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I'm currently in the process of starting a Space Wolf army, and now that I've put together some models (A handful of Grey Hunters and the metal Njal model) I'm kind of wondering how I'm going to paint some of these things. The first army I had was Tau, so I never really had to work with anything more complicated than some painted armor. My question is as the title suggests: I need some help in painting the hair on these Hunters and the fur on some of their bits, like a few of the bolters and Njal's massive wolf pelt. The problem is (at least for the pelts) I don't want to see them completely monocolored. I'd like them to be a kind of mixture of white, gray and black. I've heard washes are good, but I've never used one myself.

My best advice, without trying the recipe (yet - this is my planned method!): Paint them Codex Grey for the midcoat, then heavily drybrush a Codex Grey / Skull White mix, then wash with Badab Black, then lightly drybrush with the same mix as before. Make the brushing heavier towards the tip of the tails, etc, and maybe have a *very* light drybrush of pure Skull White on the tip of those.

I'll try it out tomorrow, take a photo and you can see how it looks.

Alternatively, use Graveyard Earth in place of Codex Grey and Devlan Mud in place of Badab Black, for a browner shade.

Sounds like a good enough method. Let me know how it works - I can't actually get up to the shop to buy some paints until this Thursday.

I'd be very interested in seeing those pics, too... as I'm thinking of trying out some light-furred skaven (like white mice ).

if you can find/borrow a copy of the current dwarf codex, it has some nice breakdowns on getting a variety of colors for beard/hair that look fairly decent

I think dry brushing works best for hair and the like. Weather you use a wash or decide to go strait paint, drybrushing will look pretty good on the hair.
For hair I usually blend a couple colors together. Usually the darkest color first as a sort of base coat(also to make the hair have depth) and then move out with lighter and lighter colors. The further out you go with the dry brush, make sure you drybrush lighter and lighter until your lightest color, is basically just the tips.
Good luck man

When you say "further out", you mean you only drybrush the darker colors on the root of the hair... and then the lighter one at the tips of the strands?

Just wanted to make sure I caught your meaning

If you've never painted fur/hair, don't practice on your Space Wolves. Find an alternative model to make your mistakes on.

That'd be great advice if I actually had an alternate model with fur/hair to make mistakes on.
Besides, my theory is, if I screw up, I can always just reprime it and try again.

Great advice here. Not a big fan of dry brushing anything but, terrain and animal fur/hair. Also, if you decide use this method paint the hair and fur first otherwise you might mess up the awesome cloak you sent 2 hours on (take note….. life lesson there ). Have fun.