Luna Wolf - Part I

 

Tight-rope training.

With the upcoming Horus Heresy game not far away, the local Warhammer store is having a bit of a painting competition where the painters from two towns get to show off their stuff. I say competition - more of just a bit of fun. An excuse to get everyone interested in the new models I'm sure, but I think this is how marketing should be done. And I get to paint up one of the new guys ahead of time, see their size, get a feel of how they paint up.

To start with, yes they are nice to paint. The design lends itself quite well to simple and complex schemes, with just enough edges to help define the shapes, but large panels for those nice transitions. It's not overwhelmed with detail, and there aren't many hard to reach areas. Also, there are slight notches to allow the arms to be aligned with weapons, making gluing the arms in place and later attaching the gun a much easier process. I've been looking forward to such a simple thing, and I'm excited for these models based on that one design choice alone!

The armour design has updates just about everywhere, but still feels older than the more classic Space Marines (Mark VII armour). Games Workshop has been doing very well with the armour designs lately. I actually looked at some artwork for Horus Rising, and design cues for the backpack can be seen in cover of that book. As for the size of the model, I haven't based it yet, so no comparisons there. I expect the increase in size over other models in the Horus Heresy range can be explained by the reduced production capabilities resulting in bulkier armour (thicker armour to overcome material shortages, or loss of more advanced manufacturing facilities). Less stringent recruitment policies to replace losses might also play havoc with physiology: larger marines, but less agile perhaps.

So with this fun little competition, the aim to paint up one model in a legion of choice. Blood Angels would be the natural fit for me, but that's also a problem: I would be painting it by numbers, and that misses the opportunity to explore something new. On the suggestion from a store member, I ended up with Luna Wolves. White is a very difficult colour scheme to work with (worse than yellow!) and this also allows me to play with scratches to reveal Sons of Horus paint underneath (if there's time). The idea is that this particular character followed in Loken's footsteps and has reverted to Luna Wolves heraldry in protest over the Heresy.

How to paint white though? Whites are not equal. They are almost always shifted slightly to blue or yellow or brown, and this is enhanced with the shading used. Luna Wolves though, that seemed more of a grey. White Scars might shade with brown, Luna Wolves are definitely close to Nuln Oil. With that in mind, I picked out some paints and got to work:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey for the base coat.
• Dawnstone for a first pass highlight.
• Administratum Grey for a second pass highlight, focusing more on the upper areas of the model, but still applying around the feet a little bit.
• Deathshroud to add some shadow, and give more depth. The idea is to nudge the shadow/highlight contrast a little more.
• White Scar (thinned in about a 1:1 mix) to just push the highlights some more, and really focusing on the upper areas of the model.

Putting down the airbrush, a mix of all the greys was used to then apply edge highlights. So Administratum Grey was used for the darker areas, but mixed with some White Scar for lighter areas, and even more White Scar (nearly 90%) for the very brightest edges. I didn't use quite pure White Scar, which then still leaves me some wiggle room to add reflective dots if I want to later on.

After a gloss varnish I then went in with odourless mineral spirits (artist grade) and black oil paint. I foolishly used household white spirits before, and the fumes from that turned me off entirely. I didn't smell any from the artist grade - I'm sure there were, but they didn't seem to be problematic. I was still in a well ventilated room, of course. The oil wash here was used because I didn't want any staining when doing the recess shading. Staining is very visible on white, so figured the ability to completely wipe off mistakes would be worthwhile. Short version: it worked great.

The only part I'm not entirely happen with is fairly difficult to avoid when dealing with white: that speckled noise pattern so characteristic of using an airbrush. I used multiple greys to soften the transitions in an effort to reduce this problem, but some of it has still shown through. It does give a kind of gritty feel, and that suits Luna Wolves, so I'm ok with it for now. 

-- silly painter.