Can the record show that the Empire is boring?

I know, it is largely my own fault for choosing to paint them in plain schemes. However, I was attempting to keep the Emperor's forces as similar to the movies as possible. And that meant uniform, consistent, and repeatable for the inevitable second purchase of the Imperial Assault core set.

Now Zombies? Zombies are interesting.

There are no uniforms for the recently-dead-and-now-not-so-dead. You can paint colors other than white, gray, and red. Also, Vader will not be around to murder you if there is some dirt on your pants.

Last weekend, I started on a few test zombies from the first Zombicide box set. The figures have a decent amount of detail, though they are less detailed than the Imperial Assault figures. There are enough ridges and lines to guide a newbie painter, yet still give freedom to give the minis life with extra details if desired.

For the color scheme, I decided to go with a yellow death skin tone as opposed to gray, puke green, or white. The goal is to reproduce the cartoony feel of the art of Zombicide. Then again, when everybody's yellow, nobody's unique. Final flesh colors for all 80 of the zombies have not been determined by the panel of experts on zombie dermatology.

Another fun part of painting the zombies is that I get to consult my wife about the colors, involving her in the process at least a little. For the first three zombies, she helped pick out their outfits. I hope that when my wife's survivor puts the zombies down for good, it will be more than just a zombie to her, it will be something she helped create.

Another skill that the Zombicide minis are allowing me to learn is mixing paints. Purchasing a huge chest of Citadel paints to get every shade of color I want is not even close to financially possible. It's somewhere closer to broketown and pennylessville than here. Instead, a dark blue jean color has to be mixed by hand. It's fun when the color you want finally comes together, and a bummer of wasted paint when it doesn't.

The decision I have not been able to make is whether or not to highlight the zombies after applying a black, cartoony wash. I kinda like their over-dark form, and it makes painting them very simple and quick. The survivors are supposed to be the centerpiece of Zombicide, and having bright zombies would certainly compete with them.

Unfortunately, you don't get better at highlighting when you don't ever highlight your minis. Strange how that works.

Early work on the survivors.  Really pleased with Wanda (chainsaw lady) and Phil (the sheriff), but Doug's glasses and Amy's monochromatic bags/belts are giving me fits. — Early work on the survivors. Really pleased with Wanda (chainsaw lady) and Phil (the sheriff), but Doug's glasses and Amy's monochromatic bags/belts are giving me fits.

Going forward, my plan is to continue to paint the survivors, and steal a mixed color for a zombie or two. I hope to have a varied group of zombies to compliment the the bright survivors once everybody is painted.