Step-by-Step Painting Instructions  By David Fisher Reprinted from Amazing Figure Modeler Magazine Issue #22

Historically, the female form has been one of the most inspiring muses known to artists throughout the world. No matter what culture or era, it's shapes and curves have challenged the eye and hand of many masters, from Egyptians to Mayans, Michelangelo to Picasso. In the hobby world, the female form has its masters as well, from the action girls of Vision Model's John Wright to the Fantasy figures of Cellar Cast's Steve West. One of the most popular, and certainly most prolific sculptors of the female form is Solarwind Production's Mike Cusanelli. Mike has developed quite a following for his shapely and elegant female kits, and rightly so. Each figure is delicately rendered with a level of care and detail that the finest galleries top artists would be envious of.

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Mike has also accomplished a rare feat in this hobby most could only dream of, creating an original character that develops a popular following not unlike many popular comic and film creations. This curvaceous creature is known as The Countess Karnstein, part pinup queen, part blood thirsty vampire, all woman! Mike has just produced his fourth figure of the Countess (not counting a bust), and in my estimation, at this stage has created the best piece of his career. The latest Karnstein is seductively reclining atop her luxurious coffin awaiting her next prey, and she won't have to wait long, what man could resist such a stunning creature? Mike has out done himself with this latest figure, the anatomy and facial features are just beautiful. The Countess is perched on an elegant coffin engineered by Mike's partner in crime, Ken Ellis of Foxfire Studios, it makes the perfect presentation for the figure. I could rave about this piece all day, but you've got eyes and can judge it for yourself from the photographs, so I'll stop my fan boy yammering and get on with the painting of the Countess! After cleaning the near flawless castings and spraying the figure with a light gray sandable automotive primer, I have to decide what sort of paint scheme to use for the Countess. Since she is a vampire, I've painted the past figures a paler fleshtone, even working in a bit of lavender into the mix for a not-quite-human effect. I want her to be attractive, so I don't overdo it, but I want an unusual tone to the skin. For this kit however, I was presented with a different situation. Since I knew I would be using this figure for the cover of our swimsuit issue, I wanted her to be more lifelike, yet I don't want her to look as though she's been lounging by a bat shaped pool. I decided to go with a pale yet human skintone that would be pale, yet attractive and inviting to the eye. To begin, I mix a pale flesh tone with a combination of Liquitex Raw Siena (a yellow brown), Burnt Siena (a red brown) and Titanium White. I use more White and Raw Siena than Burnt Siena to obtain a warm pale flesh base color. I then spray the pale flesh over the entire figure with my Badger Sotar 20/20 air brush. Next, I mix a little Red Oxide (a rust red) into my flesh color and spray warm tones into the folds of the flesh and along the muscles to emphasis their shapes. I then take my original flesh base and lighten it with a little white and highlight the tops of the muscles for more definition (Photo 1).

Photo 2

After I have a nice transition between the different parts of the anatomy, I seal the flesh with a couple of light coats of Testor's flat lacquer before moving to the next stage. Normally I would return with more air brushing of subtle tones to finish out the skin areas, but I've been using chalk pastels more and more for this stage of painting, so I thought I'd use them here as well.As I demonstrated last issue and in my fourth videotape, you need to experiment and find a brand of chalk pastel that you like and are most comfortable with. I like to use Faber Castell and Alpha color, but depending on what types of paints you use and how you seal the colors you might like another brand.

It's better to experiment and test several brands for a few minutes than spend hours undoing a disastrous pastel technique. Why would I use pastels at this point instead of air brushing? Mainly because of speed and control, plus you can wipe off unsealed pastels with a damp cotton swab. Having sealed my air brushed flesh work, I'm left with a subtly shaded fleshtone 'canvas' to add my pastels to. The air brush has done most of the work of defining the general shapes, now I'll use pastels to emphasize the details. I take a medium rust red tone pastel stick and rub it on a piece of sandpaper to create a powdered pigment. I then take a small soft brush (I prefer the set of Drybrushes offered by Micro-mark) and dip it into the powder, then transfer the powder to the figure and gently tap the color into areas such as the eye socket, arm pit, and folds of the legs. I then blow away the excess powder and return with a clean soft brush to blend and feather it to the skin tones. This technique takes a little practice, but it's like applying makeup to a figure, gradually build up your color. Don't add too much too soon or it will get to heavy and begin to look like dirt. Take your time and you will get great results. I use the reddish brown tone to gently shade where the skin and clothing meet. I also use a touch of purple powder in the eye socket area for a cosmetic effect (Photo 2).

Once I think I have the color shading as I want it, I seal the figure again with flat lacquer for protection. Although I think I have the shading where I want it, I need to see it contrast against other colors to be sure, so I base coat the clothing with Black and add a base coat to her hair as well. Since I've painted all my other Countess Karnstein's with a Platinum Blonde hair color (ala Marilyn Monroe) I decided to be consistent with my series and do the same with this edition. You could paint the Countess with any hair color you choose, a Red Head, Brunette, Green, it's up to you, she will look stunning no matter what! I make a base color for my Platinum Blonde beauty using Yellow Oxide (a slightly grayed yellow) Burnt Umber (a dark chocolate brown) Payne's Gray (a cool steel blue gray color) and Titanium White.

Photo 3

Photo 4

I mix these into a cool gray tone with a touch of yellow to it. Platinum Blonde hair is cool in tone as opposed to a Sunny Blonde which is warm.By mixing the Burnt Umber and Payne's Gray into the color you get a tone that's perfect for building up a Platinum Blonde effect. After base coating the hair and clothing I decide that I need to punch up the colors a bit here and there so I add a touch more red brown pastel to the shadows, and I tap in just a touch of Magenta Pink around the eyes, cheeks and arm pit and lower back area to tweak the color just ever so slightly. If you feel that the shading is getting a bit too extreme, I suggest taking your air brush and misting the figure with a wash of Raw Siena or even a wash made with your medium flesh tone to blend and tone down the coloring. After blending I seal the figure again.

For the next stage, I decide to go ahead and paint in the facial features. Don't do this until you are satisfied with your skintone, or you'll have to mask off the face and run the risk of the facial skin not matching the body. I use a small brush and paint in the eyes, eyebrows and lips. Since I've covered painting facial details repeatedly both on video and in the magazine I won't go into great detail here, but I give the Countess green eyes to compliment her blonde hair and pale skin, plus green gives her a slight otherworldly appearance as well. I paint her lips a warm red tone which I'm not too sold on, but I leave it for the present (Photos 3-4).

Now I move onto shading and painting the Countesses hair. I use the base color and mix more White and Yellow Oxide into the color and begin to drybrush the ridges and textures of the hair. I use subtly lighter shades of the grayed yellow color, all the way up to an almost solid white highlight. Don't let the color get too yellow or too gray, it's a delicate balancing act to keep the colors in line. Once I have the hair and facial features as I want them, I seal them again with flat lacquer for protection. After the skin, face and hair are complete, I decided I didn't like the lip color, so I repainted them with a purple/pink tone that I thought looked more glamourous. Now I have to decide what color to paint the Countesses clothing and cape. I've used other colors from Purple to Midnight Blue for her clothing in the past, so I decide this time to use a deep Crimson Red.

Photo 5

I mask off the skin and hair areas with a couple of coats of liquid latex mask (Latex Mold Builder, available at hobby and craft centers) and allow it to dry. For the next step, I choose a deep Crimson color, Badger's Freak Flex Hammer Red Dry. I mix it with a little black and gently spray the clothing area. I then mix more red to the ratio and spray redder highlights onto the clothing, particularly on the breast plates, the crotch and rear areas where there are wider sections of cloth. For the last step I take the solid Crimson Red and spray final red highlights on the top of the breast plates. For the black boots and gloves I spray subtle dark gray highlights on the folds and raised areas. Once done, I peel off the masking material and seal the piece with yet another light coat of flat lacquer (Photos 5 - 6).

The final step to complete the Countess is to add the metallic jewelry and details to her costume. I use Testor's enamels for this process. I mix a touch of gloss Black and Chrome Silver to give me a dark pewter color and base coat the jewelry and ribbing on her breast plates. I then mix more silver into the color and add highlights to the pieces. Finally, I use straight Chrome Silver to tap in selected highlights. I think this technique looks more realistic that just painting the pieces straight silver. For the Jewels themselves, I use Clear Red and Green Tamiya acrylics over the dried silver paint to give a transparent jewelled gleam to the stones. This step has to be your final one for the figure because you can't seal the metallics or clear colors with lacquer, or it will cloud their finish. Guess What? At this stage I decided that I didn't like the pink lips after all, so I went back to a red, but a red more crimson in tone to match the clothing color (Photo 7).

Photo 6

Photo 7

I also debated gloss coating her boots, but I thought it might blend too much with what I have in mind for the coffin. What do I have in mind for the coffin you ask? Well, I originally planned to discuss a wood grain effect over the surface, but while watching my new DVD of Scars Of Dracula the other night, I noticed Christopher Lee's Black lacquered coffin, which looked pretty darned spiffy! But, I really wanted to demonstrate a wood grain effect too... decisions, decisions! I know, I'll do a wood grain on the lower half and a Black lacquered finish on the top, sort of a British 'Black and Tan' pub tribute in honor of Hammer Studios! You can do wood grain effects many ways; I'm going to demonstrate a simple effect for the lower portion of the coffin.

First, I basecoat the lower area with a light tan color, I use Liquitex Unbleached Titanium White with a touch of Raw Siena and brush a couple of smooth coats over the surface. After it dries, I seal it with a couple of coats of flat lacquer. Next I mix a wash of Raw Siena and Burnt Umber with a little blue windshield washing fluid and using a 'crapped out' brush that I keep for such techniques such as this (Photo 8- come on, I bet almost everyone has a brush like this somewhere!) I dip the brush in the wash and drag it along the surface in a horizontal motion. I repeat this several times to get a streaky pattern that resembles wood grain (Photo 9).Don't overdo this step or you'll lose the organic effect.

Photo 8

Photo 9

I the seal the graining with lacquer. I mix another darker wash with straight Burnt Umber and repeat, but this time with a flat tipped smooth brush. This gives a smoother subtle grain pattern . Once I have a convincing grain effect, I let it dry and seal the section again. Now to get a rich, deep wood tone, I mix a bit of Tamiya Clear Red, Orange and Green together to get a warm brown wood tone and airbrush even layers over the wood grain patterns. This creates a convincing wood coloring and blends the graining down a bit (Photo 10). Let it dry for a couple of hours and seal with Testor's Semi Gloss to protect. Now I want to finish the top of the piece to look like Christopher Lee's coffin. I mask off the wood grain area with the liquid latex again and allow it to dry. Then I air brush the top of the coffin with several smooth coats of Freak Flex Body Bag Black.

Once dry I gloss coat the top for a high sheen and peel off the masking. After the coffin has dried, I decided I didn't like the high sheen on the black, I thought it looked too much like plastic and a bit cheap so I resprayed the entire coffin with the semi-gloss to take it down a notch- much better I think! The final steps were to paint the crest and metal details to the coffin, I used the same techniques I employed for the jewelry I mentioned earlier, with the exception of adding golds to the middle of the shield and the letter 'K.' Last, I painted the two small platforms to look like weathered stone by stippling various shades of gray and then drybrushing the details with light gray. I also painted the candlestick a weathered silver and the candle itself white.

Photo 10

After all is dry, I assembled the cape to the Countess and attached her to her coffin along with her candlestick and step back to admire one of the best female kits this hobby has to offer! The Countess is quite a prize, and I suggest anyone who likes female kits or vampires to not hesitateto order this stunning kit achievement; you won't be disappointed! Mike Cusanelli and Ken Ellis should be proud of themselves, not only for making this terrific kit, but for being two of the best talented and reliable kit producers in the industry!

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