Zomtober '15, week 4: the fourth horseman

My name is death, and the end is here...

The finale! Zombicide season three introduced the skinner zombies, emaciated and tough as nails and all creepy-like. This charmed caught my eye as soon as I opened the box.

I wanted to keep the skin tones pale and go for an old and faded look to the whole scheme. Definitely an end-times affair.

Team height comparison

The Zomtober graduating class of 2015

Thanks to all the great words of encouragement out there! I honestly do look forward to Zomtober, and it always helps kick my gaming juices right where it counts. Next month I hope to get my Guild Ball team fully table-ready, so I don't feel like a loser posting pics of half-painted toys all the time.

Zomtober '15, week 3: scaley!

One of the staples of the modern zombie genre is mutant zombies, undead affected in such a way that gives them a different look or powers. The Zombicide expansion Prison Outbreak featured berserker zombies, undead affected by reasons unknown to have scaly plates that give them some degree of armor from ranged weapons. Their jaws also get a little chisled, as it were. And whatever occurred happened near a prison, meaning the berserker zeds are all prisoners and prison guards (which gives the minis a nice unified theme.)

The only way I find mold lines is well after priming.

I painted the prison uniform orange to match my Arkham escaped convicts, because why not.

Not much time to chat today, this weekend's packed. But had to check in here first!

The story so far.

He's not overly tall...

Zomtober '15, week 2: Parker and his trusty machete

"I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

This week's entry could be a companion piece to last week's Santa Zed, but honestly, it's just another fig I've been putting off for a while, and this was the week to get it done. Parker is a zombie survivor, from Hasslefree.

I've seen pics online of folks painting him like Kenny from South Park, but I took more inspiration from John Carpenter's The Thing an Han Solo in his Hoth gear.

Look, a better pic of Santa Zed.

And he is tiny. Like, 22mm from feet to the top of the hood. Which works great for me. I loved Crooked Dice's St. Searle's 'savage schoolgirls' line, which I've supplemented with other armed children from vaious manufacturers. Parker is a natural fit, even if a little warmly dressed for it. I doubt many zombies will bite through that parka, though!

Slightly better job with the lighting this week. This was done outside, however, which also makes it rather weather-and-time dependent.

The lighting came out all weird with this one, but it was too good a height comparison to let it go. So I tried to edit it up in gimp, and... made it worse to the point that I couldn't un-blue it in the right way. But still! (And man, there's no better way to find every little missed detail than take some nice digital pics and edit them up. Every tiny error just shines right through.) (Thank heavens I am not a perfectionist.) (As you may have guessed.)

Zomtober '15, week 1: a nightmare before Zed-mas

It's the most wonderful time of the year - Zomtober! Third year in a row for me, and always a welcome reminder to get things painted.

For my first entry, I confess I'd been looking forward to painting the Zombicide season three VIP, Santa Zed! Also the first fig I've fully painted at my new place.

It's also the first fig I've taken pictures of at the new house, so as you can tell I need to figure out my ad-hoc lighting setup a little better. But still. Happy Zombtober all!

Obligatory comparison shot with Crooked Dice all-star Misty.

Silvermoon challenged (by Maurice)

Happy new year. If you'll recall, I was hoping to get 50 rice done by the start of 2015 for Bushido. Let's see how I did!

As it turns out, I only made it half way. I finished Fitiauma (9 rice), Sukuratchi (5 rice), a Kyoaku-Han Crossbowman (5 Rice), and Nomi & Sukoshi Kani (3 rice a piece), giving me 25 total.   I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I've still got a few minor finishing touches to add, but these are playable for the time being. I definitely want to add some tattoos, but we'll get there. I'm excited to get the rest of the batch done early this year and get some more games in. Happy gaming in 2015!

Here are some individual shots: 

Han Crossbow/Wasupu

Sukuratchi

Sukoshi Kani

Nomi

Fitauma

If I find the courage, I may try to do some tattoos on Fitiauma like these:

From the Big Hero 6 concept art.

sliding into the new year, monk-style

December remains the month I get the least gaming time in, even given the busy-ness that is November. So, no, I didn't get to finish the short-lived Bushido painting challenge, but as you see above, I got close. Basecoating, bases, and the beginnings of the detail stage done for all figs. I am going to pretend that's close enough, because yep.

The good news is, each one of 'em can be wrapped up pretty easily. The details are always what elude me, since it's such delicate work, but the figs really shine even with a little paint on them, so the rest is just picking out the bits and tossing on a few washes. The Air Kami and the angry gorilla have their own challenges, being, you know one color-ish. But I've got the preliminaries down, so there's that.

Happy new year, all. It's one of my two favorite holidays. Here's to another great year of gaming in 2015.

Silvermoon challenge (by Maurice)

Hello everyone,

Maurice, here. As part of Scorpio's group, I'm also looking to get 50 Rice painted by the time the ball drops on 2014. I'm running the Silvermoon Syndicate, as nothing's more fun than a bunch of kung-fu Yakusa gangsters. The collection you see below is:

(y)Oda (5 Rice)
Manu (9 Rice)
Fitiauma (9 Rice)
Sukuratchi (6 Rice)
Okkete-San (2 Rice)
Wakasu Akuma (1 Rice)
Nomi (4 Rice)
Kyoaku-Han Crossbow (5 Rice)
Kyoaku-Han x2 (8 Rice)
This + a 1 Rice card gets me to a 50 Rice list. 

Just so that I actually get 50 Rice of figures painted without cards (certain funny people in the group are insisting...), I will add:
Saki (7 Rice)


10 figs at just over 50 rice gives me flexibility in list building and a nice range of figure styles to paint. I've already started on Sukuratchi and Okkete-San, as you can tell. I'll do my best to check in with some progress reports!

in-between days

Fists of fury

Just a quick post before I finish up the Fall-In report.

See the above pic? Within there is a total of 50 rice worth of Temple monks (and friends) for Bushido that I am challenging myself to finish painting by the end of the year. OK, technically it's a challenge for my whole playgroup, but I'm taking up the banner here.

As noted, halfway through the con report. Always hard once I get the writing rolling, since I find I had a lot more to say than I thought I did. Especially when it's a game I particularly enjoy and want to pass that joy along.

November and December are typically light as gaming goes. Just hard getting folks together regularly. We're working to keep each other motivated, however. My bases have come in, so I am looking to get a playable force for both Dark Age and the Batman game. On top of that, past Kickstarter treasures should be arriving before too long, both Pulp City and Wrath of Kings. And even Wolsung not too long after that, I suspect. That's... a lot of figs I will need to assemble, base, prime, and paint. I'm looking forward to getting it done and on the table. Busy season! (Plus, it should keep me away from getting more things on Kickstarter, heh.)

Zomtober 2014, week 4: final victory, with bonus figs

I am not great at completing challenges, so I am going to bask in the glory on this one. Four figs complete, plus two extra because I made the time! Yes, I know for many of you, completing six figs in a month isn't tough, but for me, it's a minor triumph.

First up, the last of the Zombicide four originally slated for this Zomtober. I am sort of looking forward to painting some dupes of this fig, because all that exposed skin is a great palate for tattoos or fresher gore or what have you. And again, it's another solid pose with a lot of character and detail (like the slash across his back.) So angry!

During the course of Zomtober, one find was reading about the Eclectic Gentleman's triad paint scheme. Like I said, an idea worth stealing.As I knew I'd be getting the challenge done this week, I went down to the Basement Full of Minis and dragged out two figs I'd based and primed many moons back, and never got around to painting. I believe they're both from the late Mega Minis, but don't quote me on that. I used the red from above (Delta Ceramcoat Red Iron Oxide) and kept going.

First up is King. Clearly another Leader type. I was worried about all the details coming out on this one, but they popped right out. Not the best painted fig I have ever done, but easily the best painted fig I have done that quickly. I'm learning more to not just dump everything in a wash, but to use them more selectively and highlight around the details thereafter. Hooray for learnin'. [Sculpt by Zombiesmith, thanks to arabianknight for the correction.]

And lastly, the Thriller. He is definitely a little short next to other 28mm figs, but that works just fine, thematically. And while the Mega Minis sculpt... lacks a lot of detail, I give it style points. I would adore if someone put out a handful of walkers in the Thriller pose, because yes, I am dumb and like throwing my money at cheap jokes.

Three for the week...

 And the final results for the month. A rousing success!

Happy Zombtober everyone!

Zomtober 2014, week 3: ripped!

 Fresh off the night shift, although that jumpsuit has seen better days.

Cause of death: likely whatever jacked up his right side there.

The gang of three.

Zomtober 2014, week 2: saggy!

Minutes to midnight, still on time! Still a couple details I'd like to hit (now that I see the pics fully blown up) but hey.

Such a hard time getting good pictures in this week.

Really, hard time with the pics.

As noted previously, lots of lovely details on these figs push them beyond other board games. Those saggy pants!

The boys of October

Zomtober 2014, week 1: the Leader

"What do you mean, 'They cut the power'?! How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!"

As noted previously, Zombicide has some great sculpts, and when I was looking for which to get painted up first, this was my go-to starter. As a walker, it's a nice calm-but-intimidating pose, but it's something about the Luthor-ish suit that made me think of him as one of the fabled 'smart' zombie mutations, such as Big Daddy from Land of the Dead, or even one of the liches from Wellington's lovely Monster Island trilogy. 7ombieTV calls them Leaders, hence the use here.

I kept the bases clean, until I figure out a unified scheme for them. Or they will be kept flat, because you know, zombie horde. The edge will be kept gray so it can be used for the board game, to boot.

Meeting Misty, from last year's challenge.

pre-Zomtober post

rise

Ah, autumn, when pumpkins and fake cobwebs appear in front of stores nationwide, there's a bit of a lovely chill in the air, and a gamer's thoughts turn to the undead. And for us, that can only mean... Zomtober.

Despite my faltering at the end of last year's event, I'm coming back for more. For the big list of upcoming eye candy, go here or here. As always it's not just about challenging myself to, you know, finish painting things, but also to drink in all the delicious inspiration from my fellow Zomtober participants. 

Now, I was toying with the idea of cheating this year and going with 15mm walkers, but it's been a 28mm kind of year, so let's go with this instead:

In proper zed fashion, there's plenty more where these come from.

My ambitious selection comes from last year's Zombicide II bounty. With so many wonderful pre-assembled, pre-based shamblers, how can you go wrong? They're perfect for any modern-era zombie game, such as 7ombie (or even the upcoming S.D.Z.A. that I know more than a couple of you are watching.)

No, I don't think I will get through all nine. I will definitely be aiming for four, anyhing after that will be icing on the rotting, fleshy cake.

I was so tempted to go for the grayscale black-and-white paint jobs, as seen elsewhere, but I think that might be ambitious for my deadlines. We'll see.

And while I have you here, don't forget that the Studio Miniatures kickstarter is entering the home stretch. I've put off picking up many of their zombies for far too long now, and this is a great opportunity to play catchup. Perfect for fans of certain TV shows, a popular horror video game, and certain classic movies. Check it out, you'll find something to tempt you.