Zombicide Invader - Survivors

As I had done all the normal Xenos monsters I needed to make a start on the Survivors. So without further ado I forgot to stick any rocks to the base and got them primed. Great start. I primed the Peacekeeper Bot and Sentry turret black and everything else with grey. In hindsight, I should have just used grey for everything. No matter. As far as the paint scheme goes, I had planned to stay relatively faithful to the artwork, which being a CMON production was both bright and colourful whilst being relatively simplistic. 

For Vivian, a clear reference to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Riply from the Alien franchise, I started by basecoating her jumpsuit with a few coats of Caliban Green. The pads on the suit I painted with Rhinox Hide. The gun I painted with Leadbelcher, the tank for the underslung flamethrower however, was painted with Jokaero Orange. In contrast to the artwork, in which Vivan is a brunette, I painted the model’s hair with Skrag Brown to more closely match Sigourney Weaver’s own red locks. I finished off the base coats by painting her skin with a few thin coats of Cadian Fleshtone. For the washes, I used Reikland Fleshshade for the skin and everything else got a wash of Nuln Oil. 

I started Cole by basecoating his undershirt with a few thin coats of Ulthuan Grey. The body of his jacket I painted with Vallejo Scarlett Red and the sleeves with Averland Sunset, his trousers I painted with Macragge Blue. The pads on his trousers I painted with Rhinox Hide and the straps with Mournfang Brown. His boots, facial hair and gloves I painted with Corvus Black. The pistols I painted with Leadbelcher. And just like Vivian, I finished the base coats by painting his skin with Cadian Fleshtone. Also like Vivian I washed the skin with Reikland Fleshshade and everything else with good old Nuln Oil. 

I started by painting Mitsuki’s skin with a few thin coats of Ungor Flesh. Her undersuit I carefully painted with Dryad Bark, trying not to get any on her armour. The straps I then painted with Mournfang Brown. As Mitsuki is a medic, I painted her armour plates with Ulthuan Grey, which is more of an off-white than a grey. Her satchel I painted with Vulkan Green and her helmet I painted with Vallejo English Uniform. For washes, I used Army Painter Strong Tone on her undersuit and skin, and Nuln Oil on everything else.  

The three soldier characters are, unsurprisingly, rather uniform in appearance so I was able to paint them altogether rather than individually like I had for the civilians. It was also the perfect excuse to test a new paint that I had acquired: Reefer White from Archive-X. And with the airbrush it took no time at all to basecoat all the armour plates. With that done I then basecoated the weapons with Leadbelcher and the pipes on the backpacks with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. I picked out some details on the armour by painting a few panels with Vallejo Russian Uniform, Macragge Blue or Black Templar contrast. Jared’s helmet I painted with Blood Angels Red constract paint and the visor with Temple Guard Blue. Baraka’s head I painted with Ungor Flesh and for Magnus I used Kislev Flesh, picking out his hair with Jokaero Orange. For washed, pretty much everything except the armour got a coat of Nuln Oil, the only thing that didn’t was Magnus’ head which I washed with Reikland Fleshshade. To wash the armour itself, I decided to so with a recess shade of Nuln Oil. Made for an almost cartoony appearance with all the details separated by black lines. 

For the turrets, instead of doing something simple like basecoating them with Ulthuan Grey I decided to mess around with mixing paint in my airbrush. Regardless of my reasons, I found that white artists ink with a very small amount of Vallejo Dark Grey makes for a nice off-white colour. In fact, it is very close to Ulthuan Grey. Life is full of little learning moments like that. 

In any case, with the near white complete, that had practically eradicated my black undercoat layer by the way, I moved onto the rest of the basecoats. For the most part this was using Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown to pick out some yellow panels and painting the metallics with Leadbelcher. The packs on the back of the Peacekeeper Bot I painted with a variety of military greens and browns such as Vallejo English Uniform and Khaki, and Citadel Vulkan Green. 

By way of washes, the Sentry Turret, and the bags and the metallics on the Peacekeeper Bot all got a coat of Nuln OIl. I decided not wash the armour plates on the Peacekeeper Bot as they are quite large and thanks to my airbrushing, very smooth, so I would have ended up with the wash pooling on the plates giving a “coffee stain” effect. Instead I used the Nuln Oil to shade the recesses on the armour and around the rivets. The bags on the back of the bot got a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.

The rocks on the bases I painted with Vallejo Game Air Fire Red before blobbing on some Vallejo Red Oxide texture paste. Once that had fully cured I washed the whole base with Reikland Fleshshade. To bring back the texture I then drybrushed the bases with Kindleflame Dry paint. Finally, I painted the rims of the bases with a matt black.