Infecting Havensburgh 17 (Victory Force Zombie)

Argh, a week behind again.
Bad news is: I'm a week behind posting for Zomtober.  The good news is that I've completed painting all 5 zombies for Zomtober.  It was the photographing them that was holding me back.  To make up for it, I shall attempt to post twice this week (I was keen and did all of the picture taking tonight).  My goals for Zomtober was to try to pick a few unique zombies.  I would have liked to have tackled 5 different companies to represent as well, but I only had 3 different lines on hand, so that is all I can do.   This week we have a single Victory Force zombie.  He's nothing special, just one of their randoms from the 50 for $50 sale they used to have.  The reason I picked him was that I found him based and primed but forgotten on the floor all by himself.  So here he is in all his glory.

So like I said, there's nothing spectacular about this miniature.  Like most of the VF zombies his arms are sculpt right to the body, so the lack some of the dynamic pose look that other companies like Studio Miniature have.  But for rounding out the horde he does his job just fine, and the price was certainly right.
The paintjob was very basic, following the Foundry 3 paint system.  The highlights didn't show up as great as I'd like, but for a quick job I am satisfied.   With a lot of the Studio Miniatures zombies I have on my table, they are so full of detail that I try to use blood and gore sparingly, usually just filling in sculpted wounds.   The VF zeds aren't quite so detailed, so I decided to take this moment to create a very bloody zombie, drenching his torso.  I like the effect, as it was a nice change to the way I had been doing things.

Comments are always appreciated, and I hope to have another zed to post Wednesday or Thursday.

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.

Infecting Havensburgh 12 (Victory Force Zombies)

Just a quick update here with some more Victory Force zombies on display as I felt I needed to update as I was neglecting a bit.  While I have been a bit slow to update, I have actually been getting a lot of progress done.  I have many buildings ready, and in the past two weeks have started getting vehicles on the board.I counted them up today and realized I had 26 completely assembled from WWG's Police and Traffic sets, with another 5 just needing wheels attached and about 8 more printed but not yet assembled.  On top of that I've started paint up my 5 Police figures from Tactical Miniatures Big City PD.   And today I received my Studio Miniatures order of 2 Zombie Mobs, the Zombie Police, Tiny Terrors and the doomed Wedding Party.  So lots to keep me busy. 

Anyway, here are this week's display zeds:

Nothing spectacular I know, but the horde is building up nicely.   I am very close to game time, actually sat down to do a bit of practice and rule learning, but felt got distracted.  This weekend I hope to get to it.  

I won't be able to comment on blogs for the next few days, as I will be in cottage territory with no net access (that's a good think, I think).  I will check in on everyone's posts when I return, Friday.

Thanks for reading, and comments are always appreciated.

Infecting Mayhem City 12 (Victory Force Zombies)

Just going to pop in with a quick update today.  Here are 5 of my remaining 15 Victory Force zombies.   Not much of note at this point, a little fun variety by adding YES/NO to two of the shirts on a duplicate sculpt.  I like to think they were at opposite sides of some sort of community matter.  Nothing big like voting for the legalities of gay marriage, but something more along the lines of naming the 3rd Friday of every month Mayhem Cities Vegan Day.  Either way, they aren't protesting anymore.

Not much else to note at this point, as everyone knows the drill on VF zeds at this point.  A little home note however, I found out today that I am laid off my job in 8 weeks.  Hopefully I will find new employment between now and then...but if not, it will mean two things that unfortunately butt heads.  First, I'll have more time during the day to paint and hobby.  Secondly, I'll have far less funds (ie none) for new models and terrain.  Hopefully I'll have enough at that point (an order of Studio Miniatures on its way should round me up for a while, though I did want to buy some more Foundry Paint Trios).  Anyway, we'll see what the future holds.

Until next time.

Infecting Mayhem City 11 (Victory Force Zombies)

Just a quick update to keep on the 'one a week' pace.   After a couple of fun weeks with Grekwood miniatures, I am back to trudging through my 50 Victory Force zombies.  The good news is, I am almost done with them, and all remaining VF zombies have at least been started in one way or another.   Here are another 6.  I believe there are a couple, maybe even three scuplts in here that are duplicates.  That is okay, I don't think most would be noticed on the game table, except of course, for the peg legged zombie.   One of those would have been enough!

The pictures aren't the best, I rushed a little big to get this out.   The far right zombie for some reason has a filthy green hair.  His hair is long, so I picture him having been some sort of old rocker, still clinging to his grungy hit days, nearly 20 years ago.  He is a zombie now.  Next to him is an older zombie with a serious belly wound along with a torn knee.  A pale colour palette on him came out nice, I think.   Next up, the only female of the group was at some sort of formal gathering when the Zed Apocalypse caught her off guard.  The next fellow, like the female before him, is missing an arm.  (I'm pretty sure he is a duplicate.)  Then comes the pegleg zombie, who while being very original, is not a scuplt I really like.  Do people even get peg legs in current times?   Then the final zombie is a young lad, with his hair dyed green.  Much younger than the old rocker on the other end, I picture him as a late teen, filled with angst and loving his pop rock music.  I believe this is the third of this sculpt that I received in my 50 zombies bundle.

Not a bad set, as I said.  I really liked the female zombie, but the one with the gut wound is pretty good too. The sculpt I received triples of is pretty good, so I'm not too upset about having so many of him.
There is also a not so subtle hint in these pictures to what has been taking up more of my time lately, rather than painting zombies.


QUESTION TIME


Currently, the police force for my city stands at a SWAT team: and a Detective (going all the way back to my first two miniature posts in August 2011.)

I have a bit of a question about what else I should pick up.  My initial response is the Copplestone police (both pistol and shotgun packs).  They are nicely sculpted, and scale wise should fit in with my mostly heroic 28mm.  They also have the benefit of being armed with a visible melee weapon.  The disadvantage would be that I am not sold on their slightly outdated style of uniform.  Perhaps it is not outdated, as the weapons seem modern, but to me, it looks like a pulp era style of uniform.

Another similarly sculpted, but with perhaps more authentic looking uniforms are the Foundry version (this time I'm showing only the shotgun armed ones).  My dislike with this set is how non of them are actually aiming their guns.  This is a common feature with a lot of Foundry sets.

The final set that I am considering is from Tactical Miniatures and is labelled Big City PD.  At first, I disregarded the set due to lack of police hats.  But I've warmed up to it alot as despite the hat being part of most cities police force uniform, it is the most commonly removed part, and definitely would be the first thing to go in any high stress situation.  An additional bonus to picking up this set would be that I would get two pistol armed cops and two shotgun armed cops in the same set.  Saving me from having to buy both sets if I chose to go with Foundry or Copplestone.   A disadvantage would be that I think these guys are true 28mm and will look a little small compared to most of my other heroes.

For the longest time I had been mostly leaning towards Copplestone, despite my minor issues with the uniform.  But lately, I think Tactical Miniatures will be the set to go with.   Another factor would be how often do I need 4 or more cops armed with handguns or shotguns at a time?  I may be able to save by getting just the one Tactical Miniatures set.
Does anyone have any advice or opinions on which set to go with?  Thanks all.

Infecting Mayhem City 08 (Victory Force Zombies)

Just another quick update on my ATZ preparations.  The excuses I had for slow  painting in my last blog update (no Dhenub Stone or washers upon which to base the miniatures) have both been rectified. I have six new Zeds to add to the horde.  The pictures are a little darker than usual, but I was a little rushed, so I did not go back and retake.

The first trio is made up of the same sculpts, which is a risk you run when buying VF's zombie deal.   I didn't mind so much as it is a pretty good sculpt, and its not like I would use them side by side in a game.  Spread out on the board, one would not likely notice.  In hindsight however, I probably should have taken the time to paint at least one with African flesh.  Anyway, these are big, tough looking zombies with more than a few visible wounds.  They are still quite intact however, and look among the more fearsome zeds in the VF group.

A bit more variety in this trio.  They are a bit sloppier, and I blame some of that on the lousy spray paint I used for primer.  It had a satin finish (I think) and paint did not adhere well to the mini at all.  I really had to lay it on thick, which went a little less cleanly than I would have liked.  But in the end, they are zombies, and I feel ok with a little dirtier paintjob, especially when I can just bloody up the worst areas.

Well that is 6 more down, and I will admit that my lead pile is getting quite small.  I have a few more updates of VF zombies, but then I will be all out.  I have placed an order for Sarissa buildings, so that will be my next  project.  And since I have some WorldWorks roads to print, I may not be too far off of getting a game in, which would be a nice change.   Hopefully some battle reports would be of interest.

Anyway, until next time. Enjoy your weekend

Comments are always appreciated.

Infecting Mayhem City 05 (Victory Force Zombies)

A little late on this one.  Christmas parties and recovery times from said parties got in the way.  No more excuses, on to more of the expanding zombie horde, courtesy of Victory Force.  I like the set of Zeds I chose here better than some of the previous sculpts.

First up is a red haired party girl in a leopard print dress.  Not even the threat of a zombie apocalypse was going to keep her from the clubs, apparently.  Turns out she should have stayed in, as somewhere along the line a zombie ate here hand.   

Next to her, is another female zed with only a minor shoulder wound.   Just a bite to the shoulder was enough to infect her, and now she is out craving the human flesh as well.

next up we have a fellow with what appears only be some flesh wounds as well.  However, it is obvous from his hands and mouth that he has been out causing wounds.  This zombie has been eating well. 

Next in line is a zombie that could possibly pass for a rager, just based on his pose, I think.  He looks to be a bit of a runner.   He has some wounds to his arms, and chest along with some significant skin loss on his legs.  I like this sculpt and his white T-Shirt really helps his blood stains pop I think.

last in line is my favourite sculpt of the entire 50 zombies that I received.  The ol' half legless Zed.   This guy must have had a horrible ending, and now is on the short end of the stick as a 'walker'.  But he still tries. He appeared to be dressed as a grocery store style employee, but that doesn't really show up now that he is almost completely covered in his own blood.  I even stained the pavement around him with blood.   I really like this guy.

Here are some pics from other angles.

Well the horde is expanding nicely.   Soon I'm going to be ready for some practice level games of ATZ.
Anyone have a favourite in this horde?  I really like the legless Zed shown this week, but the Barney may be unbeatable for uniqueness. All comments are appreciated.

Infecting Mayhem City 04 - Victory Force Zombies

Hello again.  This will be a shorter blog update because most of the things that cna be said were already said in the last post.  These zombies are more of the same, from the great Victory Force Zombie 50 for $50 deal.  Let's look at what we have this time.

A crew of five undead walkers.   You may notice that compared to last week, these zombies haven't been feeding as well.  In fact, only the right most zombie has any blood or gore in his mouth area.   That zombie also is severely lacking in wounds, so much that I considered passing him off as a living citizen. In the end though, I gave his face some blood and more on his hand, and he'll pass as a zombie just fine.
Second zombie is in rough shape.  He is missing his right hand, entire left arm and the skin around his left shin.  He is appropriately the most blood covered of this group.
The third and fourth zombies are both showing multiple wounds, and are leaking a lot of blood.

The backs of these guys made out a bit better, but that's not much to be happy about when you join the zombie infected.

And just a profile shot to show some of the wounds from the side.  I like this little set of zombies, and I think they'll fit into my horde just nicely.  I forgot to take a horde shot for this post, but will either edit one in here tonight, or make sure to have one for next time.
Thanks for reading, even though this was a bit repetitive.  I should have a good set of Bobby Jackon's Thugs or maybe some or Juno's Crew from Foundry completed for the next update.

All comments are appreciated.

Infecting Mayhem City 03 (Victory Force Zombies)

The infection is spreading.  More undead are walking.   With the Victory Force Zombies Special it is easy to bolster your undead, and fast.  I picked up the deal over the summer, but in the theme of Halloween they are running it again until October 31st.   Their blog says this will be the last time the special is offered at this price (I predict they continue to offer it at 50 zombies for $60 in the future).   In my opinion you can't get a jump start on a quality zombie horde faster than this offer.
On to the walkers.   This is just 5 of the 50, and featured a few of my preferred zombies from the group.   The guy on the left walks forward with a dull expression, wanting on the flesh of the living.  Judging by his mouth and neck area, he has had his share of it.  The sculpt for this fellow was probably meant to represent a suit, but I wanted to use the opportunity to attempt a plaid coat.  I'm not overly satisfied, but this is something I'll tackle again in the future.
Zombie #2 has a mouth ful of gore, and a blood stained hand, but he is not as stained as zombie #1.  His colour scheme is kind of bland, but I like the sculpt.
Zombie #3 has also feasted recently, and juding by the blood locations, I'd say she was shoveling human remains into her mouth with her left hand.  She also has a wounded leg, predating her infected days.  Other than her flesh, eyes and blood, this zombie was painted completely with Citadel Washes.

Zombie #4 is my least favourite of the group.  Her pants just didn't seem sculpted in a realistic manner and her extended arms, while a common zombie pose, seemed to capture the angle all wrong.   Her hands are bloodied up, but she has not been eating.  I added some gore to her head and hair; likely the wound the ended her normal life.
Zombie#5 may be my favourite of the group.  He is chubby, and missing an arm.  With a missing arm, I figured white would be a good colour for his shirt, to really display the blood at a distance.  He has also fed recently, which at this point is a feature I over use in my zombie painting, but I love it!

So this is just 10% of what I received in the zombie deal from Victory Force Miniatures.  At $1 per zombie, I would suggest this deal to anyone, but particularly for people trying to get a quick but reasonably costed horde.  As awesome as Studio Miniature Zombies are, if you were just starting off and wanted to grab 50 of their zombies, it would cost you a lot more than $50.   Granted Studio Miniatures have a higher quality sculpt, I think the VF zombies are good for what you pay.

The horde is expanding.   Starting to look like something that would really set back a single zombie survivor, but still, a well prepared group should be able to take them down...if they don't expand....

Thanks for reading, and comments are always appreciate.

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.