Recent Purchases and a Find

More Zombies

When I painted the most recent batch of Zombies I was impressed by the Gary Morley minis.  

These were produced for fourth edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle (1992). They might not be quite the Oldhammer aesthetic, but they are nice minis nevertheless, so I kept an eye out for any more. 

While browsing evilbay I found some at a reasonable price, so I've three more to add to the collection, a command set, and what I originally thought was one of the ordinary zombies.

Three zombies and a 'bot

The chap on the left isn't actually a Gary Morley sculpt. In fact it's not even Citadel.  I finally IDed it as one of the Marauder Skeletons (MM 50 06/B) sculpted by Aly Morrison. It might technically be a skeleton, but it sure looks like a zombie to me; in fact several of the MM50 skeletons would do as zombies (check them out on Lost Minis Wiki)  

It fits in well with the GW look of the time, and it's nice to have another 'martial' zombie.

The two members of the Zombie Command will go nicely with the recent mob, though the standard bearer could paint up as a skeleton, having less flesh on it than the Marauder 'skeleton'.

They're currently all sitting in the Dettol bath and will get added to the painting queue soon.

'bot for Scrapjacks?

And finally, a robot.  I found this clanker while clearing through a box of stuff. It one of a handful that I bought back in the 1980s.  It's actually a cake decoration,  and originally had flexible arms and pincer claws.  I bought a few to use in Rogue Trader games,  though never got beyond removing the arms.

I'm showing it here because I think it would be ideal as a maintenance bot in Scrapjacks.  Sadly,  only one isn't really enough.  I do have more,  somewhere,  but probably not another five.  And I do wish now that I hadn't removed those pincer arms.

I may paint it up anyway, it should be fun. I might find something suitable to replace the missing arms.

What's Next?

I'm busy painting stuff (as well as rehearsing), Scrapjacks and things for the next Dark Shadows game. 

Edit 

A Google search shows the following information about the little robot. 

More Miscellaneous Zombies

In between building the Scrapjacks I've finished off a unit of ten zombies. I started these last year, and for some reason I got stuck with them.

Still, all done now, so here they are.

Ten zombies.  Brainzzz

Miscellaneous Zombies 

I needed another ten zombies for the third battle in the Terror of the Lichemaster campaign. These minis are a mix of manufacturers, though many of them are Citadel/Games Workshop.

Painting was straightforward, much the same as the dancing zombies I did last year. I'm not sure the skin tones came out quite as well, but en mass they look fine.

Citadel 

Six GW/Citadel Zombies

Shambling away

The oldest mini (extreme left) is an Unarmed Zombie, ADD96 (3a) sculpted by Bob Naismith. Released in 1986 when Citadel did official AD&D minis. He was missing his slotta tab, but it was simple to pin him on a base. He's a nice zombie (if that's ok to say), though he lacks the character of some of the C18 zombies such as Peck Gregory or Khand Meat.

Then there are three are Gary Morley sculpts, Zombie 1, 3, and 6. They date back to 1992. A couple of these look suitably ex military, wit bits of armour, so I gave them the black and yellow livery that seems to crop up a lot in my painting, though always, so far, in the hands of the opposition. I really like these sculpts, especially the chap with the helm. My only complaint is that they are large compared to a lot of my older minis,  but differing heights is definitely a thing. I wish I had more of these. 

Finally (the two on the right) a couple of the plastic Zombie regiment multipart minis from 2000. Not a lot to say here. They're OK, but detail is a little shallow. I've got a lot of these, so I suppose I'll be painting more of them in the future. They are at least a great source of bits, and I'll be using them for various projects in the future.

Grenadier and Ral Partha

Zombie and Wight

Grenadier (l) and Ral Partha (r)

The chap on the left is a Grenadier zombie, but from their Horror range rather than a fantasy mini. I thought he looked a bit like a butler, hence the black jacket.

The right hand mini is a Dungeons and Dragons Wight from Ral Partha rather than a zombie, but it looks the part. He was difficult to photograph well, his hunched pose hides a lot of the details. 

I realise that these two look rather same-y together. 

And Finally..

Zombie and ????

Asgard and ????

These two are an Ásgarð FM 73 Zombie and an unknown,  possibly a ghoul? Probably not a zombie. They are fairly crude by modern standards, but they both painted up nicely and I'm pleased with the results.

Thanks to the Old School Miniatures Facebook group for IDing the Ásgarð zombie and tracking down the exact sculpt of the AD&D zombie.  Alas the last mini seems to have foxed the collective.  If you know what it is, please leave a comment.

So ten zombies for Heinrich Kemmler to make life miserable for the villagers of Frugelhoffen. They'll also crop up in my Warlords of Erehwon Undead force as they (slowly) attempt to invade Albion.

They have a rather mixed look, and I might split them into smaller units to later bulk up to ten.

What's Next?

I'm painting Scrapjacks, but I do need to get some stuff done for the next Dark Shadows game.

October 25 - Terror of the Lichemaster: Mikael Jacsen's Zombies

"And whosoever shall be found,

Without the soul for getting down

Must stand and face the Hounds of Hell

And rot inside a corpse's shell"

Thriller - Rod Temperton

A horde of ten zombie 'dancers'

Mikeal Jacsen with his flaming hair and his horde of zombies is typical of Games Workshop's humour in the eighties.

Jacsen is another hard to find and expensive mini. I'm going down the route of just using a nice Undead mini, at least for now*.

The horde is only ten zombies, so it should be easy to complete in October, and I've certainly had plenty of practice painting them recently.

But I'm strangely short of actual Old School zombies. I can only assume that I sold or gave away what I had. I distinctly remember painting up some of the old Fantasy Tribe zombies back in the eighties; one even had an axe head stuck in his head! I'd have been using them for RPGs rather than for wargaming. I've no recollection of disposing of any of them though, ah well.

I do still have eight random zombies from various manufacturers. As with the skeletons, quite a few need some repairs.

But I've also got ten West Wind Zombies from their Vampire Wars range.

Initially I was put off by the rather odd poses of some of them, but then I remembered, these are Mikael Jacsen's zombies, they should be dancing! 

With that in mind, they should do just fine.

Painting 

Unlike my Rangers of Shadow Deep zombies or the D&D ones, I'm not using Speed/Xpress paints for the bulk of them. Instead, I'm going back to my usual base coat, sharp highlight and then wash. Because I want to emphasise their undead nature, I chose a few different base colours for the flesh. I used Vallejo Scorched Brown, Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal, VGC Dwarf Flesh and VGC Glacier Blue. They all got some sort of highlight, VGC Stonewall Grey for the dark skinned zombies, and at T'Other One's suggestion I stippled a bit of light green in places.

The flesh was then washed. I used Army Painter Quickshade Green, APQ Military Shader and Vallejo Game Wash Green, pretty much choosing the shade at random.  These have mostly worked out fine, though I think some look better than others.

Just a step to the left (oops, wrong film)

And lean back...

Two female zombies

The last two zombies

Clothing was done as standard, and given a wash in Marine Juice to provide the shading.  Little details such as some blood staining (Vallejo Special Effects Dried Blood), especially on the ones that seem to have been shot in the stomach, plus the odd bone, exposed muscle, and the guts on two of them finished of the painting. They all got a drybrush of VGC Earth on the legs to dirty them up a bit.

Basing was standard. I like this more desolate look for the undead, and I'm sticking with it for the rest of the force.

I enjoyed painting these minis, but I can't ever see myself painting hordes and hordes of them. I'll admit that I rushed them towards the end, partly as I wanted to get them done before the end of the month.

All parents and necromancers know that you shouldn't have favourites amongst those you've raised, but I do really like the bride. I painted some of the hair detail as flowers, that extra colour helps the mini to pop.

What's Next?

That's the Undead for the first two scenarios done, and all in October too. Admittedly, I don't have minis that match the leaders, but I do have proxies that will do for now.

I've already got sufficient dwarves painted for the mine, but I do need to paint the Bogles for the second game.

I also need some terrain. 

Terror of the Lichemaster was the first Village pack, and included a lot of buildings. As previously mentioned, I've got the dwarven stuff already, though the mine needs a bit of work and some bits like spoil heaps and maybe even a mine cart track will add to the look.

I've already started on the buildings for the Bogel's Farm, but there are a few extra bits that I need, such as hedges and an area of higher ground like a low, flat hill, useful for Ashak Rise as well.

Beyond that, there's the rest of the Undead for the Defence of Frugelhoffen, and the defenders of course. I'm short a few zombies, but I've got all the defenders, or suitable substitutes. They all need painting of course.

Plus yet more buildings, though I don't have any of these already built.

I may never actually get around to the stuff for the third game, at least not in the near future. 

But I've managed to get a reasonable number of undead finished, and within October too.

* I've already mentioned Antediluvian Miniatures 'Undead Heroes', I've also seen some great looking STLs, but not having 3D printing facilities I'll pass.

I've considered doing a bit of converting, I'm still looking out for suitable base minis.