Zombtober 2017 Finale: 15MM Mordhiem Warband!

Happy Halloween folks. 

I hope you are having a ghoulishly good time. Yet again Zombtober has drawn to an end in a flurry of rotting flesh and undead gore. And what a zombtober it has been! It has been great to follow everyone's blogs and see how their zombie hordes (and survivors...lots of bloggers did survivors this year) have blossomed. The world of wargaming is now a considerably deadlier place. 

My humble efforts have seen me complete an undead warband for my 15mm Mordhelm project. Three zombies, four ghouls, three dregs, a necromancer and a vampire have all made it off my work bench. 

Today I have completed the Vampire Thrall who will be leading my warband. This is Ivan von Drak, an agent of the von Carstein family, whose business in the ruins of the cursed city of Mordheim is dark and mysterious. 

And here is Ivan von Drak with his warband (minus one zombie who is still waiting to have his base re-done after his little accident).

15mm Zombtober Ghouls

OK, not actually zeds, but close enough. These are four ghouls for my 15mm Modhiem undead warband. These miniatures are by Oddzial Osmy, and are very nicely cast and sculpted. Ghouls in Mordhiem are a rank and file troops type that serve their dark masters in return for a chance to engage in a bit of cannibalism. They are faster than the shambling zombies, but are not as tough. I also plan to get some more of these to use as ghouls for my 15mm Vampire Counts Warhammer army. 

In addition to the ghouls I have managed to repair one of the Dregs whose sword snapped off while I was painting it. This is unusual for a Demonworld figure are they are normally surprisingly durable. Anyway, I filed off the sword hilt and added a brass spear I had left over from my English Civil War pike-men. I also added a shield off a skeleton warrior (also from Demon world). This Dreg is Vlad "the Impaler".

Second Zombie for Zombtober 2017

A week late, and with a tale of so much woe it will make you weep... Here are two more undead for my 15mm Mordhiem warband. The first is a Dreg called Fester, who serves the necromancer by gathering up body parts to make zombies. The second, as it is zombtober, is one of the walking dead. 

I painted these last week but only got round to photographing them today as the light has been so poor all week. I also painted another Dreg (Igor) but managed to break his sword while basing him, and so he will have to have some more work on him to give him a spear or something. What is more While bringing these two figures in from the garden I managed to trap my finger in the door, then as I jumped from the pain dropped these two and broke them off their bases! ARRGGGH!!! I think I am cursed this week. 
Anyway. this is what they looked like before I broke them...

 

Back for Zombtober: Back for Good!

You have, I am sure, noticed that I have not been blogging for almost a year. I won't dwell on the reasons why, but would prefer to be more positive and look forward now. My friends Leon and Simon have asked if I would participate in Zombtober 2017, and I said I would. Having something of a shortage of zombies on my work bench I decided to bend the rules of zombtober just a little and have chosen to paint up an undead warband for a 15mm Mordheim game I am making. This will include some zombies, but also some ghouls, a vampire, a necromancer and a few dregs (the Egor and Renfield type characters). I will also cobble together a few bits of 15mm Mordheim scenery that should give them the right feel. If funds and time permit I might get some more suitable minis later in the month and add them to the collection. 

This resumption of bloging will not be limited to Zombtober as I have a lot of other ideas for wargaming projects, and I will be showing them off soon, along with pictures of a few of the projects I have been working on slowly over the last twelve months. This will include more Sharp Practice figures, some more 15mm Warhammer, Home Guard for Operation Sealion, and some 3mm(!) scale WW2 stuff for Rommel. 

Without further preamble here is my first entry for Zombtober 2017 (a few days later than planned). These are 15mm figures from the Demonworld range by Ral Partha Europe (RPE)...

Renfield (A lowlife Dreg)

Close up of Renfield's face...impressive sculpting for 15mm!

Zombie number 1

Zombie number 2

The Necromancer

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. 

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. 

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. 

Minihammer: Night Goblin Squig Herd

 Here we go, the penultimate unit of my 2000 pts Orc and Goblin army for Minihammer. This one took a bit longer because I had to sculpt the Squigs. I did manage to find a few proxies on line but none that really looked like Warhammer Squigs, so I thought I would have a go at sculpting them myself. I am pretty happy with the outcome- bearing in mind that they are quite tiny- blown up here on the screen they look a bit rough around the edges but bear in mind they are only about 1-1.5cm tall and you will see that they look fine. 
The eagle-eyed will notice that their is only nine squigs in the herd- there were supposed to be three squig hoppers (goblins riding squigs) in the unit but I cocked up a bit when sculpting them as I forgot that in Warhammer Squigs go on 20mm bases, unlike Orcs who go in 25mm bases. This mistake basically meant I mad them too big, so I compromised. The three squig hopper minis will be attached to the unit and hop off to cause trouble when the bad guys get close enough. 
Incidentally the rides for the squig hoppers are the same models I used for the fanatics in the last post. 

Minihammer: Da Red Eye Night Goblin Mob

 Last week I went away and managed to smuggle my paints in with the luggage and completed my Night Goblin mob. This band of wicked little critters was from Ral Partha Europe. I had to add a few red caps using Green Stuff to make them look more like Night Goblins. I didn't convert them all, as it would take too long but converted just enough to make it clear they are Night Goblins. 

I also made a unit filler that can take them up from 36 (six stands) to 60 (ten stands) for bigger games. This takes to form of a humongous spider the Night Goblins have found in a deep dark cave somewhere and have herded into battle by prodding it with big spikes. The spider is a Reaper Bones giant spider. 

The front rank of the Night Goblins have nets. This strikes me as something of a must have. They chuck their nets before the first round of combat and anyone struck looses an attack. This is vital in keeping the goblins alive long enough for their weight of numbers to make a difference. 

The other thing Night Goblins have that are really something of a must have is fanatics. These whirling loons can, on a good day, reap a terrible price on the enemy. Even if they don't kill anyone they are sure to disrupt they enemies plans. Or at least give us something to laugh about. These fanatics were converted from RPE's mosquito riders, with the addition of a dressmakers pin as a ball and chain. 

 Here is the horde of Greenskins so far. I want to add a Squig Herd and a giant next. That will take me to 2000pts. I have to say that I am loving painting these figures so much that I think I might just press on and go for 3000 points before I start painting another army- either Chaos of Vampire Counts.