Vampirella, created by Forrest J. Ackermann for Warren Publishing and first depicted in 1969 by famed artist Frank Frazetta, has been the subject of many artists from that day to this.  One of the latest representations of this sexy vampire is a 1/4 scale bust sculpted by the legendary William Paquet for Model Giants. 

When you get a kit cast by Mark Brokaw of Earthbound Studios you expect the best, perfection in fact.  This kit is no exception.  Flawless is a word bandied about too often but is appropriate in this case.  There were no bubbles or imperfections in the casting and mold lines were almost invisible, requiring all of 20 minutes to clean up (most of that time was spent just searching for the seam lines).

With that said, there was still one detail that I felt had to be addressed.  As part of the sculpting/casting process the area where the costume falls below each breast had a solid transition.  Real fabric would have left a void where it bridged the gap from the breast to the torso.  I chose to hollow out this area.  Far too small to consider using the trusty Dremel, I resorted to the tip of an x-acto knife and a couple of fine-tipped needle files.  The pictures below show the before and after images of the alteration.

The paint up of this kit was straightforward.  I chose to prime the kit with white primer rather than my usual grey in order to get a lighter skin tone and stronger colors on the costume.  As with several recent build ups I chose to use Liquitex Acrylic tube paints thinned for my airbrush as my primary paint.  The one difference for this project was the decision to use pastels for most of my shading rather than the usual paint with just a little pastel touch up.  Some of the shading is very subtle and doesn't show well in these photos.  I still need to strike a better balance between my desire for subtlety and the need for a more painterly sense of light and shadow--but I'm getting closer.

Click on each pose above to view a larger image.