Painting Shadowfey: Baba Yaga’s Cottage

This guide is focussing on creating an aged, weather-worn look to an old cottage you might find in a forest. The bird legs are a bit more exotic and inspired by the skin tone of an ocellated turkey! Whilst the end result might look complex it’s actually quite easy to achieve!

The cottage utilises drybrushing whilst the legs have some glazing. Glazing is just like applying a wash but a much thinner coat. Sometimes when wet, you’ll hardly see the difference, but as the glaze dries, it tints the area.

This guide has been done using Citadel Colour and The Army Painter range of paints and has begun with a Black Undercoat.

Step 1)

Basecoats: Wood: Werewolf Fur. Legs: Naggaroth Night. Roof Tiles: Hardened Carapace. Chimney: Rough Iron

First Drybrush: Wood: Deathclaw Brown, some planks in Zandri Dust. Legs: Wolf Grey. Roof Tiles: Dark Stone. Chimney: Gun Metal.

Second Drybrush: Wood: Ushabti Bone. Legs: Fog Grey. Roof Tiles: Filthy Cape.

Step 2) To begin the aging process, drybrush the whole model with Stone Golem. However, only drybrush from the top down (rather than back and forth like you normally would). This gives the impression of where sunlight would hit it.

Then lightly drybrush the legs with Brainmatter Beige before painting the claws, Abaddon Black.

Step 3) The cottage is looking pretty dusty now, so we’re going to give it a wash to bring back some of the detail and give it a rotten look.

Wood: Wash with watered-down Agrax Earthshade, then apply some Dark Angels Green to the corners where you want mildew to show. Inside the Dark Angels Green, apply a small amount of Mouldy Cloth.

Chimney: Wash with Agrax Earthshade, then stipple with Dry Rust.

Roof tiles: Wash with Nuln Oil. Paint some of the broken tiles and lichen with Venom Wyrm before giving it a quick highlight with Elysian Green. Finally, give the roof tiles another light dry brush with Stone Golem.

Legs: Glaze the joints and knuckles of the legs with a 1:5 mix of Orc Blood and water. Once dry, glaze the center of those areas with watered-down Crusted sores, then a final glaze with watered-down Warlock Purple.

Claws: Paint the forward 3/4 of the Claws with Rhinox Hide. Then the forward 3/4 of that with Mournfang Brown, then Scrag Brown, and finally Deathclaw Brown, working your way towards the tips of the claws each time.

Baba Yaga’s Cottage is finished! All ready to creep out the local villagers.

We hope you enjoyed following along, and please feel free to share yours or post up any questions or feedback you might have!