How to: Paint Primaris Space Wolves, part 1

Welcome to the first part of a short guide to show you how to paint up Space Wolves. The miniatures in this tutorial are all Space Marine Primaris Intercessors and Reivers, but the principles are the same if you are painting up normal sized Space Wolves. In this part, we’ll be covering the armour for the Intercessors and Reivers, and the Sergeant’s helm.

Primaris Intercessor Armour

The Primaris armour is much the same as your normal space marine armour, but with extra details and armour plates. To paint the armour up, I first sprayed the miniature in Army Painter Wolf Grey, which is conveniently the same colour as Citadel Russ Grey.

Once the undercoat was dry, I used Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade to go over all the details, to give the recesses some darkness. I tried not to wash the whole model as I normally would because you then have to paint all the Russ Grey back over the wash. For this reason I only painted it over the detail. Next I used Citadel Russ Grey to go over all the Drakenhof Nightshade overspill.

To highlight, I used Russ Grey mixed with a little White. I then used this to highlight all the areas of the armour that would be catching light from above. In the case of his arm for example, I highlighted from halfway down one side of his forearm to half way dow the other.

For the final highlight, I added more White to the mix and highlighted about 50% of the area that I highlighted with the last layer, making sure that the highlights are in areas that would be catching the light.

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Primaris Reiver Armour

Although the text below is a direct cut and paste from the above section, I wanted to show the Reiver being painted in the same way. As they have different armour, it’s worth noting the highlights are in different places, but they give the same effect.

To paint the armour up, I first sprayed the miniature in Army Painter Wolf Grey, which is conveniently the same colour as Citadel Russ Grey.

Once the undercoat was dry, I used Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade to go over all the details, to give the recesses some darkness. I tried not to wash the whole model as I normally would because you then have to paint all the Russ Grey back over the wash. For this reason I only painted it over the detail. Next I used Citadel Russ Grey to go over all the Drakenhof Nightshade overspill.

To highlight, I used Russ Grey mixed with a little White. I then used this to highlight all the areas of the armour that would be catching light from above. In the case of his arm for example, I highlighted from halfway down one side of his forearm to half way dow the other.

For the final highlight, I added more White to the mix and highlighted about 50% of the area that I highlighted with the last layer, making sure that the highlights are in areas that would be catching the light.

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Sergeant’s Helm

The Sergeant’s helm, strapped to the hip of the chap in the first part of this post, is very simple to do. Annoyingly, I failed to take a picture of the first step, though it is very simple. First, paint the helmer with Citadel Mephiston Red. Next, wash the helm with Citadel Druchii Violet. Once dry, reapply Mephiston Red, being sure to leave the Druchii Violet visible in the recesses.

The final layer was just a mix of Mephiston Red and Citadel Fire Dragon Bright, which I used on all the uppermost sides, and also to highlight some of the edges on the lower side – such as the vents, and near the eye lenses.

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The next part of the tutorial will cover some of the details for the Space Wolves, which can be carried on to other miniatures from the Chapter.

Thanks for reading! If you have any thoughts about anything above, comments on painting, or are attempting something similar, please comment below, and please consider following us on the social media channels listed below:

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