Welcome to my little corner of preparations for All Things Zombie. Here you'll find my progress of painting miniatures and preparing terrain, as well as any other little nerdiness that may sprout up. Enjoy, and please comment.

Friday 30 September 2011

Populating Mayhem City 08 - Unarmed Citizens (Foundry Street Thugs)

So far we've covered a wide array of Mayhem's citizens, from the military and police force, to the thugs on the street.  But so far they all had one thing in common, they were all armed.  Whether it was pistols, assault rifles or just baseball bats, they had all something to wage battle.  Not so, in today's figures.





Two more "Street Thugs" from the war games Foundry.  Their names from that company are Tony and Bets, respectively.   Tony, I've painted with a sweater sporting the name of California punk rock band NOFX.  They're a favourite of mine, and something I could see an adult skate boarder wearing.  Bets, I painted up with an American Flag on his T-shirt with *USA* written on the back.




While these guys are listed as thugs, I'll probably get just as much use out of them as regular unarmed civilians.  In actuality, Tony can be listed as having improvised weapons in the form of his wallet chain (1 handed) or his skateboard (2 handed).   And if need be, I could assign him any weapon that would fit in his backpack.  Bets could also have a concealed weapon in that rolled up newspaper I suppose, heh.





As for the sculpts, once again Foundry does not disappoint.   Both are great dynamic poses, with Tony cruising on his board, and I particularly like how Bets looks like he is storming towards something with a purpose.  They would make great poses for a city based diorama if you were to inclined.




Hope you enjoyed this little review.   Not sure if it was noticed, but I believe this was the first time I failed to post two blogs in one week.  A major reason for doing this was that I was flying through my material too fast.  In no time I would have all my miniatures posted, and then the blog would come to a standstill.   I'm thinking once a week will be my posting rate from now on.  (At least for miniature posts.   I may come up with random ideas I feel the need to post).
Thanks for reading, and as always, comments are appreciated.



Thursday 22 September 2011

Infecting Mayhem City 01 - Victory Force Zombies

Well based off the title alone, you can get the idea that this is going to be a little bit of a different blog post today.  No longer will I be introducing the citizens of Mayhem City.  At least not of the living.  Today we bring forth the Zombies.  Infected, raised from the dead or otherwise, these will be the source of all problems in the future of Mayhem City.  And I was able to start showing them off due to a package arriving in the mail:


Nectar of the gods?




I had actually begun painting some zombies a while ago after taking part in Victory Forces cheap zombie sale earlier this summer, but without the blood effects, I wasn't ready to show them off.   The first two zombies actually aren't from the sale, but were from their more unique figures of zombies, and I simply couldn't pass them up.

Braaaaains...


So here we have the children's entertainer and the basketball player.  Both zombies are fantastic in my opinion, but I think the 'Barney' zombie takes the cake.   He is just so unique that everyone will recognize him immediately and probably be thankful that he was among the first to become infected.  The basketball player, while a good sculpt, is really only unique in the fact that he is significantly taller than the average 28mm figure.  I gave him the number 17 as it was among the easier numbers to paint.  No rounded edges!

The dinosaur and the tower.

You'll probably also note that I did not center the basketball player on his base at all.  I use washers with a hole in the center as bases, and had a difficult time attaching the zombie. It does look a little odd, but I am thinking of adding a traffic cone or some debris to break it up some more.

Zeds from the back.


I realized in this photo from the back that I had failed to 'bloody up' the wound on Barney's under arm.  I took care of this later, but did not take another picture of it.  The ball player also had something sculpted by his left foot.  I just covered this in blood and treated it as though his skin had fallen off, as his lower leg is just bone.   Hope that's what it was meant to be.

A little brighter, but the blood shows up a bit better here.


Hope you enjoyed the first zombie updates to this blog.   There will be more, but none of the Victory Force deal zombies are as interesting as these two, so they'll probably come in larger batches.
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate all comments and opinions.


Monday 19 September 2011

Populating Mayhem City 07 - The Military (Foundry SWAT Team Alpha)

Hello.  So clearly this little Zombie Apocalypse isn't going to be handled by police and SWAT along.  It's time to send in the military.   And here they are:

The best of the best.
These five nicely cover the roles of the military I think.  Machine guns, pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns and snipers can be covered by this group.  I went with a paintjob of catachan green with grey gear.  Originally I started with a grey outfit and green gear, but I was not fond of it so I started over.   To be honest, I probably should have used this opportunity to attempt some camouflage painting, but I found the prospect of that too daunting.
Time to run some crowd control on the population of Mayhem.

The first three figures are remarkable similar to 3 from SWAT Team Shadow, but with a few big differences.  The heavy gunner at the far left is equipped with a radio headpiece, the pistol wielding soldier has a Big Ass gun in stead of a regular pistol, and the woman is holding her MP5K in a bit of a gangsta pose.


The Military Men

Just a closer view of the men from this squad.   My favourite sculpt is probably the sniper, though I do like the way the guy in the middle holds his pistol with two hands, it looks authentic.  I also like to picture the pistol armed soldier as the leader of the group.

Girls in Uniform.

And now for the ladies.  I also consider them the rookies of the team.  At first I had the girl on the right pegged to be the groups leader; then I realized she came wearing pigtails.  I couldn't see  a leader with pigtails, so she is demoted, heh.  The one on the left gets cast as a rookie due to her gangsta pose.   At one pint I even considered modifiying the figure so she was holding the gun properly, but that would make the figure a near copy of the one I already have from SWAT Team Shadow.  So she stays as is, and is treated as an overzealous rookie.  




Mayhem Military
Over all I am satisfied with the way this crew came out.  The paintjob isn't my best, but if does the job.  
Thanks for reading, and as always, comments are appreciated.









Thursday 15 September 2011

Populating Mayhem City 06 - The Dominatrix and Her Crew

Welcome back to the sixth edition of Populating Mayhem City, and my seventh post over all.  Things will be a bit different this time, as for the first time I will be blogging on figures from different packs.  This is just because by the time I was done with them, I felt they went together. So with the girls being from Miss Trude's Girls and the male from The Young Plugs, I present The Dominatrix and Her Crew:
Miss Trude has a nice pair...of bodyguards.

I guess I'll start with the attention grabber in the center, Miss Trude.  Armed with a silenced MP5K, this dominatrix sports mostly black.   I am rather fond of the sheer shirt I gave her, which was just a flesh colour base given multiple black washes spread unevenly.  If I had a do over, I would lighten up the middle of shirt too, but I'd hate to ruin it by trying to touch it up.  Not much else of note, as it is pretty standard black with grey highlights.   The military cap has a glossy finish on the beak too.
Miss Trude and her guns.

Furthest left is the figure named Mistress Goodnight on the Foundry page.  I decided to take a different path with her however.   I was thinking with the Street Violence line, I was going to wind up with more than a few dominatrices.  What I needed were more 'slaves'.   This figure is decked out entirely in latex, with a styling that could be considered typical submissive wear.  (The large rings on the back suggest some sort of hanging bondage that would be on a slave rather and a Dominatrix, I think).  So in the end, I named her Slave Girl, and she is a devoted bodyguard to Miss Trude.   

Leather clad and looking for trouble.

On the far right comes Ronnie from the Young Plugs package.  I've dubbed him Ronnie "The Worm", a client of Miss Trude.  Ronnie has bleach blond hair that I tried a new method for (different from Slave Girl's).  I started with a basecoat of blue, and worked up by adding more and more bleached bone to the (very thin) mix.  I like it, and will use this method from now on I believe.  
I also gave Ronnie a metallic silver MP5K.  I think these actually only come in black in the real world, but I wanted to break up the one colour tone to The Worm.

And from the back.

I really like the way this crew came together, and I like thinking of them as a trio with a Dominant female and devoted bodyguards.  It works for ATZ, or any other modern gang based ruleset (I'm thinking, Flying Lead).  By the time I'm done, I'll have many more figured that can fit in with these few, but I think I'll always think of these 3 as a core unit.
The Street Violence line is great, and by now you all know I'm a huge fan (I don't think anyone dislikes them).    If you've liked just about anything else from the line, you'll find a place for these ones too.
Thanks for reading, and as always, I appreciate all comments.



Monday 12 September 2011

Populating Mayhem City 05 - Fifi L'Amour (Foundry, Miss Trudes' Girls)

What's better than French Maids?  I used to say, not much.  But a wise man once answered that question with: French Maids with assault rifles.  I tend to agree, and present to you the lovely Fifi L'amour.

She doesn't do windows.
Fifi was the name provided by Foundry, and I added the last name L'amour (french for love).  It sounds like an appropriate name for a French Maid themed adult performed.  Sorry to say, Fifi is a stripper, and  not an honest working maid.

Fifi's paintjob is pretty basic, though I did attempt some layering on the legs to make the nylon's appear semi transparent.  It came out alright, though not as nice as I'd hoped.  (That is to say, not nearly as nice as the tutorial I followed).

Deadly
Despite looking good as a blond on the Foundry site, I decided to make Fifi a brunette.  This was mostly because I already tended to paint more blondes, and wanted Fifi to be a bit unique.  Also worth noting is the white mini apron.  On the Foundry site, it really looks like a sculpted feature, but it does not occur on the actual model.  I decided to paint it on, as it really helps define the figure as a maid rather than just in a negligee.   I opted not to thin down my paints for this, as it helps it look a little less flat and more like a separate article of clothing.

Nice curves.

Fifi comes well armed, with a STG 77 I believe (my gun knowledge is not the best, but it resembles an STG from a PS2 video game I used to play).  I like this model of weapon as it has a brown body, which helps separate from the usual black used.

I hope you enjoyed this little update, she is one of my favourite figures I received in my Foundry order.  (This likely has to do with my fondness of French Maids).  Should be back into the multi figure updates next time.
Thanks for reading, and all comments are appreciated.











Thursday 8 September 2011

Populating Mayhem City 04 - Thugs (Foundry Street Thugs)

Welcome back all.  After a couple of back to back posts revealing just one new character, today we double productivity by showing two.  I present the Street Thugs, Harry and Elvis, from Foundry's Street Thug package.

Batter's up!

Harry and Elvis are the names given to these two fellows on the Foundry website, and I've decided to stick with them.   Unlike the Doctor or Detective from earlier blogs, these guys will likely be more of filler characters.  I don't see them becoming main players at any point, so I didn't want to invest much history for them.  In all likelihood, they will repeatedly be used for generic thugs as needed.

I don't like these guys' chances of survival in any conflict involving zombies or firearms.
I varied the paintjobs a littlebit from the Foundry site with these guys.  I really didn't like Harry in their picture, so I gave him more brown tones and blue jeans instead.  Elvis is only changed in that he has a red T-Shirt instead of red.  His jeans are much lighter too, I'm happy with how they came out (Ice blue base, Blue Wash, then drybrush up with IceBlue/Bleached Bone mixture).  Once again I am happy with the eyes, but my disappointment lies with the wooden weapons.  They are just drybrushed, as any attempt of mine to highlight, just didn't look right.  They'll do I suppose, but this is an area I would like to improve in.

"Get 'em, Elvis!"
Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post.  I appreciate any and all comments.
Thanks!