Zombie Legion - Brutes

Part of the Zombie Legion

The unpainted conversions can be seen HERE and HERE.

Even more zombie fillers - this time, the Brutes - big guys standing alone on 40x40mm bases. It started with a Bloodstoker miniature from the Age of Sigmar starter box - which I converted to look like a fat, zombified cossack. He was fun and for a long time he was a stand-alone part of the horde - only much later I decided to use some orc and ogre bits that were lying around to make more of those, each one with some bloody torture/execution theme. In the end, I built four of them.

Being so close to chaos wastes, children in Kislev are born with mutations more often than in the Empire. Lacking the presence of inquisition, boyars tolerate the milder examples of such corruption. Many such children, while much less smart, grow to be bigger than their peers and have a natural affinity for violence - and they work often as executioners, thugs or bodyguards. Those brutes are naturally welcome in any army too - and that includes undead armies of von Greifen vampires. Being large, stocky and intimidating, they make perfect zombies - and they can continue their grisly executioner work to reinforce the terror factor of the undead horde.

The first pair - a headhunter and a breaking wheel carrier. First one is made out of orc parts with the torso sculpted out of greenstuff - I really liked the idea of a huge guy with a really small head. It was also a good excuse to use up some of my large collection of head bits. The second one is holding a breaking wheel - I always wanted to do something like this. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good bit to be used as this, so I sculpted the wheel myself and then placed a poor zombie on top. Both of them will add some vertical elements to the horde - I hope they'll look good when surrounded by their unit companions.

Another two are the beforementioned cossack and a guy with a cage. The second one was quite complicated to build and paint - I had to glue the captured soldier to only half of the cage, paint him, close the cage, paint the cage, glue the cage to the zombie's back and then sculpt the rope - which then had to be painted of course. Still, he turned out quite fine, especially his funny face - and the prisoner was an opportunity to paint a human with a healthy skin tone - not something I do very often! The cossack/bloodstoker was much more straightforward.