Ah, the zoat! For me, this model had the unfavourable status of 'Citadel's ugliest miniature' and I was really rather reluctant to paint it. In fact, I very nearly didn't have a zoat to paint at all (they are quite expensive you know!) and it was only down to luck I managed to pick this one up for my usual price of 'next to nothing.'
You see, this is a zoat of two halves. I bought the leg section quite some years previously as a 99p lot on eBay and had to wait until only a couple of months ago to get my hands on the top half for a similar price. It wasn't quite the model I was after, considering that I planned back then to only but one zoat, but the one piece zoat with staff wasn't available. I wouldn't have minded paying a little bit more for that model either.
Still, I had a complete model and it was on the list to paint, so paint it I did. One thing I knew I didn't want to do when working on this model was use any green. I am feeling a little greened out if truth be told after painting snotlings, orcs and lizardmen of late. So I chose a brown colour for my zoat and to be honest with you, I am really rather pleased with the result. I selected a complimentary yellow shade from the chest area, incorporating a little colour harmony into the process, and used bone to paint up the toenails.
I used purple to help suggest that the creature's mouth is a little more than just a black hole and highlighted the teeth with more bone shades. The eyes were done with the classic red base and tiny yellow dot, which I feel always brings eyes to life on monsters and creatures such as these. Finally, I painted the funny sphere in the zoat's hand in a kind of electric crackling way that was only partially successful. I am not bothered as it was a first go and its certainly a technique that I would like to do again.
To conclude, I really enjoyed this paint job and I would be more than willing to have another go at the other fantasy zoat at some time.I hope you like him too!
Orlygg
I always liked them myself and have quite a few that sometimes get some 40k action. I fondly remember doing an article for the old GW-USA website on how to scratch build them for the Tyranid Splinter Fleets :)
ReplyDeleteI'm oddly fond of these guys actually, and you've done a nice job dude. Surely the zoat doesn't beat out the original Nagash for "Citadel's ugliest miniature"??
ReplyDeleteI spent more time and money than is sensible on Ebay a couple of Christmases ago, getting all seven Zoat models (four for Rogue Trader, three for Fantasy; the limited release "baby zoat" doesn't count :) ). I've got a feeling a couple are recasts and at one point I was even reduced to buying from theessexgirl at the usual inflated price.
ReplyDeleteThe three fantasy ones make a good family unit, with the wizard and warrior parents and the smaller immature one with what looks like a cannon rammer.