Wendigo Beginner Painting Guide

In this article I will talk about how to improve a Wendigo for AT-43. The miniature is taken directly from the box with no cleaning up. For explanations of the techniques used see the Clone Beginner Painting Guide article in this blog (if youre an absolute beginner I really suggest that you do). To start I apply a dark brown wash, brown complements the blue and makes it more balanced than for example black.



When this have dried it is time to apply the basic colour once again and also start highlighting. As the blue areas are dominant and also have the deepest laying details on the miniature I start there. It is important to start painting underlaying details and surfaces first on a miniature so that you paint it layer by layer. Doing that you can avoid painting over areas that you allready have painted. I apply a cool beige tone to the blue for the highlights until I get to a pure cool beige at the hard edges of the armour.



When done I start with the white. To give it more depth and at the same time ad a soft contrast to the blue I add a warm khaki colour to the white, this takes some time as you want smooth transactions from the washed surfaces and bright colours can be a little tricky but with some patience you will get excellent results. I go from a bright khaki tone up to pure white in about six layers.


Now, all that is left is the head. The wendigos prepainted head is all in the same colour but my Kaptars and Anakongas have grey faces and as I want to make the units look a bit united even though the armour colour is different I paint the face gray on the wendigo too.


Once again highlight with cool beige. Always think about the light direction, I think this is most important with the face as it usualy is the main focus of a miniature.



As a final touch drybrush the fur with pure cool beige and then add some white for two steps of drybrushed highlights. This technique is done by first applying paint to your brush and then wiping it away until almost none is left but still have some pigment to it. It is common to do this with a dry brush but I actually recomend to do this with a slightly damp brush to get a smoother look. When dry brushing like this you need to be a little bit carefull, letting the brush only to touch the raised areas and working towards the fur tips. I also add a dark grey to the black edges of the gun and armour details.



The Karmans need a bit more attention than most other troops as they have some complex shaped armour but by organising painting and having some dicpline you can have excellent results pretty fast and this is what I love with prepainted plastic. Half the work is allready done! I usually work by painting four at a time, making a unit box and then the attachment.

The Wendigo still needs some chipping and other battle damage. We will look into this in a future article so stay tuned.

Colours used:

Wash: Accursed Black/Dirty Leather/PVA Glue

Armour
Blue Basecoat: Precious Blue/Accursed Black Blue
Highlights: Precious Blue/Accursed Black/Wildcat Grey
White basecoat: Elven Flesh/Eternal White
White highlights: Elven Flesh/Eternal White to pure Eternal White

Face
Grey Basecoat: Grey of Darkness
Grey Highlights: Grey of Darkness/Wildcat Grey Fur Basic drybrush: Wildcat Grey

Fur Highlights: Wildcat Grey/Eternal White


And with some final words I just want to show a little teaser for an upcoming project of mine. A quite converted Karman Anakonga. It will not be a step by step article but I will write some about the progress. Available in May. Here's a couple of shots of its early stages:




Take Care and blessings to all of you!

//Dangereux