Reaper 50153: Berkeley, Zombie Survivor

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Reaper Miniatures 50153 Berkeley Zombie Survivor

A kind of random model today. This was one that Marouda and I picked up from a gaming store a few years ago because it looked cool on the peg. Then it naturally sat around for a long time, before evventually being opened, started, and Neglected for …I dunno. A couple of years?

Anyhow, I found it recently, and so stuck it amongst the masses of models on the painting desk, and there, it stood. Still neglected as I worked on other models. A couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t feeling much on the models I was working on, so I asked Marouda to pick out a couple of models for me to finish from anything on the table (with the caveat that I can always say “nope, not painting that one right now” if I don’t like the choices). The two that she picked were Berkeley, and one other model that’s still WIP.

Reaper Miniatures 50153 Berkeley Zombie Survivor

Pretty straightforward model, all things considered. I went for a nice triad of main colours with red for the hair, white for the top and blue for her jeans. A couple of shades of brown for her other kit for a more realistic overall look compared to a lot of the Warhammer stuff. In particular, I’m really happy with how her jeans came out (especially in hand). I was in two minds about adding tattoos, since the model’s arms are really fine, and I didn’t want to muddy them up. On the other hand, she looks like she’d have some ink, so I compromised and kept it to a couple of really subtle, part-hidden ones on her person. I wanted the chainsaw to be realistic, and wanted to go for orange for the plastic casing rather than use red or yellow. That’s also where I used some Contrast paint as well with thinned Gryph-Hound Orange over VMC Light Orange. For me, this is how I see the most use of Contrast paints working for me. After I was happy with the orange, I had to figure out something to do with the chain cover, since the plain off-white looked boring, so it was google time to find a brand that fit, since the names I’d most likely use have their own standard colours (Stanley uses Yellow, Bosch uses green.. that sort of thing). I found Echo, and they also use a font that I was able to reasonably replicate at that scale, so that’s where the branding came from.

It wasn’t until the model was completed that I actually noticed that the long strip of torn denim hanging from her leg to the ground that kept annoying me was in fact, a dismembered zombie hand. At that point I wasn’t willing to clip it off and have to repaint the mess it’d make of part of her jeans, so yeah. Long strip of ripped denim. Just unsee it! 😉

Reaper Bones 77116: Colossal Skeleton (Jason Wiebe) (Awesome August ’19)

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Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

Today I have the first of (and maybe only? we’ll see how the month pans out) my submissions for this month’s Model painting challenge – the Colossal Skeleton from Reaper Miniatures’ Bones line. I think it was from their first Bones Kickstarter, but frankly I can’t be arsed to check, as at this point it hardly matters. This model was a nightmare for me (no pun intended) due to the rather horrid properties of the Bones Material, going sticky over time along with ill-defined details. The model is actually heavily based on a metal counterpart, though given the need to glue and join something like that together, I can only imagine it also being a nightmare as well, albeit of a mostly different sort.

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

I started this large, skinny fellow a couple of years ago – which you can easily spot by the use of the Square base – based as he is for Kings of War and Marouda’s Undead Army. So why did he take so long to get done? He’s mostly bone, isn’t he? After all, that’s easy enough to do..

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

Well, the issues I had with the model were a combination of the bone layers becoming rather tacky early on in the project, as well as all of the fidldy little details scattered across the model. The problem with those details is that most of them are pretty well ill-defined and simply …mushy. I found that particular combination rather off-putting, and despite any number of challenges over the last almost-a-year by now, from Dreadtober, Neglected Models, Jewel of July, Monster March… and on and on, I never could get more than a little of him done. In the first few days of this month however, after going to bed, I had a feeling come over me that I would finish the model that weekend. And so, somehow, I did just that.

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

In my little epiphany, I knew that I needed to break down the model into managable chunks. Good thing he was an unassembled multipart model, then – so legs and base, torso with head attached, and two arms. And then I worked on the fucker for most of the two days in my spare time. And it somehow worked – at the end of the weekend, he was done. And varnished both with Reaper’s own brush-on and AK Interactive’s matte. Somehow it’s also not sticky or even tacky. Yet.

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

A scale shot, along with some of his little (aka regular, human-sized) mates.

So now, after at least a couple of years, this big bastard is done, and I’m actually quite happy with it. My problem with him now becomes where to store it, especially since the Undead Army is already overflowing their shelf. Ah well, there are worse problems to have in life.

Now, the next question will be if I can get another awesome model done for August, or if it will remain with just the one completed for the challenge. Either way, it’s mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.