paints brigs for the British fleet.
I have wanted to get into the various Flintloque family of games for years, so I finally got my hands on the Escape From the Dark Czar starter set.
The book includes a brief overview of the World of Valon – basically, a fantasy version of the Napoleonic era, with the different nations becoming anthropomorphic races. French are the Ferach (Elves). Russians are Undead.
Also included in the book is a short story outlining Napoleon's famous Russian Campaign, only in terms of vampires, zombies and so forth, ending up with the beginning of the great retreat from Moscow.
This set then provides three scenarios, 10 figures to match the scenarios, and simplified Flintloque rules to play them with.
Now, you might be thinking: If I get this set, won't I be limited to fighting a single campaign? My winter-based figures won't be much use in the rest of Valon, will they?
My response to that is to consider there are many more scenarios available for free, building on the characters and story in the starter set. So you can get a lot of game value out of this set, even though it is focused on a rather specific campaign.
So here are my "Russian" zombies painted up. I felt that the starter set didn't give me a lot of guidance about how to paint the figures up, other than pictures. (If you buy the digital download, you get some big JPGs too.) These are Armorican dead, raised to fight for the Dark Czar – so are they supposed to be in Armorican uniforms, or Witchlands uniforms? Armorica is barely mentioned in the booklet. In the end, I just painted them to match the pictures, except that I thought 'frozen zombies' looked better with blue flesh.
Even with the pictures as reference, some guesswork is involved. At first, I thought the breastplates were red to match the pants. In the end, I painted them as heavily rusted, with some streaks of metal. Same goes for the hat: I thought it was red initially, but switched it to 'leather' in the end.
I know, you're probably saying: "Bill, you're over-thinking this, it's just fantasy." Well, that's true. But as an author and designer myself, I always like to respect the gameworld.
Captain Preserovitch
The idea behind this unit is that a certain faction in the Witchlands can create savant zombies, which retain a bit of their intelligence from their former life, and therefore can operate independently.
All of these figures are cast in white resin, with bases separate. The resin is stiff but not brittle.
This is the only figure in the set which has two pieces: the sword arm is cast separately, but easily glued into place. It is not poseable.
I color-coded the base edges green (for Russia… that is, Witchlands), then contoured the tops with spackle, painted them white, and flocked with white sand.
Trooper Azimovo
This is a skirmish-level game, so each of the zombies has its own name and stat sheet.
The cartouche-style bases aren't perfectly flat, so you might want to file down the edges or add filler. I chose to add filler to the 'worst' side, and use that as the bottom. I wanted a flat surface for attaching FlexSteel (LITKO) later.
After attaching the figures to their bases, I chose to prime them as I wasn't sure how the white resin would accept paint. So I spray-primed them, white on white.
Trooper Bolshov
My first worry is painting these was how to do 'frozen zombie flesh', so I worked on that first.
My simple technique was to paint the flesh blue, drybrush with light blue, and then add a blue inkwash. I was happy with the results, so I just tried not to mess it up as I painted the rest of the figures. 
Trooper Vodkavitch
If you're painting this figure, and wondering what that darn thing hanging on his waist is – the stat sheet says he has a pistol, that's what that is. (Looks obvious once painted! )
Once the flesh was finished, I put the basic colors in for everything else: rusty breastplate, red pants, green overcoat, black boots, leather hat with red feathers, light brown hair. Rusty swords. Pistols and muskets in brown and gunmetal. Coat cuffs red with gold trim. Gold epaulets and decorations.
Trooper Gurkinov
This figure is confusing if you don't check the stat sheet first. For example: Yes, he no longer has a left hand!
That's why his arm just sort of… ends, supporting the gun.
And if you're wondering about the bulge under his coat, and that 'third foot' coming out under the coat… according to the stat sheet, he's got a sword, and it's apparently mostly under that coat!
Trooper Yellagin
The 'trick' on this figure is to read the stat sheet (again!), and realize that thing by his left foot must be a sword scabbard.
And is he holding something in his left hand, or just making a fist? I'm guessing it's just him making a fist.
So, back to how I painted them! I did all the basic colors, then hit the figure with Coat d'Arms Super Wash: Dark Brown. I applied with a medium-size brush because I wanted to keep the wash off the flesh areas I'd already done, and also to minimize pooling.
That's pretty much it! I did some clean-up after the wash, and did some spot-washes with black ink to darken a few spots. The feathers on the hat were drybrushed with white, then glazed with red ink to try to intensify the color. A silver marker was used to add a few metallic highlights. Then flocked and sealed, and FlexSteel slapped beneath, done!