More Necropolis & Zombie Survivors

I finished up all but the skeletons for my Warlord Necropolis force. This week I painted the Bones versions of Necropolis gargoyles. Besides being inexpensive these models were completely assembled. The only issue was their wings had been compressed to fit into the blister. A quick dip in hot water reset them to original condition.

Though lightweight, the wings make their balance precarious. It's no big deal for a plastic model to topple, but still is aggravating. I ended up putting a small nail through the base bottoms to keep the gargoyles from falling off the base while the glue set. It ended up balancing them as well.

These were easy to paint. Basically prime black, then dry brush warm grays, wash with black, then highlights. I'd considered paint splattering them for extra texture but I don't think these are going to see a lot of play time. So the effort would be not worth the time and mess. I like how they turned out.

Last week I took some horrendous pictures of the other Necropolis models. One that I think people would have an interest in is the translucent plastic ghost model.  I took a better picture of it this week.

Lots of people don't know how to approach painting this model. I've seen people who just prime it and paint like any other model, and those who just fill the recesses with a dark wash.  I opted to paint directly on it without priming in order to preserve the translucent parts. Overall, I think it came out okay. The picture is still not as good as the model appears in person. The translucent effect is lost here, but I think you get the idea. It does look ghostly to me, and that's what makes this model unique.

I had a few models sitting on my desk as I pondered my next project. These are modern / zombie survivor type of models all from the Bones Kickstarter. I gave them all a quick paint job so they'd be ready when I might need them. My favorite is the zombie hunter with chainsaw. I liked the hand clinging her to pant leg!

Anyone who paints as many Reaper models as I do will eventually realize these models have their quirks. One that consistently aggravates me is clothing. Reaper models exist in a bizarre dimension where sleeves appear inexplicably from nowhere, or one side of a hand appears to wear a glove and the other side of the same hand does not. All sorts or extra-dimensional clothing exists in Reaper's world and can be a frustration when painting, particularly where layers of clothing appear and disappear on a whim.

However, no figure is more of a disaster than one I found in my Bones collection. I was looking forward to painting this guy, since he appeared like a thug with a sawed-off shotgun. What a unique model, I thought.

Well, unique is right. Check this out.

What the hell is going on with this guy's jacket? That's not a torn sleeve. One sleeve is full-length and the other is short. Model ruined. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. What is the logic here? The short sleeve is so defined that even a paint-over won't cure it. They modeled a flippin' wristwatch to drive the point home. Besides, I can't stop seeing this now that I know it's there. So I left the model mostly in primer black, quickly painted some large areas, and am now undecided if I toss it in the trash or keep it in case mix-n-match sleeve lengths ever becomes a fashion.

So that's this week's update. I've got a few new ideas brewing, including a few larger projects. Stay tuned!

Zombicide Season One Survivors

I guess I could've left this post's subject heading as the entire post. It pretty much says it all.  I've recently got the Zombicide Season One base game and like it enough to paint the figures. These survivors can be used outside of the Zombicide game too, since they scale nicely with other models. So it gave me an extra incentive to paint.

Here they are. Click for a larger picture.

For those familiar with the game, I painted them exactly as they appeared on their stat cards. So no great innovation.  I did take some detail pictures but the focus was all off. I think I accidentally changed some settings. Well, this picture gives enough details.

I decided to paint the Abomination, since I consider him a zombie character. While painting him, I noticed he had a camera over his neck, like he's a tourist or something similar. Detail like that gets lost if you don't paint the models.

These figures are really nice with a good level of detail. As I said, they can be survivors for other games like All Things Zombie, which I plan to check out soon.

Next it's on to the actual zombies, starting with the walkers. I plan to do these in a gray scale. I saw this paint style on a blog, which you can see here.  I'm in no way as good a painter as this guy, but I like the idea and will give it a shot.  Besides, I have over 50 walkers alone, and I don't want to spend the rest of the year painting zombies! His way of painting seems very fast. I've already got ten completed, and they look nice.

Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens

Wow, that took a while.  Twenty days later, I'm finally able to post the finished results for my Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens. I didn't even build the whole box! Well, I've been busy with other things and my recent binge-watching of Sons of Anarchy on Netflix has contributed to dereliction at the painting table. There's only so much time each night for leisure activities.

While calling them vixens is a bit of a stretch, here's the mob of undead gals. Click for a larger picture.

 The box gives a lot of different options and is quite an improvement over the Zombie Horde box, which is male zombies only. Here you have head options, two arm options, and accessories. Why zombie women need so many handbags is beyond me. I added one, just for laughs. Maybe she died holding it and never let go.  Anyway, my only complaint is the models don't have any good join points, which means those spindly arms fall off and the necks don't align with the torsos.  I had to constantly repair while painting, since some arms have only the barest of contact surface with the torso.  Still, overall I'm satisfied with these additions.

Here's my zombie horde with both men and women, forty models strong right now.

You can see that the female boxed set provided bases, but the male set did not. That was unfortunate, as I had matching bases but didn't realize it until too late. So their bases and corresponding heights are mismatched. Not a big deal, since most of my collection don't match bases. My fantasy stuff has both square and round bases, so I shouldn't really care about this minor difference with my zombies.

This is a nice start to a zombie apocalypse theme. I will need more survivors, and I have the boxed sets of survivor men and women from Wargames Factory. However, for now I think I'll paint and use the survivors from the Zombicide game. They'll get double duty that way.  Also, they will be done faster and give me a chance to do something else!

In the meantime, let the zombie madness begin!

Zombie Chow!

What good is a zombie horde without a bunch of hapless victims? I asked the same question, and my answer was "not much good at all."  Therefore, I broke open the piggy bank and sent some cash to Reaper Miniatures. They sent back some blisters full of modern figures suitable for zombie gaming.

Here's the batch, representing "citizens", criminals, and police.  These are all Reaper Chronoscope line models. Click for a larger view.

I'll work down the rows to explain what I've got. First row is a single blister of Townsfolk: Ladies of the Night. Reaper has several of these townsfolk blisters, which are a good value for the price. These girls will fit with an urban area, and can be used in other modern scenarios other than zombies. I guess if I ever find a good prostitution game these figures will be handy.

Next row is Townsfolk: Jock, Chick, Nerd. I bet you can tell who's who. Again, this is a single blister and is a good value. They represent the classic triumvirate of teen slasher movies. I will have to buy Reaper's serial killer model just to go with these kids.

My favorite of the bunch are the bikers. These had to be purchased individually.  You have Noel the biker boss in his duster and shotgun, Peaches the old lady, and Stubs the Biker. I made sure Stubs was a full patched member of his club. From the rockers on his back, you can tell he's with the Cthulhu Riders of R'yleh.

Lastly we have some law enforcement. With all these prostitutes and bikers running around, you need some police. One officer is a Bones model, which you can tell from the non-matching base. The other is a Chronoscope sheriff. The girl is actually a "Sci-fi Heroine" but I figure she can be a professional zombie hunter. Seems to fit.

There you have it. I'll be adding way more to my modern zombie collection. I'm currently working on female zombies, then I've got hordes of modern "armed civilians" to complete. This has turned out to be a seriously involved project, but I'm enjoying it.

Wargames Factory Zombie Horde

Is it strange that I keep hearing "The Monkees" theme song whenever I look at my newly created zombie horde? Substituting "zombies" for "Monkees" in they lyrics really works. You should try it some time. Or not. Anyway....

Behold the start of the zombie apocalypse at my house! Here are twenty male zombies from Wargames Factory. Click for a bigger picture.

I've grown tired of my standard rotation of WW2 and Fantasy models, and decided it was time to do something modern. Zombies fit the bill. I'll be filling in this startling gap in my collection by creating a small horde of about 40 zombies. Then I'll move on to survivors, police, criminals, and plain ol' innocent bystanders. When done, I'll have the foundations of a modern zombie game that I can then expand as I want.

These Wargames Factory models really allow for lots of variation. According to their website, you can make 1,800 unique combinations out of one box. That's pretty cool, though I think the variations are fairly minor and you are stuck with some obvious repetition, like the doctor / raincoat guy and the guy holding a severed foot.  Still, it's a remarkable value even at full retail cost (which you can get cheaper if you look around online).

Here are just a few detailed shots of some of the zombies. Due to their pale flesh, I overexposed the pictures slightly. Still, you get the idea.

I went a little crazy with the GW blood effects paint. Also, I went heavy with brown washes to make them appear dirty and rotting. I think zombies benefit from a rough paint job. Overall, I'm pleased with the detail of the models, though some of it was very shallow and therefore obliterated beneath primer and paint. Take a lighter hand than I do and you should be fine.

My only complaint with these models is they are small compared to my other 28mm figures.  I guess I can excuse this as maybe being dead means they've lost some mass. I was hoping to mix these with other models, but I fear they might not mix too well when it comes to size.

Of course, having only zombie men is unrealistic (which is a weird thing to say when we're talking about the living dead). I also got the box of female zombies. I wince at calling them Vixens, as what could possibly be attractive in a pile of rotting, wounded flesh? Still, I will populate my horde with both genders for equal opportunities at undeath.

I didn't do the whole contents of the box (20 out of 30 models) just to save time. The models need assembly and each one is an individual model for painting purposes. No uniforms to make batch painting speed up things. Once all is done, if I need more zombies I'll finish out the boxes.

So up next will be some survivors and citizens, along with cops and bad guys to add some variety to my games.  These are from the Reaper Chronoscope line, and are a little bit bigger than these models. Still, I think they can match up. I'll have a comparison next time.