Sunday 22 October 2017

Another Walk with the Dead - Battle Report

Hello everyone,

After a busy weekend so far, I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up in my postings and share with you a Walking Dead report from a game I played about a month ago with my buddies Mike and Duncan.

As usual, Mike beat me to the punch on this one long ago, Mike's Report, but some things, like a fine wine...blah blah blah and such...

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the pics...again, it was a fairly quick game and I really enjoyed the flow and the game...

Take care.

Unfortunately I did forget to take pics for the first few turns...my crew included Shane (leader), Allen, Dale, and Craig...each of my guys had enough points that they could pack some heat in this...and I thought I would use Dale with his marksmanship skills to serve as a pseudo overwatch for the team...
My team deployed in the compound behind the gas station next to the Blue-Mart...Mike deployed in behind the store, basically over the wall at the edge of the table, and Duncan's crew was ear the entrance of the Blue-Mart...by the time I remembered to start taking pics, I was about to get bounced by a couple of zombies and I was trying to get Dale in los to take a ranged shot...I had generated some noise with very little return until that time...

Duncan was off to a rough start with zombies already trying to break into to his guys near the front door...Carl and someone else was there attracting a lot of attention

I had initially tried to make my way in the opposite direction of the gate and Blue-Mart, but Mike drew a card that allowed him to start a small fire...so he elected to start a fire near the only exit along the wall that joined our 'areas' keeping me caged into the compound and committed to the compound gate...

Rick shows up...on his horse...to try to help the crew stuck near the store entrance...if I remember correctly it did not go well for the team...or the horse he rode in on...

I opened up the gate in time to put a couple of shotgun blasts downrange into some zombies...and I think I tried to get at one of Duncan's figures...he put some hurt in my direction and I lost Craig...hardly had a chance to get to know him...

RIP Craig...at least he didn't become a zombie as well...

Immediately after losing Craig, Mike picked up a card that let him unleash zombie hell...and him and Duncan elected to place as many as possible in my direction...fair play and all I guess...
 
Long view on Shane at the gate...I was successfully able to reclose the gate effectively blocking any access that the zombies had to my area...

Things were heating up for Rick...and his horse...near the Blue-Mart entrance...I think Carl was in a bit of a world of hurt at this time too...

The first shot I took of the area I ended up being restricted too...crowd of shambling zombies trying to find a way to get to me...

Shane and the gang beating feet out of there...the rage (?) or threat...I can't remember was to high so we had a turn or two to get outta dodge...

Rick's horse becomes zombie kibble and Rick is still kicking ass...although I think Carl has died by this time...and Duncan is also trying to get his guys off table

In the end I was 3 for 4 with 2 loot piles collected...not too bad, pretty happy with the game and outcome.

Tuesday 10 October 2017

Zombie Horde

Hello Everyone,
 
Hoping that all is going well in your collective domains and homelands...just a quick post today as I show off some pics of my attempt at zombies.  I know I'm a little late to the game...haha, very punny...and the zombie trend has been long established, BUT, here I am.
 
On the heals of my recent tries at The Walking Dead and my caving in and buying into the fad, I thought I'd better get some undead painting under my belt so that I can tackle all of those Mantic beasties and survivors.  I headed back to my favourite recent resource, and looked up Sorastro to see his take on the undead in his Zombicide painting.
 
 
 
As per my experience thus far, I did find his video very useful...to be honest, it did take a lot of consulting to specific moments and colour choices in the video to get comfortable with tackling this horde, but I'm glad to have the resource handy.
 
More than a few years ago, I had purchased a bunch of figures from a local gamer who was thinning his collection...I had bought a variety of Studio Miniatures, Hasslefree, and Blue Moon zombies and survivors as a timid step into the zombie world...and like many purchases they had to take their place in the queue on the workbench.
 
Fast forward to this summer...and the time for the Blue Moon figures was here!! This is an assortment of zombies and undead that each come in two parts...torso with head and legs with base...it seemingly gives you extra options to make your collection more unique.  Given my foray into Frostgrave there is a real need for having zombies at the ready...So, armed with a video reference and a setting, I thought I'd make my first horde ready for the Northern City.
 
The colours are a mix of brown, green, and blue.  I based the figures in whatever sprays I had laying around and ended with an assortment of Army Painter Uniform Grey, Vallejo Chieftain Green, or Vallejo British Armour (Italy)...the Uniform Grey was for the zombies that ended up as pale bluish; Chieftain Green was for the pale green, plaguey looking zombies; and the old British Armour (Italy) was for the rotty, old looking puke brown zombies.
 
That's about it for now...enjoy the pics...thanks for views and constructive critiques as always.
 
Take care. 
 
 







 
 


 






 
 
Painting so far in 2017:

Painted:
28mm - 76
15mm - 17

Bought:
28mm - 97 (+4, had a pack from Studio Miniatures come in the post this week, happy bday to me)
vehicle - 1

15mm - 132 (+132, added plastic box of Battlefront Strelkovy Company)
vehicle - 7
 
Overall PROGRESS: -144

Thursday 5 October 2017

A Little Imperial Assualt Update

 Howdy all,
 
I hope everyone is safe and doing well...I have been plugging away at the figures from the Imperial Assault Core Set (or corset according to a recent typo of mine on TMP, lol) and had made some progress in August and into September.  I am still an avid fan of Sorastro and have come to rely on his videos as a constant source of inspiration and some how-to steps along the way.
 
If you haven't seen his videos yet, CHECK THEM OUT, you won't regret it...my son and I had gotten some Assault games in near the end of summer and are having a great time with the game...the lad is very 'helpful' in pushing me to keep painting the figures, and I certainly notice he is much keener to play with the painted up figs...
 
I decided to paint up his favourite mini in the box...and have linked Sorastro's video below...without a doubt my son loves the Imperial Probe Droids...much of this stems from some rule misunderstandings him and I had in playing with/against them, but even since we ironed those kinks out he still prefers the droid...so, I thought I'd make them next on the workbench.
 
 
In this case, I did lend heavily from Sorastro's video and went with some hints of metaillic/gunmetal with these figures.  Because there are 3 of them I decided to base each of them differently, I went with the 2 types I've been using so far with my Stormtroopers and the 3rd one I based in a Hoth style basing...I also painted that one up with a blue metallic tone...I'm really happy with how it turned out and I don't think I would have had the idea without watching the video first.
 
1st droid based using Agrellan Mud for the texture look, 2nd ala Hoth, 3rd using Stirland Mud with desert yellow underneath
Hoth droid...I really like how the Drakenhoff Nightshade changes the feel of the mini and adds some great character...
 
I used an Army Painter strong and dark tone wash on the other 2 droids to give it a dustier hue...again, very happy with how the washes are working for me...
 
The next figure I tackled was Luke...this one came with the Core Set and features a Death Star themed Luke as he's firing a Stormtrooper's blaster and wearing one of their utility belts...because of this, I simply went with an all black base finished with 'Ardcoat to give it that nice floor shine that the Death Star is known for...
 
The next fig's I tackled were the Nexu...it took some internet googling to see where these guys were from...I hadn't seen Attack of the Clones in some time so had forgotten about these ones...while there is a great video on how Sorastro painted these guys up, when my son and I saw them all we could think of was our cats...or even Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon...
 
 
Am I wrong...or do you see it too...anyway, we have a very black cat that reminds me of Toothless and a greyish coloured Maine Coon cat... 
I wanted to have some contrast between the 'hair' or spines on the back and the rest of the colour...these reminded me of the quills on a porcupine so I tried to emulate them in the painting...
 It took me a bit to figure out how to paint these guys up...I think I had them on the painting table for a week or two until the colours started coming to me...I'm happy with how they turned out...they are less 'stripy' than any google images I saw, but given the inspiration I used, I'm very happy with the end result.
 
Take care...
 
Painting so far in 2017:
 
If you read all the way to the bottom of my last post, you'll see that I had made some recent purchases and had gotten some 'dad' gifts from the family...adding all these up into the tally below has really changed my +/- progress, but I will see how much in the + I can bring the progress bar in...looking forward to tracking it.
 
Painted:
28mm - 64
15mm - 17

Bought:
28mm - 93 (+40, added Imperial Assault Twin Shadows expansion; The Walking Dead Core set, Neegan pack, Sara pack, Days Gone By expansion; and a few single figures and scatter pieces)
vehicle - 1

15mm - 132 (+132, added plastic box of Battlefront Strelkovy Company)
vehicle - 7
 
Overall PROGRESS: -152