Zomtober!

The target minis for Zomtober

Okay, being ever the sporadic painter and modeler  I have been challenged by my main gaming buddy Rob to get some stuff done.

To that end Rob has thrown down the Zomtober gauntlet: to paint at least one Zombie mini per week during October, and one bonus mini for a minimum of five in total. We have set each Sunday as the deadline for one mini per week (7th, 14th, 21st and 28th) and anytime before the 31st as the deadline for the bonus mini.

So the top picture has the minis I plan on finishing, and the bottom picture has those that I would love to finish in addition.

Other Zeds I'd like to get finished soon

We agreed that part-painted but unfinished minis could be allowed! We also plan to do something similar in other themes in occasional intervals.

I am still aiming to do my Zombies in groups of three tied together by a common colour (see here for a previous example). Let Zomtober commence! Well from tomorrow at any rate...

Outhouse/Store Shed (2)

Storehouses with two painting techniques

A second of these by 4Ground, to show the difference between the two painting styles I used.

The old style is on the left, and the newer style technique I tried with the Old West buildings is on the right. I know which technique's results I prefer...

Old West Buildings

Building by Sarissa Precision

Okay, been a while since the last update, and this week has seen some frantic painting and modelling. Rob conceived a basic idea for Hallowe'en Madness II, and that immediately kicked me into gear building all sorts of Old West what-nots that I had acquired in recent weeks.

Of those, these buildings were quickly painted using thinned down paints straight onto the laser-cut MDF.

Building by Sarissa Precision

I had planned to undercoat them and paint them up from there, but i then ran with an idea I saw on Lead Adventure Forum, and so settled for painting straight on. With the way the MDF soaks up the paint, it left me with a natural variation of colour that I felt was suitable for the types of building I am representing.

I then picked out some individual planks to paint with a thicker paint to break up the uniformity further. The buildings will eventually have some signage (measure are at hand in that regard!).

Building by Battle-flag

The two apex roofs were part of the kits as bought, while the flat roof had some scrunched up paper stuck on with thinned-down PVA, and a coffee stirrer cut into two halves length-ways and trimmed to fit.

While I was building these, I also tackled some wagons and a gallows, which are all near to finished and so should be posted soon. Or at least soon-ish.

New Gaming Table

Basic table top

I have been planning a semi-permanent table since moving house last year, but inevitably plans fell by the wayside as other priorities cropped up.

However, impetus was recently renewed when we (the wife and I) needed to order some building materials from Wickes, and she suggested that if I needed any stuff for my planned gaming table it would make sense to order it at the same time. I did not need to be asked twice.

36" x 32" battle-mat

The problem was always going to be a combination of limited access size to the attic, and my limitations as a crafts-person.  Seeing what the limits were I settled on assembling a 4' by 4' table top onto which I could lay battle-mats to represent grasslands; urban; sand/desert/dusty western town.

I had a spare bedside cabinet from the move last year, and picked up 3 more to form the 'legs' for the table top (they were on offer, saving me money I had not expected to save - talk about serendipity!). So a few nights ago I spent 2-3 hours assembling the 3 new cabinets, then today a couple of hours assembling the table top.

GW Battlemat

As you can see from the top picture the table is untextured; my plan is to simply lay on top what ever I need when ever I need it. the cabinets double up as terrain storage areas, complete with labels to make finding stuff easier. I have some terrain modules from Ziterdes that I plan on making into a nightmarish alien/other-dimensional landscape.

Not the biggest table in the world, but sufficient for my needs, and it means I can look at some home Anima Tactics, 7TV and Warmachine/Hordes gaming among other things. I may even dig out some of my old WH40K armies too!

So there should be now time and motivations to get some more minis painted.

Outhouse/Store Shed (Painted)

This is the 4Ground Outhouse/Store Shed I picked up and blogged about recently.

Assembly took around 25 minutes (see post here) and painting was also quick and easy.

As mentioned previously, the footprint is 4 inches by 2 3/4 inches and the building has a height of 2 inches sloping down to 1 1/2 inches.

The building was painted with and Army Painter spray Leather Brown base coat. Some by-hand touch up followed (also Army Painter Leather Brown), and then some dry-brushing with Stone Grey (Vallejo)  mixed with Leather Brown. I picked out some particular planks with Stone Grey to provide colour variation.

Hobby Stuff - Tablescape Trees

I love these trees from Tablescape, I really do. They don't shed flock like the traditional wire and flock gaming trees, and can survive being knocked over etc.

Added to that, they come pre-painted and I think they are simply marvellous. Of course tastes differ, but I wanted to draw attention to them for anyone who may be interested.

The trees are made of hard foam and are £3 per tree, or 5 for £14 at current prices. Tablescape offer two base sizes which can be seen in the picture. The bases come separately (but are included in the price) and simply screw into pre-made holes.

Hobby Tip 1
The underside of the 'foliage' is in the hard foam colour; simply paint it with some acrylic - 5 trees can be done in a matter of minutes. I use Vallejo Black Green for the two darker colours, and Vallejo Medium Olive for the more olive coloured trees.

Hobby Tip 2
The two base sizes effectively give two primary variations of height among the trees. More variation can be added by cutting down the trees. The underside of the 'canopy'/'foliage' is flat, and what I did was take off 0.5 to 1 cm on a handful of trees. As can be seen this allows for an increased variation of heights very easily, especially if you don't want mix the different base styles.

The cutting was done with a coping (or fret?) saw in some cases and a bread knife in others. The coping saw made for easier cutting. I then sealed the undersides with a thin coat of liquid green stuff before painting as above.

The trees (in picture above):
1. Normal uncut height, tall base
2. Cut down height, tall base
3. Uncut height, short base
4. Cut down height, short base

Looking For: Lots Of Dark Grey Acrylic Paint

Okay, I am after a lot of the same colour water based acrylic in a dark grey (think German Grey or Black Grey by Vallejo as an example); I need to paint circa 24 square feet of terrain, and so mixing is simply not an option since I may need to colour match at a later date.

I looked at docrafts Artiste paint which I like and is cheap, but they do not appear to do a dark enough grey (basically a not-far-from black kind of grey).

What I am looking for is:
1. paint in the right colour
2. available from a UK supplier
3. a consistency comparable to GW or Vallejo or similar (not thick and very viscous as some art suppliers paints)
4. not exorbitant in terms of cost.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it (an hour of google fu failed me this afternoon); feel free to comment below. Thanks in advance.

On other stuff, I hope to do a couple or so terrain posts soon, so watch this space.