Ursakar Creed conversion and friends

Hi folks, remember this? Yup, that was November. It's one of the things that happen when you do long term projects with multiple elements for clients. You might do some conversion work to give yourself a break from painting that isn't on the schedule until late next season. It's a weird life. Anyway! Getting distracted aren't I? Here are some pretty models:

These three are the last members of Project Flektarn - Now formally named the Caterva Lupus ("Wolf Brigade") of the planet Saran. I won't go into details of the conversions - the first link is to the modelling page for these two - and will instead concentrate on the painting.

The colour scheme is exactly the same as the other flecktarn garbed troopers, I just added more layers of highlighting to everything. It helps to maintain the feel of the army while simultaneously getting the command staff to stand out as the higher quality painting draws the eye. I was really having trouble with deciding on the colour of the coat. Might seem daft to agonise over something like this but it is vital to maintaining the colour balance of the army. Within the army's colour pallete (the shades already used), aside from the insanely complex Flektarn, were blue-grey, beige, dark brown and green, with a pure grey as an occasional spot colour. With the armour being the blue-grey I was initially thinking of using pure grey as the coat fabric. This, I shed as an idea when I started mentally balancing the scheme, too much grey, especially as the bases are also grey. I started thinking about the darker brown but it would have looked like leather - as the other dark brown elements are gloves and boots. Then I realised that the webbing colour would make a perfect military tan brown with the right highlighting. Especially as I had figured that green would be the lining colour. Adding the grey wings to the cuffs help to bind him to the army colours from behind.

No such problems for the Jerren Kell conversion. He is just a trooper in design - albeit with extra armour plates - so once again it was just trooper-plus for the colour scheme. Where it gets exciting is that flag. The tough Wolf Brigade have a sort of runic, almost tribal feel to the personality as described to me and the client wanted the Grey Hunter wolf standard at their heart to help ram that home. I'm so glad he did want it as the finished effect is brilliant and so, so different to the base model that the conversion is based on!

One of the things I enjoy most is painting animals. I love trying to replicate the exact colours and patterns that a cover a creature rather than just going for "grey innit". As always quick research gave me the pattern and then I started playing with the colours. In the end the colours used were Karak Stone, Stormvermin Dinge and a darkened shade of the same by adding black. I can't give you exact proportions or methods as I just play with mixes until I hit the right ones. For sure, the base colour is Karak Stone with Stormvermin Dinge washed over it. The last stage was a very delicate drybrush with some Terminatus Stone to bring out the texture.

When painting designs on leather and hides it is important to remember to add some of the flesh colour you are using into the colours. This is because when you paint on to leather it will eventually crack and allow the colour to show through. Even staining the leather still leaves the colour of the original material present to an extent. Layering pure bright colours straight on there will look false. Instead by softening the colours with the flesh tone (and using it to highlight the colours) will give it a more realistic feel. The colours - blue grey, red, black and white - bind to the pennants painted last time. I deliberately reduced the impact of the shattered chaos star. I wanted the wolf to be the focus. I debated using an angular runic font for the script, but figured that a commissioning standard would be presented in Imperial Gothic rather than the local text of the homeworld, Saran is the world, Lupus the name of the unit.

Finally we have a blast from the past. This chap is from all the way back to the birth of Warhammer 40,000. He's got modern arms but the body and head are nearly thirty years old. For a tough looking regiment like the Wolf Brigade a tough looking commissar seemed to fit the bill. As a result I decided to go with the same Flecktarn camouflage as the troopers but with black armour. Combine that with the lack of gas mask and he'll stand out among the crowds. Some of the details have suffered a little from the age of the sculpt. The aquilae especially are not good, strangely the cap one now looks like a winged capital 'I' rather than the normal double-headed duck. Maybe some Inquisitorial service there Commissar?

So there we have it, the Flecktarn project is about 130 transfers away from completion. That's a job for tomorrow... and maybe Thursday depending on how long it takes!

TTFN