Zomtober

"Winter is coming", and so is  Zomtober!
This means posting at least one newly finished zombie or survivor each week on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of October 2017, so the first job was to check the diary!
Apart from any short-notice gigs that might come in, it's certainly going to be a bit of a challenge, with 15 complete days "on the road" doing long distance runs as far apart as Lothian and Bournemouth, and we're gigging on 3 of the 5 Sundays - Phew!

The next task was to raid the pending pile and sort out some likely candidates for the painting table (and yes, I've already tidied my desk, so I can call it a painting table without too much embarrassment!)
I hope I won't be bending the rules too far, but as you may know from previous posts on the blog, I have zombies (and therefore "survivors") in three different campaigns....... ATZ:FFO zompocalypse, Dragon Rampant fantasy, and a work-in-progress Fear & Faith/ Witchfinder General / Flashing blades 17th Century mash-up project.
I'll be working on all three during the challenge, but to stay as true to the spirit of the challenge as possible, I'll attempt to make sure I include at least one zompoc mini each week!
Returning from the 'Back Bedroom Of Doom', here's my target haul:~

Some Warlord male zombies and bikers on unfinished sprues - zompoc

A dozen Mantic zombies - fantasy

Three Heresy zombies - two  zompoc, one 17thC

Five Black Plague zombies - 17thC

 
and finally Warlord "Stickler Mitchell & Megan" - 17thC 'survivors'

(I say "finally", but as I type, I'm waiting for some stuff from Gringo 40's and I added a couple of zompoc survivors to the cart to 'round up' the order - they'll be added to the queue as soon as they arrive!)

Wedding anniversary today, so I anticipate losing a bit of "prep time", for the sake of matrimonial harmony!!

 Zomtober 2017 blog roll (click blog names for links):

1.  Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer - Pulp Citizen
2.  Brummie's Wargaming Blog - Simon
3. Four Colour Super Minis - Rob
4. Fantorical - Blaxkleric
5. Mike's Random Wargaming Meanderings - Mike C
6. Saturday Mornings - Ivor Evans
7. 28mm Victorian Warfare - Michael Awdry
8. Miniature Mayhem - Terry Silverthorn
9. ANYTHING BUT A 1! - Clint
10. Cheaphammer!!! - Kieron
11. Lead Reckoning - Fred Jackson
12. da Gobbo's Grotto - Wargaming blog - Andy
13. Never Mind The Jankers - Roy Williamson
14. Paintbrush and Superglue - Matt
15.  Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera  - Phil Curran

Late Again

My excuse is that it's been a very busy week work-wise, with gigs up and down the country, so apologies for this rather late post.
The major downside has been the lack of modelling and painting time, but the hours spent on the road have given me plenty of opportunity to think things through and get some planning done!

The first priority was to clear the paint queue with Zomtober approaching, and this year I'm excited about joining in with Pulp Citizen's painting challenge -  (http://eclecticgentlemantabletopgamer.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Zomtober ).
So, next month will certainly be zombie orientated!
I'd already made a start on the 'other, metal' Cluedo miniatures after finishing the plastic ones in the previous post, and got them finished off late last night along with a couple of Reaper Bones figures.

The Chief about to throw the book at Detectives Harrison and Ford!

Ford prepares to draw her blaster as the hoodie gets twitchy in response to her questions.

Harrison asking Mrs Brown if she saw or heard anything

 Rachael asks "Am I a replicant?"

Corporate upper class and their high end servo-droid

Cindy was an 'entertainment model' Nexus-6 replicant, dancing for the space jockeys on an orbital freight transfer station. Somehow, she ended up hiding away on an inbound shuttle. killing a freight handler and security guard at the shuttle terminus.
"Sin" then went on to murder two armed police officers who responded to the call-out before she disappeared into the sprawl.

"Poundland"  yielded a few more vehicles and I've slipped them into the above photo's, but here's another "three for a pound"

Now the painting is out of the way, the next job is to give myself some space - I only have a limited modelling area, and I don't "manage" it very well! Stuff tends to accumulate as I move from one project to the next, and I find myself with an ever decreasing available surface.
So, I'd better get cracking !
  

I've just got to start this post....

...with a huge thankyou for the help I received in response to my earlier plea for sci-fi vehicles! Without them the start of the "Blade Runner" project would have been stalled, but it's definitely up and running, so...

I've also found a neat looking police car in the toy section of Wilko's. I don't know if they're "new" or that I just didn't spot them while looking for contemporary vehicles for the zombpoc games, but here it is being admired by the freshly painted plastic mini's from the Cluedo boardgame that Bryan mentioned in a previous post.

From the buildings behind them, you can see that I'm CRAP (Completely Rubbish At Papercraft), so I'll need to sharpen my act before getting to work on the pdf's!

I also spotted this book in The Works - marked at £4, but in their 50% sale I picked it up for two quid

I say "book", but the main content is a kit, double side printed on foam board, which builds very quickly and easily into an acceptable looking shuttle (for anyone NOT gaming Star Wars at the moment)........

I mentioned the new Dragon Rampant warbands needed for our fantasy campaign last time, and here they are as works-in-progress.
The "recently raised" 7 points Lich oversees the mustering of his 3 points light foot Skeleton Warriors , 4 points heavy foot Skeleton Warriors and 9 points Wights (Lesser Warbeasts with "Invisibility" option) - these are a mixture wraith mini's raided from my fantasy RPGcollection.

The above just leaves 1 point to spend to bring them up to full strength, so that will have to be a unit of ravenous horde Zombies!

The 6 point Dwarf Lord just needs mounting on a larger base before he's ready to lead his 6 point elite foot Housecarls, and two units of 6 point heavy foot Axe Thanes.

I intend getting a 4 points unit of berserkers to replace one of the Axe Thane units, which will allow me to spend 2 points to give the Lord a "Blessed Melee weapon".
In the meantime, I'm just bodgeling up an Imperial standard for the old 'mono-pose' Axe Thane unit at the back of the above photo....... I'd better go and see if the glue's set!

Campbell's Farm Postscript

By nightfall, Brad had risked bringing the RV up into the yard and he and Hannah had taken up 'residence' there, leaving the house to Travis, Zac and Nate.
Since they'd generated engine noise with the move, it was agreed to quickly risk firing up the tractor and SUV to check they were OK and move them - the tractor now acts as "the gate" and the SUV has become part of the 'motor pool' for the group.
A sentry duty roster had been agreed, (with  one person on watch during the day and two at night), but after the recent activity and still being nervous about how safe their new location would be, no-one expected to get much sleep!
Instead, it was the ideal time to trade information about the outbreak with the newcomers and get to know them better.

(In other words, it's time for me to play catch-up with the character stats and campaign diary, and attend to some other gaming projects!)

So, the question now is, Do androids dream of electric sheep?

I only ask because I dream of these:~

....but after much googling can't find them anywhere after Worldworksgames sad demise!

I'm really looking forward to the Blade Runner sequel (Blade Runner 2049) release next month, and after suppressing my sci-fi gaming urges for so long in the face of loads of  blog posts across the interweb, I've succumbed and blown the dust off my never-got-beyond-the-planning-stages "The Department" campaign.
But I've hit a snag since I was intending using the futuristic vehicles produced to accompany the "Streets Of Titan" (because the "Interceptor" is SO much a not-Spinner - perfect as the iconic Blade Runner vehicle!!) -
I have just ordered one of these from Scotia Grendel.......

....... and I'm thinking of getting the Lamborrari from Wargames Terrain Workshop,

but this is a plea for help if anyone can point me in the right direction if those PDF's are still available, and suggestions for any other 28mm sci-fi civilian vehicles that would suite the 'Tech Noir' setting.


As well as the above, after a 'failed' dungeon quest, I need to assemble two more Dragon Rampant warbands for our Dark Conspiracy campaign!
The adventurers were tasked with recovering "the dying breath" of the necromancer Malek which was caught and held in a cursed brass scroll case,

but they were too late and failed to apprehend the evil acolyte who'd taken it - the crypt was empty!

The "dying breath" was later used to raise the necromancer as a lich, who is now leading an army of undead against the Dwarf Lord.
Luckily I can put together a 24 point Dwarf warband from my Oldhammer 'alliance' army, but the undead are a little more tricky - the only mini's I've got are in my RPG collection and there's not enough of 'em, so it's time to get busy!

Which all explains why the ECW project is still a 'slow burner', but rest assured I'm still painting the first batch of civilians!!

Once again, thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for help regarding those sci-fi vehicles.

Campbell's Farm part three

After a swift 'meet & great' with Nate and Zac, Brad wanted to make sure the farm buildings were clear as quickly as possible, so they could then concentrate on the perimeter. The outbuilding was the nearest, so as Brad glanced back to check that Hannah and Travis were doing OK, the three of them headed straight to the top of the yard.

Nate said it looked clear as he peered through a window, and Brad noticed the door was ajar - was this where the zombie in the yard had appeared from when they'd approached the farm earlier?

Leaving speculation about the zombie aside, and needing to be 100% sure the building was clear, the door was ripped open as Brad and Zac burst in ready for the worst.......

...... only to find it empty! (But they couldn't help but spot the chainsaw on a shelf among some other useful looking tools)

Nerves settled, the guys moved around to inspect the barn - no windows for Nate to peer in, but he did try squinting through the crack in the doors before they were opened but all he said was "It's dark in there"

Opening the door allowed enough light into the barn for them to see the zombie approaching from the very back of the building and the guys followed Brad's lead as he charged forwards swinging his rifle like a club!

As soon as Brad's blow had knocked the zombie off its feet, Nate and Zac quickly finished it off with their heavy boots. A quick look around the barn revealed nothing obvious equipment-wise, but there was plenty of rope, twine and farming implements  that might come in useful.

Travis gave them a 'thumbs up' to show that all was clear in the surrounding area as they crossed the yard towards the final building to check - the farmhouse itself.

Once again, Nate's strategy of looking before leaping was thwarted - this time by drawn curtains, so the only option was to carefully open the door and step inside...

.... Zac had just set foot into the kitchen when he was startled by a zombie lurching towards him with her claw-like hands outstretched, grasping for his throat!

Panicked, he screamed and let rip with his BAP! Brad, without thinking of the noise (but on reflection, did it matter now?!) raised the rifle and fired through the doorway.

Visibly shaken, Zac leaned heavily on the kitchen table, feeling like his legs had turned to jelly. Hannah had rushed over to the house when she heard the scream, and was relieved when Brad told her everyone was OK and that she should go back and look out for any unwanted visitors attracted by the noise while he and Nate searched through the house.

Though there was nothing significant to be found, a few general household items  looked like they'd come in useful, and more importantly there was running water and gas in the cylinders out back so Nate set about brewing up some coffee.

With the buildings clear and perimeter secure, the farm looked like it was going to provide them with the 'safe' place they'd hoped the rail depot would be. Somewhere they could take stock and plan their next moves (and as Hannah was keen to point out, "take a bath!").

Things seem to have gone well for the group, and I'm now going to drop into "standard campaign mode" as per the ATZ:FFO rule book.

Thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed the story enough so far to come back and see how they get on in future installments!

Day Seven Campbell's Farm continued

Eek! we're into September already - Autumn is here and "Winter is coming" and I seem to be running late with everything hobby related, so it's time to get a move on with the projects I really want to get finished before the years out (especially since next month will be pretty much dedicated to zombies!).
Before all the modelling and painting activity though, let's catch up with what's been going on ATZ campaign wise ~

Brad spotted the zombie ahead between the farm buildings and signalled with a finger to his lips to keep quiet as the group continued to move up the track before the other few zeds could reach them in the open.
Once in the yard, a rain of blows from Hannah's hockey stick and Travis's guitar made short work of the unwanted farmhand

The other walking dead had reached the hedgerow and were making their way towards the entrance - Brad ran for the SUV and told the others to push as he got it rolling and jumped in!

The zombies continued to approach the farm entrance (while the PEF's which were in the barn and outbuilding got a "move away" result, creating a rather comic scene as they passed each other behind the hedge!!)

The group rolled the SUV in position just in time (and it fitted - no pre-measurement, and I was convinced it would be too short!).......

.... and while Brad went to 'meet & greet' the two guys who'd showed up (the other PEF resolved as just a bad case of nerves),

Travis swung into action with his guitar again, while Hannah kept an eye on what was going on.

Meanwhile, the third PEF (which had been loitering in the farmhouse) got a "move away" result (I seem to be getting a LOT of those in my games!) and was spotted by Brad as he was heading over to talk to the two guys.

This resolved as "Something's out there!" and raised the Encounter Rating for the rural area to 2.
Of course, this had no bearing at all on the meet & greet, which went well (Brad winning by 4 successes to 2) and resulted in the newcomers asking to join the group, and had absolutely no effect at all on Travis "the axeman" as he continued to clobber the zombies one at a time as they tried to squeeze past the SUV!

Once the perimeter is secured, the newly expanded group will be able to explore the farm buildings...
but that, dear reader, will have to wait until the next episode because unfortunately that's as far as I've got with the game.
All things being well, I should have the next AAR up here on Tuesday night, so I hope you'll pop back to see how things get on.