The Kits > The Phantom Of The Opera

Materials Used

• Vallejo Model Air AV057 - Black
• Vallejo Model Color 828 - Woodgrain
• Vallejo Game Color 4 - Elf Skintone
• Vallejo Model Color 867 - Dark Bluegrey
• Vallejo Model Color 862 - Dark Grey
• Vallejo Game Color 51 - Chaos Black
• Vallejo Game Color 35 - Dead Flesh
• Vallejo Game Color 12 - Scar Red
• Vallejo Game Color 1 - Skull White
• Testors Enamel 1144 - Gold
• Testors Cement for Plastic
• Squadron Fast Drying White Putty
• Plasticote Sandable Primer

The Buildup
Nothing too difficult here. I started with the organ and base. You do have to be very careful to make sure that everything lines up straight, but other than that not a tough task.

The Phantom himself went together with little trouble. There was one seam that I had to deal with on his head, but a little putty/sanding took care of that. The real problem here comes once the figure is painted and you have to deal with the cloak. There is a BRUTAL seam on the left side of his cloak that took three or four tries before I got it looking acceptable. It's still not perfect, but I decided that I could work on it forever and still not have it be exactly the way I wanted.

A little glue on his feet, and some on the mask, and he's done!

The Painting
Wow, where to begin. I primed the entire kit with Plasticote Sandable Primer and let him dry overnight. I then started in on the organ. About 4 very thin layers of Woodgrain did the trick. I slowly dragged the brush through the drying paint and came up with a pretty decent looking grain effect. A shot of clear coat sealed the deal.

The keys were very difficult to get right. After a couple of tries, I decided to coat the entire area with Black and go over the white keys with Skull White. I'm probably most happy with this part of the paint up. I don't think you can see it in the photos, but there are black spaces between each and evey key.

The candels were done with Testors Gold for the base, and Scar Red for the wax candels themselves. I drybrushed some yellow and white for the flames, and added some black drybrushing to the gold base for a weathered/tarnished look. The ink holder got the same treatment. The feather was basecoated Skull White and drybrushed with Black and Elf Skintone.

The Phantom's suit was done with thinned Dark Grey and Dark BlueGrey. His shirt was Skull White.

Cloak, tie and shoes were done with a combo of Black and Chaos Black. All of his skin was basecoated with Dead Flesh [which give a great green hugh] and washed with Elf Skintone. His hair and eyebrows were done with highly thinned Chaos Black.

The interior of the cloak was painted with Scar Red, and after the kit had dried, I went back and did the outer edges.

Review
What an amazing kit! With the exception of the terrible seam that everyone who's done this model is familiar with, the sculpt is fantastic. Highly detailed with a wonderful pose that really captures the Phantom in all his glory.