Painting Question: Space Wolves

by SandWyrm

Love your blog and I love your articles about painting and color theory. It's a unique thing your blog has to offer so give us more!

So, I'm about to start a pretty mammoth space wolves project and I really want to make sure I get the colors right. I've started a test model and now I'm second guessing myself. The model actually looks great in person but after looking at these pics I'm wondering I have made a mistake in painting the grey on this model. Here's my process so far.

I sprayed my model with Adeptus Battlegrey foundation. Washed the entire thing with Badab black. Then I mixed Shadow Grey (cyan) with the adeptus battlegrey and started some wet blending. I then continually added fortress grey as I went on with my wet-blending. Then I did some edge highlighting with Fortress Grey.

Am I doing something wrong here? According to your articles, I think I've made a mistake by using Fortress Grey on it's as an edge highlight and adding shadow grey to the adeptus battlegrey... thoughts? Comments? Suggestions on how to proceed. What about the shoulder pad?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Tim
aka OSH from tauofwar.blogspot.com

SandWyrm's Reply:

(sorry for the delay in answering this)

If, at the end of the day, you like the paint job you did, then don't worry about it. You didn't break any "rules" by deviating from my advice. You just did something different from what I would do. Judge these things through your own eye first. Many, many artists make a lot more $$$ than I do making images that I think are aweful. But the people paying for them must like them. So who am I to judge?

That said, I wouldn't wash your minis with black. Pure white, black, or gray are color-killers that will suck the life out of your work. Instead, add some color to that black wash. If you want the Marine to look like he's been out in the field for a while, wash with dark brown (Devlan Mud). If you want him to look like he's fresh off the Battle Barge, wash with a darker version of his armor color.

BoLS had a very good article on making custom washes. With some practice, that recipe (and some dish detergent) you can make a fine wash in any color you like.

As for the gray highlight... eh. There's nothing wrong with shading from one hue to another (it's required to simulate some materials), but you need to do it in 3 or more steps. Not with a stark transition like you have here. Start by mixing the 2 colors 50/50 and highlighting with that before you add another layer with the pure color.

The shoulder pad looks fine to me. :)