These Nazi Zombies Can Go To HELL!

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....If they didn't already come from Hölle!

Todays post is a work in progress. I'll be updating throughout the day in between painting these %$$###k'ing Nazi Zombies.

I honestly thought this was going to be a fun aside. Tip for Mike or anyone producing Nazi Zombies - they are DEAD! They would have been stripped of kit, no webbing! Please, no webbing! Jim Bowen's superb Gotterdammerung range got it RIGHT!

OK, as these were Zombies I started with spraying them with a Humbrol enamel Field Grey from a can that was mmm##pphh years old. Worked a treat. I used this several years ago to great effect on my German 'Stalingrad' collection after noticing in photos of German troops at Stalingrad that they were covered in tons of dust - this seemed a practical instant method of highlighting & weathering the miniatures at the same time!

I thought to myself Nazi Zombies - lot's of grey masonry and earth dust on them - do the same.

This time I added an extra step - basecoated Field Grey, washed with a watered down Citadel Badaab Black. With the first batch, I slapped over the whole miniature - MISTAKE! Rather than defining the creases, seams, folds etc - it just made the entire uniform dark green - %$$###! Had to go back and drybrush the lot Field Grey again.

Lesson learnt, I used a smaller brush to add the Baadab Black where necessary on the remaining 30 odd figures, then drybrushed the lot with Citadel Fortress Grey.

Where I am now doing my head in, is having to paint all their boots and webbing black. But I've come up with a quick and easy technique......thin the black so that it's semi opaque and brush it liberally over the boots and webbing straps/ammo pouches - what you'll find is that the Field Grey comes through on the highlights making the black leather look worn.

The straps of the webbing have three surfaces - top and two sides, with a small brush you would probably have to paint these with separate strokes, but with a semi-opaque 'wash' - thicker than a Citadel wash, and a size '6' brush, the black runs into the sides and colours but the top and edges but again, gives it an instant highlight/worn look - which will be further enhanced by the final drybrushing.

Whilst at it, I thinned the black paint a little more and then ran it into the deepest creases, over the facial features to create depth and along seams, before drybrushing the figures with Fortress Grey, including hands, faces and hair. If you think you've overdone it on the webbing a quick Badaab Black or Gryphone Sepia will rectify.

UPDATE:

Features. I now used Vallejo Camouflage Green to drybrush with a 'o' size brush over the hands and faces, then added Vallejo Elf Flesh to the green and lightly this time drybrushed again.

At this point - the figures look pants! I am completely and utterly disheartened! Time for a Vodka!

UPDATE:

Refreshed, I dappled Elf Flesh on the ends of the severed limbs followed by GW Scab Red, then slightly thinned the Scab Red to stain the mouths/faces, fingers and some areas of the uniforms and boots.

All is forgiven. The 'blood' effects have brought the minis to life (so to speak!). They look GREAT (for Zombies) and I'm bloody, ;-) delighted.

THOUGHTS:

I could have made this easier on myself and had fewer steps - I know for the next batch. In fact I'm tempted to go full 'Hollywood Field Grey' - use GW Adeptus Battlegrey as base and use GW Gryphone Sepia, Graveyard Earth to shade/highlight.

The bareheaded minis are great, can't fault them at all. The heads with German helmets are I'm sorry to say, sad representations of the Wehrmacht M35 and looks far closer to the Spanish M26. Some better than others. Luckily I have several old Battlefront Germans whose heads will be given up in a greater cause for the next batch. The peak caps of the officers - mmmmmm - I left these minis out of this round of painting and again, will use spare German heads with helmets and field caps instead.

I'm encouraged enough to convert a sample of a Modern Zombie young lady running with telephone handset and severed cable that Mike sent me. I'm going to give her a sidecap and change the outfit with Green Stuff to turn her into arespectable imitation of a 'Luftwaffenhelferin', and go through my Peter Pig and Battlefront minis to see who else can be converted in a Zombie Nazi!

Cheers
Mark
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