Trucco

Last year, my main gaming buddy Rob and me set out to paint up playable forces for Freebooter's Fate, While we have not yet contrived to play the game, we have been talking about what we want terrain wise to do so, and that in turn sparked some motivation from me to paint another addition to my Brotherhood Crew.

I started this mini a week ago and it continues a trend of some recent fairly quick (for me) turnarounds, which is quite pleasing. I don't really have a 'uniform' colour scheme for The Brotherhood, but all rely on a generally dark palette of colours, so I picked that up again with Trucco.

This mini adds another Specialist to my Crew and takes it up to exactly 400 doubloons if used in its entirety. It will probably be a next year before I finish another Freebooter's Fate model I guess, so my Crew will have to be made up from what I have available. Rules-wise the biggest difference between Trucco (100 doubloons) and Apagado (90 doubloons) is that Trucco has a ranged attack with his Throwing Knife.

I have also picked up a couple of 4Ground buildings recently, which we plan on featuring as terrain for our eventual games; I am going to a show next weekend so I will try and grab a couple more if they are available.

Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday, but painted over many days over several weeks! Grundy has long been one of my favourite DC villains, since first seeing the character in the pages of All-Star Squadron in the early 80's.

The character is named after a 19th century nursery rhyme, and for me has always had a very cool history and visual until New 52 shenanigans from DC, which for me ruined both his look, and unnecessarily (in my opinion) changed his origin.

As a kind of super-Zombie, I had hoped to finish Grundy during Zomtober 2014, but that was not to be. He is done now, and adding to my slow-build collection of Knight Models minis. I am a while away from a playable force, but that is due to the force construction limits of the game. You have to include a 'Sidekick' or 'Leader' for your Band, and cannot only use 'Free Agents', despite the fact that Free Agents make up the bulk of the models in the Batman Miniatures Game range. A quibble, and one that probably bothers  me more than other fans of the range.

I am not sure what I will paint next for the BMG range, I will have to wait and see where the fleeting muse takes me I guess - this could be a very slow-burn project, especially considering it has taken me a year to paint four minis so far from the range!

The Watchmen characters should really be something I try and focus on, if only to create a playable force, but time will tell. I could create playable forces from lots of other options right now, but I feel turned off from those other options by the fact that the game seems optimised towards henchmen. That is not borne out by playing though, and I may be completely wrong in my assessment! There is finally a print version of the game coming, so maybe my concern will be addressed there, and Band selection will be freed up a little.

That said, I have and will have a few alternative options to play the Knight Models minis in games with Power Legion, likely picking up Supersystem 4th edition at some point, and also through the development of Pulp City's 'build your own Supremes' rules.

Zombie Groups (update)

In a recent Zomtober 2014 post I mentioned my approach of 'colour triads' for my Zombies; basically the upper body clothing of a set of 3 Zombie minis painted with a matching colour shade, or a set of thematically linked minis like Zombie cops. The idea being that it become a set of models that can be visually picked out easily if required. Basically the principle is ease of identification of sub-groups on the table. It could be used to identify special Zombies etc., depending on the type of game you are playing.

I initially started doing that for running the Zombies in previous edition Pulp City 'Invasion' scenarios, but as it has proven useful in finishing sets of 3 minis,

I have since carried the practice on, especially as it may aid in-game activations wherever they be used, as well as not looking unusual as the horde grows. Of course it is probably irrelevant for a lot of Zombie games, but it works for me, and it also makes choosing paint colours easier.

I have shown some previous Zombie Groups on the blog, and thought it was time for an update, with the 'green', 'orange' and 'black' triads.

I have started the 'white' group if you saw my Zomtober 2014 bonus post. I also plan to eventually paint up some Zombie religiously themed minis, and of course I need more Zombie Clowns for a set or two of those; note I said need there, not want - Zombie Clowns are the scariest of Zombies, hands down. So plenty of groups to tackle in the future!

Roll on Zomtober 2015!

Zomtober 2014 Bonus Mini!

Well, caught up with some retained Zomtober 2014 painting momentum, I have managed to crank out another shambling dead mini before the end of the month, which can be seen here. I started this one while working on the Week 4 entry, and of course it signals the start of another 'triad' (no doubt to be finished next year!).

This is not a favourite sculpt for me; the big hands and other flaws ensure that I am afraid.

I am not sure of the manufacturer - possibly Cold War Miniatures, but their site is under renovation so I cannot verify that.

Despite the flaws I find with the sculpt, it is another Zombie painted, and that means another body for the small horde. I hope I remember to get around to photographing the slowly growing mass at some point soon.

Zomtober 2014 has proved very useful for me, and the primary fruits of the month can be seen here together.

In all, I have painted 7 minis in the last month. From July to September I painted 8 minis in total, so getting a few things done this month has helped my mind set on the painting front, and aided getting minis finished for Anima Tactics too. That means I am looking forward to hopefully painting at least 5 - and hopefully more than 5 - minis over the next two months to maybe finish the year with a small flourish. Time will tell of course.

It has been great to see everyone's output who has participated in Zomtober 2014, hopefully each getting our own rewards by painting things we may have been putting off or need a nudge to do. The spirit and ethos of Zomtober is simple, and we made the only rule simple and manageable so that most painter-hobbyists could get something out of it if they have an interest in Zombie or Survivor minis.

Simon and I were discussing recently doing a summary of participants efforts, so hopefully we will get around to that; until then, once again, "Well done guys". :)

I know I will be back for Zomtober 2015, and I hope many of the same faces and new ones are too.

Dragon Forge Designs Kickstarter

Resin bases. I love them. And one of my favourite manufacturers is Dragon Forge Designs (Jeff Wilhelm). I love the crisp castings and designs Jeff creates, and he is into the final 7 days of a Kickstarter project for a new base style addition for his range.

The project is for his Ancient Ruins II style bases (click for link). If you like handsome bases, very well cast from grey urethane resin, then I heartily suggest taking a look. I have never been anything but pleased with the Dragon Forge Designs bases I have bought, and over the years that has been a lot I am so impressed with them.

Zomtober 2014 (Week 4)

The final deadline is met! This minis was finished yesterday, but was actually started sometime last year but left unfinished until now, mainly because I was struggling with the orange. I am not as satisfied with the orange colour on this as I was with the last of the orange triad I painted (see post here). Nonetheless it is finished and that is the main thing, even if it is far from my best painting. Definitely one to hang around the back ranks of the horde!

The mini clean up was poor on my part, but the casting was a little rougher than I am used to with Studio Miniatures; however it is what it is.

Still, I have achieved all my Zomtober deadlines this year, and I am pleased with that. More importantly, It has also prompted me to paint a couple of non-Zeds (here and here) this month, so that has been very pleasing. The ranks of the Zombies have been swelled a little more, although calling it a horde is being generous I suppose!

I have one more mini that I did some work on today, in between modules for an E-Learning course that has a looming deadline, so I may have a bonus Zed before the end of the month, time permitting.

Most importantly, well done to everyone who has participated in Zomtober 2014; it has been great to see everyone's productivity. :)

Zomtober 2014 (Week 3)

Week 3 was finished on Saturday, and I didn't feel I needed to rush this time. This one was stress free, which was very nice, and the deadline was nowhere near as close as the first two weeks!

It has been great again to see the Week 2 and week 3 posts in the last few days - well done guys.

This is the final Zombie of the 'green triad'; I will post group shot of a few more triads soon. The mini is from Crocodile Games, primarily known for the Wargods of Aegytpus/Olympus lines; they have two packs of modern Zombies which I picked up for their cops, which was before Studio Miniatures did their own cops.

Over this weekend I have done a little more work on another Zed, which means I have 3-4 in varying stages of completion. If I can finish two of those for next week I would be very satisfied.

One happy knock-on effect of Zomtober this week is that it has helped spark my motivation to get some other minis finished (including this one - click for link), which is a welcome bonus, and funnily enough something similar happened last year two; so Zomtober is the gift that keeps on giving at least as far as my painting is concerned. In June to September I painted 8 units (there is a 5 mini model counted as 1 unit for this purpose). In the first 3 weeks of October I have already finished 4 units, and could be at 5-7 by the end of the month.