Friday 6 September 2013

A fist ful of Zombies,

New Recruits
The Horde so far!
 Good morning. In the last couple of days I have managed to source and paint 5 additional zombie gunfighters. Again these are Wargames Foundry figures and thus they are all duplicates of figures already painted. As can be clearly seen there are only 5. The pack would normally contain 7 figures but as they were a gift from a friend it would be churlish in the extreme to whine about it. Let us be blunt when it comes to lead all donations are VERY gratefully received. So thanks Matt, he's not a blogger or known to my club but we go back years and he used to ref "Deadlands RPG" and these are the left overs. I have never played "Deadlands" as I was not living in the same part of the world at the time.

The second picture shows the horde at this stage. It is quite meagre at this time but it is slowly growing and increasing. As mentioned previously I will be using my normal 20th Century horde zombies just to bulk out the ranks and create much more of a threat. My players will already have been looking at the tufts on the bases. This is because I activate zombies in two separate phases Those with "tufts" on the base and those without. This system came about when it became apparent that players were waiting for the zombies to move and then move just far enough away not to get eaten. By having two separate activations it makes it harder for the players to act in this way. Both activations are random as are individual players so usually one or more players will act between the zombie activations.

That's todays painting. I shall be travelling to the Milton Hundreds Wargames Club Open day today (yes I will take some snaps) and The club Wild West Zombie game tomorrow so a busy games weekend for me. So with luck I will post the AAR on Monday and the open day report on Wednesday. At least that is the plan! take acre and chat again soon. Best wishes Clint.

Thursday 5 September 2013

Western Gunfight Zombies.

 Some of you will know I am planning a Western Zombie Game for the club on Sunday, the rest of you have just found out! That being the case I thought I should start painting a few more zombies. Most zombies in the game will be my "normal" horde zombies but I thought to add a few more zombies toting weapons and dressed in period clothes. They will of course function slightly differently in the game. The top two pictures are freshly painted "Foundry" castings and the Third picture has two zombies which have been shown before, just included for completeness.

7 figures to a pack armed and dressed with a variety of weapons and clothing. Quite obviously they can be used for any Victorian era setting but are most suitable as wild/weird West figures because one of them is wearing chaps. 5 are pistol armed including a couple of heavy pistols. 1 has a rifle and the other a double barrelled shotgun. They all look suitably zombie like in both pose and facial grimace. While Foundry only do 1 pack different colours on the clothing should or the skin tone should allow for enough variety especially if the figures in the same poses are on different parts of the Table.

I hope to get the opportunity either today or tomorrow to give the rules I shall be using for the game on my dedicated zombie blog (28 Dice Later ). I do not update it very often and am not looking for followers or page views as it is mostly for club and ZBA interaction.

I shall do another post on this blog on Saturday. Until then take care enjoy a quiet few days and with luck talk soon. All the best Clint.


Tuesday 3 September 2013

Hakan the barbarian.

 And today's offering is a Barbarian figure by "Reaper Miniatures". I have only managed to get one figure painted in the last couple of days. Oh well!

HAKAN, BARBARIAN OF HEIMDA is the name on the pack. Obviously the figure is ridiculously muscled but we have to expect that from figures portraying barbarians. As such another exercise in painting flesh. Clearly fantasy figure, well just look at that weapon and tell me anyone could seriously wield it is such a manner. No I thought not! Still part of fantasy is always a bit larger than life, so not a serious problem as far as I am concerned.
 
 
Originally I purchased him while looking to put on a Conan game. While never intended to be Conan himself I did think to use him as a supporting cast member. I do have a couple more to fit in with this game idea so you may get to see them soon, Indeed one is on the paint table at present.
 
 
With luck I hope to have more than 1 figure to show in 2 days time. So Until then take care and enjoy yourself.  And hope to see you soon.

Sunday 1 September 2013

Pinkertons

The three figures are from the Artizan range of Wild West miniature. The actual pack was AWW025 Pinkerton Detectives 1. Each was a joy to paint and will suit any Western or Victorian game. Yes even a game with zombies werewolves and other such things that go bump in the night. The Out House is another building by Tim Wade at Frontline Wargaming. I am not sure if it is still available as he seems to has stopped producing his Western Buildings now that companies are producing laser cut wooden ones. Personally I think this is a same the resin ones do not require assembly and being heavier are less prone to movement on the table top (which should not happen but we all know it does!)

 Ok each in turn.

The first one is armed with a single pistol. I went for grey hair and bear as I wanted the figure to appear as a grizzeled veteran. There is a mended tear/rip in his duster on the right leg hinting that he would rather spend his money elsewhere than on fancy duds. And yet his grey bowler hat does appear new. Maybe either the coat is lucky or the hat is new and he would rather have town clothes than country clothes.  Whatever his story is I painted him with the name "Warm Leg Bob" in my mind as that is the name given to me by one of the players in my series of planned games in the Zombie Wild west!
 The next figure Not intended for the Weird West is one of the few figure I have for this period who is wearing spectacles. Rather than painting them black or blue I decided that red-pink was exactly the right colour. The rose tinted spectacles will help with the glare of the sun and give the figure a very specific character. Spurs can be seen below the brown duster and the '73 Winchester rifle makes me think he's been tracking down don heinous villains out in the old west. This is one of the joys of this period all the figures are very characterful and as you paint them you make your own story up as you go. Obviously who ever picks him up and commands the figure on the table can and probably will make up their own reasons for the clothes and armaments.

Lastly for today probably the figure I liked the most prior to painting. (Now of course I like them all). This detective has obviously spent some money on duds and gives the appearance of only wanting the best of things. The hat the coat the bow tie all look new and in good condition and while he also has spurs on the fact that he wars a monocle suggests he's more used to a civilised setting. Finishing his look is a gold watch chain and gold monocle chain which hopefully should make it look like his the most successful Pinkerton of the three.

That's it for today. As you can tell I have really enjoyed painting these three and I think they will add considerably to my growing Wild West setup. there are of course more to follow and with luck and a bit of work they should be ready for Tuesday's next blog post. So until them take care and have fun. All the best Clint.