18 - Vampire Counts Zombie

This Vampire Counts Zombie was very easy to paint. Broad swathes of solid colors, very little in the way of fiddly bits, and plenty of nooks and crevices in the sculpt to allow for clear and distinct shading. And because it was quite a simple model to paint up, I used it to practice my highlighting to a degree I've yet to attempt. If you look closely, you can see the second - lighter - colors I added to the basecoat of the tunic and the undercoat of the pants. The tunic was painted in Rookwood Red (an Americana craft paint) and the highlight was an Opaque Red from the Delta Ceramcoat line. The pants were the original black primer highlighted with Bridge Grey also from the Ceramcoat line of craft paints. Finally, the hair was also given the highlighting treatment. I basecoated it in Bridge Grey (over the black primer), then highlighted it with white before shading the valleys with the Badab Black Citadel Wash.

Personally, I'm pleased with the progress I made concerning highlighting with this model. Granted, it was a very easy model to experiment with. As I said before, the lack of tiny fiddly bits definitely made the highlighting process less imposing. Also, the many folds and wrinkles in the tunic and the pants were almost like signposts telling me where to apply the highlights. My highlighting usually turns ugly when I'm forced to guess where exactly the light would catch a certain part of the model. I guess that comes from a lack of artistic training in my life - I just don't naturally see shading and lighting. This deficiency in my painting is most glaring when it comes to the near-metallic metal technique. If you look at the pitchfork the zombie is wielding, the highlighting and shading there are non-existant at best and miserable at worst.

A word on the skin color for the zombie - this was fun to do. First, I basecoated with Bridge Grey, then I slowly added very thinned down layers of Light Flesh (from the Folkart line of paints). I was going for a pallid, but not pale look. I wanted some of the Bridge Grey to seep through in order to give the zombie a dessicated appearance. When I was satisfied with the coloring of his skin, I then added some Opaque Red lines (following the contours of his muscles and facial structure) to signify broken and rent skin before finally giving it a wash of Ogryn Flesh. Because the wash darkened the skin too much and gave it a very un-undead like flush, I gave the skin a few light, thinned down coats of Bridge Grey and then Light Flesh before calling it a day.

For more pics, click here.

Next up - I'll probably head back to my Imperial Guard Veterans Squad.