Blood Feud ... aka Selene from Underworld

[sivousplay]

To say that I highly anticipated the release of this kit would be an understatement for sure. When I received her a couple of weeks ago, she immediately moved to the top of my "to-do" list and she was an absolute pleasure to paint.

Painting Selene was an interesting challenge ... so much black leather ... I tried to give each piece of leather: boots, pants, chestpiece, and jacket some unique care so that they would stand out a little in their own way. I tried to give the boots a more "solid" look and mixed some browns in with the blacks to get this effect. The pants got a final coat of pure Future to give them the sheen I felt they needed. For the chestpiece and the jacket (as well as Selene's hair), I tried to use some learnings from my Alien Pile paint up and used some blues as highlights to give some more atmosphere to the piece. I'm really pleased w/ how she turned out and hope you all like her as well.

If you'd like to see more pics than those I've posted here, there are plenty more on my web-site:
http://sivousplay.com/html/resin.html

jim

 

[housecarl]

Not a lot to say, superb feminine flesh tones, and the various leathers are very well done. I take it that you used oils?
very nice,
Carl.

 

[megroot]

Great brushwork. Absolutely great what you have done with all the black's.
It is so difficult to get black right, and then get all the different kind of clothe's into black, with some small transition into the black.
Great.

Marc

 

[FigureLover]

Beautiful job on this one, love the subtle female flesh tones and her eyes have that intense stare, great stuff. The boots are awesome indeed.
Ben

 

[tonydawe]

I echo Ben's comments. The eyes are really intense and the black leather is very well handled.

 

[sivousplay]

Not a lot to say, superb feminine flesh tones, and the various leathers are very well done. I take it that you used oils?
very nice,
Carl.

Thanks for the kind words Carl. Actually, it's all acrylics and all hand-brushed. To be a little more specific, I'll throw out of a few simple recipes I used (all colors are Vallejo Game Colour unless stated otherwise):
I primed everything white ... I know most folks would prime an all black figure black, but to my way of painting, that would make getting highlights very difficult and painting the shadows isn't hard. So, I would recommend as I always do, priming white and slowly adding dark.

Boots- Started w/ a couple thin coats of Chaos Black to get them to a dark grey color. Used thinned Mithril Silver on the buckles. Then used a couple thin glazes of Sepia Ink to give them an earthy look and then went back w/ a few more thin glazes of Chaos Black. Because the paint tends to flow off the high points and I'm using very thin paint, it took 6-7 coats of dark colors to get the boots the color I wanted, but the highlights kept a little lighter. Aside from the buckles, I did no highlighting on the boots. May seem primitive and cheap from a painting skill perspective, but I think the result is all that matters.

Pants- Even easier ... about 5 coats of Chaos Black and I think I alternated some Folk Art Licorice just for kicks and grins. Once the black was smooth, I gave it a dose of pure Future to get the sheen.

Chestpiece and Jacket - I wanted the coat to have a little more character. So, the initial coats were a mixture of Dark Prussian Blue and Folk Art Licorice ...probably 30/70 ... just enough Dark Prussian Blue so that the resultant color had a blue hint to it. Then a few coats of whatever black was wet at the time until the darks got to where I liked it. The high points on the coat still had a little white/grey to them at this point. I thinned down some Createx Airbrush Colors Pearl Blue ... it's a medium to dark blue w/ a pearl finish ... kinda looks like if you mixed empire blue w/ mithril silver and brushed it on the highlights ... this gave a really nice blue sheen to the blacks and then when back w/ some chaos black to blend / tone down the blues a bit ... I'd never tried this specific technique before so it was a bit organic as I found my way through the endless black

I hope this is helpful. It was a fun to experiment w/ so much black and was a pretty cool learning experience for me.
jim

 

[John Bowery]

Jim,
Superbly done and great blacks.
Cheers
John

 

[Carlo Giovanni]

What mark of figure is that?

 

[dinovision79]

Hi Jim,

perfect job on the leathers and face and thanks for sharing the info!

Cheers
Denes

 

[housecarl]

Thanks for the blacks "recipe" Jim.
Much appreciated,
Carl.

 

[sivousplay]

What mark of figure is that?

Hi Carlo,

The kit is independently produced by a couple of hobby enthusiasts who are just starting a new kit company. This kit was the first they have produced. To the best of my knowledge the only information about the kit is in the Clubhouse forums:

http://theclubhouse1.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=76609

Best of luck.
jim

 

[Carlo Giovanni]

Thanks