Painting Zombie Plague Minis Part 3. Painting Dirt Nap.

Back to painting ZP minis so next up is Dirt Nap, Tubby's hubby. After getting bitten by someone he supposed to be a panhandler, Dirt Nap drives home and tells his wife about the horrible day he's had. A playful kiss on the neck turns into a nasty bite, Tubby clocks him with a shovel and then decides that she needs to dispose of the body in the flower garden. Then she takes a well earned bath.

But DN was merely stunned and soon burst forth from his gardenia girdled grave to wreak some major havoc!

The Dirt Nap mini comes with a sculpted base topper and a garden gnome accessory. The base topper seemed like a good idea at the time to save material costs but after talking to my casters I've decided not to use toppers in the future. It seems that they take longer to cast than full sized bases and the material cost is so negligible as to be pointless. Live and learn I suppose.

The gnomes will also be available for sale in packs of three.

I decided to glue the topper to the base and attach DN before I started painting him to speed up the process. This limits my ability to reach the bottom parts of the miniature but not to any great degree. The gnomes will be painted separately and attached later.

I love the black cast resin. Makes priming a snap.

No real trick to this other than pinning the zombie and gnome to the base and using thick super glue to help with some of the gaps. The thick glue also helps blend DN into the base as if he's coming out from under dirt. The gnomes were stuck into a piece of balsa wood to assembly line paint them.

We've come for your beer and Skittles.

Here's the whole deal painted and assembled. I'm still impressed with John's sculpting on this one. The face looks damn near real in person.

Behold the rage of the undead American businessman!

Next up: Dead Sexy!

Classic Games Workshop Schematics by "H": Ten Questions for Nicholas Coleman.

H's artist mark from White Dwarf

It was on page 115 of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. In the middle of one of the most creatively dense books of any kind I've ever had the pleasure to own was a hyper-detailed schematic of Mark VI Powered Armour. Besides showing in perfect detail all of the various systems of the armor it was inspiring in its believability and a calm visual pause in the otherwise chaotic book. All these years later this schematic is still amazing to me because it fully sells the idea that this bizarre suit of armor might actually be able to be manufactured and worn. 

Powered Armour schematic from Rogue Trader.

And it felt damned real.

When you play a World War 2 game you know exactly what a Panzer or a Sherman actually is because of the vast amount of documentation that history provides you. Playing a sci-fi game sometimes involves more imagination than true acceptance of something as "real". All of the miniatures, drawings, and paintings of space marine armor can certainly give the concept and the mood of the technology but it took this schematic on page 115 to really make the idea feel real to me. 

Along with the Mark VI armour there were others for Dreadnoughts, vehicles, and other war machines that often served as assembly guides for new GW models and were usually the one image that really focused the concepts for me.

Imperial Speeder first released as part of the Devastators boxed set.

Mole Mortar.

Tarantula mobile weapons platform.

Imperial Guard Rapier

These schematic diagrams were the work of a draughtsman who for years was known only as "H" but who in reality is Nicholas Coleman.

Thanks to the fine folks of the Oldhammer Community and to Mr. Coleman himself for taking the time to answer these questions. (Note: Although H did a huge amount of graphic design work for GW I've decided to focus on his schematic diagrams for this article.)

+++++++

When did you first work for Games Workshop and what was your first project?

First project was Warhammer 40k, that was back in 1987

Land Raider from Rogue Trader.

How did you become involved with Games Workshop, did you already know someone at the company or were they looking for someone with your particular skill-set?

I had a friend that I knew from Rock City, and she knew someone at Games workshop. I don’t remember exactly how it happened but I was looking for some extra money, she talked to John Blanche. He liked the idea of adding technical drawing to Warhammer 40k, so we met and he commissioned me to do the weapons and the armor suit. I think I added the cutaways in the armor.

Fortunately he liked what I did, and as such I got more contract work. The company I was working for had cut backs and I found that I was out of a job. I went to the Games Workshop office to drop off some work. I mentioned what had happened, and John said, “Wait here”. Five minutes later I had an interview and was hired.

Apart from my technical illustrations I was a graphic designer so I ended up doing quite a bit of design work on White dwarf and other games. I also did the board artwork for Dungeon Quest.

Powered Armour Schematic Detail.

Where did you learn schematic drawing? Had you been doing it for long before working for Games Workshop?

I started my career as an Electro/Mechanical Design Engineer and did an engineering apprenticeship. I always had the intention of being a draughtsman (that’s what my dad did for many years). After my apprenticeship I went on to be a contract draughtsman, where I learnt graphic design and technical illustration. All this took maybe 6 years.

During that time I work for some large companies and some government contracts. I did work on some of the big Rolls Royce Engine cut-aways.

Please describe the process that the studio used for producing a miniature and its required schematic. Were the miniatures based on your drawings or vice versa?

The schematics always came after the models.

Eldar D-Cannon.

Eldar Field Artillery.

What techniques did you use to produce the drawings? Were you still using traditional media or had computers shown up yet?

Everything was done by hand back then. All the technical illustrations where done on film with ink pens. I used a variety of ink pens, from 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 pens. I had a full size drawing board with mechanical head. The actual 3D grids used, like the one behind the exploded marine armor I created. I had several at different perspectives. Everything was actually mapped out to scale.

Maps and building illustrations where done with mechanical pencil usually 0.5 with 2B leads.

Color artwork, such as logos where done with an airbrush and Rotoring Inks.

Imperial Dreadnought.

Eldar Dreadnoughts.

Were you interested in the gaming hobby when you started with the company?

I’ve always enjoyed fantasy and Sci-Fi and I did play D&D when I was younger. But I was more into the imagery than anything else.

I enjoyed creating scenarios and stories and planning things out.

Ork Warbike.

Mk 14 "Bullock" Jet-cycle.

Vincent Black Shadow Bike.

Which were more challenging for you, the hard edged mechanical designs like the Land Raider or the more organic designs like the Man Mangler?

The organic were the more challenging. The hard edged mechanical were second nature to me. Being I came from an engineering background I’ve done hundreds of technical drawings and illustrations. From Gas turbines and Jet engines down to individual components.

Man-Mangler Orc Mangonel

Whirlwind Chaos War Machine.

Tenderiser Chaos War Machine.

What was the last schematic that you created for Game Workshop?

The last technical illustration was probably one of the tanks, like the Predator or Rhino. Although I did continue to work for them doing logos, maps and buildings. 

Sabre Tank Hunter. This was a Rhino APC conversion by Tony Cottrell from White Dwarf  #120.

Spartan Terminator Transport. Another Tony Cottrell conversion using a Rhino  and a Land Raider. The leftover bits would be used to make the Sabre. From White Dwarf #119.

Besides schematics what other illustration work did you do for GW?

I did some graphic design and layout for White Dwarf Magazine and other games.

Quite a bit of logo design such as the Harlequins, Imperial Marines, Space Dwarfs to name but a few.

A lot of maps and floor plans.

Building illustrations, and a lot of other minor illustrations. 

I did go on to work with Flame Publications (Tony Ackland, Graeme Davis and Mike Brunton). I also did quite a bit of work for Alternative Armies, including the FireFight logo.

I’ve written some short stories, illustrated some short stories for magazines. Worked on a few projects outside of GW with Pete Knifton. I also did the Logo work for BoltThrower.

I have designed and created my own game, but as of yet have not had any success of finding a publisher, although it did play test well.

A variety of my work can be seen on the website http://www.e-xtasy.com

What sort of work do you do now? Is it related to the type of technical drawings that you did for Games Workshop?

LOL not really. After GW I went on to design Slot Machine artwork and some games. Then I moved to the US and created websites and Web based Casino games.

However now I am an Architect/Senior Software Developer designing multi-tiered web based applications using the Windows dotNET development platform.

However I still do a lot of Graphic Design work and some illustrations. I’ve been using Photoshop since version one. And for more vector based artwork Illustrator (used to use Freehand until Adobe bought it out and killed it).

I still love doing artwork, even though I don’t do as much as I would like, partly because I also love the challenge of creating applications.

H along with other GW artists as caricatured by BiL.

Painting Zombie Plague Minis Part 2. Painting Tubby.

Moisturizer... Moisturizer...

I'll be painting these to a good tabletop level. This means that I want high contrast and clear colors that read quickly from a few feet away. These will look great while playing Zombie Plague but won't win any painting contests.

Art by Ryan Howe. Colors by Brian S. Roe

After the Tubby minis are cleaned and primed it's time to get into the actual painting. The first step is what I call damp-brushing to build up a good base of color without covering all of the black undercoat. Damp brushing leaves a good amount of paint in the brush and will cover well without obscuring detail. The first layer I put down will darken slightly. The next layer is the same color as the first damp brush but is closer to actual dry-brushing with less paint in the brush. I then add some white to the base flesh mix for a third highlight. This is properly dry-brushed to really make the details pop. 

The basic zombie flesh blend I used for Tubby is Vallejo Dark Flesh, a little German Camo Orange Ochre, and a bit of Yellow Green. Since she's basically the same color all over I used a 1/2" flat brush to speed up painting.

Once the base colors have dried for a couple of hours I start applying the washes. The first is a slightly diluted mix of Agrax Earthshade and Thraka Green. I used the big brush again and just made sure to cover the entire mini.

Once the first wash dried I added a layer of Reikland Flesh Shade and then let this dry.

Next up are the various wounds that have been caused by Tubby's bathtub marination. I mixed up a pink with Flesh, Blood Red, and White and then went over the mini looking for obvious areas were the skin seems to be torn or damaged. I did a combination of regular painting and light dry-brushing to make the pink blend into the normal flesh. Then I used a mix of Mechrite Red and Blood Red to paint the centers of the wounds. The wounds were then washed with a mix of Red Ink and Agrax Earthshade.

Finishing the rest of the mini is pretty simple from here on out. The hair was painted a dark reddish brown then drybrushed with Khaki. The teeth were picked out with white. Finally a very light drybrush of light greenish flesh was brushed over the entire mini to bring back the detail. 

The bases were painted brown and then drybrushed with Sand. The gut piles were painted pink and then washed with a mix of Agrax Earthshade and Red Ink. I'm sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the base finishing but I got going on these and didn't want to stall out the painting session by setting up the camera.

Tubby was inspired by the Tar Man zombie from Return of the Living Dead so she'd look perfect crawling from a barrel of toxic waste. 

So here's the first finished mini for the Zombie Plague Kickstarter. This was a great mini to start with since John has sculpted such nice detail that basic dry-brushing and washing creates a good overall paint job.

Next up is the unfortunate husband of Tubby, Dirt Nap!

Painting Zombie Plague Minis Part 1. Tubby Preparation and Basing.

Joe Zombie, Dead Sexy, Timmy, Chelsea, Crissy, John, Dirt Nap, Rose Frum,  Tubby.
These are the nine characters that I'll be painting miniatures of.

I've finally been able to send out most of the reward levels from the Zombie Plague Miniatures Kickstarter so now it's time to focus on painting the $100 level rewards. There are ten of these rewards to do with nine figures each. Ninety figures seems like a discouraging number of minis to paint but given proper preparation and planning they will be finished pretty quickly. 

Prepping and painting large numbers of miniatures always feels like a meditation exercise to me. We I am properly focused on the task hours slip by and I seem to finish the various steps effortlessly. This zen-like state is one of the things that I miss about being able to paint everyday and something that I'm keen to re-learn.

First up will be Tubby, the unfortunate housewife who after being bitten by her infected husband, decides a nice relaxing bath is all she needs to feel better. Unfortunately she's been in the tub for several days and isn't feeling so fresh.

Tubby was inspired by the Tarman zombie from Return of The Living Dead.

The Tubby mini will be a pretty easy paintjob and this will help me get my painting chops up before I tackle the other characters.

I first start by cleaning the Mud & Gutz bases that I'll be using for all of these painted minis. The casting has been done in such a way that there are very few moldlines. There is a triangular bit of plastic that needs trimmed off of the bottom of most of the bases. Flush cutters work well on this. A quick trim with a hobby knife and some sanding gets the job done. Next up I wash them with dish-soap to get rid of dust, mold release, etc and then let them dry.

Next I clean up the Tubby minis with a hobby knife and needle file. These have very light mold lines so clean up goes very quickly. I then clip off all of the base tabs so I can pin mount the minis to the bases.

I use three tools to add pins to minis: a needle file to make a clean, flat surface, a needle tool to make a pilot hole, and my trusty pin-vice to drill the hole. With a mini as small as Tubby it can be difficult to drill a deep enough hole because her feet are so small. Make sure you plan your drilling so that you can at least a couple of millimeters into the part.

I use an old Citadel Miniature trick for marking the base where I want to drill matching holes for the miniature to fit into. I dip the ends of the two wires into paint and then mark the base. This gives a much better idea of where to drill than just eyeballing it.

Notice that the wires are much longer than necessary. Once the glue is dry I just clip them flush
with the bottom of the base.

The Mud & Gutz bases are designed so that minis straddle the various gut piles but if you have trouble finding good, flat footing you can trim away the extra detail easily with clippers or a hobby knife. I used super glue to mount the wires in the minis and then onto the bases.

"We need towels!"

Next in Part 2: Priming and Painting!

Umbelliferan Sketch for World Wasters.

Quick sketch of a "carrot-man" from World Wasters. I went with the idea that they are like mandrake root with several limbs coming off of the main carrot-shaped body. And for some reason I think that they should talk like Clint Eastwood. 

"Umbelliferans are an intelligent ambulatory form of plant life

originating on Beta Kara X in the days of the First Orionion Empire.

Because of their uncanny resemblance, including orange coloration, to

terrestrial carrots, they are sometimes referred to as "carrot-men",

but not usually to their faces. Umbelliferans have extraordinary shooting

skills because of their exceptionally good eye sight."

World Wasters Playtest Edition Re-Issue.

I've been working with my mentor Steve Lortz on republishing his great set of sci-fi skirmish rules called World Wasters. WW is simple and fast, and focuses more on having fun than rules lawyering. Steve also sculpted some great new races for WW including the Bogies, Brain Worms and Back Biters. The miniatures for these will be reissued by Fortress Figures and the rules will be republished and available for download and print on demand.

Here is my redesign of of the cover using the original art by Steve as my guide. I think mine is more subtle.

Originally published in 1993 by Alternate Recreational  Resource Group or ARRG. © 1993 Stephen  L. Lortz.

Colors and graphic design by Brian S. Roe.

Early Realms of Chaos: Zygor Snake-arms and Leaping Slomm Two-Face.

Just a couple of classic Citadel miniatures based on an article in the First Citadel Compendium. This article, called "Mark of Chaos", explained the process for creating chaos-tainted creatures and featured classic John Blanche artwork. These concepts were then sculpted and cast to produce two interesting minis that are full of personality. There was a third miniature from the article, Ngaaranh, a chaos-spawn who was once a harpy but this mini seems to be much harder to find than Zygor and Slomm.

These minis were painted in my classic painting style meaning lots of washes, harsh drybrushing, and of course gloss varnish. If I had two fresh versions of these fellows I'd try something more up to date and smooth but I think this paint job "feels" right. Even with the gloss varnish there are dings and scraped paint caused by too many years of travel.

I'd really like to see Games Workshop go back and revisit concepts like these but as we know they rarely look back this far. So be it, I still think these foul little fellows are beautiful.

Artwork by John Blanche.

Zygor the Night Goblin.

Chaos attributes include, Headless, Tentacles, and Prehensile Tail.

Artwork by John Blanche.

Leaping Slomm Two-Face, Chaos troll.

Chaos attributes: Powerful Legs, Great Fangs, Multiple Heads (one extra), and Bestial Face(s).