Tuesday 2 December 2014

Last Night on Earth: Starfleet Survivor Christine Chapel

Head Nurse Christine Chapel is yet another survivor who escaped the first wave of zombification together with Sulu and two other yet-to-be-named characters. I must admit I am continually and pleasantly being caught by surprise by the level of detail in these Last Night on Earth (LNoE) board game pieces. Granted that 'traditional' miniatures catered to painters are much more detailed and better sculpted, these tiny board game pieces still impressed me e.g. the hair on this Christine Chapel look alike. It was a no-brainer to use LNoE's Becky the nurse to substitute for head nurse Chapel.  

Starfleet survivor and head nurse of the USS Enterprise, Christine Chapel
With most shotguns made out of non-metal composite materials, I didn't have to use any metallic paints (yeaaa)
But Christine Chapel is blonde you scream ...

If you are a Star Trek: The Original Series enthusiast, let's get the proverbial elephant in the room out of the way first. In the 1960's TV show, Christine Chapel sported a blonde hairdo so technically if you are picky I have made a major blunder in her colour scheme. But I broke with canon and went with red hair because I felt it would make the overall colours more vivid. Actually if you observe the same character many years later in the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, you can clearly see that she now spots dark brownish hair. So Chapel would not have been adverse to sporting red hair. 

Christine Chapel was played by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry 
Orange hair made for a better combination with the blue-grey-azure dress and green satchel
Side views of Head Nurse Christine Chapel

Here is a bit of Star Trek trivia for you ... did you know that Majel Barret also portrayed Lwaxana Troi i.e. mother of Deana Troi who is a major character in the Star Trek: The Next Generation. And she is also the voice of most of the onboard computer interfaces heard throughout the TV series. 

Her hair was well sculpted and made painting it very easy
Her skin tone was painted with a rosy undertone
I felt red hair made for a better colour combo with her green satchel and blue/azure dress

For her skin tone, I referred again to online references and found a Vallejo Model Color paint recipe for rosy skin. The rosy flesh colours formed an undertone upon which lighter skin shades were painted on. I might have gone a tad overboard with the lightness of her skin but I am happy the rosy undertones still managed to show through. In such cases, it helps to paint in dilute and thin layers. 

Chapel shown next to a 31-mm paperclip and the smallest coin in the Malaysian currency

Next up in this LNoE-Star Trek project is another major character from the Original Series who speaks Klingon. If you are a fan you know who I am talking about but if you're not please stay tuned!

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16 comments:

  1. Nicely done, 4EM. The red hair and rosy skin work well together.

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    1. Thanks Finch, I guess red hair and rosy skin is a no-brainer as occurs naturally.

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  2. Great job F.E.M.
    She looks lovely with red hair and rosy skin.

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    1. Much appreciated Bob, glad you like how she turned out.

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  3. Wow Hello Nurse. That is wonderfully painted

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  4. Fabulous execution. The skin tone is spot on and the red hair makes for a great contrast.

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    1. Thank you Moiterei, I was worried at first that it was starting to look more pale rather than rosy but luckily my later paint layers were thin enough for the rosiness to show through.

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  5. Really, really nice one. As everyone else is pointing out, the colour ombination works outstandingly!

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    1. Thanks Suber ... very very kind of you to say so.

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  6. I totally agree with the choise of red for the hair, your work is gorgeous as usual! :)

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    1. Thank you very much Fed, your kind comments always gives me a boost.

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  7. Christine is splendid, beautiful job!!

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