Zedcember... Week 4

The Zedcember initiative has provided a great focus to finally complete some miniatures. Seeing the horde begin to take shape certainly makes the end goal seem more real and exciting!!

Using a standardized system of sprays and ink washes not only speeds things up but also keeps the horde visually cohesive. By limiting the colour palette of the clothing to muted tones and painting these in sets of 5 or so there should be a roughly unified rhythm of colour throughout the mob; avoiding the 'harlequin troupe' effect of too many character paint jobs. The final horde should present a convincingly bleak and faceless mass of shambling, grimy, blood soaked horror. Having said that I've not painted any zombie clowns yet so...

Basing this first set of completed miniatures has also really helped bring them to 'life' (?!) and tie them in thematically. For all the Zedcember minis I've used the 'Bricks', 'Modern Cobbles' and 'Slabs' pavement bases sets from Antenocitis Workshop along with a couple by 616 Designs that have the same size paving as 'Modern Cobbles' but with damage to the stonework. These are all simple, well detailed and nicely understated contemporary urban resin bases. I'll be using these as the main basing for the individual miniatures mixed in with other more characterful themed ranges to add some variety. I may decide to weather the bases further down the line as they're looking a little pristine at the moment.

Jaw breaker..
Head: Mantic + green stuff
Neck down: Studio Miniatures

Tongue twister..
Head: Mantic + green stuff
Neck down: Studio Miniatures

Give us a hand..
Head: Games Workshop
Torso & arms: Mantic
Legs: Wargames Factory

Business lunch..
Head: Mantic
Neck down: Wargames Factory

Out for a stroll..
Head: Studio Miniatures
Torso & arms: Studio Miniatures
Legs: Wargames Factory

Could you pass the salt...
Head: MaxMini
Torso: Wargames Factory
Arm: Studio Miniatures
Legs: Games Workshop

I hope you've enjoyed Zedcember as much as I have; a great idea by Blaidd Drwg of the late but legendary 'Quick and the Zed' blog. Now I've got plenty of time to get my act together for Zombtober 2014, though I hope to get a good few more zeds painted by then!!

Once I've recovered from my own NYE zombification I'll take some shots of the mob on the table top so you can see them in their natural setting.

Here's to another year closer to the zombpocalypse!! :)

Zedcember... Week 3

Finishing a miniature presents some interesting dilemmas.

I held back on painting the eyes, initially due to option paralysis!  While deliberating over pupil or no pupil, colour for iris and whites, maybe luminescent pigments or object source lighting etc I realized (with both reluctance and relief) that the cold empty stares from the growing horde on the painting table already worked quite nicely.

The zenithal highlighting picks out all raised areas including slightly recessed ones like eye balls which pop against the shaded sockets. After the highlighting spray stage comes the Ogryn Flesh wash on the flesh areas. If you don't ink wash the eye at this stage it says lighter than the overall skin tone, it still stands out but doesn't stick out like a bright white painted eye can.

Miniatures with poorly defined or completely recessed eyes work well too with their eyes hidden in darkness.

It also seems fitting that no meaningful eye contact can be made with the horde.

The empty expressionless eye strips the zombie miniature of any residual humanity.

Zedcember has really helped focus on getting a batch finished, now I know what I'm up against with painting the rest!

Bad gas..
Head: Mantic
Torso: Games Workshop
Arms: Studio Miniatures
Legs: Wargames Factory

Messy eater..
Head: Maxmini
Torso: Games Workshop
Arms: Studio Miniatures & Wargames Factory
Legs: Games Workshop

Oi!
Head: Mantic
Torso: Games Workshop
Arms: Wargames Factory
Legs: Wargames Factory

Shooting hoops..
Head: West Wind
Torso & Arms: Mantic
Legs: Wargames Factory

Foot dragging..
Head: Maxmini
Torso: Games Workshop
Arms: Studio Miniatures
Legs: Wargames Factory

Seasons Greetings to you all!!

Zedcember... Week 2

So the red paint has been flowing freely this week :)

The truly ruthless zombie painting technique presented by RebelWithACoz has made painting up these cadavers a joy. The use of sprays and inks allows you to bring your mob up to a table ready standard in no time at all and any extra colour and detailing is really just a bonus!! The final touch of fresh gore (2 parts Tamiya Clear Red mixed with 1 part GW Druchii Violet (old Leviathan Purple) and 1 part Nuln Oil (old Badab Black) applied to appropriate areas after matt varnishing the mini) really brings the carnage to life!! Genius.

Like a zombie with legs tangled in its own trailing intestines Zedcember stumbles on...

Atkins Diet...
Head: Puppets War
Torso: Wargames Factory
Guts: Games Workshop
Arm: Studio Miniatures
Legs: Studio Miniatures

He's seen you!
Head: Mantic
Torso: Wargames Factory
Arm: Studio Miniatures
Legs: Wargames Factory

Gis a hug..
Head & Torso: Mantic
Legs: Games Workshop

Dry clean only..
Head: West Wind
Torso: Wargames Factory
Arm: Studio Miniatures
Legs & guts: Games Workshop

Dessicated.
Head: MaxMini
Torso: Games Workshop
Arms: Studio Minis & Wargames Factory
Legs: Wargames Factory

Tune in next week for more foeted festivity and be sure to check out The Angry Piper too for the next Zedcember un-dead line!

Zedcember! Week 1

 Having totally missed the boat on Zombtober due to precious little virtual downtime (I managed to find out about it in the first week of November duh...) Blaidd Drwg of 'The Quick and the Zed' shambles to the rescue with Zedcember!! Although it looks like TQ&tD is no more :( still Zedcember will stumble on... :)

So the deal is to paint up 1 x zombie or survivor per week for the month. Having left 'The Walking Lead' to rot over the summer due to life impairing work commitments I'm taking this as a call to arms and an impetus to get up to speed with the groaning horde of plastic that's been amassing on the workbench.

I've been tinkering with RebelWithACoz's utterly lethal zombie speed painting technique so armed with this the plan is to get them all into paint and finish off a handful for the festive festering.

This week I've got them all into black primer and GW Doombull Brown base coat and half of these sprayed with Skeleton Bone and ink washed with GW Ogryn Flesh so the initial highlighting and skin tone are complete. All that remains are some coloured washes mixed from Vallejo paints for the clothing and some dry brushing with a grey-white mixed with the Vallejo base colour to pick out the highlights. Some detailing and basic gore completes the paint job. The mini is given a light coat of Testors Dullcoat matt varnish spray and then a touch of gloss blood to add fresh horror to open wounds and biting mouths etc... great fun!!

I'm looking to finish 5 or so each week and bring many more nearer completion. Here are the first few.

Let Zedcember commence!!!

Be sure to check out The Angry Piper for more Zedcember goodness :)

I'm sure there are some others out there too!!

Old Punks never die...
Head: Max Mini zombie
Torso & Arms: Studio Minis zombie
Legs: Wargames Factory zombie

Too much time down the gym.
Head to toe: Wargames Factory Vixen

Gutted...
Head, Torso & Arms: Mantic zombie
Legs: GW zombie

Taxi!
Head: Mantic
Arms: Wargames Factory & Studio Mini zombie
Torso & Legs: Studio Minis Nazi zombie

No brainer..
Head: Puppets War zombie
Neck down: Studio Mini zombie

                                

Test Batch

PHASE 1...

So after much sticking fingers together the first batch of zeds are ready for a paint job.

Following RebelWithACoz's masterful tutorial I set about priming the little beggars with GW black primer. This was followed with a liberal application of GW Doombull Brown as a colour base coat and then a light coat of Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray applied from above, a foot or so away to create a light sourced 'highlight'. Due to a mixture of impatience, spraying distance and cold weather there was some speckling from the spray application but these are zombies so a messed up complextion is surely a good thing!!

This was the initial result...

To be honest I'd be pretty happy with this finish alone!! A few washes over the clothing and hair would certainly bring these up to what I'd consider a table top standard, however I continued with the recipe.

The following stage was a wash with GW Ogryn Flesh. This certainly warmed up the flesh tone and blended the base coat and speckled highlight nicely. Although they now looked much healthier I liked the counterpoint of 'living' flesh with obviously 'dead' sculpts. I will be experimenting with very light washes of greens and blues on a few to see just how grimy they can be made to look but for this first batch I thought I'd 'keep it real'.

I was happy with the results of the first set and stopped at this stage, forgoing the final highlight spray of white for the nice dirty skin tone that the recipe had achieved thus far. 

This is the first experimental batch and I'll be messing with 'em as I go. The next batch will be different again, the variety of decay being the essence of the rotting horde.

I slapped on some muted tones of mostly Vallejo blues, greys and browns for their clothing and washed these in GW Delvan Mud to grime them up. So far so good....

I've been getting carried away with the raw joy of this dubious project however normal service will resume shortly ;) I'll be back to supplement this with decent photos a'plenty as this progresses. 

As I'm new to blogging I've managed to delete some content but am striking back with some basic html magick to manage the incoming posts and images.

PLEASE STAND BY... for a bunch of entries on the workshop page as well as a weighty pile of undead lead to document for your viewing pleasure. :)

Painting Strategy

Whilst waiting for the kits to arrive I've been scouring the net for an effective and efficient painting technique. I haven't painted miniatures for about 25 years and these 100+ zeds wont be painting themselves!!

The technique that I've chosen to roll with is one offered by RebelWithACoz in this excellent 3 part you tube tutorial.  I've seen a few examples of this technique used by gamers in their projects and it looks quick and simple with great results. It uses a combination of base coat, zenithal highlighting and washes to create a realistic flesh tone in the process of decay.

As much as I love the generic green and bluish hues of many low budget 70's horror movie zombies, I feel this lends a cartoony feel to the painted miniature (which can be great for fantasy) but I want a convincing portrayal of wretched, visceral undeath...

As we're dealing with a horde here I'd like to include a variety of states of decay. Part of the morbid fascination with the living dead and the dubious joy of painting zombie miniatures are the individual portraits of undeath each figure represents.

This wikipedia entry on decomposition details 5 states of decay:

1. Fresh

2. Bloated

3. Active decay

4. Advanced decay

5. Dry remains

 I could think of several movie equivalents for each of these!

As a point of interest the bloat stage includes 'Maggot activity, typically confined to natural orifices and masses under the skin, causes the skin to slip and hair to detach from the skin'.

I was wondering why the vast majority of zombie miniatures are bald!

This great tutorial by GirlPainting on how to paint a zombie uses light applications of blue, violet and black washes over a flesh tone base coat to create a blotchy, livid complexion.... perfect for the bloated and actively decayed.