The Walking Dead WIP & Other Stuff...

Paints... Paaaaaaaaaaaaints...

Howdy folks!

Long time no post, as usual!

So I did quite a bit of hobby stuff recently and thought a good update was in order.

First up: my Novus building that you may recall from waaaay back in the day.

I took entirely too long to actually slap paint on this bad boy

I kept it simple like the other building. I under coated it with blank, then highlighted VGA Cold Grey and VMA Light Grey, then came back over with VMA Scarlet Red, an excellent vibrant red. Lastly I painted the interior walls with VMA Khaki or something. I still have work to do on it, like paint the debris and machines, but I've held myself to my 2018 mantra:

Get your crap at least table ready.

The flood in Houston forced me to consolidate all my hobby stuff and move them around the house, which when all piled together really became overwhelming when seeing all the stuff I have, and how none of it is completely painted.

So I'm going to try to get things at least presentable when I can, meaning actually painting rather than just thinking of painting. An hour here, and hour there, it all adds up and gets crap done.

So when I saw this building again I decided that's what I'll do, starting with this building, and did it.

Which transitioned into the next project:

The Walking Dead: All Out War Miniatures Game

I Kickstarted this game a while back, and even though I was hesitant when it first came out by the end of the campaign I was really excited to back it and get it on the table. When it arrived I played a few solo games but nothing serious, I mostly used the cars for terrain for other games and even the supply token pieces. I never really tried to get it on the table for our regular gaming group, though, as we usually played Malifaux and it just collected dust.

Recently, though, one of our regulars expressed interest in other games as Malifaux is starting to feel tired - this will happen when it's what your main game is (in our group) and it's played multiple times a week since 2013, which is when at least I joined the group so it's even longer for this player. When I thought about my catalog of games that might be interesting to introduce during this opportunity I brushed by my copy of TWD and figured why not.

I got really motivated to get this table ready and started on two of the walkers:

These were my test models for quick-painting concepts. I figured I'd rely heavily on washes and drybrushing (I hardly drybrush ever, so this shows that I really want to get these done lol) and came up with a recipe/paint order that may very well get the job done, and it's similar to how I painted my old horde Vampire army in Warhammer Fantasy.

For the skin, it's 50/50 VMA IDF Green/VGC Dead Flesh airbrushed on, then zenithal with VGC Dead Flesh, then a heavy wash of SWM Stone wash, then a drybrush of VGC Dead Flesh and a bit of white, followed by a spot wash of GW Green for shading and tone. A few dashes of GW Blood stuff adds contrast to the overall green tone.

For any other elements like clothing I just base, wash, drybrush, repeat as needed. As I said, really trying to get this done fast and not get held up on details like I normally do, and I feel like this recipe is a good balance between speed and aesthetics.

While I painted those I got started on the trucks that come with the game (for the KS version). I knew I wanted a red and a blue truck, as my wife used to own a cool red Chevy and when we first met we drove around in her blue Chevy, so I undercoated one with Black/Cold Grey/Light Grey then hit it with Scarlet Red like the Novus building. Then I washed it with GW Agrax Earthshade for quick weathering and did a few other elements like the windows.

Where it's at so far, these walkers are a breeze and fun to paint

The vehicles aren't done fully, as I need to pick out elements like the grill and hubcaps, and weather it even further with stippling and paint chipping, but as I said earlier - just get my crap table ready, so I did.

Speaking of table ready:

I couldn't help myself! I recently bought a Walking Dead mouse pad mat from our FLGS in anticipation of my recent motivation to get TWD table ready. So I plopped on some Battle Systems terrain, a few trees, etc. and before you know it I've got a pretty sweet table ready to rock this game! With its small model count I may actually get a game fully painted and ready for demos!

I have to admit I really like the small table size and model count, but when you have about 10 or so zombies on this set up you can see exactly the claustrophobia that this game meant to induce in players! It's going to be fun and intense.

And as a side project:

I started and almost completed Rosamu from the board game Yashima. I've always liked this game and its miniatures, and thought it could double as a model in A Fistful of Kung Fu. I painted it mostly by brush, so it felt like painting with one hand tied behind me as I've heavily airbrushed for the last few years, but it's nice to get back to your roots - I just shouldn't have done so after picking orange and yellow as my colors, because man I forgot how tedious and painful those colors are when painting by hand! The difficulty and disappointment actually led me to stop painting this guy for now, but - and this is my new mantra - he's table ready!

That's it for now, I'll keep in touch when I can!

MERCS Terrain WIP - Novus Design Building

Hey all!

So I've recently done some work on the Novus Design building I featured a while back. I also bought another one of those buildings between now and then. I said it before and I'll say it now, I love these buildings.

This is the state it's at right now. I sprayed it black with rattle-can primer so I wouldn't take all day and waste airbrush primer. I then took a light olive color (can't remember the name) and mixed it with Wolf Grey. I messily airbrushed it over the black. Then I took Cold Grey and sprayed the ground. 

It still needs plenty of work but I was amazed how in essentially an hour it became playable. Of course I had to pose my little toys in it.

I also couldn't help setting up a quick table. In the back you see the other Novus Design building, one that's more standard in design but still very cool. I don't know what color I want to paint it yet, but after working with this one I know it should be a breeze.

Due to the large footprint of the buildings not many more terrain elements are necessary to fill the table. Some crates block long lanes of LOS, and some scatter provide cover for vulnerable approaches. With this set up the road becomes a valuable lane to cover or bound through. The center becomes a close range firefight with hardly any covering fire to support without being close up, and the opposite table edge becomes a race to get there first. I think it would be an interesting fight with this set up, although elevation isn't a huge element outside of climbing on the crates.

The great thing is that you can shift the buildings around to create some vastly different set ups. Since they're essentially just a series of walls you don't lose any playing surface. A closed off building that's, say, a foot squared means that the foot of space is unusable. With these buildings you block off long lanes of LOS but the game opens up once you enter them. For the price they are a great bargain and look awesome.

I believe they were designed with WWII games like Bolt Action in mind, but they're generic enough to fit in most games of that scale. I know this wouldn't look out of place in both Infinity and 40k, and I wouldn't feel weird about using them in Malifaux. 

I think I'll keep the base/ground colors fairly dark so it helps blend into the mat's surface more. Although they're obviously different colors they don't look out of place together. I usually brighten up my paintjobs with some highlights but I think I may leave these buildings more muted and muddy.

I can't wait to get a game of MERCS with these, it's a really cool addition and really gets you immersed. It can fit in well with the MERCS fluff as an area in the Lost Margin, where the FCC House 9 members reside. I imagine using the scenarios with objectives to represent data drop zones with opposing squads trying to intercept them, or a place for the Ambush scenario for the FCC to stage against a KemVar last stand. 

If anything painting this has gotten me aching to get more MERCS stuff done! Also reading Sync's blog gets me pumped. You should check it out, it's a great place to see another MERCS fan's work. Maybe one day I can get off my lazy butt and paint my whole FCC squad and my other stuff so I can do a proper demo!

Terminator Genisys Mat and Novus Terrain Building

Just thought I'd share this recent purchase with you folks!

It's a 33"x22" mat for another miniatures game that works perfectly for MERCS. It's a tad smaller than usual but it's not a game that's going to change dramatically because of that, especially when they have scenarios on a 2'x2' square as well.

I also have a building from Novus Design. It's a decent footprint on the board but it's very open so movement isn't hindered drastically, just LOS. It should create some interesting approaches as it can turn very close quarters combat fast if you're near it. I think it makes a cool centerpiece and works perfectly for objectives. I plan on getting a second one that's a bit smaller so that there are two buildings in the center.

The mat itself is a cool enough design, but it's literally littered with skulls. The great thing is that it's not noticeable unless you're really close up, but it kinda takes you into a different setting. Granted, it's appropriate for Terminator, although really why are all the skulls around in that world? Do Terminators evaporate ribcages?

The road portion also seems a tad on the small side for MERCS, but that's negligible as roads vary in size anyway.

Overall I highly recommend the mat for MERCS games. It's cheap (about $24 on Amazon) and easy to transport. The dark colors will help your models and terrain stand out. Also, good luck finding mats that will fit the 3x2 size, you're more than likely putting out 2 2x2s and having to have funky deployment zones.

As for the Novus Building, I think it's perfect. Granted you're going to be doing a lot of clean up. I mean A LOT. Bits of mold are actually embedded in the model, and there's some flash but it's nothing you can't just leave alone. It is terrain, after all. The entire building is one piece so there's no assembly, but there are some walls that are a bit thin and can break if you're not careful. Really though, for it's cost it's awesome and creates a war torn battlefield with no effort on your part, you'll just have to paint it.