Resident Evil Licker

L4D Chargers were supposed to be up this week, but I changed my mind. They are coming soon, probably next week (edit: and then I forgot to reschedule the Chargesr post anyway so the whole lot went up.  Ho hum).  I have a Resident Evil Licker to showcase today instead.

Licker

Lickers debuted in the RE franchise towards the end of the last century, way back in RE2.  Their first appearance was a pretty creepy scuttle across the outside of a Racoon City PD window after which they made a lasting impression in the next room, usually by decapitating Leon S. Kennedy with their enormous tongue.

Since those not so humble beginnings, they have become a staple of the franchise, featuring as the big bad in the first RE movie and hunting some S.T.A.R.S. members in the church in the second movie (before being blown to pieces by a motorcycle mounted, twin uzi wielding Alice).  They also regularly show up in most of the RE games.

A Licker as it appears in the Resident Evil games.

A couple of shots of the video game Licker.

Another video game Licker

While not “fast” zombies per se (their first appearance predates the development of that particular zombie sub-group by a few years trivia fans) Lickers are more akin in behaviour to a Jurrasic Park velociraptor that can stick to walls than a shambling zombie.

Bcause of this I chose to use a Horrorclix Tickler figure to convert into my Licker.  I always liked the half scuttling, half galloping dynamic pose of the model.  The tail and head had to go.  I used green stuff to cover up where the tail had been and I used a Heroclix Venom figures head as the basis for the Licker head.  I left the spines on the back of the figure as even though they are not strictly accurate for a Lickers appearance, I thought  that they looked good and were worth keeping as a point of visual interest on the figure.  Mutant variation like that is very in keeping with the whole RE thing anyway.

V-ACT Mutation

Lickers dont have visible eyes or ears and instead have a weirdly distorted brain that bulges out of the whole cranial area.  Making a convincing miniature brain for a Licker figure had been a stumbling block for me up until his model.

I tend to be better at assembling bits and pieces in various ways than I am sculpting things.  The apprentice period required to get to a passable sculpting level put me off trying miniature sculpting in more or less any way until this figure.  I used Green Stuff to make the brain and to add the sinewy looking muscle parts around the Lickers mouth.  I think that the brain worked out better than the sinew but I think that both are passable.

The confidence boost that I got out of the sculpted areas on the Licker has meant that I have started doing a bit more green stuff work on some other figures since (the upcoming L4D Chargers being the most noteworthy).

To top it all off I am also pleased with how the paint job worked out.  I wanted the scheme to suggest that the Licker was in some way flayed (because thats what they look like.  They have no skin) but I didnt want to get bogged down in very fiddly painting of muscle striations or anything very time consuming and Golden Demon-y like that.  I came up with a compromise that I am very happy with.

And so my project to get a tabletop worthy version of one of my favourite villains from one of my favourite franchises turned out to be particularly satisfying.  Go me

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