Zombicide Invader - Soldier Pledge Extras

Having taken a few months off to paint some other projects it was high time that I got back into getting some Zombicide Invader miniatures. It is after all one of my goals for the year to finish Zombicide Invader. So with that in mind I cracked open the Soldier Pledge kickstarter stretch goal and got to work.

Lieutenant Massimo Tocci

First up was Lt Tocci, a relatively easy one to get done as he has the same colour as the Soldier survivors in the core box that I painted at the beginning of 2023. Wasting no time I glued some rocks to his base and primed him with Colour Forge Standard Grey.

I started by using the airbrush to give him an even coat of Archive-X Reefer White. From there I painted the padding on the armour and joints with Black Templar. The pouches I then painted with Gore-Grunta Fur. The weapons and grenades are painted with Scale75 Thrash Metal. Like I did with the core box survivors I picked out a couple of the armour panels with Vallejo Russian Uniform. His face I painted with a coat of Guilliman Flesh and as he is a blond I painted his hair with Skeleton Horde. To finish him off I gave the armour a recess shade with Army Painter Dark Tone, the black wash helping to clearly separate each of armour sections.

Doctor Fischer

Similar to Massimo above, Doctor Fischer is painted the same way that I did the soldiers from the Black Ops expansion. So with that in mind I painted his armour with Scale75 Black Metal and the exterior of his coat with Corvus Black. The interior of the coat I painted with Vallejo Scarlet Red and any leather details, such as his tool belt, I painted with Rhinox Hide. I then picked out the buttons on his tablet with Mephiston Red. Moving onto the metallics, I painted the buttons on the gold and the odd pipe with Scale75 Dwarven Gold, the remaining pipe and tools I painted with Scale75 Thrash Metal. To add a bit more variety to the model I painted his bionic arm with Scale75 Old Copper. With that done I gave the whole model a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone.

For the face, I base coated it with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin before giving it a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. I then painted the goggles with Corvus Black and carefully picked out the lenses with some Army Painter Matt White. Lastly, I painted the lenses of the goggles with Blood Angels Red to give them that red glow effect.

Doctor Nathan Kilgore

Of the models in this box called Kilgore, I was not expecting it to be this model. Supposedly Doctor Nate here is a full body cyborg rather than a robot, a bit like the Major from Ghost in the Shell. Although his design does seem distinctly Warhammer 40,000, what with the skulls and all.

Regardless, as the main body work is going to be gold I primed him with Retributor Armour. I then painted the interior of his coat with a couple thin coats of Vallejo Scarlet Red. The exterior I painted with Vallejo Russian Uniform, a nice drab and faded olive colour. The leather belt and bandolier I painted with Rhinox Hide, the bullets they contain I picked out with a small dot of Scale75 Dwarven Gold for the casing and Old Copper for the tips. The guns themselves I painted with Scale75 Thrash Metal. Lastly for the base coats I painted the skulls with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. With that done the whole model was given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. Finally, I picked out his eyes with a small dot of Evil Sunz Scarlet.

'Frank', Doctor Fischer’s Monster

The painting of this box almost came to a screeching halt when I realised that Frank here is a friendly Driller Xenos. I hadn’t worked out how I was going to paint the Drillers yet and I didn’t want to commit to anything in case I changed my mind between now and then. I don’t want to go into too much detail here about my painting choices, I’d rather save that for the actual Driller Xenos article. It also saves this section being about four times longer than any other in this article.

To get things started the model was primed with Colour Forge Standard Grey. I then painted the armour plates on the head, shoulders, forearms, thighs and shins with Mephiston Red. The Xenomorph-esque tongue I painted with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw.

Frank has a few bionics that distinguish them from a regular Driller Xenos that I needed to address. Partly so that they stand out a little and partly as a nod to Doctor Fischer’s bionic arm I painted the various implants with Scale75 Old Copper. I then picked out the saw blade, exhaust and the pipe on the arm with Scale75 Thrash Metal.

To bring out all the organic texture on the model I gave Frank a head to toe wash with Army Painter Dark Tone. This had a bit of a gloss finish so I then gave them a quick spritz with a can of Army Painter Anti-Shine Matt Varnish. Unfortunately, this dulled down the red armour a little too much so I brought back a bit of brightness by drybrushing the head and shoulder plates with Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Xenium Horror

With the survivors done I could move swiftly onto the abominations. Starting with the Xenium Horror, cool name by the way, I primed him with Colour Forge Standard Grey followed by an all over base coat of Army Painter Air Raven Black. Raven Black is actually more of a very dark grey, but using it means that I can use a wash later to bring out the shadows. First things first though, I gave them a bit more of an organic feel by lightly spraying some Army Painter Air Nomad Flesh on the tentacles and into their gaping maw. To help bring out the texture of such a large model I gave them a zenithal highlight with some Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush. The Xenium Horror has some blue tones in the artwork so with that in mind I used my airbrush to paint the areas I had just highlighted with some Pylar Glacier contrast paint. This ended up a bit more blue than I perhaps would have liked, or perhaps I went a bit heavy with the white ink. In any case I forged ahead and washed the model with Army Painter Dark Tone, unlike Frank the slight gloss finish helped to give the model a more wet and organic feel. Lastly, I gave the face and shoulders a drybrush with Vallejo Wolf Grey just to brighten things up where the wash had dulled them down.

Brood Mother & Children

And lastly we come to the Brood Mother abomination and their Children. Unlike the Xenium Horror which is more of an unknowable horror I wanted to lean into the organic horror of the Brood Mother. But also, keep it a super quick paint scheme. I knew from painting up the Widowmaker abomination that green and flesh colours go together quite nicely. So with that in mind I primed the mother and their children with Death Guard Green and used the airbrush to roughly block in the fleshy areas with Army Painter Air Nomad Flesh. For a bit of variety in the tones on the Mother I used some Scale75 Instant Colour Arcane Purple around the fleshy nodules on their sides and in the recesses of the chitin on the thorax. I then gave the model an all over wash of Reikland Fleshshade. To bring out the texture I then drybrushed the armour with Ionrach Skin and the fleshy areas with Kislev Flesh. Lastly, I felt that the mouth on the Mother was a little indistinct, so I gave it a wash with Army Painter Purple Tone. This helped define it a little more and the semi-gloss finish helped give it a more organic feel.

Bases

With the models done it was onto the bases. I started by painting the rocks with Vallejo Fire Red and then coating the rest of the base with Vallejo Red Oxide texture paste. I wasn’t overly careful about not getting the paste on the models’ feet, which helps make them look like they’re standing in their environment rather than on top of it. Once it dried I went back with Fire Red on areas that I missed. To bring out the texture the bases were then given a wash of Reikland Fleshshade followed by a drybrush of Kindle Flame. Lastly, I painted the rims of the base black and I was one step closer to getting Zombicide Invader done.