“The Saga of Constanzi, Katerina & Elena”

I blame the heat! (well I’ve got to blame something), unlike most years as we were approaching the end of “Forgotten heroes” month, for a change I knew exactly what I was going to paint up next, that being three of the new miniatures I bought from “Phalanx” wargames show the other week (I hope to paint up the rest next, but you’ll have to wait to see what they are). Three figures one week’s easy painting, or so I thought. Now these three “Belt Fed Gaming” ladies first came to my attention back when they appeared on “Colonel Bill’s” blog that was ably run at that time by Roy Williamson, many positive comments were made with several people (including myself) postulating that they would be on shopping lists in the near future. Well I lived up to my end of the bargain, and came home in possession of three very nice little vampires and £8.50 lighter in the wallet. So it was with fevered brow and baited breath I worked toward the end of my “He-men” safe in the knowledge that these were awaiting the attention of my brush, but it was once I had based and undercoated them in my preferred manner that doubt began to creep in.

Rather than paint them in the “sexy” and still somewhat healthy manner of the ones on the website I had decided to go with an altogether more pallid appearance based loosely upon how I remember the ones in the movie “Van Helsing”, I had great trouble however getting this how I wanted (I’m still not sure about the final colour), and as stated at the start of this post the heat didn’t help at all, with last Sunday being that hot the paint was drying on the brush before I’d got it on to the figures! Anyway it all turned out in the end (sort of), so now I’ll go through how each one was painted.

Constanzi, as her dress was to be predominantly green I began by painting it in German field grey (which is actually a deep turquoise?) mixed with a little aquamarine, and this was then highlighted with more aquamarine this time mixed with some turquoise. Then I turned to the flesh and features, (so this next bit applies to all three figures) I started by laying down a base of pale flesh, I then mixed more of this with some light turquoise and highlighted with this. I added the mouths next in dark red, and after adding the eyes in white I dotted in the pupils with bright red, this was also used to highlight the mouths. Then more white was used to add their fangs, and some German field grey was used for their lips. I still wasn’t happy with the faces so mixed some more turquoise and light turquoise into a thin wash (it was still drying way too fast though), and used this around the eyes and cheeks to add shadows there, and in their cleavages too. All three then had their jewelry added in bronze with shinning gold highlights. Then turning back to Constanzi alone again, her hair was undercoated in black before dark grey highlights were added, and the bow holding it at the back was done in yet more turquoise with light turquoise highlights. Finally the heart she is holding (yuck!) was added in dark red and bright red, and the jewels in her necklace and earrings were Samurai satin green.

Katerina’s dress on the other hand was to be red so a base of dark red was applied to over these areas, followed by highlights of pink burgundy, all the frills and ribbons were then added in coffee and cream before I set to work on her flesh (see above). Her hair was then added in chocolate brown, and as I wanted a dead, dull look to it I decided to highlight it with a mix of more chocolate brown mixed with some mid grey, the flower she uses to pin her hair was then added in pink burgundy highlighted with some bright red, and the ribbons were done as before. A spot of metallic red on the jewel hanging from her necklace finished her off.

Elena, now I have to admit that it wasn’t until I came to paint Elena that I discovered that she is showing a little more (well you know) than I had originally realized, so apologies to anyone who finds this a little to “racy” (though if women who look like this get you going, I’d seek medical help if I were you). Anyway purple was to be the colour of choice on my wayward gypsy vampire (she just looks a bit like a gypsy girl to me). So her skirt was first undercoated in royal purple, and then highlighted in plum, I also did her shoes this way. Next her corset was highlighted in dark grey (it was already black from the undercoat), and the bottom of her skirt (petticoat?) and blouse were added in coffee and cream. After her flesh was added with the addition of a mix of European flesh, light turquoise and a touch of pink burgundy, on her “exposed bits”, her hair was added in rust, with rust mixed with mid grey for the highlights. That just left her jewels to add (stop sniggering, I mean the ones around her neck!) and these were done in blue steel.

Basing and finishing were of course completed in my usual fashion. Now the other big news since my last post is that I have “played a game!” Yes! An actual game, there is no AAR for me to post, so I afraid I’m still a total fraud as far as some people are concerned, but at least this is a step in the right direction. The game in question was “Dungeon Saga” by Mantic games and is the latest purchase by my eldest son who brought it with him last weekend (as I have been nagging him to let me have a look at it since he mentioned he’d bought it at “Games Expo” a few weeks back. We only played one of the early simpler scenarios, but I can report that it appears to play very well, and has a feel of “Zombicide” to the mechanisms. He has however left it here (on my request) so that I can start working my way through painting it all up for him, so over the next few (lord knows how many, as there’s quite a bit of it) weeks, expect to see various doors, tables, chests as well as figures popping up in my posts. I might even have a mess about playing with them too.

So till next time, cheers Roger.