Category Archives: Kings of War

(A pair of) Mantic Zombies

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Mantic Games Zombies

braaaiiiiins….

A couple of weekends ago, I was doing a little bit of procrastinating at my paint desk, trying to figure out what to work on. I spotted a pair of Mantic’s plastic Zombies, primed and based that have been floating around for bloody ages. I’m not sure when or why I initially assembled them, especially just as a pair. I haven’t been able to find any more of them either, though I have plenty on sprues. So this time, instead of shoving them to the side, I decided to speedpaint them.

Mantic Games Zombies

They wander here, they wander there…

It took just a couple of hours to get these painted. It helped a hell of a lot that they were already fully prepped, but still. Very easy to paint. I used some mixes of the usual wash colours to subtly influence the stain on the flesh tones, and then blended up the highlights post-wash. I kept the palette very simple, because Zombies. I went with dark grey rags to keep them in theme with Marouda’s Undead army scheme (dark grey standing in for black on these filthy creatures). Citadel’s Blood for the Blood God paint over Tamiya Clear Red, since BFTBG is easier to clean up.

Mantic Games Zombies

The only side of the zombies that you want to see…

Due to my (poor) photography skills, you can’t see the individual teeth that are picked out. I need to either get a better cheap camera or learn how to use my good camera properly. It’s taken me ages to actually paint any, but really I have to reiterate how good these HIPS Zombies from Mantic really are. These came up really well for so little time and effort. Now I want to paint up more of them. Gotta finish clearing the desk though, first.

These will obviously get used in Kings of War eventually, when I paint about a million of their mates. Obviously they’re useful for any Fantasy RPG. Age of Sigmar? Why not? (If I ever play it!). They might even provide some Walker action for Zombicide at some stage.

Citadel Stone Troll with Axe – (1992)

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Another troll today. This figure is one of Michael Perry’s efforts that redefined the look of Warhammer Trolls back in 1992 for 4th Edition. So leaving that narrow era of 3rd that “purists” feel is “Oldhammer”. With 4th Edition WHFB, the armies began to be overhauled and have their looks unified in many ways, putting an end to the “rough and ready” and slightly chaotic look that forces and their ranges had previously.

Citadel Stone Troll with Axe (1993), Michael Perry

Stone Troll with Axe (1993)

The old C20 trolls were retired and replaced with the new “Stone Trolls” and “Swamp Trolls”, sculpted by Michael Perry. Although the Swamp Trolls were superseded a few years ago by the plastic River Trolls, four of the original six of these Stone Troll sculpts are even still available today, some 23 Years later, including this guy. (One of the rare times I don’t mind comparing my own paintwork directly with the official GW paintjob!) Still, that’s one hell of a distinguished time of service on this model.

Citadel Stone Troll with Axe (1993), Michael Perry

Rear View of Stone Troll with Club

I first started on this guy 5+ years ago, at the same time I started on the other blue C20 trolls. As with the “Hill Troll”, this guy got “left behind” and was never finished. Since I managed to finish the Hill Troll a couple of weeks ago, it motivated me to pluck this part-painted guy off the desk and finish him off. All I’d done was the base, the basecoat in blue with a wash and drybrush on his cracked back texture – no details. I’ve gotta say that I really enjoyed finishing him off, and if I weren’t in the midst of a self-imposed moratorium on starting new models, I’d be all over the rest of these which I’ve got tucked away somewhere.

C20 Cave Troll, Stone Troll with Club and C20 Warrior Troll

The more recent Stone Troll towers over his older C20 Brethren.

As you can see, this guy is much larger than the older models. As KoW uses regiments of 3 and 6 in size for Trolls and I already have 6 of the older models ready to go, if I manage to use him in a game before I paint up some more, he can be used as a Troll Bruiser (Hero).