Getting ready for; Last Days!

We're about a month away from the release of my friend Ash's first game from Osprey Games; Last Days.

I'm gearing up to play some games ahead of release so I'll save a review until actual release week but I thought I'd just touch on a few things as I dust off a lot of the models I was painting back when I started this blog.

First up Last Days like all Osprey Games I'm familiar with is miniatures-neutral which means you can play it with any models you already have in your collections, or you can go out and cherry-pick all the coolest stuff.  This means for anybody already playing a zombie miniature game you already have everything you need, if you're one of those collectors like me who just buys cool models hoping to one day have rules to use them with you're all set as well.

Back during Ash's first pass at the game the forces were themed (cops, survivors, bikers, etc) so I tended to collect and group my figs that way.  Now you can mix and match as each model represents a trope rather than part of a traditional 'force' of soldiers.

In addition to each player's chosen force you will need a small collection of zombie models.  For anyone who's been into the genre previously this will be a non-issue but for newer gamers there are a ton of options for easy cost-effective zombies to fill out your ranks.  Walking Dead zombies are easily available and great durable figures, Warlord Games produces the old Wargames Factory zombies, even board games have some decent quality zombie figures these days, I've personally used a bunch of zombies from Last Night On Earth.

If there's one piece of advice I would give a new modeller collecting together different zombie and survivor figures it would simply be to base them the same (or at least similarly) so they take on the appearance of one coherent collection.

This is my trip through one old figure case, I plan on painting a few new figs up this week to add in, and hopefully you'll all see a full game review in 3-4 weeks.

-Jay

Every good cop needs a partner

Now that I've finished my two larger boxes I've got 6 of the boosters for Walking Dead All Out War to work my way through.

Initially I just got a bunch of characters I either thought were cool (looking at you Ezekiel) or I picked packs that I thought would work well in multiple games.  Now that I'm getting ready to play it turns out I have a lot of Rick's group, which I don't really need for my next batch of games.  Having said that I did get one pack which  would be immediately useful and that's Rick's best buddy Shane.

Shane is an unaligned figure so he can be used with every faction, he's also got a leader skill so he can form the core of your group, and again he's just a cool survivor model overall.  One of the other things I really liked about the Shane pack is that although all the boosters come with 1 more zombie, Shane's pack actually comes with Zombie-Shane which is perfect.  In The Walking Dead when a character is killed they can come back as a zombie, so it's nice to have this figure.

In addition to painting Shane and his zombie version I went back and touched up two of the figures I had previously painted.  Somehow on my first pass through I completely missed painting Rick's badge on his jacket.  I also didn't like where I placed the blood and gore on Patrick's bat so I went back and added some.

I think my next Walking Dead paint plan will be to pull the zombies from all my other boosters and paint them all in one batch so I have enough zombies for when we step our games up to 300+ points.

-Jay

These are the zombies I passed on the road to Woodbury

I got a little swept up in painting Walking Dead models this weekend, I meant to move on to my Wrath Of Kings stuff but while I was waiting for some Teknes models to dry from being cleaned I decided to just start my next batch of 5 zombies.  Somehow "just start" turned into my painting all 5 zombies from the Prelude To Woodbury set in one sitting.

Having added these walkers puts me in a pretty good position for playing Walking Dead.  From what I've seen most (maybe all?) games are played on a 20" by 20" surface so I can't conceive of needing too many more walkers.  Going forward I don't think there will be any more big batches of walkers as for the most part I should be painting single walkers that come in the extra character boosters.

Alright...scenery and/or pig-men next!

-Jay

"Walking" my way from skirmish to all out war....

Last night/this morning I finished up my remaining 6 zombies from the Walking Dead All Out War box game.

Overall I'm really enjoying these figures.  I know I've referenced this before but when I'm painting batches of models I really like it when they have nice texture detail without being overly busy and these models seem to be a great blend of that.

My next step is going to be splitting my painting between two different sets.  I want to paint the 2 survivors required for the 'learn to play' scenario in the core game set, but I am also going to paint The Governor who comes in his own solo play adventure/add-on.  Once those are done I'm going to get one of the scenery packs painted up and then I should be ready to give the game a try.

Its really rewarding to feel like I'm getting something done from start to finish in a relatively short period of time.

After this its time to hit Wrath Of Kings and start doing more pig-men for a different game.

-Jay

First six walkers for Walking Dead All Out War

A few weeks ago I got a copy of Walking Dead All Out War by Mantic Entertainment.  Before I get to my first batch of models I want to talk about the product itself a bit.

I've bought some Mantic stuff in the past and I've seen a bunch of their stuff that I hadn't personally purchased by way of my friends.  Based on my experience I had actually decided to pass on Walking Dead because I had not been satisfied with the models I had previously purchased.  When I saw Walking Dead in the shop the core game had a window in the front of the box showing  6 of the figures, which was a great choice because the models were fantastic and MUCH better than I expected.  At every turn as I went through the box (and 3 more subsequent boxes) I've gotten more and more impressed.  The game has solo play rules, which I thought was great.  In addition I didn't realise until I opened my fourth box that every zombie figure is unique, there are no duplicates in any box I've opened or from one box to the next.  So so far I have 19 unique zombie figures to add my collection!  Last (and probably least) someone at  Mantic decided that the figures integral bases should be the same diameter and thickness as a traditional 25mm slotta-base, its a bonus because it means they will blend in with my existing zombie and survivor models.

So far tonight I've managed to paint 6 zombies.

If I'm successful in not falling asleep in the next few minutes then I will hopefully finish another half dozen zombies tonight and then I can hopefully get my first three survivors done tomorrow.

-Jay

The return of the black plague!

After being away for the weekend when I got back I wanted to wrap up something fairly quick and easy and I've had these 7 figures mostly done for over a month.

I still haven't played Zombicide Black Plague but my intention is that I bought the box  for the figures which I am basically using for other games.  To maintain continuity with my Frostgrave and D&D models I cut these figures off their flat bases and re-based them on cobblestones.  Now that I've done that I'll probably go back and re-base the first 21 zombies I did from this set to match.

I've got a Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings itch I need to scratch so it might be a few more days before I circle back to the superheroes.

-Jay

A little bit of housekeeping

I wanted to put up a few odds and ends today that I finished a couple of weeks ago and never thought to post as well as update something that I'm going to be fixing/changing.

Quite awhile back I ordered a Reaper Bones Golem to do up as my Golem for Hunt The Golem for Frostgrave.  I never got around to playing through that scenario pack and given that Into The Breeding Pits is now looming in the horizon I may not for some time, however I was able to lend it to some friends to use so at least he's seen a tabletop now.

I started off going super basic on my golem with grey stone and a wash but that honestly looked a little too flat.  I went back and added a few metallic elements and gave the clothing a light green wash over the existing stone colour just to  make it a bit more visually interesting.

Next up I finished my next 7 zombies from Zombicide Black Plague.  I'm really enjoying these figures and now that I have 3 of the variants done they don't look quite so repetitive on the tabletop.  Having said that thought now that I have a decent number of them finished (21 so far) and I've actually use them a few times I've run into a different issue.

Their basing, or lack thereof.  Originally I was content to just paint them up and leave the bases plain as that worked okay for the board game.  Now that I'm using them with other miniatures it's the one thing that makes them look a bit weak.  I've decided this week to go back and chop them all off their bases and remount them on cobblestone bases like my current D&D and Frostgrave minis which should also make them look more coherent when I blend them into my Age Of Sigmar Army.

For my cobblestone bases I have been using a 1" punch to punch out textured plasticard and then trimming it to fit on top of standard 25mm bases.

I'll paint up 21 of these this week and then pin my existing models onto the finished bases.  That should hopefully finally dispel the obvious fact that they are board game pieces being re-purposed for war-gaming.

Now what to do next......

-Jay

  

...the horde grows....

Last night/early this morning I got my next 7 Zombicide: Black Plague zombies done.

Not really much to say this time out, followed the same plan as last time and got all 7 of them done in about 90 minutes.

I have a few lingering projects done I need for some games in 10 days so I'm going to take a break from the horde for a few days and circle back to  some games and figures from a  few months ago.

-Jay

Yet another zombie horde begins assembling

A couple of months (wow, has it been that long?  I'm really falling behind on my painting!) ago I picked up Zombicide: Black Plague.  To be honest I picked it up with no intention of ever playing the game, it just seemed like a really good source of fantasy zombie models as well as some cool adventurers.

I've decided to paint the zombies in batches of 7.  That might seem like an odd number but the way the game comes packaged there are 7 or each pose in the game so it just kind of makes sense.  For my first batch I did one of the fairly straight-forward male zombie variants.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out and I have to say for boardgame models the quality and the quality of the material seems really high.

At this point I'm planning on using these for my Ravenloft game (which starts tonight!) as well as loaning them out for a Frostgrave campaign day I may or may not be able to participate in.

In a perfect world I'll get a few more of these done this week.....so let's just see if the world is perfect.....

-Jay

Hey look!  More Zombies!

First up I've got to be honest about the pictures of the AMAZING figures you are going to see below; I own them, but I did not paint or convert them.

A few years ago I was doing a table for Canadian Games Day featuring a precinct house full of Adeptus Arbites holding back a horde of zombies.  The table looked pretty good (wish I had pictures of it), my Arbites were decent, and most of the zombies were well done...but there was one batch of 20 zombies that years later still represent the kind of hobby expertise that I aspire to attain one day.

My friend Ryan, who is the owner of Hobby Ninja www.hobbyninja.com in Oshawa Ontario converted (sculpted in 2 cases!) and painted these fantastic models.  Typically I've been using my blog to showcase what I have done and what I am working on but I really wanted to show off these fantastic models and give a shout out to Ryan's store which I don't get to game at nearly often enough for my liking.  If you think these figs are as cool as I do swing by Ryan's shop and get the benefit of his friendly advice for yourself.

-Jay

9 Zombies, mostly stock models, well painted

 

4 Zombies, more heavily converted (love the old man with the bottle!)

 

4 more of Ryan's excellent conversions.

 

Ryan sculpted these himself!

 

 

 

 

Final appearance of the Zombie Vixens....for now....

I have finished my first sprue of Zombie Vixens (except the crawlers, more on this later) and I'm very happy with the variety of figures I ended up with.

I'll be re-visiting the crawlers later after I've finished all my Studio Miniatures zombies.  I'm still trying to decide how I want to base my crawlers which I why I skipped them on my first Studio Miniatures box as well.

So for now zombies will move to the back burner as I have impending Pathfinder and LOTR games to get figures ready for.

-Jay

Last 2 Zombie Vixens

 

This is what you can make with one-third of a box.

 

 

Return of the Zombie Vixens

Got 2 more zombie vixens done tonight.  That leaves me with 2 more regular zombies and 2 crawlers and my first sprue will be done!  I think after that I'll take a break from these and do another box of Studio Miniatures zombies.

-Jay

Doing some shopping ladies?

 

More Zombie Vixens!

I managed to finish 3 more of my Zombie Vixens from Wargames Factory today.  I am definitely still really pleased with these models.  Today I built a life-guard, a waitress and a nurse and they look like they should blend in fairly well with my existing zombie miniatures.

For tonight I'm deciding between a couple more zombies or taking a serious run at painting my 4 Ratchets for Dark Age.

-Jay

I'm not sure if the term "life"guard still applies here...

 

Always happy to be of service!

 

 

The first of my 3 Zombie Vixens are done!

After a week of getting distracted and going off on all-kinds of crazy tangents I finally got around to painting my first 3 zombie vixens from Wargames Factory.  I have to say these models were an extremely pleasant surprise, I had purchased the previous plastic zombies from Wargames Factory and was really disappointed in them.  These however are really super-cool models!  There are 10 distinct torso and leg sets as well as 2 crawlers on each sprue so if like alot of variety this set has it, there is also alot of character to these figures with most of them having a distinct enough look to come across like themed metal models rather than a plastic box set.

It took me forever to get started but my next 3 are already half done now that my enthusiasm has been fired up!

Cheers

-Jay

Guess the one that looks like a jogger didn't run fast enough

 

Redneck Zombies!

I finally finished my last 2 zombies from my first box of Studio Miniatures!  These are 2 redneck looking zombies (can't figure out why one has a samurai sword in him mind you....) and I think these guys were a great 1 day diversion.

Tomorrow is hobby-day and with any luck I should be mostly finished my Fallout mercs by the end of the day.

Wish me luck!

-Jay

Why do I suddenly want to watch 'Duck Dynasty'?

 

Back to the studio for more zombies!

I decided to take a break from my Fallout mercs for a couple of days and get a few more zombies done.  After my last post I had 4 more zombies to paint to finish Zombie Horde Part 1 by Studio Miniatures.

Of the remaining four two are done now and I hope to finish off the other two tonight.

One of these guys is a very generic zombie male with shirt, pants & shoes, well sculpted and executed but nothing truly noteworthy.  The second figure however is outstanding, it's funny because I never even noticed him on the box when I bought it.  First up a quick 'warning'; he's wearing an open bathrobe and nothing underneath so if you're offended by zombie junk hanging out don't scroll down....  Having said that this figure is AMAZING, in addition to the general sense of comedy created by the clothes (or lack thereof) he's wearing bunny slippers and carrying around his coffee mug!  It's one of those figures that really stands out as something more interesting than the norm.

One more post later tonight featuring my last two zombies and then it's a dozen Fallout mercs for tomorrow!

-Jay

Always dress your best, zombie attacks can happen when you least expect!

 

Odds and ends

One of the things I have found that happens when you're bouncing back and forth between hobby projects is that you come across things that have been "half-done" for a long time.  Every once in a while it's nice to finish those things off because they don't take much time and they make you feel like you accomplished something.

Today I had 3 half-dones that I decided to finish.
The first was another Hasslefree Survivor, this one is a cop with mini riot shield and baton.  Unfortunatley the pictures didn't turn out at all so I'm all tell and no show on this one.
The second model was my not-Leon Kennedy from Recreational Conflict.  The funny thing about Leon is that this is the figure that convinced me I needed to do an order with Recreational Conflict 3 or so years ago but somehow he was the one figure from the entire order I never got around to finishing.
And lastly I have 2 more zombies from Studio Miniatures that didn't get finished with my last batch.

Thanks for visiting

-Jay

The first character I ever played in a Resident Evil video game and still my favourite.

 

Two more zombettes.

 

 

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!

 

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.

 

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!