Barricades and Loot - The Walking Dead Miniatures Game, Mantic

I was recently having a think about what I’d need to start playing a couple of games and it struck me that it would only take a little bit of work to be able to play both Dracula’s America and something like Last Days Zombie Apocalypse - there’s some crossover for me with these skirmish games, I’ll likely be setting both campaigns around the Louisiana area and the recently completed farmhouse, barn and church would work for rural America - with the right set dressing I’d be more than happy to use them for both 1870s and modern times!

This bunch of barricades and objective markers come from Mantic Games and were originally an upgrade for their The Walking Dead base game to take you from cardboard terrain to 3D detailed pieces. A while ago (5 years maybes?) Mantic had a special festive offer, giving you double the set for the same price - so around £18 for 8 wrecked vehicles, 12 barricades and 20 loot/objective markers. It seemed perfect for my zomb-apoc and post-apoc collections and my sister bought me them as a Christmas gift.

Upon receiving them I was impressed - they’re generally high detail and cleaning up the few moldlines here and there wasn’t too arduous. I believe this set is now available through their Terrain Crate line which has subsequently been released.  As usual, I got these cleaned up, undercoated and promptly got distracted by something shiny and new!

As part of the aforementioned “get a game started” target, I thought these were a perfect addition to my modern zomb-apoc plans! Some of the barricades (the ones that are all wooden) could easily work for Dracula’s America as well as the planned Lovecraftian gaming too!

The crates of cans are my favourite part of the set and I took some time to paint some teeny tiny Heinz Baked Beans and Campbells soup labels. I also attempted to add some newspaper-ish squiggles on some of the papers lying against the boxes or on some of the other markers - I also included a TIME magazine somewhere in there, some American dollars and even a tiny drivers license (I googled US driving license and used McLovin’s as inspiration!).

Finally, the backpacks - the bunny was my favourite!

This is 32 components in total and they’ll count as 3 x 10 Figures. I need to get these posts updated with my Bingo card - hopefully I can get that done soon! Thanks for reading and I’d LOVE to read your thoughts! 

Next up are the 8 vehicles from the set - 4 sedans and 4 pickup trucks. I sprayed them with a bunch of rattle-can dregs a while back to mix things up. I should have them finished in the next week or so. After those I think it’ll be some fences - I have some from Renedra that will work for both of the aforementioned settings!

Zedvember - The Last Zeds

I managed to finish off the last of my modern zombie figures over Sunday and Monday just gone - here are the results:

A bit of a scenic shot of the completed figures - 4 survivors, 2 special infected and 11 standard zombies.

The last of the zombie horde - these were a pleasure to finish off - I will probably end up adding some others when I get a few different things finished off (sort of like a reward):

• The Survivors - I have a bunch more to paint, including a bunch of "normal" survivors from the Wargames Factory plastics and a few metal/resin characters
• Vehicles - I've been buying up toy cars for years from various car boot sales - these need some distressing and suchlike
• Buildings - I need a bunch of "whole" buildings - at the moment I only have a couple of ruins that are suitable for zombie-apocalypse
• Scatter terrain and roads - pretty straightforward - the kind of stuff that you could imagine scattered around a town after the outbreak of the apocalypse, plus some zombie bodies to dress the place - I'm thinking about making some sort of press mold so I can duplicate these lots of times

On to the pictures of the zeds:

Quite a delightful model to paint - a Boomer special infected. These are from Left 4 Dead - they vomit on the survivors which attracts the rest of the normal zombies and explode when shot.

A Charger special infected - another great figure to paint! These are a type of infected who have one arm which grows out of control in size, which they use to batter survivors when attacking them, pushing them away from their comrades to isolate and kill them.

Standard zombies - 4 Studio Miniatures plastics and a rebased and repainted Horrorclix figure (originally a vampire, hence the odd face).

3 metal zombies from the ex-Tengu Miniatures figures now being sold by the brilliant CP Models.

Again, 3 more ex-Tengu.

Two survivors from the Wargames Factory The Males kit - I tried to build up these figures as sensible as possible, utilising the ammo pouches, water bottles and giving them a back-up pistol or knife. 

Another two survivors from the same set - this time, a couple of young lads. Again I tried to go for sensible weapon and equipment choices.

One of the kids got a Wu-Tang Clan t-shirt...

I was elated to have got these finished over two days! It's somewhat amazing for me to have got this far into a project! It's not that I abandon projects regularly (or...ever), it just seems to be the wargamers way to have things on a slow-boil whilst working on other things in between!

Thanks for reading and also many thanks to the many lovely comments - they really do help to keep me motivated!

Zomtober (and October!) Round-up

As usual, here's the round-up of my figures completed for Zomtober 2015...and less than usual, a round-up of my figures completed in the full month! I may try and keep this as a monthly post at the start of every new month, showing the figures I've completed the previous month.

My Zomtober 2015 selection! I may be slightly cheating here - there are 6 figures in there that don't specifically fit the description of zombie or survivor, but they're creepy and gore-slathered and I painted them in the month of October, so...

From the figures shown here we have:

• 3 ex-Tengu Miniatures female zeds - one is a "special infected" of some kind, probably a Smoker
• 6 Studio Miniatures plastic zeds
• 2 CP Models Night Horrors - these are two of the same miniature, but I've slightly reposed one of them to add a bit of variety - they're to be used as Lovecraftian creatures
• 2 Fenris Games Undead - again, two of the same miniature (actually the plastic version from the Cthulhu Wars boardgame and bought very cheaply from eBay) - one has been converted to be an Adherer (conversion idea borrowed from the brilliant Minis by Finch)
• 4 Deep Ones - another Lovecraftian creature (and my favourite by far!) - Reaper Bones miniatures with slight conversions to give variety

13 miniatures completed that are definitely Zomtober related...plus 4 with a tenuous link (as in, they may appear in games with my modern zeds...)

I am satisfied with that! I have had a bunch of holidays in from work this month though, especially in the later part of the month, which is when I got some stuff done! I failed on the "one mini per week" aim, but hopefully made up for it!

But wait, there's more!

Here are the miniatures I completed in total for the month - I rediscovered these ants and maggots, started last year as low level dungeon critters and got them done in a night. I also needed more treasure counters for use in a Frostgrave game on Halloween evening, so got some of the tokens I'd built a few months back painted up.

Oh and I completed a load of unit bases for use in Lion/Dragon Rampant!

I'm now starting to work through this lot - the last of my assembled zombie-apocalypse stuff, plus Lovecraftian creatures! A few of the figures shown here are for post-apocalypse (more Fallout-y) rather than zomb-apoc.

Comments are most welcome - roll on Zomtober 2016! Great work by everyone!

Zomtober 2015 - Three's A Crowd

 

Very happy to have managed to crank out a few more standard zeds today! Pretty easy going - the zombie painting method I have is good for cranking out members of the horde:

1. Spray undercoat Army Painter Necrotic Flesh
2. Wash with Army Painter Strong Tone (I do this as it helps delineate the details, plus the spray is slightly satin and doesn't take paint brilliantly over the top to begin with - this is almost like a matte layer)
3. At this stage I finished my basing - drybrush tan and then stone grey, add flock using PVA and leave overnight, brushing off the excess flock with an old toothbrush.
4. Pick out clothing - I normally stick to batches of 3-6 figures or thereabouts, so I use one colour to paint trousers on one, shirt on another, tie on the next. This way, over the numerous groups of similar zeds (especially as I did the Studio Miniatures plastic zombie funding campaign and ended up with 80 plastic zombies) you end up with a decent amount of variation. You can also theme groups as I've done previously - pick suitable clothing options and paint them as workmen or prisoners (see last years Zomtober output).
5. Pick out hair and similar details. You can do this across the batch.
6. Another wash of Strong Tone.
7. Add blood - I've used Tamiya Clear Red with a touch of black acrylic across the horde. This is applied around the mouth, hands, any visible bite marks on the figure.
8. Paint base side black.

 

Obviously this is a really basic way of churning out the horde - I spend a lot more time on survivors and special infected (tank zombies etc.).

 

I've loved taking part in Zomtober 2015 - so much so that I've decided to continue across into November - Zomvember perhaps? I'm enjoying working on zombies and the Lovecraftian creatures, plus they are two projects where I am quite close to having all of my current purchases for them complete! Imagine that!

 

Thanks for reading and congrats to the other folks that have participated - I'm behind on my blog reading at the moment but hopefully I'll get up to date and get to comment on your work!

 

Zomtober - Double Trouble.

Introducing two more painted figures for Zomtober 2015! Obviously they're both painted versions of the same model, with some modifications to the one above. The figure is from the Cthulhu Wars boardgame which was a crowdfunded project between Fenris Games and Sandy Petersen (the creator of the Call of Cthulhu RPG). I picked these two (and a couple of other figures shown previously) very cheap off eBay, but you can buy a lot of the figures in resin/metal from Fenris Games' webstore. The above miniature idea came from the fantastic "Minis by Finch" blog, where he'd done the same thing with the model, so thanks to Finch for the inspiration!

Finally, the unconverted figure - the plastic these are cast in wasn't the nicest to clean up, but for the price it was on par with Reaper Bones.

More to come soon! Thanks for reading.

Zomtober - Making up for lost time.

More completed figures for Zomtober 2015 - huzzah! I actually worked on a bunch of different things today, including basecoating some additional survivors, sorting out some boars for Frostgrave and extra movement bases for Lion Rampant and the like, but these were all that I completed. They took to the washes quite well - I'll be using them as some sort of Special Infected or as Lovecraftian creatures - I think they'd fit the bill for both of those!

Comments/questions are most welcome!

Zomtober - Better late than never...

 Phew! I'm very glad to have got some zombies finished for the month! More to come in the rest of the week...

Female zeds - two standard, one special infected (a Smoker, as seen in Left4Dead)

The Smoker - poised for the inhuman tongue to dart out and entangle an unwary survivor...

I love the tumorous/bony growths!

Two normal zombies for the horde - all of these female zombies are from CP Models, who took on this range from the now closed Temgu Miniatures - lovely sculpts that fit well with the rest of my collection.

Three more standard zombies - these are the Studio Miniatures plastics - not many more of these to go now!

More Zomtober models soon!

Zomtober - Close, but no cigar.

Fungi from Yuggoth (plastic from Cthulhu Wars/Fenris Miniatures), Tripod Creature (ex-Tengu, now CP Models) and a wonderful beast (Pure Evil Miniatures).

What a shocking performance! So much for the easy target of one miniature a week - work and gaming got in the way of that! I have been working away at what remains in my modern zombie apocalypse horde, the misc. undead/Lovecraftian figures shown in the last post and I also got around to assembling various figures that I've been collecting together for a 1920s/1930s Cthulhu Mythos project too. Hopefully my week off coming up will mean I can leave Zomtober on a high! 

Mythos investigators/agents - I'm thinking of a 1920s BPRD here, so expect some quirkier agents eventually.

Finally, the Cultists (all Artizan Designs). There's something about these that really hits the "Banality of Evil" thing for me. These will be pseudo-KKK in style.

Painted stuff soon!

Zomtober 2015 - The Introduction...

Well, it's that time again! As promoted over on the Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer (go here for the rules and to join up!), it's Zomtober 2015! Jeez, that year flew by! I haven't even bought that many new zomb-apoc miniatures, shockingly! Following up on last year, I'm actually getting very close to the finish on my modern zeds and survivors, so I'm actually adding a few Lovecraftian gribblies and fantasy undead into the mix - here's what is potentially coming up this month, culminating in a zomb-apoc wargame scheduled for Hallowe'en itself!

The not-too-small horde...

Fresh meat for the grinder - these are the latest figures, assembled in late September specifically for Zomtober 2015! The wonderful ex-Tengu Miniatures figures now available from CP Models - I've just now noticed that they have another couple of packs available, so I'll probably pick them up (and end up painting them for Zomtober '16...).

The very last of my Studio Miniatures plastic zeds! These make up the majority of my horde and I've enjoyed working on them over the years. Also note the random Horrorclix, another range I've exploited over the years.

Survivors! These were started last zomtober and didn't get very far, obviously! These were supposed to represent the kind of non-Chaotically Evil humans that Rick Grimes and co. would be likely to pal up with - I must get these completed for the games planned at the end of the month. The trenchcoat girl is a Hasslefree Miniatures' survivor (certainly not meant to be Selene from Underworld) and was picked up for £1 at Vapnartak and the dog is from the Zombies!!! boardgame - I plan on necromantically reviving the dog to join the survivors. I probably have other survivors kicking around here and there that will join the painting queue too.

Finally, a mix of creatures - two of the "Undead" figures from Fenris Games (sold in metal through their site, but these came from eBay from the Cthulhu Wars boardgame, so are in plastic, as is the sorcerer that the flash obliterated at the front), two Dimensional Shamblers (at least, that's what I'll be using them as!) from CP Models, a couple of Cultists from Pure Evil Miniatures and finally an escaped loon with an axe from West Wind Games.

Fun times ahead! Stay tuned for more!

ZombApoc - Whisperers - Group Shot

Finally, the Whisperer gang all together! I'm extremely happy with how these have ended up - simple kitbashing and a bit of pushing around some putty and they were ready for paint! I'm not quite sure how these will work in-game - I'm thinking of some mechanism that allows them to be "invisible" to zombies, unless they use a firearm. On all of these I've tried to stick with (in some cases, very vicious) melee weapons, with at least a pistol in a holster to back them up. A few have shotguns (sawn-offs for concealment), a couple have machine pistols and the rest have various other pistols. They will be very much a stealth-based gang. I can't wait to use these in a campaign!

Next up for my zomb-apoc collection are some "normal" survivors - I actually built them last year, but they weren't as interesting to paint as these guys! They'll be more generic survivors - at the moment, the other non-Whisperer survivors are more like special characters than generic Rick Grimes and co. "normal" survivors.

Thanks for reading - I hope you've enjoyed the Whisperers!

ZombApoc - Whisperers pt.3

The final group of The Walking Dead-inspired Whisperers.

Once again, these are generally made from the Wargames Factory plastic male and female survivors, with a couple of bodies, arms and heads donated from the Studio Miniatures plastic zombie set and finally, the only metal miniature in the gang - the gentleman on the right was previously a zombified not-Shaun of the Dead, but I ended up with two of them and had converted one into a generic zombie. When I came to build this gang I raided the last of the already-assembled (but yet to be painted) zombies and he was one of them. A quick head and arm swap and he became a perfect Whisperer. 

Again, another image from the comic - here's two Whisperers monitoring some of the more civilised survivors - the smaller lettering in the speech bubbles is to represent the whispering. It's such an effective horror-theme! Leatherface meets The Walking Dead!

Thanks for reading - comments and questions are most welcome - have a brilliant day!

ZombApoc - Whisperers pt.2

The continuation of the The Walking Dead Whisperers gang - another five - these were actually completed a good few months back and are part of my crusade to get my posts up to date!

I wanted the gang of survivors to be a good mix of male and female - once again, I stuck with pistols and blades. The figures are a mix of the Wargames Factory Male and Female Survivors, with a mix of parts from the Studio Miniatures plastic zombies - these were particularly handy for arms showing them miming the movement-style of the walkers in order to help them blend in with the hordes they're travelling in. 

At the top of the page and the image above show the Whisperers in the comic - their clothing seems fairly non-descript - all the better to blend in with the hordes. You can also see the organised survivors from Rick's communities too - I must figure out a way to make some of those! They also utilise horses for travel.

Many thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed the post and return for the next installment!

ZombApoc - The Reverend

Just a quick post today - here is the Reverend Charles, somewhat based on the priest in The Walking Dead comic and TV show. The bits were there in the Wargames Factory Male Survivors set (the arm with the bible was key) and I figured he'd make a decent character in a scenario - rescue the swarmed preacher haranguing the zombie horde from the roof of an abandoned car... 

As mentioned, the pieces are mainly from the WGF Male Survivors set, with an arm from the Studio Miniatures plastic zombies. 

Thanks for reading - have a great day!

ZombApoc - Whisperers pt.1

This is the first I'm showing of a faction of survivors that I created towards the end of 2014 - they're inspired (read; copied) from the pages of the brilliantly bleak The Walking Dead comic book. The idea is that they're a nomadic group of survivors that have almost reverted back to the hunter-gatherer roots - they travel amongst the packs of walkers by skinning walkers and creating suits from the skins - this acts as camouflage to stop the zombies from attacking them and then they use the spoils of the walkers activities to live and eat. They're known as The Whisperers as they were observed to communicate in whispers with each other when travelling amongst the herds.

I absolutely love this idea and immediately got to work creating some of these - in my head, as a faction they're pretty low-tech, relying on stealth and close-combat to take out their enemies. I also toyed with the idea of having their warband be able to have zombies, which acted as their camouflage when trying to approach potential sources of supplies...

The first five of this gang are shown above (with more posts to follow in the next couple of days - these are a combination of Studio Miniatures plastic zombies, Wargames Factory male and female survivors and then various odds and ends. I've used a couple of zombie heads from Maxmini, but mostly they're just green stuff over the fleshy areas. Weapons were kept to sawn-off shotguns, pistols and then a range of close combat implements - crowbars, machetes and knives. I hope this inspires you to pick up the comics - they're very good and very grisly!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

Zomb-Apoc - Chainsaw and Minigun

More figures painted a good while back - I realised that I hadn't put them up on here whilst updating the basing.

I put these together as counters for my zombie gaming - pick-ups in the style of Left4Dead or other computer games. These were some bits that a friend of me sent, plus a box of Imperial Guard ammo for the Minigun.

I hope to get them used one day!