Minimum Zoat Ally Contingent

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

A while ago, Julien started a threat here on the forum about his sculpting of a Zoat. When he was done, I ordered 6 of them, enough to build the minimum requirement of a Zoat Ally Contingent according to Warhammer Armies (3rd edition): One contingent commander wizard, and one unit with the minimum five models.

Ordering can be done via Living Lead, Juliens blog. The contact with him was very nice, he always answered promptly, and was very flexible on what exactly to send.

Shortly thereafter, I got my Zoats delivered.

What a treat! The sculpting is excellent. The castings are very well done. I have yet to find any real flash on the parts. The inevitable air bubbles that seem to be an integral part of resin castings were not present. Can you spot the green blobs, here and there in the photo? That is green stuff Julien applied to correct the small imperfections from the casting process - never experienced that before.

Great quality and service overall! I can only recommend ordering from him.

The models only stand on two feet with a relatively small gluing area, and I want the feet to sit on top of the sand I will glue to the bases, not be sunken in. So I drilled holes in he feet and inserted some bent paper clips.

I then glued the paper clips with super glue and baking soda to the bases, which lifted the feet off the ground due to the bendage of the wire.

Finally, I applied some brown stuff to smooth out the base a bit.

I think I have a large enough gluing area now, that I will not rip off the minis; mind you I need to factor in the magnetic pull of the sheets the minis will be stored on with their metal bases.

I applied ready mixed filler to give the bases some more contour, and pressed larger stones in.

I then applied PVA glue mixed with black (I can't see white PVA glue on white filler that well any more...) and sprinkled on sand.

I glued on the arms and head, the hands I pinned with paper clips to prevent them breaking off at the glue line in the future.

One of the two cristal staffs I cut off, as well as a bit of one arm to get another angle for the wrist.

From two paper clips drilled through the hand and two horizontal shorter clips, I then created the frame for a banner pole.

Everything glued in place.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Can't wait to see them in paint! One of my own personal projects is having enough zoats to field a proper RT tyranid army, which is supposed to be fully half zoat. I've picked up copies of every fan scupted space zoat I've come across, and all save one of the original zoats. I'm right tempted to convert those fantasy zoats you're working with. They're very nice looking models.

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Can't wait to see them in paint! One of my own personal projects is having enough zoats to field a proper RT tyranid army, which is supposed to be fully half zoat. I've picked up copies of every fan scupted space zoat I've come across, and all save one of the original zoats. I'm right tempted to convert those fantasy zoats you're working with. They're very nice looking models.

@Julien: Business idea, sculpt some SiFi add-ons and accessories, you would at least have symphonicpoet as customer

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

I started to work on the banner pole by creating the main form with a 50%/50% mix of green and brown stuff and flesh out the wire.

I then used green stuff to sculpt the bark... well... that was the initial intention. Not sure I sculpted bark... will see how I paint this up.

As a last sculpting step I added a metal ring sculpted from green stuff to the top, and added rings from thin floral wire, fittingly covered in a green plastic sleeve. Finally, I added super glue here and there and sprinkled it with baking soda to create some texture on the otherwise rather flat sculpted surfaces.

After painting the sand on the base in black acrylic paint so seal in the sand, the whole bunch is done and ready for rinsing in soap water in preparation for priming.

The general T-form of the banner pole including the metal ring at the top I based on one of the Zoat banners in Warhammer Armies 3rd ed., p. 149.

The banner itself I then re-created in Inkscape for printing.

 

[julien]

Hi, very good work !
And thank you again for your order.
It will make a beautiful unit, the standard in particular looks superb.

 

[twisted moon]

it's looking very promising.
why didn't you wash the resin before converting?

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Ah... I am never doing that. I always wash the minis before priming to remove any casting residues and my finger grease to have better adherence of the primer.
If washing before converting, I would still have my fingerprints on, at least that is my thinking.

Why do you wash first? Do you wash again then before priming?

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

After basecoating the models in black, I started painting the first Zoat. The main color for all the Zoats will be 72.027 Scurvy Green, from the Vallejo Game Color range. Painting the whole model in this color, and all models in the same color, is a bit boring and disrespectful towards the fabulously detailed sculpts of Julien, though.

So here is the plan: The complimentary color of green is red, so I will paint the 'skin' parts in red or reddish browns, a different one on each model, as a basecoat for the green. The scales on he back will get a bluish or greyish basetone, as Scurvy Green has a slight bluish tint. The underbelly will be 70.819 Iraki Sand on all models, highlighted up from the same base color as the 'skin'.

So that is theory at least, let's put it to the test. The first model was painted with 70.985 Hull Red and 70.867 Dark Bluegrey. Due to the intricately sculpted detail, the surface is much larger than it seems... laying down these two base colors took me much longer than expected. But that only speaks for the quality of the sculpts!

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Into the 70.985 Hull Red I mixed 72.027 Scurvy Green, then applied pure 72.027 Scurvy Green, and highlighted that with 72.027 Scurvy Green and 70.858 Ice Yellow. For a very few spots I then added white to the mix.

For the belly I used 70.985 Hull Red, 70.879 Green Brown and 70.819 Iraqui Sand.

The scales were painted in a similar way, first I mixed 72.027 Scurvy Green into the 70.867 Dark Bluegrey basecoat, then applied the pure green, then added 70.989 Sky Grey into the green as highlight.

The nails (hooves...?) I painted with the shade and highlight color of the scales, so, 70.867 Dark Bluegrey and 70.989 Sky Grey, to not introduce another tone into the model.

The eyes were painted with 70.858 Ice Yellow.

I will now paint the other models in a similar way, chaning the shade colors but using the same way of highlighting. Then I will add oil washes on all the models as a further color modulation.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Love the way that is turning out! The more Zoats the merrier.

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Love the way that is turning out! The more Zoats the merrier.

Indeed Therefore here the next one:

The next Zoat was painted with 70.910 Orange Red, 70.807 Oxford Blue and 70.843 Cork Brown.

Here the two Zoats painted so far side by side.

 

[ManicMan]

coming up pretty nicely so far, and the 'slight' differences in shade come off well too

 

[twisted moon]

looking good.

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Thanks guys


The next Zoat was painted with 70.946 Dark Red, 70.898 Dark Sea Blue and 70.804 Beige Red.

All three models painted so far.

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

The next Zoat was painted with 70.814 Burnt Cadmium Red, 70.866 Grey Green and 70.879 Green Brown.

All four models painted so far.

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

The next Zoat was painted with 70.946 Dark Red, 70.899 Dark Prussian Blue and 70.843 Cork Brown.

The flag I painted in blues and yellow, with light grey for the script.

Once glued to the model, I attached some strings as in the reference picture.

Here is the completed minimum unit of 5.

On to the last model, the mage.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Oh, the banner is looking nice. Great stuff!

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Thank you

 

[Machen]

Your colors on the Zoats are gorgeous. You're really showcasing Julien's work beautifully.

 

[KingOfTheLeadPile]

Thank you