Another Zombicide model today – this time a Kickstarter exclusive model from the original Zombicide Black Plague campaign. The Abominalpha. This one is an interesting design, with a mix of several animals sort of smooshed together. We have some elements of (obviously) Human along with Wolf and Rat, Goat horns, and… Badger claws?
As wacky as that design description sounds, the artist actually pulled it off pretty well. Wrapped the whole thing in flayed skin and added a necklace of decapitated heads for extra drip. Unfortunately – the sculpt is one that I can at best describe – with maximum kindness – as wildly uneven. The overall head, body and musculature are pretty decent. The claws and bone spines are a bit too long and nearly as good looking as the artwork, the tail-spine looks like a decoration and the necklace of heads looks like blobs of undetailed, undefined chewing gum.
The result of all this was that I started painting this thing a couple of years ago with the best of intentions (I usually enjoy painting monsters – and they can often be quick and enjoyable), but it’s taken literally years and I’ve basically just hated the model the entire time.
The only way I got through it was by forcing myself to do a whole bunch of work on it last year for one of the Monster painting challenges, and then ran out of steam – only to harness this year’s Monster MayHem ’23 painting challenge for enough willpower to finally get it done.
Well, regardless of how I’ve felt about the model over the long course of getting it painted, I’m hopeful that I can now forget about all of that and just let it become more or less the same as many of those D&D models I’ve gotten painted over the years – nothing special as a sculpt or paintjob, but certainly more enjoyable to look at and use on the table than unpainted grey PVC.
One more Monster to come for the month’s challenge – see you in 2 days!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Looks awesome! I thin k you should name him Edward!
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s as good a name as any, I guess…
Any particular reference with thay name?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Scissor hands!
LikeLiked by 2 people
D’oh! Of course!
LikeLike
Ooof, yeah, I can imagine that thing being a slog to paint 😬
Still, like you say, better than unpainted plastic 👍
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes indeed! Though now it’s painted and finally off the desk so I can be chill about the model finally!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Cripes, that’s a bit of a brute! I think it looks really good and I like the exaggerated claws and spines! 🙂 The blood spatter definitely makes it more fearsome looking!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks John – I’d have preferred a model closer to the artwork, but I’m happy to have gotten this one done and dusted!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your painting has truly elevated the poor sculpting, such a shame as the concept art was pretty cool, but good you’ve got it finished and can hopefully move on to better sculpts.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yup – getitng thigs like this done and off the painting desk, out of the house and into the shed is always a positive thing! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good work to get over the line with this one. I’ve got a GW Mortarion sitting at about 70% for about 2 years so I could do with a similar dose of ‘just get on with it.’
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m still going to have to give you credit for that even – my own Morty is still in the box from back when it was released… 😮
LikeLike
Now that’s a fearsome looking critter! I agree with your assessment of the sculpt’s weaknesses though your excellent paint work help elevate it, as per usual.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks mate, but you’re too kind as always. To me this is just an OK boardgame paintjob on a decent in some ways but very flawed sculpt. 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
The necklace really is a blob, too bad that didn’t turn out. Nice job though and that grey is nice and smooth!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yup. They’re supposed to be skulls and decapitated heads and so on bit instead look like random bits of “detail” from some of those early D&D pvc figures… 🤮
LikeLiked by 1 person