Alive and kicking!

Nope, not your favorite 80's song!

Ending Strange Aeons streak, I've painted some zombie hunters / survivors...call them what you will. I still have loads to paint for SA, but I felt joy has turned into mindless painting, so I figured switching a genre should help.

Before I start, excuse the shine...it comes from Vallejo mat varnish (or so they label it). The first bottle I used (17ml) was fine, but now I am suffering trough 60ml of this semi-shiny liquid and I don't like it. Considering the season, I might go pick up a mat varnish in spray and give all those miniatures a quick run do dull the shine a bit.

So, on to the survivors. Every single one of them is converted (yay!) From left to right, we got converted mantic-hasslefree Ken. This one had deformed G36 rifle (I got replacement :P), but otherwise, miniature was fine. I've decided to go all patriotic with it and I converted a rifle a bit, making it FN F2000S. It is a damn sexy rifle and my great life plan is making a bunch of slovenian (or is it slovene?) soldiers. I've also gave it a civilian backpack and "skull" mask over his face. My painting doesn't really show it, but in general, I'm quite satisfied with it.

The police officer in the middle comes from TAG, SWAT officer with baton and shield. Now, I've had this one laying around for quite a while and I really like it. Idea for him comes from suggestions I've found when I've joined Board of the Living Lead,  your place of choice for all living lead fans. I've piled his glasses and sculpted him a helmet visor (but you could buy those from TAG, check modern russian accessories). I have made his silly stick into a zombie-hacking machine - an axe. He wasn't awesome enough, so I've drilled trough his radio and gave him a sawn off...just in case. You can see he has his right hand protected by chainmail. I have no idea if he got it from a butcher or a diver, but it does a job! As you can see, his shield is quite bloody...I am no expert but I'd say someone was decapitated with it (dramatic sound)!
Decal was sent to me aaaages ago by Lucky Joe - Thanks man!

Last guy comes from TAG as well, he is a freebie miniature (search headhunter). This one is the least converted, he was given a TAG holstered pistol (search modern US accessories, IIRC) and an over sized harness...I'm learning! I have tried doing some stringy gore with UHU glue and pulled the strings from the dead head down to the floor, but it snapped.

Vehicle is from poundland, got it in April. Not the best around, but hey, it's an ambulance! :P

I don't have much interest in moderns atm, but I have to say I really enjoyed painting some gore again. I will post in bigger intervals now, as my mojo still isn't quite back, but I am aiming for at least a post per week...if nothing else, I have a lot to "think" about - sci-fi mutant hunt, cold war gone hot drooling, and there was one other thing I was really into, but it has escaped my mind atm!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Modern survivors conversions

 I am neglecting hobby due to all the work I got with my study, but here are some photos of two conversions I've been doing lately:

First is TAG's riot policeman (4th guy from left here. When I've joined Board of the Living Lead there was a discussion about useful survivor's equipment. I am not certain who it was (think it was Brummie), but someone mentioned chainmail against sharks and talked something about a pike and a shield as an useful weapons to fight the hordes. That was the basic idea, the rest was just added as I saw fit.
He will have a riot shield attached, but so far, here is the list of modifications:
A visor instead of tactical glasses. Protect the face!
A baton turned into an axe. Hack it, don't smack it!
One hand got dressed in the chainmail, against the bites!
Lost a little radio on his back, gained sawn-off shotgun. Explanation needed?

 The second is a mantic-hasslefree Ken. I've got mine misscasted and replaced (with no hassle, good job mantic here). I was left with the miniature that provided a nice basis for some converting. I changed his G36 for F2000s our army uses. An "interesting" fact: Slovenian army was picking between G36 and F2000 at one point, deciding to go with belgian gun nobody uses instead of german field proven piece. It is a bullpup gun, but I think I roughly got the shape without it looking too wrong. To really make it F2000s (mind the S for "Slovenian", yay), I'd need to put a red-point aiming device on top of the rail. I did no further conversions for a long time, but I've lately modeled the back-pack and a face mask for some more variety.

Thats it for today,
next time, we can discuss all the good guys that bring presents to nice slovenian children in December. Yes, plural. No, not zombie related.

Cheers,
Mathyoo

TAG Deltas in civilian clothes

Hello,

I am a bit "late" with my post, but the good thing is, I got "my" camera back. And few litres of desert sand for the figures, lol.

I haven't been idle while this week at all. I got some more zombies painted (will show them next time, I can't give you guys everything at once :P), I am moddeling some FOW minefield counters and I am curretnly painting 2 of 4 Brummbar assault tanks. Those are last miniatures for FOW that have remained unpainted and I am pretty sure haven't seen a game yet. I ordered them because I've needed them on a torunament, but they came late, so my friend borrowed me his. When I got them, plastic parts really killed my joy and I've put them together and primed them. Then new edition came and brummbars are not as useful as they were (which is, to be honest, good, because now they can't be used to hunt tanks, which wasn't their historical role anyways). I'll surely put them in my next army, just so I get a go with them. I really, really need to play FOW more again. And painting those is a hope to get me in.

Well, my interest in zombie wargaming is not as stagnant, I've painted those two TAG's Delta operatives in civilian clothes:

The guy on the left is THE most characterful figure I own, imo. He's really awesome. Its hard to see on that photo, but I've covered his left arm in tattooes. Its nothing more but a bit of german grey (that I lately use instead of black, it just feels better), mixed with flesh tone, just slapped on without any real pattern, then I've patched it a bit with skin base colour, washed, and did skin as I usualy do it. That dulled the tatto and I think it made it a bit more realistic. The other guy is nothing special, compared to him, lol. Theyre both nice, I really enjoyed painting them, but there is one problem....my 60ml (!) bottle of vallejo matte varnish is somewhat "satin". You know, glossy, but not gloss. And I hate it. Seriously, the 17mm bottle was fine, but this annoys me way to much. I'll shake the bottle next time, to see if the problem gets fixed. I am by no means a perfectionist, but that really annoys me. If I'd want satin, I'd get myself satin -.-.

Sculpting wise, Im making some little progress with the bodies. I'll speed it up and call them done pretty fast. I am not satisfied with them, but well, they're supposed to be crappy as those are my first TRULY finished miniatures. But let that be a topic for another post.

The interesting fact: First to comment will post 400th comment on this blog! Thanks for that, too!

Cheers,
Mathyoo

The Phantom group

 Hey,

a bit late with my next post, but I was doing a little of everything and I've ended up with nothing to show. I've painted TAG's SAS without packs . I've decided to call them The Phantom group (after watching Young Indiana's Jones Chronicles epizode Phantom train :P). In my story, those are special forces soldiers, who, after the apocalypse, took over recon missions. They operate around the safe places that are still run by the government. My certain team is obviously on a short mission, as they got no packs (yes, I wanted to buy minies without packs and yes, I'd buy those with biggest backpacks if I could pick again :P). I've painted them in urban uniform with olive drab equipemnt, as I did it with Grom. The cammo gave me quite some trouble as those minies have bigger surfaces than just the pants of Grom. I think I made too big blobs of white and german grey (not black!), will fix it next time. Their scarves were painted as usual arabic ones...didn't knew what else would I want to do. I might add everyone has its own colour, we got black, red, green, blue strips). Lets take a closer look...

First  soldier is armed with M4 rifle, equiped with red-dot aiming device and a tactical lamp. He looks a bit like robber with that scarf pulled over his mouth. I am sorry to see bare heads, to be honest. I'd give them all boonie hats! The second solider is armed with M4 and M203 grenade launcher. NMRIH doesn't have special rules for grenade launchers, but I will just play them as greenades that have a further range. IRL, their killing power is much bigger, if anyone is interested :P. Third guy has the best kind of vest (check second photo for the back details...i love the net). He is armed with FN Minimi...or M249 SAW for the Americans, or L108A1 SAW for the British. Fourth figure is armed identically as the first one and is my favorite mini of the 4. He has a cool boonie hat. Obviously, he was chosen to lead this team! We could probably even give him a name at this early stage...something like...out of my head....Ian "Shell" Drake or something :D.


What is cool about those minies, is the IDEA of the face paint. It, however, didn't work. There is something that bothers me, but I can't really define what excatly...its just wrong.  Here's a close up of probably the best attempt:

Thats about it. I will go sculpt and model more this week, I am working on two characters for the campaign, but I will show them when I also get the rest. The problem is, there are too many people fit to fight the appocalypse and I will probably leave some guys out. FOR NOW. Because I'd have to order from Copplestone's  to get those certain minies :P.

Well, thats ALMOST it for today. Because I also have to show you this cool freebie Pete at TAG's sent me as part of his facebook thingie:

When I was chosing mine, I knew I wanted this one. Its TOTALLY made for the zombie apocalypse. I can imagine you could see men chopping someone's heads during the outbreak!


Thanks for looking,

Mathyoo

Unboxing The assault group miniatures

Hello,

the assault group has entered the building!

I would like to say it right on the begining. I have nothing to do with TAG at all, I've only ordered one order. But wow, I love them! They mostly produce historical wargaming stuff that I don't play, but I'll surely go back and buy some russians and all once I get around to gaming chechen wars. Or something. I like those MVD russians with visors. And the rest of the SWAT guys. The rest, you ask? Well, I got the best pack now!

Miniatures came as they always do, in a nice carboard box with some filling to keep the minies safe. This is what was in the packet:

Oh, yeah, sorry for blurry pics again. I blame the enthusiasm this time!

 From left top to right bottom we got .50 cal SWAT sniper freebie, SAS guys, SWAT with gasmasks (sooo cool!), a bag o'weapons and equipment - I've really complicated my order here and I must thank Pete for a hundreth time...such a great service. Then we got mixed african militia with SMG (I wanted the one with MP5, but I wrote it wrong, I got what I asked for. I really liked the other one for a conversion, but I will just make this one work). In there are two deltas in civilian clothes and another SWAT guy,with a riot shield. Also ment for converting. Last pack is mix of african militia with rifles and shotguns to represent random survivors.

 Above is a large scaleshot pic. We got mantic zed, mantic-hasslefree Kev, TAG, Mantic, TAG, mantic-hasslefree tony, TAG, WGF zed, TAG, Urban war girl, mantic.

 A closer pic of a part of the line. Keep in mind Hasslefree's Kev is on the smaller scale on purpose. And that mantic zeds are a bit larger, so I guess we could say TAG's minies are a little bit on the larger side.

 Another part of the line, this time with smaller TAG mini (african with SMG) and WGF zeds, which are a bit smaller figs overall.

Here is the poor missordered mini. I wanted african militiaman with MP5 and a baseball cap, but I've already think of ideas how to use this guy. If all goes well, this may even end up as a better choice!





If I go on to minies themselves, they're made somewhat basic, compared to, say Hasslefree minies, but we must keep in mind, they're also much cheaper. Some of the weapons seem a bit small, for example one of the DELTA guys...but most of the miniatures seem pretty good to me. Detail is decent, eyes on some of the faces are a bit "hidden", but that can probably be fixed with a basecoat. I've bought a great variety of different pacs, but If you'd buy from same range...say, 4 packs of SWAT guys, you'd notice that they got same bodies, yet there are not two that would be the same.




I've decided to make a purchase because now I have a decent number of survivors to support my gaming. I could also buy some of the marines or british soldiers for the army, but I will go with SAS guys I bought for now. Then I will either keep it that way or I will go with eureka's germans. Honestly, I  think I'll just use SWAT for the "hard hitting" hunters.

The biggest gem in my order are the weapons. TAG sells them at 10 per pack, but Pete said I could mix as I'd want. I REALLY felt bad because I took horrible advantage over his kindness, but now I got such a great mixture of weapons that my survivors will acutally be able to find a 3D gun while searching the house. The downside of the idea is, that I need to get myself some furniture!

Well, thanks yet again for reading, I hope someone finds the short review useful. I will now go and base all the minies, diploma can wait. Then I will probably go make some sandbag emplacements and defenses so I can play "defend" scenario from NMRIH. With .50 cal emplacements. It doesn't get much cooler if you ask me!

Cheers,
Mathyoo

oh and it's Lord Siwoc's birthday today!