Miniature Monday – Baba Yaga
This week we take a closer look at a supernatural, witch-like being from slavic folklore, so take a seat on your mortar, grab your pestle and join us!
(posting by Antonia)
First of all, I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe, dear readers – over here in Germany the situation makes some steps towards normality but there’s still a big heap of stuff waiting to be taken care of, and painting miniatures unfortunately doesn’t sit very high up on that pile.
Nevertheless we both managed to somewhat paint our Baba Yagas (yay!) although mine is a bit of an experiment. Overall, I liked the miniature, if just for the unusual theme, a change from disneyfied fairy tales and the usual suspects from the Monster Manual. Unfortunately, the detail on mine was very soft and hard to distinguish (or I should maybe just use painter’s glasses. No one is getting younger, right?)
I used only washes and inks:
Because I a) like the technique, especially for “dirty” paintjobs and b) didn’t have much time, I gave the miniature a white/cream priming and colored the different areas with a variety of washes (Army Painter), liners (Reaper) and contrast paints (Citadel). Even the mortar was washed with sepia brown and only got a light gold/metallic drybrush on top. The whole paintjob has a blotchy, watercolor-y look, and I have to admit that I like it someway, it feels a bit like an old (and a bit bloody) fairy tale illustration. The whole project could use another hour of detailing, though. It’s more of a color sketch at the moment.
For the base I raided potted plants and one of my snake tanks (they won’t miss those tiny twigs, right?). The “needles” on the floor are made from thyme, and I tilted the whole mini to make it look like she’s flying/hopping onwards.
Dirk painted not a witch, but a goblin!
He decided he would use the mini with his (Old World) Warhammer Fantasy Night Goblins, and I have to admit that the hood and the face make Baba Yaga quite a good match! Dirk is thinking about counting her mortar as a squig, rule-wise, which would probably fit well with a bouncy and erratic movement…! I like the strong contrast between the clothing and the rest of the miniature, and the fur cloak came out nice too.
Jim’s witch left her ut behind (for now):
He wrote: “I started this mini with high hopes and I even considered painting the hut as well. Unfortunately, I lost my drive on this one and just ended up doing a minimal job. Also, no hut! She’s not on a base of any sort because I’m not sure how I want to incorporate the mini with the hut when I get to it. It’s a neat mini but I couldn’t figure out what some of the items are that she is carrying. What is the thing on her shoulder? Otherwise, she was pretty straight forward and easy to paint and I’m more or less pleased with the result. I have no idea what to use her for other than as Baba Yaga, but that’s OK.”
Once again you nailed it with all the details (even if you coudn’t identify all of them) – I didn’t even realize the skull is tied on with its hair, and you gave Baba Yaga teeth! Wow. Now my paintjob seems even more sloppy *laughs* but that’s not meant to detract from yours. I like how you chose light and still earthy tones, completely different from our dark approach!
Timothy’s witch looks super scary!
He said: “I decided to put her on a more stable base because I thought she looked silly on a cauldron. I know little of her mythology so I painted her so she could be used as a hag.”
I agree, the “witch on a mortar”-theme is very specific, as Jim mentioned too, so detaching her from it makes the mini much more versatile and might inspire some readers to paint (and use) her anyway as a more generic creature. Did you sculpt or “stamp” the wooden floor surface? I’m thinking about basing stamps myself (there are some nice 3D-printable ones out there!) because it’s an easy and effective way to give a mini personality.
And, by the way, whatever you did with her eyes, it’s working perfectly! She looks super creepy and menacing, as if she’s about to jump up and attack!
Michael’s Baba Yaga is flying!
He wrote: “I ended up doing a lot of custom base work here. I of course wanted the mortar to fly, which involved thinning the end of a flight peg and drilling up into the bottom of the mortar. As I painted the inside of the mortar to look like bone soup, I also decided not to permanently attach Babs to it and instead make an alternate base. This one has a very small flight peg to go under her cape or the pepper grinder on her back and some rocks to border in her feet. The vegetation on the flight base was a late decision, but the effect looks great. Painting Babs herself was a pain in the ass since she wasn’t on a base and required full 360° rotation. Also, the fact that her cape and arms with pestle were separate pieces that were glued on made for tons of little crevices to paint into (I suppose I could have painted them individually before gluing, but it’s hard for me to visualize the whole model that way). Overall, I think I would have changed some of the coloration if I was doing it again (there’s not as much contrast between the colors of the sickly necrotic flesh and the roughspun shirt as I would have liked, for one), but I’m pretty happy with it.”
Wow, that’s a cool base. The “soup” looks wonderfully disgusting, and I love what you did with her scarf, a tiny pattern! It really sets apart the cloth of her shirt, and the pale grey and purple go great together. There are even stripes on her shoe, nice! I like how the blue and red stripes tie the neutrally toned pestle together with the rest of the miniature, too.
This week’s gallery:
Coming next:
06/22/20 Bones IV Add-Ons: Underdark Gloom Stalker (No. 540 on the Add-on graphic)
Want to participate in the next post? Email the pictures of your minis until Friday 06/19/20 to
MondayMiniature@fantasymail.de (It’s a .de domain, in case emails are bouncing)
–> Attention: The submission date for photos is about three days before publishing date, to give us a bit of time to actually write about your pictures
This way you’ll have two weeks/one weekend to paint, and we have one weekend to write (which is the only time of the week where we (might, *sigh*) have some open minutes).
You can of course send in pics later, but to take out a bit of the stress (most pics arrive here rather last minute) please consider the three day deadline. Later pics will still show up in an update
Here is the link to Reaper’s graphic with all the core pieces, but it’s one and veeeery long picture so be prepared for some scrolling. On the other hand it has separate numbers for most of the pieces. I will add individual shop links as soon as they appear!
Here is the underdark Add-on.
07/06/20 Bones IV (Core Set) Movie night Part I: Paint Classic Horror Monsters (Sethis and Mummy Queen)
07/20/20 Bones IV (Core Set) Gauth, Bipedal Dragon Part One (No. 7) – WIPs, e.g. first colors, basing, modifications…
This is a big one, so we’ll stretch it over two entries!
08/03/20 Bones IV (Core Set) Gauth, Bipedal Dragon Part Two (No. 7) – Finished Monster
08/17/20 Bones IV (Core Set) Movie night Part II: Paint Classic Horror Monsters (Vampires, No. 132 and 133)
08/31/20 Bones IV (Core Set) Bedeviled: Devils/Demons (Nos. 72, 73 and/or 74 on graphic)
09/14/20 Bones IV (Core Set) Movie night Part III: Paint Classic Horror Monsters (Victor’s Creatures, No. 134 and 135)
Caffeineforge 
Antonia – Nice quick & “dirty” paint job. The blood is gruesome. I like that you based it so it can be used as a normal gaming piece, not just a part of a larger diorama with the hut.
Dirk – I like the night goblin witch. Actually, the green reminds me of the wicked witch in The Wizard Of Oz!
Timothy – Those are some crazy eyes, like some psychopath waiting crouched on the floor of some darkened room. Well done and a nice bit of floor to make her more usable.
Michael – The relatively normal colors on some of the clothing make her seem even more jaring and menacing. Much more attention to detail than mine (pepper grinder!) and the base(s) works perfectly. I need to re-do mine!
My only major complaint on mine is the skin. The wash I used came out too orange. The rest seems to portray Slavic peasant/witch moderately well, but is lacking a bit in detail. Maybe I’ll spruce her up when I do the hut!