It’s again been a good while since I’ve finished any of my Zombicide Abominations, and so in September I forced myself to finish a couple of the models that had been sitting on the desk since the end of the Monster-themed challenge months. Sure, I could have finished them in October for Apocalypse Me, but it’s not like I’ve got any shortage of other qualifying models to get painted, right? 😮
Cthulhu was actually the second one of these to be completed, as The Mummy was much further along – but since when does Cthulhu give second billing to anyone?
For Cthulhu I once again more-or-less followed the cues from the official artwork. The “something-under-thin-translucent-skin” effect of it’s head was something new for me to try and play with, so that suited me as well, and added a nice splash of colour to a model that could just be painted nothing but green and fit into Guru PIG’s Venn Diagram.
I also ran with the contrasting colours much more than indicated in the artwork (stomach and wings) by continuing to add more warm tones through the palms of Cthulhu’s hands, elbows, and then some glazing elsewhere on the body, shoulders, etc. I also extended the cold tones from the head-sac further down the head. And of course, more blue veins on thick appendages! 😮
Both of these models were sculpted by Jason Hendriks, who maintains a blog sharing his WIP progress on many of his models, including Cthulhu and often some design thoughts.
The Mummy was a fairly straigtforward model to paint, if a little busy with the bandages loosely draped over the mummified flesh underneath.
With The Mummy, I took the cue of grey flesh, but just went with whatever felt like it worked after that as far as colours go. As long as the model matches the art broadly, I’m good, and we’re not overrun with overized mummies.
Once again, Jason has an entry for The Mummy where he mentions that CMoN didn’t particularly want an Egyptian theme to this model – which explains the more ragged appearance of this sculpt.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I do like the way that they leaned into various cryptids and other mythologies and mythos for a bit of a different flavour to these stretch goal abominations. It certainly gives you more of an interesting variety of models to paint. Berkeley and Not-Clint here provide scale reference for both of these A-Bombs – as you can see, they’re hefty models for this particular game and put the regular zombies to shame!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
That Cthulu is awesome! Great work. I love cryptids so I hope to see more. 🙂
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Thank you! I have a few more to do for the Zombicide games, and then there’s the Horrorfied boardgame after that… https://www.amazon.com/Ravensburger-Horrified-American-Monsters-Strategy/dp/B09FYRVM7X
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Oh that looks cool! 😀
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Nice work on those. I like how bulky Cthulhu is and I also like when his wings are smaller overall. Such a nice mini. The texture you added to the skin worked out really nice too. It’s something I’ve been playing around with a bit. Just randomly so far, but would be nice to get a technique down and add it to my tool kit at some point.
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Thanks for the kind words. I like mixing different methods on monster models like this that are large enough to give you the freedom to just experiment with different methods. I think on Cthulhu I sprayed black, sprayed with several increasingly-light greens in an increasing zenithal style, then drybrushed before using the wet palette to play with blending. Of course, I’;ve got the Death May Diue variant of Cthulhu to paint asw ell for a more “serious” take on the Great One.
But yeah, play with different styles and techniques and allow mistakes and experiments is my best advice from experience with that, especially on monster models that are very forgiving!
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Wow mate, that Cthullu is stunning, all those extra colours, translucent pigmentation, and details like the tentacles just make an awe inspiring piece. The Mummies skin tone works well against the stark white of the bandages, although the sculpt does make me think of Mum-Ra from Thundercats ! LOL
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These are great mate – the Cthulhu is especially cool!! Nicely done dude 👍
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Thank you, Alex! Happy with how Cthulhu came out! 🦑
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Great work on both of these, mate. I agree with Dave that Cthulhu looks very impressive. I think that sculpt is one of the better I’ve seen and I’m sure there are many out there. It really captures what the elder god is all about!
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Crikey! Brilliant! What everyone else said! Maybe unfair on the mummy having to play second fiddle to Cthulhu, since he’d deserve a post of his own! 🙂
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Not my Venn diagram Az – not sure where I stole it from on the net aeons ago!
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