The minis arrived from 
Editor in Chief Bill 
on Monday. I quickly cut open the envelope, and looked the figures over. I thought they looked like rural farm-folk, so I nicknamed them 'Ma and Pa Kettle'.
That night, I mounted the Kettles on their bases, and did a little putty work to them.
These Possessed Zombies would lend themselves well to a zombie game based on the world of the Evil Dead movies. It's one of the earliest horror movies I saw as a kid. Sam Raimi's work has had quite an impact on me. Later, the Resident Evil video games added to how I would picture Horror Gaming. These influences have set the path for how I paint and model figures for the genre.
When it came to the base details, I pictured the zombies roaming the backwoods of Michigan. With the Evil Dead movies and the environment in mind, I set about working on the bases. Each zombie is hovering with a tree limb under a foot. I prefer this to the old 'wire up the bum' or 'in the foot' to keep them aloft.
To continue the Evil Dead theme, I gave the lady (Ma) zombie a dismembered "Evil" hand and a few picked-clean human skulls. For the man (Pa), I built up the tree limb into an "Evil" stump with an outstretched, grasping tree limb. I also added a few more greenstuff rocks around each base.
I have tons of zombies, and wanted to try something different for these. I see these two as character zombies that could lead a unit of rank-and-file ghoulies. I gave them base details that would make them stick out as leaders. The base lends itself to a leadership role, as the outer edge is more like a picture frame than the average plastic slotbase.
Here is a list of the paints and sprays I used for these figures (in no particular order):
- Armory Flat Black Primer
- Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear (#1303)
- Krylon Matte Finish (#1311)
- Iron Wind Metals Dark Brown
- Iron Wind Metals Paladin Blue
- Iron Wind Metals True Blue
- Iron Wind Metals Flesh
- Iron Wind Metals Red
- Iron Wind Metals Shamrock Green
- Iron Wind Metals White
- Iron Wind Metals Yellow
- Reaper Maroon
- Reaper Woodland Brown
- Reaper Volcano Brown
- Reaper Imperial Purple
- Reaper Liche Purple
- GW Shadow Gray
- GW Space Wolf Gray (very light sky blue)
- GW Ice Blue
- GW Dark Angels Green (pine green)
- GW Bubonic Brown (dun)
- GW Red Ink
- GW Bottle Gloss Varnish
- Granite and Ivory (the original labels are too worn to tell you the makers!)