I already have the North Star Revenents, but one can always use more for games set in a Silver Bayonet world. So why not make up some more in a way that will allow me to try out some of this grimdark nonsense everyone is so fussed about? (Er, I'm fussed about it as well, honestly, though the idea of Trench Crusade leaves me cold. I'm thinking more for Mordheim and other Fantasy-centered genres, Gardens of Hecate, Grimm Dark [did I just coin that?] witch-hunters, child-eating cannibal crones, sylvan aberrations in dark German woods - that kind of thing.)
The zombie heads are from the Wargames Atlantic Zombies box, which is extremely useful as it contains not only generic zombie heads but also zombie heads spanning from Ancient Rome, the Viking era, through the 18th Century, Napoleonic Wars, and World War 2. There are scores of extra heads in the box suitable for all kinds of periods. The bodies are Warlord - from a sprue of 1812-15 French line infantry, included with a copy of Wargames Illustrated.
The Painting:
In any event, following guidelines already established, I painted these up in my usual, clean and layered style.
Not having done this method before, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos to see if I could intuit it and transfer the knowledge to these otherwise nicely uniformed and equipped zombies. In my head, they had been killed and buried in a mass grave (yes, in full kit this time), and covered in earth. One has to put aside the question as to why they continue to hold their muskets at all, let alone in the regulation style.
I'll repeat a story I read in an Architectural Digest about a nobleman who, after the Napoleonic Wars, purchased a number of former service horses from the reensconced Bourbon government. One day, he was amazed to find them in formation and executing battlefield maneuvers without any riders guiding them. This was a habit so ingrained in them that they continued to model it long after the necessity for it was removed. Zombies carry their muskets in much the same way: habit and muscle memory.
Lesson du jour: use far less paint than medium. I used ProAcryl's Drab Brown for the earthiness as opposed to a black earth more suitable for agriculture. I took a deep breath and started with the grenadier. The mix was very thick and to my horror, basically covered every single detail, which put me in a terrible panic. I added more medium, then some water to the mix. I used a wet brush to remove it from the faces, which I had worked hard on. I kept thinning it down and wiping each one as I went rather than letting it sit. The Newsh was hard to remove from the first few as the pigments were too strong and sticky and it was not easy getting into the tighter spaces.
The drybrush guy says using a finger gets you the best results. He also drybrushes on his hands to test things. I'm more genteel than that and tried those little eye shadow brushes. That worked ok, but they didn't seem to be wiping away much, just moving it around. One swipe and the surface is already polluted. I ended up using my paint tag (old t-shirts) and that worked much better as there were plenty of clean spots with which to wipe.
In my panic, however, I also found I was wiping too hard - hard enough to remove paint underneath the Newsh. You can see several coat edges and fingers, and other high spots were wiped down back to the black primer - criminy! Luckily, they were small, and I just put the Newsh back on those places to indicate where stubborn dirt stains have remained.
And though they all looked suitably earthy, there was a monochromatic look to it all. I did a light drybrush of tan over the whole thing to bring some contrast and detail back. I touched up some of the noses that were now black, added some blood effects to facial wounds, mouths and finger tips, then dotted on spots of dried blood where the coats were too flat and without folds. I thought about doing another darker earth color on the coats but chickened out at the end.
If I include stones on a base, I typically integrate them when I texture the base and hide the bevel on puddle bases, BEFORE I prime. I like to think the primer gives it some extra adhesive properties while also providing a uniform basecoat. There are then one or two lighter, bigger rocks on each base. I started with a black prime - rattle can.
This was followed by a layer of the Pro-Acryl Drab Brown, upon which were glued tufts from Shadow's Edge Miniatures called 6mm Prairie Rocky Gray Natural. I wanted a stone base underneath the rocks, which these did in one go with grass over some kind of dark ballast. Innovative! This took up some space to help conserve my precious Krautcover's A Tale of Grimdark (marvelous stuff!), which came next to fill the remaining space on the base surface. Finally, a splash of Battlefield: Green Grass from Army Painter to tie it into all of my existing terrain pieces. As you know, for all minis that are not part of existing forces, I aim to have three different textures and three different colors on all bases to keep it interesting.
In Progress Shots:
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| This is the basecoat brown for what was to be undyed wool for these coats. |
Rushed Action Shots:
The basing came out the best! Overall, these are fine. Newsh is scary. My mix wasn't quite right and I'll need to try darker colors (but thinner) for next time. I'll also have to be gentler with the wiping part so as not to take the paint with it. Before you learn you gotta fail!
As always, thank you for looking. Questions, comments, and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858
