Toxic Walkers, coming to get ya!

These Toxic Wakers form Toxic City Mall are particularly fine models. You just have to hand it to the guys at CMON.

Once you get into the painting, the details come to life. I really am impressed with all the odd / broken angles, the skeletal detail along with the torn clothing, boils and spikes. To match all this the faces are superb, especially the eyes. They have real life in there begging to survive.

My first round of painting Toxic models saw me focus on the toxic element. I went for a green skin colour and if I am honest I was not that happy with it. The puddles on the bases worked well so I kept them.

When painting my lady of the night for Pimp Santa I reverted to more normal skin colours and was much happier with the outcome. I have followed that line of thinking for these guys and they are looking great. I particularly like the two guys.

I am learning to use really fine coats of paint. Getting a good even consistency seems to be trick. It can't be too watery or you lose the detail in the casting. It is working well for me.

I have also learned to turn the model in my left hand and offer the tiny pieces of detail to my right hand. I then balance my right hand against my left using the last two fingers while holding the brush between my thumb and first two fingers. I think this has come about since I started to use the magnifying glass. It works particularly well for eyes etc. I can press my right hand quite firmly against my left which creates a very stable platform and takes all the movement out of the tip of the brush.

I have struggled with these pieces of tiny detail for years. This technique has been a revelation. I get the eyes pretty much first time every time. I am so much more confident. It also works really well for the fine high light lines. With these I try to use the side of the brush where possible.

You guys may well be familiar with this technique but I share it for what it is worth. It has sure helped me.

I am down to my final four models from the planned multitudes at the start of the October. Very satisfying indeed.

Santa's little helper

Following the recent line of thinking I went in search of a 'lady of the night' to match my recent pimped up Santa. The whole thing started with  my discovery of this image.

But then I kinda went in a different direction, after I got the block colours in place.

Anyway I thought to myself that one of the female Toxic Walker models might be just be what is needed. The aim was to paint her up in a 'sexy santa' outfit. Great fun. I added a little white edging to the red and it did the trick. I moved away from the green skin tones that I had been using which would have been inappropriate for this theme.

So we now have the 1970's zombie pimp Santa with his very own 'lady of the night'. A lovely couple.

Its just mad how this fine hobby can travel in very unpredictable directions. They will make a really fun addition to the game though.

Zomtober week 2 - working progress

I have been busy on the painting table working on the Toxic Zombies. I have enjoyed the fact that the models are quite a bit different in terms of sculpt. They are much more decayed with bones showing through, lots of boils and spikes and are are posed with more awkward angles. They stand out. I still wanted to paint them differently though and used a rotting green / blue for the skin with green washes. I also placed green toxic puddles on the ground.

Beware the 'Toxic Spray' if you get too close.

Here they are lined up beside the zombies for the original box set. We have both Abombinations, both Fatties and some Walkers.

Survivor Crew Assembley

I am still working on filling the final two slots for the Survivor Crew.

There I was going through each of the characters, reading the various rules and thinking about which way I would go. There of lots of different combinations that would work and be complimentary. Maybe even some that would suit particular scenarios. Then I came across it .....

"AMBIDEXTROUS - The Survivor treats all Melee and Ranged weapons as if they had the dual symbol"

Now you just know that is going to appeal to an Ork player. My mind raced .... that could be two Chainsaws, one in each hand or or or or .......

Just think of the pain and the hurt that could be inflicted.

I really like the sound of Josh and Doug both of whom benefit from this skill in Zombivor form.

Doug will be great because he has Matching Set and also gets a Free Search which can be combined with +1 die: Ranged and then the Ambidextrous skill. So he is great at getting tooled up and Ranged is the way to go.

Josh on the other hand is Melee. He gets Slippery, +1 free Melee Action, +1 re-roll per turn and Ambidextrous.

Handfuls of dice - Joy, bliss - my crew is complete!