Sirithis the Demon Princess
by Thomas Pope
Now, a (not so) brief description of the paint job...
First off, let me way that I truely DESPISED this figure. I don't mean the sculpting, which is beautiful, or the casting, which is of the typical high quality I have come to expect from Reaper. It wasn't anythign specific about the figure itself, but I just couldn't "connect" with the miniature.
I've had this problem before and usually end up either tossing the thing on a sheft for a few years or doing a lousy paint job. Well, this tiem I didnt' really have either option so I perservered as best as I was able.
I decided right away that since she was a vampire, she really needed to have deathly pale skin. I spent probably as much time on the skin as I did on the rest of the miniature combined. The base coat was Ral Partha's Ivory, followed by several successive washes of Damsel Flesh. This gave her an almost white tone, with just a little bit of highlighting.
After the skin was done I moved on to the face. Pretty standard stuff with the exception of red eyes and a bit more work than I usually put into the lips and teeth.
Next I moved on to the wings. I don't know particularly why I chose this color scheme, other than the fact that I wanted her skin to contrast with basically everything else. I actually did a rather subtle blending job ont he wings which is completely invisible in most views. After I blended from the dark blue base to a purple, I highlighted the "spars" and spots with some Royal Red Silk.
The hair was next, and of course she had to be a redhead! This proved to be mistake number one. After spending any number of hours carefully outlining each and every hair, not to mention frequently having to dash for the water to clean up a spot on her impossible to reblend skin I gave up. I was getting sick of the figure, and I knew I'd jsut go crazy if I kept working on it.
So, I put her up on a shelf where she sat and mocked me for over a month and a half.
Finally, I decided it was time to finish her. I realized that I had painted myself into a corner with my color choices but I was going to paint this miniature if it killed me. So, I finished up the hair with a wash of brown ink and moved on to the clothing.
The boots and gloves were painted black with only a tiny bit of highlighting. Thanks to a tip found on Rob's Miniature Page I decide to give them a nice gloss coat when finished.
The skirt thingy (tabard maybe?) was painted in a very similar blending scheme to the wings, but was a bit rougher. This was very evident before the final dulcote, but less so when finished.
The swords were painted with Ral Partha Steel, Polly Scale brass for the hardware and various reds for the runic script. The base was a very quick paint job, grey washed black for the rocks and my standard "old bone treatment" for the skulls.
Overally I'm actually pleased with how this figure turned out. I don't think I would have done anything differently if I had actually enjoyed painting it. Now that it's done I'm glad I kept with it.
Thomas Pope
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