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!

Zomb-Apoc - The Whisperers

I love the latest enemies in The Walking Dead comic - I had to make them in miniature form! The basic idea is that they're camouflaged as walkers - they wear masks of zombie flesh (laced up at the back, like a luchador mask!) and lurk amongst the zombie hordes. Not a lot is known about them at this point in the comics, but my guess is that they sort of direct the zombie herds that have been shown now and then, walking amongst them (and communicating in whispers, hence their name - the Whisperers) and utilising the supplies left in the wake of a herd attack on a survivor group. They've been shown to mainly use knives and machetes, but one was shown to have a sawn-off shotgun. I've stuck to knives, pistols and sawn-off shotguns with these - I've put together another 5 to join these, although I may take them up to 15...

The parts for these are Wargames Factory plastic male and female survivors, plus a couple of Studio Miniatures plastic zombies and bits. A couple of the heads are from MaxMini, whilst the rest have had putty masks added.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments over Zomtober - I'm really behind on my Feedly reading list, but once I'm caught up I'll be commenting on everything I've missed out on in October!

Zomtober 2014 - Final Post!

I've been meaning to do this for a while now - get all of my zomb-apoc stuff together for a nice big horde shot! I don't think the survivors have much chance against that...

Moving forward, I'll be adding a few more things...

• Left 4 Dead-style "specials" - boomers, smokers, tanks, jockeys etc.
• Female zombies - at the moment, the majority of my horde is male - I'd like to even this up a bit! I'm not keen on the plastic Wargames Factory ones though, so any suggestions here would be nice!
• Survivors - there are a few more I'd like from Hasslefree, a bunch from Studio Miniatures (I've wanted the Wizard of Oz ones for ages now!) and I recently purchased a box of the male Wargames Factory survivors and split a box of the female ones with one of my wargaming mates.

I also need to really think about zomb-apoc terrain. I have a bunch of post-apoc stuff, but some more buildings, burnt out cars and some roads would go a long way to making games possible!

Comments are always amazingly useful! I always try to get around to responding to them as soon as possible!

Zomtober - Renovations

So, my zombie horde is coming along nicely and I'm down to the last 10 or so figures remaining unpainted - sadly, the bases of my older painted zomb-apoc stuff didn't quite fit with my more modern stuff. As such, I decided to dig them all out and rebase them!

Some of them needed new bases altogether - generally metal zeds and some survivors - I've really started to dislike slotta bases lately, so the Warhammer 40000 bases with no slot are the way forward! I weight them with coins to add a bit more heft too!

I got the previous basing materials removed from these and then my current mix of gravel then sand added.

Undercoated black, base paged scorched brown...

Drybrushed tan and light stone grey...

Ta daaaa! Flock added, excess flock brushed off with a toothbrush, base washed with a muddy/crap mix and the base sides painted black! Huzzah! All that's required now is some gore on a few figures here and there! I may get around to taking a full shot of my horde later today!

Zomtober - workmen, prisoners and a tyrant!

I'm a little late on this update (again!) - these figures were finished a week ago. I decided to go with a theme for some of the zombies I had left to finish (as I've done with the hunters from the last update and the prisoners from Zomtober 2013) and chose to paint a group of 6 of them as construction workers.

These zombies were already assembled and undercoated, so rather than select particular parts and assemble them as construction workers, I pulled out 6 that I thought would work well as workmen. A couple of the zombies I had remaining have the hardhat, so they fit this perfectly, plus I picked out a few that had the jacket on - I thought it'd work well painted as a hi-vis vest. I also found a metal zombie from Studio Miniatures, which I'd swapped the head of.

I also had these Horrorclix figures based up and thought they'd fit the prisoner theme quite nicely, so painted them to fit in with the prisoners from last year. 

Finally, this beast! A Plague Stage 1 from Deadzone - I picked up this guy nice and cheap alongsider a character I wanted from Deadzone (The Survivor) and thought that he'd fit nicely as a sort of Resident Evil-style "End Boss" for my zomb-apoc games. There wasn't much to do with the paint job, so I gladly admit that I went overboard with the gore... Hah!

I'm getting close to the end of my unpainted zombie stuff now! I've been reading the most recent Walking Dead issues and I'm buzzing with ideas for a rival faction of survivors for my players to go up against! I'm off to the Fiasco wargames show on Sunday, where I'll be picking up a set of the Wargames Factory plastic male survivors to come up with some more organised groups of survivors - I currently have sort of "special characters", so some Walking Dead-style "normal survivors" will be good!

Zomtober - A bunch of stinkin' Zeds!

Studio Miniatures plastic zombies - decided to paint these in a mini Dawn of the Dead homage - a bunch of hunters who were having a field day at the start of the zombie apocalypse. It didn't last.

A Horrorclix human/plant hybrid - he'll just be mixed into the rest of the horde as a zombie that spent too long submerged in a swamp... I bought a pot of Citadel Nurgle's Rot that I decided to use on this gentleman, so he's nice and slimy.

More soon!

Delayed Zomtober

Well, it's taken a while (work.), but I'm finally on my feet and attacking the horde!

Here's what I've pulled out of the To-Paint boxes/drawers/piles...

Painted stuff soon!

Zombtober 2014

Some of the figures finished last year!

Last year I participated in Zombtober - the aim being to paint at least one zombie/zombie-related miniature per week over the course of October. I'll be following it again this year, with it tying in nicely with the 6MMRPC challenge that Dave and I are currently running (it's even mentioned in the rules!). I completed a nice little horde last year - this time around, I have more plastic zombies to finish up, a bunch of survivors (some just need finishing off, whilst others are to to rebase) and I plan on having a look at the zeds I finished before the last Zombtober - my basing style has slightly changed, so I may go back and tart them up too!

You can find the guidelines for Zombtober here and I'll be posting an update about the blogs involved in the 6MMRPC shortly!

2013 Round-Up (just 19 days late...)

Hi guys - I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now but I have only just gotten around to it! A quick recap of what I got upto in 2013 and my next post will cover my current projects and my plans going forward...

The most important part of 2013 (with regards to my blog) is that GAMES ARE BEING PLAYED! It's difficult to underestimate how good this is - I've been "back in the hobby" for 5 or so years now, but even before my break in wargaming, I rarely played (once or less a year, despite having multiple armies!). In the latter half of 2013 I played multiple games of Flying Lead and Songs of Blades and Heroes - I've been planning out games and settings for years and it was a great feeling to see my painted miniatures and terrain on the table! I even got a couple of my non-wargaming friends to start playing (my housemate and another of my best friends) and, most importantly, they kept asking for more battles!

I've actually gotten a really decent amount of figures completed this year for various different projects and I got stuck into my zomb-apoc stuff during October with Zomtober 2013 - here are a few examples of things completed this year:

Michonne and her two "camoflage" zombies - I'm very fond of her paintjob - she was a gift to myself when I'd finished half of my Studio Miniatures plastic zombie horde! Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

Chosen Space Marines of The Desolation - In The Emperor's Name

Goblins from The Hobbit - this was a lovely plastic kit! Lots of variety too. They're to be used as devolved humans in Necromunda/Space Hulk/post-apoc

Some Private Military Contractors from Empress Miniatures (sold as SAS, mine have a couple of headswaps) - these are for zomb-apoc

Wasteland Sniper - this guy is intended as a scout/herald for a new (Caesar's Legion-inspired) faction in my post-apoc. Warmachine/Hordes

Misc Studio Miniatures plastic zombies - I did enjoy painting the ones in the prison jumpsuits and the Drive-inspired one in the front! Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

A biker survivor (em4 Miniatures) and misc feral ghouls (Mantic Games plastic zombies). Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

Missing from the round-up are various different figures, an orc and goblin warband (Celtos miniatures, for my fantasy skirmish setting), 19 pirate scum (40k Chaos Cultists), 30 or so plaguebearers (plastics and kitbashes!), more zombies... A good painting year in general!

Zomtober 2013 - Week 4 (belated...)

Again, better late than never! This is a Hasslefree Miniatures infected version of "Grant", mutated into a hulking creature. I'll be using him my zomb-apoc as a sort of "tank" zombie, but in Left 4 Dead terms he's more of a Charger. He's been finished for around a week (alongside not-Milla and the Hasslefree female survivor and not-Shaun, but they're lacking blood/gore and final details) but I've been preparing for a Halloween house party (which happened last night and was bloody brilliant!), meaning my hobby time has been somewhat shortened whilst painting masks, building wands (I went as a Death Eater from Harry Potter), fixing robes and making decorations for the house! I turned a cardboard box into a graveyard (running up the stairs) and made lots of other bits and pieces - I may post about this later in the week...

All in all, I've loved Zomtober - it allowed me to really get a good chunk of my zomb-apoc miniatures completed and it's spurred me on to play some zombie survival games sometime soon. I've also loved the output from the other blogs participating in it - really great stuff! I'll certainly be participating again next year - I'll also be putting together a round-up post to show everything I've completed in the last month!

Zomtober 2013 - Week 3

A little late, but better than never...
Michonne and her two "camouflage" walkers - her boyfriend and his best friend. 

This is a lovely little set from Studio Miniatures - I really need to add more Survivors to my collection, and this fits the bill nicely! I didn't get quite as much as planned completed in Week 3 and I'm late in posting, but work and general real-life stuff got in the way. Oh, and now my iPhone won't connect to my laptop via the cables I have. Sigh.

Thanks for all the comments so far guys - really do appreciate them, makes me want to post more and more! I love all of the figures I'm seeing for Zomtober!

Zomtober - Ladies Week

This is my planned Zomtober painting effort for this week - Studio Miniatures not-Alice and not-Michonne (and her zombie camo - her scheme is based off the first appearance comic book cover), a generic Hasslefree Miniatures female survivor (nicely tooled up - hockey stick, pistol, shotgun) and finally, a few bits and pieces left to do on Hasslefree Ray 2 (not-Shaun of the Dead). I haven't got quite as much time spare this week and I'm visiting my parents at the weekend - I should have a chance to paint on Saturday night, so I'll definitely get Michonne and her mates painted up!

Zomtober - Week 2 - Mad Mik, Sons of Desolation Biker

Meet Mad Mik, of the Sons of Desolation outlaw biker gang - my other finished figure for Week 2 of Zomtober 2013. His name is inspired by two things: one, whilst painting him I just happened to be watching Sons of Anarchy, and two, this comment on a picture of him (on Instagram) from Mik of Mik's Minis:
cygnus46This may be what I look like in twenty years.

A lovely figure from em4 Miniatures, who have a brilliant range of stuff that I'm using across my post-apoc, zomb-apoc and superhero projects. He's very chunky when alongside some of my other survivors (Hasslefree in particular) but I'm really happy with him - the paintjob really came together in the last stages. The head on the ground is that of a zombified not-Shaun of the Dead - I got a duplicate of the figure from the Studio Miniatures Indiegogo funder - I decapitated it and gave it a plastic head instead, so this was kicking about spare. I have a bunch more survivors to paint, but I will need to purchase extra- after the main horde is complete I'll be adding a few more survivors and then it'll be the really fun stuff - the Left 4 Dead-inspired "specials" - tanks, spitters, witches and so on! Looking forward to gaming with these at Halloween!