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I've
been in this hobby for more than a decade, and over the years there
are several kits that I regret not acquiring when I had the chance.
One of the best kits that I missed has been reissued by the sculptor,
and I could not be more pleased. Of course I'm talking about "The
Dark Lord" by Mike Trcic of Trcic Studios. The kit is based
on the Tim Curry character "Darkness" from the Fantasy
film "Legend." This is a rare instance where I absolutely
hated a movie yet loved one of the main characters! "Darkness,"
is one of the most stunning examples of appliance makeup ever created
for a film. The design and execution of the creature is phenomenal,
and when combined with Tim Curry's excellent performance, it makes
the elf/fairy/unicorn absurdity of "Legend" entirely watchable!
This model kit was the first major resin release of the character,
and along with Jeff Yagher's "Curse of the Werewolf" was
an early milestone in the Garage Kit industry. Mike Trcic did an
unbelievable job on the figure which holds up even today, this is
a great kit!
The
only downside to the re-release of this piece comes in the building
stage. Although the castings are excellent, there is a large hunk
of resin on both the torso and the legs which must be removed in
order for them to socket together properly. When I say "removed,"
I mean "get a Dremel tool and grind away until you're totally
covered in resin dust!" You will have to have a Dremel tool
or other type of grinder to prepare the figure for assembly, but
don't let me frighten you, it only took about thirty minutes to
prep this kit. I just feel obligated to warn you of the process,
one that is a small price to pay to own this amazing kit.
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| In
my articles, as well as many others which appear in AFM, we are always
explaining how to shade flesh tones, but shading other colors can
be a challenge as well. A couple of issues ago, I used Simian Productions'
"Space Girl" to demonstrate shading greens, and now "The
Dark Lord" is the perfect subject to explain shading reds. Shading
such an intense color as red can be one of the most difficult techniques
to do properly. Why? because if you want an intense red, like the
color on this character, yet you require variations in the shading
of the color, how do you do it and still keep the intensity? In general,
when you lighten a color, you usually add white to it. You can't do
that in this case, because if you add white to red, your going to
get pink, a disastrous choice for "Darkness!" What you have
to do is use other choices to get darks and lights with red. To begin,
I built the figure, washed it really well in soapy water, then after
drying, primed it with a sandable auto primer. You may want to skip
the washing and priming stage to get right to the fun part, painting...
well hold your horses sparky! You may lose an hour or so on the front
end, but it can save you countless hours on the back end when your
paint starts coming off in the masking stage, so always wash and prime
your figures! I used a rust red primer since I'm going to basecoat
the figure with red anyway. After letting the primer dry overnight,
I basecoated the skin with my Badger Sotar and Freak Flex "Hammer
Horror Red- Dry" which is a medium to dark red color. This gives
me my first red tone for the skin (Photo #1). |
(Photo
#1)
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| Now,
rather than lighten the color with white, I choose a brighter red
for my first highlight. I use "Hammer Horror Red- Wet" which
is a much brighter red, and spray over the tops of the muscles for
highlights (Photo #2). If you look at the movie, "Darkness"
is almost a "tomato red" color, very bright and intense.
I want the same color intensity, but with a bit more variation in
the shading since I like that better on a 1/6 scale kit. To paint
it a straight bright red would make it look too toy-like in this scale.
To redefine the muscles and pop out the highlights, I spray a darker
red for shadows. I use Freak Flex colors "Dried Blood Red"
with just a touch of "Mummified Brown" and carefully spray
between the creases of the muscles and in areas I want to darken (Photo
#3). Using darker maroons and browns work well for shading reds. You
can also take your base color of red and add a green to it to darken
it as well (red and green make brown). The next step is to bring out
more highlights in the red. I take "Hammer Red-Wet" and
mix in a bit of "Hot As Hell Orange." This brightens up
the color to a real tomato red tone. I then spray my highlights over
the tops of the muscles and facial features which really brings out
the details. To really make the highlights pop and my red skintones
bright, I take the "Hot As Hell Orange" and lightly punch
up the highlights hear and there over the figure (Photo #3). At this
point, I've exaggerated the shadows and the highlights on the figure.
I do this because I have a little trick which ties all of the colors
together. I take the "Hammer Red-Wet" color and thin it
about 50:50 to almost a wash type consistency and pour it into my
airbrush cup. I then hold the brush about 24" from my figure
and lightly mist the red spray over the previously painted areas.
Just mist it a little bit- not too much! You just want to give it
a little extra red tone evenly over the skin area. The mist ties the
brighter highlights into the medium skintones, and softens the shadows
slightly as well! If you mist it too much you'll loose your highlights
and have to go back and redo them. By using about three shades of
red and one shade of orange, I was able to get variations in a red
skintone without adding white and ruining the intensity of the color.
You can do the same technique with any other color scheme, green,
blue, whatever, just pick three or four shades of a color from light
to dark and lay them one on top of another. |
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(Photo
#2)
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(Photo
#3)
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(Photo
#4)
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| Once
I have the reds where I want them, I seal the areas with about three
coats of Testor's ModelMaster flat lacquer. The next step is to paint
the cloak around the figure. I take a small brush and base coat the
cloak with Liquitex acrylic Mars Black. I also base coat the fur legs
with Burnt Umber, a dark chocolate brown color (Photo #4). The next
step is to paint the details of the face before I move to the completion
of the clothing so that I don't have to over- handle the metallic
areas after they are sprayed. I paint the iris of Darkness's eyes
a yellow tone, and then add the elliptical pupils. The mouth is standard
fare so I won't go into detail here (Photo #5). At this point I spray
the horns for Darkness's head with solid gloss black and set them
aside to dry overnight. |
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Once
the cloak and fur areas are base coated and dry, I mask off the
skin area with liquid latex (Photo #6). I use "Mold Builder's"
liquid latex (available at most craft and art supply stores) because
you can brush it exactly where you want it to go, it works much
better than masking tape, especially over uneven textured areas
such as fur and stone. I've had a few people complain to me about
problems they've had using this technique, mainly that it sometimes
pulls up the paint underneath. I've never had this happen, and I've
used this technique hundreds of times, but you must follow certain
precautions. First, as I stated earlier, always wash your kit with
soapy water. This removes any oils or mold release from the resin
castings and gives you a clean surface for your primer to adhere
to. Always prime your kit with a good spray primer. It gives the
surface a "tooth" for the paint to grip to.
After
painting an area but before masking, seal the surface with a couple
of coats of flat lacquer to be safe. Then spread a good coat of
the masking material. Once it has dried and you're ready to remove
the mask, GENTLY roll the edge of the mask away from the painted
area with your finger. Roll it instead of pulling upwards to keep
the mask from pulling at the edges of the paint. If it chips along
the edge, just touch it up with a brush and some of the underlying
color that you hopefully kept! If you've sprayed too heavy of a
coat of paint, it may bond the masked edge to the paint underneath.
If this happens, take a sharp X-acto knife blade and gently score
between the edge of the latex and the kit, then roll the mask away.
Using these tips should help you have a positive masking experience!
(Photo #7 shows the mask after it has dried and before I begin airbrushing
color on the kit).
Now
on to the cloak! Darkness's cloak has a shimmering metallic texture,
yet remains primarily black in color. To get the effect, I get out
my trusty Aztek Airbrush with the Splatter Tip. You could use an
old toothbrush and flick the paint as well, but the Aztek with Splatter
Tip has much more control. I used several metallic shades of "Folk
Art" acrylics (available at most craft stores) for the effect.
"Folk Art" brand acrylics have a variety of metallic colors
that are hard to find in an acrylic paint. If you thin them down,
they work great for airbrushing. I used "Sequin Black"
for the first layer, then Gun Metal Gray, then Metallic Silver Sterling
for the final layer. The Splatter Tip creates a fine speckled texture
which gives the painted areas the shimmering fabric look I'm trying
to achieve.
Looking
at photo #8 you can see why masking is necessary!
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(Photo
#5)
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(Photo
#6)
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(Photo
#7)
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(Photo
#8)
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| Once
the metallic colors are complete, I use my Sotar and a thinned down
wash of black to punch in the shadows between the folds of the cloak.
I then lightly spray one coat of Testor's ModelMaster Semi-Gloss lacquer
over the cloak for protection. After the spray has dried, I peel away
the mask as described earlier in the article. The rest of the kit
is pretty much a breeze, I drybrush several highlights of brown over
the fur and give it a wash of black, and paint the details of his
belt and cod piece with Testor's metallic silver and gold enamels.
I use the enamels on the top of his staff as well. The final step
is to attach the large horns onto the head with five minute epoxy
glue and set him onto the stone base. This was actually an easy kit
to paint, and once complete makes for one of the most striking figures
I've seen in a long while. Mike Trcic should be commended for creating
such a great kit, and thanked for once again making this classic available
to the modeling public, even if just for a short while. The figure
is limited so don't hesitate too long or you might be waiting the
better part of a decade as I did to get your paws on "The Dark
Lord!" |
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