13th Company Space Wolves

Hi fellow Wizards and Necromancers!

In this tutorial I will teach you how to paint Space Wolves in the legendary 13th Company paint scheme. The miniature bit I will use for this tutorial is one of the shoulder pads from the new Dreadnought from the Warhammer 40K 10thEdition Starter Set - Leviathan. Legend on the meaning of layer and glaze consistency is in the end of the tutorial. A PDF version of this tutorial is attached below for convenience. Let’s get into the tutorial!

1. Start with a basecoat of a 4:1 mix of Warm Grey From AK Interactive and Black, 2-3 layer consistency coats of paint will be enough.

2. Edge highlight with Warm Grey, layer consistency.

3. Add shading with RhinoxHide. In this case we are working with big flat surfaces and if we imagine that the light is hitting our detail from the top, the lower parts of every panel would be brighter and the top parts would be darker, so we add the shading to the top part of the panels. I have done this with an airbrush but you can also do it with glazing if you prefer to do it with a brush.

4. Next we will add out decals/transfers. No black magic here, just cut it out, apply some water to it, wait till it’s “workable” and you can remove it from the card that is holding it and then apply it onto one of the panels. Make sure to remove most of the water on the decal as it will slightly interact with the paint that you have on your miniature. You can seal the miniature beforehand with matte varnish but I am not a fan of doing this, therefore I am just careful with the amount of water I leave on the decal before applying it. I also recommend trying to cut as close to the symbol as possible for the best results.

5. Next we will add some more shading with Rhinox Hide, this time also hitting the transfer with it, so that it blends nicely with the whole surface.

6. Next we will add a very strongly contrasting edge highlight with Warm Grey again, layer consistency, while also adding scratches and bumps all around the area we are painting. The bigger lumps of paint might not look good now, but wait for the next step before you judge!

7. Add black, layer consistency, into all of the bigger bumps/lumps that we have added before. Make sure to leave some Warm Grey surrounding the black to showcase that the area around it has been affected and paint is chipped there. This really pops, doesn’t it?! J

8. Apply matte varnish onto the whole thing. This is optional but it can really matte down the transfer/decal and make the whole thing look more natural. I have sprayed AK Interactive’s Ultra Matte Varnish here through an airbrush. You can also apply it with a brush but I wanted to speed up the process a little bit.

Here is a collage of all of the steps for convenience:

This tutorial should be very useful for anyone who wants to paint Space Wolves in the iconic 13thCompany colorscheme.

Thank you very much for supporting me – it means the world to me! I dream of being able to paint and make tutorials full time, so if you like my Patreon – please tell your friends about it. It would make a massive difference to me and hopefully it will be beneficial for your friends too :)

*Layer consistently = paint mixed in a 1:1 ratio with water.

*Glaze consistently = paint mixed in a 1:3 ratio with water.

Best wishes,

Mamikon