Plugging along...

Here’s those Elves I was talking about. Front middle is the Metal Maquette that is limited edition from Northstar reserved for pre-orders and such.

Here’s the humans. Sorry for the botched picture. Three metal champions and 5 plastic figures.

I also painted some Nolzur’s Spiders. Black contrast and brown paint slapped on the furry areas. Eyes picked out in red. The white spider obviously uses white instead of brown or red. He’s the leader. I kept two cocoon bases separate as they will make good scatter/objectives.

Just a small update from my Mantic Games The Walking Dead collection. One of the Scavengers (Andy or Jud) and a walker as well as the giant resin one. Having discovered Contrast paints these guys paint themselves but I’m stuck with about 1/2 my stuff done the old way (layers and dry brushing) and he other 1/2 using contrast. They look ok together but don’t match 100%.  It shouldn’t but it does bother me. I dunno. Also all the new kits are resin which is an improvement for details but takes a bunch more time to assemble.

Today I slapped on some glue and flock for another 20 Oathmark figures. My “regular” Elves are almost done. I think I have 14 or so archers left to base. Up next are the light Elves which are all painted as well. Just need basing.

There are (all plastic) 6 archers and 10 spearmen for the Elves.

The 4 figures on the right are metal. Three come from the King,Wizard &horn blower pack. The 4th is the Limited Edition maquette.

More Walking Dead

I’ve been on a bit of a painting break the last few weeks. 

I’ve had a bunch of miniatures arrrive during that time but I was having some problems with my posture. Basically I sit all day at work and as a result my upper torso is bunched up a lot. I had some pain as a result. Stretching and breaks have since alleviated the discomfort and I’m more or less back to normal. 

Some of what came was some more of Mantic Games’ The Walking Dead line. Resin exclusive King Ezekiel and Fear the Hunters expansion. 

I decided to work on some of the older TWD stuff as it’s super easy with co yeast paints. However, I had run out of GW’s Contrast spray primer Grey Seer. 

I looked at my local GW $25.00 and an independent retailer $19.99. Are you kidding? I had no choice however as the spray paint I’ve been using lately has not been working great and I don’t want to mess up the figures.

Here’s the giant walker. The shirt is the spray primer. The rest is contrast. The Bones have been highlighted in white.

I tried to do a plaid shirt. Utter failure. I didn’t have a paint pot of Grey Seer either so I couldn’t tidy up my lines. Looked horrible so I repainted it a darker grey and have thrown down a wash as well.

New Toys

A couple of things came in the maillast week.

I ordered a copy of Oathmark, a hardback rule set published by Osprey Publishing and supported by figures made by Northstar Military Figures, the day it was released.

It finally came last week. I am probably amongst the first in Canada to receive it.

What I like about it. It’s hardcover, and has that nice new book smell. (I’m married to a librarian, not my fault!)

 

Aside for a picture overlapping a line of text (pg44 iirc) the book is absolutely perfect. The rules aren’t so bad either 😀.

There a plenty of jaw dropping beautiful illustrations like the Elven archer seen below.

Several pages have little sketches on them, which breaks up the pages nicely.

There are also a few double page spreads of the artwork.

I think a book of just the pictures would be an amazing thing to have. 

All in all, a great game published by Osprey. I can’t wait to finish reading itand get the figures on the table.

 

I also picked up the Mantic Games King Ezekiel Event Exclusive figure.

It cost a princely sum of £19.99. It is made of Resin and it looks amazing BUT it got me thinking a) I already own a plastic King Ezekiel, do I need another and b) would my money not be better spent on say 4 £6 packs of Artizan metals (-£1 each from VAT) for approx 16 metal figures or spending £25 on 30 Plastic Oathmark figures.

I love the Walking Dead but would like to see them release all the characters first before releasing upgraded versions of the ones I already own (there are other figures besides Rick and the Governor ya know!)

Figure wise it comes with King Ezekiel with separate arms and three heads mounted on spikes.

Here’s an updated stat card. I don’t have the other one handy so not to sure how they compare at the moment, and some equipment cards.

I purposely took pictures of the back. Don’t wanna be that guy. 

What I like: resin is so nice, great detail as compared to the older plastic. It’s nice to get new equipment.

What I don’t like: basically comes down to price. I can support the other systems I play a lot better with what it cost for one figure from Mantic.

More TWD:AOW and AP 2017 progress

This month has been pretty stellar for painting. This tray contains the Miles Behind Us expansion,  Tyreese, Glen, Maggie and Julie & Chris boosters. I've also started another tray this size. Still don't know why I'm doing two projects at once.

But onto more progress for the Lead Adventure Forum Army Painter Competition http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=101545.0 Here's the big guy himself, General Lee To Fat. I took the photos immediately after white gluing the grass tufts down so the any white colouration there should now be dried and clear.

Up next are 10 Dare To Die troopers with big swords. These are an elite unit of hand to hand specialists. I'd like to put some tattoos on the bare chested figures but don't want to risk it at the moment.

 I was happy to stop here but I thought I'd see what else I could start. And voila, a machine gun with the front and back profile.

I also painted the mortar. I love the character of the trooper eating his lunch. I don't think I could eat with my back to the enemy though.

Lastly the big gun. I noticed that some superglue lines have stuck to the carriage so I'll have to gently remove them later. I probably should have also laid out some wheel ruts in the ground but whatever.

So there you have it. With two months remaining, I have 20 rank and file troopers, 2 command officers, a flag bearer and bugler to complete and the force is done. I'm going to push myself and try to get my bandits and Chinese troop cavalry started also but I think December might be difficult.

October's Army Painter and The Walking Dead: All Out War

Hey again, it's been a really productive month for me! I'm really pleased with myself. The painting mojo is high and I keep finding little bits of time to plug away. But as the title suggests, I've split my attention. Hopefully I don't regret this...

Here are the next 14 figures. All from Copplestone Castings Back Of Beyond Chinese Warlord range.

There are 10 assault troopers armed with Bergmann SMGs. The figures on the left are from the Command Pack. The flag was colour printed from the website below.

http://majorthomasfoolery.blogspot.ca/2015/01/flags-for-chinese-warlordback-of-beyond.html

Got a little head start on November's entry. 10 Dare-To-Die troopers with big sword, and General Lee To Fat himself. They was also been washed with army painter and the base textured but still needs painting. Only 20 more troopers to go. :) :)



I was fortunate (?) enough to back Mantic Games The Walking Dead: All Out War (TWD:AOW)Kickstarter. I received all the bits and read through the rules quickly, and watched a couple how-tos on Youtube. I wasn't super impressed and it languished on the shelf. I went to Broadsword 4 in Hamilton in August and played a homebrew Cthulu inspired zombie game and decided to steal the basics and improve some of the character stats usingTWD:AOW character cards.


Now I had only ever read the comics as Season 1 of TWD varied so much from the comics I quickly gave it up. But I rather enjoyed Fear The Walking Dead and am in between seasons so I decided to give TWD another shot (thanks Netflix). While I am enjoying TWD, I am a purist at heart and decided to pay the comics an homage and paint in grayscale. WTF!


Here are the first 12 zombies. 6 are from the Walker Booster and 5 from the Prelude To Woodbury set (both retail releases). Which leaves me with about 89 more to paint + scenery packs.

Poor photo but there they are. I really should be using the light box I made...Basically they are drybrushed from dark to light in 3-4 shades of gray. Then black ink washed, then highlighted with previous grays. Really fast and easy.

Here's a better shot of 6 walkers.

And last but not least, the man himself, Brian Blake aka The Governor.

I'll probably have to make a run and buy more shades of gray as skin colours in gray is going to be a nightmare.