Manufacturer: Essex Miniatures
Year: 1987
Range/set: Q Series (Q062-068 Zombies and Q116-125 Zombies)
Model number: Various “Q” numbers
Sculptor: Bob Olley

Essex was the first company for which Bob Olley did commercial sculpts, and he really did some fabulous work straight outta the gate. A lot of people don’t seem to realize that, at time of writing, these are still available directly from Essex for between $3-$4 USD each! Some of the listings don’t have photographs but don’t let that stop you from taking a chance. Even the Lost Minis Wiki page for the Q Series figures (ALL sculpted by Olley) is missing a lot of photos.

These were all gifts from my good friend Chase (thanks, dude!). I painted them up for use at 3-D Roleplay Con V. Dellon needed some zombies for games of Cauldron, we both wanted them for Battle of the Six Lords (a work-in-progress game…thing) and frankly I just wanted to get some color on ’em. I pretty much never see these around and there aren’t too many well-painted examples on the internet – hopefully this post helps to change that a little!

I’ve always wanted to try “ranked hex bases,” and these weirdos seemed like the perfect opportunity. They’re WAY too big to fit on 20mm square bases (the “correct” base for WFB3), and even 25mm squares were a little cramped for some of the poses. I could fit them diagonally, but I don’t much care for doing that – I want my ranked warriors to face what they’re fighting! Hexes worked very well for these miniatures! I’m very happy with how they turned out.

Painting these was pretty straightforward – I started with a zenithal primer coat to establish some highlights and shadows, then switched to a brush to apply thin layers of color. I used a midtone greenish-gray for the skin, an a yellowish/ivory off-white for bony bits, and a variety of other drab colors for the rest of the parts. Then I applied thinned black paint as a wash over the whole miniature. Once that I had dried, I gently drybrushed the model with a mix of the base green-gray + white. The last step was to use pure white to carefully pick out some highlights and really make the blighters pop. This approach resulted in a very desaturated look that I think works very well. You’ll notice some variance in the green color on their bases. I’m experimenting with colors for bases right now, so you’ll likely see some variance going forward.

There are rats all over some of these guys – I love the zombie that’s biting the head off of a rat while another rat bites his head (looks like the rat is tearing off the zombie’s ear!). And the fellow who has snapped his pitchfork haft in half has no fewer than four rats swarming him – one plucking out his eye, another munching some entrails, a third chewing on his foot and a fourth just chilling in his hood!

Hope you enjoyed reading and seeing these guys, I definitely enjoyed painting them!