The Last of Us…

 …if by us, you mean the last of the miniatures I need to start playing a Last Days campaign:

All from Hasslefree, taking inspiration from characters from The Last of Us and The Walking Dead. Fun fact, my daughter was impressed that I’d painted the same design on the shirt of a miniature as was on the shirt of a shark man on Dance Monsters, the Netflix show she was watching this morning.

My not-Michonne is a conversion too, as I couldn’t decide whether to use the samurai sword or the assault rifle arm, so decided to go for both! Don’t look too closely at the hand holding the gun, glueing that tiny contact point was a bit of a pickle.

I also used my second favourite of the available backpack options, as I wanted to use the more backpack like one to make another loot token at some point in the future…

In terms of painting, they’ve come out rather dark haven’t they? Given the subject matter, I’m not super unhappy about that though. One thing that could have come out better was not-Joel’s shirt - there is a checkered brown pattern on the green shirt, that you can only really see if you get it about an inch away from your eyes. Ah well, done is done though, and I can start playing games now!

And so, a group shot:

You see from the other members of the group why I needed to paint some additional miniatures to give myself some firepower! 

The premise for the group is that when things went south, my Leader (and the helper monkey he’d been training - so sue me, I like Y: the Last Man) booked it out of the city to a farm where the young lady in pink at the back of the group had been taking a course to wait out the apocalypse, picking up a motley crew of hangers-on along the way.

So, the first finished miniatures of the year sets the Tally to:

3 vs 0 = +3

Up next, a specific piece of scenery for the first scenario in my Seasons campaign, hopefully…

Zomtober 2021 week 5: Halloween edition!

Week five of Zomtober 2021, we have a before and after set of miniatures:

One intrepid chap, out to decimate the zombie hordes with nothing but his ancestral family chainsaw and the intense self-confidence that comes with generations of good breeding. And then the result of that intense self-confidence: he’s got guts, certainly, and now everyone can see them…

You can just about see my attempt at painting tiny argyle socks here, as suggested by my wife who bought me the set of Frothers miniatures they are from 12 years ago according to the integral base on one of the minis: 

I mentioned this to her, and she suggested that if I’m only now getting round to painting miniatures that I got twelve years ago I probably don’t need to buy any more, but that can’t be right surely…

If I were to paint him again, I’d probably strive for greater definition on the face of the zombified version, as I think the grey moustache is too similar to the grey zombie skin, but I’m not sure if I’m feeling brave enough to repaint it for fear of having to redo the whole face!

Painting this pair of chaps brings the Tally to-

but wait there’s more, with a bonus Zomtober offering!

Having been watching Y: the Last Man (and having re-read the comics in preparation for the tv series) I thought what would be more helpful in the zombie apocalypse than a helper monkey? 

So off to the monkey box I scampered, and lo, here is my Ampersand expy:

Look at his little monkey face!

Painted mostly using this first page of Google results as inspiration:

Admittedly, you need to suspend your disbelief somewhat, as he’s approximately four times bigger than a capuchin monkey should be:

But hey, while I didn’t have a capuchin monkey miniature, I did have a Moon Boy mini from a Devil Dinosaur heroclix, that I was able to fashion a tail for using a length of wire and some liquid green stuff:

I was tempted to sculpt him a little green stuff diaper, but decided to leave him au naturel so that he can pull double duty in the long postponed Rise of the Planet of the Apes project (looking back through the blog, it seems there was a two year gap between miniatures for that project, then three years before the next, then four years until this one, so following that pattern I’ll next post one in 2026).

So, all in the Tally now stands at:

31 vs 23 = +8

Zomtober 2021 week 3!

 Another week, another post deadline successfully hit!

This week's offering is another Hasslefree survivor, another fine Kev White sculpt:

I have him stripes down his sleeves, as a bit of visual interest but also mostly so that I could make this joke on Instagram:

What is the fascination with chainsaws and zombies? Practically, it would be less than ideal as a zombie-fighting weapon: heavy, loud, needs refuelling. On the other hand:

I went to town weathering this mini, and I think he looks much better for it! Dusty, grubby, oily, this is someone that has had other things on his mind than laundry recently…

You can’t really see it in the other pictures, but I also gave him a five o’clock shadow, that also highlights that he’s shaved his head because he’s balding than for purely practical reasons:

Finishing him brings the Tally to:

24 vs 23 = +1

Next time - more zombies!

Zomtober 2021 week 2

 Another Sunday, another zombie themed submission!

This week I present for your delectation a Hasslefree survivor that I think was originally prepped as a backup mini for a previous Zomtober, and so has sat undercoated waiting for her time in the sun for far too long.

The details on the face are very fine, and I think I went too pale and lost some of the definition - there’s nothing like painting for a deadline to lower your standards though! When initially taking the pictures for this post, I noted how pale she was and went back to add some colour to her lips to try and make her look a little more lively, but I think all I’ve succeeded in doing is making her look like she’s enjoyed some beetroot at some point in the past…

I also wouldn’t have gone as light on the hair if I were to paint her again - up until that last application though, it looked very flat and dark, so I’m not sure that a do over would come out any better (as ever, I asked my wife to suggest a hair colour, as is usually the case whenever I’m painting near her). The acid wash jeans effect is a little hit or miss too, but again, done is done, so points on the Tally!

23 vs 23 = +0

Back to equilibrium!

Zomtober week 4: the circle is complete

If by circle you mean the challenge, that is.

Week four is another survivor, from Hasslefree this time:

As always with a hasslefree miniature, she’s a lovely sculpt, even though my attempts at fixing her pupil have left her with an entirely black eye looking somewhat like the mother from Coraline... Which admittedly I don’t completely hate, so am leaving as is. I might go back and see if I can get some definition back into her shoelaces though...

She was originally bought one Salute for the The Last of Us project, as I like that she has a torch, but she can pull double duty fighting her way through zombie hordes if needs be.

Painting her brings the Tally to:

15 vs 27 = -12

and also draws this Zomtober to a close - not my biggest year, being four ladies and a cameraman, but expect something related to appear in the next couple of weeks (as unfortunately I just couldn’t get them finished in time for this post! Unless I save them for next year...)

In other news, I had thought that the blogosphere was dying out, but having dug deeper it seems that my followed blogs weren’t showing up properly in Bloglovin (the reader app I use), so I’d been missing out on a ton of people’s blog posts! I’ve been taking steps to manually rectify this, so hopefully I won’t miss anything else!

Zomtober week 3: once more unto the deadline...

I honestly thought I was making good progress on this week’s submission, but once again I found myself spending my Saturday night adding the finishing touches! Also, my usual plans for something bigger (like a previous big finish) for Zomtober have had very little work done on them, so we may end up with a week of Zomtober appearing in November, but I digress...

Another beautiful Crooked Dice survivor this week:

Colour scheme selected by the fact that my wife wants a yellow coat, and I thought it would be a fun colour to dirty up (spoilers: it was!). I really should grubby up all of my survivors, it’s very satisfying to do and looks better (and also can hide a multitude of sins)...

She has a water bottle, that underneath all the dirt and scrapes is a rather nice blue, as if pre-catastrophe she was probably a VSCO girl (hey I’m hip!)

Painting her brings the Tally to:

14 vs 27 = -13

So, three weeks of hitting the deadline! I’ll commit to finishing and posting at least another Survivor by next Sunday, and anything else that I manage will just be a bonus...

Zomtober week 2: this is the news...

Ooh, writing that title just makes me want to go and rewatch The Day Today!

So, week 2 and another post on schedule! Work has been a bit much this week, so I wasn’t sure if I’d have a post ready in time, but what else are Saturday nights in October for if not frantically trying to finish and photograph miniatures? So I present to you the Channel 7 news crew:

These two are from the Frothers Zombie sculpting competition winners set from about a decade ago, so I’ve procrastinated something fierce on getting them done!

I’m having a bit of an off year on painting faces currently, a trend which seems to have continued here. My glasses prescription changed, and I’m painting without my proper light (so that I can hang out near my wife), which might have something to do with it...

As ever, I turned to my wife to select a hair colour, and she chose a silver purple (as one does). She also suggested mixing in some silver paint to give it a slight sheen, but that didn’t really do a lot unfortunately...

In the set of zombie rules that I’ve part-written, I included some rules for these figures - they esssentially act as loot tokens, but if you get into combat they can be lost (or if you’re of a more callous mindset you might consider them ablative armour...)

And now a profile shot, to show off some shaky freehand (although not the only bit on show - as well as the presenters microphone, there’s also a shaky watch face on her watch!).

Another week, another shot in the arm to the Tally:

13 vs 27 = -14

Zomtober 2019: tiny wife 2: electric boogaloo

Ah October, the month where I reappear for regular blogposts due to the motivational power of a community project - there’s nothing quite like a public declaration of promised productivity to get me working until the early hours of the morning if need be! Plus, at this point in the year I tend to look at my total completed miniatures year to date, and then look at the total of miniatures I aimed to complete for the year, and the discrepancy between those numbers, and then get carried away trying to do something grand for Zomtober (like painting dozens of Wights or a zombie herd).

This year though, I’ll shoot for at least one a week, and anything else is a bonus.

So, week one 2019, an updated version of my wife in miniature:

Oof, try as I might I just couldn’t get a decent picture of her...

A post-apocalyptic survivor from Crooked Dice, repurposed as a zombie survivor (as I especially loved her trash can lid shield). I painted her extra grubby and weathered, as I figure if hordes of flesh eating monsters start roaming the streets you’re going to find yourself squeezing through some crumbling buildings to escape, and if anything it just means maybe I’ve just been inspired to make up rules for a box of washing powder as an objective or loot...

She’s also painted with a much paler skin tone than my usual, in part due to my wife being paler than the median tone of my miniatures, but also because a while back I bought a selection of paler flesh tones that I haven’t had a chance to use yet...

Finishing her brings the Tally to:

11 vs 27 = -16

See you all in a week!

Dammit Carl!

Work on my Zomtober remnants continues, as earlier this week I finished Carl:

He was actually finished Tuesday night, but life happened a bunch (Rolo Tomassi at Scala last night was fun) and so I'm only getting round to taking pictures and posting today. We were going to pick up a mini lightbox from Flying Tiger this afternoon after seeing one on a Gunpla Facebook group, but our local one didn't have it in stock, so these pictures were taken with my photo board balanced on an airer in the bathroom instead...

I'm fairly fond of Carl, unlike the majority of the internet it seems. I didn't follow the TV series for very long, which might have something to do with it...

This sculpt is absolutely lovely. Much kudos to Mantic for the quality! I painted his lower half as being incredibly grubby, but I liked how his hoody had come out so much that I couldn't bring myself to cover it up with a layer of dust!

Tally:

35 vs -46 = +81

What next? I'm down to two miniatures remaining from the batch that I had prepped for Zomtober, as well as a few half finished odds and ends that I've pulled out of the painting queue in an attempt to hit the 'have finished 52 miniatures by the end of the year' challenge I set myself way back when, but at the same time gee that Blackstone Fortress box game that GW are currently previewing sure does look apealling...

Survivember? Zomtober2: Electric Boogaloo?

Last night I managed to finish one of the figures that I'd originally intended to include as part of my submission for this year's Zomtober, but didn't quite get finished in time, The Governor from Mantic's 'Prelude to Woodbury' set:

Another rather lovely sculpt from Mantic! Detailed and characterful enough to be fun to paint and nice looking even with a fairly simple paintjob, which is always a winner in my book!

Now, my experience with the Walking Dead only extends as far as the comics (well, and the first couple of series of the TV show before we gave up on that), so I don't really know much about the pre-tyrant era Brian from the novels that this miniature is modelled after; I'm more used to this guy:

Maybe if I finish off all of the models in the starter set, I'll treat myself to an expansion or two and see if I can't pick up a model of the Governor once he's missing some bits...

Tally: 33 vs -46 = +79

We're off to see some zombies, some horrible zombies oh god!

A day late for Zomtober but a day early for Halloween... I was aiming to get this posted last night (when the miniatures were painted!) but when it hit 11 and the pictures were still uploading I realised I wasn't going to hit that deadline, and so am now writing this post on an iPad stood waiting for a train [and then some more sat at a station hours later waiting for a different train...]

As should come as no surprise given the content of the last few Zomtober posts, I've finished Dorothy and Toto from the Studio Miniatures Wizard of Oz set:

Please note my attempt at painting gingham as a reference to the film. Just don't look too closely. Maybe squint, too, if you wouldn't mind.

 
And here's the back of Dorothy:

There aren't any more pictures of Toto, as he didn't come out as I'd hoped - I tried giving subtle variations in colour on his fur, aiming for a grey brown like the original, but it just didn't come out right and I ended up settling for a flatter finish. His fur was very smooth, so my attempts at drybrushing were somewhat foiled...

The back of her jacket also contains some terrible freehand and squiggly approximations of text - as I was lying in bed Saturday night/Sunday morning wondering whether the clocks had gone back yet (after having fallen asleep earlier that evening putting my daughter to bed when I'd originally planned to finish painting these minis), I was struck with inspiration- what if I painted a biker back patch on the back of Dorothy, with a little cartoon witch head with crosses for eyes and the slogan 'witches get stitches'? This is my attempt at that. Unfortunately, her back is absolutely tiny compared to its size in my late night/early morning memory/imagination, so I had to go with an approximation of the text, but I quite like it nevertheless...

And here they are all together! Which, technically, crosses another challenge off of the list:

2017 Challenges:

• Finish 5 miniatures from my WIP drawer before starting anything new (5/5)
• Finish 10 miniatures from my WIP drawer before starting anything new (10/10)
• Finish 15 miniatures from my WIP drawer before starting anything new (16/15)
• Finish something years old
• Finish something SUPER old (as in, pre-blog old) x2
• Finish a piece of terrain x3 
• Empty out my stripping pot
• Paint something from the stripping pot
• Prep all of the monkeys in the monkey box
• Build a wargames board
• Paint all of the miniatures in a boxed game
• Open Star Wars Imperial Assault and paint all the miniatures from it
• Paint all the miniatures needed to replace the tokens in the Imperial Assault Core Game
•  Paint a complete box of miniatures (either a full regiment or starter)
•  Finish a complete skirmish force for a project (at least 16 miniatures, unless it's for a much smaller scale game like Batman)
• Repaint something (either a miniature that I have previously painted, or one that was received painted)

I think when I'd set the 'complete box' challenge, I was trying to bait my future self into painting up my Joker starter for the Batman Miniatures game (as I've had it since before there was a rule set, and they're now on their second edition), but I'm counting it!

But wait, there's more! Not content with just survivors this week, I've also finished a zombie!

Side note - I can't find my current pot of TCR anywhere, which turned the 'five minutes' I told my wife I'd be finishing up these before Sunday night games night into ten minutes of grumpily searching drawers and boxes before giving up and trying to use Blood for the Blood God as a substitute, which doesn't work quite the same sadly: 

(As I tend to mix in inks and whatnot to get different 'shades' of blood - more black for zombies etc - and TCR goes pleasingly thick when mixed with inks, which behaves very differently when painting to runny BFTBG, hence the larger 'splashes' of blood rather than my usual 'flecks')

Despite that setback, I managed to finish this chap:

Another of the Horrorclix zombies that I got as part of my initial foray back into the hobby proper, and I think the last remaining sculpt of the batch! He's a fairly hench sculpt, that I'd been considering basing and using as a 'brute zombie', but while he is bigger than most of the horde, he doesn't have the same mass as the other 'brute' zombies I've painted, so he gets to be an ordinary biter.

And so, that brings another Zomtober to a clo-

What's that?

Additional bonus entry you say?

After watching the latest series of Game of Thrones, after seeing the zombie polar bear (spoilers, btw) I was inspired to add something similar to my project to go with last year's offerings:

While I didn't have a polar bear miniature, I did have a Horrorclix Zombie Reindeer in my bits box - as such the original sculpt was impaled with a hunting rifle, but a few minutes with a scalpel and a pot of liquid green stuff saw to that!

Ah, fur with detail deep enough that you can actually use drybrushing and washes to build it up, I don't miss you until you're gone...

The hand was painted in the same fashion as my wights, as a little inside joke reference to the hand taken as proof of their existence at the start of the book series...

Finishing these brings the Tally to:

37 vs 40 = -3

Well, being back in the black is tantalisingly close isn't it? Now, what shall I paint next?

Something something heart something

Unusually on schedule this week with the next Zomtober offering - another Studio Miniatures Wizard of Oz themed survivor:

The Cowardly Lion reimagined as a sports mascot. There was a weird vogue for these when I started the zombie project (I think Zombiesmith may have made a couple that just seemed to crop up everywhere), but I think I'm far enough behind that it's become niche again! 

I guess there's some logic to the idea too - although you'd lose pretty much all manoeuvrability, the thick padding might actually make a pretty decent defence against zombie bites...

I'm sure there are better weapons than a hockey stick to protect yourself from the undead though (although it's something you can swing with both hands, and can be used to keep biters at arms length while you make good your escape... hmm, maybe I've undersold the hockey stick in the past!). Uniform colour was selected entirely randomly - I was rooting around in my paints and unearthed a pot of Sotek Green. Yellow stripes and badge were added just to give a little flourish, rather than any attempt to emulate any actual sports teams insignia!

Tally:

33 vs 40 = -7

Oh if I only had some braaaaaaaaaainsss...

Playing catch-up a little this week, we have two finished miniatures for my week 2 and 3 Zomtober entries!

First is the next of the Studio Miniatures Wizard of Oz themed Survivors box, a pitchfork wielding vagrant with overtones of Scarecrow:

Good fun to paint, even if the detail on his face was a little squiff (although it might just be that I've been spoilt by having painted Hasslefree miniatures, that even my modest level of skill can make look quite nice), but judicious application of a five-o-clock shadow came out looking pretty good I think and distracts from that! His eyes are a mote wonky, mostly because my daughter chose the exact moment to grab my chair and yell boo that the micron pen was making contact with miniature...

He got straw blond hair to suit the Scarecrow theme, and his clothes were painted dirty and worn partly for theme, partly because there's just something satisfying about scrubbing on some weathering with a ragged old brush!

The other miniature offered up this week is this militaristic zombie:

Back when I got back into the hobby in my early twenties, I was inspired to start a zombie project after seeing all of the great stuff happening over on the Lead Adventure Forum (which I'd joined to ask a member a question about where they'd gotten some miniatures that I'd stumbled on while googling for AEWWII miniatures). To get started, I bought a bunch of Horrorclix zombies from a nice guy in Spain (username PredatorPT iirc), and this chap is one of the last pair of that bunch to get painted (the other of which is currently sat half finished on my desk). The Horrorclix zombies are a mixed bunch - variable sizes, wildly variable sculpting quality, but they got me started and over a hundred zombies later I still like them (I think the Zombie Ventriloquist is still one of my favourite members of the horde).

This particular zombie is one of the better sculpts though - fairly crisp detail, characterful, but straightforward enough that he looks great with three or four colours and some weathering! Painting was fairly straightforward: I basecoated everything, weathered the lot, and then washed and highlighted anything that wasn't black before coming back to do a pass to pick out a couple of small details like the handle of his holstered pistol, the buttons on his pouches, and his teeth! I was tempted to apply some blood effects (as it's been a while since I got to play with my pot of TCR) but figured that given how dark overall the model is, you wouldn't really notice the blood on him...

Here are the two miniatures squaring off - you'll see what I mean when I say that the Horrorclix zombies are a little big! Mixed into the crowd though the scale difference isn't quite as noticeable...

Tally 

32 vs 40 = -8

Coming next week:more of the same, hopefully!