Friday, October 31, 2014

6MMRPC: Week 9 (Zombtomber week 4.5) - The horde complete!

Happy Halloween! Appropriately timing the completion of my zombie throng to terrorize survivors and government troops. I really rather happy to be finished this particular paint challenge. I've recently found that I am more productive when I can jump between projects as the whim possesses me. Focusing on things that have definite dead lines (pun intended) is a bit of a stress. Combined with my lack of inspiration for painting zombies currently it was pretty lucky I got this all done.




Lets look at what was finished:

12 hazmat troopers,
6 survivors
51 zombies (including 6 dogs)





I have a whole lot of picture below so you can have a better look at the rebel mini poses and my paint jobs. Note that rebel minis has about 3 extra zombie packs now for increased selection. If I want more I'd probably add one of each pack in the future.


The cruel eye of the camera lens makes me less happy with the results, but there are some learning items here.

Blood. I started with a red/brown, and then added the brown (more clotted blood). In hindsight, the brown should have gone first, larger, then the red. This would look like more like fresh blood spilling over older stuff, rather than clotting from the middle out. I contemplated some black, but with the size, and already some darkness to the figs I left it alone.

To the right we can spot the problem to a certain degree. I also like this pic as it shows my RCMP (Canadian federal police) uniforms. I had at least 4 of each pose, so it was tough at times differentiating them.






Skin. I tried 4 different recipes. A fair number didn't port well to the smaller scale.
1- Blobs of yellow ink on blue look far too big, and would have a big problem keeping smaller (or wouldn't be noticeable).You can see this on the RCMP zombie above. Yellow spots far too big.



2- The pale grey with touches of blue ink. This looked similar to the blue base, but better. Again, the blue should have been smaller, but tended to pool and make dark, relatively large, spots.


3- Green. This actually looked pretty decent, with the highlighting via a lighter green. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of green zombies, I can't really imagine why you'd turn green rather than a lot of other shades, unless it's a zombie lichen taking you over. So while it looks better, it's not my favorite shade. This can be seen on the secretary with the red jacked and purple skirt.

4 - I think my favorite coloration was a black/red mix.

It pops quite well and really helps highlight the sculpt/body parts. The drawback to this one is it can look too life like. I actually cut the recipe down, as I trailed it with a fat lady fig early in the month, and the later washes of black and/or flesh made it too dark (probably be fine at 28mm).

Once you splash red and brown blood around it starts taking away from the colour as well. This is, perhaps, why green zombies are popular.....the strong contrast with red blood.









A decent look of some of the various skin colours side by side.













Another couple of close ups of some of the sculpts I like.
I realize I missed painting the handlebar mustache on the firemen.













I don't get to paint orange much, so the bright colours of the chainsaw, and some of the splash was good times. I can't imagine that a chainsaw would be a wise tool to use, as presumably the infection is blood borne, and a saw is NOISY. But hey, great for pulp and cinema.













Some more questionable survivor weapons. I mean, it will probably be handy to have a character with a shoulder launched missile in another game, but zombie hunting? Impractical.

The big ladies on the same strip as the fast food workers. Is the outbreak related to improper food handling and pink slime? Is it a coincidence?  YOU BE THE JUDGE!
The business men mostly differed in their ties. I think that's probably accurate. Grey, brown, navy and black suits.



The disco divas have an eyeball that is popped out, as well as a bony stump on their right arm. 




Creepy children with their teddy bears. 


For some reason I quite like the slobby skate boarders looks. I probably should have spent some time on painting icons, or at least grinding damage, onto the bottom of their boards.

A bridge too far I suppose. I did manage to paint the exposed upper underwear edge a different colour from their hanging too low shorts though. 




 I am undecided if the ladies are wearing bikinis or just knickers.


















8 comments:

  1. They look good as a mass; any thoughts on how you're going to base them?

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    1. Thanks very much. I hope I don't *need* more zombies, but I suspect doubling the numbers would make them look appropriately scary horde size.

      I actually think I should do a posting on basing, as it came up as a discussion on a facebook group.

      I use magnetic sheets in my trays, so I like having metal on the bottom. I've been using pennies (which about a 1/3 are magnetic so be careful) mostly. I think my figs will survive better with a bigger lip so you can grab the base rather than the fig. I am looking for options now.

      Material wise I use silica sand and white glue, then paint. I've also toyed with pumice gel acrylic medium. There's also been some use of a wood filler. Definitely worth a post in it's own right.

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  2. Good lord that's some impressive output! Bravo!

    As for basing, are you planning some group basings to make moving them about in-game easier, like 10 on a CD or some such?

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    1. Thanks! I wasn't certain I'd be finished much of anything at various points in the middle of the month.

      I hadn't even considered a multi base. They are only 15mm, so a full size cd would be too large. Maybe one of those strange format small discs.

      I don't really have a go to zombie rules system either, so that makes basing decisions a bit nebulous as well.

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  3. WOW! Huge output man! Good work. I also have been experimenting with zombie skin colors and am at a loss which I like better...greyish, greenish, or brownish. I think next year I'll just experiment some more.

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    1. Unfortunately the historical record is very spotty about zombie skin colouration. Don't even get me started on the debates about material used in zombie buttons..... =P

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  4. Most impressive and beautiful!

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    1. Thanks Phil! It's easy to be critical of my own work (especially under a camera close up), so it's very nice to hear positive things.

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