Soulblight Vampire Necromancer

A Soulblight Gravelord Vampire painted with a necromancy magic scheme.

The first thing I worked on for this miniature was actually the base. I primed it black and gave it a rough airbrushing of a dark purple. I then wanted to create a glowing effect coming out of the cracks between the stone, so I dry-brushedDry-brushing is the technique of wiping most of the paint off your brush and lightly brushing a miniature, in order to only catch the raised edges with a light dusting of a highlight color. dark teal around the cracks, then a lighter teal closer to the cracks, and then filled in the cracks with a lime green.

For the actual vampire model, I started with the skin first. I layeredLayering is the technique of creating a smooth blend between colors by using multiple layers slightly thinned paint and shrinking each layer to create a smooth transition between colors. from a medium grey to a light grey, but with some purple mixed in, with more purple in the darker tones, and more grey in the lighter tones. I used a similar technique for the wing arms, except using dark teal instead of purple. As for the actual wings, I left them black, dry-brushed dark teal toward the ends, and added a spotty texture to them.

Seeing the rest of the model still black made me realize a dark outfit would fit the best and contrast with the light skin. The armor pieces remained black, but were highlighted toward dark purple and edge-highlightedEdge highlighting is the technique where you paint the raised edges and corners on a miniature brighter than noraml, in order to help them stand out more, and because edges tend to reflect slightly more light in real life. with a similar purple-grey mix from the skin’s base coat. The rest of the straps, the mace, and the hair were highlighted similarly, with dark to medium greys, as I wanted to avoid using metallic paints for this mini and use non-metallic-metalNon-metallic metal, or NMM, is the technique of painting a miniature to look shiny or metallic using solid color paints and high contrast, rather than using actual glossy or metallic paints. instead.

The last details were a few gems and a bottle on the vampire’s waist. These were painted with the two teal colors and the lime green, to remain coherent with the base.

Finally, I airbrushed the two teal colors onto the model from below, to give the effect that the green light from the base is lighting up the vampire from below. Then I gave it a clear coat of gloss, for protective purposes, and matte for the final finish.

Overall, I think this might be my best miniature yet, in terms of the color coherency, the skin shading, and the glow effect. One of my previous miniatures had a better paint job for the skin, but that was with the help of an airbrushed base coat; this miniature’s skin was painted by hand, and this one also has higher contrast. I do think the wings’ spots could be redone, though. I wanted to highlight the horizontal folds in the wings, but they weren’t defined enough to catch the edge of my brush, and were too small to highlight by hand. I also didn’t properly blend the color transitions on the armor. Overall, though, I think this miniature turned out beautifully.