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Hello all!

First time poster here. I have recently resumed painting, after a life long hiatus... I painted during my teens, and have resumed it now in my early forties (call it a mid-life crisis, call it looking for something to do during lockdown). My skill never went beyond "moderately sucky", maybe because I'm not particularly "artistic", or because I never really persevered. Let's see how it goes with 30 more years under my belt and a dwindling eyesight.

Jumping back on the mini painting train has been quite a ride... Back in the day I learnt basing, washes and drybrushing, and that was it (Never learned to thin my paints, ooops!). So I was surprised to find such a rich landscape of techniques: layering, wet blending, edge highlighting, zenithal highlighting, glazing... plus many other tricks, let alone Citadel's crazy new paint ranges (Contrast paints are interesting, but do you really need a special paint for drybrushing?). I am now trying to catch up, avidly scouring the many available sources online.

Anyway, enough of my life story...

After some warm up work (I painted a box of genestealers I bought some time ago, somehow foreshadowing this moment... mixed results, but noticeable and encouraging improvement as I went through the 8 minis), I have now started painting the Space Marine Intercessors that came with the WH40K Elite Edition box. Always the rebel, I decided to go with Space Wolves, instead of the mandatory Ultramarines and, not being really a rebel at all, decided to follow the instructions provided by the Citadel Colour App. While I'm getting the growing feeling that was the wrong decision, I'm trying to make the most of it and the paints I bought. So, I'd appreciate your help in making sense of the guidelines provided by the app. Bear with me for just a little while longer.

-Base paint: Citadel Colour suggests "The Fang"... that's very, very blue, son! According to Citadel Colour, "Combat ready" only takes this plus an Agrax Earthshade wash (I assumed a "recess shading" would make most sense here and I went with that), which basically means the "Combat Ready" Space Wolf looks like a dull version of the Ultramarine? I'm not sure how to feel about that.
-But I'm not one for half measures -also, I do not want my Wolves to look like neutered smurfs- so I delve into "Parade Ready" territory, which for the ceramite plate means...a Russ Gray highlight. Considering I do not want these bad boys to look so smurfy, I assume I'm supposed to coat with a full layer, only leaving the more deeply recessed areas with the base coat. I have done this, and things have improved, but a)the minis still look too blue, IMHO, and b)for some reason, the coat of this layer looks awful, uneven and chalky. Should I apply a second layer? Maybe I have overthinned the already thin-ish Russ Gray layer paint?
-This is as far as I have gone. Citadel colour would advise to follow with a further highlight of Fenrisian Gray, but a)I haven't bought it yet; and b) I wouldn't know how to apply it. I don't think this supposedly "paint by numbers" approach would expect me to do any kind of decent blending -spoiler: I would really mess it up-, so maybe this final highlight should be an edge highlight? -spoiler: I will mess that up too. Just slapping another layer on top of the other one feels like a waste of time, but maybe this would be the way?

Anyway, in case you were patient enough to read this far -hey, thanks!-, would you care to share any tips on what would be the most sensible way to follow the barebones guidelines provided by Citadel Colour? I know they are just guidelines, intended to make it easier for newbies like me, and frankly, on hindsight I think I'd have rather followed a different one, but as long as I have committed to it, I'd like to make sense of it. Advice on how to avoid that chalky finish in the Russ gray layer would be welcome too. I'm attaching a pic, in case you want to see the CHALKY FINISH OF THE CHAMPIONS.

Yes, those paying attention may notice that I took some Russ Grey, mixed it with some white and proceeded to attempt the faintest, laziest, shakiest edge highlight the world has ever seen. So kind of you to notice!

Thanks a lot!

That was really useful, confirming my gut feeling about Citadel Colour’s “method” and suggesting a potential fix for my personal chalkaggeddon (tm). Fingers crossed!
I’m actively resisting trying advanced stuff as I do have a lot of room to improve on basic stuff, and I know getting frustrated is the greatest risk I face in painting on a more regular basis (that, and the missus dropping the hammer on my painting related expenses). I have seen some very cool glazing videos from Dana Howl and I’m looking forward to trying that, but I will wait for a nice chance to “start small”.

Again, thanks so much for the quick and helpful answer.