Dark Prince Rising

A dark picture for a dark prince. 

Today I "finished" pVlad.  The search for something to put on his cloak continues so he's not entirely done, but with everything else painted and varnishing scheduled for the morning he's done enough.  As you can see I went with some gold trim on the armor, but kept it a little sparser than the studio model.  I also added some extra shading to the cloak, which will show whenever I figure out what I want to do with all that space.

If the picture looks a little different it's because I'm trying a new lighting setup.  Normally I flip one (or both) of my water containers over, put my model on top of said container(s), rearrange my painting lamp to shine on said model, then snap away.  While looking through pictures from the previously mentioned Meg Maples painting class over at Anything But a One, particularly the first picture, I spotted the same lamp.  Then while reading a fellow FLGS patron's blog/thread, particularly this post, I saw the same lamp again, this time used as a backdrop for taking pictures.  This seemed like a far more elegant solution than what I do, so I gave it a whirl.  The results were less than hoped for, so I'll have to pick the innovator's brain the next time our paths cross.

pVlad WIP #1

For once the picture looks worse than the actual mini. 

Another day, another surprising amount of progress.  Hot on the heels of my recent outing with his epic version, I sat down with the brushes and paints yesterday to show prime Vlad some love.  My plan was just to get a base coat of red down and maybe a wash.  Flash-forward a few hours and I'd finished damn near the whole model.  Sharp-eyed readers will notice this is a departure from my usual 5th Border Legion scheme.  Since Vlad wears ancestral armor, which I doubt he'd repaint to match a modern trend, it doesn't make much sense to have it in the usual scheme.  Thus the red armor, darker than my usual red, with the green cloak to keep my palette intact. 

Inspiration much?

Before I started painting I had intended to do gold accents on the armor, as befits an heirloom of a storied line like the Tzepescis, but decided to go with more of a Bram Stoker's Dracula, pure red vibe while at the table.  Having taken a tour of both the PP site and the interwebs in general, I'm leaning back towards the gold trim.  Thinking ahead to painting eVlad, I'll need to work in some sort of accent color for the shoulder details at least, so I might as well lay the foundation in pVlad.  Armor detailing aside, I have the hair to do and could call it finished after that (plus basing of course).  That vast expanse of flat cape just begs for some freehand though.  I'm none too happy with the cloak itself as well, so I may give the fabled two-brush blending a whirl.  Having (finally) read the posts about the recent Meg Maples painting class in DC on Plarzoid's blog, and watching a couple videos, it looks like a quick technique that yields impressive results and isn't all that different from what I already do when I end up with paint that's thinner than I wanted, but still thick enough to be workable.  Trying out a new technique on a mini that I'm otherwise very pleased with probably isn't the best idea ever, but that never stopped me before.