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So for anyone who missed my last post a few weeks ago I have started a new army based on the now nearly extinct (in the official lore) Space Marine chapter called Shadow Wolves (surprisingly they're an imperial fist successor chapter). Now I've played 40k for a long time but the only armies I have are Orks and old OOP Dark Angels from the 80s/90s (of which I have now sold all but two of those models). The reason for my limitations is that I have very unsteady shaky hands so painting for me is a mess (hence why I did Orks. XD But even then I had friends who helped out with the main centerpieces). However, I always wanted my own army of which I painted the vast majority of models and of which will stand out from the crowed when I play friendly games with them. Therefore, I went for the little known Shadow Wolves because I love the colour purple and I like the idea of bringing back extinct chapters (also they're well known for wearing Corvus armour of which I have some from Forge World coming in). The main objects of my army and paint scheme is:

1. There will be a mixture of Old 30K troops (to represent the dying chapter having to scavenge old and lost technology. The game play style of stronger armour from the 30k troops also helps to push their Imperial Fist lore) and a mixture of the new Primaris marines ( the chapter was last seen fighting for Cadia in the lore so I figured that they would have being rewarded with reinforcements for their hard work). All the older 30k models have destroyed scenery with Tyranids laying about (as in their lore their home world was eaten by the nids) while the new Primaris Marines will all have clean bases to represent new reinforcements to a battered down chapter.
2. I care very little about balance or competitiveness as the army is going for more of a Lore friendly fun feel. My main HQ is a 30k Chaplain to give the idea that they only stayed alive due to strong religious motivations from their chaplain and terminator captain (yet to be painted). One issue that might arise is I put all my HQ's on much larger bases because I wanted to either add lots of scenery for display or I wanted them to stand out more in the battle (make them feel more important as the Prim Lt. especially can just blend in some times).
3. My army has to be easy and fast to paint. As said, I have the worst steadiness and I shake a lot naturally so I designed my paint scheme around mostly drybrushing and simple blockly lines. I'm not going for high class display pieces I'm just going for something I am personally proud of as a terrible painter.

So here is everything I have painted so far after taking pictures with a better camera! What do you think?

This is what the standard marine will look like. This was the first model I painted weeks ago so I have changed a lot of what I feel my army should look like.


Here is what my marines will look like now as standard (here is two sgts)


Here is my Dreadnought:


Here is my chaplain HQ:


Here is my Prime Lt.:


Here is my Prime Ancient:


I couldn't find a model for a Librarian HQ that fit with my idea of a worn out scavenged marine so i dug about in my old collection and had a old OOP Librarian that was a mixture of OOP metal parts. Most of the paint here is the original paint from the 90s with just small touch ups by me.:

Here is a size comparison of the old OOP termi and the new Prim marines:


Finally, I had an old OOP metal Dreadnought from a Dark Angels collection that I absolutely love. It's just stupidly heavy (being fully made of metal) and I needed to include it in my army. I slapped some new paint on it (over the older paint) and gave it a wash and even added a Shadow Wolves backpack. The story is that my Chapter found him along the way and he tagged along:

I like the idea, but I have to say the army is crying out, desperately for some contrast. It is in dire need of something. I think the majority of excellent schemes are a result of two predominantly colours, and a contrasting colour integrated somehow.

I couldn't begin to tell you what colour, since its your army. But purple with dark silver...and that's about it, is really going to disappear on the table.

 Elbows wrote:
I like the idea, but I have to say the army is crying out, desperately for some contrast. It is in dire need of something. I think the majority of excellent schemes are a result of two predominantly colours, and a contrasting colour integrated somehow.

I couldn't begin to tell you what colour, since its your army. But purple with dark silver...and that's about it, is really going to disappear on the table.

My major problem is I need to stick to the lore. All the lore diagrams show them as these colours. Honestly, wouldn't mind if hey disappeared as I'm not looking for something that will mske everyone crowed around. I'm looking for my own thing that's still lore accurate. Also they're to look drab and depressed (why I went for a lot of gray dusty look). These guys are sick of fighting for years with no support.

 lolman1c wrote:

My major problem is I need to stick to the lore. All the lore diagrams show them as these colours. Honestly, wouldn't mind if hey disappeared as I'm not looking for something that will mske everyone crowed around. I'm looking for my own thing that's still lore accurate. Also they're to look drab and depressed (why I went for a lot of gray dusty look). These guys are sick of fighting for years with no support.

I definitely agree that they could do with a spot colour. How you do that is up to you, but the most lore-friendly are probably contrasting or complementary colours for any light sources (plasma pistols, eyes, etc), battle damage (perhaps using a dark grey or brown as the "factory primer"), dust, general wear and tear. It could even be as simple as adding in the chapter and squad markings (see these really nicely painted Shadow Wolves, as well as these, these, and these for an example of what I mean).

If you have a look at the 40k Wikia and Lexicanum, both show the Shadow Wolves with a primarily silver armour, while the mostly purple variant has silver knees and grey/white squad and chapter markings. If you take your lieutenant as an example, the single purity seal does a lot to lift the model by showing warm colours on an otherwise cold-palette model.

In terms of painting style, working the drybrushing up a little more to give the illusion of more depth to the model could also help. There's a variant of drybrushing where you start quite dark (for my Dark Angels Deathwing Terminators, I started with a mid-brown), and do the first drybrush layer with a little more and slightly wetter paint on the brush than is usual for drybrushing. The aim is to get a good, smooth coat of your block colour, while leaving the cracks and crevices well shaded. From there, you can work the drybrushing colours up slowly and gently in to the brighter ranges. It's always best to take it slowly and remember you can easily add a little more later with drybrushing, but it's very hard to take some away. If you focus the last drybrush layer on where the light would naturally fall, you can even have a kind of blend-and-highlight thing going on, without needing to get in to the level of control needed for the more usual line/edge highlights.

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll be doing some experiments soon regarding chapter markings with a bone colour (due to my shaky hand I'm trying out a masking tape method) on my prime marines (I'm currently speed painting 10 of them). I've added some general necron compound and genestealer purple battle damage (using my dry bursh as a stubble lioe a sponge) it it does break the solid purples up a bit. It works well with my inexperience as well as speed I am wanting to have this army out by.

I have an update on some of the models: I finally decided to add some blood effects to add a bit of colour to the models. I miggt have gone a little overboard but it's mainly because I played a game tgat day where my razorback and dreadnought took down a korm hellbrute so I was blood happy.

They're your models, but I think the red is a bit too close to the purple to really count as a contrasting colour (or it's just the photos). Also the dark/drab grey bases don't help the already rather subdued purple standout. As you said in a previous post though, they're supposed to look like that. I just think you'd need to be far more drastic to make them really pop if that's the goal.

 Elbows wrote:
They're your models, but I think the red is a bit too close to the purple to really count as a contrasting colour (or it's just the photos). Also the dark/drab grey bases don't help the already rather subdued purple standout. As you said in a previous post though, they're supposed to look like that. I just think you'd need to be far more drastic to make them really pop if that's the goal.

the goal isn't to make them pop. I'm not sure if it's just the camera but I've played many games now and the purple stands out pretty nicely on the feild. Clear enough to pop out but dull enough to make them look worn down. I know that (from the little art i have done) orange would be the best colour to make them pop but I don't want that. All the examples given to me all look a bit cartoony while i was going for more a realistic gritty look to counter my other armies (i have a red ork army so when i need an army to pop out I'll use them xD). Thanks for the reply though