Zombtober Week 3: Finished Zombie Horde

No posts last week because I was very busy with work but this week I have finished 10 more zombies for my Last Days in Paradise: A Caribbean Zombie Apocalypse. This brings the total to 28, just 2 short of my intended goal. I think I am going to call that a day, although I still have two more based and sprayed, so I am sure I will finish them at some point. I am sure 28 should be enough. 

I plan to try some solo games out using the Seasons supplement. This will allow me to test the rules and have a bit of fun. 

This is my entire horde shambling across my desktop. I like the way teh Mantic zombies look dynamic, but till

Zombtober 2019: Week 2

Nine more zombies finished for Zombtober this week (including the one that fell off its base last week) bringing the total to seventeen so far. These have been painted for my Last Days in Paradise campaign, a zombie apocalypse based on a Caribbean island. As such, I have reid to paint these zeds as if they were afro-caribbean. I have tried a variety of different painting techniques to get different skin tones.  

The one think I love about Zombtober is seeing how so many other bloggers are progressing with their zombies and survivors. There are a lot of Walking Dead survivors being painted this year, which is great, as they are lovely models. When Pulp Citizen, Simon Q and I came up with the idea many years ago I did not think that it would still be going strong and inspiring people to paint zombies in 2019! Well done everyone, especially Simon for getting us all organised. 

Zombtober 2019: Week One

Work has commenced on my horde of Caribbean zombies for the Last Days in Paradise. This is part of Zombtober 2019, the annual zombie-blog-fest where wargaming bloggers all over the world bring out their dead and paint their zombies and zombie survivors, aiming to complete at least one a week during October. 

I have painted eight so far (well I painted nine but I dropped one and it came off its base). I plan to have thirty done by the end of Zombtober. In the past I have painted my zeds a classic sickly green colour, but this year I thought I would go more 'flesh' coloured. This is mostly because I want at least half of my zeds to be afro-caribbean, so I wanted the caucasian zed's to contrast better. This is my first go at both skin colours.

Following a bit of research on the internet (watching Walking dead and the Thriller video) I decided that afro-caribbean zombies tend to turn a bit grey-brown after death/reanimation. 

Zomtober 2019: Preparing the Horde!

Bing it on Zombtober!

Yesterday I sat at my desk and watched a couple of episodes of The Walking Dead while assembling 30 walkers for my Last Days in Paradise Zombie Apocalypse campaign. I used the Mantic zombies again, as they are my favorite plastic zombie minis. I like the dynamic way they are posed (and the low cost). 

This time I am going to try to paint some of them so they look like Afro-Caribbean people turned into zombies. Weirdly there are not that many photos on line of 'zombies of colour'. I am not sure why that would be. 

Zombtober 2018: Week 3

One day late again. And only one Zed this week too, so that is something of a poor showing. In accordance with my 'military' theme for Zomtober this year it is another soldier who has been infected by the Zombie Contagion. This one has legs and torso from the Wargames Factory/Warlord Games  sprue, with arms and head from the Studio Miniatures zombie kit. 

Zombtober 2018: Week 2

Sorry again for the tardiness. This time I was waiting for it to stop raining so I could get a good photo. It hasn't stopped yet, hence the some what crappy photos. 

These are two soldiers depicted in the weeks following the zombie apocalypses. They have ditched their military issue weaponry when they ran out of ammunition, and have opted for civilian weaponry, which is easier to find. They have added more pouches to their webbing as they are kept on the move by the ever present threat of the zombies. 

Hope you like them...

Zombtober 2018 Week 1

It's October again so you can expect the usual Zombtober festivity. As always the idea behind zombtober is to paint at least one zombie or zom-apoc survivor each week during October, publishing a picture on the Sunday. Now as it is Tuesday it is clear that I am already a bit behind, but this is because I have been away for the weekend.

I have finished painting two Zombtober models. My theme this week is military. I am using the Wargames Factory/Warlord Games plastic special forces figures as the base for my guys. My plan is to make three soldiers or national guardsmen in the normal pre-apocalypse uniforms, three in post-apocalypse kit with improvised weapons and perhaps more civilian equipment scavenged from gun stores and alike when the own supplies stared to run out, and three who have succumb to the Contagion and become zombies.

The figures are based on the Wargames Factory plastics, with Studio Miniatures plastic zombie parts and a few bits from the Wargames Factory zombie survivors sprue. These plastics all scale very well together.

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).

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.