ZOMBTOBER 2014 WEEK 2

WOW! Doesn't a week fly by when you've got a deadline to stick to. Time management was never one of my strong points, I'd just rather pootle along at my own pace, having breaks when I want. Having a deadline almost takes the fun out of painting, almost. Lot's to do so let's get on with it.

First order of business, to bring culture to the world of zombies. This shall be accomplished by the strategic use of zombie art. That's art with zombies in it for you at the back. This is another fine piece from my current favourite zombie artist GRIMBRO.

GIVE US A KISS!

Some of you may recognise the zombie nicknamed "Dr. Tongue" by Tom Savini from the opening scenes of the 1985 movie Day of the Dead. Despite a fair bit of research, I've been unable to find out who played him. If anybody knows the answer, let me know. Completeness is the watch word.

Second order of business, welcomes. So let's drag the welcome wagon back out of storage, we have a few to get through. This seems to be a direct result of participating in this years Zombtober. Which is a great reason to join in, finding like minded bloggers is always a bonus.
So let's welcome aboard my latest followers. First is cedric mauvielle, he runs the Lost Wargamer in HK blog where amongst other things you'll find the excellent "Reich of a thousand dead" , a Weird World War 2 campaign. WELCOME CEDRIC!
Second is Finch, who runs the Minis by Finch blog. WELCOME FINCH!
Thirdly is Blaxkleric who runs the Fantorical blog. WELCOME BLAXKLERIC!
I haven't yet had much of a chance to check out these two blogs in any detail yet, but what I have seen looks pretty good to me. You should all pop along to these and check them out, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
Two more followers who seemed to have slipped in under the radar are Mike Collard and David Churchill. I can't find blogs for these guys, so if you have one let me know. WELCOME MIKE! WELCOME DAVID!

Official duties taken care of, on to the fun bit.
Zombie painting. Two more Deadzone zombies for you this time. (I'm still not back up to full production speed, that may take some time.)

TWO MORE SHOW UP FOR ZOMBTOBER ROLLCALL

THE OBLIGATORY BACK SHOT

So we have another hazmat zombie again this week, pretty similar to the other one TBH. We'll call him Dr. Teirnon. The other zombie is dressed in some kind of future military uniform, akin to that worn by the Colonial Marines in Aliens, this didn't really fit with my contemporary setting so I painted him as a SWAT team member instead. I present Officer Ifor Jones.
( I think I got away with it.)

SWAT guy was a simple conversion. Using an arm with no hand (for another pose), I added a piece of bone to wrist area. He was also given a holster from a german WW2 figure, to complete his "cop-ness".

Well that's all I got for this time dudes and dudettes. So until next time, take a leaf out of the DUDE'S book and "take it easy".

ZOMBTOBER 2014. WEEK 1.

What's 'appening? Long time no post! Things at the bunker have slowed to a glacial rate recently, my humblest apologies loyal readers. Real life must take a front seat now and again, no matter how much you don't want it to.

This is my first Zombtober so not quite sure what to expect exactly. I had to jump at the chance because with my card modelling adventures the last couple of months, my painting has fallen way behind schedule. I couldn't believe I hadn't painted a mini for almost 8 weeks, until yesterday.

We still have the usual rounds of business to get through before I reveal my woefully inadequate offering. So let's get on with it!

Continuing my attempt to bring some culture to the proceedings I shall yet again show some zombie art. This is another great piece by my current favourite zombie artist GRIMBRO.

RATHER MORE COLOURFUL THAN HE APPEARED ON SCREEN.

Some of you may recognise the zombie pictured (officially credited as Zombie #1) as the one that attacks Barbara in the cemetery,  at the beginning of Night of the Living Dead. The 1968 original, directed by George A. Romero, not one of the many remakes. Zombie #1 was played by Bill Hinzman.
I remember watching this at a very young age, I was probably around 10 or 11, it did two things. Firstly, it scared the shit out of me, second it started my lifelong romance with zombies.

Second order of business is to get the welcome wagon back out of the shed, it's been a while so I had to oil it and dust it, to welcome my latest follower. As is now traditional a big BZA welcome goes out to r.a.e. gingerbhoy. WELCOME ABOARD GINGERBHOY! Settle in, this is taking ages.

Third order of business. It has been brought to my attention that we have surpassed nine thousand pageviews since my last post. (And gingerbhoy makes it thirty followers). I find this news absolutely astounding and must take this oppurtunity to thank my followers, commentors and those of you who just drop by to check out the nonsense I continue to post. A MASSIVE THANKS TO YOU ALL.

Right then, enough bloody waffle, on with the show and tell. As I mentioned earlier, I was shocked at the realisation that I hadn't painted a mini for about 8 weeks. So please excuse, what I feel is a rather rusty couple of figures.

A LITTLE RUSHED, BUT THEY MADE IT.

INSERT YOUR OWN ARSE JOKE!

The zombie is from a sprue of Deadzone zombies by Mantic. Whilst not quite as crisp as their fantasy zombies, I love the fact that some of them are dressed in what I took to be hazmat suits. Of course they could equally be space suits. He's called Elgan Evans.
The survivor is Josh, (based on Jessie Pinkman, a character from smash hit TV show Breaking Bad) from Zombicide season 1. He's my first non-zombie mini in quite some time, it was hard to resist the urge to cover him in gore.

Hopefully, I'll get a week to paint some more, instead of just a day.

Well that's all I've got for this time dudes and dudettes. So until next time try and emulate the DUDE and "take it easy".

REAL CRATES AND ZOMBTOBER PREVIEW.

As has become usual we'll be kicking off with a piece of zombie art. This weeks piece is again by the fabulous GRIMBRO.

THE LOVABLE BUB.

I'm sure you'll all recognise the zombie as Bub (played by Howard Sherman) from the 1985 movie Day of the Dead. Again directed by the maestro himself George A. Romero.

Right that's enough culture for now, we have a post to get on with. So crates, real crates this time, you know wooden boxes. Anyway my lovely Stoelzel's disused warehouse needs some contents, bing (lightbulb moment). What would fit a warehouse better than crates, well nothing. Nothing I could think of, anyway.

So with the goal of covering the table for free in mind, search the internet and ye shall find. And find I did. Firstly I found Stones Edge's free samples. Result !

A FINE EXAMPLE OF FREE CRATES.

I had the square wooden crates I was looking for, but they were all the same. At this point some of you might think, Bob you have crates whats the problem, well you lovely people I'm a little more demanding than that. I want variety, so after a little more interwebbery, I came across Daemonfae's Printable Terrain Emporium in a thread on Warseer. Guess what, yes different kinds of crates. Square ones, rectangular ones and even flat crates. More importantly free. Result!

MORE VARIETY BUT STILL FREE.

As you can see I now have my crate issue covered. Stoelzel's warehouse will no longer remain empty.

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

Enough with the terrain already! Let's move on to the second part of this post's title, a Zombtober preview. To be honest, I wasn't even considering joining in, I mean every month here is Zombwhatever. That and I had pretty much run out of zombies to paint. That's when fate threw some in my lap so to speak.

You see, Sheldon had backed Deadzone (by Mantic) on Kickstarter. Well wave 2 has just been dispatched, in wave 2 was zombies, lots of zombies. Sheldon brought a sprue along to show us, the WNI, on Wednesday. What could I do? Well for one I couldn't let him leave with it, so I managed to purloin said sprue.

The zombies you see below are what I made out of that sprue, there were seven bodies but only five sets of legs (I feel conversions coming on),all ready for Zombtober. So it looks like I'm taking part.!?!

FIVE MANTIC DEADZONE ZOMBIES.

That's all I got for now dudes and dudettes. So until next time, follow the DUDE'S example and "take it easy".

DRAMASCAPE'S CRATES AND CONTAINERS

Another piece of art from the fantastic artist GRIMBRO, I'm sure most of you will recognise the zombie as Big Daddy (played by Eugene Clark) from the 2005 film Land of the Dead. Directed by the maestro himself George A. Romero. Enjoy!

OK, enough culture on with the fun. More card modelling adventures again this time. Nothing spectacular just some scatter terrain to provide a little cover and to block line of sight. These are from Dramascape via the Wargame Vault and is again free to download. The goal is to cover as much of the table as possible for free.

REMEMBER TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

This is a relatively simple kit, they are after all just boxes, big boxes but still just boxes. Even though it's a simple kit, I still urge you to read the instructions before you start assembly. (This cannot be stressed enough).

CONTAINERS!

So you get three different container textures, they are pretty generic so could be used in a sci-fi or near future setting as well as a modern one. Nothing much to say about them, they are big rectangular boxes, nuff said.

CRATES!

You also get three different textures for what are descibed as crates. Although not like your traditional crate, these things are huge. Again quite generic so can be utilised in a variety of settings. Basically three big square boxes.

A BIG ASS PIECE OF COVER.

A final shot of everything together, I'm sure these will get a lot of use filling in spaces between and around buildings. Always handy to have I suppose.

That's all I got for this time dudes and dudettes, so until next time heed the DUDE and "take it easy".

STOELZEL'S DERELICT COMMERCIAL BUILDING. THE THING CONTINUES.

More card scenery fun again this time dudes and dudettes, but first some art. This is another piece by GRIMBRO, I neglected to mention this last time, my humble apologies.

You may recognise the zombie as the boat owning dick head Steve (played by Ty Burrell) from the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

Ramping up the skill level this time, by far my biggest project yet is Stoelzel's Structures Derelict Commercial Building. A massive 28 pages including the instructions, but don't let that put you off, this kit is amazing. Up until now I have only built a couple of Microtactix's building and I was impressed with those. Stoelzel's is in a different league, fully detailed interior, it's damn impressive for a free download.

REMEMBER TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS

After reading the instructions several times,(there are three different ways to build it), I decided to use The Sliced House method of assembly, for ease of gaming. Basically each floor is a different box which stack on top of each other.

ISOMETRIC - FRONT AND RIGHT SIDE.

I much prefer this configuration as it takes away the need to get fingers into awkward spaces knocking figures over and such. Although you then need to disguise the cuts between floors, this is easily achieved by painting the exposed foamcore an appropriate colour.

ISOMETRIC - BACK AND LEFT SIDE.

I still haven't tried to cut out the windows or doors yet, that's another skill step for another time. This was a step up in skills as it was, I'm glad I built the display base first to get used to rabbeting, a technique used throughout this build.

CLOSE UP OF SOME OF THE POSTERS.

The outside has been decorated with lots of posters, I don't know exactly where on the internet these came from as they were kindly donated to the cause by WNI regular The Tollman. To be honest the less I know about The Tollman's internet usage the better. He's weird!

WARNING SIGN FOR UNWANTED VISITORS.

The posters cover all kinds of subjects from bands and pop culture to humorous sayings. Like I said they were chosen by The Tollman.

MORE POSTERS COURTESY OF THE TOLLMAN.

The interiors are fully detailed, very nicely too. It was little nerve wracking lining up the exterior and interior print outs, but I think I got the hang of it in the end.

INTERIOR GROUND FLOOR.

The only thing I had any real difficulty with was the stairs. My first staircase, but it turned out OK in the end, I just had to leave off a step as I had stuck mine to foamcore.

INTERIOR FIRST FLOOR.

All in all, I was very pleased with how this kit turned out and would recommend Stoelzel's Derelict Commercial Property to everybody, it's a large building and would make a great base for your survivors.

THE ROOF TOP. (NOTE LADDER ACCESS).

Well that's all I got for this time dudes and dudettes, so until the next time follow the DUDE'S example and "take it easy".

MAGICLEEN DRY CLEANERS AND THE START OF A THING.

Before we get started I'm going to introduce a new "thing" in an attempt to bring some culture to this blog. Zombie art, no not pictures drawn by zombies, but pictures with zombies in them. Hopefully some of this culture will rub off on you, my visitors and commentors, meaning we all leave here as more rounded and improved individuals. So without further ado, I give you some zombie art.

SEND MORE COPS.

I'm going to continue with my card modelling adventures again this time. I must admit to having developed quite a fondness for this particular part of the hobby. Even though it can be a little tricky at times, I'm reasonably pleased with my progress.

So this is from the same download as "Horseman's Deli", the build is the same, just using the alternative signs that come with the kit. Again this was downloaded from Wargame Vault for free. Bonus.

REMEMBER TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS KIDS.

Things went even better the second time around. The printouts were sprayglue mounted on to cardboard, I find used cereal boxes to be quite adequate for this, giving me a very cheap source of material. The pieces were then cut out using a steel ruler and a very sharp craft knife.

EVERYTHING CUT OUT READY TO GLUE.

I find gluing the pieces together with a glue stick, rather than PVA, speeds up the process. You don't have to wait very long for it dry, I still like to use clothes' pegs to hold things together for 10 minutes before moving on to the next stage. The build went very smoothly, being the second time I've built it in as many weeks, and I read the instructions (this bit is really important).

FRONT VIEW OF MAGICLEEN.

So basically you get a very similar building to the "Deli", with different signs. There are a few other ways to make them look different, such as leaving off the roof top room, not using the same advertising signs and not including the roof top aircon unit.

ISOMETRIC FRONT/SIDE VIEW.

I still haven't made the interior playable on this one, I'm taking that leap on my next build. In the future when my skills have improved sufficiently, I'll definitely be coming back to these first couple of builds and re-doing them with playable interiors.

ISOMETRIC BACK/SIDE VIEW.

I finally got a Sharpie (black permanent marker) to edge my builds, as these were already built I had to "retro-edge"(yes, I just made that up) them. Luckily I'm rebuilding these, as the "retro-edging" went a bit tits up.

SIDE BY SIDE TO SHOW DIFFERENCES.

Also made a little kitbash shed from the rooftop building on "Horseman's Deli".

FRONT OF SHED.

WINDOWS FROM DERELICT WAREHOUSE KIT (STOELZEL'S).

Well that's all I got for this time dudes and dudettes, so until next time heed the DUDE and "take it easy".

STOELZEL'S CD DISPLAY BASE SHENANIGANS.

Before we crack on, I've got to drag the welcome wagon back out of the storage shed, to welcome my latest followers. So a big BZA welcome goes out to minigrafter. WELCOME MINIGRAFTER! Another big BZA welcome goes out to Steve H. WELCOME STEVE H! If you guys have blogs, let me know.

More adventures in card modelling again this time. To further my skills and experience I decided to try Stoelzel's Structures CD display. This was another step up the skills ladder as it involved foam board and some of the techniques required to use this material. It was also a free download from Wargame Vault.

REMEMBER TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!

After reading the instructions several times I dived in. This was my first time rabbeting, who knew foamboard was so much fun. As well as trying to improve my card/foamboard modelling skills, I was building the display base to photograph my finished survivors on, when they are eventually  finished.

I TOOK THIS ONE (IT'S OUT OF FOCUS) THE WHITE BITS ARE RABBETS.

OK, because I read the instructions the build went very smoothly indeed, even though there were new skills involved, like rabbeting and matching up printouts on both sides of the same piece of foamboard. REMEMBER KIDS ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

REVERSE OF THE DOUBLE SIDED PIECES. AGAIN THE WHITE BITS ARE RABBETS.

Unfortunately due to my eagerness and my official photographer's bone idleness, pictures were not taken during the construction. Luckily with lots of badgering, shouting, attempted bribery and swearing I eventually managed to get my official photographer to do his job and take a few shots of the finished piece.

SHOT OF THE BACK. POOR PAINT TOUCH UP THOUGH.

In other news, I got my very own printer for my birthday. Now I don't have to wait on other people to print out my card model templates and textures. WOOO HOOOO! So you can expect more scenery reports really soon.

SHOT OF THE FRONT. WHERE THE FIGURES WILL GO.

I really enjoyed building this piece, and because I read the instructions it all went together beautifully. I can now display my finished survivors in a suitable setting to be photographed.

Well, that's all I've got for this time dudes and dudettes. So until next time follow the DUDE'S example and "take it easy".