Zomtober - Week 5

Final Week in Zomtober and probably my favourite mini of the month. This punk is from Hasslefree and goes under the rather unassuming name of Joe. The scuplting is so tipically smooth that I was encouraged to a bit more detailing than I normally do. I had a bash at a Union Flag on his t-shirt and an anarchy symbol on this back. The t-shirt doesn't bear up to too close scrutiny, but from the tabletop distance looks like its meant to, so result. Also the way his left eye had come out (from my variable painting) made me think it looked a bit swollen, so I've tried to give him a black eye showing he's been in a rumble and come out the other side!

The second of this week's figures is Cleaver Vine from West Winds sidelined Road Kill range. He is slightly on the heroic side of scaling, but the pose brings his height down. I always have trouble with faces and eyes and this figure was a bit awkward as his eyeballs have been sculpted almost popping out his head. But the cigar, haircut and dynamic pose are are winners.

All that remains is to thank and congratulate all the other participants in this years event. There have been some great and interesting models across the board. And also to finish with the customary group shot:

Zomtober - Week 4

With the October break this week time was short for painting (was away with the family on a short break to South Ayrshire, Scotland), but a couple of simple paint jobs have seen me through!

Two survivors possibly from different ends of the social scale this week. First up is a business woman from Foundry's Street Violence range.

The other survivor is by ZonbieSmith. His rifle seems to have been damaged at some point, which obviously hasn't done him any favours as I painted his Zed version for Zomtober a couple of years ago.

Zomtober - Week 3

The original (not) Rick and Carl from Studio Miniatures. These two are earlier releases which are more comic book based. S.M. have since released a couple of excellent sculpts of a more serious vein as per their later zombie survivor releases. I won them on ebay without the Lori figure. Also, strangely, the Rick figure has two pistols, whereas the website has him holding a rifle in his right hand. I don't know if they come with weapon options.

The Rick figure is really nice to paint. The Carl one is a bit cartoony, or at least small for his age. Having said that the wide brim of hat hides the face. He'll also probably mix well with some of my other kid figures, once they get painted..

EDIT: After writing this post I got round to pulling out some of my Walking Dead graphic novels. In these early volumes Carl is indeed very young and the sculpt above is quite accurate.

Zomtober - Week 2

If you are wondering what happened to Week 1 so am I. It seems that week 1 of Zomtober was condensed into Saturday 1st Oct so I missed it!

Anyway we'll move on. Bigger woes to tell. I had planned to "catch up" with a raft of HeroClix touch-ups\repaints this week that I'd quickly based years ago to get gaming. But the first batch out on the table demonstrated the variety of detail quality of these sculpts. To cut to the chase I became too frustrated with them and the majority went in the bin! (I was a bit tired and cranky) HeroClix scale is slightly oversized, so in the long run I'll have a better sculpted and scaled collection.

 One of the two that made the cut were this young lady with her Uzis and face paint, who got a bit of a touch up and highlight. Not much but enough to improve her no end.

Second Survivor the this gent, a Detective I think originally. He's got a wonderful dynamic pose and, thankfully, defined facial features. The figure got a complete repaint in pretty much the same colours. Don't ask me what the point of that was, but he's better for it (and definitely counts towards the painting total as a result!).

And finally this grizzled Survivor from RAFM's USX line (Karl H. Unger to be precise) He's been sitting primed in a tin for more years than I care to remember so I knew he had to be done this month. I've painted his attire to match the red beret wearing militia I already have painted (as seen in the Filling Station post previously).

No time to rest though. There's a Police Officer and his young son calling for attenion.

TT Combat Filling Station

Real life is trying to weigh me down a bit, so it took a bit longer than hoped to get this kit to a playable state. It didn't help that the cheap red paint that I'd picked up was a real pain. It was marked "water paint" which I naively took to mean acrylic turned out not to be anything of the kind. Despite being dry for the best part of a week , any fluid, including neat paint, caused it to re-activate and smear. Fortunately repeated blasts of Matt Varnish Spray (I daren't have brushed it on) sealed it enough for me to continue.

There is still work to do. I didn't like the large "DinoGas" signage that goes on the roof so didn't add it. Haven't had time to fill the holes yet. Also I've not had time to do a proper interior yet past gluing down a printed out floor.

But it all stands as playable enough for the moment as I'm aware that Zomtober has started properly now and those participating have rushed out with the early Sunday.

TT Combat Bus Shelters Completed

One of the brace of kits I ordered in from TT Combat was their Bus Stop set. It comes with 2 bus stops and 2 lamp posts.

Fat Dragon Buildings Added

Just a quicky.

With more time consuming pieces on the horizon, I printed out a couple of Fat Dragon buildings and put them together. They are simple kits and fly together. I didn't glue the room sections onto the walls as the collapsible version is handy for storage. The higher building has the fire escape option for extra play options.

I need to get some more card to add a couple more to properly have all those back alley venues.

The sky line was starting to look a bit flat, so I added the roof access on one and an AC Unit on the shop. Looking at it now, the taller building could really do with an old chair, etc next to the roof access. Perhaps with small sign saying "Burt Reynolds".

Zomtember?

Yes I know that Zomtember isn't a thing (it's actually Zomtober) but one of my main aims this year was to give Zombie gaming the attention I'd been so longing to give it for a few years now, so I've cleared my table (mostly) and decided to go early and for longer!

With around 50 or 60 zombies already painted, this period will have both Survivors and scenery in it, although I plan to still join the Zomtober crew when it starts and keep to the rules.

The streets are [too] empty

Zomtober 2014 - Weekend 5 & Final Call

Zomtober for me is now over with the final rising of 5, the end of my ZombieSmith Horde. Again fun to paint these guys, as some of there detail only became apparent on applying the brush. I especially like the green shirted zombie, who is missing the right side of his head, gruesomely displaying the side of his brain and other inners. To those not familiar with UK road signs, the exclamation mark basically just means "Warning, Danger". Quite an understatement I think, although I would be lying if I didn't say that the ease of application may have made the sign message an easy choice!

And so to the final photo of all 25 zombies painted this October (ish).

Thanks to all concerned for getting the event going, and to all those bloggers who's work I have enjoyed all month as well. Great stuff all round. I was having real problems getting to the paint table before this and it's been so much fun that I've the gusto to continue. I'm looking forward to next year's painting already.

Zomtober 2014 - Weekend 4

Crawling and shuffling towards the end game, here are another 5 from my ZombiSmith Horde. One of them is duplicate of a figure painted for weekend 1, I'm not trying to bolster numbers by hoping you wouldn't notice, honest.

This bunch have some hidden detail. The bent over chap on the far left has a broken back (with spinal injury protruding). His neighbour in green is missing the top of his head (with exposed brain). The middle mechanic is suffering from having his head twisted round 180 degrees, and you can see that the Zed in the hat has a hole completely blown through him.

Now technically (I think) Week 4 is the last Zomtober entry, but I have 5 left over in my pile. This next week is very limited in painting time, but I'm not calling it over 'til I've finished...

Zomtober 2014 - Weekend 3

Weekend 3 and after a busy week I've (just) managed another 5 Zeds

A couple of these are a bit worse for ware, but I'm sure they'll spread the virus just as well.

Zomtober 2014 - Weekend 2

More Undead rise.

Again all are from ZombieSmith. I thought I'd try and give the office guy in the middle a pin-strip suit. It's a bit vague on the front and a bit thick on the back (that you can't see) but with the wonders of  a brown wash looks OK. The logo on the skaters shirt is a simplified Dead Kennedys - seemed appropriate.

Zomtober 2014 - Weekend 1

First weekend and first painted Zeds.

A Thriller Undead Jacko, Two children (including brainless teddy), a well eaten\decayed example and a Rob Zombie, who will no doubt act as a Zombie Lord should the scenario arise (pun intended!)

This is the start of a ZombieSmith Zombie horde I've had sitting in a box waiting to rise for ages now - so this was the prime time to get them done. I have 25 in total, so have set myself the target of doing 5 a week. I know that there are only 4 Sundays this month, but I don't see why poor arithmetic should get in the way of a good project!

Zomtober 2014

With numerous projects crawling along on the paint table the last thing I need is another distraction.

It's a shame then that I'm joining Brummie's call for participants in Zomtober 2014. Basically it's a painting challenge. Paint at least one Zombie or Survivor and post a picture on your blog by the end of every Sunday in October.

I've a ton of oft-glanced at unpainted undead waiting to go. Best go and look them out.

Feel free to join in (or even monitor everyone's figures) at:
http://brummieswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/zomtober-2014.html