Today's instalment is the famed Vampire Hunter, Van Halfling, scourge of evil.
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| Scourge of the Undead! |
I think that this is a great figure, lots of detail and plenty of character, it reminded me very much of the classic Citadel miniatures of the 80's and 90's. It's one of a number I impulse bought from
Heresy Miniatures a couple of weeks ago.
When the package arrived not only was there a hand written thank-you note from Minion Dan but also a packet of fizzers, top notch customer service and the detail and casting quality of the miniatures is excellent. I've been looking forward to making a start on them and went as far as to taking the plunge and purchasing some resin bases to round him out. No plain black finish this time.
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| Fizzer are an excellent customer service touch. |
Back to Van Halfling, I was worried that with all of the brown he would be look too drab and I was going to try and add a it more colour but I think that by mixing between dark and light tones to create a bit of contrast did the trick and I could probably have got away with a brown hat and a darker feather but it does add a nice spot colour.
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| Presumably the feather was a gift from some rescued maiden, it doesn't really fit with the rest of the ensemble |
For the coat I started with a Rhinox hide base, the boots, belt and straps are Mournfang Brown. I then shaded the whole lot with Agrax Earthshade. The layers were built up by mixing with the base colours rather than going straight to the next layer colour, this gave a more subtle highlight which I prefer.
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| No vampire is tall enough to avoid a good stabbing of the ankles |
The pouch and scabbard are Zandri Dust with a Ushabi bone highlight. I thought that the obscured face had saved me from doing the eyes but painting the buckles and tip of the crossbow bolt more than made up for it.
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| He was pinned to the bases once painted |
The base came from
Fenris Games, they have their own website but it didn't have the Cthulhu bases on in so I used their ebay shop instead. I drybrushed Dawnstone grey heavily over the black primer and then stippled on some brown, yellow and green washes which you can just make out in the picture above. I drybrushed Dawnstone again and then Administratum grey. There was a final drybrush of Longbeard grey to bring out the edges.
This is my favourite miniature so far and I'm very pleased with the outcome, I'll have to look for a game I can use him in and more importantly I need to find him a worthy adversary. I've been scouring ebay for old citadel Night Horror miniatures which I think would fit quite well. I think a band of trusty comrades could also be interesting, maybe the start of a Mordheim witch hunter warband?
