Paint options for zombies and the undead.

[shaun5603]

So I got bribed in painting the new zombicide game when it released, the one thats on Kickstarter now. Don't know much about the game or the models as I stick with 40k and fantasy or what ever it going to be called by the end of the week.

As for what I going to be painting is everything that comes with knight level pledge and maybe few add-on's as well. So judging from what being offer up I am set to be painting a lot of the undead.

At first I was bribed with a bottle of Macallans 21yr, and now because this is no small task I get to keep the paints as well. But after looking at my paints ( all colors from scale75 range and few gw paints and some oil pants). We cant find good undead colors and flesh tones that would work and give the desire outcome. ( there no set time line but rather pushing for quick turn around because it designed as xmass gift)

What brands offer good tones for painting up zombies and other undead. I have been eyeing up scale fantasy range to add to my collection cant say enough good things about paints. There my top pick I was going to order them anyway, so leaning to them. But I want to way the options out first and let buddy deiced what brand to go with.

Army painter has paints made for game, so that what I first suggested, but after reading up on them hearing mix stuff about their spray primers and colors in general.
They seam like there designed to paint fast and effective which would help with timeline, and range looks pretty straight fwd.
Thoughts on them?

Vallejo air colors and special effects, they look like there designed for painting dead and dying things. But what other colors from their range would work with them.
These are very popular paints and tons of positive reviews and AB ready so that helps on time line and keeping color consistent.
Thoughts on them?

Did I miss any other brands that make good color's for painting the undead and dying? Any thoughts and input would be greatly appreciate .

 

[oistene]

I would think all brands have suitable colors. It all comes down to what you're going to do with this, and your level as a painter.

I personally use a mix of GW and Vallejo on my. I prime them with Army Painter Necrotic Flesh, base coat with my regular paints and shade with Army Painter Strong Tone. Quick and dirty, if I were to only use 'normal' paints and do my best with every zombie, it would never get done. You might be faster and/or better at painting fast than I am.

I have some Vallejo air that I use with brush - they are great. Vallejo Game Air is supposedly great too, but I haven't tried them. Stay away from Vallejo Game, they are my least favourite of everything I own.

I mix various paint lines, and I'm really happy with that. The paints work well together, so don't be afraid to get a few colors here and a few there. If you want concrete examples on paints to get - how should a zombie look like in your eyes? Pale? Green? Something else? On my zombivores I often bring out the GW Pallid Wych Flesh, and add a bit of purple, blue or green shading. GW Ogryn Camo could also be an option. Also, I use GWs Blood for the Blood God for finishing touches, though I hear Tamiya has a better (but toxic) alternative.

 

[shaun5603]

Thanks for the input, I not very skilled painter basic understanding of most skill sets. So this is challenging project for me which is nice because I will be able progress as painter.

I would like to paint each one with subtle changes from each other, so going mix stages of decayed flesh is preferredl. Using the mix of brush work and AB work will help the time line.

Have you had any issues with Necrotic Flesh paint not sticking?

Yeah I have no problem mixing paints from different companies it never hurts to have options when it comes to shades of colors. GW technical line of paints are great big fan of them. The Tamiya red mixed with smoke color is that what you referring too?

 

[oistene]

Yeah, mass-producing zombies is great for practising brush control, I did the same. I just got an airbrush, so now I'll again use zombies to practise. If you want to speed things up, I suggest looking into Quick Shade. It is quite expensive, but a box is enough for hundreds of models. It also provides a great varnish, so you can skip that step later. However, if you rather want to practise doing your own shadows, forget the Quick Shade and do it the 'normal' way.

If you want an easy way to make lots of variations, take a few colors - normal flesh, pale flesh, light green, maybe a few beige or light browns - and use different inks on them, as mentioned blue, purple or green, or even browns. Just mix it up. Three colors and three inks gives nine different variations, and you can add on more as you go.

Never had any issues with it not sticking. The only issue is that it clogs up the model if you are not careful. The models need cleaning - I put them in luke warm water with some soap, and let them sit for a while. I then scrub each quickly with an old toothbrush, and rinse off the soap.

I don't have the Tamiya, but I think that is the one. If you like the GWs, they should do fine.

 

[shaun5603]

Thanks,

I had planed on cleaning them up I wash all my kits,concerning them how they made like GW plastic or more cheaper version. High levels detail etc? I would assume there not resin as the offer a ton models for very cheap price even being kickstarter event.

Their quick shade stuff is that what comes in giant can, it looks like normal wood satin just thinned a bit, I remember back in day that was wood stain was secret "tint" that no one talked about.

I think I going to pick up a box of the models to get a feel for them and see how there are, and level of detail. I don't want to ruin this project for as meant for someone els.

 

[oistene]

Detail is not so good, but it has gotten better for every set, so I have high hopes for Black Plague. And yeah, the giant box is the stuff.

 

[breff007]

Any paint brand will do. I painted up bunch of revenants from Sedition Wars really quick by using just washes. Paint the flesh a pale skin tone or even a pale blue grey. Get some bright colours like purple, green, red, yellow etc and thin them down a lot. Blob them on in different areas, let them bleed into each other. When dry go back over most of the areas with the base colour. Practise a bit first to get a good idea of his much to blob on. Same thing can be done with sepia and purple ink (thinned a bit) or GW washes. Let them bleed together a bit on the mini. You'll get good contrast between warm and cold and they'll look bruised and a bit gross. Then go over the highlights with the thinned base.

 

[Splurch]

I'm a fan of Reapers Moldy Skin, it works really well for a base and if you throw a wash on it then some other "dead" colors over that it does a good job of looking like dead flesh without a tremendous amount of effort. If you have something specific in mind though, I'd recommend you get together a few colors, ie flesh, green, grey, and mix them up until you find something you like. Once you've got that, you can use it and adjust the ratio's slightly for every group you paint, will give a variety of skin colors while letting them all match to a degree. You can also do this if you end up liking something right out of the bottle, add a little green to one batch or a little grey to another, it helps break up a horde looking identical.

 

[shaun5603]

Cool thanks guys, going to these ideas a try.

 

[Jhigga15]

Vallejo makes a set for the undead - Vallejo Product Number: 72213

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/special-effects-set/news/34

I'm not a pro painter but Zombies you can make look good easy, they are bloody and Dirty... Just enjoy yourself.

 

[Antar000]

You can always mix up colors, and if you have a wet palette, it'll stay good for quite some time. My advice is (as gross as it may be) to look up corpses on google images or some such resource. Bloated corpses, rotten meat, krokodil users, bog mummies, and I'm sure you can think up more. I'm about to back the same kickstarter and I'm doing the same as you, practicing my dead body skills. Experiment. Corpses go from black to pale to greenish to purplish, and everything in between. Make a mistake? Roll with it. And this isn't even mentioning things like White Walker style wight zombies, or fluorescent green-blooded Re-Animator ones. There are a million kinds of dead bodies, and as many ways to paint them.

edit: and for blood, go with Tamiya clear red paint: it's AMAZING and helps get make the blood look realistic. http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2010/05/tutorial-how-to-paint-blood.html
In addition, for some real nasty special effects, try some UHU glue. http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2009/10/tutorial-making-ugly-strings-and-stuff.html
Links not mine, but from a great site.

 

[shaun5603]

Those vellejo paints looks nice.

I seen fair share of corpses in real life already and immune to looking at them so have pretty straight fwd idea how i would like them too look, in different stages of decay and death. Just getting to paint to do what i like is tricky part lol.

Yeah the tamiya red is great stuff i add sometimes with GW blood for blood god makes works well and helps bring the blood to life. Add crush glass is something i tried out of few bases to just see it isn't bad but less is more i learn with that. Never hear of UHU glue before thanks for pointing that out going to add that stuff to the tool box. I have been using still water effects from time to time. Works well just need more practice with it.

 

[Antar000]

The only problem with blood for the blood god (besides the GW price) is that it's not transparent. So for really thick blood it's great but otherwise meh. As for UHU, it's hard to get if you live in the USA, but most polymer glues work fine, some thicker or thinner than others but it's all about trial and error. As for getting colors to do what you want? glazes are your friend. If your highlights are too stark, or the color is too bright, or not saturated enough, or whatever, a glaze or three will bring the colors back to how you want them. Also, Macallan 21 year? Nice. I'm more partial to Lagavulin myself, but Scotch is Scotch.

 

[shaun5603]

Yeah GW is thick good for some effects and other it too much , but it takes well to thinning too. I I don't thin with water mainly because depending on where you live different tap water dries with trace elements and minerals which it cloudy look. Yeah here in the states I think gorilla glue is close to UHU. I went ahead and order my self a set of zombicide game, it look cool, and I figure it wouldn't hurt to have test models on so I don't mess up this kids gift.

Yeah Macallan is my favorite single malt out there, highly recommend it. Stateside its on pricer side, but we both travel thru Dubai a lot so picking up there for faction of cost. I'll have to try out lagavulin.


I want to try some weathering powers for add mold and other patches and different effects on the skin.

 

[oistene]

Zombicide is a GREAT game, I doubt you'll regret it!

 

[WTS]

I'm painting tons of Zombies and Zombie style minis at the moment for a nurgle cultist army.

I've got two skin tones going at the moment, one that I've started with a war boss green from GW and then worked up to Ogryn Camo (gw), then I've given it a heavy wash of black and brown inks mixed 1 part black 2 parts brown and loads of water. From that I've highlighted back up with Model Air egg shell green, it's a nice sickly looking green colour and then given them a wash of purple and then highlighted again with a bit of egg shell green.

The other colour is a more pallid flesh tone. For that I've started with a light skin tone, washed with a flesh tone ink, highlighted up heavily with a really light flesh tone with a hint of purple in it, then washed with a really light green ink and then highlighted with pure light flesh, you can always highlight around the eyes etc with more purple etc if you want to give them more of a look.

It depends on the feel you want, I've played around with adding more purple to the second colour scheme to give a look of varying states of decay etc.

 

[shaun5603]

Working in a lot of inks and wash seams to be great away mimicking different shades and stages of decaying flesh. And using different colors of flesh tones as base and working up from there. I have done a few test colors on bases to see how they dry and what they would like. Another I thing I going to try out is tracing vein lines with deep purples and black's to give virus like spread effect.

Trail and error with weathering powders is going well, At first the moldy patches didn't come out as envision so going to try it few more times. The powders we great for dirt effect and dusty look.

Are the models single caste, i.e. build on to base and one solid piece? Looking basing options for giving them unified theme.

 

[WTS]

The idea about the veins is a good idea, I've kind of done the same thing with the purple wash to make it look the veins have burst under the skin almost to give off a diseased effect.

 

[Antar000]

for mold, you can mix up some flock with matte varnish/pva glue, and maybe a little paint: it'll look like moss, if not mold exactly. For veins, always remember that less is more, and having them spread from one site (where they were first infected, presumably), can add a bit of 'story' to the mini. Oh, and Gorilla Glue isn't what you want, unless there's some kind of very sticky, stringy, non-expanding kind: Goop automotive should do the trick, though it's a bit thicker and the strings will be similarly thicker.

 

[Wyrmypops]

When I did my zombicide I had to keep it interesting for me. Things that wouldn't neccesarily be noticed by others but makes factory line painting a bit less dull to do.
A tray of zombie minis, of say 4 rows of different minis, with say 7 columns of repeats.
Each column in a different skin tone. Untainted Caucasion skin tone scheme #1, untainted Caucasion skin tone scheme #2, untainted darker skin tone scheme #1, untainted darker skin tone scheme #2, then a green tinted skin tone, a purple tinted skin tone and a blue tinted skin tone.
Time to block fill some clothing.
Row 1, column 1, do the biggest area (say, trousers) in a selected colour, say denim blue, then go diagonal to row2, column 2 to use that colour again, continue diagonally. Once you hit the bottom row can go back up to row 1 with that colour but pick a smaller area (shirt)
Pick a new colour and hit row1, column 2 with it. Then diagonally again through the tray. Can repeat that method through a few colours before finding already painted minis and switch up the direction of the diagonal selection. Row 1 column 7 getting the treatment followed by row 2 column 6.
Won't be long before you find there's just shows and visible underwear left on the models and can just pick them out in whites, browns, greys and blacks to suit.

It's pleasent knowing that no zombie is identical. Enough to mitigate what could otherwise be tedious factory line painting to a relatively lower standard than we'd normally visit on a fancier mini.

GW's technical paints have proved useful for bases. Have fallen in to using 4 different ones smeared on and washed to unify them somewhat - a couple of washes, brown the black to make the outer edge darker bleeding to a black edge - but if I could go back in time I'd do something different with bases to help identify the distinct zombie types. I've had to paint the rims in green or red to really indicate whether one is toxic or berserker.

Have found doing 4 stages for skin/clothing feels about right. Dark-ish basecoat/wash/medium tones/few light highlights. The quality of the minis and sheer amount of them doesn't suggest them as ripe for more effort than that. The wash can be an inclusive brown wash, like army painters strong tone. Applied all over the clothes, it looks suitably zombie-chic.
The medium tones can be slathered on half arsed, not much paint on the brush but not wiped off the brush either so when it goes on a bit like drybrushing more goes down, could consider it "wetbrushing" perhaps. Enjoyable to realise a bit of familiarity with the brush to use the tip and side of the bristles appropriately. Applying highlights as much to finesse the distinction of areas as playing with perceived light as often the sculpt quality leaves something to be desired and the minis can benefit from definition applied through painting.

Then it's time for blood. I've been favouring p3's brown ink. It's a dark red-brown, perfect for dried blood. The hands, mouth and wounds get it most of all. At some points cleaning the brush and smearing it around some makes for some thinned variety with minimal effort.
Then I hit them with varnish. Gloss for strength, followed by matt for effect.
One last stage, splatting a few areas with Tamiya Clear Red for a fresh blood effect. It plays nicely over the dried blood, with variety layered on the opacities provided by the previous bit of thinned smearing. Left until after the matt varnish so as to leave the slick nature of that paint intact.

Doesn't take too long, but long and varied enough I don't feel like a painting monkey chained to a sweatshop desk.