Painting Wolves/Wolf Pelts

Drybrushing fur is generally a simple affair and yields strong enough results. Funny thing is, when you take several steps to make it a bit more elaborate, it still just looks more or less like 2-step drybrushing. *grin* Enter my rapidly advancing Space Wolves company. I wasn\’t originally sure how I wanted to try this out, so I Googled a bit and came up with some options. What I settled on basically had to do with what I had on the paint shelf. Fortunately, browns weather misuse much better than yellows.

I decided to follow a recipe is based on the Kor\’sarro Khan project in White Dwarf US358. Looking at the lads to our left, (who aren\’t entirely complete as yet in this pic, but close), we stepped through the following;

• Basecoat: 3:2 VGC Charred Brown:VGC Beasty Brown. This was primarily because I wasn\’t sure how deep the wash would make it, so I went for slightly lighter base. Lay it on this, I used a fat 1 for this.
• Heavy Drybrush: VGC Beasty Brown. A good, thick drybrush or stippling brush will do all the work for you.
• Layer: 1:1 VGC Beasty Brown:VGC Filthy Brown. This is painted on, not a drybrush or overbrush. Make sure to generously wick the brush on your paper towel to remove much of the paint from the belly, but not too much. This shdoul lighten your colout while leaving much of the darker recesses showing. I used a size 0 for this work.
• Layer: 1:3  VGC Beasty Brown:VGC Filthy Brown. Again, painted on, bringing the colour up, but relying on the texture to do the work. Again, I used my size 0.
• Drybrush: VGC Bonewhite. I was pretty vigorous at this point, focusing much of the lighter colours towars teh edges and less in the center. I used an old GW Small Drybrush for this one.
• Wash: Gryphonne Sepia. It\’s a wash, fat bellied size 1 will do your work.
• Drybrush: VGC Bonewhite. Light cover across the whole, focuse work on the edges. For the full pelt, I put extra effort on the forelegs, ears & snout.

On the full pelt, I went back with Devlan Mud and SWM Soft Body Black washes along the spine, top of the head and around the eyes. I can\’t stress enough how much benefit you can derive from viewing real world examples where applicable. The colouring on a Timberwolf is an amazingly complicated affair, with strong dark featurs around the eyes and spine, but light colours along the legs and chest. Just beautiful. The next batch of pelts & tails will be based on pure Charred Brown for the Wolf Guard models, keeping the colours darker overall. Ulrik the Slayer, with his blackened Wolf Priest armour will get something more akin to a grey/white wolf as a strong contrast, while Ragnar Blackmane will have extra bling and be quite bright, so more deserving of a black wolf to match his raven locks. Those recipes to follow when I get to that point.