Village Attacks - Succubus & Banshee
Emboldened by the Dullahan I decided to jump right into the next two monsters the Village Attacks core box, the Succubus and the Banshee.
As with the Dullahan, I gave them both the same priming treatment: wash with Biostrip, spray with Army Painter Uniform Grey spray and a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish.
Unsurprisingly, the Succubus has a lot of skin showing so it seemed like the best place to start. So I gave it a base coat of Rakarth Flesh and as I knew I wanted the straps around her arms and legs to be black I base coated them in Corvus Black. I then washed both with Nuln Oil. For the skin, I then layered Rakarth Flesh on the raised areas, then a fifty-fifty mix of Rakarth Flesh and Pallid Wych Flesh to highlight the most prominent areas. For the wings, I used the lighter colours more as glazes than highlights so that the colours blended more evenly.
For her clothes, once again I decided against the black depicted in the artwork and went with yellow, as that is the Succubus’ Monster Type colour. I was a little worried that the yellow and black would make her look like a bee or a wasp, whilst that would be fairly appropriate for a Succubus, it turned out not to be the case. So I started with a base coat of Averland Sunset, followed by a wash of Seraphim Sepia. I chose a yellow wash as it wouldn’t darken the clothes too much like Nuln Oil would. From there it was a case of layering the raised areas with Averland Sunset then highlighting with a mix of Averland Sunset and Yriel Yellow. I didn’t do a highlight of pure Yriel Yellow as it would make the figure a bit too bright compared to the other darker areas such as the skin.
The hair stumped me for a while; blond would be too close to the yellow of her clothes, black would be too similar to the wraps on her arms and legs, and I just couldn’t see her as a brunette. My partner suggested that she might be a red-head, but not a ginger red-head and not a red red-head either, if that makes sense. So, I mixed some Mephiston Red and Jokaero Orange which combined the best of both, and base coated it on both her head and the small tuft of hair on her tail. I then washed both areas with Red Tone from The Army Painter and picked out a few prominent strands with pure Jokaero Orange.
The only other bits that I needed to pick out was the dagger in her hand and the ascot/scarf under her hair. As the dagger was somewhat lacking in detail, I gave it a simple coat of Leadbelcher then a wash with Nuln Oil. For the ascot, I decided on a deep red so it didn’t clash with either the orange-red hair or the yellow clothes. For this, I mixed Khorne Red with Corvus Black, I felt it didn’t need a wash as it was dark enough already.
As the Banshee is actually dead I decided that I wanted her skin closer to a white than the undead grey I used on the Dullahan or Succubus, with that in mind I gave her exposed skin a base coat of Pallid Wych Flesh, followed by a wash with Nuln Oil. I then went back with the Pallid Wych Flesh to glaze back up to an alabaster white on the smooth areas of skin, particularly on the right leg. For the mouth, I mixed Rakarth Flesh with a touch of Red Tone so that the screaming mouth would stand out without looking too “alive”.
For her skirt/dress I gave it a base coat of Vulkan Green followed by a wash of Athonian Camoshade as I felt that Nuln Oil would darken what is already a rather dark green a bit too much. Unfortunately, this didn’t quite create the contrast that I wanted so I ran some Nuln Oil into the deepest recess and each of the holes. For the highlights I mixed Vulkan Green with Averland Sunset in a two-to-one mix and applied it to the edges and around the tears to make them pop out.
With the most prominent parts of the model complete, the remainder of her was fairly trivial. For the scarf that she wears I base coated it with Skeleton Bone then gave it a wash of Strong Tone; the off white helped to set it apart from her skin and the brown wash gave it a nice dirtied appearance. For the hair, I base coated it with Mechanicus Standard Grey, washed with Nuln Oil then highlighted with Dawnstone. And finally, for the shawl I painted it with Dryad Bark before giving it a wash of Strong Tone. Then I used Mournfang Brown to highlight the folds and also to pick down the treads on her dress/skirt.