February is rarely inspiring here in England. The weather being generally wet, cold and grey skied. This morning seems to be a slight exception, with a brightish light flooding through my window and shining across my parlour room table. I am not the only one up and about either, for gunshots roll around the village as somewhere, someone enjoys a late winter's hunt. 

Having been successful in an entirely different hunt, I recently acquired a long longed for model - namely the limited edition single cast zoat, one of my favourite ever figures, for a very reasonable price. The trouble was that the miniature had been very poorly treated by a previous owner and the detail was very badly clogged up with white primer. The model required a long soak in a Dettol solution to shift the worst of the build up, but I was unable to remove all of the paint before starting work. I used a series of very thin layers of white to successfully prime the model before starting work and looking at the completed piece, I don't think too much detail was lost. Where I did have concerns, I used additional shading to 'cheat' nature and create the depth the figure requires. 

I hope you like the result. 

This figure was painted entirely with Foundry's excellent paints, though I used lots of colour mixing to create a different tone of green I used last week when painting my snotlings. I used a chestnut brown to mix in with the dark green base and created each highlighting stage by adding increasing amounts of mid yellow. I was hoping to achieve a more lizardlike look with the skin.

Looking back, I much prefer the look and feel of this version of the zoat. The pose seems more regal and grand compared to the lumpen, ugliness of the two part zoat released later on. Having painted the later example I now know which one I'd use in a small skirmish game. All in all, not my finest work but not a bad result for three hours painting yesterday morning and twenty minutes basing today. 

I wonder what whimsy will select for me to paint next? 

Orlygg

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