner

these guys are built straight from the box, plus an extra few found in white dwarf 358... they were amoung the first squads I painted and so look a little haggard compared to the rest. I have really worked myself into a corner with this army, there are lots of little chores that need doing all over the place. I decided to mix the "blood claws"

with the grey hunters to remind my opponents that grey hunters carry a boltgun, bolt pistol and chainsword.

originally I had intended to model all 3 weapons on every dude, but this made the models look too cluttered and cramped... if only there were some way to make space marines bigger hahaha lets not open that can of worms....!

moving on

after building the space wolves box, I felt like I was missing out, whilst I love the builds, there was nothing truly mine about them. so I decided to build these two squads in the old school fashion ie tactical/assault squads mixed with the space wolves accessory sprue. (aside from the heads and a few chest pieces)

I have also built some blood claws in this fashion, I have decided that I wont be painting pack markings as this will allow me to mix and match between squads

looking at the pictures I realised I never made a dude wielding bolt pistol and boltgun, mainly because I couldn't find a pose I really liked... open to suggestions?

so you cannot tell in the photos but all these dudes are carring their helmets (on their hips)

Space Wolves are loathe to wear their helmets, as they cut off their acute senses... Wolves are hunters, pack animals that work together to stalk their prey. These guys can smell you a mile away, and tell what you had for breakfast from the smell of your fart lol

and this stage it may be worth meationing the space wolves special rules, they are

acute senses

counter attack

ATSKNF

wolf guard can take sagas to boost their abilities whilst blood claws also have berserk charge and headstrong.

wherever possible I have tried to model these abilities into the army, for example none of my grey hunters are waving chainswords madly above their heads (ok maybe one or two are) but for the most part waving chainswords is the business of the blood claws, and business is good!

so these guys need the most work done. I will need 15 of them, they will be armed with 2 melta, powerweapon/fist wulfen, they will be running with ragnar out of a landraider.

originally I wanted them all running (berserk/headstrong) but trying to build 15 individual poses who all carry the same theme, from only 3 differet running legs became an issue for me. to solve this I decided to incorporate some of the bracing legs, and some dudes with a foot on a rock. I do feel this slows the squad down abit.

another reason I wont be painting pack markings.

for a bit more variation I decided to use the combat shields (they don't count as shields, just look cool) to help break things up a bit.

I like the idea that the shields count towards counterattack, because you may hit them first, but they are going to hit you back!

so that's the first block. my goal is to finish the grey hunters (decals, battle damage, weathering) bring the blood claws up to speed and hopefully finish them. as a reward I will convert and paint ragnar blackmane

I like to set big goals, that way when I fall short, at least I got something done! I will be happy if I can just bring the blood claws up to date

next up is transports, and I will show you how I intend to damage and weather everything, I have recently bought some weathering powders but haven't yet begun experimenting with them yet, so any trick tips or advice, links would be much appreciated!

thanks for looking, again if the massive photos are an issue please view them in my gallery

some theme music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guTTGJ_PK2Q

back to the meaning - of WOLF! and MAN!

edit - grammer, spelling

[BrotherJim]

triple post!

hey guys, had a big weekend and so didn't get much done

I highlighted and weathered and attempted some battle damage on two dudes, not the best photos

I used some weathering powders, the effect is very subtle, though it was fun to do im not sure if its worth while

I sat down today to apply it to some troops but chickened out!

the same with decals, they are a pain but it definatly needs doing

please excuse the giant mold lines, that's why these guys were stripped of rank and reduced to testers

can you see it? lol I dusted some powders around their ankles to mimic sand/dust, not sure how I feel about it

the same with battle damage

here are some vehicles I have done

the side

kinda made a mess of this one

and my pride and joy, I metal Bjorn

these guys have just been drybrushed with bubonic brown, the damage is just dark grey sponged on and highlighted with a light grey

not really keen to paint boltgun into the damage, me and metallic don't get along too well...

I know I went a little bit over the top, but hopefully it looks ok?

here is a scout speeder collecting dust (actual dust) waiting for me to make a decision on how to proceed

if anyone is interested the grey I am using is a Tamiya colour Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN grey) the part number is TS-66 in a can and XF-75 in a pot

also just realised I haven't shown my termies or scouts, hopefully I"ll get Grimnar and Njal finished tonight so I can show them all together

at this stage im thinking I will just finish what I have wip, apply decals and move on from this aspect of the army.

so that's Ragnar and blood claws in a landraider, another drop pod for my termies, 2 rhinos and a vindicator

also assorted wolf guard and rune priests

my main concern is to get the army onto the table top

thanks for stopping by

[Bro Castiel]

I am impressed with the dust/sand weathering from the powder and definitely think it is worth it. So much so i will do it to my Spectres now!

 

Very neat painting and you should be commended on how the colours match the chapter!

 

Keep it up Brother

 

Cas

[BrotherJim]

Thanks mate, I found if you apply it wet, let it dry, and then dry brush it off it produces pretty decent results, you will need to line in the shadows again...

 

Thanks again for your comments :)

[Targetlock]

nice progress so far, do love the amount of character in the space wolf plastics :) and also Metallica theme song

[BrotherJim]

cheers targetlock

really glad that people are liking the colours, its funny because I am actually red/green colour blind, we call it CP3 here down under... not sure how much it affects grey but it still leaves that doubt in the back of my mind like "I know what i'm seeing, but is that actually the colour that is there?"

I exceeded my bandwidth this month, (longest 5 days ever) normally this is a very productive time of the month, but as fate would have it, I got very distracted by some other projects I have on the go, so progress on the blood claws is slow

why is it that inspiration always strikes once you have a project/goals set, and not a week earlier when your bored sitting there looking at mountains of plastic?

I did however finish grimnar and njal, and when I say finish I mean im tired of looking at them

these guys are both metal and were a real pain to work with, just heavy and clumbersome, I actually dropped grimnar on his face when I was finishing the bases and so it had to be redone

took a lot of shortcuts for the sake of getting them off the table

but before that here are my Wolf Guard in TDA

alrighty all that's left to show is my scouts and long fangs, then the log will be caught up in real time and updates will be slow. this is the kind of project I just keep coming back to, mainly when I want to do something where I actually know what im doing, rather then just mucking around...

I finally got flight of the Eisenstein (sp) on audiobook (yes I am that lazy) so I can listen while I paint, keen to power through it and get on with the heresy proper...

also I realised the forgeworld book I want is called betrayal, not betrayer, my bad, noob alert...

ok so the game plan is to paint these blood claws! no more distractions! lets see how long it takes me

comments and critisims well received

actually while I think about it, im kind of stuck making a decision about which decals/company markings to use : I really like herald deathwolf's one (wolf eating sun) but don't really like his fluff, also like grimnars one before he became the great wolf (wolf head in front of moon) but if I had to choose a character to lead my army it would be ragnar blackmane, though I don't like his sigil....

dilemma dilemma, I thought about doing a different one for each squad, not really certain

let me know your thoughts, the more random the better :)

[Brother Heinrich]

Nice Space Wolves man, your lack of absurd wolf riders is pleasing to me...

[Laborious]

These guys are great, mate. The weathering on your vehicles is brilliant. One or two of the chips are perhaps a bit too big to be realistic, for me, but the execution itself is excellent. Great sense of depth to the effect. :)

[Urauloth]

Some pretty cool stuff here, I like that fread and the TDA pack.

 

One question, though - without pack markings (or at least colours) how do you or, more to the point, your opponents, tell which power armoured model is what? I guess it comes down to things like grey hunter packs having boltguns and special weapons in the same squad, which power armoured wolf guard can't, and so on? It does seem like it could get confusing, though.

[BrotherJim]

thanks for taking the time to comment guys

Brother Heinrich - cheers mate, I am a big fan of your Night Lords, 22 pages and counting! really great effort its inspiring.

haha thanks for noticing, there is no such thing as thunderwolves! ever! as you say they are just absurd. which kind of leaves me with an opening in fast attack, I really love assault marines, so much so that I think the concept is deserving of an army to itself, something like blood angels or raven guard, all assault marines and speeders, its just not something I see Space Wolves doing. we prefer our boots on the ground...

which leaves me with bikers, I think bikers could work well for space wolves but I've never really liked them to be honest (though I like yours!)

ok its on the list! watch this space! (ideas brewing)

Laborious - thanks for your comments fella its very gratifying to know the effect is working. haha yeah I definatly went a little over the top on the rhinos, you know how it is "omg its working MORE MORE MORE!!! But I think with battle damage, less is more. the next transports I do will be more like Bjorn, just the edges and so on...

thanks for stopping by :)

A Kvlt Ghost - cheers mate yeah its something I am aware of. I think pack markings is whats really needed to make these guys legit space wolves. I have attempted it, but not since I bought my new brushes... free hand painting straight lines on a curved surface kinda destroys my mind, though its been a long while since I attempted it...

its on the to do list!!!

originally I was planning to separate the wolf guard with the WOC cloak conversions as seen here

but this is quite a painful conversion, I have these 5 done and another 5 in the works

so in other breaking news I decided im not game enough to attempt weathering powders on vehicles yet, so I just drybrushed some bleached bone to mimic dust,

after getting some feedback I am keen to start the next two rhinos to match these ones

also while I despise thunder wolves I do like the idea of fenrisian wolves (just not the models)

here is my solution, available from reaper minis, I think they are perfect, just the right amount of old school

progress on the blood claws is coming along great, I should have the first 5 up within a few days, possibly even tonight if I stop procrastinating

[BrotherJim]

hooray its that guy who talks a lot but never really says anything!

yes its me again, just a minor update today to show what I've be up to this week

got the first 10 Blood Claws very close to completion

honestly just about everything that could've gone wrong, did go wrong, I wont bore you with the details, but it was a battle to get them this far...

I think at the moment the highlights are too bright, I will have to mix up a grey that is half way between my basecoat, and the current highlights and go in and knock them back a bit and tighten them up.... it should be something like 5 parts codex grey to one part fortress grey...

honestly I think the most difficult part of painting is mixing your paint to just the right consistency, colour and of course amount! I always end up mixing way too much!

please let me know what you guys think about the highlights (colour) and the decals, if they work or not...

at this stage I may put these guys down and work on the last 5, just to get back to basics, normally when I feel this way I would just go and build stuff, but im determined to push on and at least finish the actual fighting force, so I can get some games in while this codex is still current!

I wont be doing any painting tonight, im too run down from work, but I welcome any feedback or suggestions, go on do it! judge them, judge them all!

when I get all 15 done I will rack them up and get some better photos outside in the sunlight, and do a little before and after

also while i'm at it here are my scouts, credit goes to 1000 heathens and his marines malevolent for the running legs scouts, I totally swiped it! I was just a lurker in those days so I hope he can forgive me for not asking permission

thanks for looking!

[BrotherJim]

ok proper update today

got some work on the grey hunters done, highlights decals and some weathering/dust, it hard to make out in the pictures

"blood claws"

the whole gang

some favourites

also blasted the rhinos with some weathering powders

here is the land raider I will be repairing for the blood claws

im so close to being finished with this aspect of the army I can taste it!

I couldn't resist any longer! credit for these next guys goes to all you amazing hobbiest here on the b&c

the 13th company prototypes

grey hunter

some squaddies

grey hunters built from berserkers

finally, a grey hunter who carries a boltgun, chainsword/saw, and bolt pistol!

this next guy built himself, I don't really like but he has earned a place

all I did to these guys aside from the obvious was space their waists

next is the 13th company wolf guard

this next guy looks familiar

please bear in mind these guys are still in the blutac stage. at this point my vision is getting ahead of my ability.

striding marines is something ive been try to build for awhile now. when I built the blood angels command squad, the sang guard legs were practically begging to be built this way. however I liked all of the characters too much to mess with them.

really happy with the potential for awesome builds these guys present. I'm going to do my best to finalise these guys and let my ideas fester (also I need more bits!)

the plan for the 13th is 2 squads of greyhunters, any wolf guard who present themselves, 2 rune priest, 5 wolf guard in tda and a wolf lord in tda. no transports and no scouts (for now) maybe some storm claws (my poor wallet!)

at this stage my brain is exploding with ideas. and that's excluding forge world. I think forge worlds stuff is so nice you could build it straight from the box

one thing ive noticed is that im really bad at responding to people comments, I could talk about building, collecting and painting space marines all day, and most of what I have to say you guys all ready know, but sincerely, thankyou for your comments so far...

[Brother Melice]

That is some epic dedication mate! Very inspiring the way you just keep on going and heralding such results. Great job mate!

[Rift Blade]

Looking good. OK, looking great. Keep it up.

[Resident73]

Awesome lot there jimmy101, I myself have been inspired by you to commence on some space wolves, although it's been like 15 years since I've done this, paint selection & choices have changed I take it?

What majority of paint colour choices do you use, if you don't mind me asking that is?

Cheers

[Phalanx Warder]

Looking solid! Wolves can be tough to paint, I have my weathering tutorial up on my WIP page

[Tyrannicide]

I gotta say, plenty of inspiring work in here. Some of the poses are really, really well done. I particularly like the last guy striding forward though his right foot needs some tweaking. I'm surprised at how well you've managed to nail down that specific tone of grey. It's like the perfect blend between the Pre- & Post-Heresy colors of the Wolves.

 

Carry on, I'll be watching! :tu:

[BrotherJim]

hey thanks a lot guys

That is some epic dedication mate! Very inspiring the way you just keep on going and heralding such results. Great job mate!

cheers brother, your sons of gorgon were actually one of the first project logs I discovered, your work really opened my eyes, so its great to hear you like what im doing. at last the circle of life is complete

Looking good. OK, looking great. Keep it up.

Awesome lot there jimmy101, I myself have been inspired by you to commence on some space wolves, although it's been like 15 years since I've done this, paint selection & choices have changed I take it?
What majority of paint colour choices do you use, if you don't mind me asking that is?
Cheers

wow thanks dude that's great, welcome back to the pack brother! I shall answer your question in unnecessary detail below, one thing about collecting space wolves is that you will get very very tired of all the wolf heads, wolf cloaks, wolf talisman, wolves on your guns, wolves on your swords, wolfy wolf wolfness... I suggest you start a side project, one that has lots of high tech stealthy stabby jump pack goodness! just so you don't burn yourself out.

Looking solid! Wolves can be tough to paint, I have my weathering tutorial up on my WIP page

cool cheers for that, I will reply momentarily!

I gotta say, plenty of inspiring work in here. Some of the poses are really, really well done. I particularly like the last guy striding forward though his right foot needs some tweaking. I'm surprised at how well you've managed to nail down that specific tone of grey. It's like the perfect blend between the Pre- & Post-Heresy colors of the Wolves.

Carry on, I'll be watching!

cheers mate, I appreciate the praise on posing because that's something I try to put a lot of effort into, the paint scheme was really just luck!

*ahem* (giant wall of text incoming)

I've wanted to write painting "tutorial" for my wolves for awhile now, (mainly because I'm so forgetful) but also because its just so basic that its absurd!

I've also wanted to do a little "basics of painting for beginners" type thing for awhile, so I will now attempt to do both.

one thing you should all know, is that I am not the man to do this. I left high school and became a shopfitter by trade, im good at building stuff and following instructions lol

but for all the beginners out there, this one is for you! one thing I noticed online is that there are lots of great tutorials for top end stuff like wet blending, object source lighting, non metallic metal and so on. but there are not many that really detail things like, the best way to undercoat your mini, or how to fix a mini to a detailed base and so on

honestly im surprised I can even paint in between the lines.

so the colours, I really just got lucky

basically I followed the tutorial found in white dwarf 358, swapping out the blue for my grey, outlined below

the grey -

(as detailed earlier) I use the Tamiya colour Imperial Japanese Navy, kure arsenal (long name, amazing colour)

in the spray can it is part number TS-66, in a pot it is XF-75

im not sure what the colour really is, its like an awesome blue grey, it plays tricks on you depending on the light you view it in.

the Tamiya colour wont cover the way you are used to, its a very fine (thin) paint. for this reason I suggest you use a grey undercoat, (also available from Tamiya)

so yes I take a grey miniature, spray it grey, then spray it grey again!

i'm having a lot of trouble getting the paint from the pot to work for me, but thankfully codex grey is a close enough match.

the washes -

badaab black, devlan mud and gryphonie (sp?) sepia are gods. since these are no longer available, suitable replacements are the army painters ink tone range, which are dark tone, strong tone, and soft tone respectively.

the yellow -

averland sunset. shadow with strong/soft tone to taste, highlight by mixing in bleached bone

the furs -

scorched brown, drybrush bestial brown, (somewhere I got lost and ended up using bubonic brown) drybrush bleached bone. wash with strong/soft tone to taste

the bronze -

scorched brown, hammered copper, wash strong/soft tone, highlight chainmail

the face -

tallarn flesh, wash with 50/50 strong tone/soft tone

the weapons -

paint black, paint boltgun wash darktone

so basically, spray grey, wash with one or two really thin coats of dark tone, basecoat everything else with scorched brown, then build up as detailed above, then wash all the brown areas with multiple thin coats of soft tone, strong tone or 50/50 of both. take dark tone and paint it directly into the crevices to deepen shadows.

then base and weather to taste!

highlight codex grey with fortress grey.

some notes about painting-

everyone always says, thin your paints! what they don't say is, use flow aid! FLOW AID is everything! EVERYTHING! I really cannot stress this enough. again im not the man to explain this, but flow aid is a "surface tension breaker" so it breaks the surface tension and allows your paint to spread out evenly across the surface, the water evapourates, and voila! you can literally thin any paint down to 100th of itself and the paint will spread evenly. that's why they call it magic water. I use the liquitex brand, but im fairly certain the new gw leviathan medium will do this...

next a wet pallet. just do it. there are lots of great tutorials out there on this one. this thing is a game changer

and lastly get yourself some series 7 brushes, size 0, 00, and 000. also get some brush cleaner while your at it!

this is like the triforce of miniature painting, armed with these three things, all those jobs you once thought impossible, suddenly become a walk in the park!

also learn how to strip minatures, I use simple green for plastics and acetone for metals. haven't worked out finecast or resin yet. once you know you can strip the paint off, it really takes the edge off painting up your pride and joy.

having said that always do a test model first.

some where along the way I got really tired of my space wolves. I tried every other colour, ive painted ultramarines, blood angels, raven guard, raptors, imperial fists... even some custom chapters. I don't have an airbrush, so this was quite an effort. one thing all the paint schemes taught me was how lucky I got with my space wolves. the colour inset in the shoulder pads, combined with the flesh and the browns really gives the miniature a lot of life, and they really are a joy to paint.

authors note - man writing tutorials is hard!