My Zombie Horde (well about 1/3 of it anyway)

[Stewsayer]

I'm a slow painter usually. As a family we started these late last month.

Group Shot

The Bigger Ladz

Runners

Walkers by sculpt






So a few of these still need clothes sorted out (notably the runners), but then its on to the details (like shoes and ties and the bits of flesh I managed to miss, etc.) and the tidy ups. Of course the paint mess ups aside they are all a little too tidy for Zombies, so I plan to hit them with a little blood spatter and some dry pigments onces I have the whole group up to speed. I still have 10 dogz in undercoat and 6 runners and 5 lady walkers who have only had work on their skin done. The runners are getting brighter colour schemes to make them stand out (the brown and black ones above will eventually have yellow and black) and the ladies need some different colours than the others. I might actually get most of this batch done before the end of the month.

Comments and crits would be most welcome.

 

[Wyrmypops]

I see you're using some of the factory line methods to get them done. Brown on #1, #3, #5, Blue on #2, #3, #4, Grey on#1, #2 etc. Certainly helps get them completed, and by not doing the same exact colours on any two miniatures it keeps it interesting.
I did the same kind of thing. Painted a tray at a time. Did all of one row with skin tone#1, row two with skintone #2 etc, then picked up other paints and worked diagonally amongst the row and columns for the variety of clothing.

Something else that helped greatly was letting go of trying my best. Accepting the miniatures are quite poor quality, soft plastic, often lacking details such as ears and hair, and mold lines being a nightmare to get rid of on such material. Liberal use of ink washes was fast and effective.

For the blood I slapped patches and streaks of P3's brown ink. It's quite red, great for a dried blood effect. After varnishing, spots of Tamiya Clear Red on parts of the hands and mouth worked nicely for fresher blood. Saved that until after the varnish so the matt effect wouldn't get to dull down the slick blood.

 

[Stewsayer]

Yep Factory line all the way.

Same here, I decided that they are gaming pieces and cleaning would be difficult and very time consuming. So they got a soapy water scrub and some undercoat. I might spend a bit more time on the survivors. We'll see.

I plan on hitting all of them with some forgeworld pigments that I have or some powdered pastels. Then the everybody but the abominations will be lined up for a quick spray of Tamiya clear red/black mix. The Abominations will get a little more blood. But that will have to wait until I have all of this batch of 96 done to the detail level. Finished 11 this afternoon +12 dogz already there. Leaves me with 73 to get up to speed.

 

[oistene]

Did you consider Quick Shade to give them more details quickly? I tried following Sorastros's guide, was a bit skeptical at first but the results were pretty good (pictures will come later). I need to experiment a bit more with the amount of Quick Shade I use, though.

Also, I really like the stones on the bases, can I ask what you used there? Though, I find the color on them a bit bright, but this may improve once you get the details in.

 

[Stewsayer]

Hi Oistene,

I didn't consider the quickshade. I have a load of inks and washes and paints already and the minister for finance would have gazumped a new purchase just for the zombies. I find that using wash consistency for their colours has created enough detail for their purpose. Not great for photos but they look good on the table and in the hand. I might spend a bit more effort on the survivors. Quickshade may be an option then or not.

For the bases I have used some sand I picked up at a local beach. The base sand is quite fine but has bits of shell and pebble in it. I may also have mixed some woodland scenic grit of about 2mm size. I can't remember. Unfortunately it was a little large and some of their feet got partially covered. I'm going to use some finer stuff for the next batch.

Do you mean the zombies colours or the bases are a bit bright? The bases are currently grey undercoat only. I'm making them a much darker grey (think slate) for the final colour. The zombies colours are also a little bright and clean at the moment. Some wash layers and some pigments and blood to go yet once I have hit the small details like eyes and belts and ties and any bits I've missed (there are a few). My toxics will have a lighter grey more with some splashes of bright green tamiya clear. And the Berserks will have a red brown with maybe some scattered metal bits.

The runners colours will remain reasonably bright in order to differentiate them on the table from the others.

 

[Wyrmypops]

Army painter have some inks that echo the quickshade tones. Haven't touched Quickshade myself, though a non-painterly friend uses it and get a decent effect for minimal effort but it comes out very glossy and in need of their anti-shine matt varnish which does works very well. I have enjoyed using their inks though, soft/strong/dark tone are pretty much light brown/dark brown/black.

Planning ahead for the toxic/berserker, wish I'd done that. The toxics have the boils sculpted on to pick out in icky green but even that doesn't differentiate them enough for some peeps to easily pick them out of a crowd. The berserkers don't even have that strong a visual identifier, a weird jaw and patches of chitin.
I'd already done my bases but have since added green/red rims to the toxic/berserkers. If I could go back I'd have done something more on the centre of the bases. Like black/grey tarmac and concrete for regular types, green/yellow tiles for toxic and white/red/metal floors for the berserk prisoners.

 

[oistene]

Quickshade is only good for one thing, working quick, so if you didn't use it on the zombies, don't bother getting it for the survivors - washes will be a whole lot better.

As for the brightness, I meant the bases - the darker grey should be perfect. Bases is something that's caused me some headache; I used sand and glue first, painted black, but I'm not fully pleased (also, my fiance went crazy with the colors on some of the ones she painted - she painted one base metallic just to spite me). I've gotten hold of some pumice now, will try that. I'm also considering something like what Wyrmy describes, if I can find a way to do it with minimal effort. For the Survivors, I plan to do something slightly niftier, just need to plan out what.

Looking forward to see your next step.

 

[Stewsayer]

I've had the advantage of sitting on them for a while and seeing what others have done. And having played a lot of games where you are moving a horde and suddenly realise there's some runners in with the walkers and that its basically game over because you didn't spot them earlier.

I saw another thread (here or somewhere else I'm not really sure now) where the guy had added newspapers and cans etc to his survivor bases to help them stand out. I like that idea and may use something similar with a few personal tweaks.

I did something similar with my zombie dogz bases. The black I used came out way too shiny. I'll knock it back with some matte medium before I do a light drybrush to bring out the texture.

So far I have been using watered down PVA painted onto the base. Then poured sand in with the figures and waggled them about a bit to get full coverage. Once that is dry I use the really thin super glue several drops per base to make sure its fixed on there well. Then wash on the colour once thats dry (well generally after painting the figure so far).

 

[oistene]

Did you sand or file the bases first? I a problem with the glue cracking when I used the same approach.

 

[Wyrmypops]

One time saving product for bases would be a textured paint. Like the pumice Oistene mentioned. GW do a line of textured paints I've been using. I've glopped 4 different ones on each base, patchy and random, then pulled it all together with some dark brown ink (army painter strong tone), and a black wash (army painter dark tone) towards the outside to transition into black rims. It's one of the things I'd change if I could go back. Would use the grey textured paints on regular stuff (and paint "no parking" lines on the runners bases to help them stand apart), use a yellow-brown textured paint with green ink base on the toxics, and a patches of a red-brown textured paint on white bases for the berserkers.

 

[Stewsayer]

Oistene,

I can't remember if I scratched up the surface or not. I suspect not as I had some cracking on a couple also. That's why I followed up with the thin super glue. I will definitely be using the exacto on the next couple of batches to rough up the surface of the base to give the PVA something to hold better to.

I might have some pumice about somewhere. I might give it a go. Parking lines on my runners bases aren't an option as the sand mix I have used is way to uneven. They are a great idea though.

 

[ClassicGMR]

I scroll through all these pictures quickly and my mind starts playing Michael Jackson's Thriller to me.

 

[Stewsayer]

My storage solution.

Still need to get the magnetized rubber sheets for the shelves. The cupboard was AU$233, I'm expecting the magnetized sheets to cost about another AU$50 or so. But we can sit the unit on a card table next to the dining table and have everything ready to hand as we need it. Should also help protect paintwork some too once all of them have their washers attached.

 

[oistene]

Great storage solution - but come Season 3, it will already be too small.

 

[Stewsayer]

Its already too small.

I can't fit the board tiles in as I expected to. So we will need a separate crate for those already (currently in the S1 box). We'll probably use the case just for figures. 2 shelves hold all my S1 and S2 figs now with room for a half dozen more. Leaving 2 empty shelves for S3 figs. We didn't get any optional S2 survivors and won't be with S3 either. Well maybe some extra crowz and the ultimate S1 survivors. So it might just fit all that we will have (figs anyway) come February.