Sarissa Precision makes MDF and acrylic terrain for wargames, but while wandering around the exhibition hall at UK Game Expo this year I noticed they had some mystery boxes of 3D printed miniatures. So I grabbed myself one of them and wouldn’t you know it, I got another vampire. For a man that doesn’t collect vampires I sure have painted a lot of them. Anyway, in addition to the vampire I also got a zombie, a skeleton and two ghouls. I did reach out to Sarissa Precision to see where they got the sculpts from so I could properly credit them. Unfortunately the guy that did the printing for them didn’t remember where he got them, so if anyone recognises these models please let me know. 

In any case, mystery box miniatures are the ideal canvas for testing paint schemes or techniques on. For this band of misfits I decided to play around with preshading some more. I had played with a bit for my Deadwalkers to introduce some variety in the skin tones but I wanted to see what else I could do. With that in mind I stuck them down to their respective baes and primed them light grey. In hindsight, light grey might have been a mistake as I wanted to give them a white zenithal highlight and it won’t show so well against the light grey prime. A smarter man might have reprimed or painted them with a darker grey, I did not and simply pushed on.

Zombie

The zombie was the easiest to start with as I knew what I was doing with him. I started by giving him a zenithal highlight of Vallejo Air Sky Type S, an almost white colour with hints of green and blue, it’s the colour that the British used on the underside of their daytime fighters in World War II. But as mentioned above, it didn’t really show up against the light grey primer so I ended up basecoating the skin with it instead. I did end up giving him a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink but it didn’t make a huge difference as you might expect over such light base colours. 

With that done I moved onto putting some actual colour on the model. For the most part I followed the same scheme as my Deadwalkers, painting the skin with Army Painter Speedpaint Malignant Green and the guts with Purple Swarm. I wanted to keep the clothes quite muted in comparison to the skin so I painted the trousers with Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey and the shirt with Citadel Skeleton Horde. Whilst I had it out I also used Skeleton Horde for the bones on the base. For the rest of the base, I painted the crow with Black Templar, the stones with Basilicanum Grey and the earth with Wyldwood.  

Skeleton

The skeleton was another easy model to paint. I undershaded him with Daler-Rowney Burnt Umber acrylic ink. The skeleton was then given a coat of, surprise surprise, Skeleton Horde. The burnt umber does provide some shading and the model would have benefited from a drybrush with a yellow-white colour like Vallejo Pale Sand but the model was so small and fragile I was worried that I’d break it. I suppose in hindsight I could have manually highlighted the raised areas. Oh well. 

Moving onto the remaining details, I painted his little sword with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver, his skull cap with Gore-Grunta Fur and his shield with some thinned down Wyldwood. The base I painted in a similar manner to that of the zombie, Basilicanum Grey for the stone and Wyldwood for the earth. 

Vampire

For the vampire, I had intended to create an area of shadow on his chest, as he is leaning forwards and I imagined a light coming from above. With that in mind, I sprayed a light coating of Vallejo Night Blue on the model from below. 

As the grey skin was already quite fitting for an undead vampire, I decided to wash it with Drakenhof Nightshade. This didn’t really produce the contrast on the skin that I had hoped for so I then gave it a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey. While this did produce the contrast I needed, it didn’t darken the skin a bit too much particularly on the face. So I gave the face a very quick drybrush with Pallid Wych Flesh, and then gave it a second coat of Runic Grey. 

In keeping with my vampires wearing rich and bright clothing, I painted his trousers with Army Painter Speedpaint Purple Swarm. Likewise, to offset the cold blue of the skin I painted the brickwork on the base with Vallejo Terracotta that I then washed with Army Painter Dark Tone. The railing I then painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver and I finished things off by painting his hair with Black Templar. 

Ghouls

By the time I got to the ghouls I was feeling a bit cocky. The blue shadow on the vampire had worked out well enough, so I wanted to see if I could combine it with some quick object source lighting (OSL) effects. With that in mind, I sprayed them with some Vallejo Night Blue from above and then to make the light look like it is coming from below I sprayed them with  Gryph-Hound Orange and then Imperial Fist on their undersides. The effect wasn’t terrible I have to say. Next to bring out the texture I gave the skin a coat of Basilicanum Grey. 

Which looked terrible. It was way too dark.

At this point I decided it was time to bite the bullet and start again. So I primed the ghouls again, this time with Colour Forge Standard Grey. Not wanting to fart about any longer I opted to give them a simple zenithal highlight with some Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink. 

Starting over, I gave the skin a coat of Guilliman Flesh. The grey undercoat desaturated the Guilliman Flesh giving it an inhuman yet inflamed look. To give them the appearance of dirty cloth, I painted their wrist and ankle wraps with Skeleton Horde, and their loincloths with Snakebite Leather. 

One of the ghouls has a few extra details such as a served head in his hand and some doodads on his belt. The belt and pouch I painted with Gore-Grunta Fur, and the skull with Skeleton Horde. For the severed head, I painted the skin with Malignant Green and the hair with Black Templar. 

There were a lot of warm tones on the ghoul so for the base I want with some cooler colours. Such as Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey for the wall sections and Desolate Brown (actually more a drab green colour) for the earth. One of them had a rock that I picked out with Basilicanum Grey and some bones that I painted with the ever present Skeleton Horde.

Final thoughts

With the models done I painted the rims of the bases with black. I feel like these turned out alright. They aren’t my best models but they aren’t the worst thing I’ve ever painted either. I do feel I have learned some lessons though, particularly with the ghouls. You might be able to preshade in your shadows but OSL is definitely an after-effect.