From DrQ: Space Zombies

Hello all! I missed a week or so do to various reasons, but I'm back with a vengeance this week. Somewhere around 100 days of quarantine, and over week of curfews on top of it pushed me to one the larger projects on my shelf of shame: finishing the space zombies in Zombicide Invader by CMON.

Thirty five of these monstrosities in all. Only a group shot here, because these are literally fodder for space shotguns and space chainsaws. Simple paint job of base coat, wash, and drybrush highlight. Probably the most time spent per individual model was the orange basing to match the alien terrain of the game tiles. 

Now I just need a good tutorial on how to paint white power armour to finish off the heroes in the game.

Stay safe!

From DrQ: Zombies!

This week I kept plugging away on the Stilt Town Warband of Super Dungeon Explore by Soda Pop Minis.

These six guys are the basic swamp zombies—simplest paint job on them consisting of lots of washes and some OSL on the eyes.

The two on the left here are the prowler zombies—more speedy but less damage. On the right is the mini-boss Gruesome George. I've tried to tie all these together with similar skin tones and glowing eyes.

Finally, I managed to paint up the hero of the box, Survivor Marie-Claude. I really like how she came out. The miniature is inspired by a cosplayer from Canada who has worked with Soda Pop quite a bit. I enjoy the improvised weapons and think she'll fit in well as a tavern keep NPC in my next campaign—whenever that happens!

One last shot of Marie-Claude brandishing her rolling pin and skillet. 

With a little luck I'll finish off the last of the zombies next week and get on to some other projects.

Stay safe everyone!

From NoelW: Another mixed bag

For my second Quarantine post, I’ve managed four different offerings, as I’d hoped. However, I wanted to fill four empty cells on my spreadsheet, and I’ve only managed three, because the first really belongs in my Walminster on Sealion project and I already filled that cell last week. It’s six WW2 zombies, completing those I began in Challenge X.

Not sure who makes these. They're very simple plastic models, easy to put together but of limited variety. Their uniform is German, but I've painted it in a more "generic" colour so they could be used in several different contexts.

Next are three Treemen.

My family have several fantasy armies, though they’re rarely gamed with these days. My wife has both dwarven and elven armies, with their own lead piles, which I manage occasionally to make small inroads into. The treemen belong to the latter.

I don’t remember when she acquired these particular ambulant trees, but it must be at least ten years ago, so the chance of figuring out who manufactured them is pretty slim. She already has something like a dozen of the beasts from many manufacturers. I think these are the last of the unpainted. 

They're abut 40mm high, so I'm giving myself 8 points each for my running "score".

Next are 12 British infantry from the Cape Wars. They are Perry Miniatures.

The figures in this range are largely in campaign dress, and I’m always in two minds about campaign figures. Generally I prefer full dress, even when it's essentially unhistorical, as I like my toys to be attractive models, as far as I can make them. It’s usually hard to make campaign dress appealing, and uniforms tend to look alike. I actually bought into this range because I like the look of the Xhosa, rather than their British and Boer opponents. So I finished the Xhosa months ago, but the Brits have been a few figures now and then.

My fourth offering is part if another project that chugs along a few figures at a time. This is the Peninsular War. Napoleonics are my central passion, particularly Waterloo. But it was the Perrys’ Spanish figures that persuaded me to focus on the Iberian peninsular. These are beautiful units, and I want them all – which, again, would be pretty unhistorical if fielded as one army, but that’s basically what I plan to do. However, like most Napoleonics, they take a lot of work to produce worthwhile results so, again, I only paint a few figures occasionally. I want to be able to field lots of pretty units without impossible amounts of work, and my table is only 4 feet deep, so my Spanish battalions are only 12 figures.

I’ve used the same approach with another lovely Perrys' range, their Napoleon in Egypt range, though it looks like their battalions will be expanding to 16 figures to look more convincing!

This battalion is from Espana’s Division. Carlos d’Espana fought in several of the major encounters in Spain, though I’ve not been able to work out exactly which ones these figures would be most suitable for. Anyone know?

Summary of my Quarantine so far:

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI
Black Seas (1/700th)
British in Egypt: 1801
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars
1860s British IF
1880s, the Sudan
Walmington/Sealion			3 Civvies 6 zombies	15 30
Waterloo
WW2 Desert
Zulu War	NNI	30
TOTAL		134		110