"Graveyard shift" (28mm zombies)

[Modhail]

Hi all,

Somewhere way back in februari this year I painted four zombies.
I've had the past week off and decided to add to their number...
I also managed to fence in the litte braineaters for long enough to take some pictures:

And some closeups so you can see them all more clearly: Left Centre  and Right.
It was high time I got around to these as a wargames club, which some of my friends are members of, is hosting a large Zombie game near the end of november. Since I'm invited to join (basically because they couldn't invite my SWAT team models without asking me too...) I'll be expected to contribute some zombies, at least one survivor and a few bits of scenery.
I've still got 10 more standing around to get painted, but I've at least got enough zombies done, so the pressure is off a bit in that department... Still need to do the survivor(s) and scenery in the coming month though.    (I intend to bring my wooden fences, and I've got some Dragon's tooth tank traps and 9 plaster car wrecks drying out as I type.)

The zombies are all from Zombiesmith, except for the guys in the Big Bird and Barney costumes, they're from Victory Force Miniatures.
The bases are rather plain, I chose to finish them in a generic concrete look, so they can fit in different kinds of modern/near future terrain (urban terrain, indoors, etc.) without looking too jarring.

Bye, Modhail

[AKULA]

nice job, reminds me i need to get that mascot mini!

 

[Lordblackwing]

suitably horrorific looking. Love the zombie "Barnie". Please post more as you go along...keeps me motivated to work on my 28 days project. By the way, how do you find the Zombiesmith figures scale with others?

[marrony]

Excellent stuff.Love the Michael Jackson one too.

[Modhail]

Thanks!

Lord Blackwing: To my eye they scale quite nicely. There's some variation in size in the Zombiesmith figures, but not in a way that's jarring.
I don't really have other zombie miniatures to compare them with,but they seem to be rather "average" sized 28mm figures.
And because a picture says more than a 1000 words:

I don't have much of a modern/near future collection (yet), so you'll have to make due with mostly primered figures...
I've tried to make sure each model is flanked by both a taller and smaller figure from Zombiesmith.
The non-zombies are from left to right: Our forum's own Prof. Witchheimer (his integral base is just glued straight onto the slottabase, so he stands a wee bit taller), Hasslefree x2 and finally Copplestone.

[Lordblackwing]

Thanks for the comparison shot Modhail. I think I may have to drop an order to Zombiesmith sometime soon.

[Grimmnar]

Zombies paints looking way kool indeed. Keep it up.
Also wanted to say kudos to the fencing behind your zombies too. Some nice looking fences indeed. Scratchbuilt or store bought? :-)

Grimm

[Darkoath]

Very nice painting there Modhail!   How did you do your zombie flesh?

[Modhail]

Thanks!

The fencing is homemade. Basically it's just balsa sealed with thinned woodglue and painted. Once you make sure you get your measurements right, it's just a matter of cutting batches of materials in the right sizes and then assembly-line glueing it al together...

The flesh? It's essentially done differently with each batch (even within the batch at times). The first four (Jackson, Bigbird, Office Man and Fatso) were carefully mixed and hightlighted, with the previous GW inks.
The rest is done with the new GW washes. For each batch I just picked a random unhealthy looking colour for the basecoat. Then I slopped on the GW wash and highlighted with the basecoat and a lightened basecoat (by mixing in either a skintone or a greytone). Mixing a grey and skintone and shading with a green or purple glaze gets very nice effects (as you can see in Legless, Skater Boi and Barney)...
The blood is about 50/50 of the previous GW Brown and Red inks mixed together.

[Pil]

They look fantastic! And the mascots are great too! And I also love the fence. So in short: all is awesome and I'm looking forward to the rest of your models

[Commander Vyper]

nice job, reminds me i need to get that mascot mini!

 

THOSE mascot minis ditto!

[Modhail]

Thanks!

Pil, so am I...  (I paint sloooww, and we're nearing the busiest time of the year at work. So I'm afraid I won't be spending too much time at the painting and modelling table the next couple of months.
(On the other hand, I just finished pouring the plaster for the wrecks of 2 minivans and 2 stationwagons. So, soon I will have 13 wrecked cars to paint.  Those should be rather quick and easy paintjobs I think...)

[Argonor]

See, those Hasslefree minis aren't so tiny after all (Copplestone is not making small 28s).

[Modhail]

Nope, they aren't tiny at all.
It's just because they are actually realistically proportioned that they seem tiny compared to all the musclebound hydrocephalic brutes many companies have us accustomed to seeing these days.
(The SWAT team guy is actually a Grenadier cast, though I can't imagine the miniatures have mysteriously grown when Mark started casting them again himself..)