[WIP] drtoful vs Zombies (Zombicide: Black Plague)

[drtoful]

[WIP] drtoful vs Zombies (Zombicide: Black Plague / Invader)

Hi all

I started this new hobby some weeks ago and I wanted to share some progress.

I got myself Black Plague some weeks ago (early Christmas present for myself ). I thought to myself, I could start painting those figures (although they also look good "naked"). So I went on this new thing that is called "Internet" and watched some Videos (most notable the series from Sorastro).

First I had to stock up on some supplies. I got myself the Army Painter Zombicide Black Plague Set, the Army Painter Matte White Primer and the Quickshade "Strong Tone". After looking at the colors, I also bought some additional colors to be able to mix more colors with what I have. I also bought Vallejo Flat Yellow, Vallejo Azul Blue and Negro Black and Rotten White (also from Vallejo). With this I should be all set to mix some more colors. The local hobby shop also provided some starter brushes, so I was all set.

So I picked one model from the box and started with that. This will be my patient zero

I gave it a good wash in soapy water and primed it with the white primer.

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Then followed some hours of adding some base colors to the model.

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For reference:

Skin: AP Wolf Grey (looks more blue that grey, but hey what do I know. The model now looks more like a smurf than a Zombie.)
Shoes: AP Necromancer Cloak
Belt+Hat: 2:1 AP Leather Brown / Rotten White
Dress: Elf Green
Base:
- Ground: 2:1 Rotten White / Negro Black
- Lines: AP Necromancer Cloak
- Highlight 1: Rotten White
- Highlight 2: 2:1:1 Rotten White / Negro Black / Flat Yellow
- Border: AP Necromancer Cloak

I find the Negro Black color a little bit watery. Almost like a wash. Does anybody have similar experience with that color?

I think I spend about 3-4 hours on this. I hope I get faster, otherwise this could take a lot of time

The next step was washing the model (after waiting 2 days for the colors to fully dry).

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Sparkly!

After another waiting period I applied some varnish (got some from an arts+crafts store - seems to work fine enough). This is the finished product:

I applied also some blood features. First I just used AP Abomination Gore, but it was way to bright. So I mixed together the Abomination Gore with some Negro Black (in a 2:1 ratio). Also applied some AP Bright Gold for the Eyes.

Still looks like a Smurf though I have to figure out a better mix of colors for the skin. I do not want to paint all Zombies in Plague Skin and I really liked the "blueish" color from the Sorastro videos. Maybe I mix some Azul Blue into a true grey (1:1 mix of white/black), or brighten up the Wolf Grey up with some white.

Do you have any tips?

 

[silasvb]

It's quite difficult to make out details on the smaller photos so I can't really comment there, but looks like you are off to a good start. I would suggest toning down the blue on the skin slightly. I would go about doing this by adding a small amount of either brown or orange to the colour. I tend to select colours via instinct rather than theory, so can't give specific advice on what colour to choose, but given the number of minis in the zombicide set try experimenting with a few different combinations (I'm currently Mid-way through painting a set up, and that's the approach I'm taking).

I like what you are doing with the base. If you keep this consistent across all the zombies, you can have quite a lot of variety in the skin tones and styles of each paint job, and they will still look like a unified set.

One last piece of advice - I wouldn't bother trying to paint the eyes on any but the fat zombies. The detail on the walkers especially is very small.

I hope this advise is useful, and will look forward to seeing the results

 

[drtoful]

Went ahead, primed some more models and tried mixing some colors together. This is the tone that I came up with now. A bit less smurfy. Need to finish basecoating and washing to see if its the color I want.

View attachment 63015

 

[Coyotebreaks]

welcome to the hobby

the new mix looks a goo place to hi light up from

 

[KruleBear]

Welcome to the hobby and the forum. Take your base coat and mix in a pale skin color and use this to highlight your skin with possibly a final 100% highlight with a pale skin color. Generally using a standard skin color mixed in will help sell it as skin, especially after washing it as you are doing.

BtW Sorastro has a WIP here in the game specific section of the forum under Zombicide.

 

[drtoful]

Hi

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I know the tutorials from Sorastro and I watched his videos. But replicating the same effect is a different story So I finished basecoating and shading the models and that is what came out. I thinned my paints a bit more to test out its effect on the model. At least they don't look like smurfs anymore.

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The whole highlighting stuff is still a little bit hard I need to train some more on some other models with bigger areas first.

I'm also not that fully happy with the way I apply the Quickshade. Need to try some other things too.

Continuing with some more models. I'm going for more contrasting colors this time.

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[drtoful]

So I was shopping I found some really nice crates (in 2 different sculpts) for cheap. So I have something I can try out some stuff because they only will use 1 color so I don't have to take care about staying within the lines, so I can concentrate more on the techniques. Also trying out some better photo-techniques.

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Lucky for me, these crates come pre-primed. I still gave them a wash. In total there will be 40 crates. Like it's not that I have enough zombies to paint.

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I did some blending of the base color with a darker shade on the bottom and some lighter shade on top. I think I have to apply a bit more on the top layer.

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So that is the result after applying the quickshade. They're looking already nice. I will try out the "Deep Shade" that comes with the zombicide paint set, to see the difference.

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And then I f**-ed them up I applied a drybrush on all of the crates. Still have to get the ratio of paint right. I cleaned the brush very thorougly and on my hand there was very little visible when testing but sometimes it was still too much. On some sides it looked better. On the leftmost crate I tried some edge-highlighting. Boy did that go wrong On the middle crate I tried it again. It looks a bit better, but in total a bit to light. Looks like a chest that was forgotten for a long time in a salty sea. The rightmost I did not touch (only drybrushing). The drybrushing already applies some edge-highlighting, so maybe I'm not going to bother doing one myself. But I wanted to try it out.

 

[KruleBear]

Try a couple levels of dry brushing. Remember that the paint should be a tad thicker for dry brushing than for normal painting for smooth blends. Put the paint on the brush and then whipe off on a white paper towel until you can just barely see any color coming onto the towel. Then dry brush the crate.

So for your crate after the base coat and the wash, I would DB with the base coat. Then add some white or skin tone to the base color and DB that. Then add more of the light tone for a final DB. Each subsequent DB should leave less paint on the paper towel than the previous application. Those look like the hirst art type crates, which I have been using a filbert type brush about a half inch across for dry brushing. With this size i generally do not need the edge highlight, but sometimes a few spots might need it.

 

[drtoful]

So longer time no update. But I was quite busy. First of all, thanks for the tips KruleBear. I have a dry-brushing-brush from the army painter starter set, that should be okay I think. I tried the 3-Layer-Drybrush-Technique and it looks a bit better than my previous tries. I still have to try some stuff out, but hey I've still got 30 crates left

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What I think is, that I need to apply more Quickshade during the shade step. I think I keep removing to much shade after applying it, because I fear that it is too much. I finished the twin walkers. Note to self: Red blood on red clothes is not that visible

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So I went back to Sorastro's videos, and it confirmed my suspicions that I need to apply more Quickshade or not to remove so much of it after applying it. I went back to my big box of zombies and continued on the last few models on the top "shelf" (2 fatties and 2 runners). One fatty is quite "busy" with details. There's an axe, two different pouches etc. It took me quite some time to paint it. These are the models so far:

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And the fatties:

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You can also see the rim-coloring scheme for the bases I want to do. Runners will be blue and Fatties red.

 

[Shrinekeeper]

That's some solid work for some standard table top minis. Really digging not only the paint job but the color scheme. Great job man, keep us updated!

 

[drtoful]

Who fear the bad Wolfz So I managed to paint some of the Wolfz of the Wulfsburg expansion:

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The models are quite nice. I really like their exposed rip-cage on the sides. They are also quite easy and fast to paint. Well I say fast, it still took me 2 weeks to paint the first 7 of those models (not all shown in the pictures). But you have a lot of area, that is the same color so you can just brush away. Only problem I had was the belly because it is so hard to get to without drawing over already painted areas (especially the rip-cage).

Next up, I will go back to the zombies. First off I painted one of the runners. The next batch I want to paint with "Necrotic Flesh". So I took that runner because it had a lot of "skin" area so I could see how the color turns out after the quickshade treatment.

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[KruleBear]

The wolfs look nice and I really like how the blue and white scheme turned out on that last fatty.

 

[drtoful]

So I tried some free-hand painting. Just small stuff. Basecoating is done on these. Base plus Quickshade will be the next steps. Hope it will not obscure my hard work

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[drtoful]

Here is the finished product of the zombies:

View attachment 64663

Also, found out, I should really take note of the Whitebalance (otherwise it is too blueish) settings on my camera

Next up, I wanted to finally start with some survivors. Everbody can do the core survivors. They're easy. So I decided to go straight to level Hell

I have the Paolo Parente Guest Box (https://zombicide.com/en/pg/special-guest-box-paolo-parente-2/). The models look really cool (okay there's some fan service in there). Especially the one that jumps from the rock. But I digress.

Let's start with Undraal.

After priming I found out, I should remove the cloak before doing so. Apparently it is designed to come off, as it was pinned into a predrilled hole in her back. So as a tip, for anyone that wants to paint her: remove her cloak first You have to wiggle a bit and it will eventually come off. I only hope that I can reattach it though

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With the cloak I wanted to try out some techniques I saw: Feathering.

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From left to right: Basecoat with "Bonewhite" (from Vallejo). I then added some "Leather Brown" (AP) to it for the first few steps. Then I added some "Necromancer Cloak" (AP) to get an even darker tone. What I did not found out if you do feathering before or after applying wash. I hope I didn't do it the wrong way around. Also, the little primer mishap should be fixed now.

In the meantime, while the paint was drying between each step, I began basecoating the model:

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Her big sword makes some angles a bit hard to reach. Don't know if this is also supposed to come off. Still not completely happy as there is some color bleed I don't like. There are some spots on places where it doesn't belong, but when I color these parts it shouldn't matter anymore. Color scheme should be somewhat according to her artwork, lot's of skin color and gold, for the little armor she's got. Don't know yet at which step I paint the gold color.

And to think of it, shes the queen of the north Get's cold up there, no?

 

[drtoful]

So I finished the basecoating (forgot to take photo though). Armor is painted in "Bright Gold" (AP).

Next up is the washes. I used some different washes. Skin is "Flesh Wash" (Vallejo), Armor is done with "Deep Shader" (AP). I've seen some videos were they mixed Nuln Oil with Earthshade to create a bit more brown tone, fortunately for me, the Deep Shader is already that browny, so no mixing for me needed . The rest (mainly the Blade) is "Nuln Oil" (to just give it a darker tone).

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So next up, I tried some highlighting. Adding some white into the mix to create some steps. First time highlighting though, so I suspect it not going well.

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I really hate my camera, because it shows me in high detail how it looks crap If I look at the model from afar it looks okayish. Why do they invent so good cameras, I wonder. I still have some problem "seeing" where to highlight stuff. When I look at some video tutorials, they just say "oh well it easy you just highlight here and here and presto...". Well for some body parts it was easy to guess (her butt), but for anything else I had my troubles finding out the right spots to highlight.

 

[Chaotic Creations]

Hey mate, this latest figure is looking pretty good so far, I like the way your building up the highlights, nice and thin coats, can I just say possibly give each shade a couple of coats to try and get it a little more opaque before moving to the next. As for where to highlight a good little trick is to set a light above the figure and take a photo, edit it to black and white and adjust the contrast. This will show you where the light is hitting the figure, and thus where to highlight and how much.
Personally for me I have steered away from washing the whole base coat of an area to get the shade, I now paint in the shades and try to avoid tinting the mid tone (base coat). I find this easier to blend out of the shade. But what your doing is quite alright and a very common way to paint. I would suggest on your first highlight as such to use the base colour and paint all the areas that aren’t going to be shaded, this will restore your mid tone and put you back to a solid colour to start your highlights. If you find this to be too harsh a transition into the shade you can water down you ink (thinner the better) and glaze the transition to blend the colour change into a smooth transition (this may take several coats). From there you can start adding a lighter colour into your base colour and built up the highlight, adding a little more of the light colour with each coat to get to your peak highlight.

As as they say there is many ways to skin a cat, which is very relative to miniature painting, how you go about painting minis is entirely up to you, you will develop a style that you enjoy using so it’s all about finding the right techniques to suit the way you paint. I have been following your progress and I must say your painting is really coming along in leaps and bounds.
So keep up the good work mate, and just keep painting, cause the more you do the better you will get

 

[BloodASmedium]

Okay so I’m going to help you out- first off you have to add higher colors to you highlight mix in extremely small amount and layer it on in a diluted mixture where it builds up and intensifies over time.
ONTO NUMBER TWO- are you ever WNCDERING where to place your highlights, not sure how much certain parts get and which parts get the lightest AND WHERE YHEIR PROPERLY OLACED.
well- here’s what is a tool that I’ve used long ago and never stopped-1) go to the OZ PAINTERS FORUMNS AND LOOK UP THE STOP SIGN RULE- or better off here’s the template it tells you exactly how to approach when and where highlights properly goView attachment 64741enjiy- study it and read it and apply it.
bam

 

[drtoful]

Thanks for your tips. The Stop Sign Rule looks interesting. Will look into it.

@Chaotic Creations: I started highlighting with the base color too, trying to not cover the "deeper" parts of the model (such as muscles etc.). I do thin my paints with "Airbrush Thinner" about 6-7:1 but I tend to wipe off most of it from the brush on my thumb until it is not so "wet" anymore (to avoid blobs). Maybe this is somewhat counterproductive to the thinning process (as I assume that I mostly wipe off the thinning agent and leave the paint on the brush).

 

[drtoful]

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Well, not so great. Especially the eyes. Better not look into them for long At least the cloak went back on and after the glue dried it holds very well.

So onto the next mini to butcher.

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So I tested a lighter skin color, but the contrast after the wash seems to much if I "reapply" the base color of the skin. Need to think a bit if I want to darken the skincolor or to apply a light coat of the lighter skincolor onto the recesses. The belly button looks okay though, so maybe for some parts the contrast is okay. I did not yet color the head, just for information.

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At least the cloth on her back went a bit better to highlight (thanks to the stop-sign method).

 

[drtoful]

Still trying to get the hang of that highlighting stuff. Decided to use a "easier" model for it. Karl from the Wulfsburg Expansion has a nice coat which should be easier to highlight. Well in theory

Somehow one drop of white was a bit too much for the second color, so the contrast seems to be a bit to big between the first and second layer. Just for clarification only the outer coat (the green-greyish one) is "done".


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