Miniature Spotlight: The Skin Wolves from Forge World

I must confess I was a bit nervous about painting these miniatures because I'm not the biggest fan of the excessive use of blood effects (except when used on Plague Demons). But these wolves are covered with blood-soaked skin from the body they emerged from which gave me little choice on that matter. And I must admit the a gruesome look works for me (I wasn't sure about that at all when I started painting them). I really didn't want to paint more blood on the body on the skin wolves as was absolutely necessary so I rather splattered it around the base and loincloths of the wolves.

The Wolves were painted with an airbrush and the blood was done with Badger Minitaire Ghost paints. The Ghost Paints change very much when they dry and without experience it's tricky to determine how everything will look at the end. The color underneath the ghost paints also drastically changes the end appearance. So it took me a while to figure out how much of the paint and what mixture of red and blue was needed to get the result I wanted.  In the end it worked out fine and the more I learn about the Ghost Paints the more I love them. :)

What I immediately liked abut the Skin Wolves was their dynamic poses. I really wanted to mount them on scenic bases that enhance their menacing look and since Forge World only provides two tiny little rocks for these four wolves I decided to make the bases myself. I used tree bark for the rocks as well as a few skulls from Secret Weapon Minaitures (their "Sack of Skulls" has really cool "smashed in" skulls which I really like). Only the base of the Games Day Skin Wolf has also the original resin stones on top of the tree bark worked into the design. It also has a very cool optional hand that holds a slain empire Soldier:

I used magnets on both hand options so that I can switch the Hands when I want to use the bare hand or the one holding the slain soldier. I haven't painted the dead soldier yet but as soon as I have I will post an update so that you can see both options painted and in action. :)