I’m pleased to say that my Wulfen should be bounding across the tabletop this weekend! Despite the week being very full on in the “real world”, it was very productive on the hobby front. Because time was starting to become a bit more tight, I didn’t get round to doing any more experimentation with the black on my Knights (my first challenge not achieved) but did get the 50-odd Plaguebearers undercoated for my brother
The weather at the weekend was particularly rubbish so I pushed myself to get them undercoated on Friday late afternoon as the weather was a little better. I ended up airbrushing the skin colours rather than using a brush as I was finding I couldn’t get a decent enough finish on them and was in danger of obscuring the detail on the face. A short amount of time and the flesh was done, which also had the side benefit of putting a bit of overspray on the fur so this should be easier to blend in when I get round to it. I then went in with a brush and pushed the shadows and bumped up the highlights a bit. Colour wise I went for more brown-red in the flesh as I wanted to give the Wulfen the impression of a more leathery skin. Colour wise I based in Skrag Brown, shading with Scale 75 Arabian Shadow mixed with Skrag Brown and then highlighted with Cadian Fleshtone. The brush work used the same shadow and highlight colours but I took the highlight a step further with Kislev Flesh, basically just pushed the colours into the recesses a bit which is enough to make it look like it’s not been airbrushed.
The black carapace/body glove was done using a load of blacks. The base colour was good old Vallejo Model Air Black which has to be the nicest paint to use in my collection. This was then highlighted with Corax Black, blocking in all but the deepest of shadows, followed by Thunderhawk Blue and then Dawnstone. I then went back in with the black and just tidied up the deep areas. By using blue you don’t get that “hard edge” highlight that you would from just using grey.
I decided that I wanted to go for a very traditional silver grey colour for the armour sections. Even though the new fluff says that they’ve been kitted out with new armour, I wanted that nod to the fact that Wulfen were about during the Heresy. As an experiment I picked up a pot of Citadel Air Dawnstone. Now that I’ve tried this using a brush I’ve mixed feelings. I cannot fault that the finish is lovely, very matte and very flat. But it took about 5 or 6 thin coats and you have to be careful not to go back over paint you’ve just put down as you run the risk of scuffing it as it dries differently to a normal paint. I’m quite looking forward to trying this out of the airbrush though!
So my week 6 hobby challenge is pretty straightforward
Finish Wulfen
This is going to be a fairly tall order, but I have two free nights and the majority of Saturday to get this done in, plus can work late on Friday and Saturday. Unlike most models these aren’t going to require any decals and I only have five miniatures to paint, so providing I keep up my current momentum I think it is possible.