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!