Well the eight Space Wolves I’ve been painting are progressing nicely despite not having much time over the past week, in fact last night was the first time I picked up a brush since Sunday. As I was airbrushing on Friday I had this horrible feeling that I would get different results from Space Wolves Grey in comparison to the new Fenrisian Grey, so on Saturday I went into town and treated myself to three of the new Citadel paints including Fenrisian Grey and I was right in my feeling, Fenrisian Grey is more grey than Space Wolves Grey. I also picked up Khorne Red (similar to Red Core but with less blue in it) and Mephiston Red (a true red but not as bright as blood red).
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I started off with a rusty layer on each miniature. This comprised of a rough airbrush of Dark Flesh and then using an old brush and a stabbing motion, of Vermin Brown and then Blazing Orange. Using a sponge I applied Masking Fluid to various patches once they were all done.
Next I loaded up my airbrush with the new Citadel paint The Fang and airbrushed the armour, making sure that none of the rust colour was visible (obviously I was only bothered about the armour that was going to be blue grey – I didn’t paint heads and the coloured bits!). It is worth leaving and going back to this stage as it’s quite easy to miss some of the deeper areas if your light isn’t that great. Next colour in the airbrush was the new Citadel paint Russ Grey. This got applied from a “top down and front” angle – almost Zenithal but making sure there was some depth to the miniature. Finally the same angle was used to apply Fenrisian Grey from the airbrush, but on a more restricted area (concentrating on the upper part of the miniature).
And that was the airbrush done with. If you had a wet weekend afternoon, you could easily get ten regular miniatures done with the above technique without feeling like you’ve stretched yourself which I felt was a really positive move. Vehicles can (will) be done with the same technique too which should simplify the whole process.
Once this was done to the eight Grey Hunters I’d picked as my test bunch (yes I should have done five just to be safe) I set about them with a cocktail stick and some blutack and removed all of the masking fluid on the armour that had been painted to reveal the rust layer underneath.
I was finally at a point where I could use a brush! I painted the joints Dawnstone on one miniature and gave them a wash of Nuln Oil – the end effect I really dislike. It’s just looks crap, so going to have to rethink this. I also watered down some Nuln Oil and used this to define some of the armour shadows – DO NOT use Nuln Oil neat as it will stain the armour colour (as I found out). Watered down (around 50/50) is flows much more effectively although it needs two or three washes done like this to darken the shadows sufficiently. I’m going to do this once I’ve got more of the miniatures painted so I know how dark to go.
I did the edge highlighting using Russ Grey and Fenrisian Grey and did a bit of Balthasar Gold on some of the brass areas and Khorne Red on the red areas and that’s where I’m at. With luck I’ll get some time this weekend to finish off the red and metallics and possibly get onto some of the other bits too.
I do think that I’ll do some things differently for my next Space Wolves however. Firstly I won’t airbrush on Fenrisian Grey. It looks really nice but I think it would be more dramatic to just use that colour as an edge highlight, this will also increase the contrast on the miniatures as they do look a little monotone.
The joints likely need to be done Charadon Granite with a black wash and some highlighting, though I need to test this incase it’s too dark.
Finally the rust layer isn’t very prominent. This may be because I need to highlight the edges but I think when I do that again I need to get a better brush for stippling on the orange paints – a drybrush is likely the best bet actually.
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