Tag Archives: Zombies

Apocalypse Me: Hungry Bertha

I’m used to storms here in New England. Unfortunately, sometimes they screw with my painting time. Since I had no power to Piper’s Painting Pit on some key days last month, I was unable to get my entry for Dave Stone’s “Apocalypse Me” challenge done on time. Here she is, better late than never; and no, she doesn’t look like me at all.

This lovely lass is “Hungry Bertha”, an OOP Horrorclix miniature from the Freakshow set. As many of you know, repainting and rebasing Clix is something I quite enjoy. So I decided to make Bertha look a little better, paint-wise, and a little more zombified. That way she could (theoretically) be my entry for Zombtober, too.

The lollipop stuck to her backside is a nice touch, as are the mysterious and loathsome slime trails emanating from her various folds. Lovely.

Anyway, I decided to add some gore to her base…a few GW zombie bits, some green stuff intestines…you get the idea.

Add copious layers of Blood for the Blood God, some gloss varnish on her lollipop and slime trails, and here is the result.

This close up shows that I should clean up her eyes a bit, methinks.

Upon reflection I thought it might be fun to make a diorama out of Bertha here, with her teetering upon a veritable mound of body parts and gore; but I was under the gun as it was. This will have to do for now. Still…it’s a thought for later.

Apologies for being late, Dave!

Christmas is all about…ME.

‘Tis the season, and as usual, I have taken advantage of the holiday sales to buy a bunch of shit for me that I don’t need, but definitely want.

A couple of months ago I broke down and subscribed to Amazon Prime, mainly so I could watch The Boys (one of my favorite comics of all time). Of course, Amazon Prime comes with free shipping on anything I order from Amazon, so guess who has been busy? (Hint: it’s me.) Now, I know Amazon is like Wal-Mart…the deep discounts they offer are bad for the economy, and certain death for brick-and-mortar stores. And I do feel bad when I order something from Amazon, and it arrives at my door at 9 pm the next night, because I don’t NEED anything that badly, and delivery drivers shouldn’t have to deliver dumb shit to my house at 9 pm in the freezing cold when they could be home instead.

I get it. I know Amazon is a bad company to work for. Yet I’m weak. I can’t say no to those sweet price cuts. For some reason, I can’t ignore Amazon the same way I refuse to deal with other asshole companies like Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby (fuck those guys). The discounts are SO big…Right now, as I write this post, the Modiphius Original Series Away Team that I painted last month is on sale for $18.96. That’s a little over ONE THIRD the retail price (which, at $52.00, is fucking stupidly expensive, but still…) Less than $20 for 10 miniatures is a pretty good deal, I would say.

So, between Amazon and other vendors, I’ve racked up quite the grocery bill, and it’s not even Christmas. Here’s how to spend money irresponsibly on yourself before the holidays, so that whatever Santa brings you (or doesn’t), you won’t be disappointed.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (Amazon): I picked up this bundle for $82, which is 48% of what it retails for ($170). I get all the core rulebooks: (Player’s Handbook, DMG, Monster Manual) and a DM screen; all in a handsome slipcase. Why would I buy this when I’m already all-in on 3 out of 4 editions of Dungeons and Dragons (I skipped 4th, and assumed I was stopping at 3.5)? First: because it seems that’s all anyone plays around me, and I want desperately to get into a game; second: it’s supposedly a good system, and finally: because I got all the core books at 52% off.

Red Markets (Indie Press Revolution): I bought this PDF (after I bought the get started kit at DrivethruRPG) after hearing some pretty amazing things about this game. I listened to a bunch of actual play podcasts (which were alternately interesting and irritating; there’s always at least one annoying asshole in every gaming group, sometimes more) and an interview with the game’s creator, and I’m hooked. I wanna play. I’m an old-school kinda guy; I don’t like reading PDFs. I’d rather have a book in my hand. Red Markets is almost 500 pages of full-color awesomeness, so if I tried to print it out it would suck my printer dry and probably look like shit. Lucky for me, Indie Press Revolution printed it for me, and I got the PDF version as part of the package, too. I’m happy to say their printed book is very high-quality and durable; much better than if I had tried to do it myself. It’s a thing of beauty.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (Amazon): I got this new hardcover edition of the rules at 30% off. I’ve heard good things about Savage Worlds, but I’ve never played it. The discount (and some whisky, TBH) was enough to push me, in a weak moment, to buy it. I haven’t looked at it yet (too much Star Trek and Red Markets on the brain).

Wreck Age (eBay): I collect rules sets (which explains why I own a copy of Spinespur). This post-apocalyptic skirmish game was well-reviewed, and even had its own line of miniatures. This was a cheap purchase, so I guess that justifies it.

Note this doesn’t include my purchases from Troll and Toad (individual Star Trek Heroclix) and from Etsy shops (3D Printed Terrain).

Am I done? Maybe…I have my eye on a few other things. I want the latest version of Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition), and Delta Green, which I have heard great things about. And I have my eye on yet more Modiphius Trek miniatures: the Next Generation Away Team set, which, sadly, never seems to drop below $30. (Once it does, it’s fair game.)

“Who you callin’ a dummy?”

As Movember draws to a close, I have officially painted all of my pulp miniatures! For this last installment, I present some ventriloquists!

Technically, only ONE of these is a pulp miniature…yet when painting him, I was surprised to find that I had two more ventriloquists in 28mm! It’s an odd genre of miniature to own, after all. How many ventriloquist miniatures do YOU own? I’m betting not three.

First, straight from his tour performing for the crown heads of Europe, The Great Adamski! This miniature comes from Black Army Productions, a small company that makes some interesting miniatures. This guy came with a couple of hand options; he could have either had a second puppet or a gun behind his back. (I went all in on the dummies.) Adamski also satisfies my Movember requirement: check out that handlebar mustache! His Cossack dummy (the one behind his back) is sporting some impressive lipwear as well.

Next, a zombie ventriloquist from Horrorclix, because why not? I repainted him because as expected, the factory clix paint job was somewhat…sub-par.

Lastly, a relatively new-ish Batman villain, THE Ventriloquist (and Scarface). This miniature was repainted completely, but I forgot to take a “before” picture.

The Ventriloquist (and Scarface) is pretty dumb, even for Batman’s rogue’s gallery. The Ventriloquist himself is a mild-mannered milquetoast; it’s Scarface, the dummy, who is the real ruthless bad guy. From the DC wiki:

I find him annoying because Scarface can’t pronounce the letter “B” (on account of the Ventriloquist not moving his lips), so he substitutes a “G” sound. This gets old pretty fast, especially when you’re reading speech balloons. “Let’s rog the gank, boys! And watch out for the Gatman!” Ugh.

Anyway, that wraps up Movember…I’m still mulling over a project for December. Watch this space!

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 63

Miniatures Purchased: 13

Total: +50

Zombtober Week 4: Repaints and a Classic!

Zombtober comes to an end, and I present my final submission: a group of repaints and a classic Ral Partha miniature!

First up are the repaints: two Horrorclix zombies and two Indy Heroclix miniatures, repainted and rebased for use in the apocalypse. From L-R, a Horrorclix Zombie Patient, a Cheerleader Zombie, an Indy Clix Abbey Chase, and an Indy Clix Tiger Lily.

I like the patient zombie a lot, but the cheerleader is kind of silly. She’s using fistfuls of guts for pom-poms. I am not familiar with Tiger Lily or Abbey Chase, so I had no misgivings about repainting them completely for use as modern survivors. The Abbey Chase miniature could also work for a pulp heroine. Tiger Lily looks like Peter Criss without the armor. Repainting her face was easy, but what was kind of annoying was her T-Shirt. It has some design on it that I couldn’t make out, so I just painted the broken heart over it and I think it looks ok.

But Zombtober isn’t about REPAINTING zombies; it’s about painting zombies. Thus I present some old-school love: a classic Ral Partha zombie I’ve had since the mid 1980’s. He has never seen paint until now, so if nothing else, Zombtober has enabled me to get some long-overdue painting done!

Here’s the blogroll of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Brummie, our Zombtober Host!- Brummie’s Wargaming Blog
Pulp Citizen- Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
Rob Bresnen- Four Colour Super Minis
Kieron-Cheaphammer!!!
Terry Silverthorn- Miniature Mayhem
Ivor Evan- Saturday Mornings
Bryan Scott aka Vampifan- Vampifan’s World of the Undead
Colgar6- Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
Clint- Anything But a One!
Phil Curran- Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera
Dai- The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted
The Wargames Addict- The Wargame Addict
Dick Garrison- Rantings from Under the Wargames table
myincubliss –Dead Lead Project

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 43

Miniatures Purchased: 13

Total: +30

Zombtober Week 3: Don’t be such a Killjoy…

Week three of Zombtober is upon us, and I present my submission: Killjoy, from the Wyrd Miniatures Malifaux line.

This miniature is the original metal version of Killjoy, a large-size character from the Resurrectionist faction. I don’t play Malifaux, but I love some of their miniatures. Killjoy has since been resculpted in plastic. I prefer this version, but YMMV.

Anyway, Killjoy is supposedly a zombie, but to me he looks more like a Barker-esque cenobite or perhaps a murder-golem. (Is that a thing? It is now.) He’s definitely a killing machine, and his corpulent size implies he eats what he kills. So I decorated his 40mm base with some appropriate bodies and body parts. I even “sculpted” some entrails and viscera out of green stuff and piled them at his feet. Gross, huh?

He was pretty fun to paint. His base is GW Rakarth Flesh, highlighted with some Ivory and washed with Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade and some Athonian Camoshade. Then I used a heapin helpin’ of Blood for the Blood God and Nurgle’s Rot, two technical paints that enhance the gore quite nicely.

Since I don’t play Malifaux, I guess I could use him as a “boss” zombie, perhaps the focus of an entire game, once I decide which zombie rule set I like best. I’ve tried All Things Zombie, but it wasn’t my thing. I enjoyed No More Room in Hell, and even wrote a three-part After Action Report on this blog; but now I’m looking for something a little more “realistic”. I bought Osprey’s Last Days, but I’m reading some not-so-great reviews, so who knows?

Here’s the blogroll of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 42

Miniatures Purchased: 13

Total: +29

(The Progress Queue took a slight hit this month as I gave in to weakness. More on that in an upcoming post.)

Zombtober 2018 Week 2: Felicity meets the zombies!

It’s Zombtober, and I’m getting a late start. I missed the first week. Therefore, I worked twice as hard this week to get my submissions in. I decided to do a bunch of zombies and a survivor to catch up.

These zombies are from Reaper’s Bones line. You get all 5 in a pack for 7 bucks! They’re all pretty good sculpts, I’m particularly fond of the second one from the left and the one all the way on the right. These were the first miniatures I ever underpainted after priming; meaning I gave them all a light drybrush of white over the black primer before adding the colors. It was a technique I was unfamiliar with, but now that I’ve tried it, I can say it works terrific at picking out the detail on models, allowing me to easily see where clothes end and skin begins. It even picked out the wounds and bite marks the zombies have, making painting them easier. I’ll be using it again. My eyes aren’t getting any better with age, so any help is a good thing.

What do you do when you’re outnumbered five to one? Have the right tool for the job. This minigun should be just what the doctor ordered… This is Felicity, from Hasslefree. She’s one of the “not-Mystery Machine crew”; basically she’s Daphne from Scooby-Doo with a minigun. As cool as that is, I decided to paint her differently and not stick to her regular colors.

Here’s a quick shot of Felicity in action.

Next Sunday is my next Zombtober submission. Hopefully I’ll get some other stuff done before then, though, so watch this space!

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 40

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +39

Here’s the blogroll of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Zombie Strippers!

Well, these lovelies have been languishing on my desk for almost a year. In fact, I was planning on painting them for ZeDecember last year, but I got distracted by life. All I can say is “better late than never”. And anyway, it’s not like these girls are in a hurry for anything anymore. They’ll be making an appearance in my No More Room in Hell games.

These are Reaper’s Zombie Strippers, from their Chronoscope line. The bases are from Armorcast. I especially love the gal on the left holding the customer’s hand, still clutching some dollar bills.

The strip club (a better view of it above) is a paper building from TommyGun over at Model Paper World. You can find it here. And it’s FREEEEEE!

ZeDecember Week One : Crazy Oscar!

In honor of ZeDecember (courtesy of SamSagace’s blog) , I have painted a new zombie apocalypse survivor: Crazy Oscar!

Oscar wasn’t exactly sane (or hygienic) before the dead started walking around and eating people, but he’s even less so now. The miniature is from Mega Miniatures; however with the recent selloff of that company, I have no idea what company now owns the rights to the mold. I tried to paint him to look as dirty as possible (as a guy named Oscar who lives in garbage should), so I used a lot of black and brown washes over my highlights.

Although you can’t really see it, I also tried a new technique with Oscar: I used MIG productions rust pigments on his axe-head and on the old tire on his base. This dust looks different than a rust-colored paint (my go-to rust paint was GW’s Tin Bitz) , and I like the results.

I posed him with an Armorcast Dumpster and Trash Pile, just because.

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 3

Well, I thought I had more pictures of the end of the game, but I guess we got pretty caught up in the excitement and forgot to take them. So, rather than go turn by turn, I’ll try to remember the general narrative for the rest of the game. First, Spartacus and Foxxy had a harrowing turn as the zombies swarmed the vehicle. But the windows withdtood their assault and Spartacus managed to get the Hummer started the second time around. He roared away, plowing though a group of three zombies on their way to the convenience store. The Anti-zombie rating isn’t very high on a vehicle ( I guess because zombies can easily survive being hit by a truck, as trauma isn’t much of an issue when you’re dead.) Despite this, Spartacus ran one zombie down and Foxxy shot another in the brain-pan as they drove by. They got to the convenience store, but couldn’t do anything else.

Honey Velvet, Ramses Magnum and Lorenzo fought their way through the zombie horde on the side of the gun shop, but poor Lorenzo’s shotgun picked a critical moment to run out of ammo and he was pulled down screaming.

Mr. Wisdom, Lady Chardonnay and the girls were pretty much free to act, as Mr. Wisdom had removed the threat of the spawn points in their immediate vicinity. They began to move towards their side of the board in search of more SURVIVE locations.

Braaaaaaaiiiiinnnnsssss.......

Meanwhile, with Spartacus and Foxxy gone, the big horde of zombies in the middle of the board now turned their attention towards Honey Velvet and Ramses Magnum, as they were the closest survivors. Honey Velvet ran across the street to a boarded-up diner and made her way inside, where she found a Lumberjack’s Chainsaw just lying on the table. Ramses Magnum stayed behind to cover her and fired off a few shots at an approaching zombie, killing it for good.

Mr. Wisdom and his crew fought off a few more zombies, continuing to move towards their table edge.

Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite jumped out of the Hummer. Spartacus ran into the convenience store and looted it for 5 Units of Food! Foxxy stayed outside to cover him as the zombies began to approach…

On their activation, the zombies all moved towards the closest survivors. Three of them followed Honey Velvet into the diner, but that was a mistake. Honey fired up her new toy, and the lumberjack’s chainsaw decapitated all three rotters just before it ran out of gas! Whew!

"Get back in the truck, Foxxy!"

The horde swarmed Foxxy Dynamite before she could get back in the truck. She fought poorly and ultimately went down beneath a mass of rotting zombie bodies.

Foxxxxyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Spartacus Jones jumped in the Hummer through the sun roof and took off, leaving Foxxy to her fate. He sped towards Ramses Magnum and Honey Velvet, intent on picking them up. With only 7 survivors left, they had fulfilled the victory conditions of the scenario: we had one unit of food for each survivor. Time to get the FUNK out of here!

Ramses and Honey were able to enter the Hummer on their activation, and Mr. Wisdom and his crew were able to safely walk off their edge of the board, since no zombies were anywhere near them. The next turn, the Hummer sped off the board. Victory for the survivors!

My friends all expressed interest in campaigning NMRIH using these same characters, so there’s a chance you may see more adventures of the Soul Survivors in future posts! Stay tuned!

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 2

The zombies activate! We rolled 11 dice in the dice grave, scoring 7 zombies. They spawned at random points all over the board. None spawned close enough to Mr. Wisdom or his girls to threaten them this turn, and Honey Velvet and her group were far enough away from any spawning points that they only had to worry about the zombie that was still trying to eat B-Train this turn.

Feel the Fist of Funk!

A zombie spawned right next to Spartacus Jones and since he was within 6″, he charged right into Monstrous Melee! Spartacus could have Snap-fired at the charging zombie, but why bother? Instead he showed that dirty rotter what it means to meet the Fist of Funk! Ka-POW! One zombie down.

Meanwhile, the zombie on the truck with B-Train failed to do any damage, and so did B-Train. They remained in combat.

The Survivors won the activation next turn. Mr. Wisdom managed to get into base contact with a zombie spawn point and destroy it, which made his section of the board just a little bit safer.

Ramses Magnum fired at an approaching zombie not too far away, but failed to kill it. Lorenzo leveled his shotgun at the zombie and blew it into next week! Honey Velvet joined the melee between B-Train and the zombie in the truck. With her machete, she made quick work of the zombie before he could sink his yellow, decayed teeth into B-Train.

Spartacus Jones was still trying to rally his group, considering Foxxy Dynamite was still suppressed. Not willing to move on without her, he consolidated the troops and waited it out this turn.

The zombies spawned at an alarming rate, due mostly to the sound of gunfire from Honey Velvet’s group. We rolled a whopping 17 dice for the dice grave and scored 12 zombies. That was enough to hit all remaining spawn points once, and one twice! It was beginning to get crowded…

To make matters worse, the zombies won the activation for the fourth round, which means they spawned AGAIN. Luckily, there were only 6 this time, but it didn’t help any, as there were now enough zombies on the board that they started to herd together. Many of them began to close on the park, where Spartacus Jones and his group had been stuck for the last two turns.

Yikes!

Both De’Andre and Cyrus Snap-fired on the approaching zombies, but didn’t do anything to slow them down, and they wound up in Monstrous Melee. Foxxy Dynamite finally came out of her stupor and shot one of them down. Spartacus fired his gun but missed. That’s a LOT of gunfire.

Mr. Wisdom got charged by a zombie, but made quick work of it with his sword-cane.

Don't mess with Mo'nique!

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom got close to another zombie spawning point, and took that one out of play too. His area was rapidly becoming the safest part of the board, as zombies weren’t moving towards him at all, really. All the spawning points left were closer to the other groups. However, just to be safe, Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay moved around a car wreck to confront two shambling zombies. Mo’nique put one down permanently with her purse, while on the other side, Yu’nique made it to a car and looted it, finding 2 units of Food!!

Honey Velvet’s group began to move around the Gun Shop, staying away from the front as more zombies were heading there all the time. Ramses Magnum kicked open a nearby door to a SURVIVE! Location, and once inside, opened a fridge only to find it filled with disgusting zombie guts, which promptly coated his expensive, polyester powder-blue suit in gore! This had the unfortunate effect of raising the Zombie Threat Level by one for the rest of the game, ensuring that more and more zombies would be attracted each turn!

AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The zombies activated first AGAIN the next turn. Based on the amount of gunfire the previous turn, as well as the heightened threat level, we were rolling a truly horrendous amount of dice to spawn zombies. They seemed to come from everywhere at once! Poor B-Train lagged a little too far behind Honey Velvet’s group and wound up in Monstrous Melee as a zombie lunged at him. He was pulled down and eaten before our eyes! Honey Velvet could do nothing for him and turned her head away. Ramses Magnum, being Dead Inside, was calmly indifferent to the whole scene. It gave them some breathing room as all nearby zombies would be attracted to the feast next turn.

OM-NOM-NOM!!!!

But poor B-Train wouldn’t be the only one to become zombie chow this turn. In the park, both Cyrus and De’andre were pulled down and noshed on by zombies while Spartacus Jones and Foxxy Dynamite could only watch helplessly. Both passed their GUTS checks, so they could act freely when their time came.

Once again, Mo'nique ain't playin'!

Zombies charged at Mo’nique and Lady Chardonnay. Lady Chardonnay put one down with Snap-fire, while Mo’nique bludgeoned yet another zombie into final rest with her purse.

On the survivor’s activation, Mr. Wisdom moved to join his group, taking a shot at a zombie at long range and missing, while Yu’nique looted a nearby dumpster and scored a Big-Ass Knife!

They're breaking through!

Meanwhile, Honey Velvet’s group continued around the Gun Shop, only to find a hastily-erected barricade collapsing under the weight of half a dozen zeds. They would have to fight their way through next turn!

Let's get the FUNK out of here!

Spartacus and Foxxy ran into a nearby Hummer and locked the doors as the groaning zombies outside mobbed up and gave pursuit. He couldn’t get it started this turn, and would have to wait. Meanwhile, the zombies were getting closer, and a car door isn’t much protection…

To Be Continued!!!!

Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging

The Angry Piper's miniatures and gaming blog.

Tag Archives: Zombies

Apocalypse Me: Hungry Bertha

Christmas is all about…ME.

“Who you callin’ a dummy?”

Zombtober Week 4: Repaints and a Classic!

Zombtober Week 3: Don’t be such a Killjoy…

Zombtober 2018 Week 2: Felicity meets the zombies!

Zombie Strippers!

ZeDecember Week One : Crazy Oscar!

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 3

The Soul Survivors: A No More Room in Hell AAR Part 2