Ax Faction Zombie Hunter [Completed ... sort of ]

Ax Faction's Zombie Hunter was one of those pieces in which almost every colour decision I made turned out to be the wrong one. Mistake was compounded by further mistakes to produce an overall colour scheme that seems a bit off to me. On the bright side, I managed to get fairly good results on the hunter's pants and skin tone. But still, I regret not doing this miniature the justice it deserves.

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter [Completed sans freehand designs on cloak]

Zombie corpse on the base was painted in uncharacteristically light pastel colours  

The piece's overall mood resisted being too gloomy because of the corpse's colour scheme

Back view of the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter

Perhaps one of the key reasons that the overall colour scheme is not all what it should be is because of my decision to paint the zombie corpse in bright pastel colours. I did this to bring out the hard to see details on the corpse as a duller and darker colour scheme could have hidden such details. On the flip side, it kind of goes against the convention of what zombies are supposed to look like.

Blood splatter on the axe was painted using Tamiya Clear Red X-27

Not exactly a Marsala coloured cloak as intended but close enough

Zombie Hunter sports dark brown hair in contrast to the blonde zombie

I haven't completely shut the door on this piece yet hence its status of being sort of completed. One possible addition to the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter would be some freehand designs or patterns on the cloak. The overly dynamic and 'flowing' nature of the cloak means doing such freehand painting is way beyond my skill level at the moment but perhaps a possible consideration in the future after I've had much more freehand painting practice on a less dynamic piece of clothing. 

Unfortunately, reflection of the lamp light on the cloak doesn't do the colour transitions justice

Less reflection from the lighting shows of a better view of the cloak

Painted in bright colours to bring out its details, the zombie corpse could've arguably worked better in duller colours

As with all the other Ax Faction resin miniatures, the incredible amount of detail in such a small figure continues to astound me. In fact, I don't think I can get a highlight on the hunter's pupil on his right eye, unless I have an electron microscope and some nano technology tools (OK, perhaps I am exaggerating ... a little bit). But then again, I'm not confident enough to try hence contributing to the almost completed status of this piece. However, another part of me (rightly or wrongly) resisted putting on a highlight on the pupil because the hunter's eye looks like it's encased in shadows.

Looking towards the back of his shoulder, the hunter is aware of a new threat

This is how small the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter miniature really is

Despite the pastel zombie, the overall colour scheme is still sufficiently gloomy for me to seek a more 'bright and happy' miniature to work on. So I guess it's about time I resumed painting pieces from the Super Dungeon Explore board game. Speaking of which, after finishing the rather dark and depressing Murakami novel titled Sputnik Sweetheart, I needed a change of pace in my reading material and picked up the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I tend to read across all genres (this one being under the Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction genre) as I believe a good book tells a good story regardless of what reader segment it aspires to. So for the rest of the week, it's more reading for me with some painting and drawing thrown in. I hope your week will be just as fun!   

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter [WIP - Skin and Lower Torso]

Partly referenced from an online source and partly modified with my own colour mixtures, the skin tone on the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter was painted to simulate a particular Caucasian ethnicity i.e. Celts. By trying out skin tone recipes perfected by other painters as well as experimenting with some hues of my own has made me better appreciate why certain colours are used when painting skin. I am a huge fan of low contrast yet realistic skin tones that I see in the works of a lot of painters based in Japan. In my own journey as a miniature painter, I am hoping to marry that style with the higher contrast skin tones I see used by painters in the West, and eventually come up with my own style.

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter, work-in-progress on skin tone

Contrast was kept light but not too light as males tend to have higher contrasts on their skin tone

Originally I had planned this skin tone with red hair and beard in mind but now I am not too sure what hair colour I should actually use. Any indecisiveness increases ten-fold when you consider that my choice of cloak colour is changing by the minute. For the moment, my combo of choice is a Marsala coloured cloak with either strawberry blonde or dark red hair/beard on the Zombie Hunter.

Still undecided as to what colour to use for the cloak

Subtle interplay between light and shadows used to hint at ribcage and sinewy muscle

Meanwhile, I have more or less finished painting the hunter's lower torso with an eye towards simulating two very different cloth textures i.e. satin/velvet for the belt and cotton for the pants. Together with the boots, the overall colour scheme for his lower torso is fairly understated as befitting the mood of the piece. In my mind was this vision of the Zombie Hunter's prey catching a glimpse of the edges of a strikingly coloured cloak on a dark silhouette rushing through a dark forest.

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter, work-in-progress on lower torso

Satin/velvet-like texture on belt versus cotton-like texture on pants

For a miniature of this scale (32-mm), the detailed creases on the pants were amazing. It also made placement of lights and shadows on the pants that much easier. This was a big help to me seeing that I had used a very light pastel colour scheme for the Zombie Hunter's pants. Getting realistic contrast on lightly coloured clothing is very difficult - it's something I am trying to slowly master with practice.

Boots were painted dark grey to complement the greyish purple pants

Level of detail on the pants was amazing for the scale involved

Painting the Ax Faction resin miniatures continually challenges me to improve my skills. Although they demand a lot from a painter, it's well worth the price if one gets to learn from the obstacles faced when painting such details on a small scale. Speaking of learning new things, I finally - after 40 odd years of existence - learned how to ride a bike. At least this old dog can still learn new tricks. 

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter [WIP - Zombie]

Meet Fabio ...  he has had a horrible day. At the break of dawn, Fabio was a dashing knight with flowing blonde locks, a tanned warrior's physique and a flowing green cloak to (in his own words) bring out the highlights in his eyes. But as dusk approached, Fabio was a pale reflection of his former self - his blonde hair was all stringy while his body had become emaciated with a sickly purplish skin tone. At least he no longer had to worry about the highlights in his eyes especially with the now glowing yellow sclera. Zombification would have been bad enough but it got even worse for poor Fabio as his neck and many other body parts met the sharp end of a Zombie Hunter's axe.      

Undead corpse in the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter base

Top down view of the zombie

From the start I had wanted the zombie to stand out rather than blend into the background but in an unorthodox way. Instead of painting lots of gore, I painted the zombie corpse in bright pastel-like colours. The only gore visible on Fabio was a pool of blood accumulating around his neck and rib cage ... that and the hint of innards painted into the cross-section of the zombie's torso and arm.    

Bright colours on a zombie ... eww?

Blood is pooling around his neck courtesy of a slash to the jugular by the Zombie Hunter

Cross-section of the arm and torso was painted to hint at innards

For an idea of how small the zombie itself was, out came the paper clip and coin for a scale shot.

Fabio the zombie next to a paper clip and five sen coin for scale

So there you have it,more progress on the 32-mm Ax Faction Zombie Hunter. The stage is now set for the focal point of the whole piece i.e. the hunter who incidentally looks like a main character from the Walking Dead TV series. That my dear readers, is a story for another day. 

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter [WIP - Base]

When working on Ax Faction miniatures, I have come to expect highly detailed bases. The Zombie Hunter is no exception with it's cliff-like structure with a dead zombie (hey, an oxymoron) sprawled at the bottom. I love a mini with a well sculpted base as it saves me the trouble of creating my own. 

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter, work-in-progress with just the base completed

While I am pretty sure the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter's base was meant to be painted as a small stone cliff, it also had a texture that reminded me of a gnarled tree bark. So with that in mind, I primarily used dry brushing and washes to replicate the texture as well as colours found on tree bark. 

Base was sculpted in such a way that I felt it could be painted either as a small stony cliff or gnarled tree bark

Back of the base was painted to somewhat resemble wood grain

In keeping with the wood-theme, I also tried painting the back of the base to somewhat resemble wood grain. At this stage, it looks like it will need a fair bit more work before I am happy with it.

Tree bark was painted primarily via a combination of dry brushing and washes

Zombie on the base is highly detailed and will be the part painted next

Good details on the base made painting it fun and easy

Next up for the 32-mm Ax Faction Zombie Hunter will be the zombie at the foot of the base. I have a rough idea of the skin tone I want to achieve but still no clue as to what colour I should use for its cloak. That in turn will determine the colour scheme for the Zombie Hunter himself. Well, that's it for this short update on my miniature project pipeline. Thanks for reading and have a good weekend.  

Whole lotta prepping: superhero, heroine and anti-hero

With most of my current miniature projects nearing completion, the cycle starts again with a massive amount of prepping for a whole new set of miniatures to replace those nearing the end of the current project pipeline. Although prep work is satisfying in its own way, I can't help but wish that more miniatures would come at least 90% to 100% semi-assembled to make life easier. But I would still prefer to retain control of the priming stage (vs pre-primed minis) as I have gained enough experience to be able to lay on a nice even thin coat of primer in most times when humidity isn't a bear.  

Knight Models Hulk, Nocturna Models Enchantment and Ax Faction Zombie Hunter

It has become a norm or habit for me to concurrently work with miniatures of differing sizes so in my work table now I have the Knight Models The Hulk and Nocturna Models Enchantment which are both 1:28 (or around 70-mm) scale and the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter which is in 32-mm scale.

Knight Models The Hulk, assembled and ready for priming

Although both The Hulk (see above) and Enchantment (see below) resin miniatures are of the same scale, the former superhero is obviously larger in size next to the latter heroine so I will still be working with miniatures of differing sizes. While The Hulk is well known and needs no explanation on how I will be going about its paintjob, that really isn't the case with Enchantment. The latter figure has been tackled very well by a fellow blogger Adam and having seen his version, the official version as well as other colour schemes attempted by other painters online I have a rough idea of what I plan to do with her. More of this in future posts but my inspiration will be the lovely Daenerys Targaryen.

Nocturna Models Enchantment, semi-assembled (head straps unattached) and ready for priming

And then there is the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter which I believe is at 'true' 32-mm scale which means it's small and will be a challenge for my painting skills. Working on sizes big and small is the only way to improve on your painting in my honest opinion. Miniatures of differing scales allow you to better understand the intricacies of blending and layering acrylic paints, and practice doing them.

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter, semi-assembled, dry-fitted and yes, ready for priming

For size comparison, I also prepped and assembled two 'heroic' 28-mm scale Games Workshop resin miniatures namely the Ork Painboy and his grot orderly, both of which I also plan to work on concurrently to the three shown above. As you can see from the immediate photo below, in terms of actual size both W40K characters allow me to work with even more differently sized miniatures.  

An Ork Painboy and Grot Orderly adds to the to-do list as well as offers a size comparison

All the miniatures above have yet to be primed. Five would have been plenty seeing that I still have some projects still in early stages of painting (there is a half-painted dragon, Westeros knight and two wood elf goddesses to name a few) but noooo ... I just had to be a smart ass and add yet two more primed miniatures to the immediate to-do list in what would have induced the below reaction from Lily Aldrin (a character in the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother) if she were a miniature painter.

So this means the Super Dungeon Explore Hexcast Sorceress and the Dark Sword Female Bard now has the dubious honour of being in my immediate (but still unpainted) to-do list. I will clarify on what I intend to do with these two as I start painting them so more on them on later blog posts.

Super Dungeon Explore Hexcast Sorceress prime with Tamiya Super Fine Light Grey

Dark Sword Female Bard that upon second viewing may need a further light coat of primer

Phew ... that's a lot of miniatures but I have even more ideas running around in my head on what to do with some Dark Angel Space Marines which I plan to paint in super duper bright colours. Why? Well I don't think I am going to ever field a Space Marine army on the wargaming table so I might as well use them as painting practice. But those ideas remain lodged firmly on the sprue because I am experiencing extreme prepping fatigue. If you ask me, someone should start "Preppers Anonymous" and all meetings must start with ... Hello I am so and so and I sniff err hate super glue. ;)