Vlad von Carstein - WIP2

Progress has been slow last couple of days, as I've been at a music festival instead of home and painting. It's truly been a blast, with great musicans, wonderful concerts and perfect weather!

But, this blog's about miniatures, not music, and in fact I have made some progress on Vlad this afternoon, which I thought I'd share. I've finished his armour, and painted his hair black, as well as working a bit more on the fur of his cloak and finished all the metallic parts.



In the end, I went for a red armour, which most of the previous comments have been in favour of. By Rogue Pom's suggestion, I've tried to make it dark, using a glaze of Scab Red + Chaos Black to give it a hint of purple. When painting the red, the new undercoat of black followed by white, really shows its value, as I could just give it one or two thin coats of Blood Red directly, and then work "backwards", making shadows and darker areas using Red Gore, Scab Red and Chaos Black. Quite the opposite from adding more and more red into a black base coat, which is how I've previously painted all my reds. Brother Zael, the next Space Hulk miniature to get some paint, has already recieved the new undercoat, and I'm really looking forward to working on him - the red parts should take a lot less time now!

But back to Vlad: I've seen many pictures of him, with white or light grey hair - 'Eavy Metal's take on the model amongst them - and while it gives a certain air of authority certainly fitting for the first of the von Carstein vampires, the Vampire Counts armybook describes him as:

"...darkly handsome, of noble bearing and aspect..."

Now, I'm not saying that grey hair can't be handsome, but to me, Vlad would've been a black haired nobleman, in his mid-twenties or early thirties when he recieved the blood kiss, and I think of him as quite vain and that he'd try to keep his dark hair in undeath. Also, from a painter's perspective, I hope this will make his face become a focal point - after all, with the fangs and glowing eyes, his face is what gives him away as a vampire!

Now, all that's lacking is a couple of gems, the cloak with its screaming heads, the hilt of the sword and of course the base. Oh, and the sword will get its glow-effect, but I'm going to wait with that until last, as I find it easier to decide how large a glow will be fitting for a miniature - what is too much, and what is too little - when everything else is painted.

Hopefully he'll be all finished sometime tomorrow, but feel free to come with any critisism or other comments!