Painting Space Wolves Space Marines Part 1

Hello Wolf Brothers! I am Anestis from Greece. Most of you may know me from the Space Wolves Facebook page where I post photos of my army and models. I have been asked to share with you my techniques on how to paint Space Wolves models, a task I am very happy to take. This tutorial is addressed to new painters or anyone who is not expert or is looking to improve his painting skills Most tournaments require painted armies, and so tutorials on how to paint and put fast an army to the gaming table are mostly what people expect and need to see on the internet. My take however is not a way to paint your army fast. My goal is to show you how to paint your models very nice. I want to share with you tips and techniques on how to do that. Painting a miniature requires skill, effort and a lot of time and patience. Anyone can do it. Problem is: many people don’t believe in themselves. I recommend to everyone to give it a try with at least one model. If you follow these instructions, after a short while, will find that painting high quality models is easier than it seemed at first as you have improved your painting skills and precision with brushes. So, to start, choose one model you like and give it your best shot to make it stand out on the battlefields of Warhammer 40k. Follow my instructions as I I will show you how this can be achieved!

If you plan on painting an army like this, you must know that it will take you a lot of time to finish but it will definitely be worth it in the end. Space wolves also have very impressive models with a lot of detail and character and they end up looking incredibly nice when finished. While you are using this guide and painting your miniature, you need to keep in mind that in order for a model to be impressive, it needs to have contrast and different tones and shades of colors. HERE WE GO: There are three basic components to every painted model: Dark areas/ Bright areas/Highlighted areas. The model must be clean of Dust before any paint is applied on it. Use an old brush to remove dust, dirt or any hair from the model because you don’t want to find any of this under your basecoat later.

Basecoat

After you have decided the paint scheme of your army, No matter if it is blue, grey, black or some shade of the above, you need to basecoat the model with it. I personally use the WOLF GREY SPRAY by ARMY PAINTER for that. It is primer & basecoat at the same time. If you are using any other color you need to first prime the model with White for bright colors, or black for dark colors. Then use a large wash brush to apply the paint on your model.

This is our first rule

  ALWAYS DILUTE YOUR PAINTS WITH WATER.

The paint must be diluted to a point where it is thick enough to not run down the area you are painting, and fluid enough to be applied very easily. I have heard people describe the paint should feel like milk does. Don’t worry if it is so fluid that seems weird. It will be ok when dry.

When you are using diluted paint:

- You don’t leave Brush strokes and the result is smooth and even

- The paint is applied a lot easier

- It does not dry on your brush while painting

After the miniature dries up, we are ready to proceed with the next step.

Shading.

A miniature needs to have dark areas, so that the bright areas stand out. It also makes it look more realistic. On a space marine, the places where armor meets joints and recesses need to be dark. The armpits must be dark as does the neck and so on. Also there are places that your brush won’t be able to reach. Those areas should be darker than the rest of the model. This effect is easier to achieve at this stage. Use a large wash brush to apply watered down Badab Black on the model. The wash must be spread out around the model carefully not to leave too much on the armor. The emphasis should be on the parts that need to look dark later, not those which will be light later on.  Be sure that you won’t forget any dark areas, especially those that are harder for your brush to reach – This is why I water down the wash, the watered down wash is a lot easier to spread in those areas.

The model may look messy at this stage but don’t worry, when Dry, the model will look like this.

Pay attention on the recesses and craves of the armor; Especially the joints and the gaps. They should look almost pure black. In the next segment of the tutorial I will show you how to paint the talismans, skulls, weapons, etc. Please ask questions, I will provide answers in the comments section or, if I find that I missed something major, add it to the post.

I hope you find this article interesting.

Wolf Guard, Anestis!

Read Part 2 of the tutorial

Read Part 3 of the tutorial