Yesterday, I happened to be passing by the local GW, and went in for a chat and a quick look in the new rulebook (which I think looks fabolous, by the way). Anyways, it turns out that the store's having a small release party on the day, with all sorts of competitions for the customers: cake baking, army building, costume making and miniature painting.
I love competitions!
I promise you I'll give you pictures of the cake I plan to bake, but naturally I have to wait 'til we get closer to the date with baking it. In the meantime, you'll have to contend with the progress of my chosen (and newly bought) miniature for the painting competition:
Ever since I saw this editions sculpt of Vlad von Carstein, I've wanted to paint him up - it's so richly detailed and I think the sculptor (whom I sadly can't find the name of) truly has captured the character perfectly! Now I just hope I can do the piece justice.
I've tried a new undercoating technique for the first time, following a tutorial at Massive Voodoo, which basically is to first undercoat black, then gently "dust" it with white spray, which should make the raised areas naturally light, while cracks and areas you'd normally want darker, will be more black than white. Supposedly it'll make for an easier and better paintjob, as you get the best of both black and white undercoating: no need of darklining, as the black coat's there, while raised areas will pop more, and light colours like red, yellow and skin, will be easier to apply, due to the white.
I fear I might have been a bit too careful with the white, at least on his legs, ut I guess it's a learning process to get the technique right... I'll try to write down some thoughts on the matter in my next post, when I've tried my brushes on this new coating. And hopefully I'll find the time to do some regular posting of my progress on Vlad. I must admit I havn't decided on how to paint all parts of him, mainly the armour is undecided, so feel free to give me some suggestions, or if you have painted up one mini like him yourself, I'd love to see some pictures!
