Painting Space Wolves Space Marines Part 4

Greetings Wolf Brothers, and welcome to the 4th and final part of my painting guide.

In this final part I will guide you through the last two steps on painting this model, the final coat, and the highlights.

A second final clean coat will be painted on almost every area of this Grey Hunter, in order to brighten the model up giving it an impressive stand out look. This coat is the most important part of the whole painting procedure.

I like to start by painting the armor as it covers the biggest part of the model. Having finished all the wash jobs, and the drybrushing I can now paint the main armor color to clean the model. The color that I will be using for the armor is the infamous “special Grey” mix that GW uses on their wolves, the models that we all see in our codex. This color is a 50-50 mix of Space wolves Grey and Shadow Grey. I normally empty the two colors inside a small glass, mix them in there, wash with water their cups and then put the mix inside the now clean cups. This way I have two bottles of the mix. I like to start from the legs as I find that it is easier to find a tempo and get used with the color starting with a relatively big open area. I break down the model in small parts divided by the recesses and joints of the armor and paint each carefully. The paint needs to be watered down by 2-3 drops, and you must use only a small amount on your brush. Paint the area avoiding getting too close to the edges where the wash has settled. You need to leave that small line of shade made by the wash in order to keep the armor from the details separate and create the contrast needed. Keep in mind that wherever your sight can reach, your brush can, too. Also practice in using just the tip of the brush as it will make your painting more precise!

The change at the look of the model after this step will be huge!

The other parts that need a second coat are the following. Metal areas basecoated with tin bitz, Skull trophies, purity seals, tooth trophies etc. The paint that you will be using when painting these parts has to be a little more thick than before, meaning you only dilute it with one or at most two drops of water. This is because the surfaces on these parts are quite small and now we can’t afford the paint to be watery and run outside. Start by painting the skull trophies with dheneb stone. Paint the risen areas avoiding again some of the spots that the wash has settled. Use only a small amount of paint on your brush and use only the tip of the brush. Continue with the tooth trophies by painting a small line along the tooth. Moving on to the purity seals, use only a tiny amount of paint on the tip of your brush paint a coat of Bleached bone on the purity seals avoiding tears and the midpoint. After that you may need to apply a second coat because bleached bone is a relatively thin or I might say weak color and just one coat won’t be enough. After that, paint a touch of blood red on the wax parts of the purity seals to open up the color a little.

Finally, paint the metal decoration with shining gold. I normally don’t dilute the shining gold as I want a thick rich color on the gold areas.

Now, for the last part of the procedure. Highlights! Personally I am a fun of the lining technique on space marines as it really brings up the detail on the model and makes it stand out on the table. This technique is about applying small lines of a brighter color on the edges of some areas, representing the shine of light falling on it. I know a lot of guys can be intimidated by this being a difficult technique requiring a lot of patience and precision. This is only partially true, as you will find that if you try it a little bit you will eventually get better at it. You just have to follow all the rules mentioned in this guide. Small amount of diluted paint on the brush, small and steady-hand moves and you will get there. Also while on this guide I will highlight almost every part of the model, you don’t have to do this to this extent. Start by highlighting some parts and as you get better you can return and upgrade your work later! Also, while doing this you may draw too thick lines or they may not be smooth or straight. You can correct this by repairing with the base color, in this case the special grey. The color that I will use to highlight the armor is the classic Space wolf grey. Simply paint edge lines wherever armor ends or meets joint or anything else. Keep the lines as thin as you can. Use the same technique to highlight the silver metal areas (chainsword teeth and hilt, chains, grenades, and don’t forget the rings that hold the talismans) with mithril silver, use skull white to highlight the wolf teeth and the skulls and codex grey to highlight the black parts.

Finally if you want you can paint a small line with vomit brown to the lower half of the eye lenses to create a light effect on the eyes.

This is where I stop with my models. Of course you could go further and highlight the black joints on the armor, highlight the pack markings and the yellow or the red of the shoulder pad and even add weathering to the model. It is at this point however that I feel that the miniature is good enough for me and that I have devoted enough time on it. I now have to apply the company symbol on the left shoulder pad and after that is dry, give the model a thin coat of Varnish with the Army Painter’s Matt Varnish.

Read Part 1 of the tutorial

Read part 2 of the tutorial

Read part 3 of the tutorial