Going Rogue! (No Spoilers)

Happy Holidays to everyone, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  It's been a crazy couple of months, and I have been slacking on the hobby front.  I've got a batrep to write up plus some minor projects to share.  I am hoping to get some time once all the family matters are done!

As the title suggests, I did manage to see Rogue One.  A pretty good war film, though I expected it to be more action filled starting off.  I was glad I watched A New Hope just before seeing Rogue One.  Lots of tie-ins, some minor, some pretty big.  I enjoyed the movie, I'd like to see more Star Wars movies along the same vein as this one.

After seeing the movie, I may be taking a short foray into Star Wars gaming.  I have X-wing and have played a little bit.  I know there are plenty of players in the area, I just have to find a league that is at the right time for me.  Curse you real life!

As I said, I'm well behind what I wanted to be doing, but I am working to get back to regular posting.

Stay safe and Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here in the US it's Thanksgiving and I would like to pass a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone dropping by.  I hope you have a great day, even if you don't celebrate the holiday.

I've had a change in my job which has changed my hours and responsibilities.  This has limited my time recently.  I hope to get back to regular posting this week.

Gobble Gobble

It's not my picture (Found at Zombie Art by Rob Sacchetto) but seems appropriate.  At least it's not a Walking Dead spoiler...

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and see you soon!

Zomtober Week 5

This week was slowed down by a water leak from an upstairs shower to a ground floor closet.  Quite a mess!  This slowed down my progress on my zombie horde...

Water and drywall do not mix!

I worked on two groups of toxic zombies from the Toxic Mall expansion for Zombicide. I added yellow/green highlights to designate them as 'toxic'.

Red group zombies

Yellow group zombies

I also repainted (mostly just retouching the existing scheme) a Horrorclix 'candystriper' which seemed to be a vampire type character of some sort.  I repainted the flesh to be less pale and red and more normal.  I added some additional red touches to her outfit and then based her on a plastic coin decorated with some craft paper to look like a tile floor.

Survivor and scenery

Finally I added a trash dumpster from Reaper Bones.  Great item for the urban landscape.  I left the lid unglued so it opens.

The lid propped open

This week all together now!

Week 5 all together!

Another Zomtober comes to a close.  It was pretty productive, although I didn't quiet hit my goal of finishing my Zombicide zombies off.  At least progress was made! 

I really enjoyed everyone's entries, they were quite inspiring.  Besides the painting, the background stories and mix of survivors and zombies gives great ideas.  If you haven't already seen the other blogs, check out the links from my page - there are some very excellent Zomtober entries out there!

Zomtober Week 4

Another week!  This week it's time to take out the trash...  (You'll see what I mean!)

The prison figures from Zombicide have been completed.  These are groups yellow and pink, for the colors used on some highlights.

Squad Pink

Team Yellow

I also completed two abominations, one from the basic game and one from Prison Outbreak.  I am pretty happy with the red armored portions of the prison abomination, I like how it turned out.

ABOMINATIONS!  (Slipped into a 40K inquisitor voice there.)

Needing some food, I added a survivor.  This is a Dark Reaper Chronoscope figure, Jake Ryan, he is based on a Secret Weapons ruined street base.  I have him in a fairly plain outfit, I figure he may have been a police detective or something before the apocalypse.

Survivor Jake

Finally, I painted up some scatter terrain from Malifaux.  The set is Suburb Props, and is a set of various refuse containers and two sets of wooden crates.  They have fair detail and painted up pretty quickly.  To be fair, I had primed these some time ago, but finished them this week.

Scatter terrain

The whole week together, terrain and all was pretty productive.  More zombies than survivors by a wide margin, but at least I managed one more survivor.

More zombies for the horde!

One week to go for Zomtober!  It's been great seeing everyone's progress.  I can't wait to see where we finish!

Zomtober Week 3

Another week down, and another Zomtober recap!  I am continuing to paint the Zombicide and Zpocalypse minis, similar to last week.  I have a few added zombies from Horroclix and two survivors as well!

Zpocalypse second (and final) batch

Zpocalypse Zombie Horde

Zombicide second batch (with purple highlights):

Zombicide Prison Outbreak, team purple!

Three Horrorclix zombies, first a 'Pod Zombie' from the Lab expansion, the other two are from Freakshow, "Zombie Vendor" and "Zombie Ventriloquist".  They will add a touch of character to things.  They have had their paint touched up, though the vendor is a bit of a conversion.  I removed his box of bottles and repainted his outfit to resemble a McDonald's outfit.

Pod, Vendor and Ventriloquist...is this a joke?

The pair of survivors are a touched up Horroclix "Big Red" and a Wargames Factory Survivors: The Women build.  I love the pose from Big Red, rolling up a sleeve and holding a fire axe.  The woman is apparently a female version of John McClane from Die Hard, as she is missing her shoes...

Big Red and "Joni McClane"

The zombies outnumber the living even more this week!

2 survivors and 20 zombies

Zomtober so far:

The horde grows!

It's been a great excuse to finish some painting and getting some new survivors made without a pressing need.  The Zpocalypse figs are finished off, now I will concentrate on the Zombicide minis.

Walking Dead comes back next week, gotta love Zomtober!

Zomtober Week 2

This week I completed a few zombies and a few survivors.  The zombies are in two groups, Zombicide and the Zpocalypse minis.

Zombicide minis color blocked

Zpocalypse minis color blocked

A quick recap of the zombie painting plan - I just block in a few colors and then hit them with a 'dip' of red and black stain and a green/brown wash.  It's a mess, but it does the trick.  It does make painting zombies a bit easier.

Zpocalypse figs after the dip

These are easily the worst figures I have had the pleasure of painting.  They are not quite 28mm scale, closer to 25mm.  They will work as 'filler' zombies for the horde, but as individuals, they are bad.  The female zombies appear to have had their hair fall down around their shoulders, leaving them bald.  I'm just going to get paint on them and call them done.

First batch done

Two Zpocalypse figs and a Zombicide fig for reference

The Zombicide minis are from the Prison Outbreak expansion, season 2 I believe.  They are the typical good quality of Zombicide minis, much better than the messy Zpocalypse figs.  I am painting them in pretty typical prison colors, orange jumpsuits on the prisoners and white shirts over blue pants for the guards.

Survivors for a bonus!

As a bonus, I have three survivors finished as well.  Two are female survivors from Wargames Factory Survivors:Women box set.  I added some rather poor greenstuff to the RPG armed woman, adding in some sweatpants in place of shorts and shoes instead of flip-flops.  The other woman is armed with a bow and carrying an AK.  The third miniature is from Reaper Chronoscope, Candy, anime hero.  I have based her on a Secret Weapons ruined street base.

Group shot!

I have undercoated some more figs, hopefully next week is as productive!

Zomtober Arrives!

It is another Zomtober, I am planning on painting up some more zombie minis this year.  I still have some Zombicide figs left, as well as some Zpocalypse miniatures that need some paint.  If I need to, I have plenty of other figs to paint...

To kick things off, here is what I have on deck to start:

Zombies in need of paint!

And so it begins!

I haven't made progress beyond some base coating.  I plan on updates each Sunday...

Scenery: Small Church

Just a small chunk of scenery, a small church.  This started as a small decorative building for a Christmas village.  It had a small bulb inserted through a hole in the back, which I removed and filled in.

It fits the bill

I covered the interior walls with some scrap book paper.  I also covered the floor, hoping for a tile like pattern.  I'm not trying to get a great representation of a church, the model is much too small for that, but it should work out for a small roadside chapel.

Under construction

I covered the roof in corrugated card, trying to get a tile like look.  I am pretty happy with the results, the roof texture looks better than the smooth roof of the original.

The doors are a pain

It should work fine for a quick stand in for a church in most uses.  It took longer than I expected, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Open interior, need some details

Next up is Zomtober...  Time to paint some zombies!

On Down the Road

"We should find a car."  Dawn said as she and Jack walked along the country highway.  The sun was just peeking over the trees in the area, promising a hot June day ahead.
"Or a truck.  Hell anything with wheels."  Jack agreed.  "Maybe some more people too."
Dawn walked in silence for a bit before responding.  "Only if they're heading our way."
"I'm with ya there.  We're heading for that farm of yours."  Jack stretched out his arms as he walked and continued.  "It's going to be a long trip and more eyes to watch our backs would be nice.  Maybe not sleeping in a wrecked Suburban again for a while also..."

It is morning of Day 60.  Dawn and Jack are walking east, making for the farm where Dawn's friends are living, a couple hundred miles away.  They have left the immediate area of the FEMA camp, and are looking for a vehicle to use to make the trip quicker and easier.  They could also use supplies, and anything might be useful.  The area is rural, ER 2, with three PEFs, zombies appear on a 6,  and there are two zombies already on the board.  I am using very tight ammo and scarce looting rules.

Success for the scenario is surviving, finding either a usable vehicle or supplies and escaping the table.  They both must exit the table on the road opposite from where they enter.

Dawn and Jack walking down the road

The zombies are fairly quiet, they will simply wander around until the survivors make some noise.  Dawn and Jack get to move ahead without much worry.

Passing some wrecks, they spot an ATV

Check out the cabin?

Walking past some burned out wrecks, Jack spotted a small ATV parked nearby a cabin just off the road.  "Maybe we check out that?"  Jack pointed to the small multi-wheeled vehicle.

"I don't know how far it can take us."  Dawn countered, considering.  "It would be better than walking though..."

"Let's check the cabin, maybe the keys are in there."  Jack suggested.

The cabin has occupants!

Dawn and Jack make short work of them.

 After they storm the cabin, outside one of the PEFs moves closer.  Dawn and Jack spend a turn searching, but come up empty.  When they go to leave, Dawn decides to expose the nearby PEF.  I'd rather trigger it before it moves closer.

Something lurks in the road

Dawn wants to find out what it is!

Dawn stepped out of the cabin, the quiet morning air broken by a thump just beyond the low stone wall nearby.  "Stay with me, I think I heard something."  She whispered to Jack and jogged to the road.  Rounding the corner of the wall, she skidded to a stop as three zombies staggered along the roadside in front of her.  Leveling her pistol, Dawn took aim at the trio...

Dawn finds zombies

The PEF resolves as three zombies.  It's been quiet, but Dawn shoots, hitting and killing two zombies.  Finally some great dice!  Jack jogs up to Dawn and finishes off the third zed.  Of course, now two more zombies appear...

Jack finishes off the zombies

Two more appear near the cars

The zombies go first the next turn, closing in on Dawn and Jack.

Zombies move closer

Jack and Dawn shoot the zeds

Predictably, one more zombie arrives, another moves closer (getting stuck in the pond), and a PEF moves closer.  Dawn gets a chance to reveal the PEF, and moves forward.

Dawn sees a chance to check the pond

What lurks by the trees?

The PEF is nothing, but it does increase the ER to 3.  Jack moves up and checks the sedan parked in the road.

Jack checks the car

As dawn watched the zombie struggle through the waste deep water of the pond, Jack checked the black sedan to see if it could run.  Quickly he checked the back seats, and aside from some stains on the tan leather, the car seemed empty.  Looking at the steering column, Jack could see it had been hot wired before.  "Looks like it could be drivable!" he yelled.

"We should look for more gas."  Dawn replied, watching the zombie splashing through pond ahead.

"There's only a couple of the dead here.  Let's take 'em down real quiet and then search that house.  There's bound to be something useful in there." Jack suggested.

Dawn waits by the pond

The next turn, the survivors go first, Dawn moves close to the pond, waiting for the zombie to crawl out.  Jack moves up to cover her back.

Dawn faces a soggy zombie

With a wet slapping sound, Dawn swung her machete through the skull of the zombie as it clawed its way out of the sucking mud of the pond.  The lifeless body fell into the reeds along the shore.  Wiping the jellied gunk from the zombie from her machete, Dawn nearly retched.  "Ugh.  That was even more disgusting than usual."

"Damn woman, you've seen worse than that."  Jack said over his shoulder, taking aim at a lone zombie wandering just across the driveway.  "Want me to just plug 'em?"

"No.  Wait, I'll handle it."  Dawn said, twirling the machete in her hand, anxious to to get to the undead.

One left

Dawn charges the undead farmer

 Dawn wins the melee after charging the last zombie.  The board is clear of zeds, and there is a lone PEF in the house to deal with.  It hasn't wanted to move yet, and it stays put as Jack and Dawn head to the garage and investigate.

Dawn and Jack head for the garage

Dawn checked the door to the garage, it was unlocked.  "Let's check in here.  Hopefully we can get some more gas for the car."

Carefully opening the door, Dawn let her eyes adjust to the dim interior before moving very far.  The hot stale air of the garage held an odor of oil and hay.  Crates and barrels, plus tools and other odds and ends were scattered through the building.

"Looks like it's empty."  Jack whispered.  "Let's hope there is some gas at least."

The sound of a shotgun action racking cut the silence.  "You may want to rethink that."  An older man said, raising up from behind a set of crates.  "This is my farm, and you are not welcome here..."

Entering the garage, the deck reveals a lone survivor

Meet Zachary, the farm owner

The meet and greet goes poorly, Dawn and Zachary each get three successes.  They exchange pleasantries, and that's all.  I decide they can trade as well, and Jack trades his luxury item for 2 units of fuel for the car.  It's enough for now, so they leave the farmer alone and check a gas tank nearby, heading for the car.

Reckon we got us some gasoline?

I make quick ruling that the tank has 3 - d6 units of fuel, so 0-2 possible.  I roll a 1, and they find 2 units!  Sweet, they have most of the gas they need to get some distance in the car.  As they head back to the car, they stop and check the wrecker truck for anything useful.

The truck proves to be empty

Jack tossed the empty can in the trunk after filling the car with fuel.  Jumping in the driver's side, he worked the ignition, starting the car.  "It's been sitting for awhile, but seems fine."  He said, looking over the dash and then backing into the road.

"Let's make it a bit more bearable in here."  Dawn said, turning on the air conditioning.  Cool air flooded the car, slowly cooling the hot interior as they drove down the highway.

Driving down the road

They found a car and got some fuel.  We'll call it a success.  Dawn gets two successes versus one for Jack on keeping it together.  Jack will stick around, plus we don't need to check after the next mission.  They need to find some more fuel to be able to 'travel', but at least they are a little more mobile!