Monday 7 March 2016

I'VE BEEN BUSY!

What's occurrin'!

My posting this year has been a little slack to say the least. Hopefully that's going to change from now on. I'm feeling much better now and I'm finally starting to get my shit together at last. I haven't been idle these last couple of weeks either but more on that in a bit. Even played my first game of ATZ! Will wonders never cease?

Before we move on, let's not forget my cultural mission. You know by now I'm trying to bring a little culture to the world of zombies. This mainly involves trying to find different zombie artists and showing some of their work on my humble little blog. Hopefully enriching us all in the process. So this time I want to show you all another wonderful piece by Savagezombie (a.k.a. Chris Bolton). This one is called Fear the Dead. Enjoy!

FEAR THE DEAD!
OK, so after my last post, I decided to re-think the board. After reading your comments and re-reading the rule book I cut some 12 inch squares from stuff I'd been hoarding, namely draw bottoms and the back of bookcases from cheap MDF furniture. It isn't even wood, more like compressed card. Perfect for my use.

I then covered the squares using the two game mats I mentioned last post. This is when I hit my first snag. Even with patching I only had enough for seven boards. Arse! Not enough for the nine boards, making up the three foot square smallest playing area. What to do? Sheldon again came to my rescue. When he kindly donated the urban game mats, he'd also thrown in a railway grass mat that he really didn't like. So I covered three boards with it. Problem solved.

OVERVIEW OF THE NEW BOARD.

I also made up several road sections from card, this was then covered in true Blue Peter style. Yes, sticky backed plastic! I'd picked up some with a chalk board finish, very cheaply, from a local discount store. Just for this purpose. As you can see from the above picture, I still need to paint on some road markings. But it is heading in the right direction.

You've seen all the buildings before, so nothing new on that front. Finally able to lay out a "proper" playing area, I took the opportunity to play my first game. I don't think I made too many mistakes and everything ran pretty smoothly. A few more run throughs and I think I'll be ready to spring it on the WNI. Although playing solo was great fun too. I might need a little longer to be able to post batreps but I'm getting there.

OUR INTREPID BAND OF HEROES LEAVE THE STORE EMPTY HANDED.

The wooded areas, some old 40K scenery I made almost ten years ago, were dragged out of my storage cupboard. The lesson here being never throw anything out.

I then threw a few toy cars on for the photo's, I still haven't glued together my card vehicles yet. To be honest I haven't even dirtied up the toy ones, like I was going to do. Yet another job on the to do list.

A VIEW UP THE STREET.

So pretty pleased with the progress so far, even though there are lots of things to finish.

MY FIRST GANG!  REDNECKS HOLDING OUT IN THE OLD WAREHOUSE.

My first gang made an appearance in my first game. I went with rednecks as opposed to a more urban crew, the figures I had kind of lead me in that direction. I quite like the idea of the local good ole boys tooling up and teaming up to survive.

ZOMBIES LURCHING OUT OF THE WOODS.

You'll recognise the fences too, coffee stirrers and lolly (popsicle) sticks. They are actually finished, just about the only thing that is.

MORE ZOMBIES HEADING TOWARDS ALL THE GUNFIRE.
ZOMBIES AT THE FENCE LINE.

I've also been working on some scatter terrain. The cargo containers are free of course and came from the Combat Storm website. Are cargo containers even scatter terrain?

The "interesting" weathered look of them was the result of a happy accident. I used spray mount to stick the printouts to card. I don't think I shook the can long enough and as a result the solvent stained the printout. Saves me weathering them I suppose.

MORE CARGO CONTAINERS. SCATTER TERRAIN?

I broke out the sculpting putty for the first time in many years, and had a go at creating some rubbish bags. Amazingly, they look almost passable. Well they are rubbish! Should look even better when painted.

POORLY SCULPTED RUBBISH (TRASH) BAGS.

Well, I guess that's all I got for this time dudes and dudettes. So until next time, try and be more like the DUDE and "take her easy".


46 comments:

  1. That's a bloody good looking board. You can decide whether there's a pun in there, or not. I'm easy, like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roy.
      Pun or not, that's a nice compliment. I've heard you were easy ;-)

      Delete
  2. Superb! The board is looking really great Bob and I love the rubbish sacks, inspirational stuff Sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael.
      Your kind words are much appreciated. Not bad for nearly a ten year break I suppose.

      Delete
  3. Excellent Bob, loads of progress

    ReplyDelete
  4. That board is outstanding Bob and really looks the business. Great to see your minis and fences, and buildings etc all in action - They look terrific. I always find a BatRep - though time-consuming to post - a real inspiration to get painting more minis for the follow-up, so hopefully you'll find it the same. Great posting Dude!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Simon.
      Glad you like it dude! TBH, I'm dreading posting my first BatRep. Just hope I can tell a decent story.

      Delete
  5. Your board looks excellent and the bits and pieces you've added all add to the effect - those sacks are really good and will make good markers too for all sorts of things.
    Good luck with your first bat-rep, be aware though it may take you some time to find a style that you're comfortable with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joe.
      I've been digging around for stuff in my storage cupboard, it's amazing the things I've forgotten about.
      Yeah, bit worried about the style of the tales. I'm sure it will take some time.

      Delete
  6. It's all looking very promising, Bob. You're off to a great start already. I wish you all the best with your campaign. With a few more practice games under your belt you'll be fine. ATZ looks a lot harder than it actually is. Just remember, if there's anything you get stuck on there are plenty of us only too happy to help out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bryan.
      Definitely need more practice games Dude! Even taking notes on that first game helped but didn't realise until turn 3 that zombies don't cause in sight checks, d'oh! I'd already had a survivor run away by then. I can only get better with practice.
      The offer of help is more than welcome Dude, cheers man.

      Delete
  7. It's a great start! I love the happy accident with the containers, lemonade out of lemons (or white Russian out of cream!)

    Like Bryan said, ATZ really isn't that complicated, at least if you don't get editions mixed up! I can't wait to read your batreps!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Steve.
      Yeah, pretty lucky with the containers, they look OK. (Nice Dude reference too man)
      A few more run throughs and I should be good. I won't be mixing up the editioms, I've only got FFO.

      Delete
  8. Great board, Bob. Accident or no, the containers look terrific.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Finch.
      I even stuck them to black card to save colouring the edges, but guess what? My black card had a white core when cut, so had to edge them anyway!

      Delete
  9. It looks a good terrain to me, more than enough to get started.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks cedric.
      Should get rolling pretty soon.

      Delete
  10. Bollocks to "dreading telling a decent story"!!! Just tell us what happened ingame, we'll be the judges if it's decent or not and I'm pretty certain it will be read worthy mate.

    Your set up is bloody good. I think the toy cars are a lovely touch.

    What were your thoughts on the chain reaction system?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dai.
      Reading everyone else's BatRep has left me with a lot to live up to is all. At least I can spell a bit!

      I really like the toy cars, look much better than card tbh. Just need to get a few more, trips to the charity shop are called for.

      I liked the chain reaction system, more realistic than I go U go. Need a few more games to see if it throws up any wrinkles though.

      Big game on the weekend mind! What do you reckon on our chances?
      As long as we beat the English.........

      Delete
    2. I think our chances are very good if we can maintain discipline and remember to get the ball out to our backs who are arguably the best in the northern hemisphere and not just shove the bloody ball up a forward's shirt and fud about battering at their defensive lines.... We win this, we win it all I reckon.

      Delete
    3. Here, here! Well said Dai.
      Yeah, we made those mistakes against the Ozzies in the world cup. Let's hope lessons were learnt.

      Delete
    4. Ugh... 1/2 time and so much for optimism. -__-

      Delete
    5. Our own fault, we didn't turn up first half. Were content to let them have the ball and run at us, can't do that against decent sides.
      Left it too late to cut loose and play rugby, even though fitness was starting to tell.

      Delete
    6. Yep. Remembering how to play world class rugger (albe it against 14 men) in the last 20 mins of a game won't win us squat.

      And now bloody England and that title jones look to confidently play an average French squad for the grandslam. Damnit.

      Delete
    7. Yay for auto correct... not title, tit.

      Delete
  11. That is amazing, really good work. Looks really good.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Looking good! It's all coming together very nicely. Look forward to the batreps!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gordon.
      The BatReps maybe a little while yet. Not too long though!

      Delete
  13. Good looking board Bob, damn nice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Fran.
      It's a definite improvement!

      Delete
  14. Awesome comeback post. :)
    A thought also occurred to me when I saw your band of survivors outside the store. Wouldn't it be great if the Walking Dead actually made a character whose way of dealing with the zombie-filled-world was to find model kits at abandoned stores and building his own diorama ... piece by piece ... growing at each episode. Now that would be awesome, UNLESS the writers kill him off before the final piece.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks F.E.M.
      Cool idea, you'd think there would be a lot of kits left around, they're not exactly survival essentials.
      Of course they'd kill them off before it was finished!

      Delete
  15. Great looking game board Bob!
    Looking forward to read your first batrep!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Andre.
      Things are moving forward on that front.

      Delete
  16. It all looks and sounds great. Dude certainly looking forward to reading some reports. Trash bags look great dude a splash of paint and scatter them around the board the will soon bring it to life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Simon.
      Working on more scenery at the moment, finishing stuff off and a couple of new things. Scatter terrain and vehicles are on the radar for now.
      Reports will be a little while yet but hopefully sooner rather than later.
      Need some soldiers and few more civilians too.

      Delete
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