Byron's Wolves

Byron Orde never ceases to amaze us with the amount of painting he does. He must be the first in the queue at his local Hobby Centre for each release, because a week later we have an email in our inbox with brilliant photos and some remarkably detailed descriptions. So, here's Byron to tell you all about his latest project, the new Thunderwolf Cavalry.

Byron: The kit is amazing! I love painting fur; it's similar to basing models, as washes and drybrushing can get you a long way if you choose the right colours and theme. Unsurprisingly this Thunderwolf Cavalry kit isn't lacking in fur. In keeping with a lot of my favourite models, the Thunderwolves have really natural poses, which brings a nice element of realism. After extensive online research I decided to try and mimic a few pictures of wolves and, unlike for many creatures, their fur goes from light at the bottom to dark at the top.

To achieve this affect I started with my airbrush, mixing from Bleached Bone and Kommando Khaki, adding in Snakebite Leather, to Shadow Grey and all the way through to Chaos Black. Each layer had a touch of Space Wolves Grey added in as well.

Next I washed the entire model with Gryphonne Sepia and, before that dried (I had to work fast), I shaded the higher, greyer bits with a Badab Black Wash, which I wet-blended into Gryphonne Sepia. I find washes are really forgiving with this type of wet blending technique as they take longer than normal paints to dry. I drybrushed all of the fur with Bleached Bone, then added Space Wolves Grey and added Skull White for a final highlight. The grey sections on the top were highlighted with Shadow Grey, then Shadow Grey and Space Wolves Grey.

I was going for cool tones, with a little red and yellow to provide some contrast and warmth to stand out. I drybrushed the rocks on the base from a mix of Chaos Black and Shadow Grey, and then simply added Space Wolves Grey to the mix for the next five highlights. The final two drybrushed highlights were pure Space Wolves Grey and pure Skull White.

The riders were much more simple: Shadow Grey with a Space Wolves Grey highlight; then a mix of Gryphonne Sepia, Asurman Blue and Badab Black in a ratio of 1:2:1 all over before adding a Space Wolves Grey edge-highlight. I followed the tutorial in White Dwarf for the chipped effect, and was quite pleased with how it turned out.