Infecting Havensburgh 13 and a new Hero (Victory Force Zombies and Juno from Wargames Foundry)

Hey all, sorry in the delays, I've been feeling a little uninspired the past few weeks.   I've got a lot of areas in which I'm working on, but none seem to get to completion.   Well, not none, since these are the last of my Victory Force Zombies I picked up in a 50 pack oh so long ago.  To be fair, I believe this actually equals 48 zombies, as I've selected two that will be painted up as corpses instead.

Here are the zombies:

Good sculpts here as always, but nothing too spectacular about the first two.  In fact, I think this is the third time we've seen the second sculpt from the left.   The middle zombie however, is a bit more unique.  He was very tall, mustached and wearing shorts, which separated him quite a bit from the rest of the horde.  He has a vibe of a bit of a zookeeper or survival guide.  I like him.

Next up is another female.  She is a good sculpt but nothing too exciting.  I'm always happy to have more female zombies though.  And last up, is a bit of an oddball.  A zombie in a full snow suit.  I'm not sure he'll fit in with all the other zombies in their T-Shirts, but he is a little unique to say the least.

So to liven this post up a bit, as the VF zombies are a bit of a tired them here, I though I'd share another of my likely Hero characters for my ATZ campaign.  The character is a representation of my wife, Dawn Marie, and the sculpt is Juno of Juno's Crew (Wargames Foundry).  Dawn Marie is an office manager for a department of the government, hence the power suit.  When picking a sculpt for my wife, I o of course wanted one that not only resembled her somewhat, but was also dressed in something she would wear.  It's actually quite difficult to find realistically dressed female miniatures.  

Of course, since picking and painting this miniature, my wife has pretty much had a make over, and thus, almost never wears glasses anymore (contact lenses) and has ditched the blond highlights for a head of bleach blond hair.  Oh well, I tried.

Here are the heroes of my ATZ campaign:

Comments are appreciated as always.

And Then a Hero Comes Along...

Another update on the ATZ game preparations.   Things are coming together nicely.  I am just about done with my Victory Force Zombies.  That has been at quite a standstill lately, but I started working on their bases.  I may have to touch a few things up on them, but they should be making their appearance on the blog soon enough.

As well, I have brought 5 of my 6 Sarissa buildings to near completion.  I do want to attach a bit more signage in a few places, but they are just about ready to be featured here as well.  They all need some furniture still, but I have printed off several sheets from WWG for this purpose.  I'll probably feature the buildings without furniture in the next week or so.

Also, I have a good chunk of roads from WWG printed out and pasted onto cardstock, and have even set up a little city.  I shouldn't be too far off of some gaming.

While all the above mentioned items are close to being ready, none were quite enough ready for its own blog post, so today I'm going to show a figure I actually finished quite a while ago, but didn't get a chance to update.   The figure is going to be my ATZ representation of myself.

Anyone who has read Vampifan's battle reports know how cool it is to have a miniature representing yourself on the table, and I knew I just had to do the same.  It was tough to settle on something that captured me at least semi accurately.  I knew I needed a few things: short hair, a goatee, a gun in a firing position and clothes that could be made into something I would wear.   I never found such a figure. 

But I ready to tackle my first conversion by combining the best of two figures from Wargames Foundry Line;  Blanco from The Proffessionals and Ace from Juno's crew.

I really liked the pose of Blanco, but he's trenchcoat is not something I could ever say I wore.  Also, he is a bit shorter than most other figures (some of that is due to his pose).   He also did not have a goatee.

The goatee was the easiest issue.  I attached the tiniest bit of greenstuff to his chin, and textured it slightly with a tooth pick.  To deal with the sweater look (I rarely wear sweaters), I just sanded away the textured lines from his shirt.  Now it looks like a T-Shirt.  Then came the tough part, cutting both miniatures in half, and switching torsos.  It actually wasn't that bad!  On the Lead Adventure forums I received some great advice/motivation from Ramshackle_Curtis, who is the sculptor for Ramshackle games (check them out).  Using a jewelers saw, the process wasn't that bad.  Suddenly the miniature was taller, and wearing a coat like I normally wear.  The plaid paintjob was a must.

Again, I'm pretty happy with how it came out, even the paintjob seems to have just worked.   I showed it to my four year old and he had no problem knowing it was supposed to be me.  I also attached a pic of myself just to show the resemblance.
Now it's time to see how he survives in the Zombie Apocalypse.
Comments are always appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 16 (The Professional - Wargames Foundry)

Just another quick little update with another survivor on the streets of Mayhem City.  He comes from Foundry's set labelled Professionals, and he looks like he is just that.

Dressed in an expensive suit, with a long trenchcoat, this killer for hire comes armed with a high powered assault rifle.   He definitely looks like he is better armed and/or prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse than the average civilian would be.

In actuality, as awesome as this figure is, I can't see myself using him often in an ATZ setting.   He just comes across as too confident, too well armed and too...professional.  As a hired gun in a modern conflict scenario, he would have much more use.   

Sorry again for the lousy pictures.   Got a much better camera, but haven't figure out the settings.  I think alot of the crappyness has to do with poor lighting.  Anyway, I hope you liked this guy, who I did not name, but simpley refer to him as the Foundry pack name: The Professional.  All comments appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 14 (More of Juno's Crew from Wargames Foundry)

The last couple of posts have shown some of a gangers from the streets of Mayhem.   This time we'll be looking at a different breed of criminal.   These guys aren't robbing folks on a the street, partaking in drivebys or holding up liquor stores.   That doesn't make them any less deadly.  These guys are more along the lines of multi-million dollar jewel thieves, intimidating and blackmailing politicians.   Here they are.

Two brothers in crime, they're names are Vincent and Victor (Vega?).   Clearly Vincent is a play off of the pulp fiction character of the same name and look, but I don't think I'll ever be using him as that character, just the name.   Victor Vega would technically be Michael Madsen's character from Resevoir Dogs (and Vincent Vegas cousin, I believe).   This miniature looks nothing like him, again I'm just using the name.

These two are both decked out in black tuxes, perhaps they were at a night out at the casino when the Zed apocalypse begins.  Luckily, they are both always armed.   Vincent has a nice BA pistol that should be good for dealing with survivors and zombies a like.   Victor, a little more on the wild side, has an MP5K for indiscriminately spraying down rivals.

I'm a pretty big fan of these figures as I think Juno's Crew is one of Foundry's best sets.   These guys have a great theme together, and just scream organized crime   It would be my top recommended set from the site. Do be warned Val (from the last Juno review) is a significant amount taller than the rest.   Speaking of which...

There's the crew, all three brothers as I treat them.   I picture Vincent being a bit of the smarter, leader character, Val being the strongest (he's huge) and while not stupid, he prefers to follow rather than lead.   Victor on the end has a pose that just screams Wild Thing, so he is the loose cannon of the group.   I think this trio would be a fun survivor group to play in ATZ.   I like their chances.


What do you guys think, all comments are appreciated.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Populating Mayhem City 03 - The Doctor (Foundry Proffessional)

Welcome back readers.   Last week we looked at a Foundry Proffessional unit that was used as a Detective rather than the hired killer that Foundry had labelled him.  I mentioned that the next post would be a little more of the same.  So here he is:

The doctor is IN.

Looking at the variety of figures available I figured there would be no shortage of tough looking men, well armed and dressed in trenchcoats.  So rather than paint them all as such, I decided to stray a bit from the beaten path and get a shotgun totting doctor.

Cure for zombies?  Take two shells and a glass of water.

Unlike Detective Talhart, I haven't settled on a name for this guy yet, so he is just referred to as The Doctor.  If he comes up in games, I can create a last name for him, but as of yet, nothing has stuck.  With Talhart, I based it slightly off of his Foundry name.  But this figure's name is Bohunk, which I was unfamiliar with.  A quick google informed me that this is a bit of a derogatory term, so I opted not to use it.

Names aside, I think he'll fit nicely into a variety of situations.  Of course in ATZ he will play a surviving doctor, generally a good person.  But he could easily be a personal caregiver to a crime lord, a psychologist at a mental institute or a research scientist for some government experiment.

Don't get blood on my coat.

Painting so much of the figure white, it left me feeling like it was a little incomplete.   The black lining helped I think, and it was the first time I'd used that technique I think.  For the coat, I started with Space Wolf Grey, and then worked up to Skull White.  I'm satisfied with it.   I also decided to give The Doctor a purple sweater.   I feel that not a lot of tough guys will wear purple sweaters.  The Doctor is not starting out as a tough guy, though he may be one by the end of things.

Intense stare down.

The final item I'd like to bring attention to are the Doctor's eyes.   I was quite proud at how well they came out.  They are a little intense looking, but I think they are possibly the best eyes I have ever painted.  That's not saying much though, because I've mostly painted pretty awful eyes.  Hopefully I can keep this up.

So that is the the Doctor, the second of "The Proffessionals" from Foundry to not wind up as a ganger.  There's five in the set, so at least two will be the thugs they were meant to be.  So until the next update, which will have multiple figures, thanks for reading.

Populating Mayhem City 02 - Detective Talhart (Foundry Proffessional)

Welcome to the latest addition to the Mayhem City Police.

Zombies beware.

Well, I say latest edition, but in actuality I picture this guy as a bit of a grizzled veteran of the force.  A well respected cop that isn't above pistol whipping a suspected murderer in order to get results. I've given him the name Detective Talhart.  This is the first time I've named of my figure and I've done it for a few reasons.   First being, unlike the SWAT Team in my last entry, I actually picture this guy as a potential character I'd like to see join my group in ATZ.  Heck, I could even see him as a starting character as I learn the rules in a few practice plays.     The figure has a lot of character, and I've grown quite attached to it.  I feel he has taken on a life of his own.

"Detective Talhart.  Homicide."

The name Detective Talhart (I haven't settled on a first name, and probably won't) came to me in a few ways. This figure's name according to Wargames Foundry is Tall Boy.  Well that was obviously no good, but I figured I could work with it by keeping the 'Tall" and dropping the "Boy".  In addition to miniatures and gaming, I am a huge nerd for George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (or A Game of Thrones to those who know it as the HBO miniseries).  In that series there is a minor family (minor in comparison to the main few) in the North known as the Tallhearts.  I liked the name, and thought it fit in a modern setting (with a slight spelling change, for no reason).

"I am the law."

Detective Talhart, or Tall Boy as Foundry has labelled him is not even a police figure in reality.   Quite the opposite actually, as Foundry has him in a set labelled The Proffessionals (sic).  The Proffessionals appear to be a set of killers for hire, or at least mobsters of some sort.  I like him better this way, and now I have a figure that can fill the role of a police officer armed with a shotgun.

"The Zombie Apocalypse will only add more grey hairs, I fear."

I hope you guys like the Detective, and I am always open to criticisms.  I am a very novice painter, but I rather satisfied with how this one game out.  His eyes look a little buggy in these close ups, but they are among my better eye paintjobs, and look quite good at a gaming distance, I think. I appreciate all comments.

Until next time, thank you.

"Alright boys, spread out and secure the area."