“I Need Blood. I Need Strength. I Demand Power!”

This 28mm plastic “Wizkids” model of Dracula is number 12 from the “Heroclix” Marvel Amazing Spider-Man range and is the first of my five submissions for the Mo’vember 2014 challenge Dick Garrison is running over on his blog “Rantings From Under The Wargames Table”. The sculpt is actually based upon the Lord of Vampires from the Seventies “Marvel Comics” title “Tomb Of Dracula”. He was drawn by Gene Colan, and actually sketched to resemble the features of actor Jack Palance with a thin moustache. Rather than simply leave the majority of the model black I tried to replicate some of the colours employed by comic colorist Glynis Wein during her time on the book.

As a result Dracula’s suit was painted with “Vallejo” Heavy Blue and then washed twice with “Citadel” Nuln Oil to give it a dark shadowy look. I applied a similarly heavy wash to the vampire’s shoes, once I’d given them a coat of Adeptus Battlegrey. I originally just used “Vallejo” Heavy Red for the inside of the figure’s cloak. But then saw a few illustrations of the comic book character which showed the entire upper part of the garment to be red. Deciding I wanted the model to be as colourful as I could, I went back and simply painted the whole area red before applying a glaze of “Citadel” Bloodletter to it. I’m not actually a big fan of this glaze and how it looks when applied to “Vallejo” Heavy Red, but what it does do is make a very ‘stickable’ surface for an application of the “Citadel” Shade Carroburg Crimson. I think this particular shade works very well, and really gave some shadowry depth to the cloak’s red.

If you're interested in "Tomb Of Dracula" by "Marvel Comics" then a review of Issue 9 can be found on my daily American Comics blog here: http://thebrownbagaeccb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/tomb-of-dracula-9-marvel-comics.html

In the meantime I have been persevering with this “Judge Death” miniature by “Mongoose Publishing” and finally got the model to the stage where I simply need to tidy up the odd area here and there before applying a protective coat of gloss varnish to it. Unfortunately it’s going to be a little late for the official end of Zomtober 2014, but I’m determined to complete it now the end is in sight.

In addition, I always like a couple of simple and large models to ‘tinker’ with whenever I tire from some of the more precise painting the smaller scales require. As a result I’ve started putting a few coats of paint on these “Heroclix” models of Dragon Man and Lockjaw; the later model being my Mo’vember submission for next weekend.

If you're interested in Mo'vember then please have a look at Dick Garrison's first posting on his blog here: http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/movember-week-1