“Night I left the city, I dreamt of a wolf…
He came from where the winds are cold, And truth is seen through keyholes
…strange longings never sleep, Now he’s come where no hearts beat
Cry wolf – Time to worry
Cry wolf – Time to worry now”
— Cry Wolf, Aha (1986)
I’ve got 24 Wolfz that I’ve wanted to paint for a while, and put to dual use – Zombicide and D&D/Pathfinder. Wolves are commonly encountered in most RPGs and I’ve only had a single wolf mini. As such, I decided to simply paint them as wolves, and not detail the bones/torn flesh that show. I wasn’t concerned about being really fussy about preparing or painting them. (For example: I could have filled the wounds.) They aren’t unique figures like nearly everything else I’ve painted, and as Zombicide game pieces, they are going to get a lot of handling – they can be back and forward between the board and their storage box multiple times in a game.
I collected a few images of wolves when I was going to paint my Wolf Abominations, and found some more before I started the Wolfz. I’m sure every painted/prepainted wolf I’ve seen is grey. In real life wolves are mostly white – with black, grey and a variety of browns across their back. I chose three schemes to work with, building on my usual white undercoat. One (hopefully) would be a realistic colour scheme, and the other two more common colours.
1. Brown wolfz
- More white, particular underbelly and legs, then a mix of lighter and darker browns across the back. Brown ink.
- Pale grey base coat, a little darker grey across the back. Black ink.
- Mid/dark grey base coat, some black mixed with my dark grey, and a little gun-metal across the back. Black ink.
2. Light grey wolfz
Then I went back and retouched paws and underbelly with white on each group, and dry-brushed some white across the fur on the backs on each wolf. I have a dull red flesh colour called “Native American” – I use it a lot for mouths and wounds. They all got a bit of that and a touch of my normal red for tongues. A bright orange for the eyes, black for nose, claws and then a dot in every eye! White on teeth. Red bases make them stand out as individual figures and on the board. They have had two (possibly three) coats of varnish which I realise is a can of gloss, not the matte I prefer. [There’s only a little reflection in most of the photos, with the group shot getting the worst.]
3. Dark grey wolfz
The final results looks good, but only the brown wolves really stand out. After inking – both my “light” grey and “dark” grey wolves look very similar. In any case, they are all finished and they are going to be very nice in game!
Dragons of Lancasm 