“A tale of two Challenges” (Zom’tober & Apocalypse Me)

Everyone likes a bargain, and this month I’m getting a “two for one” on painting challenges (yeah me!), as not only is it “Zom’tober” the time of the year when the un-dead get a little love (and paint) in the run up to Halloween, but “Dedicated Dave Stone” (perhaps that should be Dead’icated? 😁 No suit yourself!) is also running another challenge with his “Apocalypse Me” challenge, where you paint up figures connected to your apocalypse of choice (Zombie, Nuclear, Squirrel uprising, whatever floats your boat, oh yes, Ecological counts too ⛈), So, ever one to jump on a band wagon (or two), I’m entering both with my month of zombie painting, I have three a week for the next four weeks, based, photographed, primed and all ready for paint. For fun I thought I’d give each a little bit of backstory, so here we go with the first three…

I started all three with their flesh, and in my usual way I picked three colours this time Mid-grey, stone green and pale blue and mixed them on the figure (basically I blobbed all three on and swirled them about into each other till all the flesh was covered), then added there eyes and mouths in black, with white pupils in the eyes and cream teeth in the mouths. Then turning to each individually….

Zoe, had been on a lot of bad dates! There was that guy who brought his mum along, or the one who was only four foot one tall, and oh god! There was that one who played with “little soldiers!” urrgh! So when “Snake” turned up she thought she might finally have hit the jackpot, OK he was a little rough looking clad as he was in black leather, but all girls like a “bad boy” now don’t they, even when he turned out to be a flesh eating zombie who chewed her arm off, it still sadly didn’t even crack the top five of worst dates ever….💀 So after her flesh was completed I started the rest of her by painting her legs in saddle, before dry-brushing them in Eurasian flesh (strangely I never use this colour for actual “flesh”). Her skirt was painted dark red, and I was going to highlight it in bright red but then I thought (blood! Doh!), so instead I mixed a little pink burgundy with some polish crimson and painted the resultant pink on instead, as this would hopefully allow the blood I added later to be seen. Her blouse I did in coffee and cream, and her belt and shoes I left black but highlighted them with dark grey. I also did her bracelet and belt buckle in copper highlighted with a touch of bright gold.

Cody, had been shooting hoop’s with his friends when the “Zom’s” staggered into the park, “Man, we can easily outrun these undead jerks!” had been the response of the teenagers and so they had begun a game of tossing the ball to each other over and around the stumbling deceased, by the time they realized that more and more of them had poured into the park, all the exits were blocked with ravenous brain-eaters, the rest as they say is history (as were Cody and his mates)…💀 Cody’s shirt was first painted coffee and then highlighted with cream. Then his “cut-off” jeans were undercoated with a mix of ocean blue and light blue, before being highlighted in just light blue. His “sneakers” were next, an undercoat of cream was followed by white highlights here. I then added a little royal blue to the sneakers soles and laces.

“Oh Crap, I’m going to die in this god-awful sweater!”, possibly not the most profound last words ever uttered, but for Jeff they were perhaps the most heartfelt, as he’d almost escaped detection from the horde of undead that had burst into the office Christmas party by ducking under the buffet table, unfortunately he accidently knocked the button that started the “tinny” rendition of “Oh Christmas tree” and flashing lights from the “hysterical” woolen gift his mother had bought him…💀Jeff’s fatal jumper was first undercoated in Navy blue, then highlighted in royal blue, then I added the Christmas tree design in vert green, with added highlights of light green here and there, next I added some dots of orange to represent the lights. Coffee and cream were used for the collar and cuffs of the jumper next and while I was at it I added some random dots in the same as snowflakes. His trousers were next, dark and mid grey forming the base and highlights here. And chocolate brown with leather highlights saw to his shoes, his exposed brain (not shown in the photo) was painted pink burgundy and highlighted with more of the same with a little cream added to it.

All three then had their hair painted in more chocolate brown with the same lightened with some cream dry-brushed over this for the highlights here. Then it was time to “gore” them up a “tad” ruby red was applied first then smaller “highlights” of bright red were put over this as “fresher” patches of blood. After all this the figures were given the obligatory once over with the Strong tone Quickshade” before their bases were painted up in in chocolate brown, khaki, coffee and scenic green as per usual. This was of course followed by a little summer mix hairy grass, and then a final blow over with matt varnish “sealed the deal” as it were.

First three down nine more to go, please check out Simon and Dave’s respective blogs from more information about these two challenges, and to register to take part….

https://www.fantoricalwargaming.com/post/lead-mountain-musings-judge-dredd-zomtober-2021

https://wargamesculptorsblog.blogspot.com/2021/10/apocalypse-me.html

So till next time, unpleasant dreams……cheers Roger.