Dear adventurers,
Some time ago (ok, years) I painted up a group of 40 zombies (
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=127858) comprised mostly of modernish sculpts. I enjoyed painting them and they have been a staple in my armies ever since.
I wanted to paint more zombies but no figure range really felt right to add to the unit. Except one: the classic Citadel C18 zombies by Kev Adams. They are THE 3rd edition zombies and quite possibly the best fantasy zombies ever produced. So, I shelled oud the big bucks and bought a load of them on eBay. To this I added a handful that I picked up before and after working out some trades I got a couple more. I painted them and now I present them to you in all their glory: 46 classic Citadel C18 zombies (ok, two of them are LOTR Dead men of Dunharrow):
A shot of all the zombies shambling in the shine of Morrslieb the Chaos moon. I knew this installment of zombies would bring my total to 80+ models so I wanted more command figures. To get a total of four command groups I needed three standard bearers and two musicians. Good zombie command models are hard to find and I didn't want different command figures to steal the spotlight of these awesome sculpts so I made the command figures from C18 zombies for maximum effect.
In the next pictures I have broken the group up in smaller batches to get a better look at them.
First up are the standard bearer "Deadringer" and drummer "Peeled" (all but one of the C18 zombies are named). Deadringer carried an axe and I extended the haft on both ends to make a banner pole. I tilted the model forward to put the banner upright and added a crossbar (all green stuff over wire). The banner is made from lead foil and features the zombie head from the cover of Lucio Fulci's "Zombie". The banner reads:
Omnes una manet nox (One night awaits everyone)
Nox mortuorum (Night of the dead)
And below the face are some scribbles that didn't really fit:
Fulci Romero Argento (three classic movie directors)
Carpe cerebra (seize the brains)
Tempus fugit, mors manet (time flees, death endures)
The drummer came to me without a left arm (always a good excuse for a guilt-free conversion) so I gave him a drum (sculpted from green stuff), and a scratch built arm with bone (the hand from a plastic skeleton, the rest putty).
The next standard bearer is "Kand-Meet", probably named so because of his abundant armour. I had seven copies of this model (more than any other) so I knew one had to be converted to a command model. I repositioned his left arm and gave him a banner pole. Then I fixed all the damage and joins with putty. His banner reads simply:
Luctor et Emergo (I struggle and emerge)
For the image I wanted a zombie crawling from the grave. For lack of proper inspiration (I tried some sketches) I borrowed the pose from the cover of the "Tower of screaming death" by Josh Kirby. You can find all about this piece of artwork here:
https://awesomeliesblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/08/lost-warhammer-tower-of-screaming-death/
The final standard bearer is "Gavin" and he got a relatively new bit: a metal standard from the 1998 plastic skeleton regiment. The standard and the hand fit well with the pose Gavin had and all I did was lengthen the pole to the ground and fix the join at the wrist. The standard itself is a peeled skin with hands and head still attached and I like to imagine he is animated like the rest of the zombies and a close friend of Gavin (haven't named him yet though). His chest tattoo serves as the banner design and features a crow silhouette and the words:
Tempus fugit, mors manet (time flees, death endures)
Musicians are a bit more tricky to convert than standard bearers but I got some inspiration from various (mostly 90's) musician models and went for a big horn around the back on zombie "Snagglespleen". Being undead I didn't really have to do a neat sculpting job so the horn looks a bit battered.
Working on these models was immensely statisfying as they are very detailed with lots of undercuts, gribbly details and very characterful faces. I think these truly are the kings of the zombie miniatures. Like standard bearer Gavin, I like to imagine "Rotstagger" second from the left holding an animated head of a friend, taking him along for the ride.
I painted the figures in much the same way as the last time but I knew better what I was doing and so used fewer steps of washing in between. It comes down to roughly the following steps:
1. armour and wood are drybrushed in three colours and washed to get rust or verdigris
2. skin is painted with a mix of elf flesh and grey
3. clothes and hair are painted and highlighted once
4. flesh is painted with a mix of purple, red and black
5. skin and flesh is washed with brown
6. armour, wood, clothes (some colours) and hair (some colours) are washed with black (army painter dark tone)
7. wood, clothes (some colours), hair (some colours) are washed with brown (army painter strong tone)
8. bones are picked out in dark sand
9. faces, extremities and wounds are picked out in thinned black, edges of wounds are picked out in elf flesh
10. gore (mix of red, black and smoke) is added over wounds and bone and wiped off in case of bone
11. teeth and eyes are picked out in white, worms in pink
12. the model is dirtied with thinned green, yellow and smoke
The last group, featuring "Rustbone" (front row, seconf from the left) who snapped at the ankles. Rather than doing anything too fiddly at the ankles I pinned his crotch directly to the base and masked the pin with tufts. Still, these models are quite fragile with some very thin parts. I can imagine they might have been somewhat tedious to cast.
Group shot of all the converted command figures. In the end I never regretted chopping up some of these models to make these, as now these awesome zombies have a command group worthy of the front rank.
A shot of the rear for those interested. On Deadringer (in the middle) yu can see the first iteration of his banner which was accidentally painted on the wrong side. No worries though as I like the second iteration better.
To close off a final work in progress pic of four of the command figures.
I hope you enjoyed this new installment of my army. I'll be sure to field them in many games to come because after all the expenses, they are still dirt cheap.
If you want to see my other undead posts follow these links:
Memento Mori, Skelliebobs, (Classic) Undead Wizards and a Jabberwock [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=139305The Demon's Whip (Ral, Lord of the Balrogs, Ethereals and Vampires [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=136340.0Classic undead carrion and samurai! [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=131314Aurora Mortuorum, (classic) undead zombies, characters and zombie dragon [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=127858Undead liche masters, war rhino and colossal skeleton [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=125330Classic undead dragon riders [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=121839More classic undead: pre-slotta Citadel, War Wagon, Necrodrake, monsters [PICS]https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=120846Pictures of my army:https://imgur.com/gallery/qGwakyw
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April 19, 2024, 10:12:40 AM
November 11, 2010, 03:02:45 PM
