Zombiesmith Zombies 2

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I'm continuing to paint up all my zombies from Zombiesmith.  The next batch of five are "Boney, Yield, Pop, Zombie Homemaker, and Chubs."  Boney is interesting because, although you can't see it in the photo, the top of his skull is missing and you can see his brain within.  Yield is actually not wielding a "yield" sign because those are inverted with the point downward.  Triangles with the points upward are actually things like radioactive or high voltage signs.  Pop is clearly Michael Jackson from "Thriller," although oddly he is barefoot.  The homemaker is wielding a skillet, which if you've seen the movie "Tangled" can be a devasting weapon.  The last guy is only wearing a pair of shorts, but he's so swollen that his gut is literally splitting open.

Anyways, five more done on the basecoat-and-dip method.  I'm cruising along on these, but it is time to change gears and work on something different.

Zombiesmith zombies 1

Last November I took advantage of Zombiesmith's Black Friday sale and purchased his entire line of zombies at a really great price.  This is the first batch of zombies I have painted up.  I will admit that these guys are base coated and stained with wood stain.  I have mixed feelings about staining (I think it is a little lazy sometimes on my part) but zombies are tailor-made for dipping: they tend towards earth tones, they are grungy in appearance, and you need a lot of them.

Cops with Shotguns (Future Wars)

There are several kinds of people in an ATZ game: zombies, civilians, survivors, gangers, and military.  You need all of those to play a game, just because any could show up at any time.  Under "military" are the police, and so in order to fill out that requirement I picked up a blister pack of "Cops with Shotguns" by Future Wars (which is under the Copplestone Casting label).  In theory they are supposed to be futuristic (naturally), but I wanted to paint them up a little retro for my ATZ campaign.  These guys are armed with shotguns, pistols, and truncheons, and are led by a trenchcoat-wearing officer.

Once I get all of my categories filled out to a reasonable and workable extent, I'll be ready to start my ATZ campaign.  My goal is the beginning of 2012, and I seem to be on track for that goal.

Zombie Strippers

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These lovely ladies were made by Reaper Miniatures.  My only beef with them is that they are not particularly injured.  One has an open wound on her leg, another a sort of injury on her back, but the third is hardly wounded at all.  Maybe the bite is where we can't see it.

I decided to experiment with zombie skin colors.  In the past I've used a gray color, but this time I decided to use something a little more in the flesh tone range with a bit of green.  It's actually Delta Ceramcoat Sandstone with Antique Walnut Stain on top.  I think that, when all is said and done, it looks pretty good.

Comments welcome.

Rufus, survivor

I scrounged around and found the last figure of the Street Violence blister set I owned, a guy who I guess is supposed to look like Rob Zombie or something.  Since I'm Robb, I decided to go with "Rufus" instead.  Rufus is armed with a grenade, a knife, a gun, and a drum-fed shotgun.  That's a pretty solid kit.  Maybe it is the gut and the big belt buckle, but he's got a good "survivor" vibe going for him.

In my inventory of the miniatures I have that might work in this range, I discovered I only had about a dozen zombies, and they are all the Wargames Factory ones.  So I ordered a horde of new miniatures from Zombiesmith on Black Friday (he had a sale, 18% off).  It might be a while before they get here, but in the meantime I have a few more I can be working on.

Stephanie, survivor

In anticipation of launching my solo ATZ campaign, I've been going through my giant collection of odd miniatures in hopes of finding ones that can be, if you'll forgive the term, cannibalized for participants in the game.

This figure is one of rarest I own, and is special to me because it is one that I helped design.  Many, many years ago a friend named Steve Eserin launched a miniatures and terrain company called "The Figure Trader."  To support the line, he created a very interesting game called "Sabotage."  I was asked by Steve to provide some of the concept sketches for the game, and even got my name on the book.  Or rather, I got this accidental pastiche between my real name and my internet handle that Steve apologized for later.  Sadly, The Figure Trader lost a ton of money as a vendor in the meltdown of i-kore,which subsequently declared bankruptcy, forced their debtors to write off the loss, and then had the assets purchased by a member of their own staff who relaunched the entire line as Urban Mammoth.  (As a sidenote, one of i-kores disgruntled sculptors went onto be the guy behind Hasslefree miniatures.  If you ever look at the Void 1.1 line, you'll see his hand in it.)

Anyways, as a thanks for being part of the creation of Sabotage, Steve sent me a ton of resin sci-fi terrain which I still use, as well as a bunch of miniatures, including quite possibility the entire casting lot of this one.  Somewhere I've got about two dozen of this figure, whom I named Stephanie in honor of Steve Eserin.  She's got a little of the cheesecake look to her, but I'm thinking a blowtorch is an interesting option as an improvisational weapon against zombies.

As a side note, despite some health problems Steve still works for Terragnosis, which you should really go check out.

Berkeley, Survivor

Hard to believe I haven't done anything on this project since July, but I got sidetracked by some other things.  Now I'm back, and starting things off with "Berkeley" from Reaper Miniatures.  She's a great looking fig, but she's armed with two of the most problematic weapons in ATZ: a shotgun and a chainsaw.  Both work just fine against zombies, but tend to draw more zombies like flies to honey.

If you read my primary blog, you know I'm kind of kicking about some various projects.  Well, I've decided to come back here.  I've been reading and re-reading the ATZ rules, and I think I know what one of my biggest hang-ups about the rules was, and I've come to grips with it.  Now it's time to get some figures, both alive and dead, painted up and ready to launch.