October 25 - Terror of the Lichemaster: Mikael Jacsen's Zombies

"And whosoever shall be found,

Without the soul for getting down

Must stand and face the Hounds of Hell

And rot inside a corpse's shell"

Thriller - Rod Temperton

A horde of ten zombie 'dancers'

Mikeal Jacsen with his flaming hair and his horde of zombies is typical of Games Workshop's humour in the eighties.

Jacsen is another hard to find and expensive mini. I'm going down the route of just using a nice Undead mini, at least for now*.

The horde is only ten zombies, so it should be easy to complete in October, and I've certainly had plenty of practice painting them recently.

But I'm strangely short of actual Old School zombies. I can only assume that I sold or gave away what I had. I distinctly remember painting up some of the old Fantasy Tribe zombies back in the eighties; one even had an axe head stuck in his head! I'd have been using them for RPGs rather than for wargaming. I've no recollection of disposing of any of them though, ah well.

I do still have eight random zombies from various manufacturers. As with the skeletons, quite a few need some repairs.

But I've also got ten West Wind Zombies from their Vampire Wars range.

Initially I was put off by the rather odd poses of some of them, but then I remembered, these are Mikael Jacsen's zombies, they should be dancing! 

With that in mind, they should do just fine.

Painting 

Unlike my Rangers of Shadow Deep zombies or the D&D ones, I'm not using Speed/Xpress paints for the bulk of them. Instead, I'm going back to my usual base coat, sharp highlight and then wash. Because I want to emphasise their undead nature, I chose a few different base colours for the flesh. I used Vallejo Scorched Brown, Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal, VGC Dwarf Flesh and VGC Glacier Blue. They all got some sort of highlight, VGC Stonewall Grey for the dark skinned zombies, and at T'Other One's suggestion I stippled a bit of light green in places.

The flesh was then washed. I used Army Painter Quickshade Green, APQ Military Shader and Vallejo Game Wash Green, pretty much choosing the shade at random.  These have mostly worked out fine, though I think some look better than others.

Just a step to the left (oops, wrong film)

And lean back...

Two female zombies

The last two zombies

Clothing was done as standard, and given a wash in Marine Juice to provide the shading.  Little details such as some blood staining (Vallejo Special Effects Dried Blood), especially on the ones that seem to have been shot in the stomach, plus the odd bone, exposed muscle, and the guts on two of them finished of the painting. They all got a drybrush of VGC Earth on the legs to dirty them up a bit.

Basing was standard. I like this more desolate look for the undead, and I'm sticking with it for the rest of the force.

I enjoyed painting these minis, but I can't ever see myself painting hordes and hordes of them. I'll admit that I rushed them towards the end, partly as I wanted to get them done before the end of the month.

All parents and necromancers know that you shouldn't have favourites amongst those you've raised, but I do really like the bride. I painted some of the hair detail as flowers, that extra colour helps the mini to pop.

What's Next?

That's the Undead for the first two scenarios done, and all in October too. Admittedly, I don't have minis that match the leaders, but I do have proxies that will do for now.

I've already got sufficient dwarves painted for the mine, but I do need to paint the Bogles for the second game.

I also need some terrain. 

Terror of the Lichemaster was the first Village pack, and included a lot of buildings. As previously mentioned, I've got the dwarven stuff already, though the mine needs a bit of work and some bits like spoil heaps and maybe even a mine cart track will add to the look.

I've already started on the buildings for the Bogel's Farm, but there are a few extra bits that I need, such as hedges and an area of higher ground like a low, flat hill, useful for Ashak Rise as well.

Beyond that, there's the rest of the Undead for the Defence of Frugelhoffen, and the defenders of course. I'm short a few zombies, but I've got all the defenders, or suitable substitutes. They all need painting of course.

Plus yet more buildings, though I don't have any of these already built.

I may never actually get around to the stuff for the third game, at least not in the near future. 

But I've managed to get a reasonable number of undead finished, and within October too.

* I've already mentioned Antediluvian Miniatures 'Undead Heroes', I've also seen some great looking STLs, but not having 3D printing facilities I'll pass.

I've considered doing a bit of converting, I'm still looking out for suitable base minis.