Sunday 7 October 2012

A zombie, a Klingon and a dodo walk into a bar...

A zombie, a Klingon and a dodo walk into a bar...

No, sorry - that's not right.  See, there was this zombie and he took his chicken into a bar...that's not it.  Hang on, I'll get it right in a minute.  It was a spaceship, not a bar and...

Or I could just stop wittering and show you all some of the wargaming stuff that I've completed recently (over the past 2 weeks or so).  That would be better, wouldn't it?

Spaceships

The battleship Admiral Kang and battlecruiser Relentless will give my Klingon space fleet some real punch.  These models are from Studio Bergstrom; I'll use them as Klingon ships although officially they are "Sing-Ons" instead.

I like these so much that I took several pictures of them; here's another from a different angle.

Tomb Monsters

A little while ago, I showed off some Egyptologist models.  As I was writing about them, I realised that, apart from a few ruffians, I didn't have much in the way of opposition for these adventurers.  Well, since then I've been starting to gather some...

Firstly, some scarab beetle swarms.  These models come from Black Cat Bases, who are excellent for such things. They have a large range of swarms that really do look like a multitude of animals (I can't see myself using a turtle swarm for anything, but no doubt someone will find a gaming use for them!)

Next up are some snakes from a large packet that I've had lying about for years.  I think they are from Black Tree Design, but I cannot remember for sure.  Anyway, I'm not too happy with the way my painting turned out on these, so let's move on swiftly.

Here's the big guy himself, the boss monster at the centre of the tomb, The Mummy!  This one comes from the same Blue Moon set as most of my Egyptologists.

Dodos

When I saw them in the Black Cat Bases catalogue, I immediately thought that their dodos would be great as light relief for a "Lost World" expedition.  These are odd models in many ways.  Firstly, they are huge; these birds come up to a 28mm human's shoulders and are considerably bulkier than a man.  In real life, the birds stood about 1m tall.  Secondly, the anatomy is a little suspect (for example, they don't have the very distinctive upright tuft of tail feathers).  Still, kudos to the manufacturer for making such odd creatures available in miniature.  I'll use them anyway in my games, though they might just have to be "man-eating giant dodos" instead (mwahahaha!).

Zombies

A couple more zombies made it to the head of the task list.  I'm working my way slowly through 2 sets at the same time; one of these is from each set.  See here for a previous update on zombies.

Chickens

Lastly, I thought that some livestock would be useful.  Primarily this would be as an objective or a distraction in a game of Saga (if I ever manage to paint up my other warband).  I suppose they could be used in any game with 28mm figures though; I'm interested to hear any serious (?!) ideas about how I might use a flock of chickens in All Things Zombie!

So there you have it: this is roughly a fortnight's output from my workbench.  Some of these items were assembled, based, undercoated and painted from start to finish within that period.  Others were merely completed, having been worked on before and then spent a long time waiting for my full attention.  Still, they're all finished now!

16 comments:

  1. Varied and interesting, just like the blog as a whole.

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    1. Thanks, Sean. I think that's one of the nicest comments I've ever had on this blog :-) !

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  2. Why not start working out some rules for food growing for ATZ? Something like: so many stands of chickens are held in a coop, so many coops for a unit of food per month. It can be expanded into gardening, rabbits, etc...

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    1. I suppose that scenarios could then revolve around raiding a neighbour in order to steal their chickens :-) ! This would depend on the survivors having a more settled existence, of course.

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    2. Not just that, finding a place to live becomes more important. Would the group use container farms inside an office building? Would they pick an apartment building with a walled in courtyard? There's all sorts of stuff that can be done then.

      It becomes a little more like a zombie survival simulator, which in limited amounts might be fun.

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    3. I guess that after a zombie apocalypse, people would start small-scale farming eventually. However, my first priority would be a safe base! Might be as simple as the upper floors of a stout building with the first staircase removed and replaced by a ladder let down from above.

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    4. Absolutely! I certainly wouldn't be looking for seed corn and a tractor, even if things were fairly secure. If I were to do anything it would likely be on as small a scale as possible, such as container gardening, sprouting, even aquaponics if I could get the parts.

      All of that would have to wait until I had a secure base of operations and enough supplies to keep going for a while.

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  3. All sorts going on nice zeds and I really like the beetles/scarab swarm strangely enough

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    1. Yes, I like them as well. Very easy to paint; just a metallic-green drybrush over a black undercoat, then picked out with gloss varnish.

      Also, I'm keen on foes that the adventurers cannot just shoot their way through ("Yes, you hit with your revolver. Now there are only 199 scarabs left in the swarm. What's your next move?").

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  4. I love the scarabs - I think I'll get some for myself ... and egyptologists and diggers and ... OH NO!! another project!!

    Back in the land of the sane ... well nearly, anyway ... about the chickens and zombies (and that's sane?!)

    In a rural scenario you could have them appear as a random encounter and distract zeds for 1-2 turns? just in time to save the screaming heroine of course ...

    And, BTW, your snakes look good to me!

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    1. Ah, so sorry for disturbing your equilibrium :-) !

      Yes, I agree that chickens in ATZ are really either targets (food resources) for a raid or are a somewhat unreliable distraction or early-warning system against zombie attacks. I can't think of anything else!

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    2. Some people might say that I'm always disturbed ... so don't worry too much! ;)

      I suppose you could have a 'chicken grenade' to distract the zeds? based on the idea that if you threw a chicken it would make more noise than the Hollywood standard 'throw a stone to distract the guards' ...

      But I think you are right - probably not the most reliable thing ...

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  5. So much going on...

    The turtles could be mutants and when they get to their teens...

    I love the dodoa, especially for a lost world scenario and there is a giant bird very much like your dodos (The Terror Bird ?)contemporary with sabre-tooths etc.

    The chickens are excellent to, Black Cat (and a few others) make great pieces like these.

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    1. So much indeed! I'll never finish everything, will I?

      Mutant teenage turtles? Now *that's* crazy talk!

      I do have some 'official' terror bird models (Phorusrhacos and Diatryma/Gastornis). They're not really contemporary with sabre-tooth cats, but occurred rather earlier. The dodos look distinctly goofy when put beside these huge creatures!

      Yes, I'm a bit surprised at how much everyone seems to like the chickens :-) !

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  6. Well that was certainly a mixture!! Love the Sing-On ships!

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    1. Thanks, Ray. I thought initially that the Sing-Ons seemed a bit thin and skinny, but once painted they look suitably menacing.

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