Monday 20 February 2012

Vampire Complete

A little later than planned, here are the finished pictures of Lord Vacu, Dark Prince of somewhere eerie, drinker of the blood of virgins, etc, etc.  He's come out alright, but doesn't have quite the "presence" I was hoping for.  Maybe it's just the miniature itself, or it's the paint job, or more likely a combination of the two, I don't think it quite pulls off the elegant, decayed look I was going for.


A really simple paint scheme for the skin:

  • Base:  Dheneb Stone
  • Shade:  Thinned Devlan Mud wash
  • H1:  Dheneb Stone
  • H2:  1:1 mix of Dheneb + White
  • H3:  Pure White
It gives that pale stark look, and frames the sunken red eyes really well.  In the picture below you can see a slight slip-up - the hand furthest away is missing some flesh tone under the thumb side of the palm - not sure how I managed to miss that, but it will be fixed at some point



I wanted to give the black an aged, decayed look, so I used the Charadon Granite and Dheneb Stone highlighting method I've used before.  It's pretty simple:

  • Base:  Neatened up black
  • H1:  1:2 mix of black and Charadon Granite
  • H2:  Charadon Granite
  • H3:  1:2 mix of Dheneb Stone and Charadon Granite
  • H4:  2:1 mix of Dheneb Stone and Charadon Granite


The last thing to do was the base:

  • Base:  Charadon Granite
  • Shade:  Devlan Mud Wash
  • H1:  Charadon Granite
  • H2:  Khemri Brown
  • H3:  Dheneb Stone
  • Wash:  Gryphonne Sepia
Originally I tried sticking some "Autumnal tufts" that I bought back at the Colours show, but it just looked too bright and cheery, so off the tufts came and I fell back on the more appropriate GW Scorched Grass.

In the pipeline is something from Freebooter, this chap from Reaper, more article stuff, a bloody great Malus Darkblade model for some chap called Kenny, and some Malifaux...

As always comments and criticism are most welcome - especially if you could offer some advice on giving this chap more impact.

3 comments:

  1. I think he looks great. I love the muted look overall. The trouble is the pose. I imagine him coming onstage before some hard rock band and getting the crowd all wound up.

    I just bought some dark grass like you've added to your base and I'm thinking about blending it with some lighter stuff for some variety so the lighter stuff isn't so bright and cheery like you mentioned.

    Ron, FTW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome paintjob.

    A cape. I think he need a cape, a mantle, something that enlarge the figure..

    Just my 2 cents.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks chaps! He does look like he's about to shout "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!?!". It might have worked better had he had a sword in one hand.

    Ron - I've never thought about mixing grasses, and I have no idea why, I'd love to see the results.

    Zerloon - a cape would have been a good idea as he has that shoulder cowl thing - that could have been extended down the back with some greenstuff. Oh well, if I ever find another one, I might just do that.

    ReplyDelete