AAAGHHH RANT!

[The Brotherhood of Necros]

Wow so I need to get this off my chest.

I HATE ZOMBIES.

I can't stand them anymore! The new rules are so reliant upon them, and they suite my theme perfectly, so naturally I have alot.

I can't get them to look uniform in a unit. They are from a variety of races, and I can't get them to look good together in a unit even though I have tried all the tricks, from using a limited painting pallette (sp) to using their bases to tie them all together. I can't do it!

Secondly, I can't get them to look like ZOMBIES without making it look like I have painted them like s**t! They just look dirty and like a four year old has had a go at them.

Thirdly...I have just finished my unique spin on a corpse cart, and come somewhat near to some decent looking zombies on it, that I at least am satisfied with. And I cannot. Bring myself. To go back. And repaint. All my other zombies...even though I know I'm going to havvvvve to because at the mo it looks as though I've dipped them in mud.

!

AAAGGGHHHHHHH.

Ok...I feel a bit better now, and so there is a point to this thread:

-What is your most troublesome/irritating/aggravating model/unit, and why?

TPL

 

[Bug16]

Figures I loathe painting? One's that I'm unsure how to approach when painting and units of figures that are basically the same figure with a headswap or something.

With my VC army I'm dreading painting my Ghouls. They're the original slotta range Citadel did in the 80's and the sculpting is very smooth and the detailing is quite subtle. I tend to rely on inking and glazing a lot and this relys in there being enough detail for the ink/glaze to hang in/on to. I'm really not sure how these figures will look inked and how I'll paint them if it all goes wrong so I keep putting off painting the unit.

I'm still facing 60+ DE spearmen from the early 90's range. They're nearly all identical and mind bogglingly boring to paint.

I also sold my Tyranid army off a couple of years ago because I was so bored gluing the army together and prepping the figures I just couldn't face painting it as well.

While we're discussing this let's also add figures/units we can't wait to paint!

From my VC's I can't wait to paint my metal zombie and skeleton cavalry as well as my vampires.

I'm also itching to paint my EM4 Scavangers, they're old Mark Copplestone figures from when he was at the absolute top of his game imo.

 

[darknesseternal]

Skeletons.... easiest unit in my army to paint, as I don't really have to worry too much about being neat, but oh my god, I am so over batch painting and bleached bone. I don't think I can even face doing batch painting skellies in numbers of 20 anymore. I might just do them in batches of 5 or 10, then go and do something else and come back to another batch. The new skeleton warriors are probably going to be even worse, with all the extra rags and armour on them now.

I will be getting a magnifying glass to paint with though in the not too distant future, so that may make painting characters and some of the better units in the army more fun, and easier I hope.

 

[Kaptain Von]

Although I love my Ghouls, I cannot remember for the life of me how I painted them, so I'm dreading adding any more to the unit. I'm also peeved at my green zombies - I'd much rather have a purple-tinged grey tone, but there are seventy of them and I'm worried that my army is going to end up looking much too purple if I change 'em. Rah.

 

[Goggalor]

I agree with you pale lady I hate painting zombies. Most of mine are different colours, no regimentation and half done. I just could not face them anymore. they broke me.
And the corpse cart has been started many times and all i get done i a little bit then the painting joy leaves me. i just go onto a completely different project like painting tanks or 40k stuff till i can face them again.

 

[Thomas von Carstein]

Hey!

Well, if yu look at the essence of zombies, they really can't be made to look uniform & clean, neither they should imo.
They are a large group of dead people/orks/elves/dwarves, who were raised from undeath in different times, places and stages of decomposion, so it's only natural for them to look this way. I have painted my regiment in different colors and will continue to do so, becouse I can't quite imagine a vampire ordering his necromancers to go and paint all the clothes of a 1000+ zombies in the same way Also i let them look bad, coz they are rotting corpses and those just look that way
I must also agree wit darknesseternal: drybrushing 10+ skellies is one of the most horrible things i have done so far

 

[HereticLosMorte]

worst things to paint.... skeletons and tyranid gaunts/hormagaunts, i can't stand it.

things i love to paint... one off characters/generals and specialised units (loved the newer chaos marine raptors, new carnifex, winged vamp)

 

[Raziel]

'Nids full stop lol. 2k+ in bare plastic purely because there's so many of them lol.

I love painting marine characters though. The individuality you can get is ace

 

[Goggalor]

Thats why I hate painting zombies as they have no regimentation, you have to constantly change paints, you can't just use the same colours or skin tones, they have flesh and bone.Worst of all IMHO they don't look right till they are finished and when you have all those models looking messy and unfinished staring at you waiting to be painted it becomes a pain.
Am sure they will look fine in the end but it is going to take effort to get there.

 

[Danceman]

1. Paint all the skin.
2. Paint all the clothes in appropriate color, on all models.
3. repeat above stage till you're done with the clothes. It helps to divide up the models for each color you want on them.
4. Detail work in whatever order.

Makes the job alot less tedious. Plan your work, work your plan as someone once told me.

Skeletons may go fast, but painting bone is... repetitive to say the least. As a result my core infantry will be made up of Ghouls and alot of my skeletons will be zombified.

 

[Bug16]

1. Paint all the skin.
2. Paint all the clothes in appropriate color, on all models.
3. repeat above stage till you're done with the clothes. It helps to divide up the models for each color you want on them.
4. Detail work in whatever order.

Makes the job alot less tedious. Plan your work, work your plan as someone once told me.

Absolutely. I've painted about 200 zombies over the years and the trick, as with any unit, is to paint all of the models that look roughly the same (i.e. same bodies, legs, heads) together in groups. I always start from inside out when painting, i.e. flesh, clothing, armour, and I always paint figures from start to finish in groups of five. That way you feel like you're actually working your way through the unit rather than spending days/weeks on end looking 50+ half painted figures.

With zombies find a nice disgusting and easy skin tone then paint the lot the same skin tone as it's loads quicker and looks just as good imo.

 

[Lord Fear]

Yeah, Zombies are easy. After black primer, I start off with shadow grey on flesh, then overbrush Rotting Flesh, then use a variety of dull colours on the clothes. I think if I paint any more I'll just undercoat them in Scorched brown, give them a wash, then I can just do the flesh and that's the entire model done! Won't look ery good but they're Zombies, and I can always just go over a few bits here and there in different colours.

 

[N.I.B]

The new rules are so reliant upon them

How, you figure?

Anyway, I have a good technique I learned from an old Total Power magazine, #10 IIRC.

Prime black
Thin layer of bestial brown
Wash with dilluted brown ink
flesh - rotting flesh
bone - bleached bone
clothes - dull earth colours, brown, black, red, green
wash with brown ink again

At this point you could call them finished, but they get better with a little highlighting. The result are pretty dirty zombies that looks like they have been buried, I'm quite pleased with them.