Having always wanted a Space Wolves army of my own for over a decade now, the past three weeks I've been hard at work creating a quick and clean old school force that satisfies that need once and for all! Over that short span, I've been able to create a simple recipe that isn't going to steal your precious hobby time!
I've been using Rustoleum Grey sand-able auto primer as my undercoat. I've also premixed two of the ratio steps in old empty paint pots. If you're going to be painting an army of these guys, there's no reason to not have these colors premixed and ready to go to help save time!
To start off I did a base color of Shadow Grey. This lays down a good deep color to build from and work around to create the shadows. But to add an extra touch of shade, I used Devlin Mud to deepen the shadows a touch more. Don't go overboard with the Devlin Mud, just enough to fill in joints and deep areas. It also helps make transitions look smoother between areas of the model that might otherwise have the primer showing through!
The actual base armor color is a 50/50 mix of Shadow Grey/Space Wolves Grey. The mix goes on very easily and covers on nearly a single pass. The trick is to take your time around joins and detail allowing a little of the shade colors to show through. This part is likely the most time consuming of all the steps as your hand needs to be steady and your model stable so you don't ruin the work you laid down prior. Should you muddy up something, don't fret too much, just grab the Devlin Mud and do a little touch up until it's defined again.
To start the highlights I used a 25/75 mix of Shadow Grey/Space Wolves Grey. This step came from necessity as I originally tried to jump straight to Space Wolves Grey but found the change too harsh from one color to the next. Having this thicker line highlight helps to soften the transition and create an extra level of polish.
To finish the armor off I used pure Space Wolves Grey to line the edges of the armor. Keep the lines very think and don't go too heavy with it as it can easily overpower all of the subtleties worked in from the previous step. Another small tip would be not to line every single edge but to pick and choose a few major features to help create the depth and drive focus.
I have a really big soft spot in my hobby heart for this old school clean and bright looking armor. It's nostalgic, but also very striking on the battlefield. Here's to seeing more Wolves around the net in the future!
