From Mike W - 28mm Zombies (140 Points, Lady Sarah, Squirrel)

My first post of 2022 and apologies to all for this also being the first of a 'splurge' of posts as I catch-up on my painting efforts over the holiday period - real life family commitments got in the way of me completing and posting these by the Monday 3rd Jan Deadline!

The beginnings of a Zombie Horde

Here I present a group of 24 x 28mm Zombies, the first of a 'Horde' that I intend to build-up over the next couple months to enable me to put on a Survivors' game at some point later in the year! All of these figures are from the Zombicide game system, although waiting in the side-lines are also some 'Project Z' figures from Warlord Games and a few other non-specific manufacturers that I have found online via eBay, all of which seem to be very compatible size wise.

Zombie Walkers: A Postman, a business lady and a Skater Girl

My plans are for a regular table-top game but using elements of the Zombicide game system as rules and mechanics to keep the game simple, fast flowing and 'tongue in cheek'. In fact that is the reason I like the Zombicide figures so much - they are designed with a sense of humour that appeals to me...

Another Walker: A Housewife in curlers and two more Runners: a Pizza Delivery Boy and a Jogger
who has been impaled by several wooden stakes 

... just what were people up to when they were struck down by the Zombie pandemic!

Left A Zombie Runner, then centre and right two more Walkers,
right most being a former Butler

This first batch of figures contains a number of different types of Zombie - in game terms these can be Crawlers, Walkers, Runners, Fatties and Abominations - each type getting progressively more agile in movement terms and more dangerous in combat.

More Walkers: A Highway Patrol Cop, A guy who was playing in the Swimming Pool and a regular Walker 

As usual I undercoated each figure with white paint, then added flesh tones to each as appropriate. With these figures I have split the horde into Newly Dead, Dead and Long Dead - so the Newly Dead get normal flesh colour tones, Dead get a rotting green tone and the Long Dead get a grey tone.

Various Skin tones used according to how long these guys have been dead for!

Once dry, I wash the skin with Army Painter Military Green wash to provide shading and to add their grim pallor. Clothing is then painted as appropriate, this varies from figure to figure, there is a lot of detail in each figure and this makes the painting really fun to do.

Right and Centre, two Zombie Runners - American Footballer and a Matador.
Left a Walker who was a former Firefighter.

Once the figure is painted I start to add the gore. In my view 'Less is More', so where there are obvious wounds on the figure these are painted using a deep red colour and then highlighted as needed. The whole figure is then given a watered down dark wash to add grime and realism(?!)

Three more Walkers: Centre is a guy that I converted by adding a cloak and cutting off a sign that he,
was impaled upon. The impaled version will be in a future batch.

My Zombie horde will be used in an Urban setting so all bases are painted grey and I use a Black Sharpie pen and a coffee stirring stick as a ruler to draw in straight pavement slab cracks. (The stick is needed to get between the figures' legs!)

A Walker, a Runner and a Fatty. The Walker (left) has had a large knife stuck into his chest
and is a conversion of a sandwich-board figure,
centre is a former athlete - complete with gold medal and right is a Goth Fatty.

Everything is then varnished in Matt varnish to mute the colours. When dry I add more gore in the way of neat red ink to give a glossy, oozing feel to the fresh blood being spilt - all done with the best possible taste!

Ladies Night! A former Maid, a Girl Scout and a lady in green!

I roughly added a green wash along the black lines to simulate growing moss etc, then highlighted the pavement with light grey and add a couple of dry or green grass turfs to each base to indicate an overgrown, uncared for urban landscape. If I can find anything suitable I may add some other debris to the bases in the future.

I was going to show the base detail as I was creating it but that photo didn't seem to get captured,
maybe in another one, in a later batch!

As the Fatty figure in this group is a female Zombie (there are many other female Zombies here as well) - I am claiming a Lady Sarah Bonus to transport me to the next Planet....

My Lady Sarah Figure, A Zombie Fatty, so named for obvious reasons.
Fatties are Zombies that have bloated after death, often developing huge boils.
This little lady was a Goth in real life, the glossy effect of eth red ink can be clearly seen.

Oh, and lastly this takes my Squirrel total for this Challenge to a cumulative total of 3!

POINTS

24 x 28mm Foot Figures    = 120 Points

Lady Sarah Bonus              = 20 Points

TOTAL                               = 140 POINTS

Note to self "make sure that the edit screen is in Compose mode instead of HTML mode".  On first glance this post appeared to be in cryptic runes beyond my skill set without coffee.  Nice work on this shambling mass of dead flesh Mike.  Our groups has had good fun in the past blasting similar figures into smaller bits of dead flesh.  

I also appreciate the sense of humour in these sculpts, particularly enjoying the guy in the ring float.  I'll agree with your points total here and let this horde shamble off to other places....