Zombicide Fatties

Zomtober 2014 - post#6

'Zomtober' may be officially over, but here at 'Awdry Towers' the undead refuse to lie down!  As I eluded to in my previous post, the half term break has afforded me some much needed hobby time and I'm thoroughly enjoying wielding the paintbrush again after a month of self imposed abstinence.  Like a good many, I have been bitten with the 'Zombicice' bug.  Although a late devotee to this collaborative board game, I have subsequently picked up the core set and add ons that are currently available, not to mention backing the recently funded Season 3.   Again, like a good many, I was taken by the quality and originality of the sculpts and have always wanted to find out for myself what they were like to paint.  

Having selected three of the much maligned 'Fatties' there was the simple task of tidying them up, removing some of the mould lines.*  The plastic used, is not so receptive to a file, but a scalpel or sharp craft knife will certainly do the trick.

*I say simple task, but I have noticed, on closer inspection, that I missed some - drat!

The next decision was what to do with the bases?  Some web based research threw up a myriad of possibilities, but being inherently lazy, I decided to keep the original bases intact and threw on some clutter to give them that apocalyptic feel.  This included some Vallejo Red Oxide Paste for a tarmac texture and the newly discovered Vallejo Mica Flake Gel to break the surface up a bit - I first saw this been used on James Wappel's truly inspirational site - James Wappel Miniature Painting.  

Resorting to my favoured black undercoat spray to prime, I was ready to splash some paint on them.  No when it comes to colours, I find it difficult to move away form previously established palettes and having seen so many examples of these very models wearing orange boiler suits or green and pink dresses it was perhaps inevitable that these were the colours I reached for when it came to working on my own.

I have to say that they were an absolute joy to paint with enough detail to keep me interested and being a little larger than a true 28mm scale there was plenty for my tired eyes to focus on. The paint seemed to adhere well, with no obvious flaking and the final application of gore helped to tie them in to the rest of the horde. This experiment has really opened my eyes to a seemingly endless array of possibilities.  To be brutally honest there is no way that I can lavish this much individual attention on the remaining zombies,** yet there are possibilities for conversion and perhaps this will ensure that a good many more of this relatively inexpensive source of undead plastic reach the painting table.

**There are just too many of them!