Zombtober 2016: Final Halloween Round Up

Happy Halloween fellow Zombtober followers and other readers. I apologise for not posting yesterday but I have been swamped at work and so on, but I have finally got round to finishing my final Zombtober entry for 2016. Looking back at my goals for the month I haven't done too badly- I have painted 8 stands of 15mm zombies (including two unit fillers), which is the equivalent of a regiment of 48 zombies in Warhammer. I have also painted six scenery pieces, with a couple more in progress, which is great, as I now have enough 15mm terrain to at least get started with games of minihammer, although I want lots more. I have only painted one vampire so far, but as I have been concentrating on zombies for Zombtober I think that is excusable. 

The best bit about Zombtober for me is seeing how well everyone else progresses over the month. Most people seem to have opted for modern zombies, which is interesting, and zombie survivors.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Zombtober this year, and the extra motivation it provides, and I am already thinking about what I can do next year. Happy Halloween and congratulations to everyone who finished the Zombtober challenge! 

Here is a picture of my completed zombie regiment- at eight ranks deep it will have some staying power even if it lacks combat potential. 

The scratch-built Corpse Cart came out rather nice

Marcus von Drak, my vampire thrall, in heavy armour looks suitable imposing. 

 These three zombie 'skirmishers' were left over from the rest of the project. I plan to make some 15mm Mordhiem warbands in the future, so these three, and the vampire, will form the nucleolus of an undead warband. 

This is my unit filler- The tree and grave marker were from Peter Pig

Here Marcus Von Drak is exploring the site of a desecrated temple

This is a field for my Sylvanian peasants to scrape out a merger existence from. I was going to have a crop of pumpkins for Halloween, but alas I have been too busy to make them- may be next week?

And here is my undead 'army' so far...

Zombtober 2016: Bring Out Your Dead Part 5

 I will have to confess that the zombies I am showing this week are actually the ones I painted last week but never got round to basing because of a shortage of brown paint. Anyway, due to one reason and another I never got any more zeds painted this week, but I did base them up, so here are the zombie regiment so far, including the unit filler. 

The main reason I haven't been able to paint more zeds is that I have spent my spare time making and painting scenery for my 15mm Warhammer game. I usually spend more time painting figures than making and painting scenery, yet I enjoy both aspects of the hobby. I find when the terrain muse strikes it is best to go with it or I end up with lost of half finished buildings and terrain. The theme for this terrain is the Vampire Counts homeland of Sylvania (so it does tie in to zombies and zombtober, all be it in a tenuous way). 

First up, this is a tester for a swamp- Sylvaina is full of zombie infested swamps and marshes. This is a test make, and I am not sure about it. I might have to come back to this idea and try a different approach. 

I am more happy with these two testers. These are my Sylvanian peasant's hovels. Sylvania is a poor land, and its benighted common folk live in squalled conditions, constantly struggling against famine and disease, while living in abject terror of their dark masters, the Vampire Counts.

I built these models without removable roves as it was much easier, and in warhammer a building like this would normally count as impassable terrain, so their is no need to put models inside. My earlier trial houses were more 'realistically' scaled to 15mm figures but were too big for the battlefields, so this is a compromise. 

Finally, to go with my Garden of Morr, I figured that a ruined Temple of Sigmar was needed. Sylvaina was once a part of the empire, before the Vampire Wars, and there have been several attempts to 'rehabilitate' the region and bring its people back into the Empire. Attempts to re-establish the state religion in Sylvanian have not been successful and the region is home to more that one desecrated Sigmarite temple. 

Scum and Villainy: Mother Agnes

Mother Agnes is a wretched figure, typical of one of the countless billions of human refugees who fled the destruction of their home-world, Earth, during the Slythian War. She can be found living rough in a spaceport in the rim, eking a living by begging and steeling. Most travellers in the spaceport walk past the pitiful old woman without even registering her existence, which is a mistake, because the wiser traveller knows that Mother Agnes sees and hears many things, and is more than happy to divulge what she knows for a few creds or a shot of rum. 

Zombtober 2016: Bring Out Your Dead Part 4

Another week of Zombtober is over and it has been going well. I have been looking over the other blogs that are participating in this zombtober and I have seen lots of icky zombies and desperate survivors. It's been great fun to see everyones zombie hordes taking shape. 

My own zombie horde has expanded (I painted another 12 this week), but sadly due to a shortage of brown paint i haven't managed to get many based up ready to be photographed. I did, however, manage to get this little unit filler painted and based, so I will submit this as my entry for this week. I am going to Games Workshop to pick up some more paint later today, so hopefully I will be able to do a midweek update when I get the latest zombies based up. 

The grave stones came from Peter Pig, and the zombies are from Ral Partha Europe. 

Here is my unit filler ranked up with last weeks Zombies. 

 
And here is my new 15mm Garden of Morr.  This is my new pride and joy, and having spent the best part of three or four evenings on it, it is probably the most work I have ever put into a piece of terrain. Although it is not an exact replica of the Games Workshop Garden of Morr, I think it has captured the essence of the original model.

The 15mm skulls and gravestones are from Peter Pig, while the other bits are scratch built of are from my Games workshop bits box. 

Scum and Villainy: Halson Nax and Crew

Work continues apace on the 15mm zombies for my mini-hammer Vampire Counts army, but in the mean time here is a post of some figures I slapped some paint on last week. I painted these for my Scum and Villainy range. This is an ongoing and occasionally-added-to collection of Sci-Fi figures that I paint purely for fun. As with my Frostgrave collection, the Scum and Villainy collection features figures from many different manufactures and games: basically anything that I think fits with my image of my Sci-Fi setting. I haven't really got any hard and fast rules for what I can include in the collection, but if it helps you can imagine it as something of a cross between the inhabitant of Mos Eisley and the cast of Serenity. 

 Halson Nax is a well known face in the outer rim, where is plies his trade as a salvage on board his ship, Scuttlebucket. He has a reputation for taking risks in pursuit of the prize, savaging valuables from wrecks that even other salvages think are too dangerous to tackle. According to rumour he took the bejewelled Star-crown of Assislis from the wreck of the Assisli battle cruiser Fireheart just moments before the vessel was crushed in a black hole. Whether this is true or not remains a subject of much debate in the drinking holes of the rim, but what is certain is that the Empress of the Assisli has places a sizeable bounty on Nax and his ship.  

Nax is the only human crewman of the Scuttlebucket, and is assisted in his endeavours by a host of droids, many of which he has previously salvaged from wrecks. Droids have advantages over living crewmen because they use less life support, don't ask for a share of the profits and, perhaps most importantly, they are both expandable and easily replaceable. 

Yell-Oh-One is a standard Mechdroid, although he is a somewhat out-dated model. He has been serving on the Scuttlebucket for longer that any of the other droids and Nax tends to treat him as a favoured pet.

Nax uses Chompers to access parts of wrecks to dangerous for other droids. The use of Chompers has been outlawed in many civilised parts of the galaxy following the incident on board The Excelsior, but out in the rim such regulations are not enforced.

 Banquo is the latest droid to be added to Nax's crew. It is an old Lillian battle bot Nax 'rescued' from a Slythian pirate. Its heavy armour and EMP shielding makes it useful in the hazardous environment often found when exploring  wrecks, and Nax has retooled it to carry a quad-las cutting tool in place of it's usual weaponry, which makes more useful as a salvager, but still deadly at short range. 

Zombtober 2016: Bring Out Your Dead Part 3

 Despite a gruelling week of nights I have manged to make some progress on my 15mm Zombies. I have completed two stands (12 zeds). I have also made a lot of progress on the Garden of Morr (a walled cemetery in the Warhammer world). The Garden is ready to be painted when all the glue has dried. I am off next week so hopefully I will make some more progress. 

Well done to all the other bloggers taking on the Zombtober 2016 challenge; Keep up the good work!

Zombtober 2016: Bring Out Your Dead Part 2

No actual zombie painting yet, although I did manage to get most of my zeds sprayed today so with a bit of luck I can get on with painting some this evening. Instead of painting I have spent the afternoon making stuff. 

My first attempt at a corpse cart was not very impressive. It would have done the job but it lacked the wow-factor of an army centre piece. This morning I woke up with the determination to do better. After consulting the internet for pictures of a Vampire Count Corpse Cart, I had a long rummage through my bits box, pulled the old old one to pieces and started again. 

Before- crap

After- Much Cooler!

 This version of the Corpse Cart is made up of bits of Bretonian stakes, and ribs made up of plastic shaved off round bases. The bale-fire is from a warhammer fire wizard. It might be difficult to tell until it's painted but there is a pile of broken up zombies as corpses in the back of the cart. This meant there was no room for the necromancer driver but I thought this was a reasonable compromise considering the scale. 

After I built this I began on the cemetry, or Garden of Morr as it is known in the Warhammer world. It's early stages yet but I am rather excited about it so far. The gate posts are from the 40K cities of Death  buildings, with all the rivets shaved off. The sarcophagi have (very) old warhammer shields on them. The skulls on the gate are taken form old 28mm warhammer plastics (probably some of the earliest figures I have ever painted but long since relegated to the bits box). I have ordered some grave stones and skulls from Peter Pig, so hopefully they will arrive in time for me to get this painted. 

Zombtober 2016: Bring Out Your Dead Part 1

OH MY GOD! Its the first of October and that means its Zombtober again. I completely forgot because I have been on nights and I am very disorientated about what day it is. As soon as I realised it was the fist I new I had to get on the Blog. 

Zombtober this year will feature lots of tiny zombies for my 15mm Vampire Counts Warhammer 6th edition army, along with a few of their dark vampire masters. I have completed the first 2000pts of Orc and Goblins just in time to start this project and, at the request of Vampifan I will be commencing Vampire Counts as my next Warhammer army. 

The zombie horde (although I might add a few more before the end of the month)

A Vampire Count on a Nightmare

Vampire Count on Foot

The First Go at a Corpse Cart-(It's going to be redone as it looks a bit crap)

My Vampire counts army will feature a core of two big units of skeletons and a very big unit of zombies. For Zombtober I plan on getting the zombies raised from the dead, painted and based by the end of the month. I have also made a Corpse Cart and I have two Vampires to paint. All the figures are from Demonworld, although if I can afford it I might order some more form other manufactures to add some more irregularity to the ranks of the shambling dead. 

Creepy Village

A 28mm Warhammer Garden of Morr

A different creepy village with an even creepier windmill 

A vampire Counts castle

I also plan on making a few bits of vampire count inspired terrain peaces as part of the Zombtober project (As painting endless 15mm zombies might be fun for me but I think it might be a bit dull for you readers). I am going to attempt my take on a Garden of Morr, and a creepy ruin, and perhaps even a Vampire Count castle or a cursed Sylvanian village. I can't grantee my finished buildings will look anything like these consept pictures but the will serve to give you the right feel. 

All Quiet on the Martian Front: A Battle Report

Back to Earlswood for another of Dave's amazing games (some Dave who brought us Dead Man's Hand in the last Blog post). This one is the excellent All Quiet on the Martian Front. Dave bought heavily into this game when it was just a Kickstarter, and was very disappointed when the company making it when bust before they had a chance to release all the figures. Luckily it looks like another company might have pickled up the rights and plan to revive the game. 

Dave has made his AQotMF terrain with the idea that it would look dramatic. this includes massive explosions, melted tanks, destroyed tripods, fleeing civilians and other general signs of war. This means that as the battle progresses we accumulate more smoke and chaos, which not only makes the game lots of fun it also means in photographed like a dream. 

On the subject of photocopy, I had to use my son's camera for this game, and I am not great with it, so please forgive any photos that are a little less than perfect. 

This game features a large force of US tanks, supported by infantry and artillery. The humans must protect a vital oil production plant from the martians. All the martians have to do is destroy the refinery and the oil reserve, however this is protected by a trench line and a very high anti-tripod electric fence. 

The first the Americans know of the attack is when the Martian Scout Tripods appear on the horizon, stalking their way through the trees!

"They're coming! The Martians are coming!"  Panic stricken civilians flee before the advancing war machines, trying to reach the safety of the American defences

"Ohh Laaaaa!" The scouts are followed by larger, and more deadly war machines.

The American soldiers prepare to hold the line. the oil reserve is vital to their war effort. The Martians must be stopped!

The trench line is protected by an anti-tripod fence, any war machine touching it will be in for a nasty shock. 

The US troops have access to the big guns- Tom, Dick And Harry! When they fire as a battery they are more than capable to bringing down a Martian.

The desperate Americans have even deployed a Clamp Tank- the brave crew risk almost certain destruction as they try to slow down the advancing Tripods. 

The US tanks advance past the wire to bring the battle to the advancing Tripods

The scouts break through the cover of the trees. The Red Weed from Mars can be seen spreading through the forest like a vile plague. 

The larger Tripods move in to attack the  US tanks. 

A Heat Ray hits one of the armoured cars, but lucky for the crew does not inflict major damage. 

Now its Tom, Dick and Harry's go. The American big guns open up- badly damaging one of the tripods

The armoured cars fire their 6dpr cannons at the damaged tripod, and finally bring crashing  down.

The armoured cars dart back out of range of the Tripods. 

The Martian heat ray reduces one of the M1 battle tanks to molten slag

  The Clamp Tank dashes forwards, its engines staining at it tries to engage with the Tripods legs- it misses its target and the crew desperately try to reverse for a second attack. 

The surviving M1 tanks take down one of the scout tripods.

 

Meanwhile Tom Dick and Harry open up on the larger tripod- causing it to explode. Unfortunately the resulting explosion was powerful enough to destroy the Clamp Tank

Things are looking up for the Americans as tripod after tripod are brought down by their disciplined fire. The Martians, undeterred by their losses continue to advance, their heat rays sweeping out in front of them. 

An armoured car is reduced to a brunt out shell and the other cars in the squadron have seen enough and turn to flee the advancing martians. The infantry in the trenches prepare to fight the Martians in close quarters.

The Martians turn their heat rays to to the Electric fence, destroying it with apparent ease. 

 The tripods continue their unrelenting advance, despite the best efforts of the American infantry, whose grenadiers fail to inflict significant damage to the last scout Tripod. 

The scout Tripod sweeps the infantry aside and crosses the last line of the Americans defences. It's heat ray cuts through the thin skin of the Oil tanks like a hot knife through butter, and in second the entire oil refinery is ablaze. 

The Americans inflicted a great deal of damage to the Martians, but ultimately failed to secure the oil refinery. The loss of half a dozen Tripods is a trifle to the Martians when compared to the effect of losing such a factor that was so significant to the Americans defence strategy. 

The talented and modest Dave with his brother Dean (sporting a lovely new wig).