100 Models #2: Vampire Counts Wight King

Vampire Counts Wight King

single plastic miniature

Games Workshop £9

With the application of a sheet of A4 to provide a neutral background and using the timer on my camera so I don't judder it as I press the button I think I'm getting much better pictures. I just have to figure out how to switch off the flash to get rid of those shadows and I'm set. Anyway, onto the miniature:

This is a far more complicated model than the Cairn Wraith. It has a lot of layers so you really have to go in with a plan for painting it. Some layers need drybrushing, some need inking and it can tie you in knots. This is actually my second attempt to paint one of these, having hashed up the first go so comprehensively I had to buy a new model (the original is in a drawer waiting to be paint-stripped and turned into Bretonnian Paladin).

The solution to this model is to paint it from the inside out, innermost layer to outermost. This wasn't exactly a simple process and I had to touch up the innermost layers rather a lot (covering stray Necron Compound off the boot and knee after drybrushing the chainmail, for instance).

An effect I'm rather proud of, but which hasn't photographed well, is the dirty metal effect I tried out on the sword blade. With luck and better photography you'll see a lot more of this effect on my Black Knights and Guardians Of The Covenant but it basically goes like this: basecoat in Leadbelcher, wash Nuln Oil, drybrush the whole area in Necron Compound (or Runefang to suit your taste) and then wash Agrax Earthshade. The brown ink picks out and colours the brighter drybrush layer so you get the look of mottled filth covering the blade.

I also rather like the colour of the cape (Incubi Darkness) and I think I'll use it wherever I can within the arrmy, try to create a more cohesive look for a very disparate force.

The red armour I am less fond of. I went right up far too bright in layering and tried to darken it down again with inks but it didn't quite take.

All in all this was a complicated but very satisfying model to paint. When I'm buying models again (98 to go!) I might get some Grave Guard and paint them to match him, albeit with darker armour. I am painting some units, by the way, it's just that the character models were finished first (there'll be another one on Thursday) so I should make more substantial progress towards my goal soon, especially when I have a chance to basecoat those eleven High Elves I'll need for Sunday's Triumph & Treachery game.