Reaper Bones 77067 Virina, Female Demon

Halloween's coming up, so it's a good time to get projects like this nice lady with the horns, wings, and tail done. My players don't react well to demons, devils, cosmic horrors, or undead. A dark color scheme seemed the best bet. No point in being subtle. With that in mind, I decided to experiment with layering coats of color over black for this project.

Painted in Chaos Black, Spattered Crimson, Gory Red, Blood Red, and Fresh Blood.

Preparation
Details on my approach to working on Reaper Bones miniatures are posted here. The base color is Citadel Colour Chaos Black. With that name, it was the most appropriate choice.

Basing
I used black instead of using brown to color the basing material and followed up by brushing on some gray. The intended result is "burnt out ground covered in ashes" rather than the "dry soil" I usually shoot for.

First Color Layer
Reaper 09277 Spattered Crimson. I left more paint on the brush than I usually would for dry brushing and tried to cover everything but the recesses on the figure.

Second Color Layer
Reaper 09278 Gory Red. This still used more paint than most dry brushing techniques, but wasn't as heavy as the first layer. The goal was to partly cover the areas previously coated, producing a highlight.

Third Color Layer
Reaper 09003 Blood Red. I partly covered the previous coat with a dry brushing of this color.

Fourth Layer
Reaper 09279 Fresh Blood. A light dry brush layer to provide a final highlight.

Wash Layer
Surveying the results so far, I saw that I was a little too aggressive with brushing on the red layers. More paint got into the recesses than I intended. The fix was a coat of Secret Weapon Wash W001 Soft Body Black diluted with a drop or two of water. It brought back the recessed details and helped to blend the layers of red together.

Demon lady in red.

The results are alright, but aren't as neat as I'd like. Dry brushing works, but isn't particularly tidy. If I were to do this project again, I would try a more controlled approach to layering on the red for a cleaner result. No big deal, though. Learning new things is the point of experimenting. This demon lady will menace dungeon delving adventuring parties just fine as she is.