I was running a hands on narrative campaign one time. And by “hands on”, I mean I played about every other scenario against people.
It was fun! It was about a murdered hive people were rushing to re-take in hopes that possession might be 9/10ths of the law and they and their gangs might get elevated to noble status.
As such, it was structured to begin with a group battle at the hive’s “front door”. Then, I had various levels planned out that the gangs had to traverse though, meeting all kinds of weird things, occasionally each other, until, finally another group battle, and then the big bad. Honestly, it was fun and people seemed to really enjoy it. I might try to run it again some time…
Anyway, one of the levels through which the gangs had to traverse had been sealed off and the people trapped inside were turned into Brainleaf Zombies, an actual zombie that’s part of the Necromunda lore. Brainleaf is basically a kind of weed that colonizes people’s brains. As such, as enemies, they have a very limited number of actions and could only use clubs or their fists. But, in return, they’re next to impossible to kill, and even if pinned, get to stand up in the recovery phase. Basically, they’re a bitch.
But I thought a zombie adventure would be fun. But how do I make zombies? Well… I had zombie heads. I collect 3rd party heads like they’re going out of style. But which minis to use as the bodies…?
Then I remembered… I had a box of the Blood Bowl vampire team!
Look at those arms!
And, subscribing to the idea that all miniatures are Necromunda miniatures I set about converting them into zombies.
The first thing to do was to cut off or sand down as much of the few armor plates there were. There weren’t a lot but they did scream “Blood Bowl.” Then I softened a bunch of sharp edges that looked like bat wings, especially around the boots, that work great for vampires but not so much for ragged zombies. So my knife and my file got a real workout. Then I glued in the 3rd-party zombie heads.
Now, I love painting miniatures. It’s my main hobby. It’s how I find my zen. But I didn’t want to spend three weeks putting the layers onto ten zombies for a single adventure. But, YouTube to the rescue. The whole “Slap Chop” trend was just taking off and I thought, I have a few contrast paints… Why not give it a shot?
And there you go. Did a black prime, an off-white dry brush, and then applied contrast for most of the colors. I did do some highlighting on the exposed brains, the faces, and some of the clothes but just here and there. I had all of these done within a weekend.
Do the puffy shirts look out of place? In my mind… not so much. Especially if you’ve seen some of the Elizabethan neck warmers The Proxy & Fixer models come with. Puffy shirts galore. Plus, you put them on an industrial base… who’s to say what fashions come back in the 41st Millennium?
