Turnip28 – Napoleonic Zombie Army – part 3

If you’d like to see parts 1 and 2 just type in Napoleonic Zombies into the little search thing on my main page. 

For the Turnip28 project I obviously need at least two armies to battle each other. I still have some cool little things to finish off for the 23rd Rutabaga’s but I wanted to turn my attention to their opponents, The Napoleonic Zombies (might come up with a proper name for the army at some point). 

I built and painted a few recruits last year and I’ve bought more kits and bits to build another 10 – 20. 

The only other thing I wanted for this army was a monster of some kind. The Rutabaga’s have their troll-beasts but for the zombies I wanted something bigger and a lot more monstrous. 

My first few days back at work were consumed with weird and wonderful ideas for a monster and then I stumbled onto this YouTube video by Conjured Craft.

I figured, as I’d made a small start with sculpting for this project, why not throw myself into the deep end and try sculpting a ghoulish monster for the zombies? 

First I did a rough drawing and made some notes…

Next I went to the craft supply shop and bought what I needed. 

Then I just got stuck in. I’ll admit there was a feeling of trepidation because I knew my idea was ambitious but in the famous words of American Air Force Major General Frederick Corbin Blesse “No guts, no glory” 

I started with getting the rough shape of the head with screwed up tinfoil and then did the same for the body. 

I next looped armature wire around the body to create limbs. From the outset I didn’t want this creature to have hands or feet and I intended the limbs to be longer but alas I cut the wire a bit too short. 

Then I started layering on thin rolled out sections of polymer (Sculpey) clay. This was fun. 

I originally wanted him to have a red coat with webbing, to match the infantry, but it evolved into being a long coat instead with a nice broad collar. I wanted the sleeves and tail of the coat to be ragged. 

Next I wrapped the head in clay and started adding details like the eyes, an underbite fat lip, tooth and nose. 

Then came the really fun part where I started to carve in some details. This was so much fun. Funnily enough it was almost like drawing but instead of a pencil I had sculpting tools and instead of paper I had clay. 

I couldn’t decide if my little monstrosity should have a hat or not because I quite liked his bald misshapen head. In the end I went with a hat and I think it really balances out the whole figurine.

Then came the baking. Scary! Roughly 30 minutes later he was done. 

I’ve got to say that this was one of the most nerve wracking projects I’ve done for the hobby but one of my favourites too. I think sculpting is going to turn into a bit of a thing for me now haha. 

In conclusion I feel like he isn’t scary at all really more silly and cute but I still think he’s weird enough to fit into the Napoleonic Zombie army. I clearly have a lot to learn but I do feel, dare I say, a bit proud of my first attempts at a bigger sculpt. I can’t wait to paint him. 

Any name suggestions for the little guy would be greatly appreciated. Bear in mind it’s a post apocalyptic, napoleonic setting with a lot of root vegetables around and a lot of silliness sprinkled over the whole thing. 

Cheers

IRO