North Star Halloween Painting Competition

I used some bowstring pulling right arms because as soon as you take it off of a natural archer pose axis it immediately looks contorted and wrong. Just the type of uncomfortable pose that looks good on zombies.

I kept myself to using only one sprue, just because I like that sort of self inflicted restriction and keeping bits boxes clutter to a minimum.

On just one sprue the zombie heads and limbs start to run low, but the posing will do the heavy lifting and there will be opportunities for the painting to convey the undead side without it all being in the sculpt.

I cut at the puddle bases with clippers but not all the way through, to give me instant dungeon/ ruin pathing slabs to paint up.

This is still WiP because I want to rust up the chains a bit and see if there’s a bit more highlighting I can do.

The paint scheme was based on a set of Cultists I painted for Silver Bayonet. Red with runes on the shoulders.

Now I see some paint down it looks like the gold medallion front and back might be a failed attempt to keep them from being resurrected. Or perhaps the tools of a necromancer to animate them?

The red mix is OK.

Khorne Red, thin layer over the primer.

Mephiston Red, heavy highlight.

Mephiston Red and orange contrast, highpoint only highlight.

Once the base colours were down I chose to use an Army Painter shade (Dark Tone) to grubby everything up. Then I highlighted a few bits again. And then came the occasional dob or Blood and some Nurgle’s Rot goop paint. It just felt like they were tramps in glorious red rather than zombies, without the extra blood and ooze to try and knock that back.

Also, being as this is a competition… I never know where to set the grubby look that I want against “does this look like I put too much wash on and got bored and called it done?”.

The eyes were white but added some Pastel Seafoam blue to make them a more magical zombie (rather than the poor infected unfortunates of other narratives.)

I realise that as this is a competition I need to devote some more time to the models and try and show off some skill. The free hand on the runes is OK, but I may need to think on ways to make anyone judging them know that it wasn’t an easy proposition. That said, I will be happy if the unit looks coherent and well painted and I think the final photos to show them off will be pretty important.

I like the pose on this one. The unit is a fun set of poses as a group. One having a snack, one chasing you, one contorted and shambling, one distracted but on the hunt and one with a knife and purpose.

https://nstarmagazine.com/HALLOWEEN_PAINTING_COMPETITION_2%20a.htm

Kev Dallimore added a comment to every entrants photos and I got a nice comment about the basing and the weathered feel of the paint job.