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.

My Man Cave

Since I did not have any final products to display and I wanted to keep at least semi regular on updates, I decided to post a few pictures of the room in my house which is dedicated to my hobby and gaming.  I feel somewhat lucky to have enough space for all of this, given that I've seen others who have little more than a single desk to hobby upon.  Though my wife has attempted on a few occassions to move in with some crafting of her own, it has seemed to stay within the Christmas season for her.

Here is a picture of the room from the entrance.  Starting in the bottom left is a set up of the game Heroscape, which was my intoduction to miniature gaming.  I don't play it as much now, but I like to have a map set up just in case.   Moving up from there, is a pretty kick ass dice tower that a friend of mine put together.  Semi hidden behind the dice tower, is a Mayhem Industrial building that I began working on before even starting this blog, yikes.  Stacked ontop of that are many (many!) pieces of Mayhem Streets that I printed off and attached to cardstock over the past week.  Many roads are needed for my ATZ campaign.   Movings to the right from there are my Sarissa Precision buildings ranging in completion from 0 - 90%.   Continuing on there is a big bucket, that is used for homebrewing beer.  Speaking of which, you will also see 64 bottle beers (Blonde Lagers) that are almost ready to drink.



Starting in the bottom left again, we see; more beer!  This time a carboy full of a Mexican style cerveza.   A benefit of the homebrewing in the games room is that it always has a scent of beer.  Passing the stack of unused guitars brings us to my painting station.   GW paints on the left, current painjob in the middle and brand new Foundry paints on the right.  The shelves are stacked with completed miniatures, and various other hobby items.

So that is where I hobby and game.  Its not the best situation, but it is pretty darn good.  The room needs a bit more nerdy decorating, but I am hesitant to put funds into that rather than gaming needs.
Also worth noting was that all my items are stacked on two long tables.   When the time comes for ATZ campaiging, I can move these tables side by side for a game area of 5 feet by 12 feet.  This should cover my needs nicely and allow me to create  large cities.  Its also a good size for gaming of other sorts too.

Well, hope you enjoyed a glimpse into where my work gets done, as I had enjoyed seeing to locations many of you work in.
Until next time, when I should have a real update.

Charity

Today's post won't be an update on the gaming or hobby world, but a post about the son of a friend of mine,  Austin.  Austin's father and I went to highschool together, and really have not been that close since.  We are still friendly when we cross paths at weddings or parties, but we don't keep in much contact.  Over the Christmas holidays I met up with him again at a party, where I was also lucky enough to meet his 4 year old son.   It wasn't until after he left I learned that Austin had been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy
Bryan and his family are doing some fund raising  for a walk this month.  I don't have a lot of extra income.  Even when purchasing for my hobby, it is rarely a case of spending money on a whim, but more a matter of setting aside $10 or $20 at a time, until I have enough to make a purchase.  I was close to a making an order from Studio Miniatures this month, but decided to put that money towards this fundraising instead.  I don't donate to charity a lot, and since this charity will benefit someone I know personally, I felt good about doing it.
I know that none of my readers will have any connection to this story, but I thought I would share it nonetheless.  Maybe some of you would be able to contribute as well, as even donations of $5 would help, if enough people made them.

Anyways, I don't want to force this on anyone, so I will leave it at this point with a little video link about Austin and a link where you can donate.

Little Man Austin's Donation Page

Regular updates will come this week, thanks.

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 10 (Grekwood Miniatures Zombie Patients)

Back again and keeping with both the hospital theme, and the Grekwood Miniatures updates.  The zombie patients complete my order from Grekwood, but there were also 2 other zombie sets I didn't pick up at this point.  Again, check out Grekwood Miniatures if you like these sculpts.

First up we have a female patient that was in for a simple broken or sprained arm.  Unfortunately for her, there was an infected patient in the same hospital.  Things don't end on a happy note.   Her most significant wound is her arm, but that came before the infection.  She has a few other minor scrapes, but nothing too bad.   I painted her up as though she fed recently; lots of good targets in the hospital with her.  The other female zombie is an even sadder story.  She is a heavily pregnant woman, and I like to think that her infection has spread to her unborn.  She has a bloody mess coming from that area.  A very great sculpt that I am glad to have and can't wait to use.  The first male zombie has a leg injury from his human days.  It's not slowing him down now and neither is the wound to his abdomen.  He also has a significant amount of gore on his shoulder and arm.   The final patient zombie is still draggin his IV drip with him.  He has some wound but nothing that looks like it would have killed him.  I really like the staggered pose for this guy.

All in all these are really good sculpts and I'm glad to add them to my collection.  There are a lot of unique features on the zombies (casts, pregnancy ect) and they make so much sense to be included with the outbreak. 

Thanks for reading, and comments are always appreciated.

Infecting Mayhem City 09 (Grekwood Zombie Doctors)

When the zombies begin to overrun the streets, many of the infected will wind up in emergency clinics and doctor's offices.   That would result in doctors being among the highest at risk for infection. And that brings us to this week's zombies from Grekwood Miniatures.  

                                   

Starting on the left, we have a red haired female doctor.   Stethoscope still around her neck, she has only minor wounds, so I upped her gore by bloodying her hand as though she had ripped someone apart.  The blond female doctor looks pretty unscathed from the front, though I bloodied her shirt up anyway.  But from the back, she has a minor wound in the buttocks, but quite a gaping on to the back of the head.   It wasn't enough to destroy the brain, as she is still walking, but her hair has been ripped in that area, leading to a lot of blood loss.  Who knows, maybe the wound was from before she became a Zed.  The African American doctor has also been feeding, and bleeding a lot from the head.  He also has a stethoscope but it is mostly obscured by his blood loss.  I am a pretty big fan of his head tilt, as though he has just heard a sound giving away the location of his next meal.   The final male doctor is virtually unwounded, but has fed recently, and is looking to do so again.

As a group, I really enjoy this set of Zombies.  One can never have enough zombie doctors, so while these aren't the most original concept for zeds, they fit a role that every zombie gamer needs (and needs lots of).  These doctors are well sculpted, with great little details like lots of pockets, doctor gear and the African American even has a neck tie.

So I highly recommend them, and you can get them at a good price from Grekwood Miniatures.   It's a new company, so we should all support them (Though I'm sure many of the people reading this have already heard of them/ordered from them).  The end result will only be more zombie related sculpts!

Comments are always appreciated.

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.