Zombie of the Week #22: Patient Zero

Patient Zero

Patient Zero exhibits a slower rate of decay than 98% of infected subjects.  In addition Patient Zero has been seem to actually regenerate damaged, necrotised tissue in a fashion as yet not understood.

This heightened state of infection also seems to radiate in an area around the subject.  Within this as yet undefined area healthy subjects are more succeptable to infection, sometimes even contracting the disease without contact with infected fluids.  Essentially Patient Zero causes the infection to become airborne within the aformentioned radius.  Additionally, infected subjects have been seen to become invigorated (if such a word is appropriate) within a similar radius of effect.

The development of an infected with the described symptoms is a sinister development, in a situation rife with sinister developments.

Scabby Sicko

Patient Zero is another Frothers Zombie Apocalypse figure, like Sherry and Faith.  That set was/is composed of figures sculpted by different people.  As a result the style and sometimes quality vary.  But it is a nice set of figures and the quality doesnt vary very much at all, while the style does a bit.

So Patient Zero here has been sculpted in a slightly different style to Sherry and Faith.  Its not necessarily a better or worse style, just different.  PZ has some nice detail: the IV, the pustules on his face, arms and arse, his spine protruding through his back, the nice tiled base (not really visible in the photo), the screwy rats etc.  As a result the figure was satisfying to paint, and nicely creepy.  It very much a little thing, but I was particularly pleased with how the bag of purplish IV fluid turned out.

To tie in with the obviously suspect IV fluid (T-Virus anyone?) I painted the pustules in a similar purplish hue so that they didnt just look like yet more bloody areas.  I had the disgusting boils and pustules from Planet Terror in mind while I painted them and they look close enough.

As some readers may have noticed, I have put a few of my more recent zombie miniatures on square Warhammer bases.  I generally use circular bases almost exclusively: I think that they set off miniatures in a nicer fashion.  Additionally, I try to vary standard things like basing as little as possible as I proceed with projects (although having collected and painted miniatures for almost a full 25 years at this stage a certain amount of variation has been inevitable).

Anyway, the intention of the square base is to make the “special” or “character” zombies stand out a little from the horde on the tabletop.  Almost like a boardgame piece (Cave Troll springs to mind) the intention is to make the figure instantly recognisable via convention, so that ”Oh no, that guy with the bloody face is a super-fast-badass-ninja-zombie. Its the other guy with the bloody face thats the normal zed.” doesnt happen mid-game.

So, although Patient Zero wasnt originally going to be classed as a “Boss” zombie, I couldnt bring myself to leave his nice tiled base out and so I plonked him on a square base and named him Patient Zero  I figure that he is possibly some form of carrier or advanced disease vector.  In game terms he might be a mobile spawn point, as he generates waves of zombie-itis all around him or something similar.

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