I have not gone away......

Busy painting Santas entourage and hope to get a post or two by friday.
I am so not on track to get seven before the years end especialy as I have learned we are going to Caerphilly for new year but by gum, I am gonna' try.
Hope you are all still with me.
Anyhoo, painting (prepping) and watching the Tripods online, woohoo!

ho ho ho

Painting schedule revisited.

As the end of 2011 rockets towards us like a jet-propelled zombie on skates, I am attempting to paint one zed a day. This will clearly never happen. I barely get an hour a day but I hope to get at least seven more up here before the years out.
Thats me throwing down the gauntlet to myself.
I may end up eating my hat.
Anyone got any hat relish?

bride of Santa.....

Another one hammered out. At this rate I may even get a game in before next Christmas........

satans claws

Ho ho brains!

Bit of a rush job! But......painted at long last!

still alive....just

Well wellity well, an essay finished and only two more bits of coursework to do this year.
That makes this weekend......

.......weekend. Ya, and indeed hoo!
I have had time to paint zombie santa and start my bride from studio but otherwise am lagging badly.
Must say, I enjoyed episode seven of the walking dead although I could happily do without the mid season break. Christmas TV is dire although I suppose we have The Great Escape to look forward to.
I saw recently on Forum of Doom a thread about new adventurers/survivors and one of the suggestions was Lemmy. I urge, nay beg of you to log in and plead for a Lemmy survivor. After all, if anyone can make it he will. Slaying the hungry dead with blistering riffs or indeed poisoning them with Marlboro and JD.
I hope to finish my chrimble zeds by next week but satan, sorry, santa will be up later today.
(Anyone else noticed that anagram....its all very Da Vinci code stuff. What are they trying to tell us?
Who are they? And other questions.)
On my beggi....christmas letter this year are the new Crooked Dice Dr Who figures.

I have no idea yet how to incorporate Dr Who with my zed menace but that will not stop me from trying.
Ideas on a postcard to the usual address.

a week of essay writing draws to a close....and "Autumn" on sky...

Like it says, I have been essay writing but tomorrow sees me return to my trusty paint roller.
I have been expounding on the merits of Cognitive behavioural Therapy and examining fresh ways to heal fragile little minds.
....brains seem to be a common theme in all aspects of my life....
And.."Autumn" sky horror channel tonight.
Never seen it.
I have obtained all of "Death valley" due to the thread on "Board of the living lead" so that should be a topical background for tomorrows painting.
Tune in then for more random daubings.....

More zombies....

I appear to be painting as fast as a Romero zombie can shuffle. Vampifan has most assuredly won our painting contest.
Heres the latest two that I have thrown paint at in a vaguely organised fashion.
Both are Studio miniatures and both from the excellent Halloween special set.
I realise they are a bit late for this year but I intend to follow them up immediately with the christmas nightmare set so as to be topical at least once this year.
These were beautiful, as always, miniatures with barely any flash worth mentioning. The detail is excellent and the zombification is understated, coveyed more by pose than by dripping viscera.
Firstly a lady gaga lookalike playboy bunny girl...

....on whom I did not spend enough time blending!
Followed by Harry Potter....(ignore the bit of shiny varnish on his bonce, it only showed up in the photograph and I cannot figure out how to photoshop it away)

....both of which, as I said, lack serious wounds. That is not a complaint however. Studio do enough disembowelled zombies and it is nice to see a few who look a bit more normal.
As always, I wish I could do them justice with the paintjob they deserve.
The rest are on the way......Superman is giving me a headache.....

Remembrance sunday....another podcast and painting

http://www.darkerprojects.com/autumn.php
I have only started to listen to this but it seems ok, just 6 episodes. This appears to be a British zompocalypse story.

After the eleven oclock service at my local cenotaph,

I intend to start a few new zombies. I am supposed to be writing (finishing) an essay on Freud

..but thought some relaxing painting would ease me into it. No word yet from Bryan on our painting race so Bryan, if you are reading this I propose to start today with the lady Gaga zombie. Howzat?

5 part zombie podcast

Check out
http://www.theundeadend.com/
Very entertaining!

A fictitious radio station reports the genisis of a zombie epidemic.
Not as involved as HG world or Were alive but well worth a listen.
I am currently scouring the web for podcasts.
And.....I have either reanimated or I am well again.
Vampifan, lets have a race man! Name the figures and we shall duel. I expect to lose but it will add to my horde so in many respects its a win/win.

remember them

still sick...

.....blasted abcess now.
I have been listening to this though...
http://www.wix.com/zebrapix/hg-world-entry/site#!__site/the-show
HG world, another zombie podcast. Entertaining and a touch lighthearted. Shades of black humour and well worth a listen.
Were alive is still my fave but this was a nice discovery.
Nice touch was the Reverend Dawkins......ahahaha...cough!
Check it out!

Suggestions for the best rules...

I have been at the zeds again but am starting my survivors.
What rules do I get?
I have a plethora of ww2,www2, sci-fi etc but no zed specific set.....
Help!

The walking dead.....fxuk

10pm, 22 hundred hours.
OMG!

At last, another zombie!

And, I'm back with my offerings!

Yay! Its that bird from scrubs
(This weeks competition is "Name the bird from scrubs, the white one" answers on a post-it note to
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First correct answer drawn from my beanie hat wins.......

...from Studio miniatures. I kid you not! Titter ye not madam! If you send me her name in the show and you are the first one to do so I will send you this zed in a bodybag and a 30mm/25mm round base.
I, have, lost, the, plot. Competitions on my blog? Why not?)
Back to my original train of thought.......more images of that doctory nursey wumman...

I want to know how the white looks in particular. I am crap at white, but am trying! Also the hair! Never been strong points but again, am trying. For years all I painted was speed jobs on helmeted troops and I have to say, painting zombies has forced me to try to learn how to paint properly.
Back view (of her bum....snicker...)

Its not great, I need advice!
Help! (and btw, I am serious about the competition, come on Brummie, Vampifan, Shelldrake..(oops, hes in oz, that may be expensive to post.....)....come on anyone local!)

Season two walking dead on FXUK

Okeydokey. No painting (much) this week due to prolonged sicky sicky bad.
But....
Ten pm tonight is the new walking dead on FXUK so no painting until tomorrow.
Other news in brief.....
On a purchasing spree I had to buy cold war "streetwalkers" "run for it" and "good god" after seeing them on vampifans site and they arrived in two days, excellent service.
Also ordered the entire, not scooby gang from Hasslefree to use as witless survivors.
"I would have eaten thier brains and gotten away with it if it wasnt for you pesky kids".
Finaly undercoated my undead spaceman...

"....returning from a mission to Titan, Ed wasnt feeling too good"
He will be the cause for my outbreak. Awaghahaha..etc

Oh yeah and Colonel Sanders is dead.
Killed in Lybia apparently. Of all places. He must have been out there setting up a franchise.
Rest in peace sir, your popcorn chicken is a delight..........even though I cannot imagine what part of the chicken yields succulent balls........and I do not care to overthink it either.

help?

Anyone know who makes this?

Sculpts do not fit in with my horde but I was curious.........

More chaos in casualty

....oh my god in the O.R.........evil in emergency.........outbreak in outpatients.......
you get the drift.
Two more patients.
Paint slapped all over them and then photographed with a 1950's pentax.

 Mavis, with only a broken arm it's difficult to imagine how she died.
I am not having a go at the N.H.S.......I'm just saying......How?
Learn battlefield first aid and stay away from casualty. Thats my advice.

Doris. More explicable. Torn out throat.
Although I see it has not been dressed.......
This would suggest it happend IN the hospital.......
Dangerous places.
(both models unvarnished as yet but sneezed over enthusiasticly, so in summation paintwork unprotected but dont come near them without a particle mask on)

Suitably chastened am I....

Fenris bases have arriveificated. Yee-haw!
Now if I could stop sneezing long enough to paint....

Still waiting for bloody Fenris bases....mutter mutter..

Like it says.
All work ground to a halt due to no bases and a sinus infection this week. Back to it tomorrow.
For a while there I thought it was all over.
I believed myself to have contracted some kind of t-virus.
I put on my best "shoot me in the head" t-shirt

and waited to reanimate.
Turned out to be approximately 5 gallons of rancid snot trapped in my skull cavities.
So that all worked out wonderfully then.........
Too much information?
Not enough?
You want a photo?
So, to sum up.
Painted zombies.................................................zero
Packs of tissues bought......................................twenty (pocket packs)
Loo rolls used when tissues ran out...................two
Misery/joy level.................................................comparible to licking my cats (Gary) litter tray.
More zeds on saturday then, probably late cos im starting from scratch.

Studio zombie patient zero?

Another studio zed finished (not varnished yet(WITH BRUSH ON VARNISH)).
Patient zero I think.

His name is Clive. In for a vasectomy, out with a severe case of living death.
And you thought MRSA was bad......
The N.H.S these days, tsk, tsk!

Painting white

Just a heads up. This is a nice tutorial. I was having trouble maintaining colour consistency whilst painting my zombie scrubs set (doctors coats) and I thought this was a nice colour selection.
Heres a sample pic, see attached link to brushthralls by clicking on the title!

40k minis and conversions

A couple of oldies I dug out for a matte coating. I have been inundated with requests to play 40k and until I get people interested in a zed game in my local I have resurrected my old guard to meet the challenge.
I intend to finish off my death guard so I can use zombies in 40k whilst trying to convert the masses.
I need to meet zombie players before I go utterly mad.......
Madder.....
These guys are part of my massive imerial guard army, some stormtroopers and hardened vets based on space marine scouts with necromunda shotguns. I liked them at the time but have seriously drifted away from this scene recently.
Still waiting for my Fenris bases to do my Halloween zeds.
Vampifan, I am looking forward to yours!
Race you!

As you can see, all come replete with awful extreme edge highlighting and yer authentic javis grass bases. Wow!
Ah well, as long as my horde gets a run out soon I shall content myself for now.
More zeds tomorrow, almost finished my hospital set and then moving on to Halloween and zombie santa. Ho, ho and ho!
(anyone noticed that santa is an anagram of satan........)

Studio miniatures update

Well, my halloween set arrived today. Just waiting for bases from Fenris now to get them on the go.
Pretty prompt service and in the flesh (so to speak) they are lovely.
The playboy bunny girl is excellent and who could fail to love the kid dressed as Harry Potter?
Studio keep delivering the goods, the best 28mm zombies around by miles.
Cant wait to see what they come up with next. I shall post my attempts to paint these figures as soon as Fenris comes through with the bases.
10/10

Varnishing the undead..

...is how I have been feeling. It all started 25 years ago when I began throwing paint at diminutive Orks and Marines. Back then we didnt have a local GW and the interweb was nothing more than the mad dream of a crazy fool!

I was forced to purchase citadel paint and Daler Rowney brush on gloss varnish to protect my tabletop host. This worked fine for some time until I discovered spray varnish and then promptly gave up painting because I had better things to do.
Fast forward to recently when I decided to relearn how to paint. Vallejo, wet palette and trying to actualy "paint" the model insead of covering it in colour as quickly as possible became the order of the day.
I have also still been using spray varnish.
And I have discovered something.
Vallejo spray, Army painter, Purity seal...doesnt matter which one, they all fu*k up in some fashion.If conditions are not perfect, say for example your neighbour farts whilst you are spraying, it will go wrong. Applying more varnish to fix it makes it worse.
I hate varnish.
It did this.....

This is the worst result, cracking and shiny frosting AND the acrylic had been allowed to dry for several days before spraying........
Varnished it on sunday morning and by sunday afternoon I had this.
I am not best pleased.

I also managed to achieve this wonderful overspray effect.
Wow!
Anyhow the point of this moan is to say..

...and gloss.

Brush on varnish. I have been trying it all week and it works. I havent had a breakdown (of paintwork or of the mental variety) since I started. There are too many little problems for me to consider a repaint and hopefully the errors will be lost in the horde but Galleria brush on varnish is all I will ever trust from now on. To protect my models and my sanity.

For polyeurathane tough mental health, varnish your mind with Galeria.

Aaaaargh! Rubber angel alert!

Boo-hoo!

5 very quick drybrush and wash jobs on the Doctor Who adventures weeping angels.
Not a patch on Crooked dice's scary statues but hey! Theyre cheap, cheerful and usable.

I am impressed with them in that even though they are rubbery plastic they took the paint well and as long as it is'nt slapped on too thickly it wo'nt crack even when you do flex the model.

I'm currently waiting for Crooked dice's scary statues (amongst other things) but I thought these would make a good "army" of angels for a special Doctor Who scenario. All in all the Doctor Who Adventures magazine (available every Thursday in the U.K) is proving to be a good source of cheap and usable miniatures. Sure, the cybermen are awful but the i-daleks are spot on for the on screen revamped dalek (still liked the old ones best, Tom Baker was my doctor...) and I watch with interest to see what they churn out next. Our local newsagent is getting used to me periodically buying multiple copies of a kids comic and generally browsing the toy shelves for lorries in a usable scale (always take a mini in your pocket for comparison purposes but also always try not to be seen doing it if you dislike being regarded as the local mental case)

Thursday 6th October promises some Sontarans, cybermen and daleks so I shall be lurking in the comic section come Thursday morning. See you there......

Studio october releases

Gorgeous as usual!

More Nurgle and chaos.

Found the rest of this fledgling warband.

And yes, I know the woof is Khornate but Dettol and a repaint should sort that out. I loved these old metal models and just can't seem to develop the same affection for plastic or finecost..

Its not undead but...

My fave GW model for a long time. Found it today whilst looking for....

I had planned to double the use of my undead horde as a nurgle army based on Imperial Armour 7.
Too many people still play 40K exclusively in my gaming circle and I have to justify painting well over 100 zeds.
Or do I........
Anyhow, thats my current plan to get my undead maximum exposure.
I truly am just adding to my already prodigious workload.

Basing models

Today, inspired by Heather, I have around twenty Studio zombies to base.
For over twenty years basing meant sand, muddy brown wash, grey drybrush and then static grass (flock in the olden days) to me.
When I first bought some Studio zombies I was inspired by the lavish box art to try and sculpt paved bases using Milliput and Italeri putty. My results were mixed to say the least. My JD model that I matt coated yesterday is the only one remaining with a self sculpted base.
When it comes to putty I suck.
(and photography, and blending......etc)
About a month ago I discovered Fenris games and thier resin detailed bases, this was after half a day of scouring the net to try to discover what bases Studio used.
I, am, blown, away!
These bases are great and cheap!
I havent even had attachment problems, simply clipping the tab away and leaving a piece of it beneath each foot and voila, instant pins. The resin is easily cleaned and drilled with a pinvice.
My only warning is wash 'em realy well or they refuse to take paint.
Will post some dreadfull pics later.....

Following a CHIPS related ramble on LAF here is my inspirational photo of Heather Locklear. Now if that doesnt make you want to paint zombies then man, you have a problem....

(Or maybe its me that has a problem...)

Today I did this!

Bub.

This is a few of the rubbery weeping angels given away with this weeks Dr Who adventures magazine.Apart from the silly short arm I think they look ok. 5min paintjob of a greygreen base, fortress drybrush and a black wash.
They should do well for wargaming and the weeping figure, if painted with some care is actualy very nice indeed.
Thats yer authentic Javis grass there on the bases.
Wow!

JD from scrubs. Could have painted this much better if I had not been rushing..

"What the *u%k are you looking at?" He seems to say....