Part way through painting the second chunky mech in the Zeo Genesis starter set, I had a realization: “This is really, really easy”. I was using all the cheating techniques I knew, relying heavily on sponging and drybrushing, and the results were coming through brilliantly. Then I had a realization: this model wasn’t easy to paint. I was just so used to Warhammer 40k figures, I’d forgotten how simple miniature painting can be.
This isn’t going to be a dig at Warhammer 40k models, by the way, I bloody love them. I have collections for five Warhammer 40k factions, ranging from the clammy forces of Nurgle to the pristine Eldar Craftworlds. But all that experience painting Warhammer had blinded me to some obvious facts about how its miniatures are designed, and it wasn’t until I got my hands on the new minis for Zeo Genesis that I recognised them.
Zeo Genesis is an upcoming miniature wargame from brand new firm Best Hobby. Two Warhammer 40k design veterans are on board for the project, with rules by Andy Chambers and setting design by Gav Thorpe. Best Hobby has spent the better part of two years building a new manufacturing facility in the USA to create proper plastic miniatures, which will be available via GameFound later this year. You can learn more about the game in this feature.
I received a 3D printed test sample of the starter set miniatures. These obviously don’t represent the final production quality of models, but the designs do match up to what Best Hobby hopes to produce in hard plastic. They are, in a word, simple – and I mean that as a compliment.
Lead concept artist Dan Morison’s style is all about bold, legible shapes, and the miniatures riff on the aesthetic of late ’80s and early ’90s cyberpunk anime, like Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell.
Although the minis have been sculpted digitally and are intended to be made from high impact polystyrene, they have a solidity that reminds me of hand sculpted miniatures designed to be cast in metal. They will need to be made from plastic to stand upright, mind you – as you can see, some of the designs are quite top heavy.
They were a dream to paint with very simple – heck, lazy – techniques. I was able to achieve very satisfactory results for the sea grey UNS forces by sponging on base layers, doing a few stages of drybrushing for the armor color, then using the paintbrush for a few choice highlights and shades, before going back in to pick out the other components. For the mustard yellow Pact Crisis, I added a step lathering on some Green Stuff World Dipping ink before drybrushing.
They won’t win competitions, but they took me very little time to get ready for the table. And a battle-ready army with finished bases always looks better than a single well-painted hero surrounded by grey soldiers.
With Warhammer 40k figures, I find that there isn’t really a good option for a quick and dirty paint job. It’s a matter of details and materials. Think about Space Marine chapters: a fairly basic marine has armor, undersuit, armor trim, aquila, leathers, power cables, gun, gun detailing, possibly a purity seal, perhaps additional metals on the helmet and backpack. A Chaos Space Marine is orders of magnitude more complex.
A Zeo Genesis Guardcorps trooper has armor and a gun. They might have their helmet off, showing their face and undersuit. Maybe they’re holding a doodad. That’s the baseline of complexity for both ranges, and the 40k figure is flat out more complex.
While some Zeo Genesis models are more detailed than this, the ways in which they are more detailed are quite constrained. The models I’ve received use a limited range of materials; hard armor, some textile components, cables, and pipes, and maybe a little skin showing. They don’t have layers of armor, belts, cloaks, and trophies, or interfaces between flesh and bone or warpstuff.
A key challenge when painting Warhammer 40k figures, particularly for new hobbyists, is that they often look like trash right up until they look like treasure. Any part of the figure that isn’t finished to a high standard makes the rest look worst. It’s dispiriting.
And getting over that hurdle isn’t exactly easy; you’re contending with different overlapping and contrasting materials jammed up next to one other. It’s a challenge of brush control, paint thinning, and eye-sight.
These Zeo Genesis figures started looking good early on in the painting process. The more I painted, the better they looked. If I went and put more time into them now, they’d look even better – I could refine the highlights and shades, add decals or weathering, add in whole new colors to pick out smaller details. But they were tabletop ready two paint sessions ago.
Again, I’m not complaining about 40k figures here. I love the designs and enjoy making them look good. And there is an option to bulldoze straight through the problem of complexity: embrace the Blanchitsu style and obliterate the need for precise detail painting by weathering everything into oblivion. That’s how I did my Death Guard.
But if you ever find yourself dispirited by the experience of painting Warhammer 40k, why not try painting figures with simpler designs? You don’t even have to leave the world of Warhammer – Warhammer: The Old World features a lot of GW designs that are over a decade old, and they’re blissfully simple compared to Age of Sigmar figures.
If you do want to improve your traditional miniature painting technique, check out Wargamer’s guide on how to paint miniatures, and our specialised guide on how to paint Space Marines. If you just want to paint faster and more easily, my New Year’s resolution painting guide is packed with tips and tricks to make painting painless.
Whatever skill level you’re at, we’d love to see your minis. Come and join us in the official Wargamer Discord, and share your work in the mini painting channel!
Source: Wargamer
