Knight Models Zombie Girl [Completed]

Two songs kept running through my head as I put the finishing touches to the Knight Models Zombie Girl, one was sad and melancholy while the other was upbeat and catchy. The former tune would have been perfect if one imagines it playing in the background from a radio as the Zombie Girl shambled along the road; the song ... 'End of the World' by Skeeter Davis. Meanwhile, the latter tune is one that I always associate with zombies close to Halloween that is 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson.

Knight Models Zombie Girl completed

I finally ended up painting the Zombie Girl's dress in pastel orange with white laces and a light lavender bow. The dress colours was as light and muted as I was willing to go to maintain a fine balance between providing enough contrast to further accentuate the skin tone but not too much as to overwhelm it and shift focus of the eyes mainly to the dress instead of the figure's pallid appearance. Well that was my intention anyway and how successful I was in this is open to debate.

Don't they know, it's the end of the world ... it ended when mum ate my brains ...

Dress colours for the Zombie Girl were partly inspired by the traditional colours of Halloween as well as a personal desire to do something different from what usually comes to mind. In comments on an earlier post, my fellow local painters had sportingly given some good suggestions which included blue, pink, green and yellow - some of which I very nearly ended up using. But in the end, I decided to go for colours most would not expect but yet ... hopefully ... makes sense when you think about it.  

Knight Models Zombie Girl (side view, left)

Hands down this is the most beautifully sculpted zombie miniature I have seen so far and it was really fun figuring out how to paint both the base and the Zombie Girl herself. Knight Models should seriously consider expanding their Terror Series line of miniatures and add more zombies while they are at it. For me, this miniature was love at first sight bite ... (ouch).

Lighter orange pastel colours on the dress versus the darker hue on the pumpkin

If there is one thing I would consider improving on is perhaps the eyes by adding pupils. But the danger in doing that for someone of my relatively lower skill level is that I might end up making the eyes look comical and artificial instead of creepy. Regardless, I always felt more scared by the clouded-white-irises-on-a-bloody-sclera look that you occasionally see on horror movies. 

I didn't go overboard with the blood as I wanted her to look like a 'normal' girl from the back

Another thing that could have added more contrast to the figure would have been to paint the Zombie Girl's hair black or make her a brunette. Nonetheless, I am still happy with her being a blonde.  

From this viewpoint, you can see the Zombie Girl arching her back at an unnatural angle

As you can see, I did not paint much blood stains on the Zombie Girl's dress. Rightly or wrongly, I did this intentionally to keep as much of the 'normal little girl' look on the undead figure as possible. I felt that by doing so it would make the abomination of what has happened to this innocent little child all that more horrifying and also smooth out the disconnect between reality and fantasy/horror.

Knight Models Zombie Girl (side view, right)

Finishing the Knight Models Zombie Girl just before the start of the latest season of 'The Walking Dead' TV series as well as before Halloween was fortuitous timing-wise. It allowed me to complete my first TV viewing event / holiday themed miniature. Sweet!    

It's close to midnight, something evil's lurking in the dark ...

It was a blast trying to paint in details in the painting of the base. If you have missed an earlier blog post on the base then click here to see the many small little details I had tried to incorporate. 

Can you spot the Reese Peanut Butter and Nestle Crush candy bars?

Well that's it for now. Till my next post stay clear of the walking dead unless they ask for candy.

Knight Models Zombie Girl [WIP - All but the dress]

Yet more progress has been made with the Knight Models Zombie Girl with work done on her hair, teddy bear, socks and shoes. While reasonably satisfied with how her eyes turned out, I might still make some changes depending on how they look when her dress has been painted. One thing I am contemplating is to paint a light greyish pupil on the cloudy white irises. But I am a bit hesitant to do so because it might dial down the creepiness factor of her eyes. Moreover, a quick test run using the Windows Paint program was not too encouraging in that a greyish pupil made the eyes look comical.

Knight Models Zombie Girl - work-in-progress on her face, hair and eyes

As alluded to in the previous post, the Zombie Girl's hair has been painted blonde. I felt it to be more in sync with pale and fair skin tone that I was going for. Hopefully, the blonde hair will also combine well with the pastel coloured dress that I have planned for her. 

Blonde zombies have more fun and eat more brains

My version of the Knight Models Zombie Girl is based on a zombie child seen early on in Season One of The Walking Dead. The main difference is in the eyes whereby my version lacks pupils.

I want my mommy ... her brains that is

Her teddy bear was painted in the traditional colour of brown. I tried my best to create a furry soft toy look and in line with the horror theme I added a rivulet of blood running down teddy's front. As for the teddy bear's back, I painted stained blood as if the girl had been hugging it close to her face.

Teddy bear in the Zombie Girl's grip

Back view of the blood stained teddy bear

Unfortunately I messed up her socks by not clearly painting out the fabric lines you usually see in white wool socks. I only managed a hint of this which is just not good enough. I will have to touch up the socks and hopefully add some depth to the white socks. Anyway, below are some work-in-progress picture of the Knight Models Zombie Girl so far.

Knight Models Zombie Girl - All but the dress

Work-in-progress Zombie Girl - angled side view (right)

Work-in-progress Zombie Girl - angled side view (left)

Back view of the work-in-progress Zombie Girl

Coincidentally, the Walking Dead series resumes this weekend in the US and a week later here where I am at, and I am really looking forward to Season Four. Next up will be photos of the completed Knight Models Zombie Girl so please stay tuned for the early Halloween treat.    

Knight Models Zombie Girl [WIP - Skin]

Using a combination of light purple, pale green, reddish brown and a myriad of fair skin colours, I went about painting the skin of the Knight Models Zombie Girl to try and recreate one of the zombie children shown in the Walking Dead series. Since I didn't have any recipe to work from, I painted the skin largely based on trial and error. Additional touch up work on the Zombie Girl's skin tone is dependent on how her skin plays off the final dress colours, which will be a mix of pastels.    

Knight Models Zombie Girl - initial work on the skin and eyes

As the Zombie Girl is based on the skin tone of a young white Caucasian girl, the shadings and highlights on the skin are subtle without too much emphasis on contrast. One example is the Zombie Girl's collar bone which had very subtle highlights to differentiate it from the rest of her neck.

Exposed bone can also be seen on the Zombie Girl's open wounds

Currently, the Zombie Girl's skin tone looks paler than it actually is because of the greyish unpainted dress. I am hoping her skin tone will take on more depth and contrast when seen next to a fully painted dress. If it doesn't, then I might add more shadows to her skin tone.

What a heart stopping smile

As for her hair, well blonde zombies always have more fun. Moreover, it will better suit the pale skin that I have painted on her so far as well as accentuate the gory wounds on her face and head.

Back view of the Zombie Girl's skin tone

Thanks for checking out my work-in-progress on the Knight Models Zombie Girl. For now, she is on track to be finished by Halloween. My major obstacle is deciding what colour her dress is going to be. So far, I am only sure it is going to be pastel colours but nothing more specific.

Iron Man Assembled

After what has been the longest prep work I have ever done for a miniature ... this is the pride and joy of Stark Enterprise after all ... the Knight Models Iron Man Special Edition (S.E.) miniature is done. Being a metal miniature, he already looks super awesome without a paint job. But as tempted as I am to just leave Iron Man just as he is on the display cabinet, the call to paint him is just too strong.

Knight Models Iron Man S.E. assembled

One thing is for sure, painting the Knight Models Iron Man S.E. will afford me plenty of practice to perfect the non-metallic-metal paint (NMM) technique. That is one painting technique that I have never truly tried so I need to do some research before layering on the first paints.

Iron Man's Arc reactor offers a possibility for some object source lighting

Putting in the hours necessary to carefully take out the mould lines and giving it a good cleaning up / polish with some fine steel wool was important to ensure that the next step (i.e. priming) has every chance of coming out with a smoother finish.

Having the various parts of its armour open up makes Iron Man look that more dynamic

So for the next step, I now have to decide which primer to use. It is a toss up between Citadel Chaos Black undercoat spray and the Tamiya Fine Surface Light Grey Primer. While the former would perhaps give a very smooth finish, the latter would require less layers of paint to cover up the initial undercoat / primer layer. Both are valid advantages in the painting process.

Small armour parts on Iron Man's upper back and lower leg / ankle required patience to glue on

Putting together the Knight Models Iron Man turned out to be easier than expected seeing that it doesn't come with any assembly instructions.Initially I was a bit apprehensive in having to figure out where all the small pieces of armour accessory were supposed to be glued to. But in the end, it was fairly easy to figure out what went where by looking at detailed pictures found on the Knight Models website. Based on those pictures, there was actually two small extra parts left over which I believe are an optional / alternative parts (second, clockwise from the right in the picture below). 

Iron Man prior to having his accessories glued on

Working on Iron Man also improved my handing of small metal parts. With time, my patience in gluing small parts together or on to bigger pieces has increased thus resulting in faster and better work.

Behind the scenes prep work on Iron Man
In my usual prep work for metal miniatures I rarely used fine steel wool to polish up the surface. That stems largely from laziness and a tendency on my part to rush through the prep work in order to start painting as soon as I can. This time around I have been more patient and thorough with the prep work so I hope it pays off in the later stages of the painting process.

Using fine steel wool to polish or clean up imperfections in the metal miniature

White metal parts before (left) and after (right) some not too rigorous cleaning with fine steel wool

Below is a picture to compare the relative size of Iron Man with another warrior in armour, the Chaos Space Marine. Now wouldn't that be a sight for sore eyes ... Tony Stark versus W40K armour.

Who has the better armour?

While assembling the Knight Models Iron Man S.E. 1/28th scale miniature has provided me with a pleasant diversion from my usual painting routine, I had better get back to my other Knight Models project i.e. Zombie Girl if I am to make the Halloween deadline for finishing her paint job.

That's it for now until my next work-in-progress pictures of the Knight Models Zombie Girl.

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.

Quick look at Knight Models miniatures

Throughout my journey as a miniature hobbyist thus far, I am slowly discovering that many popular characters I would like to see produced as miniature model kits for painting either may not yet exist ... or are extremely hard to locate. For example, miniatures in my paint-wishlist range from anime characters such as 'K-On!' or 'Soul Eater' to sci-fi stuff such as the Star Trek Original Series cast members. With Knight Models miniatures, I can at least check off two things on my wishlist i.e. a zombie child (weird I know but I will explain the why later) and comic book superheroes.

Knight Models Iron Man Special Edition packaging

Tony Stark in an iron suit, what is there not to love. The missus digs the goatee while me, I love the armour that he rides in. It is ironic that the Knight Models Iron Man Special Edition (S.E.) comes as an all white metal model kit ... iron ... metal ... get it? ... but it felt right to have an Iron Man miniature with some weight to it as is expected of metal miniatures. The Knight Models Iron Man S.E. will give me the opportunity to try out the non-metallic metal (NMM) technique, a skill I initially dismissed as being unnecessary but I have come to realise that NMM has its place in a painter's repertoire.

Iron Man Special Edition un-boxed

White metal parts of the Knight Models Iron Man Special Edition

Meanwhile, another Knight Models miniature that I will be working on is the Zombie Girl from its Terror Series. I have been searching for a long time for a miniature that I felt best portrayed all that is  terrifying about a zombie namely the perversion of what we hold to be normalcy in our everyday lives. To me at least, nothing depicts that better than an innocent child who has become a zombie. Is a huge zombie monster scary? Meh. But for a child to become a zombie is both sad and creepy.

Knight Models Terror Series featuring the Zombie Girl

Knight Models Zombie Girl un-boxed

The Zombie Girl also comprises white metal parts

Moreover, ever since that zombie girl scene (see below) from Season One of the Walking Dead series, I have been completely sold on the idea of a zombie girl miniature. While the Zombie Girl stands at around 60 mm being at 1/28th scale, most of the other Knight Models miniatures range from 70 mm to 90 mm, also at 1/28th scale. 

A scene from the Walking Dead, Season One

So far, I have only managed to assemble and prime one of the two Knight Models miniatures that I am currently working on. This time around, I got a reasonably good primer coat sprayed on so hopefully that will translate to a smoother painting experience in the later stages.

As she was only dry fitted to the base, the Zombie Girl actually started to tilt sideways as this shot was taken

Knight Models Zombie Girl - primed and ready to be painted

Fingers crossed, I will be able to get some work-in-progress shots taken soon so I should have those photos up in a future blog post soonish. Till then, stay well and happy!