Zombicide Invader - Driller Xenos
Planning
Driller Workers
And here we are, the very last models I need to paint for Zombicide Invader. And boy are there a lot of them. I had started my Zombicide journey by batch painting over a hundred Xenos so it seemed fitting to end by batch painting nearly ninety Driller Xenos.
The key to batch painting anything really is proper planning, and that more than anything is why I had put off painting all of these miniatures for so long. Both the miniature design and the official colour scheme did not make things easy. Black flesh with bright red chitin/armour plates already has its own challenges; do you use a bright undercoat for the red and shade down to black, or do you go for a dark undercoat and build up for the bright red? And as mentioned the design of the miniatures doesn’t help, there are a lot of small armour plates dotted about the flesh particularly on the torso. Picking out all those small details would dramatically increase the time it takes each model. Not ideal when you have a literal horde to paint.
More Driller Workers
With those considerations I began to formulate some ideas of how best to approach this project. As with any project where speed is a consideration I initially contemplated Contrast paints. However, being transparent it can be difficult to correct any mistakes. I then considered using something like Black Templar for the flesh and an opaque paint for the armour. But then I would need to shade the armour as they are not without texture.
Basecoats
Driller Hunters
Eventually I settled on a process that would be quick without having to sacrifice too much quality. I started by using several small tubes of superglue to stick down small pieces of slate to the bases. With that done I then used most of a can of Colour Forge Standard Grey to get them all primed. I tidied up any missed areas with some Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone, at the very least I needed all the flesh to be a solid colour. Thankfully all the miniatures are made out of red plastic, so finding any missed areas was a fairly easy affair. To provide some variety to the flesh I gave each model, except the Hunters as they are hunched over, a zenithal highlight with Vallejo Game Air Cold Grey. That was the easy part down and how it was time for the tedious task of painting the armour plates with Mephiston Red. I won’t lie to you, I cut a lot of corners here. I absolutely did not paint every single armour plate, I pretty much ignored all the small ones on the chests. I also used a fairly big brush and I was not overly careful about being neat. Even so it was a mission to get all the models done, though working in batches about five I managed to muscle my way through them all.
Driller Blitzers
With the main colours done it was time for some minor details. I started by painting the tongue-mouths with Pallid Wych Flesh, the pale skin colour providing a nice focal point for the models. I then used the airbrush to paint the spikes on the backs of the Hunters with Army Painter Raven Black. I tried to do the same for the claws on the Tanks but Raven Black looked too similar to the grey undercoat. I then tried with Vallejo Fire Red but the coverage wasn’t great, so then I tried Archive-X Caboose Red but I was having a terrible time getting it to flow properly through the airbrush. In the end I gave up and just brushed Mephiston Red onto the Tanks’ claws.
Washes and bases
Driller Tanks
With all the basecoats done it was time for a wash to bring everything together. As I didn’t want to use an entire pot of Army Painter Dark Tone for this I decided to make my own, just like I did all those years ago for the regular Xenos. To do this I mixed some Liquitex Carbon Black acrylic ink with some Winsor and Newton Matt Medium (because it comes in a big tub) with a small amount of Flow Improver to break the surface tension. I then diluted the mix until it was the consistency of a wash. I then covered the models from head to foot with my homebrew mix and left them to dry keeping an eye out for any pooling. I was a little tempted to do a bit of drybrushing as I had with “Frank” from the Soldier Pledge miniatures but instead moved right onto the basing.
More Driller Tanks
Ok final stretch, and it’s nothing we haven’t done before. I started by covering the bases with Vallejo Red Oxide texture paste. This didn’t take too long but I did find it easier getting into the crevices using an old brush rather than Citadel’s texture tool. Ordinarily at this point I would give the bases a wash with Reikland Fleshshade however I didn’t have a gallon of it to spare. So I broke out the Matt Medium and Flow Improver again, mixing them with Daler Rowney Crimson Red and Burnt Umber until it was a decent approximation of Reikland Fleshshade. A fifty-fifty mix of both seemed to do the trick. This was then thinned down to a wash consistency with water and the resulting solution used to give all the bases a wash. Once the wash was dry the bases were then given a drybrush of Kindleflame to further bring out the texture. Where this got onto the feet and legs of the Driller Xenos it gave the impression of dust that had been kicked up. Lastly I painted the rims of the bases with a matt black.
Driller Abominations
And we’re done! Let’s see the final count:
43 Driller Workers
18 Driller Hunters
18 Driller Tanks
6 Driller Blitzers
2 Driller Abominations
For a total of 87 miniatures done. Feels really really good to get them done, better than when I finished Village Attacks, even if I do also feel like I got some minor RSI for my troubles. I should probably have whipped up some quick painting handles.