Ninja Babushka and company! Wasteland A-Team

So today I am very, very excited to bring you what has been a true labour of love. Creating this little group of survivors was an exercise in character creation, conversion, sculpting and painting. With each element informing one another as I pieced together who exactly these little people were. Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to them. I hope that you get along well, because if not Ninja Babushka will be most displeased.

Our brave heroes stare down the horde. An unfair fight, the zombies don't stand a chance.

So in creating these characters I did more than just give them names, I also considered that abilities they would have. These I have designed to be suitably generic so that they an be adjusted to whatever rule set is in use. Some of these abilities are suitably ridiculous, and generally unbalanced. That being said I have generally styled the group so that while lethal and incredibly strong at close range and melee, they are vulnerable to long range fire. So keep your distance if you want to live.

Ninja Babushka: The Iconic leader.

Nina Babushka.

Role: Leader, melee specialist.

Traits/Abilities: Babushka Knows Best

"So you think you are smarter than Babushka? Stronger than Babushka? Faster than Babushka? Hmph, we'll see."

- (Passive) Babushka automatically gains better stats than any model within her proximity.

She had a lot of sculpting work done to convert a tracksuit Ninja into a Babushka, it was also quite a joy to paint the floral pattern on her jacket.

She is perhaps the most deadly of the group. Do not think she is merely some little old lady, it might be the last mistake you make.

Fire-Fighter: Because there are so many fire puns.

Fire-Fighter.

Role: Specialist, flamethrower

Abilities/Traits: Firestarter

"I spent my life putting out other people's fires, now I just want to watch the world burn."

- (Passive) immune to all fire damage, flame attacks and ambient fires (including anomalies).

So you may think that a firefighter with a flamethrower would be a totally fantasy figure. Yet despite being out there I put a lot of work in to make them look just right. The helmet is based on some Russian firefighter helmets and the flamethrower is based on Soviet designs used during WW2. A lot of research for one made up figure.

A rather complex figure to make but one that is sure to turn up the heat.

Bolshy Nurse: Sick of zombies eating her patients.

Bolshy Nurse.

Role: Support, medic, dual pistols

Traits/Abilities: Placebo effect.

"After years of budget cuts, she's learned how to make a little go a long way"

- (Passive) gets at least double usage out of healing items.

This figure was the simplest conversion, just added a bag and trimmed her ponytail. That being said I was nice to make a more useful figure than just woman with pistols.

In terms of range (flamethrower not withstanding) she's the best equipped of the team. Again reinforcing the notion that this is a close combat group.

Warrior Chef: Dishing out wasteland justice.

Warrior Chef.

Role: Heavy, melee specialist

Abilities/Traits: Only the finest cuts

"She's the finest butcher in the zone, saw her cut a mutants arm clean off."

- (Cost action point, timed cool-down re-use) Perform a devastating melee attack that bypasses all armour and deals double damage.

Another more simple conversion. You have seen the base figure in a previous post. This figure has had a gender swap, is wearing a mask for good health safety and is using rubber gloves.

With figures like these the fake shadow technique really pops, much nicer than the quick wash technique I have used recently. Clean and bright may not be the most realistic but hey we're talking about a chef fighting with rubber gloves on.

Angry Teacher: Gives opponents bad grades.

Angry Teacher.

Role: Support, technician

Abilities/Traits: Lecture

"Can't tell if he's teaching them something, or just pissing them off?"

- (Cost an action point) Grants temporary combat buff to nearby allies.

Another more interesting conversion. Replaced an arm (he had a machete, not a pose I particularly like) and gave him to text books. Again another pistol wielding figure. So there are no long range weapons (the flamethrower can't really go that far).

Now the fact I made the ability of Angry Teacher to maybe being annoying people into success is in now way a reference to those of my friends or family who are teachers. It is totally a coincidence.

All the figures are a mix of Alliance Stalkers and Survivors, overall I really like the lively poses and the opportunities for conversion (as evidenced by my insistence on converting half of those I am working on). These figures were some of the first with my attempts at varnishing and it shows in their glossy finish. Since then I have got better results which will hopefully show on figures I will show off soon.

Anyway that is all for today, I hope you have enjoyed these figures, if you have any ideas for other characters, I am loving making these crazy characters. I do have more characters to show off, so until next time I wish you all a very good day/night.

Survival of the oddest?

 Well another small update, just a few figures to show, but plenty more to take photos of. These are  two figures from Alliance's Survivors (Antizombies) and one from the Stalker (set 1). This figure is the same pose as the one from this post. As you will see I have made some "minor" changes. I hope that you enjoy these pictures I hope to bring you more soon.

Adventurers we need you! To dish up justice, to knock it out of the park, to, um, to put many holes in things?

Actually I think you other two can go home. I am sure the big guy has got this?

I must say that the fighting chef seems to be a favourite amongst my friends. When asked who would be their pick for a character he was a consistent first choice!

So let's take a look more closely at this conversion. A dark and sinister twin to the previous figure. While the other figure could have been a heroic saviour, or a pretty run of the mill action hero, this one is more likely to play the villain, the tooled up henchman or final boss.

Right off the back, my misgivings. The contrast on the camouflage did not show through well. While being dark, mysterious and threatening there's not enough contrast (mask aside) to really make the figure pop. Especially after the varnish (I am improving at varnishing figures to avoid this).

As for what I love, it all works together. The exoskeleton, made from bits of wire and greenstuff, looks like it is meant to be there, the helmet was a joy to sculpt and looks very good and the mask is correctly proportioned which is hard to get right I have found.

At the end of the day not my best work, not my worst. But certainly a good antagonist to role out against our heroes.

Speaking of heroes, I hope to bring you some very soon. I have been using the time gained by working from home to get more done. I now have quite the collection ready to share with you so watch this space.

In the meantime I wish you all a very good day/night. I look forward to hearing your comments and seeing what everyone else has been up to.

Back from the Undead

 Well between coming in and out of lockdown, illness, breaking my arm and the all consuming reality of full time work... it has been a long time since I could sit down and make a most, or at least felt up to it. So yes, here I am back WITH the undead (please do not shoot me for the puns, I know I deserve it but still). One of the things that I have been quite enjoying during these trying times is painting zombies, they are relatively quick, relatively easy, but oh so satisfying. So here's my little horde as it stands right now, as you can see I have been experimenting with photography. Not entirely satisfied, but they will do.

Got Braaiiiiinnnnssss????

These two have to be my favourite, I really like how they both turned out.

Fun fact the one on the right somewhat resembles a co-worker, which terrified me while I was painting and was actually unintentional.

One in the middle was very fun to paint, tried to make the skin as gross as possible. Something I mean to outdo with a later miniature.

Zombies are far less threatening from behind.

And here's the B team, not as happy with these guys, sorry.

Okay the crouching one is pretty cool, the others need to go back to zombie school.

The big zombie makes a comeback, here with his.... groupies? Do zombies have groupies?

And the bikini zombie was quite fun to paint, messing with skin tones is certainly advised.

Well that's all for today, more is on the way but it will take some time. Although there will be posts as I do have some completed stuff that is ready to show right now. But I will wait another day before posting those.

One thing you will notice is the gloss. I have varnished these figures. I used Humbrol Clear Satin Varnish, but when applied from the brush it seems far too glossy. I am not that happy with the look but I do value that protective cover for the paint. I used the Matt Varnish before, but that killed any shading the figures had and made them generally quite lifeless. Maybe I should apply it with an airbrish? If you have any tips (or should I say, if you could pick your braaaiinnnnssss?) I would love to hear them.

Anyway that's all for today. I wish you all a very good day/night, stay safe, stay healthy and I will catch you around.

The Living and the Undead

Well hello everyone I hope that you are doing well. Back with more from the Zone project this week, four more miniatures to show you. Two zombies and two Stalkers. Once again thanks goes to my flatmate Logan for lending me their phone to take these photos.

Obviously staged, even Stalkers this well armed would not casually stand with zombies.

So we have two women now finding themselves in a cruel state of unlife (hopefully they have passed at least consciously). One is a Dark Alliance miniature, the other is another Caesar zombie. Quite a difference is style but they are still relatively compatible. The other two are from the Dark Alliance Stalker sets. Let's take a closer look.

So the one on the left is part of the same inquisitor/witch hunter group as the last one, the guy on the right is a mercenary.

Bad mask etiquette on the inquisitor, doesn't he know it is ineffective that way?

So for the two living characters we have another Witch Hunter/Inquisitor/Zealot figure and a mercenary. Mercenaries are common in the zone, both in the sense of former mercenaries becoming Stalkers trying to make it rich, and Stalkers becoming mercenaries earning a living fighting for the various Zone factions. Mercenaries tend to be better equipped than most stalkers with some military equipment mixed in. However, they are generally not as well equipped as the factions directly (although usually unofficially) backed by military forces from outside the Zone.

Red coat and exoskeleton. Which one is more fashionable? 

Red vs blue too, although one is substantially more red than the other is blue.

Now onto the undead, the walkers, the zombies, the living-dead, the Zeds, the..... why do we have so many names for Zombies? Here are two, whether these two were once women living in the Zone before the cataclysm, or tourists in the early years before the second emission turned all who'd foolishly entered is unknown. They could even have been from some of the Stalker villages. Whoever they were now they are but moving husks, who's one aim is to feed on the flesh of the living (or the dead, but they prefer fresh meat). Feeling no (or very little) pain they are hard to take down, but a shot to the head or a few good hits on vital organs will end their torment.

BRAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSSS

Zombie..... hug?

On the left we have cream shirt and blue jeans and on the right yellow dress and blue shoes.

Oh looks like their friendship is over, time to go shamble off to greyer pastures (sorry about the hair in these shots)

So finally some individual shots of the miniatures. It has been interesting painting the zombies in particular. They are generally very quick to paint but there's a few tricks to get them looking suitably zombified. Usually this involves using light skin tone with some black or grey in it, gives the right tone for cold dead skin.

I am not sure if the fingers were supposed to be bitten (or chopped) off or if this was a sculpting/mould error but I decided that bitten off fingers was the look to go for.

For a while I was struggling to decide what colour to use for her dress but I am so glad that I went with yellow. The dirt, blood and general weathering effect looks quite good.

Quite the cool operator and another member of this zealot group of hunters. Three more miniatures to go for them (for the first party at least). Although I do still have to decide on the fifth member.

Here's the mercenary, this shot really brings out the exoskeleton. At first I was going to do some urban camouflage but the simple blue works quite well.

So that's all for today. I hope that you have enjoyed these miniatures. More is coming up to keep an eye out. I also have some Soviet/PAPA NCOs that I really should get around to finishing. So they could be next or it could be something completely different. We shall see.

But until next time I wish you all a good day/night.

Enter the Zone: Post apocalyptic figures and zombie

Well time for something completely different. Welcome one and all to the Zone. This is a project I had been contemplating for quite some time but now I am making the jump and starting to paint up some miniatures for it. It is something that I am finding really engaging, so many possibilities, so many opportunities for conversions, so many crazy characters to think up. I am having lots of fun, I hope you find this project fun too.

So first up, a HUGE thank you to my flatmate, Logan, for letting me use their phone with such an excellent camera. I will naturally apologise for some of the aspect ratio's, most of the images are portrait which is a little odd. So please bare with.

Additional thanks to Logan for the backdrop for these shots. Parts from a 1965 computer no less.

So today we are looking a three miniatures; two S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, from the Dark Alliance sets; and one zombie, from the Caesar modern zombies set. (My goodness figures that are not from Elhiem what is this?) Don't know what I was so hesitant to work with plastics again. While the past few days have seen little painting, they have seen a large amount of conversions. I have had a lot of fun thinking of themes for different factions and sub-factions within the zone, not to mention a few wacky characters. So let's look at the first of those to enter the zone.

In the zone the wise stalkers steer clear of the mutant hordes... But there are those who hunt, not just the most powerful monsters, but seek to take down the most numerous groups. Mutants best steer clear of these stalkers.

The first miniature is this grizzled veteran. Painted up in honour of my mate Jasper, he's into power-lifting so this figure was the obvious choice. I asked Jasper what he wanted for the design. He said he'd like the figure to be wearing the white urban DPM and/or the colours of his home region Otago (blue and gold). I managed to get them both in there. Hope you like the results bro.

Searching the old labs is dangerous

But for those with the right equipment even the most dangerous parts of the zone become accessible.

But even those most experienced Stalkers know to be cautious. Some places are best left avoided.

Couple notes on the figure: as you can see I have gone for an urban DPM camouflage all over. I found some good images online that I copied.

Additionally I also took some time to add scars to the figure. Very fine work, would like to know what you think of those.

Next up is a member of a group known throughout the Zone as the Witch Hunters, Zone Inquisition, Fanatics, Zealots and all sorts of less savoury things. What they call themselves is less clear. They are a religious group, though whether they follow one mainstream religion, or many, or even none but their own is unclear. What we do know of their beliefs is this: They consider the Zone, its creatures and anomalies, to be an affront to the natural order of things. They are hostile both to the Zone mutants but also to those who seek to smuggle artefacts out of the Zone. In their eyes these tainted objects must be destroyed and their taint contained. So overall a cheery bunch as you can see.

For some the treasures of the Zone are not to be sought for sale but for destruction.

Those who stop their holy mission are just as vile as the mutant abominations. All of the corruption must be purged. 

So this figure and the others I will do for this faction are inspired by the Warhammer Fantasy Witch Hunters.

I will keep the uniformity of the red coats with each, most will also get the broad rimmed hat.

As you can see I also went for a facial scar here. Perhaps the bionic eye on the other side is also the result of an old battle wound, or perhaps enhancement. Which evangelical this group is not necessarily against technology.

A rather dashing figure overall I would say.

Finally there are those who one way or another have succumb to the powers of the zone. However, these unfortunate souls did not receive the mercy of death but instead found themselves neither living nor dead. Zombies are the most common of the human mutants in the zone. Lumbering, shambling, crawling or dragging themselves around, the lone zombie is more an object of pity than fear. Sure even a lone one is a threat, but a wise Stalker knows how to avoid them. Hordes of zombies, well that's another matter entirely. Some though are more dangerous than others and this big zombie is one of the ones that poses a very real threat to a lone Stalker, or even an inexperienced party.

Whether it is succumbing to a zombie's bite, the original victims of the zone's creation, exposure to certain anomalies or having their enthralled to some of the more powerful mutants, there are many ways for people to turn zombie.

Fortunately these zombies are not invincible, while the classic shot to the head is a certain kill, filling them with enough lead or causing enough damage with a blade will take them down. Although some a very resilient.

Many such as this zombie exhibit old battle scars. Most are also quite stupid, although some exhibit a degree of intelligence. Those who fall victim to a controlling mutant and become puppets can even use firearms and other weapons.

This figure was quite simple to pains but also rather fun as well. I especially likes trying to get those blood effects just right.

So that's all for today, hope to get more out again next week. Might be the Soviets I promised. Might not. I do have a lot of conversions on the go so I may not have any completed figures for a bit. Although I think you will quite like some of these conversions I am doing, so stick around for more.

But until then I wish you all a good day/night. Hope that you are all safe and sound and I will see you all next time. :-)