Believe it or not this is my first Confrontation figure! I've been collecting them for years, but never finished one because I've been so busy painting for Gamesday, etc. (This guy has actually been an on-and-off project for three years).

I thought this ugly, stunted little fire familiar would make a perfect Vulcan. In ancient mythology Zeus(Jupiter) threw Hesperus(Vulcan)'s body from Olympus down to earth, causing him to break his legs from the fall. (Definitely a pattern here - Prometheus has his liver eaten daily by vultures for giving mankind the secret of fire; Vulcan is crippled for trying to stop an argument between Zeus and Hera. Zeus definitely needs some anger management classes....)

The figure was mounted on a standard 25mm slotta. I used Elmer's wood filler to make up the embers. It was pretty easy to do actually. Simply slather it on in a mound and let dry until it 'skins' over. Break the skin with a sculpting tool and keep gently prodding it around as it dries - the result is 'broken' pieces of filler which make neat embers or cooling lava. Once it dried overnight I pinned Vulcan on.

In terms of painting I wanted dual source-lighting: 1) his flaming hair and 2) projected light from the forge embers. I'm very happy with the results! (For a tutorial on how I paint fire go here). Trompe l'oeil dents were painted on the anvil to give it more interest. I tried to make the base look like a NMM brazier as well, though I had to create multiple artificial highlights so the effect would seem more plausible as the viewer turns the model. This is the downside of NMM in situations like this.