Creating my Primaris Space Wolves Chapter

It feels like forever since I last looked at my Red Wolf chapter, I’ve been so sucked into Star Wars Legion as of late. But I was completely inspired by a guy on Instagram who does loads of green stuff conversions, he played around with some thunderwolves and they looked awesome.

I haven’t actually got any thunderwolf Cavalry as the marines looked a little strange riding on big wolves. Seeing this style instantly sold me on them as they looked more like berserkers which now makes sense in my head.

I’ve popped a few photos I took on the journey below but if you head to the bottom of this post I’ve also linked the building and painting Vlog

It was then onto painting but I wont bore you with that again! I’ve covered my colours and the way I paint them plenty of times before. If you’re interested check out the other posts in this project. Alternatively watch the Vlog as I do cover it again on there.

It’s been an awesome journey so far. The Red Wolves chapter look amazing all together. There are definitely some holes in the force, some more transport would be awesome and the new tanks that have been released would definitely provide some much needed heavy fire support.

I’ve also been thinking of some of the more traditional space wolves models but I do want this force to stay mainly Primaris. I think I can get away with the Thunder Wolf Cavalry but I’m not really sure what else. There are more Primaris marines that I haven’t got of course!

As you know I picked up the Space Wolves Combat Patrol to expand on the Red Wolves Chapter. The Invictor Tacical Warsuit was definitely something I wanted to get painted straight away, mainly because I hadn’t given one a go before.

I also painted up a Redemptor Dreadnought using exactly the same technique. I’m really pleased with how they’ve both turned out.

The Red Wolves are definitely expanding fast!!

I picked up the Space Wolves Combat Patrol to expanding on the Red Wolves Chapter. Of course the first models I was going to paint would be the Hounds of Morkai!

I’ve gone with a different scheme than that of the Canon Hounds of Morkai as it wouldn’t really fit with the Red Wolves scheme.

I think these have turned out really well, I’ve really enjoyed painting them. I definitely think they fit into the theme of the Red Wolves better than if I’d gone with the dark Blue/Grey that GW went with.

With the Indomitus Box completed it was time to have a look at how I can expand the force.

I already had two units sat waiting from an old project so I thought they’d be an ideal place to start.

The more eagleeyed among you will have noticed in my previous videos that I’ve had a round stand that I painted at the same time as the Indomitus troops stands. That was of course for the Murderfang, I can’t think of anything that screams space wolf than this guy, well actually there’s along of things but he’s definitely one that always jumps to mind.

I painted him in exactly the same way as I painted the Outriders so to see more detail on that look at the previous post. Here’s a couple of awesome shots of him finished though…

The next unit I had lying around were some Fenrisian Wolves that I painted a grey scheme many moons ago.

With the Birth of the Red Wolves I through it time to give them a fresh coat of paint and get them in line with the new paint scheme. While I did like the grey I went with originally it would now look exactly the same as the marines armour and I wanted these to stand out.

I therefor followed the same process as the wolf with the Outrider Sgt, the main two colours I used were Contrast Skeleton Horde and Contrast Wyldwood. I used the Black templar for eyes, mouth and pads on the feet and Ushabti bone on the teeth.

They were so quick and easy to paint! Check out the link below to my painting Vlog.

So that’s the Indomitus box now completed. I’ve loved this project and really pleased to be getting back to a space wolves themed force. I’ve considered getting some little name plates for the characters, especially with this being my home brew chapter. I don’t want them just to be any marines I want them to each have an awesome back story.

Here’s a quick overview of the Indomitus models and what I’ve done so far with The Red Wolves chapter.

I’ve got the Murderfang as you’ve seen previously and I’ve got some of the first primaris marines that came out when 8th dropped that I’ll me converting too. After that I’m not sure but keep an eye on here to see where I go next.

The bikes are a little different from the wolf lord and the troops as they’re pieces of equipment so I thought I’d do a separate entry for them.

You will have seen before that I added some green stuff fur and a few wolf tails/skulls to the mini already.

For painting I following the same process as the wolf lord mostly.

Basecoating was done with Mechanicus standard grey as it worked well for the Lord, not all Contrasts work as it’s darker but many still do.

The base was painted in the same way as I previously did, ie Spray Black, drybrush mech standard grey and administratum grey on the rocks, paint the soil Oak Brown and highlight mornefang brown

Painting

Following the base coat I drybrushed the armour ‘Dawnstone’, I then washed straight away with ‘Agrax Earthshade’. The edge highlights were then painted using ‘Administratum Grey’.

The furs were painted with ‘Contrast Wyldwood’ with a very light drybrush of ‘Zandri Dust’. I also used the contrast paint ‘Blood Angels Red’ to paint the sword, the wax seals and also the diamond on his backpack. While you don’t get the bright vibrant colours from the Contrast paints when using this basecoat these do still look good.

The gold is ‘Retributor Armour’ with a shade of ‘Agrax Earthshade’ and metal was painted with ‘Leadbelcher’ with a shade of ‘Nuln Oil’.

Weathering 

The weathering of the bike is really easy. I’ve found many shy away from doing it but it’s really simple. I explain a little more in the Vlog below but essentially all I do it grab two things, Typhus Corrosion and a weathering powder.

In this instance I used Light Earth from Forgeworld but first I used the Corrosion paint. It’s similar to Nuln oil I suppose but not as thin and gives an oily look. All I do is grab a small tipped brush and literally paint a few streaks coming from the vents or corners of panels. (Watch the vid you’ll se how simple this is).

The powder I just brush onto the model in it’s powder form, all around the bottom of the model, if you use paint for this it gives a very different effect. this looks more like dirt that’s built up over time but doesn’t look to think. Once you spray a sealant over it holds it in place.

The wolf lord needed to look a little different from the Captain you get in the box, the shield just didn’t fit with what I wanted to do and he definitely needed more fur!

I had a spare dreadnought shield as I made the Murderfang instead of the axe and shield dread so that was a must, it was almost the same size as the standard one too.

The cloth was all replaced with greenstuff fir and I used an off cut fur paw to drape over his shoulder too. You can get these in the upgrade sprue.

Speaking of the upgrade sprue I also used the back pack and the ‘frostfang’ style sword too. The wolf tail is actually a plume from the old space wolf helmets and the scull is one from Spellcrow.

I painted the traditional Space wolf blue armour on an old army of mine that is now long gone so for this I wanted to do something different. I tickled with a grey scheme with a 30k force a few years ago and really enjoyed it so I thought I’d give that a go again. I also have some of the Forgeworld transfers which have some cool red wolf heads on so they would be ideal.

For details on how exactly I painted the wolf lord and my thought process while doing it, watch the painting Vlog below. But, for the main choices of colour I’ll tell you now.

Following the base coat I drybrushed the armour ‘Dawnstone’, I then washed straight away with ‘Agrax Earthshade’. The edge highlights were then painted using ‘Administratum Grey’.

The furs were painted with ‘Contrast Wyldwood’ with a very light drybrush of ‘Zandri Dust’. I also used the contrast paint ‘Blood Angels Red’ to paint the sword, the wax seals and also the diamond on his backpack. While you don’t get the bright vibrant colours from the Contrast paints when using this basecoat these do still look good.

The gold is ‘Retributor Armour’ with a shade of ‘Agrax Earthshade’ and metal was painted with ‘Leadbelcher’ with a shade of ‘Nuln Oil’.

He’s finished!

I love the look of him, especially from the angle above. The Dreadnought shield definitely sets him apart from the rest of the minis, though, I’m still not convinced with the way he’s holding it. I think the fur around the back of his head really sets it off too.

Here’s a few more shots of him but I’m off to paint the rest!

When it came to the Chaplain I wanted him to be as equally wolfy and the rest and actually look like a Wolf Priest rather than a Chaplain painted similarly to the rest of my army.

The staff top was removed and relaced with a winged skull that was in an old upgrade sprue. I think this usually would’ve gone on the back of a backpack but it works well here. I also put a wolf tail on the bottom.

The head was from the old Space wolf packs that I had spare and I used a little wolf skull motif on the backpack.

I also green stuffed the whole of the cloak he has and did the same as described below creating fur. I also added a couple of wolf skulls within this. One was a GW one from an old space wolf box and the other with a cracked skull from spellcrow.

The next stage of course was to base coat him. I used Wraith bone, which has pretty much become my go-to base coat now!!

So I’ve linked my painting Vlog below so you can follow along and see how I go on. But if you haven’t time to watch it I’ll go through some of the main paint choices now.

Because I went with the contrast wraith bone base I decided to go ahead and use some contrast paints for ease and speed.

The main one being the contrast Black Templar which covered the whole of the armour. I picked out the silver in the areas between armour plates with leadbelcher, the raised ‘bolts’ around the armour are simply just the contrast, nothing else needed to get that effect.

The furs were Contrast Wyldwood and all the bone and parchment was based with Contrast Skeleton Horde. These all gave a great colour straight away with very little effort compared to painting ‘normally’.

The gold is Retributor Armour with a shade of Nuln oil, I also used this on the leadbeltcher.

The rest of the details are pretty self explanatory but if you want to know more I go into detail on the Vlog below.

He’s finished!

I was a little worried about how light the black armour looked but now he’s completely done I’m really pleased with the look!

The snow is looking awesome around the base and really changing the mini. I also love how the parchment looks with the ‘text’

As previously mentioned the Primaris marines simply weren’t wolfy enough for me so I grabbed my bits box and some green stuff and got to work.
I’ve detailed below on each image what did so you can get an idea

Because basing was going to be standard across the force I decided to get all these out the way first.

I used some cork board to created a rocky landscape and covered the rest of the base in a fine sand I have for basing.

I’m going to used some Valhallan Blizzard to finish them off but this will be after I start painting and attach the models themselves.

Space Wolves have always had a big draw for me, when I was younger they we’re always just out of reach because I didn’t think I’d do them justice.

When I came back to the hobby a few years ago of course they were the first marines I went for. I went with the light blue Games Workshop paint scheme, I was really pleased and got loads of games in with them. I even then tried 30k and had a small force.

Over the years my painting has improved, at least I think so, I’m in no way amazing and much prefer to find quick schemes that allow me to get painted armies on the table than anything resembling golden demon entries.

So with the release of 9th Edition I decided now would be the time to re attempt a force and see what I can achieve. The first thing I did was have a look around at all that cool artwork that is out there for the spacewolves….and there is alot!

Having already build forces with the standard marines I wanted this to be a purely primaris force. Well with some of the older dreadnoughts as they’re awesome!!

The problem with the primaris marines is they’re definitely not wolfy enough so I knew I’d need to figure out how to convert them. Lots of spare bits and green stuff I think!

With them being a purely primaris force I though why not paint them with a bit of a twist. So instead I’ve decided to go down the old 30k style paint scheme. This way I can also use the cool forgeworld transfers. With the wolf head being red it made sense that this new force would become ‘The Red Wolves’ a space wolf successor chapter.

Lore wise I believe there was only one Primaris Space wolf successor chapter but in my mind if there was one there must be more! So that’s the plan anyway….