"Wolves Hold Significant Cultural And Spiritual Importance..."

"...In many Native American tribes."

This 28mm metal model used to be sold by "Warlord Games" as part of their Mythic Americas range, and could be found inside the Nottingham-based company's five-figure Tribal Nations Wolves boxed set. However, as I plan to use the miniature to represent a Dark Wolf in "The Silver Bayonet" by "Osprey Games", I decided to go with a predominantly black palette, as opposed to the much lighter one found on the sculpt's 'official' packaging.

The animal was primed using "Citadel" Abaddon Black, vigorously dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal, and drenched in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then gave its legs, belly, throat and maw a few solid brushstrokes of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, shaded these areas with plenty of "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and subsequently dry-brushed them with (more) "Vallejo"  Heavy Sienna.

Repainted Tribal Nations Wolves with a much lighter blue-grey coat of fur

Bitterly disappointed with the outcome, I next decided to blend the two contrasting areas with a lot more dry-brushing using both "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal and Heavy Sienna, and focused on significantly reducing the amount of brown which was on show. Frustratingly, this didn't really improve the 'look' of the model either - largely due to the miniature's disconcertingly soft details, so in the end I also gave the wolf a serious sploshing of (more) "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

To be honest by this point I had frankly lost the will to live with the miniature. However, a stellar suggestion by Ray Rousell of "Don't Throw A One" fame, gave me the idea to try a couple of alternative colours as a highlight, and see whether I could 'catch' what scant fur ridges were sculpted onto the beast. Resultantly, I initially applied some "Two Thin Coats" Cold Corpse Blue across the animal's back, upper legs and tail, and then later 'caught' these areas with a few brisk strokes of "Vallejo" Neutral Gray.

"Wargames Foundry" WIPs - An Austrian Infantryman, Grenadier and Office

This process definitely gave the wolf some of the depth I had been grasping for, so having scooped up the two (not) Dark Wolves I previously pigmented last week, I also gave them exactly the same treatment too. Lastly, I patiently 'picked out' the model's fangs with a combination of White Star by "Two Thin Coats" and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, and simply dotted its nose and eyes with a smidgeon of "Citadel" Abaddon Black.

Despite my irritations with the now OOP (Out Of Production) "Warlord Games" miniature, I have managed to make a little more progress on the three 28mm metal Napoleonic soldiers by "Wargames Foundry" I want to add to my Austrian warband for "The Silver Bayonet". It really is still early days on the trio. However, having been inspired by the figures, I've actually based and started undercoating the rest of the contents from blisters AN026 German Grenadiers 1805-15 Marching, and AN002 German Infantry Marching too...