How to paint Axis Zombies: Step by Step

[Psykostevo 3]

 So I opened the box not knowing what to expect. First thing I noticed was how each miniature was in its own little zip bag. I find that odd because none of the online reviews I saw mentioned that. I do see how the poses of a lot of the minis are too far forward like they are tripping and falling. 

 

My first gripe is how soft the plastic/rubber is that these minis are made of. But I have to say that the sculpts are top notch!

 

I am going to start with the minis primed the way that they come right out oF the box. I figure most of us will just start that way, and why risk losing detail over another basecoat of primer. 

 

Step 1: cut a hole in the box, take your zombies out of the box  then make her open the box. 

 

[Dakkon426 0]

 A lot of those zombies look like they need to be straightened, they are not supposed to be bent that far.

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 STEP 2: after correcting the poses of two of the zombies, I painted the bases, boots, and fists of all of the zombies. I just took GW black undercoat and watered it down. 

This is when I discovered that I don't care for the default primer. 

 

 

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 STEP 3: I painted their entire uniform with a thinned down coating of Greatcoat Grey from the P3 line. The I painter the faces with a mix of snot green and rotting flesh. 

 

Hang in here with me. 

 

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 STEP 4: the washes. In this step we apply a liberal wash of Devlan Mud only to the grey uniform. If you skipped the previous step of basecpating with Greatcoat Grey this will not work. It is important to let the washes air dry naturally. Do not try to artificially speed this process up. 

To the flesh I apply a wash of Secret Weapon Algae Wash. One drop from the bottle was enough to coat all 5 heads. 

Many would consider. Wash to be one of the last steps of painting a miniature. I am using it as a guide to show me where to paint my next coats. Plus it darkens the model before I get into my primary colors and highlights. 

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 STEP 5: The Gauntlets- while the washes were drying I carefully held the minis by their bases and painted their weapons in combinations of Pig Iron and Molten Bronze. Both from the P3 paint line. This was not a dry brushing, use a small detail brush and wet the paint down very slightly and apply the paint only to the raised surfaces. Leave the black in all of the creases. 

 Now that the washes are dry you can see how they have lightened up. 

[Psykostevo 3]

 STEP 6: Let the wet brushing begin! - now I did my first layer highlights. This technique requires watered down paint, and you trace all of the high points on the model. Imagine you are painting a two dimensional surface rathe than a 3 dimensional surface. This requires a fine detail brush, good coordination, and knowledge of brush control and paint surface tension. I will continue this step through a few highlight stages. Feel free to stop when your patience runs out or you have achieved your desired brightness. 

I re did the suit with highlights of Greatcoat grey, and the flesh with Thrall flesh. 

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Back of the suits so you can follow along.

 

[Lska2 0]

 Heh, the suits start to look interesting pretty fast. I'm also interested how the heads will come out, i tried washing the TB guys skin with devlan mud and badab black but it was a bad idea, they seemd like they just came out from coal pit:D  On the other hand these are zombies.. Anyway keep them coming !

[Ghrik 20]

Psykostevo said:

 

 So I opened the box not knowing what to expect. First thing I noticed was how each miniature was in its own little zip bag. I find that odd because none of the online reviews I saw mentioned that.

 

 

I hope that FFG will remove these bags, or at least increase the size, as most of the bent weapons and arms are because of these things.

 

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Second stage of highlights, the paint gets lighter in color and I paint less and less surface area each level. 

 

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Third level highlights. Lighter again an now it starts to get very Open to interpretation

 

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My now I try to focus my highlights in places where light naturally hits the model. This add depth and contrast. Being colorblind helps at this stage. 

 

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 Finally finished. Haven't settled on the bases yet. Not sure if I like them. Pictures don't even come close to doing them justice. Alli have is a camera phone :-(

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 Tried to get a close up. Keep in mid that I didn't use flash on the camera. So anything that looks reflective is actually a highlight that I painted in. 

I make black look like it has depth on the boots I highlight with Hawk Torquise and Chaos Black mixed together. Then add codex grey in a small quantity to the mix for final touches. 

[Psykostevo 3]

 I had a feeling it was the bags. aT-43 never came in bags and their minis were in the correct poses. 

[Lska2 0]

 I know the pain of the bad camera, i will borrow some good canon for making pictures of my minis, i get a feeling that a bad photo can destroy the best paint job. Faces wash came out very nic but i think i schouldn't use wash on normal skin;)

[Psykostevo 3]

 I'll see if I can get better lighting and better pics. 

[Psykostevo 3]

 Here's an outdoor photo with natural lighting. I need a camera with Macro/micro capability. 

[JigBakerSugar 0]

 Are the photos only upside down for me, or are they that way for everyone?

[Loophole Master 2]

No, they are. Upside down and VERY heavy.