Myth Forged - Vampire Soldier

I had originally wanted to use this model to practice glazes and layering as for some reason I had imagined him with much more exposed skin. However it’s only his chest and face that are uncovered. Not much to work with it seems. I wondered what I was going to do with the model until I remembered that I have already painted a vampire: the Vampire monster from the Village Attacks board game. And looking back, the paint job isn’t exactly great. It was a fair representation of my skill at the time, but let’s see how far I have come in eight months. 

The original that I painted for the Village Attacks boardgame

First things first, I washed the model with warm soapy water as it had some residue from the manufacturing process still on it. Once he was squeaky clean I cleaned up any remaining support struts and flash. For ease of painting I didn’t glue him together, leaving his body, sword and base separate from each other and primed each of them with Army Painter Uniform Grey. 

As the skin was some of the deepest details I started with that. For a basecoat I mixed Rakarth Flesh in a one-to-one ratio with Corvus Black, giving me a nice dark grey flesh colour. The first layer was with pure Rakarth Flesh. I tried to use what I had learned in the past year to make the transition between the basecoat and this layer as smooth as possible. I repeated this step using a one-to-one mix of Rakarth Flesh to Pallid Wych Flesh. I didn’t do a layer of pure Pallid Wych Flesh as I felt it would make the skin a bit too bright. In the final step I thinned some of my basecoat mix with water and a bit of matte medium until it was so thin it was almost transparent. I painted this translucent mix over all of the skin to bring all the layers together and help with the transitions. For the eyes and teeth I basecoated them with Army Painter Matt White; then for the eyes I washed them with a thin layer of Drakenhof Nightshade and for the teeth a very thinned down layer of Corvus Black. 

With the skin done I moved onto his trousers. I started by basecoating them with a couple of coats of Vallejo Scarlett Red. For the shadows,I mix some Corvus Black with the Scarlett Dark to make a deep red, almost purple, colour. I ran this colour into the undersides of any folds in the fabric and on the underside of the trousers themselves, and as with the skin I tried to make the transitions as smooth as possible. For the first highlights I used Mephiston Red and when applying I tried to use a crosshatch motion with the brush to give the illusion of fabric texture. For my second highlight I used Evil Sunz Scarlet in the crosshatching motion as the Mephiston Red. I’m not sure I achieved the look I was going for, but I was grateful for the practice all the same. 

For all the leather details, which are mostly belts, I basecoated them with Dryad Bark. How baggy are those trousers that he needs two belts around his waist and belts around each leg to keep them up? By way of highlights, I kept it simple by using Mournfang Brown to catch the edges and to put some scratches into the leather (similar to what I was doing for the trousers). 

On the Village Attacks Vampire I painted the armour plates with Leadbelcher and washed with Basilicanum Grey, which I was tempted to do again for this model. But we can’t grow as painters by doing the same thing over and over again. I have attempted non-metallic metal approximately once before, so let’s give it another go! First things first,I established my mid-tones by basecoating the armour plates and sword blade with Mechanicus Standard Grey. For my lights and shadows I used Dawnstone and Corvus Black respectively. I wasn’t too fussed about where I was putting those lights and shadows, I was more focusing on making sure that the paint was the right consistency: using water and sometimes matte medium to thin the Dawnstone and Corvus Black down to translucent levels. In this way I was able to very slowly build up the transitions from light to dark. To help separate the armour plates I ran a thin line of Black Templar contrast paint in between the panels. And finally, I highlighted the edges of the armour plates and the sword blade with Matt White. I’ll be the first to admit that this did not turn out great, I don’t think I quite got the consistency of the paint correct hence why it came out blotchy. 

Being drunk on non-metallic metal power I decided to try gold non-metallic metal for the sword hilt and handle. Fortunately, Emil from Squidmar has a nice guide that I happen to have most of the paints for, I didn’t have Vallejo Sun Yellow but I do have Citadel Yriel Yellow which is probably close enough. In any case, it turned out really nice looking for such a small area although once again it seems my edge highlighting abilities need some work.I’m pretty keen to give it another go on another miniature as it seems a bit easier to do than silver. 

For the cloak I started by giving it a few thin coats of Vallejo Night Blue. For the folds I mixed Night Blue with Corvus Black and painted it into the recesses. It didn’t end up as dark as I would have liked so I used pure Corvus Black for the deepest recesses. For highlights, I mixed Night Blue with Matt White, although I did forget to do the crosshatching like I did for the trousers. 

The hair I think is just about the only process I didn’t change from the Village Attacks Vampire. I base coated it with some Ulthuan Grey then washed with Apothecary White contrast paint before finally highlighting it back up with Ulthuan Grey and then Matt White. 

I wanted the gems to stand out a little, so I basecoated them with Evil Sunz Scarlet. For highlights I mixed some Yriel Yellow with the red in about a one-to-one mix. I built up successive highlights by mixing in more and more Yriel Yellow. 

For the heroic tree stump he’s standing on I kept with my tried and true scheme for wood: basecoat with Steel Legion Drab then paint over with an even layer of Wyldwood contrast paint. 

I had a bit of fun with the base, picking out random cobble stones with Vallejo Terracotta, Camouflage Medium Brown, Dark Slate Grey, Dark Grey and Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey. The patch of dirt I painted with Dryad Bark before washing the whole base with Army Painter Strong Tone. I then drybrushed it with Dawnstone and painted the rim black. 

A side by side comparison.

All in all I had a lot of fun painting this guy and it was interesting to see what areas I had improved in and what areas still needed work. For example, I feel that I’m really getting a handle on blends and glazes but edge highlighting is definitely a weak point for me at the moment. I feel that it was a consistency issue, I thinned the paint I was using for highlights a bit too much. So if nothing else, I have something definitive that I can work on and improve. And I would call that a success. I’m excited to keep practicing and see how my skills develop.