Crew a Week Challenge - Nicodem's 'Open Graves' - Part 1

As I did two crews a few weeks ago (both versions of Marcus) I decided that I wasn't obliged to do one the week after as I was one ahead...however it occurred to me that I was going to be at Salute 2014 in London for a fair chunk of the subsequent weekend...

...so it might be a good idea to make a start on next weeks crew in case I'm too bloody knackered to do anything next Sunday. Though not entirely in the spirit of the challenge, overall I would have exactly the same amount of time to paint the crew in (seven days) it just happens that those seven days were going to be in two separate weeks, lol.

And then real life got in the way...it's been doing that a lot lately....

However I've decided that the whole point of the challenge in the first place was to motivate me to make time to get these things done so I've decided to reintroduce the challenge in it's original form with one small modification. I'm still going to give myself a week time limit ending on Sunday of the starting week at midnight and will continue to add additional appropriately themed models to the crew in question however I'll be ignoring the 'have one game with the crew' stipulation as it's somewhat impractical at the moment for personal reasons that I go into here.

I decided to do Nicodem for this weeks challenge for no better reason than it was near the front of the 'to-do' pile. Also I thought it would motivate me to finish off my 'counts-as' Mindless Zombies (I used Wargames Factory 'Zombie Vixens' for reasons that are explained here) as they really need a final layer of wash and to repair the metal Punk Zombie that's had a broken sword for about six months now. I'm also considering painting the old metal vultures as part of the whole thing though I may abandon that plan as I don't really have any use now for two extra Vultures...

So here's what I have to start with. It's the new plastic Nicodem Kit assembled but un-based, my original metal Nicodem crew that needs a bit of touching up (and the aforementioned 'in need of repair' Punk Zombie), my Zombie Vixens 'counting-as' Mindless Zombies and a couple of based and under-coated Vultures. There's also the alternate sculpt of Nicodem (not pictured below but un-boxed here) that I intend to do at the same time. I was debating adding the Guild Autopsies to the mix but after some consideration I decided to wait and do them with McMourning as it seemed more appropriate.

So the Punk Zombie is repaired and they now have basing material which kind of matches the sand on my original metal crew so I can swap models between old and new should I wish and they have my current under-coat preference of Black followed by a lighter coat of White. I also decided to include those Vultures I was talking myself out of painting...

Some actual colours might now be a good idea...Hopefully they'll all be done by Sunday night...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome...not that there's much to comment on yet, lol.