The Evil Dead

I have four more Zs finshed up. Still using the same technique using the same colours. These will probable be the last of the green zombies that I'll do. Got a bag of zombies coming from Wargames Factory off eBay (£14.50 for 30 Zs!!!) which should give me plenty to paint up in a variety of rotting flesh tones and convert brutalised corpses till my hearts content as they are plastic!

Here's a group shot...

Again, some really nice character in these guys, all a little different with different challenges when painting them. Although, what's been really nice about these miniatures is that they have been really easy to paint and then to actually get finished. I'm now really looking forward to trying out some more colour variations and expanding the horde. Where I'm going to put all of these shambling corpses is beyond me however. What I'm going to tell my girlfriend to justify me buying more miniatures is even further beyond me.....maybe it'll be our little secret eh?!

This little guy was an interesting one to paint up. I didn't really want to coat him in blood like all of the rest of them. Firstly It felt a little wrong to do so (something about the innocence of youth and all that I suppose) and secondlyI think it's even more creepy when you can't actually see what's happened to him! The only injuries you can see are the bones poking out of his forearms so obviously he's fallen off something pretty high..... I wonder what happened to this little guy... Suggestions?

Back to lot's of beautiful gore with these fellas, given the state of them its hardly surprising that they bled a little. There really is something strangely therapeutic in painting lots and lots of blood on a miniature.....maybe I should keep that to myself though....

And it wouldn't be much of a zombie Apocalypse without a rotting preacher. I actually have the living version of this guy which I will try and paint up at some point too. I still think he looks a little bland but really can't think of a way to make him look any more interesting. Oh well. He'll disappear into the horde before long.

And a picture of the horde as it stands! 10 Zs at the minute with another 30 in the post. I also have a few survivors on order from Lead Adventures but I'm going to leave these for another post as I've been coveting these guys for a while now and would love to do something a little special for them.

Next post I have two survivors almost finished which are actually going really well. The paint job contrasts a lot with how the zombies look. Nice and clean compared to horrible and dirty. Hope you guys like them!

Cheers!

Phil

The Walking Dead

Brains!!!

Sorry, couldn't help myself. A cheap shot, I know, but there you go.

As I'm sure you've gathered by now this post is all about those adorable shambling corpses we lovingly  call Zombies. I really tried to capture the rotting flesh look, how did I do?

So these models are a fair departure for me for a few reasons. Firstly, these are the first ever miniatures that I have painted that haven't been produced by GW. I know, wash my mouth out with soap right?! It actually did feel a little weird. They're the same scale and of the same kind of sculpt quality but they look subtly different from the way GW make their undead look. But God were they a lot of fun to paint.

All of the models had a lot of character to them. Especially the girl in the nightdress above. She just looks so sad to be undead and I love the leaning stance she's got as if she cant hold herself up anymore. I also really like the juxtaposition I've got going on with something so girly and a flesh eating monster. (Although arguments could be made for me painting her with a normal skin tone and it having the same effect ;P)

For the life of me though I couldn't tell you where any of these miniatures came from. I was actually given these by Adam at ilikepaintinglead as he has a ridiculous lead mountain of unpainted models in his house, a large portion of those zombies. I said that I would lend a hand and paint some up for him (I know, I'm a regular good samaritan right?!) . If anyone can tell me where they're from it's him. Maybe he'll oblige by adding a comment for me? ;D

He also gave me a few survivor models to paint up to. A few of which I have the zombie equivalents too, like the Hillbilly Zombie above. I'll have those painted up next I reckon so you can see the comparison. Though given the way this guy looks I don't reckon his human counterpart will look a lot cleaner!

I painted the vast majority of these guys using only GW shades. I primed them all a light grey. Gave them three coats of Athonian Camo Shade (one of my new favourite washes), highlighted a few areas with Drakenhoff Nightshade to simulate bruised flesh and used our favourite Agrax Earthshade to make all the clothing suitably grubby.

And what zombie model is complete without lashings of gore?! To get the effect I have here I just layered coat upon coat of Carroburg Crimson Shade until I liked the tone of the blood. I like the way it's made the blood look really dark but still quite vibrant. I then used watered down PVA glue to make it shiny and fresh (I'm too stingy to buy gloss varnish!).

So what do you guys think of my take on the rotting dead? I'll have those survivors up soonish and maybe one day me and Adam will actually play some zombie apocalypse scenario type games like we've been saying we'll do for an absolute age! One day....

Cheers!

Phil

Thunder Wolves Hoooooo!!! (Part 2)

Hey Guys!

So after my long, luxurious holiday of doing nothing I had a long and not so luxurious stint back at work. As such this is the first day that I have had off in a whole six days! Hence the lack of hobby time recently. I know, it's tough, but I've got to get the money to buy lots of little sculpted bits of plastic and resin from somewhere.

So on this day off I have managed to finish off one of my current projects...

Thunder Wolf Cavalry

The vast majority of this guy was actually painted with my airbrush (any excuse, I know) and the results turned out pretty damn well, especially on the wolf. I used 3 different browns to shade the fur which gives it a lot of depth and then washed the whole thing in Agrax Earthshade to deepen the shadows. In real life the wolfs coat just looks really rich (if a little ginger, stupid chestnut ink!)) which I'm quite happy with. 

I also airbrushed the marines armour which led me to a shocking revaluation. Airbrushed paint rubs off really easily! I guess I wont actually be handling the model when I'm airbrushing anymore. This left me with loads of touch up work to do which is very tough after airbrushing because the tone of the paint completely changes!

I think I really need to find a better way to take photos too. The shading and highlighting on the storm shield is actually really good but you totally can't see it as the white is completely washed out. Any tips on budget photography are more than welcome at this point!

As for the cultist I went for a really dirty, Nurgle theme to be in stark contrast with the clean Space Wolf. I did this using an interesting new technique. Anyone familiar with James Wappel's work should check it out. I used his shaded basecoat technique to get a really complimentary colour scheme going and then heavily applied wash to shade and add a layer of filth! Again, I'm really happy with the results.

So what do you guys think? I'm currently painting a load of zombies whilst watching the Two Towers using nothing but washes as a little experiment. Hopefully have them up soon!

Cheers,

Phil