Undead Army Painting

[Ric]

Looking awesome mate!

[toxicpixie]

Cracking, the base coat > wash > detail > drybrush is really rewarding!

Like the idea of them shambling from some blasted moor land up t'north. Ahhh, fracking, what have you awoken?!

[cra1gwt]

No pictures this post, but I have managed to spend part of the evening doing the dry-brushed highlights on the entire skeletal part of the army.  I had initially thought plain white would do for a skeletal finish, although Ric had advised me to do a mix of white and the light brown base-coat. 
Turns out he was right, in the end!  I tried plain white, but it looks too sharp wherever you dry-brush - as if the skeleton has been scuffed.  I quickly gave in and tried the brown-white mix, which blends in far better.  No harsh lines wherever you apply it, and it just generally gives the raised edges a subtle lift.  Good advice, Ric!

Next up is the shields & banners for the army, which I have done on my experimental base (pictured above) as a red/blue mis with a little bit of brown, to create a dark purple.  Over the raised timber surface of the shields I later dry-brushed over a lightened version of the same mix, but although it looks nice when you look up-close at the base, how often will you do that?  Viewing an army on the tabletop (as well as in the photos, now I look at them) the detail doesn't stand out, so it could well look like an army carrying dark purplish-brown shields.  I'll need to have a think on how to do a stronger highlight, to make them appear far lighter

Nearly the weekend, too - I'm hoping for a major push on the Saturday, with a bit of luck! 

[Norm]

very nice. I am really interested to see how your painting goes for all the bases with the figures fixed to the base.  I have tried twice and felt is was harder rather than easier to paint in that way. I think the next time I try, I will undercoat everything in black and drybrush in off white before gluing, so that any missed bits are taken care of.

[Techno]

No pictures this post,

Tease. 
Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice though.

[cra1gwt]

Hi all,

Sorry about the total lack of photography - hopefully before long! 

My planned weekend binge was all lost to me, sadly due to other things in 'real life' - isn't is always the way?
I have however managed to snatch the odd moment here and there to get stuff underway.  All the bases are base-painted green now (dull, but necessary drudge-work!) and all skeletal troops are highlighted.  Apart from the shields and banners, they are basically set for some sand & grass on the bases!

Leaders are still to be done, but I plan to 'save' them until last as a reward for myself.  In the meantime, I have to wrestle my way through the tedious business of painting up all the zombie hordes!  Bit of a problem, in that once you do all the 'dead flesh' colours and the decayed rags they wear, the overall effect tends to be rather drab - browns, greys, etc.  I'm wracking my brains for some way to 'colour them up' and add a bit of life to them (irony not intended!) 

So, there's that still to do.  I'm planning to do the shields and banners in one go, to keep the colour-scheme 'uniform' for the bases.  I'm planning on a purple background, with some light purple (or electric blue) highlights to make them brighter, and generally add a splash of colour to the bone-white hordes!

Photos to follow shortly, as soon as I get a chance!  :-)

[fred.]

In the meantime, I have to wrestle my way through the tedious business of painting up all the zombie hordes!  Bit of a problem, in that once you do all the 'dead flesh' colours and the decayed rags they wear, the overall effect tends to be rather drab - browns, greys, etc.  I'm wracking my brains for some way to 'colour them up' and add a bit of life to them (irony not intended!) 

Good to hear progress is being made!

I would maybe add some blood to the zombies to brighten things up a bit?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Zombies will be dull, if you have any spare other races to add to the bases as victims or corpses, or build mini dioramas that always helps.

[Ric]

Yeah Craig,  I was thinking about your grubby zombies earlier, and a nice bright base with loads of little details will help set them off, but like Fred said you could add blood on their hands and mouths (but not too much) and you could even use a teeny, tiny dash of gloss varnish on the blood splatters to give a slightly lighter effect..

[toxicpixie]

Not all zombies are human... Blue skinned elves, green skinned orcs, and as for clothes perhaps several were landsknects in their previous life... Let them dress like peacocks, for tomorrow they will die! And come back from the grave looking like a massacre in a peacock sanctuary...

[Matt J]

definitely blood and gore. I mix red paint with brown ink. Gives a dirty blood colour that has a bit of gloss to it. Apply liberally.
Got plenty of modern zombies on the painting board at the mo, I like zombies 

[cra1gwt]

Thanks all for the excellent Zombie advice - I'll have a go at them when I next sit down with them!

In the meantime, the promised photos:


The skeletal main battle-line - three regiments infantry, one regiment bows, and two squadrons of cavalry.


A rather more experimental photography close-up, to try and show some more of the detail (I think I'm slowly getting the hand of this photo-posting business!)

[Techno]

Great stuff ! 
Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very cool  8)units!

[toxicpixie]

Lovely stuff! Coming on really quickly

How're you finding the dry brushing & painting on bases technique - well, from the look ?

[Ric]

Looking great mate, can wait to see them in the flesh... :p your dry brush highlights are spot on - comfort zone be dammed!

[cra1gwt]

Hi all, and thanks for all the kind words!

I have to say, toxicpixie, that the dry-brushing actually went surprisingly well!  I had a fair bit of advice from Ric to see me through it, but basically the Undead are remarkably fast to do in this way.  The undercoat, shade, highlight process is very swift and after the last odds & ends like brown for spears or metal for swords, I actually found myself staring at them, thinking "I can't be finished already!"

Of course, I've still got the bases to do, which may be a whole different story!  The skeletal undead do give quite a bit of space to work around, but I expect there'll still be a bit of struggling to fit in between gaps with a brush.  My normal basing method is to roughly PVA the base and cover with sand to dry, then tip off the excess.  I then repeat with an even sparser PVA-ing and add some grass, then turn the base upside-down and give it a few taps to shake off the excess, and make the grass stand upright.  It has worked well enough for me in the past, so I was planning to repeat it here.  I'll need to have a think about what brush I'm prepared to sacrifice to all that PVA, while I work into the narrow gaps!   

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I have a shot 2 and a dead 00 for that job!

[toxicpixie]

I use pretty much the exact same method, and have a series of increasingly knackered brushes to do it with. The advantage of never throwing anything away...

Can be tricky though, with big dense units, but most of the PVA and sand splatter can be wiped off quick or passes for mud and muck at gaming distance, I find.

That said I did do my Italian Wars pike on painting sticks this time round, then glued them on in ranks, sand & PVA the base around the rank, glue next rank on, sand & PVA etc. Worked well, if a bit slower than my usual "stick to base > paint > base effect" process.

And back to the actual thread point, the techniques come up good, cra1gwt! Kudos to you and Ric - and once more I have army creep and fancy some undead, some orc/goblins and some dwarves, for randomness I'm thinking Northern Crusades, Teutonic Dwarves, Slavic-Baltic green skin hordes, The Kiev Undead...