A pumpkin, some candy and autumn leaves

With Halloween just around the corner, my Zombie Girl project takes on an unintended significance.  Despite never having celebrated Halloween, I have always been fascinated with this and all other festivals of the dead that contain pagan roots, and which are practiced by cultures all over the world. I guess it is one way humans have dealt with the great unknown throughout the centuries.   

Jack O'Lantern with some zombie blood

My Knight Models Zombie Girl project begins with the highly detailed base which comprises the Jack O'Lantern pumpkin carving, some Halloween candy and autumn leaves on a road. When painting the base, I had tried to pay very close attention to the details. This meant painting the leaves to reflect the period in which Halloween is usually celebrated i.e. autumn and the candy that is synonymous with the celebrations, both the outer wrappings and the aluminium foil inside.  

Overhead view of the Knight Models Zombie Girl base (without the pumpkin)

For the candy, I went for two particular ones that had instantly recognisable colour schemes ... to me at least as I love the Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups and Nestle Crunch ... mixed in among generic candy wrappers. For the leaves, I referenced an assortment of autumn period maple leaves that had colours ranging from greenish yellow to brown to orange to red.  

I chose the Reese's and Crunch candy bars for their iconic and easily recognisable colours

Colours of autumn seen in maple leaves

To understand the difficulty I had in creating a close as possible likeness for the candy bars, it is perhaps best to show you the scale I was working with. To that end, my trusty 31 mm paperclip makes yet another appearance to show the comparative size / scale of the base.

Knight Models Zombie Girl base next to a 31 mm paperclip

Dry-fitting the pumpkin and base together gives you an idea on the mood being set for the Zombie Girl to follow. I plan to superglue her to the base prior to painting as the Zombie Girl is too heavy and thus will be unstable if placed on blue tack. An alternative would be to pin her with metal rods (paperclips) to a cork base but I don't think that is a viable method for her.

Knight Models Zombie Girl Base sans ... well .... the zombie

Overhead view of the Knight Models Zombie Girl base

I am now left with the main piece to paint. Getting a realistic looking zombie skin tone (yes I know how oxymoronic that statement is) is going to be very tough. If I don't pull it off, the end result will be a cartoon-like zombie which is far from the creepy realism that I am aiming for.

Work to begin soon on the Knight Models Zombie Girl

As a personal challenge, the countdown begins for me to finish this before October 31 on which Halloween falls. That leaves me with only slightly more than a month to finish the Zombie Girl. Even if I don't make the deadline, I should at least finish most of her paint job. That is the plan anyway.