Monday 2 May 2016

Vlka Fenryka: Deciding on a colour scheme

Hi all.

Since I was a little Bunny my favourite Chapter has always the Space Wolves. It was since I first laid eyes on them on the side of the Original Space Hulk box. A beautiful, beautiful grey. 
Then GW released their codex, the Blood Claws, Ragnar etc and it seems that my favourite Chapter had changed its colours. A cyan / Blue grey was what I was given. It upset me a bit but I continued them. 
Then over the years I try to keep on top of the Space Wolves even after GW made some frankly stupid and terrible choices to their aesthetic and style. I hate  Space Wolves riding Wolves, I hate the sled that Grimnar rolls round on, I hate the muderfiend dreadnought, I hate Loki, I hate the weapons made from ice, I hate the new Wulfen. . . I hate 40k Space Wolves and would go as far to say as GW ruined my childhood memories. 
Now; that is the last you will hear of the Space Wolves. 

The Vlka Fenryka on the other hand is the beautiful savage grey future that the Space Hulk box promised. It is the last thing on my long bucket list of things to do, learn, see, go to before I die (true). 
So thank you Forge World. 



Choosing a scheme:

So here is the future of my past. Now just to capture it on a 28mm model. 
It is by no means a flawless or perfect suit. There are many tiny dents giving it a subtly mottled effect from minute imperfections as well as streaks of rust and wear at the edges. 

The Forge World image up top is very close colour wise to the Neil Roberts art above. 

This is FW's scheme. Very nice representation and choice of grey. 

So here is my first attempt:
Legionnaire 1. 

Basecoat with Mechanicum Standard Grey. 


Create a wash glaze of 1:3 Leadbelcher and Lahmian Medium. 

The armour panels were sponged with a 50:50 mix of Dawnstone and Mechanicum Standard grey. 
The upper edges were also given a drybrush of Dawnstone grey. 


Two washes made up of Agrax Earthshade, Nuln oil, 25ml or more of Klear (an empty pot of paint filled amount) and a bit of water were applied to the model. These are drawn straight into the gaps because of the Klear / Pledge. 

Note: this pic looks very silver but it isn't the case. You can see the Mechanicum standard grey on the gun still. 

I used liberator gold for the shoulder trim followed by agrax wash. 
I painted the exhausts Leadbelcher then zenithal drybrushed iron breaker. 
Knee pad was painted white and some Runes were painted on with a 5x0 paint brush. 

I edge chipped with a mix of 2 parts Dryad bark to 1 part Warplock. 


The base was painted dryad Bark, drybrushed Gothgor, lighter drybrush of Baneblade then a final drybrush of Karak stone. 

The Legion icon was painted red, washed with Agrax then highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet.  

Got to do a bit more details on his eyes and add a holstered Axe. 

Summary: when holding him up against a pic of Russ on the Calendar, the scheme is not too far off. The glaze adds a lovely natural highlight to model which ties in with the first image too. It is extremely close to Forge World's official scheme too which is nice. Also it was very easy to do on this basic miniature. 

Drake Seta

31 comments:

  1. that is how they should look! ... the only thing i am debating on right now .. is maybe a darker grey in the shoulder pad ...

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    1. Thanks SilenzZzz. Welcome :)
      I'm concerned that book 7 will say something like each Company has a different sigil etc. I have seen a red pad with yellow diamond with a black wolf's head sigil on the front of Wolf King.

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    2. yeah, i may just finis assembling mine but hold off on paint till the book they are in is fully released ... could at least get the basecoat and such done before then ...

      right now waiting on shoulderpads to arrive.

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  2. Brilliant job drake! Only thing I don't like is red eyes but that is personal preference.

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    1. Hi Extremedoc1. Yeah. But it is official in FW art so I'm gotta do it.

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  3. I couldn't agree more on the lamented cartooning of what was otherwise a quintessentially grim and dark chapter of the astartes. So thank you for spearheading the mission to bring them back from the abyss. Beautiful color scheme, in a post human, murder making, kinda way.

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    1. Red sails and all! Cheers Disciple. Thanks for your eloquent words :)

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  4. Very nice indeed! Much better than powder blue/ grey 40k puppies!

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    1. I can't wait to see what they do for the heads. Kind of sad they weren't included with the release.
      I may get a veteran units worth. To count as the watchers that were sent to all the legions.

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    2. Fair play Brandon. Would love to see Howl of the Hearthworld.

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  5. Like you Space Wolves were once my favourite Chapter, but with the introduction of the pastel blue scheme and the growing cartoon Viking influence, they've fallen down in my esteem. I have to say, your excellent paint scheme is how I would like to see Space Wolves rendered.

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    1. Thanks Dave. Means a lot. Thanks for the compliment.

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  6. You know I'm a fan of their 1st edition frosty grey-blue scheme (or atleast, that's what they looked in the books i have here), but I like your version too :)

    Can't wait to see what FW will do with them in Inferno ^.^

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    1. Thanks Atia. My first real taste of Space Wolves was the side of the Original Space Hulk box. Then it was all Shadow and Space Wolf grey. Then Index Astartes came out and the Pre-Heresy scheme was once more my delightful dark grey which I loved. Happy that both my and Forge World's scheme share the same base colour of Mechanicum Standard Grey.
      I remember a painting guide for the XIII company during the Eye of Terror Campaign was Codex Grey as a base colour. Happy that FW have chosen to say it is darker.

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  7. Nice, I would suggest some hilights (not sure of the english word sorry) to give light on exposed parts.

    By the way I really like your blog and really enjoy each updates from the bunnies. :-)

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    1. Hi Julien. Thanks for reading and the feedback :)
      Highlights it is then. I have added some thin edge highlights to the uppermost edges to show more definition. I will edge highlight going forward.
      Thanks for the advice.

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  8. Spot on - for me at least. Perfect metallic grey which looks like it gives texture to the surface of the armour.

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    1. Thanks. It actually looks weighty in my hand.

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  9. Drake, have you tried a slight line highlight of Administratum Grey on the angular pieces? I use that on my Relictors.

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    1. Hi Siph. I have done an edge highlight now on the top of the helm and pads as per your recommendation. Hopefully will get some better pics added soon.

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    2. Thanks for the advice again Siph!

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  10. So glad they are not baby blue atrocities that GW encourage. Now let's hope that they write out the stupid sled and some of the other gimmicks. Really good job bro...enjoyed sitting with you as you painted it :)

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    1. *throws some wolf-puppies at ya*

      Meany!!! :P

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  11. The scheme looks excellent Drake, nice work!

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    1. Thanks Aveinus. Really appreciated. Now just to get my hands on Russ in 10 days . . .

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  12. I think this is one of the best painted SW I have seen for 20 years. Great job!

    I did lol on the rant about GW 40K SW urinating on dreams as I feel exactly the same.

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    1. Thanks Col. Really appreciated. You will hopefully see some of my other more feral looking Vlka Fenryka soon :)

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  13. I've been collecting Wolves since 1992 and I'm completely on the same page as you when I comes to the baby blues colour.
    I'm yet to start on adventure into 30k and I'm not even really sure where to start when it comes to the Vlka Fenryka. One this I do know though is that I'm not sure about them rocking mk4 armour. Would they have had it or should I be rolling down the mk 2/3 path?

    Any help you can give me for a stating point of what to purchase would be massively appreciated.

    Stunning mini, can't wait to see more!

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    1. Hi Dewi. Welcome to Battle Bunnies :) I really agree with you, and I do think the Vlka Fenryka look better in older variants of Power Armour. But it is stated that they do make use MKiv power armour (even Bjorn has it). In the story Howl of the Hearthworld, ADB actually makes reference to a veteran Legionnaire who was a member of Howl of the Hearthworld who still used an out of date suit of crusade armour (like it was a semi strange thing for a Legionnaire to do, yet harked back to that warrior's personal preference or want). Now the way I am building my Legion is:
      60 MKIV
      20 MKIII
      20 MKII

      I have purposefully sourced additional MKII and MKIII arms from eBay, purchased a lot of MKII and MKIII Legion specific Shoulder pads as well as a huge amount of Vlka Fenryka chests.
      I am assembling one Legionnaire at a time (from the torso and leg assembled standard that all 100 are at). I am treating each as if he was a character, so am assembling each one with different combinations of armour variant components, just to show them as a force which can decide what they want to do with their own armour, to their own desires.

      It is working for me so far and it is thoroughly enjoyable!

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