WIP box store

 Hello everyone!

Got quite a few things to say today, mostly because when I was thinking about what to show, everything seems so small that I figured I might as well say some more.

Can't figure of a better start than the "bad" news...I couldn't make any use of 20% discount Ainsty casting offers at the moment due to paypal-only policy. The thing is I have to ask a friend of mine for that and I was unable to do it. I'd really need to get one of my own, but that seems kinda useless until I get a job, heh. When I come home in June (I'll be unavailable trough whole of May), I really must find something, bwah. I did, however, managed to order No more room in hell from Iron Ivan games'. I've also ordered some flowers for future projects. I, of course, forgot to buy green static grass, as I only got the arid one...it's a minor problem and I wouldn't be me, If everything would go as planned :P. The other bad thing is, rulebook will probably be combined with the tools im waiting for more than a month now...so I don't expect them any time soon. Oh, I could mention I HARDLY resisted not buying the pulp rules (I will play Mummy and Indiana Jones games eventually!) and WW1 rules (I am just in process of writing a diploma on tactics of german stormtroopers of WW1). But honestly, I've just started zombie project, and I will jump in pulp once I get myself a zombie town, zombie horde, zombie surviors and zombie campaign started :P.

Getting rules late is not too bad, because I have to gather a courage and drive to Ljubljana's centre, visit my WGS and buy some D10's.

So, we could say I got the rulebook and dices covered, at least partially. Will cover about the rest once I get the rulebook itself.

Next, I need something to play on, right? I am still debating in favor of 1"x1" semi-modular boards for my board or one big 3x3 wooden piece for my board. The former would cost me more (I'd just use my 30x30cm cork tiles), but I imagine roads and some sidewalks could look nice on it. It would end up in greater uniformity of boards, something like vampifan has, but a bit lesser cool, because I'd paint it myself. The problem is, roads would be made of sand, and then I'd add some card or something for the sidewalks. It would be best to just use another layer of cork and that leaves me with a decision...do I just make a sidewalk by the roads and leave the rest of the table on one tile height, or should I make every other tile as high as a sidewalk? I think I'd only make sidewalks higher, because doing otherwise would make it literally twice as expensive. And I don't think it could look too bad. Then agian, if I go with one big 3x3 piece, storage becomes a problem, playing bigger games on bigger tables becomes a problem, roads would be even higher above the ground, as they'd be separate etc. But it gives even bigger chance to build the table as I'd want. Here, I could put road diagonally while in first example, I'd have to use extra tiles to make diagonal ones that I could use. I would really ask you for your opinion here, but I am more with the first concept.



So, counting we "got" the board, next I'd need is something to put on. I've finally managed to sit down and made another WIP building - a box store.

It is basically just a shell, again. But I have decided that's enough of buildings and I want to finish those before I build any more. Mostly becasue I am afraid I'd be dug in with half-finished buildings so deep, I wouldn't have the interest in finishing them. Maybe I won't paint them yet, but it'd be nice to build them more or less to the detail.

So, about the store. It is 20x20 cm box.
On picture below, you can see the entrance. I didn't model any windows, but there would be some ads on the outside walls. The idea is to make slide doors, but might as well be as it is. Imagine a big board with a name and we could call it done.

 

The second picture shows the back of the store. I've made a supply dock, with two openings for trucks. As there is no real dock it looks kind of silly when you put a truck next to it, but well, just call it a storage garrage then, hehe. You can see I accidentally (was watching young indiana jones :P) cut too much of one railing on the roof. I'll make a ladder and have an access to the rooftop from there.

Next picture shows you the interior of the store. Naturally, suddenly it seems kind of small (compared to my drawings, walls take their place :( ), but what I need there is another wall to separate store from storage and some removable shelves with goods. Will have to improvise on that now that space is somewhat limited. And don't ask me how I'll do the shelves...god knows :D

Here is a little diorama I've put together to show you the progress with all assembled zombies and survivors I currently posses. I should really build more of my Mantic zombies, but then again, I might as well paint what I got build first. Here you can see all stages of the miniatures, from assembled, past slottas filled and sanded to painted.

 Oh my! Survivors got over run! Alpha male covered the retreat of 4 eye-blinding beauties and they're returning the favor - covering him while he jumps off the roof on bus and to the safety of terra firma.

 Close up on the "horde"

 Leeeeegs...wait....leeeeegs!

Close up on crawler fellow. You can see I've chopped his hand on two places and pinned it. Got to fill the holes with GS and once painted, will look like he's pulling himself closer to the BRAINS.....or at least that was the plan.

For the end, here are some zombies for Shelldrake's Play by blog game:

As usual, thanks for taking time to read and if you celebrate, I wish you a happy easter!
Matevž

Never seen before pictures of the...

man cave! Ta-daaaa!

Dežnik corporation (google it, if you dare!) has published never, ever, ever, never seen before pictures of the man cave...the complex installation of underground tunnels and technological advanced laboratories, that produce what you can admire on this blog site. (Might be slightly exaggerated!)

A sneak peak was exclusively released on the Board of the living lead (which you should check out, if you haven't yet), and here, you can see even more of it! Keep in mind, no questions will be answered and only "public" marked information will be released for you to see. 

 On the picture above you can basically see all there is too a man cave. Add some 50 centimeters for a window to the right and some wardrobes on the left and thats my room. I came here shortly after my family bought the house we live in for 9 years now. Mainly to have my own room, as I should share one with my brother. And here is less to clean :P. Above the desk is my bed, below are some shelves full of military magazines for my study. Bookshelves are full of books and random junk, I am a bit of a hamster, less of use, more sentimentally attached I am to things, haha.

A close-up on the desk. From left to right you can see work-station. There is a cd with pictures from London...my girl visited on sunday and we had to show them to my parents :P. There is an old plate I use as a pallette, but got to get myself a wet  eventually. Then we got those big papers that act as cutting mat, you can see them shreaded from last cork building experience. In the background are my colours. First are for FOW germans I've been painting, behind are the ones I use less. Those with grey caps are the flesh colours I just got. Cookie box is empty, but I "will" need it one day (yes, a hamster :P). You can see boxes from boths zombie sets and some empty FOW boxes. The red books are very old. I had 3 of them from my grandma when I was young and I read them over and over years ago. They're from series "How did they live in..." and you got everything from prehistoric times to 18th century. I got complete collection as a birthday pressent so long ago, I can't remember when. Those are the books I love the most without the question. On upper shelves there are some empty boxes, some Warhamemr figures I got when I started the hobby and some other random stuff...lots of sand from Tunisia (my parents LOVE the country), I use for my basing. There is also sand in the blue ice cream box on the table and behind them, there are my bits boxes and you can see some kitty litter stored. Comes in handy! Nothing special to the right of the table, my computer, some more books and some more junk. When inspiration strucks, I will toss the unnecessary things away. I promise!

Here is a close up on one of my jars. It says "Enjoy Sara-jevo", and I, obviously, got it while I was in Sarajevo. I wanted it as soon as I saw it. It might look a bit lame, but I found it funny. Next to it there is a close up on all the tiny 15mm bits. Should've rearrange that one day, too. Maybe even ( :O ) put them in drawers....about drawers. I only got three dedicated to hobby at the moment, two small and one larger.

On the picture below is one of the smaller ones:

 You can see some tools, some cork off cuts, some spare blister packs (will come useful once!), spare blister cardboard and some extra random stuff. Second smaller is only half-arranged, as all it has is some random papers, cutters and "olfa" knife I use for heavy-duty cutting.

My bigger drawer, currently occupied by few assembled zeds, few WIP greens, some survivors, vehicles I've written about last week and some WIP houses.

Here is a sneak-peak view of my mantic zombies, check the crawler, I've chopped his hand on 2 places to give an impression of him pulling himself  away from his legs. Torso Y U no wait?! Next to them you can see I've finally had enough and decided my sculptures can be "done". I glued 3 of 6 heads on them, because only the smallest of WGF heads somewhat fit. I really made those too small, but hey, thats why it's called "practice", not "perfection", eh?

Thats all for today, I could mention I was writing that post since sunday...hardly found time to finish it, but now, after a long, pretty bad day, I found some joy in finishing it. Funny how good this blog does me. Thanks again for all the support, I am glad I've decided to start this project all together.

Cheers,
Matevž

Careful! Undead on the way!

Hello guys,

firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for checking the blog as I've reached 1,000 views. That is really something, next, we go for 5k! :D

Also, I got some WIP pictures of my first 3 zeds, which also happen to be my first 3 28mm miniatures painted.
They need bases fixed, which I'll do with drybrushing gray (and by that I mean grey :P) over the black to give it urban feel. I was thinking about leaving them as they are, that is, much dilluted black paint over the white primer. Doesn't look that bad at all. And I have to paint the rim of the  bases. Last thing that needs fixing are the zeds themselves. I will probably mix some dark red and paint the areas that will eventually get blood on them, so I can seal them with matt varnish and they're good to play. When I get my hands on tamiya's clear red that everyone loves, I'll put some blood on them. I got to keep it little, I've decided, so I can paint my ragers covered in blood to make them visible from far, hehe. I'll use mantic zeds for ragers, but can't have 30 of those, can I? :P

So, to the zeds.

I've decided that I should name them all. Just for the character. Those poor souls used to be humans back then and I am sure they have feelings, too! We could just give them the right to vote!
Names are not decided yet, but every zombie will be either, for example Ex-Bob or Was-Bob. Any suggestions?

Back to the painted examples.
Trio is from WGF zombies. For skin, I went with german fieldgray undercoat and then mixed dead flesh, ended with pure dead flesh (I use vallejo colours). I never been fan of green zombies, but I quite like how it game out, actually. The details on the zeds are really bad, so it was hard to make much of them. They looked weird before I got clothes painted, but I think its good enough for the table as it is.
The first guy from the left is un-WGFish as he is "much" converted. He has army pants that I've painted (what I wanted to be) khaki, just because 3rd guy was all khaki. As I've said before, I'll paint them 3 at once using more or less same colours so it speeds up the paining and gives a decent variety. His shirtless torso was greenstuffed to make him wear a sweater and his left hand was repositioned, so he looks disturbingly cool. Blue sweater has no reson, I just liked  blue. As you can see its highlated more by the feel than any science, hihihi. Second guy could be an Ex-policeman or Ex-gaspumpshopworker, as he has blue uniform. Failed highlighting as with the first one, but again, up from far, it ain't horrible. Third guy is Ex, or Was, if you prefer, Steve. He has the most story behind him. To hint you, he wears (what, again, should be) khaki sleveless vest and khaki "adventurer" shirt. You can see he has nice semi-long blond hair. He's a crocodile hunter. And he is one of the 3 that I think, look better up close. From far his  khaki dress merges with his green skin and he ends up looking kinda naked. Actually, now that I look at him, its not too bad, but blue gives muuuch better contrast. He was most unfortunate, as you can see he caught a pipe while he was harmelessly shambling across the streets of (still) Unnamed city. Poor chap!
I've used "layering" and no washes, which gives them somewhat cartoony style. I've also used "NMM" tehnique instead of metal colors on the pipe. I must say I prefer them this way, gives them a humorous feel. Not the best models, but I really enjoyed painting them, listening to Alison Hewitt is trapped (thanks for suggestion  Zombie Chow, I wasn't aware of audiobook version) and thinking of a story of each unfortunate individual.

Thanks again for all the support and thanks for taking time to read,
Mathyoo

What's next?

Hello!

I haven't been prodcutive much, regarding the wargaming and I hope I will change this now.
I got my face colours and white primer yesterday, so I will start painting some zombies.

I've decided on white primer as I wanted it white to make colours somewhat bright. I've also got vallejo's bottled primer, that you apply with a brush. I've read so much about various spray primers, I've just decided to go "on foot".

I will paint 3 zeds at a time, to get variety of skintones until I could find "the one" and to paint no more than 3 zombies with same combination of colours, to make an overall variety.  The problem is, i only got few "normal" colors, the rest are earthy tones and other cammouflage. I will probably mix them up a bit, just too feel special :P.

I have also decided on my ruleset. I will go with Iron Ivan's No more room in hell. Brummie is my personal hero so if its good enough for him, its good enough for me :D. After I get the rules, I will also check Shelldrake's house rules too see what fits. And with the money I save on buying one book, I can easily afford most of the FOW matilda tanks that I will probably play.

As I only got 5 females with pistols, as far at the living go, I will probably order some survivors from TAG. I haven't yet decided, but I was looking for SWAT figures and some african militants with bolt rifles, pistols, smgs and such. I will probably get my army forces from Eureka's french line. They're what I found to be the closest miniature of Slovenian soldier.

As for the zeds themself, I am just basing them, as I forgot to do it earlier. As I've decided showing zeds with standing in a sandbox isn't too interesting, I haven't really bothered taking the pictures. I wanted to post some other picture, but there is something wrong with the blogger and it doesnt work....well, I'll save it for the next time!

Thanks for reading and hopefully, I'll have the undead horrors painted by saturday or sunday!

Mantic zombies - unboxing

Hello everyone!

Mantic are another producer of plastic miniatures. Their "Kings of War" range is meant for fantasy battles, but their zombies, that I am going to show here and probably also Ghoul regiments are good source of cheaper plastic miniatures, suitable for beginners as myself and probably for anyone who wants to bulk their horde with some cheap miniatures. I think they're pretty useful as ragers, as their poses are pretty offensive. But unless you need 30 (which is AT LEAST how many you get in a box) ragers, they can fill the job as the "ordinary" zombies.

Here is a box they come in:

And the back side:

Nothing special, as you can see, front is quite nice but the back side is somewhat poor, I guess. It does, however, show you some of the more interesting poses you can make, like a 2 zombies made from one by splitting it around a waist. I can imagine a diorama with upper half crawling behind lower shouting "Yo legs, Y u no wait?!"

Inside the box are sprues. As with WGF not protected or anything, just put inside. As I write this, I remembered I thought I read how they should come with a carry case or something. Well, anyways, there should probably be 10 zombies sprue as you can make 3 standing zeds from one sprue. I got 11, because I've been a good boy this year. There are also 3 sprues of 10 bases each, which I won't use because I've decided on using 25mm slotta bases for my figures.




Each sprue holds enough parts to make 3 standing or 4 mixed zombies. So, in a box of 30, you could actually make 40 if you wish. Legs are nothing spectacular, they're all wrapped in rags, which is bad for modern looking zombies, but somebody figured you could just paint them in white or light blue to represent patient's gowns. I can't find the author, but keep in mind that is not my idea. I do like it, tho. The rest will probably be modified here and there, for variety and modernisation. Three torsos are pretty dynamic, almost too dynamic. You will see at the 3 models I've put together how unlimited is my imagination and the ability to make each individual zed a bit different. Two of the torsos have only one arm and you can choose between three arms. The bad thing is, only one of those is "normal". One holds an arm, second a head (great idea, imo, but I don't want 10 of my zeds to carry something). There are 6 heads per sprue, which offers a great varierty. Then you get a spine and some guts for torso-less zombie and a round base to make legless zombie.

Here is a picture of two sprues so you can view both sides and bases sprue:

And Mantic sprue compared to WGF zombie sprue (keep in mind you need 2 mantic sprues to makes 6 zeds and only one WGF for same ammount):

Below you can see pictures of my assembled zombies and some scale shots of WGF zombies and urban war females:

Still influenced by the trip,

Thanks for reading,
keep calm and carry on! :D

Toys, toys, toys

Hello guys!
I am just back from "up there", had a lovely time, finally saw the city everyone keeps talking about and even got me some new toys.
Here is a picture of all the wargaming-related loot together:

What we got here is:
- A box of 30 mantic zombies, some pilles (remember how I cried about ruining a mini with a hobby knife?). I will do unboxing review for Mantic zombies shortly.
- Garbage truck (they had them in white, yelow and green, figured white is the best), I could also pick that other garbage truck with that huge dumpster, but this one is much nicer and I figured one is enough.
- Street cleaner truck. Those two trucks are 1/56 trucks, got them for 2 pounds each from Morrison's. Scale is spot on, heh.
- The rest is from Poundland, so pound per pack. Got two hummers that I also saw somebody else got on the blogs, but can't remember who. I've picked two as I've figured I wouldn't need any more. They're a bit small compared to rest, but I think they're great. Just need some repainting. I got pack of 3 police cars. Now let me make this clear. They're not the same! Those are patrol cars 911, 112 and 120 :P. I also got pack of 3 random cars, nothing special, but hey, one for 33,3333 sounds good. Lastly, I got myself two buses (hey, I had birthday and could afford!). Will probably only use two on the same table when I will play on maps with totally blocked roads that look so cool. Those cheap cars are nice fillers, IMO. Generally, the police seem a bit out of scale.

So what I got for you are some bad scale pics. If you want to see better ones, please let me know and I will shoot some tomorrow. I'm dead tired at the moment. But can't sleep so that why I'm writing that, heh.

So, various vehicles and some WGF and urban war minies:

 A garbage truck and street cleaner. Cleaner has 5th wheel that actually turns its cleaning "mops" while you move it and the garbage truck is fully move-able...just so cool. To be honest, I'd love to have them all :D

 Street car and a hummer:

 Same street car and police car. The police car doesn't seem that large after all:

One of the buses. It's a colossus vehicle, but I tihnk its pretty good scaled...it might just look funny next to my buildings, I tihnk:

 And not as much wargaming as zombie related, bloody hands you can stick on your window! Picked those up at -50% while visiting London dungeons (which I really recommend visiting, if you ever find yourself close by):

 

So, what now? Got to build my streets to occupy them, of course! I really got pumped while I was hoarding all the goodies. And my paints have finally been dispatched, so next week, hopefuly, I will be able to show you my very first painted zeds. Won't get sculpting tools tho, so I will still have to work with my old ones. The week off was nice, but I can't wait to do something hobby related!

Cheers,
Matevž
(watch me being polite now!)

Concept "art"

Hello everyone!

On monday morning, while walking to my faculty day dreaming (you know, the usual), I was mostly thinking about what survivors would I try to sculpt. I got this great fluff idea and after few minutes of drawing during classes, I've came up with 4 ideas I'll show you below.

But first, I want to make few things clear. No. 1, all 4 guys are based on the information provided on the blog spot, most of the fluff is made up or twisted. If anyone of feels offended, please let me know and I will remove / edit the text or the pictures. No. 2 I've picked my "models" because those are only 4 I saw pictures of. Mostly of heads, so the rest is all just what felt right. And no. 3, this whole might-be project is meant as a compliment. And lastly, keep in mind I am no trained ilustrator :D.

So, now that I've scared myself a bit, what do we got?

I've drawn them on 2 pieces of paper, because I drawn last hero two times. I was not happy with first attempt and I am not happy with this one, so sorry hopefuly-you-can-recognize-yourself. And scale-wise, they're just drawn bad, keep that in mind too.

So, from left to right, shall we?
First, we got Sailor Joe. With a full house back home and chaos it brings, zombie apocalipse and an anarchy it brings is like a joke to him. He proudly wears his NAVY T-shirt from ol'days and his sailor hat. As much as you'd want it, his choice of weapon is not some girly crossbow, but a heavy anchor. Just make sure where you swing it, sailor, you could pop someone's eye with that thing! (you see what I did there? :P)
Standing beautiful next to him is a Motormouth Matthew, wearing a baseball cap and a backpack, as usual. His choice of weapon is WW1 style truncheon, read stick with nails. Might not be the most useful weapon to fight of zombie hordes, but looks cool. Going down with style!
Third in a line is Renegade Joe. I was slowly running out of ideas, so what he wears is a gun-for-hire trenchcoat and shades. The breaker of the women hearts, he said to be so smokin', dead ladies get back on their feet. Renegade here, is defending from his fans with double 9mm.
Fourth survivor is Badass Bryan. I should really think better about him. First version was armed with a shotgun and a pistol, but I went for english(er) approach. Gentleman, as you can see on the picture, is armed with a deadly english umbrella and a cup of tea. Those hordes will have to wait until fafter five, to get what they deserve!


That is it for today. When I was thinking about it, it seemed a bit cooler, lol. Again, no offense intended. I was seriously thinking about fixing them, giving everyone a firearm and a melee weapon or something, and add another survivor or two. I've heard Serious Simon is holding out somewhere, too :P. I must say I really enjoy the idea of "Team Bloggers" or something, for a campaign, hehe.

And I might add, I won't be around for a week now, I'll go check if London is really as nice as people say it is, hehe.

Thanks for taking time to read trough it all, I am really trying to tell the things on short!