Zomtober 2014 Week 4

Last night, at 11:18 pm, when I was settling down for the night, I thought to myself "Fbother! It is Saturday night, and I didn't finish my zombie!"  And with that thought I went to sleep.

 Although I was busy today I made the time to finish off another 15mm zombie for zomtober.

 It is only one 15mm zombie, but at least I made the deadline in time! Yay for me!

 No promises, but as there is a bit of October left, I might try for one more week of Zomtober for 2014 and post another one for the start of November.

Zomtober 2014 Week 3

Yay! no excuses for why I didn't post on the right day this week.

This week I painted two, yes that is right, two 15mm zombies!

Again I haven't based these figures yet - the bases I have I am saving for my modern 15mm game until I know I have enough spare bases for the zombies.

 Now to start on the zombies for the coming week. In between catching up on season 4 of "The Walking Dead" that is...

Zomtober 2014 - week 2

Ok, technically I am a day late in posting this one, but I did finish it and take the photo on Sunday, so I did it by the deadline.  That and others posted on Saturday, so I am using one of the extra days not used by one of those blogs :-P

The reason I was a bit late is that I had to take the Mrs to the airport, as she is taking a trip to Japan to visit her family. By the time I returned home Dr Who was just starting, and I clean forgot to post the image.

So... this week I painted a 15mm zombie from Khurasan. I have had this, and a few others in the lead pile for a while now and wanted to see how easy it was to paint.

The figure isn't glued to the foam card; it is only there to assist with photography, as my camera couldn't focus the figure without something a bit brighter in the area.

The flash as drowned out a bit of the colour on the figure, but you can make out the greenish tinge over the grey.

And, no, I am not abandoning my 28mm games - just experimenting and thinking of doing any new projects I have in 15mm.

Those who follow my non zombie blog will know that I am tinkering with a 15mm Modern game, and I wrote a set of rules for that game to cover zombies and sent it to the author. With any luck the these rules might appear as a Halloween release.

Zomtober 2014 - week 1

It has been a very long time since I made a post in my Zombie war game blog, and it took Zomtober 2014 to actually do something zombie wise.

 I just finished my first zombie for the month. I did a simple rush job on this one, as I only started it today (being the first Sunday in October 2014), but I was able to finish it easily enough. I am glad I keep records of what colours I paint things, as it meant I could just open the relevant page and paint away.

 My camera is being a total dick, so the image is a bit blurry. But I made it for the first deadline!

 It is, of course, a 28mm WW2 German zombie for the WWW2 game I have planned.

 I just need to add some flock to the base and it is ready to use in a game.

WW2 Zombie game - not forgotten

I was amazed to see it was November since I made my last post on this blog.

 I haven't forgotten the WW2 project, and I am still working on a few things for it.


This post isn't much of an update, but more about a wish list.

 I have noticed that Sarissa Precision have created a radar station kit, and this would be perfect for a bit of scenery, and as the objective for the commandos in the initial game played.

 Come for the radar, stay for the zombies.

WW2Z - BTD Commandos arrive!

My small order from BTD of the British Commandos with silenced sten guns arrived in the mail today!

In the words of the great man Billy Connolly: I am shocked and stunned, and not a little amazed.

Nothing missing, nothing broken, and they arrived in good time.

If they keep up this kind of work I will be tempted to order from them again!

Photos will be posted when I have painted them, but most likely that wont be until December... I might even save them for Zedcember.

WW2Z - V1 construction begins!

The N gauge railway track arrived in the mail yesterday, and despite I have a lot more important things to do for the first planned game of the campaign I couldn't resist making a start on this project.

Dodgy concept sketch of the build... as you can see I write like a 3 year old. Maybe I should use crayons?

As I was opening my mail I spied a large piece of balsa that I have had for maybe fifteen years and done nothing with it.  Picking it up, I noticed that it would be perfect for the ramp and, by cutting two sections of equal size, would be the right size for what I need.

track laid out on the balsa before cutting the wood

the two sections of balsa with the track on top testing the size

 This morning I glued the wood sections together and started making the 'metal dividing' sections

part of the ramp for show. Note the section at the end of the ramp

I have only done one side of the ramp so far - as each divider is only 3mm wide, it was 'doing my eyes in'. I think I need new glasses :-(

 At the rear of the ramp is a section with holes drilled in to it. The real life ramp has these sections with two or three columns of holes, but doing that many was beyond my ability given the size of the thing, so I went with one column to represent it.

 Once I have done the other side I will paint the whole thing dark grey. A lot of photos show green, khaki or camouflaged ramps, but I suspect some of those colours are a bit of artistic licence used to preserve the examples still in existence.

 Besides, my ramp is owned by the SS Occult arm, so they can paint it any colour they like.

Making the legs for the ramp might turn out to be the hard part. I was going to make this out of balsa, but I fear that it would break too easily. I will use foam card as a trial, and if that works it will be all steam ahead.

Before I make any more of the ramp, I need to finish off a guard box, a house and the character cards for the first game.

WW2Z - something special for the British?

I remembered last night that someone makes a 28mm WW2 Druid miniature, and I have tracked it down:

 At first I was thinking 'bollocks - it is a para figure, and wont fit in with my commandos".  Well, after doing a bit of digging around, I have discovered that the figure comes in multiple parts, and one has the option of two different heads and two sets of arms to choose from.

I know Warlord Games sells separate commando heads, so I could make a quick conversion. I then need to come up with a back story as to why a commando is wearing a para smock, but that can be as simple as "he is a druid... he can wear what he likes"

I am not convinced on this, but I will put it in to the back of my mind for a later date.

WW2Z - German Officer

Since Zomtober my painting has slowed down to almost no existence. I might have to make every month zomsomething to keep me painting.

 About the only figure I have painted is an Artizan German Officer miniature.

The detail isn't so easy to see - my tiny Kodak camera doesn't really do a good enough job, and the much better camera I had access to is on the blink and doesn't work too well.

 When it is sunny again I will try to get a better photo so you can clearly see the uniform: he has a black coat with field grey uniform, which is a bit hard to see in these images.


Game planning wise, I think the first scenario for the campaign will be a small raid to capture equipment and destroy an antenna. This will allow my friend and I to get the hang of the rules and introduce the zombies as a gauge to see if he wants to continue with the setting, or if I take it up as a solo game.

 The store I purchased the N gauge rail track from has returned from holidays and has posted it to me... with any luck it will be here by the end of the week. If so the building of the V1 ramp will begin.

 Initially the building will be slow as I need to clean the house up for the return of Mrs Shelldrake in a week or so.

 As I build the ramp I will* post progress photos for you all to look at. 


* that is the intention.  I sometimes get so caught up in a project that I kind of forget to do this type of thing.


Oh, and Black Tree Design has stated they have posted my little order of Commandos already! Fingers crossed it actually arrives and is complete.  If so, I might be tempted to place another order soon.

WW2Z - Black Tree Design

I took a risk with BTD this morning. I know others have no complaints with them, but all of the orders I have made with them in the past have either taken six months+ to arrive, or been incomplete.

 But seeing as the are now accepting Pay Pal and had a discount of 25% with an additional -10% for registered customers, I decided to order a pack of Commandos with silenced sten guns.

 The postage was a bummer, making each of the minis cost close to $5AUD each, so I thought long and hard about getting them, but the evil voices in my head told me I needed them, and very soon I wont have too much of a budget for getting minis.

 I was tempted to order a few more packs, but as I only wanted one or two of the figures in the pack I decided it wasn't worth the cost.

Hopefully my order will have the same good luck that other people have been having lately with BTD and it will arrive ASAP.

  I also couldn't see how to include Hitler or Stalin in the scenarios, so although very tempted to include them in the order, I listened to the good voices in my head and didn't order them.

Bugger - I just thought that maybe Hitler had been cloned, a la "The Boys from Brazil", and the Commandos would have been able to kill a clone each mission as a bit of light hearted fun. Poo Bugger Bum - having placed the order I certainly can't justify the $18AUD cost placing a new order for one figure!

 As someone in a comment on the blog once called me - sodding git.   Although they meant it in fun ;-)