Orc and the Fat Undead Man

Tonight marks the first appearance of a Zombicide model on my blog. I've been on the fence about picking up the game... but I'm slowly coming around. To sort of ease myself into things, I picked up the Angry Zombies expansion pack...gives me 24 zombie models to mess around with (also, they are all in prison jump suits which is pretty cool too...well...gives me an excuse to paint orange). First one out is a fattie...he kinda looks like if William Conrad were an undead biker doing time upstate...and some one stole his danish. Nah...William Conrad was way fatter...and I friggin' hated Cannon.

Spent a little time on the Orc tonight and last night. Finished his tunic and "skirt". I even did a very light glaze of Vallejo Russian Green to mute things a little as his gear and clothing would be weathered. I also spent some time blacking out the areas on his armor where I'll be painting metallics. His armor is going to be a combo of rusty metal and black "enameled" surfaces. I imagine his shin plates will be the black surface while the knee and toecap will be metallic. Fun part is figuring out a different shade of brown for the leather on his boots and straps. I think his shield will follow suit. I'm planning on using these guys as "Great Orcs"...sort of like Black Orcs...but more D&D/Pathfindery. Probably going to use Mantic Orcs as their lesser brethren...and Reaper goblins as their flunkies. Sort of the same classification of goblinoids from LotR (Uruk Hai, Orc, Goblin). Luckily, the Reaper Ogres are even more massive than these guys...really with GW would do this with their fantasy Orcs.

What's really crappy I think I maybe spent about an hour and half painting this evening. But that is expected the weeks leading up to Gen Con.  Definitely contemplating some vacation time post Gen Con to rest up and paint things (because you know I'm going to come back with more stuff).

Join me again Saturday evening when I hopefully will be showing off the finished Orc and possibly the first stages of the Necromancer/Wizard looking guy I got up next. 

Reaper Bones pt...hell...2.3? Yeah...2.3.

Not as much progress as I'd hoped today, but I always seem to be short on time before Gen Con. 

Today I added sand and gravel to his base and attached it with Aileen's Tacky Glue. If you are a miniature enthusiast and do not know of this wondrous stuff...go to a craft store and pick some up. I actually found out about it through my wife...as I "borrowed" her craft glue one night after I'd run out of Elmer's Wood Glue. The best thing of all is, if you don't like the way it looks....wait until it dries and you can peel it off.

The other new addition today is the reddish brown for his rest of his "cloth" stuff. I had originally thought of going with stripes or something to give him a little more personality...but then figured he's an orc and he wouldn't really give a crap about such things.

I've also been hand painting the fur on his cape (which you cannot see). As I stated last night, I wanted to drybrush...but the detail on the fur isn't so hot in a lot of places. So, I've opted for the old Foundry style of painting fur...aka with patience and a fine tip brush. Haven't had to paint fur like this in a long, long time.

That's about all I've done to him today. I think I had about an hour or so to throw at him today. I do plan to finish him by Friday night...have to...I have 5 more orcs coming in on Thursday.

Reaper Bones Pt 2

Put another couple of hours in on the orc this evening. I would have had more done, but I had some color scheme change ups and me totally futzing up the first pass at the armor (trust me it was bad).

So the first thing you might notice is the new "base". Right now it's just a primered fender washer, but at some point in the next day or two it will get textured, painted, and finally flocked. Normally, I base before I primer...but since this was the test run I didn't want to complicate things anymore than necessary (I had no idea how the primer was going to adhere or if the glue I'm using would even stick). 

I finished out his face, although his teeth need another couple of hits before I call them done. I went with yellow eyes as I was looking to change things up from my GW Orcs (also, the GW Orcs are going back into the army and my D&D/Warhammer Quest Orcs will be Reaper ones...just more fearsome looking).

Since he is wearing some armor pieces similar to a Roman themed model I painted years ago...I decided to give his tunic and armor a similar treatment. The tunic is painted with a mixture of Ceramcoat Barn Red and Apple Barrel Flag Red. I shaded that with a wash of Golden Raw Umber. I will actually go back and line in some of the darker areas with that same color...especially around the belt and armor.

His armor plates were undercoated black first...then a base coat of Vallejo Natural  Steel tinted with as small amount of Golden Raw Umber. I then gave the armor a wash of Golden Raw Umber with a drop of Apple Barrel black...gives it a dirty and greasy appearance. I then went back and painted the edges Vallejo Natural Steel with a small amount of Folk Art Pearl white added in. I'll do a final highlight of pure Pearl White once the model is done along with a glaze of Vallejo Rust Wash.

I have to say, I'm really surprised at how he's turning out. I was expecting it to look more like a painted toy, but it is turning out like an actual metal model. The only drawback I see is there is always a couple of spots on the model where the detail gets messed up due to mold. On this model, the side of his face closest to his axe arm loses some detail...and the top of his shoulder...the fur pelt he's wearing goes smoooth. Actually, the definition on the chain mail and fur could be the biggest snags for this model. I've actually decided to go the Foundry route and paint the fur with a fine tip brush (a pain in the ass, but worth it).

Reaper Bones (Sorry no fart or dong jokes this week*)...

(*out of dick jokes as I'm utterly burned out from Gen Con product prep and an 8 hour driving marathon on Saturday...although I did get some good BBQ on my excursion.)

After months of searching for the right primer (where I didn't have to pay more for shipping than the primer) I finally managed to score some Army Painter Uniform Gray.

I first washed the miniature in soapy water and let dry over night which should have removed any remaining "break free" solution from the plastic. I do this with all my plastic models except for GW as I've had no problems painting their stuff right out of the box. Everybody else gets a thorough cleaning...Wargames Factory, Victrix, Zombicide...everybody.

After the mini is dry, I give it a quick once over to remove any funky bits or flash. On this one, I found one bit of flash in his mouth. Kinda sucks as the definition on his lower teeth is already bad enough and throw that on top and I'm doing my least favorite thing in miniature painting...interpretive painting. Hopefully, I get the teeth right.

I undercoated the model with Army Painter Uniform Gray. I had though about going with black, but I'm using this primer for Super Dungeon Explore and Zombicide models too and the bulk of those have really bright colors.

As you can see, no real basing for him yet. I stuck him on an old plastic base from a Vor model just so I could start painting. I'll probably give him a 2 inch washer base so he is based in a similar fashion to my other models. I cannot stand it when models are based differently in a collection...makes my OCD go nuts.

I'm currently using a custom color I made by mixing Ceramcoat Kelly Green with Ceramcoat Golden Brown. I'm using Ceramcoat Pine Green and Golden Raw Umber to shade him. I am adding Vallejo Undead Flesh to the green to create my highlights. You can see some faint hints of Apple Barrel Tropic Orange on his nose, lower lip, and the tips of his ears. Keeping it faint as I'm just trying to add a little warmth to his flesh tone.

At the moment, my opinion of Reaper Bones models has just gone up. Yes, they require a little more prep time than a metal model from Reaper...but the price point more than makes up for it. Seriously, I have 15 models on the way to me that I paid under 30 bucks for including shipping. 

One thing I will say, Bones are fantastic for adding hordes of monsters to your D&D/Pathfinder games...but I'm still not so keen on using Bones for character or NPC models. Hopefully, my opinion will change once I start painting Hellakin.

Chronopia...

As of late, I've been thinking about working on a Chronopia model. I've always entertained the notion of giving some really cool old models a more "grown up" paint scheme...less garish colors, some blending, a bit of weathering, and a fancy new base. I actually started on that back in  08 when I painted a Warzone Gray Ghost in a more practical military color scheme and based her on a fancy Warmachine styled lipped base. 

Now, I want to give some Chronopia models that kind of love and attention. At first, I'd thought about going for the easy kill and grabbing some of the SoK models Kev White sculpted...but I wanted a bit more of a challenge (and something with less fleshtone to shade). I pondered Dwarves, Firstborn, Stygian, and maybe even Blackblood...but I settled on Devout. So now I am working on a Devout Necromancer like the one in the image below.

Definitely not going to go with this color scheme...the blue skull is a bit odd for me. Probably go with dark and brooding...lots of black and maybe a touch of red here and there. I also have to admit, the model I have is nowhere near as nicely cast as the model in the photo...but then that's been the case with about 90% of my Chronopia models. I don't know if shoddy casting was a major problem at Heartbreaker, all I know is every model I've ever gotten from them has been shit casting (I have warzone models that are just awful).

So, wish me luck and hopefully I won't get fed up with the model and chuck it in the stripper.

Boners and Orcs and Boners...oh my!

Managed to find a little spare time this week to work on a couple of Warhammer models for my Warhammer Quest collection. 

The skeleton model on the left is actually a finished model. I actually finished the skeleton portion of him a wee or two ago, but I couldn't complete him until the shields I bought on eBay arrived. Rather than use the horrible "coffin lid" shields I had purchased for them years ago (like in 2000), I opted to use shields from the more recent VC skeletons. Thus far they work pretty good...just remember to cut off the lower "shield handle" thing as those big hands don't fit. Pretty happy with the way the shield turned out...even though you can't really tell on the photo. I used Folk Art Midnight as a midtone and then added small amounts of Ceramcoat Bungalow Blue.

SIDENOTE-Yes, I use craft paint (Ceramcoat, Apple Barrel, Folk Art, Americana) about 75% of the time. I started using them in 2001 as at the time, your paint options were limited to GW, Coat d'Arms, and Ral Partha (and Partha had just closed down). However, with the current variety out there now I have been adding more and more miniature paints back into rotation.

The other skeleton has been in a state of almost done for the last 10 years. I'm currently working on his shield.

Orc boy caught in the middle of "Bonerfest" is from the 2000 version of Warhammer. Even though they are only two piece models, they have a lot of nice detail to them. I'm actually using GW Lorien Green for his fleshtone and shading it with Ceramcoat Pine Green. His tunic has been basecoated with a mix of Ceramcoat Bright Red and Apple Barrel Barn Red. Usually, I'd have used Mecharite Red...but this time I wanted a warmer red. I'll probably end up shading it with GW Agrax Earthshade (gonna try out one of the new inks).

I'm going for a "classic" Eavy Metal styled paint job on these. Kind of fitting when you think about it as all three of these models were from the late 90s/early 2000s era GW. While I really dig a lot of the newer painting styles out there nowadays...the classic GW style is still my favorite. The works of Mike McVey, Jakob Nielsen, Tim Prow, and Martin Footit are still the pinnacle of GW painting for me.

That concludes this week's blog post. Now I'm gonna go take a short nap.