Zomtober 2015 Summary

Another Zomtober closes and well done to everyone who took part.

No new minis to add from me in this post, but time for a little round up of what I managed to paint in Zomtober 2015.

This year I set myself three goals:

1. The primary goals was to simply paint 1 modern Zombie per week (four in total); 
2. The secondary goal was to paint something even tangentially related for each of Pulp City, Anima Tactics and BMG (3 minis in total);
3. The tertiary goal was to paint my remaining Shambling Zombies for Tooth & Sword (four minis).

Well, I managed all of those goals and a little extra!

The month has seen me paint or finish painting twelve minis in total, which is my most productive month since I started tracking my output in the past few years, which has felt very satisfying indeed.

The Zomtober deadlines have been really useful for me personally over the years, getting me to focus on finishing things, which I find challenging a lot of the time since like many hobbyists I am easily distracted!


So roll on Zomtober 2016, and don't firget, with Sunday deadlines it will be a '5 week month'!

Feralgeist

Enthused with painting motivation I tackled this Feralgeist: an undead mini for Hordes and Warmachine that has sat part-painted for far, far too long (looking back the model was part-painted as long ago as April this year!). I am not sure why it took me so long to get it finished, but whatever the cause, something did cause procrastination.

So definitely not a Zombie (more like some ghostly 'thing'), but finishing this was entirely down to a desire to clear something from the backlog while motivation lasted.

The Feralgeist adds another point to my Circle Orboros force, not much, but every little helps! Since my gaming buddy Rob has a few painted Khador minis, maybe next year we can try a game or two?

Since I started tracking my monthly, quarterly and annual painting output, this has been the most successful month of all, so even finishing a simple mini like this is nice for me just to make a dent in the dread lead mountain.

Zomtober 2015 (Week 4)

The final week for me (barring a 'bonus mini' after this post like I managed after Week 4 last year!), and thankfully I have met my original goals for Zomtober - one Zombie per week plus getting related stuff done for Pulp City, Anima Tactics and BMG), and also getting four Tooth & Sword Shambling Zombie minis painted. All in all, I feel this has been my most successful Zomtober on a personal level both in terms of output, and in breadth of ranges tackled.

This week I finished Sharsha 'Fiedegunde' first (over on on my Anima Tactician blog), spurred on by painting Zombies (she isn't Undead, but I used my Zombie flesh recipe for her).

After that I finished my fourth Zombie kid (this year's accidental theme!; this mini is from the Tiny Terrors pack from Studio Miniatures), then I finally managed to complete the painting of the last two of my five Tooth & Sword Shambling Zombies.

With these additions I have managed to paint 11 minis in total so far this month, and with a few days left, there is the chance I may yet manage one or two more.

Pulp City: Cold War Kickstarter (Kicktraq)

Shameless plug time - the Kicktraq for the Pulp City Cold War Kickstarter with 10 days to go as I post this.

The reason why I am posting this, is that it helps the campaign's visibility on Kikctraq, which helps the campaign. Normal Zomtober service will be resumed imminently!

Zomtober 2015 (Week 3)

Another week, another Zombie kid! And some more yellow  - I am using the opportunity to practice painting yellow in anticipation of 3 minis I want to get painted soon-ish that all feature yellow quite prominently.

Work has been very busy for me this week, plus the Pulp City: Cold War Kickstarter launch took place, so time for painting has been limited when I have not been feeling tired. Therefore getting one Zombie painted was a nice small goal. All that aside, I now have some time off work so I hope to get a few more minis painted in the next 7 days!

In addition to this Zombie kid, I also finished Papa Zombie (click for link) in the past few days for my own Pulp City collection as a fitting ancillary miniature for Zomtober. That means I have finished two out of the planned three minis I planned to paint that were not regular Zombies or Tooth & Sword Shambling Zombies. That took me to seven minis for the month, already matching what I managed in 2014, and leaves me every chance of finishing ten or even eleven in total if momentum is sustained.

I need to prep another Zombie kid to ensure I can stick to the theme I stumbled onto for my own output this year, but I am fairly confident of meeting my weekly target for the final entry next week.

Pulp City: Cold War (Kickstarter)

Some of you may not know, but I am part of the Pulp Monsters team behind Pulp City, and yesterday we launched Pulp City: Cold War (click for link) - a new Kickstarter campaign to produce two brand-new Factions, and it has already exceeded our target!

I had hoped to post this yesterday, but we were kind of busy with a successful launch night!

Honestly, I think our game has among the most amazing fans of any skirmish game. :)

Zomtober 2015 (Week 2)

Just one mini for this week, yet a theme for me for Zomtober 2015 is already emerging - this year looks like it will be Zombie kids! After painting last week's primary Zombie entry I dug out a few more Zombie child minis and settled on that as my focus.

The mini was fairly simple to paint although lacking obvious major injuries leading to Zombification, so I tried to paint his face as though that had been the main point of attack. Overall a pretty simple paint-job, although the yellow was a little bit of a struggle.

Although I have only painted two minis so far for my regular-Zombies horde, this is my fifth completed mini of the month with the other related stuff I have finished, and I hope to finish the month with a tally of between seven and ten painted minis in total, maybe slightly more if motivation permits. My best total in recent years has been ten minis in 2013, so if I match that I would be very happy. So far this month I have completed Xiao Loong for BMG, and two Tooth & Sword Shambling Zombies. I have also made some nice progress on a mini called Papa Zombie for Pulp City, so Zomtober impetus has certainly carried over!

Quarter 3 2015 Painting Summary

After finishing with V.H. (Pulp City) and Benjamin Orchard (BMG) in September, the third quarter saw my best output in terms of number of models this year, despite a relatively lean end with only 4 painted minis in the last month. That said, I doubled the output of the same period in 2014 and a little extra! So that was nice to say the least.

Painted in Q3 (+9 from Q2 2014!)

Pulp City: 5
BMG: 11
Tooth & Sword: 1

That takes me to 46 minis for the year. My BMG painting is well ahead of target; Pulp City is now probably on target for the year; Anima Tactics is so far off target it is hard to even consider. Overall I have since hit my low target of 50, but will probably miss my high target of 68.

I have started on painting my first Tooth & Sword at last, and will paint some more soon. Zomtober beckons of course, so I am hoping for a good October, and that may even include at least 1 Anima Tactics mini. I want to paint at least 4 more Pulp City minis this year, and have designs on painting a third crew option for BMG....

Xiao Loong (Court of Owls)

Now this was a pleasant bonus for me from Week 1 of Zomtober - starting painting Xiao Loong and finishing the mini within a couple of days without impeding my planned Zomtober painting!

I have mentally set myself the challenge of painting tangentially related minis for 3 games (Pulp City, BMG and Anima Tactics) in addition to my core Zomtober painting. For BMG this has meant the Court of Owls Talons. Talons are assassin agents of the Court, and there is only ever one active at a time. In the first story-lines, many 'retired' Talons are brought back to life. They are incredibly resistant to physical trauma, have weird voices, and have risen from the dead - close enough to Zombies in some ways to count as a tangential inspiration for me!

Xiao Loong appears only briefly and is depicted as a somewhat tragic figure, ultimately seeking freedom from his servitude to the Court. This appears to be granted in final terms by Red Hood (Jason Todd), but whether Red Hood kills Xiao Loong is unclear as this happens is unclear as it takes place off-panel so is alluded to rather than shown.

In game terms, the Court is really limited by its current available Leader (Benjamin Orchard), to including only Court models, meaning a total Reputation limiting games to 300 Rep. 3 out of the current 4 Talons are Henchmen, although ability-wise they are equivalent to less-powerful Free Agents in capability, while giving up fewer VP's, and having better all around Skills and Traits than most higher-cost Henchmen. Arguably they are on par or better than Nite Owl and possibly Silk Spectre from Watchmen. Whether that proves the case on the table is another matter. Until I get more of the Court of Owls painted, not one I will be able to answer!

BMG Painting Summary
BMG characters owned: 157 (added: nothing since the last splurge)
Percentage of owned characters painted: 19.1% (30 models)

Zomtober 2015 (Week 1)

Well, Week 1 is done, and already a number of great entries have been posted. My own contribution was a little rushed (having spent yesterday at the Derby wargames show), but I am pleased to have made the deadline with 3 minis!

I was determined to use this Zomtober momentum to get not only some regular Zeds painted, but also some more of my Tooth & Sword Shambling Zombies, and possibly some other minis that are not quite Zombies but which tie in loosely (more on those as Zomtober progresses I hope!).

I am not sure about the manufacturer of the Zombie child, and atypically for me it is not based on a Fenris base (jn stead a Dragon Forge base). It has been under-coated for at least a couple of years, possibly longer, and the clean-up was poor on my part (I noticed mold lines while painting), but to be honest, getting it painted was key and so I can claim that it is done.

The Tooth & Sword Zombies are helping me get to grips with a simplified approach to my painting, and I am happy to have painted two more.

For the weeks ahead, I have some regular contemporary Zombies part-painted to finish off, as well as two more Tooth & Sword Shambling Zombiesand possibly the secret-for-now 'other stuff'.