"Nothing Is Permanent In This Wicked World - Not Even Our Troubles."

"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."

This 28mm metal model of Zombie Charlie is one of many figures made by “Studio Miniatures” that I received as part of my “Z-CLIPZ” pledge during the company’s “Hollywood Havoc” Kickstarter, and is the first of my four weekly submissions for this year’s Mo’Vember Challenge with Dick Garrison (of “Rantings Under The Wargames Table” fame). Based upon the Undead version of an unlucky member of staff who happened to be devoured during the zombie apocalypse whilst working at a theme park, the brain-eating cadaver is dressed as the instantly recognisable Charlie Chaplin character, "The Tramp"; including his famous bowler hat and moustache.

Primed with a double-coat of “Citadel” Abaddon Black, the dead “Hollywoodland” employee was dry-brushed with “Vallejo” German Grey and then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil. I then picked out all the corpse’s ‘bangs and bumps’ with either a combination of “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand and “Citadel” Thrakka Green, or "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

Enchanter WIPs - The Wizard is slowly being 'dressed' from his padded footwear upwards

 Having finished such a straightforward paint-job I am currently making some good progress on my next Mo’Vember model; a “Frostgrave” Enchanter by “North Star Military Figures”. This particular “hands-on” wizard is absolutely packed full of intricate details, not least of which is his red-trimmed bearskin fur overcoat and the numerous tools dotted around his belt.

Fortunately my technique of simply slowly ‘picking out’ out each item one at a time as I move up the model is keeping both my paint-brush steady and my sanity intact. Albeit I ultimately decided to paint the mage’s leg bindings and leather straps black in order to reduce the overall amount of brown I was applying to the figure, and because some of the details appeared incredibly fine and fiddly…

Herald Of Nurgle WIPs - The Nurgle Hero's severed head, Nurgling and brass bells have all been finished

All this brown and grey would ordinarily have proven somewhat dispiriting, but fortunately I have continued to paint my Herald of Nurgle for “Age Of Sigmar”, and as a result been able to add plenty of colour to my palette in the shape of red and green washes. This multi-part plastic miniature is now practically finished, having had its rotting corpse-like bloated body shaded and highlighted.

In addition I have completed the numerous brass bells which adorn its stag-like antlers, as well as the cheeky-faced Nurgling that is clearly enjoying its ride into battle atop the Plaguebearer Hero’s shoulder. The daemon just needs his Balesword to be dry-brushed and his numerous zits washed before he’ll be ready to accompany my Host of Nurgle on the tabletop.