Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Saturday 24 March 2012

Zombie Horde

Well, my "horde" has increased by 19 figures and here they are!


I'm not altogether sure about the basing on them and I think I will be looking to add a little more texturing to the bases at a later date.

These three photographs show all but five of the 19, they are all Blue Moon figures, from Old  Glory UK, although I can't remember which particular set they're from.

The Blue Moon figures are not everyone's cup of tea, due mainly I think to the "ragged kilt" effect on many of them, but I quite like the effect.

This photograph is quite unremarkable, save for the figure in the back -right which is my first attempt at an African/African American zombie.  It's a bit indistinct and should probably stay that way !

I have mainly used a simplified version of Vampifan's technique for painting the zombie flesh.
I use a normal flesh colour, then apply a grey wash, which does the trick for me.

The eye sockets are of course painted black and the eyeballs white.  Blood and gore are added as one of the final stages (very satisfying doing that) using Tamiya's clear red.

 This group shows two of my favourite figures, the two males. The chap second from the left has an excellent head, somewhere between skull and normal (hardly noticeable on this photograph). The other male on the right I think is my favourite out of this batch. I really like figures that are not standard size, by which I mean they're either a bit fatter, or thinner or balding or some such, rather than "normal". 

He's obviously been recently zombiefied (that's a real word right ?), his clothing is hardly effected and other than his eyes, his head is almost normal (if balding).

So here's the entire group, including five that were missing a photograph (due to technical problems - that is to say I'm rubbish), in all their glory (?). I'm not the best painter in the world, but I'm happy with this group - My new spectacles, some better brushes, the longer daylight hours and my ongoing recuperation have all helped.


Lastly here's a couple of shots of my entire horde as it currently stands (or crawls, or shuffles).

  The older figures have all had a gloss varnish, whilst this latest batch have had a "silk" or "vinyl" varnish applied.

I feel this latter effect is far more satisfying than the pure gloss and will probably apply it to all my collection.


The basing on the first two batches is also noticeably lighter, this too will be addressed when I add texture to all my figures' bases.

Sadly, my photographic skills aren't improving much, if at all.
"Getting a Sunday newspaper never used to be this difficult."

Thanks to all for following my blog and comments are of course welcome.


Finally, if I haven't already welcomed you, "Welcome !".

21 comments:

  1. If you've read my review of these figures you'll know that I'm a big fan of the Blue Moon range of zombies. What I particularly like about them is how they look like they have been zombified for a long time. These are not your freshly reanimated corpses. Paintwork on them is perfectly acceptable for gaming purposes. The horde shots in particular look most impressive. Remember, you can never have too many zombies. I'm sure that once you get your varnishing and basing issues resolved they'll look even better. Finally, your photos are definitely improving. No more harsh glare from your flashlight, eh?

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    1. Thanks for that Bryan. I like Blue Moon range a lot.
      I've also found oput how to turn the auto-flash off !

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  2. I think the big boned mechanic / farmer is my favorite, too! :D

    And painting seems just fine to me, if that works for you, its your style. Surely it's not a professional work, but then again, you don't spend 8 hours + on one little zombie ;).

    And I can't say anything bad about pictures, to be fair. I am no better in presenting the detail and your street background fits right into the theme.

    I dunno in which category silk varnish comes, but you should try matt. It killes the glossy shine and imo works best. You can just varnish them over the gloss varnish, which is actually recommended, its said that gloss varnish protects minies better.

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    1. The varnish on this latest batch is meant to be matt but didn't quite turn out matt. As it's a very old bottle of varnish I suspect I may have added some gloss varnish in it.
      Silk or vinyl varnish is mid-way between matt and gloss.

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  3. Sorry about being late to your blog, but I'll catch up. It looks super.

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    1. No apologies necessary, thanks for looking and the kind words.

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  4. Those zombies look very good. I like the way that gray wash came out. Very nice effect. I noticed the improvement in the pics. You're getting better.

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    1. Thanks very much Joe,I'm pleased that others can see an improvement in my photos.

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  5. Gory...Parts decaying...Frightful!!!

    I loooove them! Good work indeed!!

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  6. Thanks LS, I'm slowly but surely getting there.

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  7. I love the way the horde gets bigger in each photo, what a creepy presentation!

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    1. Thanks PapaSpanky, I can assure you it wasn't planned that way.

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  8. Looking great and an impressive horde begins

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  9. Great stuff, glad I found your blog!!! I think I've been well and truly bitten by the zombie bug, can't wait to get my hands on a horde.
    Not sure if this will be of interest but I noticed that you didn't have Heresy miniatures in your zombie list, they do a couple of great zombies. http://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop
    Also check out studio miniatures:
    http://www.studiominiatures.com/Shop/Zombie-Miniatures.html
    Some awesome stuff in there and not to badly priced

    Also check out 'Masterplan' on ebay (they seem to be a range of wooden buildings), someone's selling off a ton of cheapo buildings that might work for you zombiers out there, I'm not 100% on the scale but it's listed as HO/OO so might work?
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MASTERPLAN-HO-OO-SCALE-WOODEN-MODEL-BUILDING-KITS-GEORGIAN-HOUSE-NEW-SEALED-/260989763626?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item3cc433c02a#ht_500wt_1361

    Anyway sorry about the mega comment, keep up the good work and damn you for inspiring met to start yet another project :)

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  10. Thanks Headnhalf for the comments, there's no problem with the length of comment. I'm aware of the figure manufacturers you mentioned but will be taking a look at the Masterplan buildings. I suspect ho/oo building are a bit on the small side for the current "28mm" figures. I also think that Studio Miniatures zombies are amongst the best, if not the best, looking zombies currently available. I've only put on the figure pages those figures I've actually got, there are many, many other ranges too, I've got over thirty zombie-related manufacturers listed in my bookmarks !

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    1. I've just received my Masrterplan buildings that I purchased to test and they are on the small side but I think I can 'fix' them by widening the doors etc, I'll have a proper look this evening and possibly do a blog update about the process. I think I'll have to invest in some foamboard and get myself some of the PDF's that Vampifan uses

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    2. I'll look forward to seeing a masterplan building "in the flesh" so to speak. A lot of us in the Zombie community use the World Works Games pdf's but there are also a lot of free-to-download buildings on the net too.

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  11. I agree with Vampifan, you can never have too zombie :P

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    1. I'm beginning to think that maybe you can

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