Zombie Kid Joe - Intermezzo: Bench Transfer

Another hot, humid day that left me with no desire to paint. So I took care of some things around the house, and completed the research and the prepwork on Zombie Kid Joe. Joe is now primed and settling-in to his new digs on the painting hutch. . . 

The groundwork is still very much a design-in-progress, but the foundational elements have been squared away. In the next few days, I will take inventory of my wood supply, and see what I need to realize my vision of this piece. . . 

Stay tuned!

Z-Time! (or Birthday Greetings to DWC!!)

The last weekend of August. This year, Labor Day weekend as well. Though our current heat wave belies the fact that Fall is right around the corner, there are other, more telling, signs that augur the advent of the Harvest. . .

One of these is the new TV season, which means the return of The Walking Dead (Oct 12) and the premiere of its Sy-Fy counterpart, Z-Nation (Sept 12). Which in turn means that my work- bench slowly starts becoming [re-]populated with "re-animated" projects. I'm super-excited with the prospects of the Master Box 1/35th scale Zombieland series; but while I wait for its release and arrival, I intend to resume work on DWC's Zombie Kid Joe in honour of the company's second anniversary. . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE DWC TEAM!!!

Zombie Kid Joe - Prepwork (3)

The head has been permanently attached, and Joe is now completely assembled! He has also been pegged and mounted on his workbase. All that now remains to be done is finishing the left cargo pocket, and tweaking the wound edges.

With any luck at all, he might be primed by the end of the Holiday weekend!

UPDATE 17.02.2014. . . Kid Joe is now ready for priming; however, due to the rather involved (as of this writing) groundwork I have envisioned for him, I intend to postpone priming until the ground- work is at the very least roughed-in, and Joe has been fitted to same.

Zombie Kid Joe - Prepwork (2)

Joe is now completely assembled. . . or nearly so. The limbs--all three of them!--have been per- manently attached, and the head has been fitted--but not attached--to the enhanced neck open- ing. In case you are wondering, the conversion to a crew neck has been completed. All that remains to be done is finishing the left cargo pocket, and enhancing the wounds as I deem necessary to create the appropriate "undead" flow.

Before closing, I should point out that I tweaked the relative position of the left, load-bearing foot and the head: there is now a much more apparent "stiffness" and "unsteadiness" to the figure that just shouts . . . WALKER!!!

This is a great little figure that I am enjoying immensely!

Zombie Kid Joe - Prepwork

As I mentioned, today is an 'off day' at the painting bench. So I decided to spend some time with Joe. I have permanently attached the arm and the left leg, and have tentatively fitted the head, as well as begun converting the collared neck to a crew neck. All I can say is that this is very dis- turbing little piece. . . and I mean that as a compliment!!!

FOLLOW-UP. . . Clean-up on Joe is just about done! This speaks more to the quality of the casting and the thought that went into laying-out the mold than how fast I can work!! 
 
I did enhance the shorts somewhat: I undercut the flaps of the cargo pockets, added a button, and pleated the pockets. These add relief and an interesting point of detail that will direct the eyes upward.

Zombie Kid Joe

So many [cool!] figures. . . so little time. . .  That is the quandary I currently find myself in: I want to paint, but disposable time is at a premium.

I currently have YM's Blackbeard bust on the bench, and more than likely it will be the next to migrate over to the painting hutch. But what next?

DWC's Mean Machine will definitely be on the bench before the end of the month, and as of this writing, one of its stablemates in the DWC catalogue will most likely be joining him: Zombie Kid Joe.

Joe is DWC's latest release in their "Dawn of the Apocalypse" line. Designed/sculpted by Chris Moffit, it is a brilliant little piece, accurately proportioned and exquisitely cast in 5 pieces (plus groundwork), that though scaled to 70mm, measures but 40mm to the eyes: remember, this is a kid. . . a 4-5 yr.old kid! While there is no official backstory--at least one that has been made public, Rin shared that "the idea was that he hid in a cupboard and was then [attacked] by. . . zombies when he left his house". Good enough!

As I related to Rin, my only concern about this piece is that the simplicity of the kit belies its un- limited potential! You can go to town on this one!! Having said that, the only mod planned as of this writing is to convert the polo shirt to a T-shirt.

An excellent product as would be expected from the folks at DWC.