Yawn

Yep it's been another one of those weeks where little get done due to all the vagaries of real-life and its intrusion into our hobby-world.
I have managed though to finish off another dozen reprobates from my painting table including these two zombies, both of whom are Old Glory minis. I remember Lucky Joe mentioning that he didn't like the tatty clothed appearance of some of OG's zombies, but I can easily see "seasoned" zombies ending up this way. I'm less impressed with naked figures (zombies or otherwise) and whilst I'm certainly not prudish, I do feel it is unnecessary and  maybe a tad disturbing, but each to their own.

Next up three Foundry minis, another 'large' figure (maybe another boss-type ?) a rather splendid chap with assault rifle slung over his shoulder (who wears a buttonhole in an apocalypse ?) and an archetypical detective. This last character has his badge on show and the familiar shoulder-gun harness, but what I particularly like about this chap is his height, he's smaller than average (for Foundry at least), but he retains correct proportions (his head doesn't shrink !) It's normally given as an excuse mixing different scales of figures that people are different heights etc. and whilst this is certainly true, their head sizes vary very little - rant over.

Next up, three females, from left to right, a Black Cat, Foundry and another BC. I do really like BC figures and whilst they may still be having problems, my service from them in the past has been first class. The woman scientist-type is available in a set of three (saving a bit of cash); the foundry female is another detective type (the badge is a giveaway); the female with child is one of my favourites and could easily be used across many periods as her attire is fairly universal. 

Lastly another three civilian types.
I'm not sure of the provenance of the chap on the left armed with a very indistinct weapon, the centre figure though is a Foundry and the wannabe thug on the right I believe is yet another Black Cat.




All the photo (including the blurry-ish one)  were taken using my new-found technique of image auto-enhancement, which does little for my photography prowess, but has eradicated flash glare problems and replaced them with colour ones - oh well.

 It just remains for me to welcome my latest two followers "George" and "Paul Waechter", neither of whom seem to have a blog, I hope they both find something of interest here.

That's it then for another week and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Guys, Gats and a Gal

Well after a few weeks of lethargy, illness hospital appointments and all the other real-life things that get in the way, I've managed to remove some of the contents from my painting tray, so nothing nostalgic or pirate-related this week.
As has been normal with me recently I've managed to mix up Foundry, Black Cat and (I think) at least one Zombiesmith minis.
These first three are basically all unarmed civilians, the guy in the middle will be the Mob boss in Perdition whilst the chap on the left will make a good addition to my gangsters (he has a hat !), whilst the "Presidential" looking chap may well be used as a Mayoral figure for a scenario.

 Michael, a salesman and a scientist make up the next threesome and are all eminently useful for what I think are obvious reasons.
The "Jackson" lookalike couldn't really be painted in any other way and is one of my few attempts at a "coloured" zombie - I didn't think he needed any gore on him though and didn't paint any on him.
The "salesman" of course is more zombie-fodder, but the scientist/doctor has many game possibilities.

Next up are three randoms, a photographer, and two reporters or detectives, although all three could just have easily be used as just more standard civilian zombie-fodder.

The next three are all armed, the chap in the trench coat with overly large automatic pistol (I really dislike huge weapons !). The chap on the right has a flashlight and handgun, great for all those dark houses to search !
 The centre chap I would use for a younger version of me, but alas he is left-handed, as is so many of the "Street Violence" range, which I find very frustrating,  annoying and perplexing.

Finally the last armed trio appear to be two midgets and a leggy blond.
The two guys are actually not that bad height-wise, but she is a a bit of a giantess and I'm not sure where she came from (and I'm not bothered either). She may well be meant to have shoes on but I'm painted her bare-footed, she fit in well with either a hill-billy still scenario or maybe as trailer trash !

I'm hoping that I'll be finished yet more figures by next week in the final drive to clear my current painting table.

That's it for this week as always your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Monday Blues

Another week gone and another where I've achieved next to nothing due to coughing, sneezing and generally being ill and finding it almost impossible to paint anything. I have however been able to surf the net, do some reading and watch a zombie related film or two.
The illustration is from the new series of books I've been reading which you'll gather are called  "Dead..." and are by T.W.Brown. Once I managed to get into the first book properly (after a few chapters) and began to understand the writing technique of the author I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone.  I believe there are already 8  books in the series already printed with numbers 9 and 10 to complete the series. Having finished the first book I immediately had to buy the second, then the third, I found them to be such page turners. My first one (Dead, the Ugly Beginning) currently costs 75p on Amazon Kindle e-books ! The others vary in price around the £3 mark for the Kindle editions.

Whilst surfing around the net I came across this photograph of a fort I made for John Ray (author of the book 'The Travels and Adventures of an Officer of the 18th Century'").
It was made for him somewhere around fifteen years ago for his American War of Independence wargames.
I also made a further two models forts for him, each successively larger than the one shown. I can't take any credit for the painting of it though as my version was much less impressive than shown here.

 I also came across the Russian Church I made about twenty years ago in the original colours that I'd painted it in. I have shown this model before in it's new incarnation of white. It can still be seen occasionally being used by "The League of Augsburg" gamers  as far as I'm aware.
It's very gratifying to me to know that a model I'd made so long ago was still being used. (I often wonder about a the medieval village I'd made about the same time period) 
The church was made with the help of my second son and was for use with 25mm figures (they'd be called 28mm these days), such as Foundry Hinchcliff etc. 

To finish off my ramblings this week I dedicate the next photograph to one of my followers (you know who you are).
In case you can't read Japanese it tells "The text gives a description of the camels including their size, what they eat and that they come from Arabia ." It seems a pair of camels were brought into Japan in 1821.

Now that's a horde !

 One of the films I watched was the 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead"- I'll give my opinion of it at a later date along with a few others.
(This photograph is from the 1978 version I think)

That then is that, as they say though finally I'd like to welcome my latest follower "ptr" who has a very interesting blog that is well worth a look and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Utility Vehicles

I received a nice surprise from my son last weekend, namely four vehicles bought from a Wilkinson's store near where he lives.
They are from left to right a bus/coach, a road sweeper a fire appliance (bit obvious) and a skip lorry (is there a proper name for one of those ?)
I've used a Foundry Mini for scale.

The coach is the longest of the four models at about 7 inches long (170mm) whilst the others all vary slightly around the  5 " mark (125mm).The coach has two sets of double opening doors, operated by a small lever on the underside of the vehicle and a front sign that lights up when the small button in the centre of the roof is pressed (it also makes bus engine noises). I can't see me making use of either of these features !

The road sweeper is the only one not to have see-through windows, but it does have the feature that when it is pushed along a central (hidden) wheel makes the brushes either side of the truck to rotate.
 If only Sid was here to see it (he's gone walkabout to who knows where)

 The fire appliance joins my ever growing collection of these vehicles and is much the same as the ones I features a while back, except it's far superior. One of the side door on this model slides open and it also has a button behind the roof light panel that makes the two lights flash and a siren to sound. 

 The skip truck is my third (I think) of these types of vehicles but is the first that matches the style of skips that I made about a year ago. Like all of the vehicles that I have the skip load can sit on the bed of the truck or be shown with the lifting arms in a variety of positions.


I had looked at what Wilkinson's had to offer before Xmas but there was only the coach then and I really couldn't justify buying it (it being Xmas and all that). I think their scale is perfect for the the scale of figures and they're far more robust that anything I've bought from Pound-land-stretcher-world. I recollect that the bus model (nearly all metal) was about £4-£5 at the time and there were three or four different variants- perfect for that bus depot you were going to make right ?These are obviously toys but I think they'll do fine.

So that's it for another week, (rather bland I know) it just remains for me to welcome my latest follower "Belique" and to say that as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Pirates versus Zombies?

Le Dauphin d'Or

As commented upon in my last blog setting up a game of Pirates versus Zombies can't be ruled out, there is after all the zombie/undead types in Pirates of the Caribbean. Whilst I doubt though that I'll ever go down that path I nevertheless came across a miniature in my last batch of zombies from Zombiesmith that would fit in perfectly as some form of zombie Pirate.
You can just about see him on the deck of the first pirate ship I attempted (and very nearly finished). The ship is made almost entirely from scrap: plastic, card, filler, dowels, embroidery threads, cotton, bbq skewers, matchsticks,  plastic canvas and of course tapers/spills (nowadays I'd use coffee stirrers of course). The original cannon was scratch built in wood (barrels), thick card (carriage) and dowel (wheels). I then cast then all in a lead/tin mix.Up close they're fairly ropey, but they do the job.

Here's the pirate looking type with another two randoms. The girl I've just found out from Colgar6's blog is a heresy miniature whilst the Schwartzenegger wannabe's origins are still a mystery to me.
The "pirate" zombie could just as easily have been painted as a survivor, although his clothing would suggest he has no modern dress sense and is very tattered - he'd make a good tramp though!

The blunt end of the ship has a lift off deck above (where the steering wheel is (see - I know all the right naval terms) and is really nothing spectacular, but you can see the plastic canvas windows, so this is probably the captain's room.
On the rear mast base you can also see a collar around the mast, this gave a little more support to the mast (which is embedded in the deck) and a little more glueing surface.
 The front end upper deck is also removable, but it's just an empty space inside.

 The figures here, survivors and their zombie counterparts, are like the majority of this batch are Zombiesmith minis.
The woman could obviously be used in a pirate scenario whilst the guy would just need his hat filing off as the rifle he carries could easily be taken for a flintlock type weapon.

The Zombiesmith clergyman may just get away with being used in a piratical setting though I'd be happier using him if the bottom part of his trousers were filed to breeches' length.
The other two are a "Zombie me" finally based up (a present) and a Mega Mini "zombie" child hockey player, though I'm going to use him as a child survivor as there's so little obvious damage to him.

The bottom deck back end rooms and guns.
(I haven't a clue now why I split it into two areas)
The tube in the centre of the photograph is a piece of plastic and the mast in the deck above slots nicely into it making the deck above much more stable.
For such a large model I determined that as my Pirates were all based on 20mm squares I needed sufficient space to get at least one crewman on either side of the cannon and one at the rear and I still had to leave a gap for another figure to get between the two rows of guns.

There are a lot of zombie firues that could easily pass as pirates, with or without a little filing and creative painting. Two out the five shown here are probably beyond redemption but the other three could be easily used. The chap wielding the spade originally had a road sign, which  didn't fit any USA sign I could find (it was to all intents upside down).

The steering wheel at the back was the only bit I bought specifically for this model from those very nice chaps Ian and Ron at Irregular miniatures (I think I bought several of these along with many of their pirates).
The railings are all bbq skewers for the uprights but the tops may well be garden canes.The steps/ladders are scraps of plastic.
This may be the biggest of the three ships I started on, but not by very much .
It has an overall length from back to front of about 24" ans the biggest mast in the middle is about 24".
The fighting/lookout platform has a lip around it to give figures a little more security from their inevitable accidental plunge to the table in play. I think about 5 figures could fit on it .

Above are some more zombies from the Zombiesmith horde set who to one degree or another could be utilised on board.

 Finally, a group shot of the Zombiesmith horde and the ship.

Argghh, we be zombies

Whilst I'm sure that out there are already many gamers playing Pirates versus Zombie games and there are probably a shed-load of figures too for suitable zombie pirate figures, but I'll not be looking for them.


That's it then for another week and as always your comments are welcome and much appreciated.

Last Leg ?

Well as intimated last week, I have finished another gang of zombies; they're mostly all Old Glory with some  very medieval-looking types, along with a few Mega Minis.
(The tractor in the background I picked up at Pound-land /world a while ago and like many of my vehicles I've done nothing to it)

Some of the more medieval looking types.
(Think of the zombie with the spear as having a branch lopper).
For those of you that think scythes are a great idea for an anti-zombie type weapon, think again, they're rubbish.



There are quite a few with weapons of various types too, with a lot of wicked DnD style daggers

On the left are a mix of Old Glory and MegaMinis.






 
The four guys on the left are MegaMinis, painted as SWAT types. Mr Hoppy on the end (whose only claim to fame is the inspiration for the title of this week's blog) may or may not be an OG (He could well be a Zombiesmith mini).

As a personal preference I do like my zombies to be whole, insomuch as having all their limbs and no great holes through them. If I want them without limbs, it's not that difficult a surgery to undertake.

So my paint table currently now looks like the photograph on the right and as you see there appears to be no difference to the last photo of it.
On the left is the next batch of zombies needing a little detailing and varnishing, the centre group are mostly civilians and the group on the right are the group featured last week though now they are undercoated and started on.

The "mystery" bag of figures  I mentioned last week, which may well be my next painting batch, though I still have two other zombie-related groups to consider - a hazmat team and clowns (gulp!), which may take precedence.Like a lot of others I suspect, I do of course have a lot more zombies I could paint -at least another 100 or so.

For those that were interested, here's a piccy of one of my half-finished pirate ships.
It's all scratch built and comes complete with spurious plastic bag (?). It's currently sitting high up on a shelf hence the odd photo angle.
It's also the smallest of three (but not by much), standing about 15" from table level to the top of the main mast, about 4" wide and about 21" from the blunt end to the pointy end's figurehead (a black pig). The back end bit lifts off to get to the deck below.
 
That's all for this week and once more let me say your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Guns and Gals

Here's a few more of the civilians from the last batch I painted (they're nothing special other than for the enormous size of the chap on the right) and they are all Wargames Foundry figures which I bought in one of the  many deals that Foundry have about a year or so ago. Below are some more Foundry figures, women this time all again armed to the teeth; two of them will make good survivors whilst the other two are very suitable for "suits".

Foundry have two other newish ranges that some of you may not have seen too: Tim Prows Victorians/Edwardians excellent for IHMS and his Street-Violence range that compliments Foundry's own Street Violence range.

I was very surprised that putting up a post of a boat I made many years ago would generate so much interest, considering it was never finished nor actually used. I may have to use this ruse of using old unfinished projects more often to fill those weeks where I have little to blog about ( and I've more ships too - Pirate ships and a Sudan-style gunboat ! - All unfinished of course)

The paint-table picture from two weeks ago featured the next batch of zombies that are now completed (some pictured above); they're mostly Old Glory but they may have a couple of other makers figures mixed in with them. The ones pictured are among the ones that look the least medieval.
Joining the paint-table production line are another batch of civilians all of whom require a re-check for mold lines etc. before their spray undercoat. I think they're all from Black Cat and there are only a few with guns.

Rather slim post this week, I know, but I was hit by nostalgia when I discovered a set of rules I'd written  in the 90's (I think) and the figures I'd bought for them. I noted that these were classed as "specials" and would cost 20p more making them 70p a figure; the same figure today costs £1.40 and they still don't look dated. Once I get my three current zombie-related batches of figures out of the way I may well get back to this long-lost project, so watch this space.

I was nominated for another bloggers award (which is nice) that is seemingly doing the rounds (along with many others I should add) by Shuby over at 28mmfromhell - go take a look.

That's it for this week other than to say that as always, your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.