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 GrimDork wrote:
Nice work! I like the zombies. Not perfect but fairly cheap especially the rate they were going for during the KS. Somewhere in there with bones minis but hard plastic. Lot of fun with other kits too. The dude hunched over nomming is a bit of a static thing .

I see soldiers and bio suits but you didn't see any civilians in the mix? I admit I used a few fantasy zombies to make dresses but I've got a couple guys with jeans and shirts out of my pile. Maybe the odd shoulder pad but hey, maybe they're back in style

All of the male torsos have armor. The only non-armored one is female in a tank top, so not many civilians in the mix, I'm afraid. May some WGF zombies could add some variety, but I already have 80 of these plus my SW strain zombies, so I can't seem to make myself want to get any more.

you need to get into zombicide , that abomination looks great

I've thought about it, but the miniature count and buy-in cost are both high enough to result in divorce . Best to wait a while I think...

Nice.great work on the zombies. Really nice work.

EDC

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I've thought about it, but the miniature count and buy-in cost are both high enough to result in divorce . Best to wait a while I think...

The longer you wait the more vested you are in the marriage. It's better to get into zombicide now before you get too invested in the marriage. That way when the Zpocalypse does happen (and it will), your not held down with baggage like wives and kids.

One final unit for June-- Forge Guard from Deadzone:




I got one set of these guys with my FF stuff from DZ1. I actually assembled the leader right after they arrived, but then couldn't decide how to paint them up. Green and gold? Blue and gold? Steel? In the end, I opted to copy the studio paint scheme. I went with AP monster brown, with a couple of drybrushings of monster brown/skeleton bone mix, followed by my homebrew dark brown glaze. The black parts are Delta Ceramcoat charcoal grey with an edge highlight of AP armor grey, the metal is AP gunmetal, all glazed with Payne's Grey. I painted the eyes, but they are so teeny-tiny that you can't really tell. I feel like they need some spot color like rank or unit markings, but they work well enough as is, and come in on time for the June deadline in the Very Many Painters' Challenge.

Here's a group shot:


And here's all the stuff I painted in June (minus the Plague Swarms, which I forgot to unpack for this photo):


For round two of the Too Many Painters' Challenge, I plan to finally paint all the Oldhammer Melniboneans I've been hanging on to for all these years, but first I have to clear off some half-finished stuff cluttering up my painting space. Watch this space for updates.

No few work on the FF. The solid color is very minimalistic and I think suits true armored warriors. No crazy papers waxed onto the armor or capes.

Yeah the forge guard look good, solid simple scheme like Theo said.

Thanks, guys, that makes me feel better. I was beginning to think that they were too plain, since no one was commenting

I may still go back and add insignias or something if I can find something suitable.

I'm considering doing the 'basic brown' that the studio has going on, but it's a fallback in case what I'd like to do falls through. So in other words, it's quite possible

The FF background leads me to believe that all of the models should look professional rather than decorative-- Brokkrs should be dressed like a road crew, steel warriors in military colors-- so a limited, muted palate works best, IMO.

Yeah. Plus usually easier to do in bulk and boy did I end up with bulk. Gonna try stone grey a certain way first but I may very well end up with the functional brown backup.

Really great stuff josh

Like the forge father scheme so much that I'm tempted to go back on my steal warriors and re do the armour......

Great stuff, Josh. I've just been catching up on your stuff as I slog through the Tale of Gamers June update and add as many links as I can. Your plague look especially awesome/disgusting.

Thanks, Az. I actually like the Plague stuff that came in DZ1, and their being gribbly makes it easier to just ignore all the restic mold lines during the prep stage. Speaking of which...

I usually try to avoid postin WIP photos, as my unfinished stuff is just too sloppy for me to want to share. I'm a little stuck on these guys, though:


I have three archers and three spearmen all at this stage. Working from my (possibly faulty) memory of Melniboneans wearing yellow armor, I went with bronze for the armor plates, using this tutorial. The green wash stage doesn't really show up, so I might just leave it off for the rest. I'm having a hard time deciding on what to do with the undersuits. My first inclination is white, working up from either grey or ivory, or both in the case of the archers' loincloth thing. However, I'm not sure if that's really the direction I want to go. So, I put it to the three or four loyal readers of this P&M blog-- what colors should I use under the armor?

Gah no idea. I kinda like them how they are now really, bronze and dark. May look good with white too though, elves always managed to pull it off.

I had considered doing black and/or dark grey, but rejected it for some reason. I'll add it back to the list, I guess.

Not sure on the color, what army are they going with? And what other colors are in that army. My first inclination would be purple though.

I really like 'em as is. The brass/gold is lush. Maybe just add some brighter highlights to the chainmail of the guy on the right and the cloth of the guy on the left as they get a little lost in the darkness.

 Januine wrote:
I really like 'em as is. The brass/gold is lush. Maybe just add some brighter highlights to the chainmail of the guy on the right and the cloth of the guy on the left as they get a little lost in the darkness.

Apart from flesh and armor, everything is still just black gesso, so there is nothing but darkness so far.

So far, black seems to be the consensus, but I'll do the chainmail and fur today and wait for a few more replies.


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 Theophony wrote:
Not sure on the color, what army are they going with? And what other colors are in that army. My first inclination would be purple though.

They're not for any specific army right now. I have a lot of OOP Citadel elves that I can merge them with eventually, but those were all painted 20+ years ago and I'd be embarrassed to field them now. So, these guys are a blank slate.

I'm really not sure on the undersuits. Black works, as Melniboneans should probably look vaguely sinister at best anyway. A dark crimson would go well with the gold, but might be too rich in colour for what you're after? I can definitely see the green on them, though - and it's supposed to be subtle after all.

Hm. I'm not sure crimson body suits would work, but every model has a scarf tied around his thigh like David Lee Roth, so that might be a good place for spot color...

Well, I meant something like really dark "Wine" or "Mahogony" as seen in this pic. Much more then the crimson in the pic. Sinister rather than bright.




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In fact - imagining these colours on a model, I'd go with "Mahogony or a shade or two darker in fact - for the "reddish" suggestion, anyway.

I also like black - as a desaturated colour (ok, shade) option - the gold would remain the focus either way, but using any shade of red woud make the model much "richer" while the black would make them much colder.

Hm. I'll throw a couple of test models together and see which looks best.

I quite like both the purple and red ideas, though I think you'd want to keep to a dark finish with either colour.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The first six have about one more day's worth of brush time to finish them off. I threw together these two to see which color works better for the under suit:


They both look good IMO, and they are both roughly as easy to paint. What do you all think?

Reckon the left fella. Both look grand but Mr'. Leftie pips it

I like the left as well, could just be because he is helmet less though.

I like the black undersuit with reddish towel.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback and advice. After some trial and error, I have managed to finish the first set of Melniboneans:



First, some virtually identical spearmen. This was pretty much par for the course when these models were new, of course, and the helmets add just enough variety that I think these guys would work as a ranked unit as well as part of a skirmish warband. The bronze armor is Vallejo Tinny Tin-> AP strong tone ->50/50 Tinny Tin and Glorious Gold-> Glorious Gold, all followed by a very thin green wash. The chainmail is AP gunmetal with a Payne's Grey glaze, and the furs are various browns or greys. These guys were pretty easy to paint, not the least because all of Jes Goodwin's older sculpts quite exaggerated enough-- no subtle transitions here!

The shields were something of a challenge. One of the defining traits of Melnibone is the use of dragons, and I wanted that to be reflected in their heraldry. Arcane Armorials let me down, as did the BOLS space marine transfers project, so I ended up freehanding a modified Mortal Combat dragon. I'm not sure how well it worked, but at least they are done, and I didn't have to spend any money shields from a Bitz retailer.




I cranked out these three archers at the same time, using the same techniques. I seem to recall that Melnibonean archers used bones made of either bone or horn, which is why I went with the ivory here. The guy on the left with the open helmet originally had a raised visor, but somewhere along the line it got cut off and filed down. These guys, along with all of the other 50 or so models I have from this line, traded hands in my old gaming group several times. Some where painted to the standards of 20-something me, others were primed with the terrible white spray primer that Ral Partha used to make, and all of them spent some time soaking in acetone-based nail polish remover before painting.

Finally, a group shot:


I have eight more archers primed with their bases sanded. Now that I have the paint scheme figured out, they should be a snap to finish. Watch this space.