I've Found My Painting Gear Again

My other half had hidden all my painting gear. Having put them in the linen basket, I was surprised when they weren't they. My other half thought that she had done me a favour by putting them in the wash. after two weeks of looking they appeared in somewhere that I had been told they weren't.

Life is going through one of those busy phases. this is a shame as I have the urge to do stuff but not the time. Even my posting has dropped off a little. So I thought I should get something online before the month is out. I am starting in a new RPG this week. I've played this guys games in the past so I will expect the French and possibly the Germans to get it in the neck. This game is 2300, a game in whch the French are mre of the bad guys than the Chinese or Russians. The other was Space 1889. Which is a great game made easy by racial stereotyping.

I have been taking pictures of the dog. So I thought I would post a picture of Leelu in the hope that my other half will miss what I said earlier. She is a Hungarian Vizla, don't ask, I hadn't heard of them either. She is not a dachshund with long legs. She is a little bit ginger but I don't hold it against her.

I was bidding on a few laser cutters last week but they got beyond what I wanted to pay for something that was second hand. The price was getting on to what people are asking for some of the imports. I am still trying to find out how easy it is to get spares for them.

Anyway, I hope I'll post a bit more in the next week. I doubt I will get to the post a day, but we will see how I do.

Zombie Game Come To An End And Other Things

Well it looks like my posting binge came to an end. I haven't managed to pick up a paint brush in nearly a fortnight. 

The zombie game has finally come to an end. I enjoyed it although the end was a bit of an anti-climax. We now own a helicopter. As my character is the only one who can fly (not to mention shoot straight, allegedly) my stock has gone up a bit. For me, there were not enough zombies for the final battle. I was expecting all the zombies in the world.

Life has been entertainingly busy which is why I haven't posted much in the last weeks. My beloved phone has gone so the quality of my pictures will go down. I've had to replace it with something not so good and the camera, well the camera is not quite as good. Money has been a bit tight. This is partly down to the fact that I have been spending money on keeping things running (like cars). I am also trying to keep myself from spending money. The plan to get the business up and running seems to be focusing my mind. When I have not been working on the business I have been writing.

Today is a little different as there is a teachers strike so I have other things to do as well. So as I am stuck at home, I have a little time to myself.

It's Been Quiet For A Few Days

It's been quiet, at least on the blog front. I've had some paperwork to do which I been putting off. This has caused me a bit of an impasse. So I have very little. I have kind of been working on a RAFM zombie. I think I have spent longer getting the wood on the base to make it look right, which sadly it still doesn't. Hopefully next week will be a bit better.

Army Of The Dead Pt 2

Not as slow a day as yesterday. I was hoping to go boarding gaming tonight, but it seems not to be. I have now finished, yes that's actually finished six of the Army of the Dead figures I have. Well apart from the spray varnish. I gave the original two I painted a bit ore TLC and then painted the other four in kind. To get the effect right I  had to get out my home made wet palette to get the early coats wet enough to work into the corners easily. I think I decided when I looked at them again this morning that the rust colour was just too much and the green was too green as well. They also lacked the ethereal glow I had seen elsewhere. So some dry brushing of the whole figure gave me something extremely close to what I wanted.

Hopefully enough to put the wind up the players when they get put on the table. I know what is coming. They won't like it. I suspect that they will persuade the players that hanging around is a bad idea.

I was quite happy with the way they turned out in the end. Still only another six to go. If you are wondering what the pile of paints are at the bottom of the post are for, the simple answer is that it will hopefully remind me how to paint the rest of the figures when I get round to it. 

Nothing To See Here

This may be a bit of a stream of consciousness post.

The dog managed to pole-axe me before. After I had fed her and took her for a walk obviously. So I am still feeling the after effects. I am staying away from the dog for the time being who is now too tired to come out of her crate.

Today has not been much of a day for painting. I have done some drilling and pinning. Some of the Army of the Dead figures had massive spears. It would require two slots in the storage trays to accommodate them. So I  got rid of the spears and replaced them with two handed axes. I'll post some pictures. I've tarted some stuff up on them a bit and I guess they are ready for painting. I have also pinned a few other figures for basing but need to glue them down.

I have had a lot of paints either dry up on me or just run out. I still own ans use GW paint that is older than a lot of the staff at most shops. If I was to work out exactly what the figure was, I am sure I would discover that it was higher than the typical IQ of a certain high street games company. Still some of my most used colours have gone. Not just the festering green but also the olde GW sepia ink which is far superior to the new one. I will miss warlock purple and ultramarine blue to. I had a few spares and found that I have been able to fill in a couple of gaps. My paint collection still seems to be increasing.                             

No dogs were harmed whilst writing this post, no matter how much I wanted to.

Army Of The Dead

Well it looks like my painting and posting binge is still continuing. I have a little more time later, so may even manage to get some more stuff done. Maybe not though, I am expecting this evening to be entertaining, so might not make it out for my game but hopefully will be there.

I've had more of a chance to do something today than I have had all weekend. I finished off painting a load of zombies. They still need varnishing and basing so I will hold off posting pictures of them for another day.
Whilst the ink was drying on the Zombies, I though about the Viking game again and how I need to do some more painting. So I thought I would do a couple of test paints on these Army of the Dead figures.

I didn't want to do the classic GW look but I thought I would see how this looked. I may have to do a little highlighting on them just to pick the colours out. Think I have about another ten to go.

Spent The Day Painting...

None of this Paint Table Saturday for me.

I have spent the day painting. Trouble is it was with an emulsion brush and not a 000 sable. There are those that might say this would not seriously affect my painting. But I knock the knockers.

Seriously though, I have been painting my mother-in-law's back passage. :-) That, for those for whom English is not their first language is probably as rude as it sounds. Sentences like that should only be spoken aloud when impersonating Frankie Howard or Les Dawson.

I was hoping to do some painting yesterday as I was promised that I could have a day to do what I wanted to do. As it turned out, I apparently wanted to go to the supermarket, a DIY store, Hobby craft and to see The Monuments Men. Apparently I didn't want to spend the day painting or anything I would I would have liked to do on any other day. :-)

Today I have spent about an hour painting things other than walls. So not all that good. This is usually the day I do a lot of bulk stuff that I finish off during the week so the pickings next week might be a bit slim.

On a personal note, I have to mark the passing of the tub of paint I have been using to paint zombies for years, Festering Green. It is just getting too claggy to be usable. So will have to go the way of all flesh, I mean paint. I have a replacement but it's not quite the same.

So what have I actually done? Well I have glued some shields on some Saxons. these were the Saxons I showed you all the other day. So no major progress here. I still need to do the shield transfers and finish the basing. So not done yet. I still have a lot of work to do on the Viking game yet to come.

I have been playing around with a few zombies. No matter how hard I try, I can't get some of the plastics to look right. They do okay but they lack the detail of their metal counterparts. This does not bother me so much as I expect them to end up as zombie mobs, four to a base, rather than as singles where their failing may be more obvious.

Zombie Mutant

Big and ugly

Whats the only thing worse than zombies? Mutant zombies! I can hear some dissenting voices saying United fans but that is a little unfair. But only a little. So I thought I would but some in progress shots of what I have been working on during the last week. They don't look to bad but they are still fairly shiny because of the varnish. With a bit of dry brushing and some matt varnish, I think they should be okay. Assuming I get the bases looking a bit better.

Whiny and scary

I have had some mutant zombies from Tengu for a while and I am in the process of finishing them off. I have been busy today but didn't want to let a day go by without posting something, So this is your lot for the day. I do like the female figure, she is just the right kind of warped to be scary.

Fire Engine

I was in Wilkinson's earlier and saw this fire engine. I had a look at it and thought it was about the right size for 28mm gaming. And in make a noise. You can see by the size of the pictures that it is a fairly good match. As it only costs £4 it makes it for whatever difference in size there may be.

The figures are some of my work in progress zombies from Hasslefree I think and a Copplestone Future Wars figure.

Gobal Whining

I realise that I am currently contributing to the phenomenon I call global whining a lot. Global whining is getting to be a major problem in this world and maybe, like me, you need to consider your whining foot print to. But after getter my phone back fully charged, it's still not charging so I have to spend another day sorting it out. I did have a chance to take some pictures though.

I got these done very quickly. I seemed to spend a lot of time painting them black at the start which kind of decries from what I was saying a few days ago. As they are largely chain mail, this made them fairly easy to paint. I have run out of glue so haven't been able to put the shield on. Another thirty minutes work for the bases and shield should see them done.

My productivity at the moment seems to be remaining high and I have a real urge to paint at the moment. Trouble is I want to paint zombies not dark age stuff.

Spriggans Or Ents Or Dryads

I have my phone back and my computer seems to be working just that little bit better than it was. I am still not feeling to good though. I have managed to achieve a number or personal bests in the biological processes front. I won't go into too many details but the morning saw me breaking personal bests in the longest and loudest departments of a couple of bodily processes. Still, the real world, well the figure painting world, beckons.

Now that I can take some pictures, I thought I should post some recent work. I wanted some bad guys for the upcoming Viking game I'm running soon. This was an eBay impulse purchase but it seems to have worked out okay. I know of want some more now. I know that there is another design since these came out so I might get some of them instead.

This was perhaps the quickest project I have undertaken in recent months. Five models all done, including the basing in under about three hours. I guess that is down to the fact that these have a simple paint scheme.

Only about six colours in total. They still need to be varnished just o get rid of that last bit of shine which is especially noticeable on the base. I need to put some thought into how they are going to work on the tabletop. The players will obviously need some sort of challenge when they start fighting. Oh what japes there will be. This is where I should laughing manically.

Marking Time

I really love my life. Most of the time. Still more things are being sent to act as a trial. Perhaps I am not yet a character in a Kafka novel but I am starting to feel like one. Other than the light of my life who has well and truly blocked the toilet. Had a lot on today so not done that much. It's involved glue and sand. Hopefully the phone will be fixed tomorrow and things will be back normal. This picture sums up my mood.

Arrghh!!!

My other half fed my phone to the dog a few months ago, by accident. It's not been charging badly since and now it's not charging at all. I am lost without it. What do I do when I go to the toilet now? I may have to start reading books again.

It does mean that I have no camera at the moment (hence the fact I had no pictures in yesterday's post) and my PC has been performing a little below par in recent weeks. This is a shame as I have done some good work today. I have now almost painted the freebies I got from Duncan last week. I have done some more work on my zombies. I also started and finished painting some bad guys for the Viking game. In this instance, they were some small GW Ent things which I can see having a few uses. Hopefully i will get my phone fixed soon and I can start taking pictures again.

In the meantime....

28mm Zombie Minis List

I started out with a few old fantasy tribe zombies and some old citadel plastic skeletons in my first zombie game. For the most part these are on the small side. This was largely stuff I have had for years and some of which were the first figures I ever purchased. I had also picked up some alternative armies zombies along the way. This made a quick if challenging game. I decided quickly that I wanted more zombies. Lots more zombies.

I look at the zombie miniatures I own and worry that what I end up with will be something like the undead version Village People although I do need to find a motorcycle cop to make that happen. These are what I call feature zombies.

At the time I started buying zombies, there weren't too many zombies to choose from. A few manufacturers had a few small ranges. This quickly changed. You can look and minis manufacturers without finding something that works for a zombie game. Anyway, I thought I'd do a list of the zombies I have used and plan to use in the near future. Over time, I will add some more in. I know that there are plenty of zombie lists out there already. This one may be a little more subjective (in my mind that's a good thing) than some.

Copplestone – Sadly there are only ten of them. These are some of the best zombies available in 28mm. They seem to stand out in all the pictures of games that people post. Characterful without standing out too much. Copplestone are just on the heroic side of 28mm but their human zombies are not all that out of proportion with some of the smaller stuff. They have a lot of civilians that would make a nice addition to any range. They are reasonably priced and well worth the money.

Cold War Miniatures – Cold War has a nice sized range of zombies with about 65 plus some survivors. Unlike Copplestone, they fit well with anything in the traditional 28mm scale. They have a nice mix of all the human type zombies you could want. Whilst American themed zombies are not all that hard to come by, old War have some British themed zombies too. They have a few kid and crawler zombies and even one that is on fire. I do like my feature zombies and this really dates back to the original dawn of the dead. This range has some nice ones such as Elvis, Hari Krishna (like the one from Dawn), a British Guardsman in bearskin and a whole range of others. They seem to be available through eBay at the moment. All in all a nice range. The odd figure in the range requires a little construction but nothing major. I am not sure if they still do metal bases but if they do, they are very good.

Eureka – Eureka have two nice sets of zombies and a lot of modern military types. The first pack of ten different eviscerated zombies. They look pretty good and fit in with the cold war stuff very nicely in terms of size if not style. They have a style all of their own. This makes them great as special types of zombies. I have seen these painted up very nicely as Glowing Ones from Fallout and their tattered look makes them look good for eviscerated zombie types. They also do a pack of zombies getting out of barrels that are similar in style to the first pack. I have seen these used as great terrain markers but don;t actually own any myself. What they d have in addition to this are some nice modern and cold war military figures. The have some Americans and Russians in NBC gear. The Americans really make me think of the early Romero films. Not a huge range but well worth putting an order in.

Hasslefree – These are a great company to deal with and they do some cracking miniatures. There range of zombies is quite small (about a dozen) but they do some nice miniatures. They are the place to get a zombie surfer. One of the most ubiquitous zombie miniatures on the is Ray (not Shaun). A zombie with a cricket bat. They do a nice zombie mutant/small tank. Again the great thing about Hasslefree is not their zombies but their zombie hunters. This is one of the best ranges out there. All are good characters. Again, these all fit in well with the traditional 28mm stuff out there. Their single figures are not cheap but are very nice. They do have a set of five zombies which is reasonably priced.

Studio – These started to come out about the time I was finishing my big push on zombies. If they had been available at the time this would be a lot smaller post as I think most of what I would have binged on would have been Studio. Sadly I only have a few of them. They have everything I could ever want apart from zombie dogs. Lots of female zombies which other ranges lack like kids and crawlers. They have a nice range for hospital scenarios and some of them look like the cast of Scrubs. They also have a lot if characterful stuff. There are zombies that seem very like the zombies from Left 4 Dead. They have a Santa, bride and groom, soldiers, police, clowns, superman and even Harry Potter.

Tengu – I like these minis a lot. They are a touch smaller than the regular 28mm zombies but are not so small in terms of body size that they look out of place with others. They just look slightly shorter.
If you look back I have posted some of their Grey zombies in the past and some of their regular zombies here. It is not the biggest range in either scope or size but it tends towards the small but perfectly formed. One of the best things about this range is the fact that they have female zombies, which many ranges omit. They also have a couple of mutant type zombies that really make me think of Resident Evil.

Wargames Factory – In general I am not a big fan of plastic kits, they take too much time to put together and tend to be fairly fragile. More importantly, they seldom seem to fit with anything else. I actually own two boxes of Wargames Factory Modern Male zombies and they do assemble into something that fits in very well most of my other stuff. Because they are plastic you can in theory get a huge range of poses but there are quite a few that don't work to well. That said there are thousands that do. They can also be turned into corpses and crawlers with a knife, some green stuff and about five minutes.If you are looking to build a new zombie hoarde or bulk out what you have already, these are the zombies to go for. Although I don't own them they do have a pack of female zombies which is unusual. They also do two plastic box sets of survivors, one male and one female. This makes a wide enough range that you could populate your entire game with these minis.

Black Cat Bases – Their range of zombies is not huge and it does not really stand of from the crowd. I have used some of them as glowing ones. I think they are all badly beaten up and largely naked. The poses are not my favourite but they are not bad and cheap for metal figures. I have painted some of the as glowing ones but I am not sure they look as good in this role as the one from Eureka. They have a range of modern ghouls which are really fantastic. Again, not a huge range but these are really nice modern figures. They look like crazed teenager in hoodies and with pointed ears. There is one I don't own where the creature is coming out of a sewer which looks nicely threatening. They look a little like hunters in Left 4 Dead. They fit well with all normal 28mm figures.

RFAM – This company do have a a nice modern range with a number of zombies. I think I am right is saying that these are the grandaddy of modern zombies. All are nicely detailed sculpts. I've been a fan of their for a long time and a huge fan since they picked up the old Citadel 15mm Traveller minis which have featured on this blog several times. I got a boxed set of zombies a few years ago but I only have a few of these painted. There are some nice zombie minis and some quite a range of civilians and zombie hunter types. On the down side, the bases are very chunky on some of the models. I have added matches to one wooden base to even it out. If, like me you add a standard sized base to each figure, this is going to make them look a little tall. This is about the worst thing I can say about the minis. Some of them look very human and have little damage, which is a benefit and a curse depending on which way you look at them.

Westwind Productions – These are nicely generic so could probably be used in fantasy and pulp games as well and quite cheap as well. They are quite chunky though and definitely on the heroic side of 28mm. If your game features big chunky zombies, these will do nicely. The range features some nice zombie hunters and red necks which work well as survivors. This range would not be first on my list but there is something of the completest in me.

Foundry – Not a huge range and they are cowboys. Cowboys may sound like a strange idea but for a game set in the American South, they do okay and as ever, everyone needs a feature zombie. I painted one up for Zomtober last year.  They may be an impulse purchase but they fit is as slightly (but not unworkably) bigger than standard 28mm.

Stuff I wouldn't recommend
I do like the Zombie Plague game and miniatures. I ordered the full set and all the survivors from the states several years ago. The miniatures made by Fortress look very good too and they are impressive in the flesh as it were. Sadly they are huge compared to everything else and are closer to 32mm than 28mm. Some of the GW stuff looks very nice but next to none heroic 28mm it is a little chunky not to mention the fact that it's a kit. The stuff from the Zombies!!! game is really small for 28mm and wouldn't be all that out of place in a 20mm game although their zombie dogs might be worth a look.

Lonsome Cowboy pt 2

Just so people can see that I am no crazy, I finished off by cowboy zombie hunter. You do not need to under coat to keep the paint on any more. That's what two spray on varnish is for which allows you to keep more of the detail. Still need to come up with a name. He looks like the actor Sam Elliot to me. I found a picture of him on a page called the Art of Manliness. his facial hair was in the top twenty of all time. this would have been fine but for the fact that Magnum (Tom Selleck), one of the greatest gay icons of all time was a few places above him. Maybe I'll just stick with lonesome.

Should I ever get round to doing fallout in 28mm, this will be perfect. If Iain ever gets his Deadlands game going, I'll be able to use it for the purpose it was originally intended for.

A New Month

Last month was a good month for the blog. I got just over 5000 hits which is a record. I am hoping that I can do the same but I am not sure that I'll have as much time this month. My life is famine and feast at the moment. That said, there is a lot of stuff on the cards that I might just enjoy. It was also a good month for me as a gamer. Despite weakening and ordering some stuff from Heresy, my lead pile has decreased. What is even better than that is that some of the lead has been sat around for a number of years. I managed to get some repaints and tart ups of figures I had already done. They are far from up to standard but I feel a lot better about letting them out on tabletop.

I have been frothing abut Copplestone since I started doing the zombies again and dug up a few that had been started and played about with them a bit more. The one the third form the right definitely needs his eyes redoing. These should be finished quite soon.

The basing bash went well. I hate basing but what I have done, although time consuming, was a lot easier than I was expecting. Whilst it was not the best basing I have ever done,  it was pretty good. It will do very nicely for tabletop and is robust enough to handle players and their grubby clumsy little fingers as long as they don't start juggling (you know who you are, Paddington Bear stare). I keep thinking that 15mm stuff is all but indestructible and too small to juggle with but I have had people try.

I got some freebies from Duncan for the Viking game. You have to love freebies and anything I can get hold off is always welcome. I now have another five figures which will make a great team of bad guys. Thanks Duncan.

I think the best thing about last  month was the rekindling of my love of zombies and post apocalypse. This is in part down to Andy's game and the return of The Walking Dead which I am really loving. It has been a real inspiration and has got me reading some old  Zombie rule sets again.

I have dragged out a lot of the old stuff and working on these at the moment. These are very work in progress at the moment. I seem to be using a lot of green last month. I like the mutants which seem a little Resident Evil to me which is something else I really love.

Once the Viking game is done, I suspect that I will be doing a bit more of this. That is assuming that X-Com does not get in the way. I suspect that a lot of what post apocalypse and X-Com are can be duplicated.

Whist the figures are small they have a lot of detail, maybe too much in this case. I have found that this makes them very easy to paint. Once the ink hits them, the Tengu figures soaks it up in all the right places making them a pleasure to paint. If you are anything like me, not interested in perfection but like a nice quality tabletop standard model, Tengu do some really nice stuff.

I have some zombies from Tengu and Hasslefree here. They are nice. I was a bit disappointed when I got them because they are a little on the small side but I justify that by saying that not all people are the same build. They are very nice though so can't be all bad.

What does March have in store? There will be some zombies but I can't help but think that the Viking game is only about ten weeks away.