Farmer's Undead

[Borgnine]

Nicely done. Mantic zombies tend to have this 'look at me mommy i am a helicopter' look to them, but your look really good! The fourth guy on the second pic looks especially good, is he from Crypt Horror set or what? His torso isn't like his buddies'.

Oh, and I begun to treat your hobby background as your trademark This yellowish box (?) compliments your minis quite well, but maybe with something else it will be improved.

And as for the suggestions for them - maybe reinforcing the forest look? How about branches pierced through some of them, moss on others and some mushrooms on another? Maybe an animal (Like an easy-sculptable snake?) burrowing in his body?

 

[Leithel]

Yeah nice zombies, combo of mantic, GW and a few bitz I don't recognise. You have very clean painting style, I can't wait to see one or two painted.

Also, @Borgnine , "Look at me mummy, I am a helicoptor" made be laugh, that's great.

 

[Farmer7574]

Here are the latest additions to the first zombie unit:

A few more standard zombies put together and the standard bearer. I wanted to give him a creepy look, so I gave him eyes and cut off his jaw. His tongue will be sculpted dangling from his throat. Repositioning the arms is time consuming work but paying off, I think.

I made a zombie ogre filler too, he’s getting some zombie chow! I need to add some wounds/injuries to him, so I’m still thinking of how he might have died… I also dug out an old musician. One of my first models ever painted. He’ll be stripped later on and painted with these guys.

This unit is at 30 now, including the 10 zomblins. I might make another filler & a few more zombies tomorrow to bump it to 40, then it’s on to green stuffing, adding guts & weapons/arrows and forest basing. Still a fair bit to do!

@Borgnine It’s true, these Zombies do seem a bit more challenged than zombies usually are. When putting these together, I noticed that some are even falling over towards the ground…

I’m not sure if I want to carry the forest theme to the level of zombies being pierced by logs as I'd prefer to embed them with arrows and weapons, but moss and mushrooms are both ideas worth looking into. I like your idea about the creatures too, a snake coming out of a zombies eye could look sick!. I’ll experiment a bit when I finish tidying up the gaps and pinned areas.

Regarding that armless zombie, yeah he’s from the Crypt Horror kit. I wish GW would make some new zombies, the current ones look as though they’re smiling & waiting for a picture to be taken…

@Leithel Cheers mate, I’ll get some test minis going once I’ve got a nice block of them put together.

Let me know you thoughts on the unit so far and any other cool ideas you may have. Cheers!

 

[Eyeless]

Love the finished skeletons + Wight King, and great mantic zombies! looking forward to see them painted.

 

[Farmer7574]

Another small update. I completed this zomblin test mini today:

After spending a while dabbling with different colour schemes for gore, zombie goblin skin, etc, I finally found the colours I’m happy with. I think the gore turned out alright, but next time I might stipple some dark brown underneath to give it more depth.

I didn’t want to paint him the same as my O&G Night Gobbos and just add blood to them as dead flesh changes colour with decomposition. The other nine are in the works and shouldn’t take long to finish!

I also put this zombie filler together yesterday:

Still WIP, but you get the idea - it's a zombie vulture stealing a zombie's hand Eventually I stopped at a unit of 40, including 2 fillers and 10 zomblins.

Cheers for taking a look. Let me know what you guys think.


@Eyeless Thanks a lot mate, me too hah! Working on zombie test minis right now. Not sure if I want to stick with one colour or mix it up with different tones...

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Great update. Both of these models are fun! What's the blood effect you're using?

 

[Eyeless]

loving the zomblins i think i would try a couple of different shades for zombies. but not different a completely colour scheme, maybe a more lighter and a darker version to show different decomposition.

 

[Borgnine]

You're doing great work on those zombies! One can actually see how cut-up are their arms The ogre holding another body is also a great idea, I'd try to incorporate it if I'll ever make more Crypt Horrors Zomblin is as cool as I expected of him, the painting really improves upon the model. And the filler? Best forever! I would kinda expect the head to be the object stolen in such a scene, but this is still hilarious!

 

[Farmer7574]

Here’s the finished group of zomblins:

And a comparison shot with a living counterpart:

It felt a bit strange bloodying them up at the end as I usually like to give my minis a clean paint job. I liked and disliked painting these; liked because I’m an O&G fan & like painting Night Goblins, and disliked because the sculpting is pretty crude. I plan on integrating these into the zombie unit later on.


@Adam_Barrow Cheers mate, I stippled a Tamiya Clear Red 1:2 Nuln Oil mix on first, then brushed on a 1:1 mix of Clear Red and Nuln Oil for these. The hand theft diorama looks like it’ll be pretty fun to paint

@Eyeless I wasn’t going to bother varying the zomblins’ skin tones but I do have another 12 waiting to be painted in the future. I think I’ll do those in a different shade when I get around to painting them. Cheers for the feedback J

Regarding zombies, I’m still playing with colour concepts and think I’ll go for at least two different skin tones, then using washes to differentiate them further.

@Borgnine Cheers buddy. Yeah, they’ve been chopped up quite a bit. Green stuffing is going to be a pain, but I’ll just do it in batches along with the forest basing and other pre-paint work.

Glad you like the fillers! I wanted to include some fun stuff in this unit. The head was the obvious choice, but I went for the hand being stolen because I think the expression on this zombie’s face makes it more comical.

Cheers for taking a look and let me know your thoughts.

 

[robtion]

Great job on the zomblins, they look really cool.

I like the less clean paint job, suits my taste better :konrad:

 

[Mad 'At]

Been a while since I took a look at this plog, and you sure have been busy ^^

The skeletons look great. Your clean painting style really suits them well. The autumn theme is quite awesome as well.

The zombies are coming along nicely, although I am not the biggest fan of the mantic zombies. Really like the zomblins though, looks very cool. I get what your saying though about messing them up with blood. I too can have trouble with adding weathering to models after I've finished their clean and crisp highlights. I think it worked very well on the zomblins though and definitely think you should continue with that messiness on the other zombies.

 

[Farmer7574]

I’ve just finished knocking a few test minis up for my zombies:

Done quickly in a day, I did these to get a rough idea of which colours work well with which. I’m wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on these.

I used these old GW zombies I had knocking around as the others are still waiting for green stuff & basing. My mate’s kid also wants a mini, so since I don’t plan to use these in my army one of these will serve perfectly (and perhaps give him nightmares!).

On a different subject – ethereals. As mentioned earlier in this plog, I’d like to do mine with inverted colours to make them look as though they’re glowing. I’ve been playing around with ethereal schemes again and have reached something I’m fairly happy with. I played around with some weapons in ethereal colours too, and am wondering what your opinions are on these:

I’m not much of a fan of the lighter blade but the darker one has got me thinking between ethereal weapons & normal ones.

Regarding an earlier post:

As for the glossiness, right now you can try some spray varnish, like the Army Painter Anti-Shine - of course, if it won't turn everything grainy and snowy... I still don't get the hang of this thing And for the next ones - shake the wash REALLY hard and long, it should help

@Borgnine Cheers for the tips a while back. I picked up some brush-on varnish to avoid the chance of frosting. One coat gave me a decent result.

@BTK This seemed to work out really well. I tried it on a Dire Wolf’s head earlier, here’s a before & after shot:

It eliminated enough of the glossiness to make my wolves look like they aren’t covered in Brylcreem.


@robtion Thanks mate, the blood definitely suits them. Clean zombies just looked a little too odd.

@Mad 'At Cheers for your feedback – and bloody they shall be! Glad you like the skeletons, I’m pretty pleased with them and looking forward to doing another batch to add to these guys once I’ve got a bit more variety in my army.

Regarding the zombies, I preferred Mantic’s to GW’s because of the scale, but I think the limited options have generated some of my interest in GW’s for the future.

Thanks for looking guys, let me know what you think. Cheers!

 

[Eyeless]

neat zombies there =D fresh from the grave, i like the different shades on them. As for the ethereal weapons, i never imagined that effect on weapons, always seen similar stuff on spirits themselves. They sure glow though i think it would look pretty sick, a regiment with glowing weapons =D

 

[Adam_Barrow]

I'm with you, the blade on the left reads better. And I dig your test Zombos. I usually go for cartoony rotten, but your realism will pay off on those mantic zeds, I think.

 

[johnyzajebioza]

great stuff You got here, i love the idea with leafs, cant wait to see full army, keep going.

 

[Borgnine]

Wondrous zombies! I love the different shades of skin on them - made me seriously reconsider my idea of magic necromantic uniform skin on my zombies And not only the fact it's done differently - the execution is also superb. The skin on their hands on the upper right pic is superbest! Black clothes, especially done by your brush, fits them greatly.

As for the etheral blades - they look great. I also like the left one more, but that may be because of that white spot - it breaks the gradient and makes it much more interesting. I'd consider making your own damage on clean blades. On the other hand, it could be overkill on larger amount of models. You'll have to see what works best.

Also, glad to help with the shinywolf. It looks much better

 

[Farmer7574]

Just coming off the end of a long few months busy with moving house and sorting out this & that, but it's nice to get back into the hobby.

I've been busy putting a bunch of Black Knights together these days, and here's the WIP shot:

No massive conversion project, but I've used a few Grave Guard heads and have the Von Carstein shields to play around with. I've also used a few TK horses in with these to stretch the use of the kit, add a bit of variation and make use of some old stuff.

Since the TK horses don't have reins, I decided to fashion my own out of green stuff. The metal parts near the mouths are pieces of a skeleton warrior's sword chopped up:

And my new man cave:

Regarding earlier posts:

@Eyeless Thanks mate. The idea I have in my head is that all ethereal units would use these inverted colours, but their robes would be painted normally to stop the blue from drowning out the models. (Perhaps painted brown to contrast the blue and blend with the basing.) That lead me to think ethereals holding ethereal weapons would look better than material weapons. I doubt I’ll use this idea on anything other than ethereal though.

@Adam_Barrow I was a bit torn between cartoony zombies and realistic ones. I used to play Warcraft a fair bit and am a big fan of the colours used in the game but they might be a little too vibrant for a unit in my army. I'm also reconsidering the red guy these days and may stay on the grey/brown end of the colour chart to keep things fairly coherent.

@johnyzajebioza Cheers. It took quite a bit of experimenting with colours and other stuff to get the army to where it is now. Here’s to many more undead to come!

@Borgnine Thanks mate, I'm pretty pleased with the smooth transitions I got from painting those Zs. I layered the skin but the cool thing is that it didn't take too long. The ethereal experiments are on hold right now until I've squared away these Knights and a fair few zombies. That'll give my army a nice foundation to build on then.

Thanks for taking a look and feel free to comment.

 

[Adam_Barrow]

He lives! Is that a big skylight in the ceiling there? That's a really cool space. Good call with the old skelly horses, too. They'll ride well with the new kit. Handy how the barding fits on them too. And don't think I've forgotten about your Hexxies. I want some ethereals once you've shaken the dust off the brushes.

 

[Mad 'At]

Damn it, you beat me too it with Black Knights
That is going to be my next big project and I swear I've had similar ideas about adding reins to the TK horses. Now its just gonna look like I'm copying you.

Still, I hadn't quite figure out exactly how to do the reins so now I might as well just copy you straight off, if you don't mind. Using small pieces of plastic from chopped up swords like that was really clever.

Looking forward to the end result

 

[Borgnine]

So good to see you back! Reminds me of my own predicament one year ago

Nice work on the knights - this mixing of old horses with new ones is interesting - and looks better than using just the old ones covered with new barding. I wonder how will they look together after it's all finished

 

[Farmer7574]

Minor update on the Black Knights, I'm at a bit of a crossroad with colours and can't seem to figure out which I prefer:

I thought about the colours of the clothing today and the idea of doing it all in the blue that's on all of my skeletons looked a little too light for my liking. I then decided to play around with the idea of having it all black and also experimented with the dark blue I used on the Wight King's cloak. What are people's thoughts on these rough drafts?

The armour is as the skeleton warriors plus there'll be some verdigris copper details on it. Reins and lance flag bits will be the standard blue used throughout the rest of the army thus far.


@Adam_Barrow Yes sir, that's a skylight in the ceiing. I'm looking forward to doing some Hexwraiths in the future!

@Mad 'At I'm surprised, you don't already have Black Knights? I know you have a metric tonne of zombies The greenstuff reins and chopped up bits of swords worked... It was just what was at hand at the time.

@Borgnine Cheers! I toyed with the idea of using just old TK horses but the robes on the BK horses really change the appearance of the unit, so opted to primarily use the new ones with a few old ones here and there.

Let me know what you guys think of the WIP, cheers.

 

[Borgnine]

Hey, why not both? Those are knights after all - you can alternate some patterns of blue and black kinda how bretonnian knights do But if I had to choose, I'd take the blue one - he just looks more interesting in my opinion. Maybe add some dirt and/or grime to darken that color?

 

[Mad 'At]

Never did any knights in 8th edition, only had infantry. Could never build an interesting list with anything else. Now that has all changed so I'm looking forward to adding some cavalry to my army.

About your knights, I personally prefer the black one. The two tones of blue on the other one looks a bit odd together imo. Kinda the same but not really. If you could differentiate them a bit more then maybe. Or paint it all in the army blue. It is tricky using similar colours on different areas. Since you still want them to be different.

 

[Farmer7574]

I've managed to get a concept mini done for my Black Knights. Here he is:

After playing around with different blues & black, I came up with this scheme in the end. The 'army blue' seemed too light to cover the entire model's cloth areas and black didn't seem to please the eye enough. I did the majority of the mini in a very dark blue (featured in the picture above) which I then coated in Nuln Oil to darken it a little, but I think it may be a little too dark. I'll try a lighter wash when I start the next few.


@Borgnine I really love the idea of giving them different colour schemes & patterns but I think heraldry is a must to get the best of this. I'm a bit too lazy to be painting individual designs on loads of knights If only I had freehand like yours!

@Mad 'At I eventually met in the middle, bringing the dark blue closer to the black with a wash. Cheers for your feedback on the combination of blues, I may revisit the reins later on and change this to be like the rest of the blue areas.

Let me know what you think, cheers.

 

[Adam_Barrow]

I think you've nailed it. Keeps the army color there, and keeps the black in Black Knights. Also, his base looks awesome as always. I'd call it a success.