Day One - Campaign Starting: Hit the ATM

The following lead-in to the scenario is rated "R" for bad language. If you want just skip it and go to the batrep below that big paragraph.

It seemed like all the news shows were carrying stories about the outbreak of what some media dicksmack was calling "Chinese Rabies or CR". Apparently a disease caused by some unknown pathogen, it caused its victims to become crazed, shambling, and murderous, biting and eating the flesh of the non-infected. It was reported that the the disease spread by being bitten by an infected person, making the bitten person "turn" within a matter of 12-24 hours into another ravenous thing. "Chinese Rabies, my ass", Joe thought, "they're Zombies". So far there were some reports of CR in big cities, especially ones with international airports, but nothing reported in small towns, yet, like Findlay, where  Joe and his family live. It was a Saturday and the kids and some of the grown kids were home at the house with their Mom. Joe had been scheduled for a 1/2 day at the Acute Clinic where he worked. Relieved at noon by the oncoming, Joe was headed out the door. The oncoming Doc said "I almost called off. There was a case of CR reported in Toledo." "Damn", Joe said, "That's too close. If any of those crazies show up, you should get the hell outta here. I'm gone, good luck." Leaving the clinic, Joe thought that things were getting bad fast. It's only 45 miles to Toledo. Shit, I better get home. I'll call home and make sure everything's okay. Entering the car, a little Hyundai, Joe saw the back seat was still  full of his son Stephen's junk. Most noticeable among the junk was Stephen's replica Katana. He had bought it a yard sale for 20 bucks. Steve had borrowed the car  recently and gone to a Renaissance Fair with some friends. He had the Katana sharpened at the Fair. He said the swordsmith had told him was a very good replica, and was worth considerably more than he had paid for it. It sharpened up very nicely. Might come in handy, Joe thought. Calling home on the cell phone, his wife Patti told him "Everyone is okay, but it looks there's trouble in Toledo according to the news. We might have to get some supplies, can you stop at the ATM and get some cash?" she asked him. "Sure, it's on the way home", Joe said.

And so the scenario begins.
I decided to do 4 destinations. 1- ATM. 2- Home. 3- Box Store. 4- Supermarket.
The following is an account of the trip to the ATM.
Joe Rep 3 Star Retired Military. Attributes: Slow and Stone Cold. Weapon: Katana.
Playing on a 4x4 foot table, I placed the ATM objective 18" from the starting edge.
Rolled on the "Getting There Table" vs. Rep. Passed 1d6 but since my Rep (3) was greater than the location # (1) it counted as passing 2d6 - Arrive there normally.
Parked the car at the table edge 18" from the ATM.
Per the rules, no zombies are placed at the start.
Turn 1
Rolled Activation
Humans 3 Z-4. Total was 7. Gotta check to see if a Zed is generated. On Day One Urban areas count as Suburban for Zombie Generation purposes. Need a 5-6 to get a Zombie. Rolled 4. Too low, no Zed.

Move - Did a fast move using the new Fast Move rule. Wasn't quite sure how to play it with the Slow attribute, but decided to ignore Slow since there's no mention of it in the new rule. Even a fat guy can run fast if he has to, at least for a little while. Maybe I'll Houserule it that Slow reduces the additional move by 1/2.  What are you guys doing?

Moving like a fat blur, our hero Fast moved almost to the ATM at the end of turn 1.

Turn 2
Activation: H -1 Z-6. Another 7, is a Zombie going to show up? Nope, rolled too low again.
Moved to the ATM and collected 3 Luxury items. I guess that's money for this scenario.

Turn 3
Activation: H-6 Z-3. Rolled too high to activate.
Nervous, Joe dropped some of the cash and had to pick it up, count it, and make sure he had it all. "#$%%@%" he muttered.

Turn 4
Activation: H-2 Z-1.
Fast Move: 14 inches toward the table edge.

Almost there.

Turn 5

Activation: H-3 Z2.

Got back in the car and headed for Home (Destination 2).

So, destination 1 is done. Once again my luck held out. Thanks for looking.

Pallets and Acheson Creations cover

Hi, folks. I haven't much free time lately so I used some of it for small projects. Here's some of them. First up are pallets. I had seen some really nice ones on other peoples' blogs and they inspired me to make some of my own.

These were made from matchsticks and coffee stirrers. They are 1" x 1" and 5mm high. I made 15 of them. Took quite a while because I split the coffee stirrers into about 3mm boards. The boards were then glued onto 1" lengths of matchsticks, 6 or 7 on top and 3 on the bottom. They were based on this picture from a commercial pallet website.

Once assembled I painted them with MicroMark Age It Easy Brown for raw wood. This stuff is very cool. It's alcohol based and won't warp the thin pieces of wood used in this scale. Once that was dry I  sealed them with Testor's Dullcote.

Next up are some very cool Acheson Creations Accessories. I had seen these on another Zombie blogger's site and thought they were really cool. These have got to be one of the best kept secrets on the interweb, beautiful resin terrain for 50 cents to $1 each.

The pic above shows a 28mm Hasslefree mini with a "28mm scale cluster of oil drums" and "two tires and fuel drum".

Pic above shows 28mm Tire Stacks. I really like these.

Pic above shows the "Cluster of 3 Wheelie Bins" and "Debris Pile #1".

Here's more Wheelie Bins and "28mm scale pile of oil drums".

These are very nice quick pieces of terrain that will add realism and nice cover to your tabletop. You can't beat the price and if you follow the link to Acheson Creations Accessories, above, you will see that they have some 15mm, 20mm and 28mm terrain pieces as well. 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

Nice gift from a fellow Zombie Blogger

Hi, friends. It's been a while since I've been able to blog. Work and other 4-letter words getting in the way. I've been able to fill a little of the tiny amount of free time I've had doing the scenarios in Max Brallier's "Can You Survive The Zombie Apocalypse?" That's really been nice and a great way to relax after a long day at work. What's really cool about this book is that it was a present from our beloved Vampifan of "Vampifan's World of the Undead". It's been said that the Zombie blogging community is the nicest group in the blogosphere, and Vampifan really epitomizes the kindness and friendliness of the Zombie blogger. Thanks very much, Bryan, for your generous gift and for all the inspiration and entertainment your blog gives the rest of us.

A few more Survivors and a Zombie

Hi, folks. I finished my EM4 Suits and the Tinpot Dictator to go with the Presidential limo I posted a while ago. I also found and finished a Black Orc Games Zombie I had misplaced.

Here's the Zombie. A nice little Bunny gone horribly bad.

Here's the EM4 Tinpot Dictator. This was a fun little model to paint.

El Prez with his bodyguard of jack-booted Government Thugs. I may also use these suits for some MIB type gaming.

That's all for today. Thanks for looking.

Some more Hasslefree Minis Survivors

Hi, friends. Here's a few more HassleFree Miniatures minis I'm using as Survivors.

This is Bubba, an Elvis impersonator. 

Next up are Jess and Tony. Tony is looking at a cellphone in his hand.

These two are Witch Hazel and William.. I'm hoping to use them when Two Hour Wargames releases After the Horsemen, their post-apoc Horror supplement for ATZ.

I only have a few Hasslefree Minis left to be painted. My son Stephen is working on not Nicholas Angel from Hot Fuzz, and PC Sam Ford is in the line for painting. Also just primered four EM4 suits and the Tinpot Dictator for use with the Presidential Limo I featured a few posts back.

Miscellaneous stuff: West Wind Night Rangers, SWAT Decals and a pretty tree

Hi, everyone. I got today off. Kids are at school, wife is doing things that don't involve me. So it's time for some fun. Here's the tree from the title.

This is the view out my painting window today. You may remember the pic of this tree in winter with the birds in it. What a transformation. This is right off the back deck. The air smells beautiful near it, the flowers are very fragrant. Great Spring morning.

Another shot of the tree from the balcony of my work room.

I was sitting there using the natural light to paint some minis and finish some small jobs. Here's one of them. I ordered some decals from Company B for my SWAT guys. Had great service and fast delivery. I applied the decals to my SWATies.

I think they came out okay. The letters are a lot better than I could paint them, that's for sure. :) I've got a lot more decals left. Anybody wants some send me a e-mail.

Next are my West Wind Night Rangers Special Ops guys. I decided to go with a camo uniform similar to the one I used with my Victory Force Zombies a while back. I mounted them on some
Fenris Miniatures 30mm round DS Rubble City resin bases. I love these resin bases. I kept the base paint jobs simple.

Nice, dynamic poses on these minis, and there's a lot of detail on the Fenris bases.

Well that's it for now. I want to get back to painting. I'm working on a couple more Hasslefree Minis; a not Spike and Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Thanks for looking.

Formula P3 Wet Palette

I mentioned I bought a P3 Wet Pallete a while back. I've used it a few times. It has some pros and cons, but overall, I like it.

Cons: I like putting the bad right up front cuz I'm a mean old man.
Cost
Cost is number 1. Mine cost $17 off e-bay with free shipping. A plastic box with a 1/2 thick piece of foam sponge and a 50 sheet pad of palette paper cut to size. Box dimensions are about 6" x 5.25" x 1.75". Refills for the palette paper around $11 for 2 pads of 50 sheets.

Paper drys out:
Stuff kept drying or curling. I tried adding more water and then the paints ran together. Also, when the paper gets wet it increases in size and no longer fits well within the box, allowing air to come in more readily and speeding drying. I did find a couple of work-around for the paper problems, which I haven't tried yet. One involved using magnets, the other was to place a moist paper towel on top of the foam and then place the paper onto that. I should mention, though, that even though the paper kept drying and curling, the paint was staying moist. So maybe more of a nuisance than a real problem.

Pros: Grudging acknowledgement that this is a pretty good gadget.
Size - A nice size for me because my painting space is so cluttered up so a small footprint is okay.

Effectiveness:
Keeps paint wet. It works well. I did some painting yesterday morning and just closed the box. When the lid is closed, the paper doesn't dry out, nor does the paint. Here's a pic of yesterday morning's paint this afternoon.

The paint is nice and wet and still usable 18 hours later. You can see where the paper is still popping up even after resting overnight with the lid closed, but the paint is okay.

Recommendations:

Buy one of the P3 Wet Palettes if you've got money burning a hole in your pocket, they're pretty good.

Or make one yourself.
Components:
Dollar Store reusable plastic food storage container of a size you like. I got a pack of 4 for $1.
Dollar Store foam sponges: 1 package with 2 sponges for a dollar.
Paper towels or napkins: I had some already but readily available for a buck.
Reynolds Wrap Parchment Paper: 15 inches wide by 24 feet long, Walmart $3.

This Parchment Paper is what I'm using now instead of the P3 paper on my P3 wet palette. I just cut it to size.

LuckyJoe's Cheapass Wet Palette

Pic above shows the container with 2 sponges trimmed roughly to size. They've been moistened and are ready for use.

A moistened paper napkin placed on top of the wet sponges. 

A piece of moistened P3 palette paper added on top of the paper napkin. I figured I'd give the P3 paper another chance to see if the addition of the napkin/paper towels makes a difference.

Here's the homemade unit ready to go. I'll let you know how it works.

I've been curious about wet palettes for a while. I think I like them. I hope you'll try them out and tell me what you think, or your experience with them if you've already used one. Thanks for looking.