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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

WIP Modern City Board

Hi folks. I've been doing a little work on a city board for some ATZ gaming. I bought a couple of 1/4" thick 2x4 foot pieces of hardboard at Menards (a local DIY store). Board is divided in half by a painted on 12" wide road in the center, with a 6" wide road running along the top edge. That leaves an 18" square in each lower corner for buildings.
Picture above is not exactly to scale, but should give an idea of the general layout. I made two boards like this so they can be placed together to one 4x4 board.
Pic above is from about mid board looking toward the 60 zombies I've been working on. A mixture of 30 Wargames Factory and 30 Zombies made with WGF Legs and Mantic Zombie trunks and heads. I like the mixed ones a lot more than the straight WGF Zombies. I also mixed in some WGF Saxon heads I had bought from Hoard O Bitz off e-bay. I'll be posting more pics of these Zombies as I get them painted.
Pic above is looking at the horde from a side of the board.

Pic above is looking from the bottom of the board to the top, through the Zombies. I set up the top side of the board with 15mm/HO scale stuff to see if I can use the board for 15s, too. 

Pic above is looking from mid-board toward the North. That's a 15mm Old Crow Goanna in the foreground. The APC is a Bravo Team 1/72 M113. The buildings are H/O model RR.

Pic above is another shot of the 15mm side of town. There is a mixture of 15mm minis, another Goanna with a different weapon set, and a Combat Wombat Hover tank. The ruined building and the Billboard are from Proxie Models.

You may notice a lighter gray colored strip by the street in the pics. It is where the sidewalk will be. I took a few vinyl floor tiles and cut them into 1.5 inch squares. I spray primed them with Rystoleum automotive gray primer. Those will be added to the board soon. I think having a raised sidewalk adds more realism than a painted on 2d sidewalk.

And now for something completely different. Cue naked guy playing piano ala Monty Python. :)
I had placed an order with Sgt Major Minis for some Studio Miniatures Zombies. I got a great deal and a fast turn-around but am just now getting around to comment on them. I got set #2. They are beautifully scuplted, I can't wait to ugly them up with my mad paintin skillz. :) I had seen pictures of them on Vampifan's blog and had read how nice they are but they really surpassed my expectations in real life. But what I really think is also cool is the way they are packaged.

They come in a VHS box. I actually thought somebody screwed up and sent me the wrong item, at first. :) The back of the box also shows painted pics of the minis inside. Which I find very helpful. I didn't know Studio Miniatures did this with the package. It makes sense with a name like Studio, of course, but I still think it is very cool. Forgive me if I seem naive, this is my first set of Studio Minis, but it sure won't be the last.

Another first, I also recently got an order from Hasslefree Miniatures. I see these on other people's sites. (I'm looking at you Vampifan :). And have always wanted them. These and the Studio Minis Zombies are Christmas presents I asked for very specifically. No more queer purple goddamn slippers (she said she thought they were gray, WTF?!) Anyway, these are also some very fine minis. I chose ones from shows and movies I like; Buffy, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, and a few others.

It's been a good couple of days. Thanks, for looking and Merry Christmas and God Bless us, everyone.


 

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Gunshop for 28mm All Things Zombie Gaming

Hi, folks. Here's a little Gunshop I made for playing ATZ in 28mm. It was made from 5mm foamcore clad with strips of brick texture from a LeMax Christmas Village Brick Road mat, and based on a piece of a vinyl floor tile. Interior textures of walls and floors came from a mixture of WorldWorks Games sets, printed out and glued to the foamcore. The sign was also printed out from a WWG set and mounted on mounting card, stuck on the building with dual-sided removable sticky tape. The windows and doors were scratchbuilt and can open and close. There are also some Hirst Arts bits used; the rooftop AC unit and the electrical meter and conduit on the back wall are from the HA sci-fi molds. The gun cabinets were scratchbuilt from a mixture of Hirst Arts floor tiles, craft wood, and all the glass came from a plastic box of Christmas ornaments from Hobby Lobby. The guns for the cases came from either a Warzone weapon pack, or a Tamiya WWII weapon pack.
 Pic above shows the front entrance with a HaloClix for size.

 Pic above shows the back of the building. The silver device on the left is an electrical meter and conduit amde from Hirst Arts bits. The back door can open and close and was made according to Gisby's design for a door that can open and close found on the Combat Zone Chronicles Terrain section. It uses a bent wire that is glued to the back of the door. The wire runs up through the doorframe top and down into the base allowing the door to pivot.
 Pic above shows the back door open. You can see an interior door that alos opens and closes. It has a hinge tab piece inserted into the wall on the hinge side of the door. It can be bent inward or outward. 
 Pic above shows the roof piece with an AC unit. The AC unit is used as a handle to lift off the roof piece. The window was framed with craft sticks and the window itself was cut from a piece of clear, thin plastic, with a white cardstock flanged frame superglued to the "glass". The window was then glued to the craft stick frame using the cardstock flanges. The door is another piece of clear, thin plastic framed with thin pieces of plastic-card. It is hinged on the back using cylindrical beads glued to the back of the door, resting onto "L" shaped wires inserted through the craft stick door frame. This was originally planned to be a double entry but I was having a lot of trouble with making that type of hinged door, and just decided the other door was broken down and had been boarded over. The boards were made with pieces of craft stick cut to size. I  then drilled nail holes into each board and glued them in place. Then the boards were stained with "Age It Easy" from MicroMark. Also visible in this shot are the corner pieces to cover the joins. These were printed from WWG textures, cut and glued into place.
 Pic above shows the larger floor mounted gun display case. It was made from some Hirst Arts floor tiles, match sticks, craft sticks, and more of the thin clear plastic for glass.
 The top of the case lifts off so I can change out weapons.
 Pic above shows the case turned onto its side for a better view of the weapons.
 Pic above shows a rough workbench for the back room. Its made from Hirst Arts bits, including the crate. There's a Tamiya WWII flamethrower in the crate and a Warzone automatic shotgun on the bench top.
Pic above shows a wall-mounted gun display case with a couple of big Warzone Weapons.

Well, that's it for now. I may add some signage to the side walls of the shop. They're still pretty plain, Overall, though, this project is mostly done. I had a good time with this build. I wanted to revisit some techniques, door hinging in particular, and see how the LeMax brick sheet would work for modern buildings, I want this to be an especially nice table. I have a bundle of 6 Sarissa Precision 28mm City Block buildings I'm getting for Christmas, so this building has to be able fit in quality wise. Thanks for looking. C&C welcome.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Some Survivors for ATZ

I sorted out some minis to use in All Things Zombie. Most are Clix, some are Sgt Major Minis "Get Some! 28mm Sci Fi", and some Black Orc Games  as well. I also have an order in transit for some Hasslefree minis.
Pic below is a couple of Clix I'm saving for ATZ: After the Horsemen.
 These guys below can be Bosses or Objectives - Rescue the Scientist/Industrialist
 Below is a future conversion. Probably head-swap and add a pistol. He'll be good to go.
 Pic below is a couple of Clix Cops.
 Some Clix Paramilitary guys, Need a serious repaint.
 Survivors or Cops
 Future MIB - needs repaint and head-swap.
 Gangers/Thugs
 A couple of bad-ass Survivors. Probably repaint and cut cape off fig on left.
 Helo Pilot and Crew. Gotta fix the face on the crewman.
 A couple more Cops.
 Another Clix lady. She's part of my Black Widow gang. (Rest further down the page)
 Bad-ass Ganger Girls
 MIBs or FBI
 More Survivors 
 A couple of unarmed Gangers/Survivors
 SWAT
 Converted EM4 Plastic Troopers - Good jack-booted Government Thugs :)
 The Black Widows - EM4 Female Gangers
 SgtMajor Minis Get Some Jayne and Mal
 Clix Survivors - Gotta love a Priest with a Gun
 An old MageKnight conversion Survivor
  SgtMajor Minis Get Some Wash and Zoe. Wash will make a good Helo Pilot.
Thanks for looking. Most of these minis still need a little (some a lot of) work. Most of them are primarily filler I'll use for PEFs, but there are several that will become characters in their own right.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Clix Zombies



Hi, folks. I'm getting ready to do some All Things Zombie gaming in 28mm so I resurrected (pun intended) my Clix and Black Orc Games Zombies. There's 66 of the Clickies and 13 of the Black Orc Games Zeds. The Black Orc Zeds were meant to be Zombies, most of the Clix were not, though there are a few "true" Clix Zombies. The rest are just Clix that have been painted and dipped, sometimes converted. There are a few real gems mixed in this group. Very good sculpts and dynamic poses, others not so much, but they'll work well for filling in the horde.  The shots above are done with the Zs standing on a 2 foot by 2 foot Zuzzy "Broken Blacktop" mat. I really like this mat and I'm strongly tempted to get the 4x4 foot version.

Here's some smaller group shots:

By herself, she's a group.
 I may use her as a Tank.

Pic above shows some of the converted Clix Construction Worker Zeds.

Pics below show Death Valley Regional Health Center Staff and Patients.


     

Lady's Night of the Living Dead


Ragers



Tanks

Some mixed groups below








There they are for now. I've got Wargames Factory Zombies waiting. I bought some Mantic Zombie Torsos and Heads to mix in with the Wargames Factory Zombies for variety, and have an order in for Studio Miniatures Zombie Mob #2 from SgtMajor Minis. That'll bring the Horde up to almost 150 Zees. Still need a lot more. :)

Thanks for looking.