Zomtober 2013: Week 4

Hey Internet,

So yeah, this week is a bit of a cop-out.

I got drawn back into Flames of War again this week and decided to finish the last few stands of Polish Resistance Fighters - I now have a finished, fully painted infantry horde force for Flames of War!

This isn't all of them by the way, just the ones I've painted this week.

Partisans are sort of survivors. I mean, historicity speaking, there was no Nazi-borne Zombie apocalypse at the end of the Second World War, but if there was...

^ I also did an objective marker.

I've also gone though and started the process of re-basing my Poles. Mostly its involved adding a lot of 'tufts', as they are en vogue at the moment. I've been using the brown Army Painter ones and the Games Workshop mixed ones.

^ Forest Fighters ambush a German anti-partisan column.  

Zomtober 2013: Week 3

Hey Internets,

I'm a little late uploading my Zomtober entry this week, but I don't really care. I had everything ready Saturday morning, but to my infinite displeasure all my friends wanted to spend loads of time with me over the weekend, leaving me with very little time to sit alone in the dark and put pictures of zombies on the internet.

But, well, yes, anyway...

This week I have painted a trio of Zombie Nuns, and the ruins of their devastated Church.

The Nuns are repainted Hero/HorrorClix models. I got them as part of a big collection of Clicky stuff a few years ago, so cost almost nothing. I've had them laying around in a box somewhere for ages, with no real idea what to use them for - but a dab of blood on just about anything makes them a zombie!

^ Sister Bleeding From the Eyes 

As ever getting the mold-lines and chunks of thick paint off them was a pain on account of their rubbery nastiness, but otherwise the models are all-right. Like most clicky models the detail on them is very light, but they aren't that bad. Their poses are a touch strange, but the whole ' flailing-arm whilst twerking' thing lets them fit in fairly well with 'the horde'.

^ Sister Nosebleed

Having little in the way of details and wearing habbits, the Nuns painted up really fast and were great fun. After a few layers of drybrushed grey and a couple ink washes for the black, and a few layers of palid flesh tones all there was left to do was crack out the Clear Red to do the gore.

^ Sister GapingMaw

I spent far longer this week working on the church itself. I'll show more pictures when its finished, as its part of a much larger Post-Apocalyptic terrain project. The intention is to build a shanty-town come fortress established inside the blown-out remains of a cathedral, called 'Cathedral City'. I know the pun is terrible. You don't need to tell me.



Anyway, what do you think?

^ Well, Priests will be Priests....

Colonel Deathclaw

Hey Internet,

Today we've got a figure that I've been looking forward to getting finished for quite a while.

For a long time I've been meaning to add some officers and characters to my 'Government' Post-Apocalyptic forces, and now that I'm heading into the dark world of miniature role playing I've actually got round to it.

Although I've not worked out the details of him yet, this character is inspired heavily by the final boss in Fallout 2, Frank Horrigan - a soldier infected by a modified strain of the FEV virus, turning him into green skinned super solider.

When I've got a proper 'character write-up' done, I'll be sure to blog it up.

The model itself by Urban Mammoth, a character for the Viridian faction called Major Icharus Trask. Its a very nice figure, well cast with lots of nice little details, but it was a little pricey at £7. 

Painting him up was rather fun. The armour was mostly drybrushing and ink-washes, leaving me with plenty of time to go to town on the skin tones and 'holo-swords'.  With the swords in particular I got to have a go at some nice wet-blending, which I havent done in ages. 

I'm really happy with how the fig came out with in the end, even if it looks a little dodgy in the photographs - I really need to get my lighting sorted out!

What'ta'ya think?

Mr. Marx

The Far-Seer

Bonjour L'Internet,

Today I'm sharing another of my old figures that has been refurbished to see the table once more.

Back in the days of my youth I sported a rather nasty to look at teal and purple (suffragette?) Eldar War Host, lead into battle by an experienced Far Seer. For a good few years this figure, once the pride of my collection was stuffed, unprotected, into an old shoe box. A few weeks ago I came across this battered relic, chipped and gnarled, and being a sentimental old sod concluded that he deserved to be repaired.

Once I had bent the staff, helmet thingy and sword into the right shape, it was a fairly simple matter to  tart this model up. I kept to the original base colours as best I could, and just added layers of highlighting and ink-washes. The other big thing was that I went though and painted in all the little bits of detail, all the jem-stone and whatnot, which I think makes it look far better than it did previously.

It didn't help that since I first painted this figure Games Workshop has re-done their paint range three(!) times, but as I own a worrying vast collection of other companies paints it wasn't all too hard to mix-up some matching colours.

I have absolutely no intention of getting back into 'Warhammer 40,000' again, but still think I can make sure of this rather strange looking miniature in my mash-up post-apocalyptic setting. I'm not sure what as at the moment though. Maybe a spaceman trapped on earth? or a strangely dressed tribal leader or witchdoctor?  No idea. 

I think I did pretty all-right with this one. What do you think?

Mr. Marx

'Da Boss

Hey Internets,

I did a bit of painting and thought I'd share it on here.

I've recently gotten myself a copy of 'Savage Worlds', the Miniatures Role Playing Game, and have started picking out miniatures from my old projects for re-use. My ability to paint has come on somewhat over the last decade, so I'm giving these figures a pretty substantial 're-vamp' to bring them in line with stuff that I have painted more recently as part of my post-apoc project.  I thought that doing this would be a simple matter of adding an extra layer of highlighting here and there, but as it turns out, I used to be really bad at painting, and all of the figures I am currently working on are being virtually re-painted.

As far as I can remember this figure is some kind of Imperial Guard character produced by Games Workshop a while back. I've painted him up in the colours of a Sci-fi Cartel Boss, as I think that a few sessions doing deals with, or dealing with, the crime lords of the Den and New Reno could make for some fun roleplaying. I know I've got some other Copplestone Castings gangsters lurking in the lead pile somewhere, so expect to see those painted up on here soon.

Mr. Marx

Zomtober 2013: Week 2

Hey Internets,

Here's my offerings for the second week of 'Zomtober 2013'. I've been a bit preoccupied this week, so I haven't managed as much as last time, but I'got something to show at least.

As I said in last weeks Zomtober Post, I am neither a 'zombie' gamer, nor do I have anything in the way of a backlog of living dead to get painted up....so I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel a little.

Anyway, without further adieu....

I.T.M.A

"Secretly preserved immediately after his 'death' in 1945, the remains of the Fuhrer were transported, by aeroplane, to the last of the secret German naval bases remaining operational in the eastern Baltic, before being transported once more, this time by submarine, to Buenos Aires. 

As time took the lives of the last of the German escapees, the remains of the Fuhrer moved into private ownership - proving priceless on the black market to 'collectors' sympathetic towards certain political ideas.

It was not long before it passed into the hands of a man who's immorality nearly matched that the former Fuhrer himself, and an attempt at resurrection was made. The result was a monster."

A Zombie and a Baby

So this one is not a zombie, or is it?

Horror is generally all about context. Not every zombie has to be a blood soaked, arm failing loon to be scary. In fact their are so many of those knocking about that they really are not that scary at all. I think that the idea of a member of the living dead cradling a child to be kinda spooky, don't you?

This figure is from Black Cat bases. Its not the best sculpt in the world, but its got plenty of character and painted up nice and quick.

Or, at least, it'll add to the horde....

Zomtober 2013: Week 1

Hey Internets,

Whilst mucking about on-line I came across an interesting tit-bit on the Lead Adventure Forum. A chap called 'leonmallett' was giving people the opportunity to join in with 'Zomtober', a month long painting challenge with a zombie theme. Being a nilly-muggins I've signed up to join in.

The rules, as I've understood them, are simple. Paint one or more Zombie or Survivor model a week and upload the pictures before the deadline. Easy.

I never seem get anything painted, and even more never upload anything on this here blog of mine - so at the very least this group painting project should give me a nice kick up the arse to get some stuff done. Might be fun too, you never know.

Anyway, without any further adieu here is my first entry for Zomtober 2013.

^ Ten assorted Zombies.

I've never been into 'Zombie Gaming', so unlike the vast majority of wargamers I know,  both my figure cases and lead-pile have long been free of the un-dead menace. This, combined with my vow not to buy any more miniatures until I've cleared my substantial backlog, made even finding a zombie to paint a bit of a challenge, but somehow I've managed to find ten of the buggers.

^ Most are plastic zombies that I found on a sprue in my spares box. God knows where they came from. I cant remember buying them, and their is only one and a half sprues of them. Weird. The detail on them is a very soft, and they are made of plastic - somthing that I'm never happy about - but I think they look at least passable with a little lick of paint.

^ Two more are repainted Hero/HorrorClix models that I managed to dig out. The pain and frustration involved in removing mould lines from bendy, flaky, rubbery models is something that I don't want to have to experience again for some time to come.

^ The last two are random 'Civilian' models that I picked up an age ago from Black Cat Bases a few years ago and never did anything with. The sculpts are not great, particularly in respects to the lady with the shopping bags, who has the largest head in the world, but they have a charm to them and will make fine additions to the shambling horde.

The highlight of the week was getting to whip out the 'Tamiya Clear Red' to do all the blood effects. There's nothing better than getting out a big brush and slapping a load of the stuff all over a model you've just spent ages painstakingly highlighting.

Whatta' you think?

Mr. Marx