Sunday 30 September 2012

Avengers Assemble!

So today I wanted to show you a few figures that I was able to collect from various sources to play superhero miniature games with.  My prefered super powered tabletop miniature game is SuperSystem because it is easy to pick up and learn and lets you create (or re-create) any comic character you want.

The most obvious source of superhero miniatures currently is Heroclix and of the models below Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow are all touched up Heroclix models.  What's been great about Heroclix for the last few years is they are not over painted like they used to be, so instead of having to strip and completely re-paint them you can generally touch them up and re-base them and end up with a cool looking figure.  Hulk and Captain America have been taken directly from Hasbro's Heroscape game and other than being re-based and having their eyes panted required no additional work.  The final figure, Iron Man is from Hasbro's Handful of Heroes line and is the only figure here painted from the ground up.

Thanks for visiting

-Jay

Captain America & Iron Man
 
Hulk & Thor
 
Hawkeye & Black Widow
 
 
 

Saturday 29 September 2012

The man...the legend...the miniature

One of the things I really like about the Studio Miniatures zombies is that their basic package format is 8 figures but they also come in boxes of 17 that are made up of 2 of the basic boxes plus a free promo figure...and the free promo figures are pretty cool.

Zombie Horde Part 1 (the box I'm working through right now) comes with what might actually be my favourite promo figure I've ever gotten from any company; a zombified version of George A Romero!  Zombie George has a great level of detail and for anyone who has seen pictures of George on set does an awesome job of capturing his likeness.

I just painted him last night but I'm really looking forward to first time I mix him in with a batch of zombies on the tabletop and 2 or 3 turns into a game somebody recognizes him.

Thanks for visiting

-Jay


Lights...camera...BRAINS!
 

Friday 28 September 2012

Three more for the horde!

Tonight I'm delving back into my Studio Miniatures Zombie Horde Part 1 box for 3 more figures.

These are 3 of the more 'generic' looking figures in the set but I still found them to be well sculpted and full of character.  One of the goals I have for my modern day zombies is to not use duplicates of any sculpts, so being able to add 3 more unique figures to my collection is a great boost for my next game.

Thanks for visiting

-Jay
That guy on the right looks like he has an ouchy.
 
Welcome to Plasticville Part 2

Tonight we return on our tour of Plasticville with my newest addition; the Plasticville Diner!  I have to confess that as much as I set out to create a set of scenery for my upcoming Fallout games this diner will probably end up doing double-duty in Racoon City as well.

The diner is the kit that really first drew me to the Plasticville line.  In addition to being an almost perfect match in terms of size, shape and overall appearance with the ruined diners you come across in Fallout 3 it has just enough of the right design elements to also put me in mind of the diner where Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield first meet in the opening cinematics for Resident Evil 2.

The diner was a quick easy paint job that I think gives a satisfying result and should look great on a tabletop.

Thanks for visiting

-Jay

Plasticville Diner (Albert Wesker shown for scale)
 
And the horde continues to build.......

Hi again everybody.  So I've circled back around to the box of Studio Miniatures I got my zombie in chicken suit from and painted 3 more figures from that pack.

When I first saw these figures the one that grabbed me right away was the heavy woman her stylin' sleepwear.  I think for most of us who saw the Dawn Of The Dead re-make that is the zombie that stands out in our memories both because she was just so visually awesome and also because when the survivors bring her inside it's one of those moments where every single person in the theatre is sharing the exact same thought "have none of these characters ever SEEN a zombie movie?!?!"

Thanks for visiting

-Jay

Be careful...she`s faster than she looks!
 
Welcome to Plasticville Part 1

Recently my friend Stan and I have decided to try doing some skirmish gaming in the Fallout universe.  One of the things I have always found keeps games in general fresh but is extra important when gaming a new setting is new and appropriate scenery.  We've all been to people's houses or game stores where every battle is fought over the same 3 generic hills with the odd tree mixed in to spruce things up (sorry, I couldn't resist that) and honestly I've always felt like it takes away from the fun of wargamming.

So, on the subject of Fallout I was checking out the Lead-Adventure Forum (which is awesome by the way) and they had a fantastic idea for Fallout scenery; Bachman (model train company) O-Scale plastic buildings.  They all have this great America in the 50's vibe that works really well for Fallout and O-Scale seems like a decent fit with 25mm gaming miniatures.

I built 9 kits the other night and I've got 2 of them finished so far so have a look and let me know what you think!

Thanks for visiting

-Jay

House under construction (Rebecca Chambers & Chris Redfield shown for scale)
 
Plasticville Hospital (Jill Valentine & Barry Burton shown for scale)
 
 
 

Wednesday 26 September 2012

A growing number of tactical options.....

Tonight I finished up my 2 SWAT assaulters.  They follow the same scheme as my previous model using black highlighted dark grey for their tactical gear and dark blue for their clothing.

These 2 should provide some muscle to back up my conventional beat-cops when the zombie apocalypse arrives.

With all the focus I've put on bolstering my collection of suvivors it might be time to go back and add a few more zombies to the horde.

Thanks for visiting

-Jay

Gamma World!

A little while ago I was playing in a Gamma World campaign with a few friends and it gave me a great opportunity to paint up some cool figures I wouldn't otherwise have had much of a use for.  I find using miniatures for role-playing really adds to the game and lets a gamer work on some small projects in between collecting vast hordes of figures.

Shown here in ths shot are 3 of our 4 party members.  Sig who was a gesalt being made up of many tiny golden statues, Rocky who was....well made of rock, and Commander Alpha a sort of Captain America meets Team 7 character.  We also had a party member named Hell Kitty but I no longer have that miniature so she wasn't available for our group shot.

I expect to use these miniatures to represent other characters in either another sci-fi (or super hero?) RPG or some sort of post-apocalyptic skirmish game.

Thanks for checking in

-Jay
If this is what the 'heroes' look like you can just imagine the bad guys!
 

Sunday 23 September 2012

Works in progress.....

Well it looks like hobby A.D.D. is back with a vengence!  I have 4 projects on the go right now so suddenly alot of hobby work is being done but not alot of figures are getting finished.

First up a friend and I have decided to give the Fallout Warfare rules a try and are painting up some forces now.  I thought mercs (think Talon Company or Reily's Rangers from Fallout 3) might be cool so I'm working on UAMC Infantry from Defiance Games.  I'll be starting with a test of 3 basic trooper models before I move onto anything more elaborate.

For my second project.....well, it looks like I warmed up to the Judge Dredd model I painted last night so I've got a few more Judges on the way.  If I'm still excited after those are done then Lawmasters will be next!

For my third (and seemingly never ending) project I'm going to add some Wargames Foundry SWAT models to my zombie survivor collection.

My fourth project appears in all 3 of the pics tonight but is 2-3 weeks away from completion, unlike the rest of this stuff which shouldn't take more than 2-3 nights of painting.  I'll talk more about it and what it's for when I've got more to show.

Thanks for checking in

-Jay
War never changes....
 
Wait...you are the law?  I thought I was the law!
 
Even cops dial 9-1-1
 
 
 

Saturday 22 September 2012

Dredd 3D Test Model

I've had a love-hate relationship with painting Judge Dredd miniatures for years.  I love painting them because I've been a huge Judge Dredd fan for over 25 years, and I hate painting them because I always felt the colour scheme didn't translate well from comics to miniatures.

After seeing Dredd 3D (which was great fun!) I decided to paint a test model to try applying the movie's colour scheme to a tabletop miniature to see if that worked.  On one hand the combination of grey, black and dark blue comes out a little washed out as they all tend to blend together, but on the other hand it looks significantly better (in my opinion anyway) than the green that is all over the boots and other accessories in the comic art.

To me the test model looks okay, especially for something I painted in 30 minutes so I may paint another 5 or so Judges just to see if it carries over.  If not he may not surface in a Judge Dredd game but I'm sure I can use him as a generic space-cop in some sci-fi rpg.

Thanks for visiting
-Jay



 
When you're looking for miniatures for a particular genre you occasionally find exactly what you're looking for in surprising places.  Enter Crocodile Games.  Crocodile Games are the manufacturers of a series of fantasy games with historical inspiration but a few years back they produced 2 packs of outstanding zombie miniatures.

Basically there are 3 figures and then 1 re-sculpt for each of the first 3.  I have to say so far these are some of the most well-sculpted and well-cast zombies I've gotten my hands on, the only downside is there aren't more of them.

-Jay

Looks like a horde is beginning to gather....
 
Often times I draw inspiration for gaming from movies, comics, video games, etc.  During one of those Google searches someone like me does after walking out of a movie theatre and thinking they want to game a scene they just saw I came across a company called Recreational Conflict that makes some really cool miniatures.

After a few touch-ups and some work on my new back drop you should be seeing the Resident Evil inspired miniatures I bought from them but in the meantime I wanted to share some of their zombie miniatures with you.

-Jay

Group shot.  If I re-call correctly this is the contents of 2 of their generic zombie packs (they also do themed packs)
 
Three of the cooler more interesting zombie sculpts from Recreational Conflict.  The one in the center actually comes with a surf-board with a huge chunk bitten out of it but it didn't fit with my basing scheme so I left it off.
 
Three more excellent Recreational Conflict zombies.  I think it's great when a batch of figures really go together and create back-story simply by being together in a collection.
 
 
 
 
Sometimes you paint figures for a particular game you are planning and sometimes a miniature or two just comes arounf that you have to piant because...well...just becuase.

To that end I present a great representation of Duke Nukem (by Comfy Chair Games) and a Zombie in a giant chicken suit (by Studio Miniatures).

In the next 2 weeks you should be seeing alot more painted Studio miniatures around these parts.

-Jay

Hail to the king baby.....Chicken a la King baby!
 
Welcome to the beginning of my new blog!  I hope to be sharing with everyone in the weeks and months ahead some cool and hopefully inspirational hobby projects in the wonderful world of gaming.

We'll kick it off by showing some miniatures by Hasslefree that I originally posted to my Facebook page of survivors and adventurers working their way through the zombie apocalypse.

Keep checking back as I hope to update 3-4 times per week and hope that something you see will get you excited about gaming.

-Jay

Just becuase you're facing down hordes of the undead doesn't mean yu can't do it in style.
 
Which of these 2 hombres do you think will pile up a higher body count?
 
We're sending more cops!
 
Sometimes you make it through, sometimes you don't.
 
You've got a bit of red on you.