legio gryphonicus dire wolf titan

I decided for the first of two Dire Wolves to return to my original legio and paint it in the colours of the legio Gryphonicus, cognomen “War Griffons”. This one is from the new all plastic Dire Wolf kit released for both Titanicus and Legions Imperialis.

The base is one of the thinner legions ones, but I have bulked up the terrain using the Civitas Ruins kit, to give the engine something to conceal itself behind. The narrative I want to create is of an ‘ambush predator’ stalking larger battle class engines with it’s titan killing main weapon.

Gryphonicus Dire Wolf using building as cover
Dire Wolf hiding behind a ruined building
Plastic Dire Wolf for legio gryphonicus
Dire Wolf Titan

All of the main guns are magnetised so I can use the full range of options in games. 3mm x 2mm magnets are situated inside the bottom of the gun elevation pistons, so I can swap out weapons by simply lifting one out and dropping a new one in with a neat click!

My approach for the metallics and skeleton sub-frame this time was to dry brush a variety of steels over the black. It really does not matter what paint range you use, whatever you like or have to hand. The key is variation. Ove these I applied a sponge chipping of darker contasting metallics like a bronze or gun metal, as well as some highlights using a bright steel or chrome.

I then picked out details like pistol sleeves, trim and other parts to create contrast and life the detail using brass or bronze. In this case Victorian Brass and Decayed Metal (Scale 75).

Finally I gave the whole sub-frame a wash of watered down sepia and nuln oil gloss.

The War Griffons grey was airbrushed on using Tamiya flat colours. I started with Dark Sea then followed with German Grey. For the mid tones and highlights I used Neutral Grey and finally Sky Grey.

The white striping was simply Tamiya flat white applied to be modulated over the grey base so that some of the darker tones showed through to create some shadow depth.

I pre-shaded the yellow parts of the armour in the same grey tones as I did for the grey armour for efficiency. I then took the highlights up another notch with the Tamiya flat white same time I did the stripes. This gave me a nice high value base for yellow.

The yellow was Game Air Golden Yellow, and I chose that solely because I did the previous Warlord using that colour so need the Dire Wolf to appear as part of the same maniple. For shading I used sepia wash, but any warm sepia will do; ink, contrast, all are good.

I haven’t come up with a name yet for this engine, but will do. It also probably won’t be the last one I do for the War Griffons as they are one of the real OG legios and I love the scheme. They also compliment my Imperial Fists really nicely palette wise so there’s no way I’m not adding at least a Reaver or two as well.

I had a lot of fun painting this one and am really pleased how it turned out. One of my favourites to date.