(Another unit of) Mantic Zombies! (6-Month Tale of Gamers Challenge)

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Following on from the initial regiment/dozen Zombies that I painted last month, I started a follow-up regiment at the end of last month. The idea being that they could be used as two regiments – or more likely – combined into one horde (by keeping the regiment trays together). They would have been finished on the first weekend of this month, but instead I got them finished last night after work.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

This mob has been painted in much the same manner as the first dozen. Some coloured base coats, Army Painter washes (mostly purples this time), a bit of highlighting, then the clothing in a dark grey, washed with black/brown and then picking out the eyes, teeth, bone and wounds. Then varnish, flock, and Blood for the Blood God to finish.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

The first dozen were essentially painted with what I can lazily refer to as “green”, “pink” and “grey” skin. This second batch can be summed up as “yellow” and “purple”. After being photographed on their own to show off, these guys have been mixed with the first batch to give a bit more variety. Once I start the third batch, whenever that turns out to be, they’ll primarily be another two skin tones. At that point I’ll do “brown” and “red” (or something) and then in turn mix those in with these guys. That was as I continue to paint more zombies, the overall variety will increase over time. I’ll probably take a bit of a longer break before I do the next two dozen, though…

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

These models are probably the nicest of Mantic’s undead range – I’ve been finding that their skeletons are far less fun to paint than I’d expected – but the limited number of parts is less than ideal, so I’ve mixed in a fair few of their Ghoul parts.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

The unit shots of these guys were just taken for this blog post, as right afterwards, I mixed the models from the two zombie units so far, in order to mix the skin tones up a little more.

And here they are! The completed Horde of Zombies!

(A unit of) Mantic Zombies! (6-Month Tale of Gamers Challenge)

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

In much the same way as I’ve grown sick of painting plastic Gondor dudes over the past few months, I’ve grown equally sick of painting Skeletons. As the time counted down for April, I happened to spot a pair of Zombies sitting randomly amongst the painted undead out in the War room. I’d painted the pair one weekend last year after seeing them randomly sitting on my painting desk, partly-done. So with absolutely no randomness this time, I grabbed out a couple of Mantic’s Zombie (and one Ghoul) sprues, clipped a few off, cleaned up the bits, and then assembled them, attempting to build as many unique figures as possible while bringing the total to 12. Not all that easy, as the Mantic Zombie sprue is pretty limited. The parts from the ghouls aren’t a terribly hard kitbash, but I did find that the kits weren’t designed with inter-compatibility in mind when they were originally tooled and sculpted. Mantic weren’t all that forward-thinking at the time, I guess.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Now, we all know that a mere dozen Zombies isn’t all that many, even when reprsenting “20” on a regmient base. I reckon I’ll slowly build up a tarpit unit of Zombies, a dozen at a time over the course of whenever I feel like painting more zombies. I know I could churn out a ton of decent looking ones very quickly via “the dip”, but somehow I managed to really quite enjoy painting that first pair last year, so I decided to paint them via brush instead.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Having said all of that, the Army Painter Washes did most of the heavy lifting. After basecoating the flesh in various mixtures of Vallejo Model Air: Sand, Aged White, Duck Egg Green and AP Camo Green and VGC Off White for flavour. Then AP Purple Wash, Green Wash and some Lahmian Medium. For the rags I continued with the “army palette” of dirty dark grey to stand in for black, rather than a more realistic various shades of brown. Once again, I mixed up some greys, this time adding Sand for the hightlight mix colour, so as to avoid a monochomatic grey. Dark Tone AP wash to finish off.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Next up was painting in the exposed bone and various bits of exposed muscle and offal, then lightening or blackening the edges of some of the torn flesh as I felt appropriate. Did the “lunch” portions of those who have been dismembered by the zombies in slightly “fresher” skin tones, and then did a little work picking out teeth and eyes and hair. I added a bit of bruised skin via additional brown-purple washes on many of the models, though it’s a bit hard to see in these particular images.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Finally, I matt varnished them, and once dry, went in for a bit of fun with the Blood Effect paint. In this case, Citadel’s Blood for the Blood God.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

I think the most surprising thing about these guys was just how easy and more importantly – fun they were to do. So much that I’m tempted to start another unit of 12, which I’ll them be able to combine with these guys into a horde.

Mantic Zombies, Vampire Counts, Zombicide Black Plague, Deadwalkers

Here’s the traditional regiment shots. Another use for these models is to use them for Zombicide Black Plague. I’m tempted, but the fingers on them are pretty fine and fragile. When I was clipping and assembling them I’ve already managed to break a few off – so I just painted the stumps bloody – fits zombies, anyway – but with the amount of rough handling the Zombicide models get, it might not be such a good idea to use these guys in the game…