The Horus Heresy - Space Wolves Rebirth
Did I tell you how I got back into Warhammer and painting? I have for many years attended the UK Games Expo (UKGE) as I’m also an avid board game player. For the first few times I attended I made sure to steer well clear of any models and miniatures. I knew, I knew that if I dipped so much as a toe back into that world I would be forever consumed by it. My self imposed celibacy lasted right up until I saw a second hand copy of the Horus Heresy: Burning of Prospero board game at a charity auction. Specifically at the Orction stand if the veteran UKGE attendees remember such a thing.
Naturally, I ended up paying nearly the retail price for it. A mistake that was compounded by the fact that as the box was second hand it had already been raided for models. There were no Custodes, Sisters of Silence or either of the special characters. All that was left was enough to make twenty-four Mk. III Space Marines. I was kicking myself for not thinking to actually check the contents before the auction, but what’s done is done. To be honest my excitement to be getting back into Warhammer largely eclipsed any disappointment I might have been feeling.
Unfortunately the last time I had drifted out of the hobby I had gotten rid of all my paint supplies. Getting back into things I was rather prudent in gathering new supplies, only getting the bare minimum that I needed. As my collection grew I added new paints or other hobby products that I needed of course, but those initial miniatures are very… basic. I didn’t even have any Nuln Oil! I had also started basing some of them in a winter scheme but hadn’t gotten very far. Suffice to say that while the models were complete in a sense, there were definitely things that could be improved.
The first step was working out exactly what I needed to do. So I opened up a fresh spreadsheet and gave each miniature a once over, making a note of the work that needed to be done. How many need a Dark Tone wash? How many need recess shading? How many need decals? And so on. With that done I had a good idea of exactly how much work I had ahead of me and, more importantly, a way to track my progress. So without further adieu let’s get started.
Step One: Finish painting your damn miniatures
From unpainted trim to the wrong sized bases I had my work cut out for me.
When you get down to it, the aim of this project was basically to bring a collection of miniatures I had painted across several years up to the same level. Whilst I wasn’t completely new to the hobby my initial miniatures were certainly very slapdash. For example, for some of them where it was difficult to get a paint brush in I left portions of weapons unpainted. Also for some reason I had painted the rear of the Tactical Squad bolters a matt black.
I began by painting said black areas with Scale75 Thrash Metal, additionally using it to paint the vents on the backpack. I then tidied up the weapons with Vallejo Scarlet Red and any trim with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. Lastly I painted the small, easily missed, leather wrap on Geigor’s banner pole with Vallejo Dark Fleshtone and gave it a wash with Army Painter Dark Tone.From there I gave anything silver that had not been washed, either because I didn’t have access to washes or because I had just painted it, a coat of Army Painter Dark Tone. For any joints in the armour that had been missed I painted them a coat of Black Templar, a nice one coat solution for such small areas. For the Deathsworn however, I used Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword silver as Black Templar was unlikely to show up over the matt black base coat.
Post glow-up Tactical Marine
Now that everything was up to speed I could indulge in a couple of extras to help elevate these guys. Nothing major, but I did a bit of layering on the Deathsworn masks with Army Painter Skeleton Bone to make them pop a little more. I also decided to give the flamers some muzzle burn, which I did by painting a thin layer of Seraphim Sepia around the muzzles. Once that was dry I then painted two thirds of the Seraphim Sepia area with Army Painter Purple Tone. Lastly, I painted half the purple area with Drakenhof Nightshade.
Post glow-up Tactical Support Marine with muzzle burn on the flamer
Step Two: Throwing shade
Power armour has a tendency to be quite flat, especially if you paint it light grey. I wanted to add some variation to the armour panels . Easy enough if you do this during the paint job with something like spraying a darker paint into the recesses and shadows, or going the other way; starting with a darker base coat and giving the model a zenithal coat with your lighter armour colour. Neither method is particularly suited to coming back to already painted miniatures unless I wanted to be extremely careful with the airbrush or go through the tedious process of glazing in darker areas. Fortunately, Ammo has a product that’s exactly what I’m looking for; their Shader series of paints. Thin transparent paints that are designed to add, well, shading to your models. Their transparent nature meant I could be pretty liberal with my application safe in the knowledge that my paint job isn’t going to be obscured. Unfortunately I went a bit too hard with application of the Grime Shader and it started beading on the models. As this was on the underside of the models this wasn’t the end of the world, it was annoying though. As there wasn’t much I could do to fix things, without an exorbitant amount of work, I moved on.
Post glow-up Grey Slayer
When I had first put these models together I used some 3D printed icons for the Legion symbol as I didn’t want to mess around with decals at the time. I have since changed my opinion on that, mostly due to discovering Micro Sol and Micro Set. Mild solvents that soften the decals and let them conform to the models better. As they are solvents the surface of the models first needed to be protected, not just from the Micro Sol and Set but also from some of the products I would be using later. With that in mind, I used a rattle can to give each model a coat of gloss varnish. It might seem excessive to give the entire model a coat of varnish just for some shoulder decals but they would need an all over coat for a later step plus this gives me the freedom to go beyond the shoulders should I so choose. For the decals themselves I rummaged through my collection of decal sheets, a lifetime of collecting Space Marines fortunately left me with lots to choose from. Once I found the decals I needed I cut them out of the sheet and soaked them in water. At the same time I dabbed some Micro Set onto the areas where I wanted the decal to go. Once the decal was sufficiently wetted I slid it off the backing paper and onto the model. I then used a clean paint brush to nudge the decal into position and once it was where I wanted I carefully brushed on some Micro Sol. I let the Micro Sol soften the decal for a minute or so then used a damp paper towel to press the decal into the model and conform to the shape of the surface it’s on. For the decals on the shoulder pads I repeated this process a couple of times until the decal was flush with the model. Once I was happy with it I sealed them down with a thin coat of glass varnish. Some of them turned out better than others, the decals on the Praetor’s banner probably could have used a couple more passes with Micro Sol but for the most part they were alright.
The large flat areas of the chest armour are ideal for adding decals.
With the decals done I could move back to the shading. The most common way to give power armour some definition is to recess shade between all the panels in the armour. Ordinarily the way to do this is to carefully run a thin line of wash or ink into the recesses. However fifty-six of my miniatures needed a recess shade, not an insurmountable number but enough that I’d be tearing my hair out in boredom. Instead I elected to use an enamel wash, used over a gloss varnish it’s lower surface tension it practically applies itself. I shook up a pot of Ammo’s Dark Brown Wash for Green Vehicles, a mouthful of a name but it’s quite close to Agrax Earthshade. It had to be close to Agrax Earthshade because I had used that on a few of the models already, namely Geigor and the Terminators. Additionally, as acrylic washes tend to be quite thick in their application I could be pretty heavy handed when applying the enamel. Despite being what I imagined to be the most tedious step, this part was actually quite quick to get done.
Post glow-up Seeker Marine.
The last step of this stage was then to seal everything down with Army Painter Anti-Shine Matt Varnish. This did however dull all of the metallics on the model. Which to be honest I didn’t mind as the dull metal made them look a bit more battle worn and ancient. These aren’t the shiny new Space Marines of the 41st millennium but the mass recruited Legionaries of the Great Crusade that have been put through the absolute grinder that is the Horus Heresy.
Step Three: Final touches and basing
With the shading done I felt that the end was in sight. At this point the original plan was to get right to the basing but in doing all the work above there were a few final details that I wanted to do first.
I used the airbrush to carefully apply some Greenstuff World Liquid Pigment Black Soot to the ends of the volkite weapons and to the exhausts on the jump packs. By using the airbrush I was able to build up the soot effect to a point that both I was happy with and looked natural.
Heavy Support Marine with soot buildup on the muzzle of the Volkite Culverin
To blend the decals in with the models a little I dipped a bit of sponge into some Dawnstone then dabbed most of it off onto a paper towel, I then lightly pressed the sponge over the decals producing a chipped effect. I then repeated this process on the Destroyers and Moritat with Two Thin Coats Chacharadon Grey. They use weapons that are war crimes even by Warhammer standards like Rad Grenades and Phosphex Bombs, so their armour would be even more chipped and scarred than normal.
Destroyer Sergeant with sponge chipping on the leg and chest armour.
At long last we come to the bases. As mentioned I had actually already done some of the bases in the same muddy tundra scheme that I used at the time for Imperial miniatures but I wanted to change the basing scheme to one that better contrasts the dull grey armour. That being an orange-red Martian desert scheme. But before I could get started on that I needed to reverse some of my existing work by carefully pulling off any tufts and scraping away the snow effects. Additionally the old Emperor’s Champions that I had converted needed a new base as he was still on a 25mm one. So I carefully pried him off and pinned him to a 32mm base so that he matched the rest of the army. Speaking of prying, the Wolf Priest and Moritat had some scenic details on their bases that needed repainting. So also pried them off their perches and basecoated them with a few thin coats of Vallejo Game Air Fire Red. I was tempted to pick out some of the details on the Moritat’s base like the helmet or the bullet casing but in the end left them red as though they had been claimed by the shifting red sands.
Moritat with soot buildup on the jump pack.
I could then start the basing process proper by painstakingly coating each of the bases with Vallejo Red Oxide texture paste. Like when I did the bases for all those Zombicide Invader: Xenos I mixed up my own Reikland Fleshshade equivalent wash. I did this by mixing Daler-Rowney Crimson and Burnt Umber inks until I had the shade that resembled Reikland Fleshshade. I then thinned it with Matt Medium and water until it had the consistency of the wash I was trying to replicate. The advantage of making my own wash is that I can make a lot of it for a fraction of the cost. Sure the inks are quite expensive but I could make gallons of wash with them. In any case once I had my wash I applied it liberally to the bases and gave it a couple of hours to fully dry. To bring out the texture of the bases I then gave them a drybrush with Kindle Flame, not minding too much if I got it on the boots and greaves of the models as it looks like dust. Lastly I painted all the rims of the bases with a matt black.
Step Four: …and breath
Done! I’ve been circling this project for quite a while and it feels good to get it finished. Not everything went to plan of course but that’s always a risk with big projects. In any case I’m really happy with how they turned out, they definitely look a million times better than they did before.
And if I have to paint another Space Marine it’ll be too soon.