Mini Painting: Blue and White Werewolf

For the first miniature I painted without the Reaper Core Skills Learn to Paint Kit telling me exactly what to do and where to do it, I decided on one of the NECA/WizKids brand werewolves from a Nolzur's Marvelous Unpainted Minis two pack. I decided on this particular werewolf because the other one in the pack was carrying a severed human arm and, at the time, I didn’t have any flesh tones I could use on that.

I always try to go into a custom miniature paint job with a general idea or vision in mind and what I wanted to try to do here was a werewolf with a blue and white color scheme that was vaguely inspired by Ralph from Rampage and Sabrewulf from Killer Instinct. The goal in mind was to continue practicing the basics (basecoat, wash, dry brush in that order) using the paints from the aforementioned Learn to Paint kit, which ended up being primarily the Dragon Blue, Pure White, Mountain Stone, Leather Brown and for minor details/color mixing, some Desert Sand and Candlelight Yellow. For the wash, I decided to try out some Citadel Nuln Oil shade rather than mixing the Reaper Pure Black with water and I was quite satisfied, though I did end up dry-brushing over most of the shading on the body in a vain attempt to correct some of my later carelessness with the brush (I’m kind of prone to that kind of thing, if you couldn’t tell from literally every picture I’ve posted thus far on the blog).

The trickiest part in the early going was deciding on the right mix of Dragon Blue, Pure White, and Mountain Stone for the basecoat blue and for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. I think it was three parts white, two parts blue, and one-part Mountain Stone (gray) for the base coat and for the post-wash dry-brushing, I added another drop or two of white to that to try and bring out some highlights. So after the basecoat (light blue, a brown/tan mix for the cloth, and white for the fur), Nuln Oil wash, and initial dry-brushing, I took some pictures and only then was I able to see some things I knew I needed to fix. Like I said before in my previous post, my eyesight isn’t the greatest (if you’re looking for an excuse, I was previously blind in my left eye and I’m a relatively recent recipient of three cornea transplants).

I’m still in desperate need of a quality magnifying glass to help minimize screw-ups like what you’re about to see below. I’m also hoping that neatness and improved brush control is something that will eventually come to me the more I practice and practice is what these early projects are all about. At least, that's what I keep telling myself to feel like less of a hack.

I should also probably do a better job of sanding off the mold-lines. Lesson learned. And if you’re wondering about the red nails, there’s a bit of a story behind that. A few days prior, I ordered some Citadel Khorne Red (a paint meant to be used for base coats) but the amazon seller screwed up my order and sent me Citadel’s Blood for the Blood God instead (a “technical” paint used for dark bloody finishing details, I’m guessing). Now, I was about to return it but the problem was, I had to send the paint back and I don’t have a printer hand, so I just decided to keep it. It was only about $6 and nothing worth crying over. But I did decide to take a little bit of it and mix it with a droplet of white to lighten it up and see what happened. I ended up dry-brushing it away when I went back in for touch-ups, but I think it will definitely come in hand down the road.

After seeing the pictures, I went back and dry-brushed on some more of my light blue mix. Looking back, I probably went a bit overboard trying to cover up the areas where the white of the fur and brownish color of the ground ended up in places where they shouldn’t have. I also added another wash to the stand as well as some Mountain Stone mixed with Desert Sand to make the ground look less like he's stomping through raw sewage.

Conclusion:

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this project. Conceptually and color-wise, it turned out exactly how I wanted it to even if the execution itself wasn’t perfect. Still, this was a really solid learning experience and something I intend to build upon with my other werewolf minis (and there are plenty more in my cigar box full of miniatures).