Zombicide - fully painted...

Well...
When I was crazy with this game a few months back I was so into it I thought I can finish painting them all in 3 weeks.  As it turns out, and as things in real life caught up, I had just finished them all last week, ie, almost a year... haha.
It's not the best of my work, but they are done.

Still very happy with the storage.
[Full blog entry: http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/07/foam-storage.html]

And am still very happy with the transparent basing.
[full blog entry: http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/litko-base.html]

The glass shards are actually hard plastic glued on to it.

I used to use blue dices for them, but then on they look too similar to the survivors so I just spray painted the clear bases blue.

The extra zombies that I just can't resist, they are very good indeed.  I still got a few more being painted but those don't count as the original plastic set aye? haha
[full blog entry: http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/07/HassFree.html]

The team of proxy survivors, not as good as I wish them to be but good enough as gaming pieces.
[full blog entry: http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Zombicide-Proxy.html]

The mass of them look very imposing.

I need to make those contrast happening with these light blue runners...
[full blog entry: http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/litko-base2.html]

S09 Might Makes Right - Zombicide game play report

This mission had always been hard for me.  I tried a couple of times and failed.  What made this scenario difficult, to name but a few:

• It's a small 2x2 tiles map, there's not much space for maneuvering
• if someone dies, the mission is a fail
• there are four objectives, three of them give you one more survivor, one of them is a blank and doesn't give you a survivor
• newly added survivor doesn't carry anything in hand, and starts at zero experience point
• you start with 3 survivors and it's a small map, kill count climbs up really fast 

So after a couple of try with one survivors and failing very fast, I tried again with three.  I picked Wanda for her speed and Josh to slip around to get the objectives.  I also picked my newly painted Claudia so the melee support as I thought the zombies would get close really fast.

A group shot before anyone got hurt

We rushed to the police car to search for weapons.  We got the 'arrgh' card and zombies popped up, it wasn't easy and the weapons drawn were not that good either.

Our luck improved as we rescued Dakota in the first house.  Much thanks to Josh's slippery skill.  The survivor rescued is random, I throw two dices and just count in the tray to see who got picked.  As it turns out she was very helpful.

In the bathroom stood Dakota,  she slipped into her evening wear and signaled her readiness

Moving to the second house took a lot longer than I thought, the path was packed with zombies and they advance from both sides too.  I got lucky that I didn't get the Abomination card and only one or two runner pops up

Getting crowded

Seems like there is a discussion between the dead

Yes in this world, there are kid zombies too

The second objective is again not the blank and Ivy turns up.  She proves to be a good supporting ranged attack with her sniper skill.  Too bad I can't give her the rifle and she missed a lot of shots during the game.

I was lucky again with the second last objective marker, Kim turns up or else she would have to escape from the north east house, which is the spot furthest away from the exit point.  At zero experience and no weapon that would be very difficult.

Greeting Claudia in the small room is Kim

But for Josh getting in there and getting out is just a walk in the park for him.  After he got the objective market in the North West house (Ivy) he just slipped pass the crowd in the main street, got into the house and arrived in the room with the marker.  His escape was equally easy.

Josh just slipped past the crowd and walked right to the objective

Near the end Dakota did a lot of killing by pulling in the crowded with her Taunt skill and 6 dices killing with her pair of sub-machine guns. 

And so we won, for the first time since I got the game I passed this mission.  

MVP of this mission:  Dakota

That was a recent second attempt at the same mission.  I had an earlier attempt but failed because I got the mission objective wrong.  but if you are interested, here's a serious of short clips of how the game went.  Enjoy.

Adriana's Proxy - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

I had had very high expectation for this miniature until I again realize that I can't do African skin tone...

I don't think I have any ways to save her but to repaint... I think the pants is a complete failure.  The face, something that I am usually good at, was a failure too... I like how the top and her boobs appear though.

Claudia's Proxy - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

You know, this miniature could have been very sexy and I could have used a much more ... attractive miniature than Berkeley.  But I kind of running low on cash and the order of these proxy stacks up pretty fast,so I had resort to use a more ... standard miniature from Reaper.  Besides, I favor ranged weapons over melee, so I don't have much love for Claudia.

(http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/chainsaw/latest/50153)

and what could have been....

and what I ended up with.  It was another late night and I started after 1am.  I see this as a speed painting challenge and see what I can come up with within a short time... After painting her up, I found that Berkeley is actually a fine, balanced miniature, the level of detail is pretty balanced, there are spots that are not as good and pretty hard to get into, but overall it's a very good modern days post apocalyptic survivor miniature.

She was done in two nights.  I picked her out of the group because there isn't too many flat or large surfaces. Covering off larger area really call for air brushing.  I like how the yellow turns out, I got a bit carried away with the black + yellow mix so the shadow area looks more dirty than shadow.  

The pigment didn't do the trick this time as it behave more like thick paint than dust. But there's still the texture happening.  The footprint is a bit bigger than I had expected, perhaps my next batch of base need to be a bit bigger... or just get two sizes of blue bases...

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Check out the rest of the Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive Proxy project!

http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Zombicide-Proxy.html

Ivy's Proxy - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

I have another trip lined up at the end of month so I was in a rush again.  I can always go back to them of course but I guess it won't be soon.

The miniature I painted this time is Ainara, from the Street collection of Tales of War.

http://www.taleofwar.com/shop/product.php?id_product=124

So she comes with a tiny base with a few bricks on the ground, it's pretty good actually.  I was a bit surprised that she comes with a Katana.  Actually if I haven't picked her as the Sniper girl the katana would make her look awesome too.

There's a number on her card, I guess this might have been a limited edition.

 The first step is to get her a hand.  Modifying the two hands the comes with her would be impossible.  So, ironically I took a hand from my plastic zombies box and fit in it.  The scale looks pretty close.

this was the original idea I had for her, having the gun over her shoulder.  But later on I haven't went with this idea because changing the hand into gripping the rifle is just too hard for me.

I was a bit stuck on her to do army green, but then after a while I figured out how: just do the shadow for a 'washed' effect.  I think it works.

 So looking at this picture I guess I already lost interest half way through, her upper body scale is a bit off, her lips is a bit too big, the hair is a bit messy, the half coat is too big... etc etc. I did manage to rest the sniper rifle comfortable on her hand though.
I guess all of the survivors could use a bit of dark lining....

 and from now on, I should really use more air brushing.... air brush for the base coat then highlights then hand brush on the details... the time for masking would really pay off.

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Check out the rest of the Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive Proxy project!

http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Zombicide-Proxy.html

Zombicide - basing the runners

One problem moving the zombies is that runners got an extra move/ attack.  when the board started to get crowded it becomes harder to spot them, aside from their pose of course.  But in Season 2 there will be more special zombies such as toxic zombies and so it would become more important to tell them apart quickly.

Runners

"Runner. Amped up for some reason, these guys move twice as fast as Walkers. Each Runner has two Actions per activation, while all other Zombies only have one."

So I had the idea of ordering a bunch of transparent blue base from Litko (http://www.litko.net/BMaker/).  So then the survivors and the runners got this special, thicker bases.  But as I start to love the game more and more I started to paint up some more proxy for the promotional survivors. so instead of 6 survivors I got about 20 of them.

As an alternative, I reclaimed the bases from the set of runners and started air brushing the transparent 20mm bases into clear blue.

(link to the 20mm bases: http://www.litko.net/products/Clear-Miniature-Bases%2C-Circular-20mm.html#.Ug3EoZI3CJ0)

based up

thinned down a little...

Each of these takes only a minute or so, it's kinda fun

I missed one when I was air-brushing, so I just use the brush to work it...

didn't turn out well but this give me an idea on what to do with the toxic zombies.

here's a comparison between the air-brushed ones and the custom made ones.

The custom made ones are of course a lot better looking.

I guess it turns out okay when it hit the board.  

It is more consistent for the zombies to use the same kind of disc as base.

Litko Game Accessories
https://www.facebook.com/Litko
http://www.litko.net

Zombicide - Kickstarter Exclusive Survivor proxy project

(picture heavy post)

I guess one of the reasons why I got hooked up with Zombicide so much is because I am putting my paintjobs into play, and it's a major drive for me to try painting other miniatures that I won't normally paint.  That's good coz I need to learn how to paint guys too.

I got into this too late though, totally missed the time when this game was still on kickstarter.  I missed it THREE times actually, therefore I won't have any of the kickstarter exclusive promo survivors... For the time being proxy can still work (ie, replacement miniatures) but going forward when the zombivors kick in, ie, zombie version of the survivors, I won't that good a zombie replica of them.  Oh well.

I made my order with FRP Games, the one stop on-line miniature web store for me since I started painting. (http://www.frpgames.com/) The shipment arrived right after my trip, excellent timing.  The sculpt for some of these are truly impressive, I hope my painting could bring out the best of them.

But for this entry, let's look at some prettier pictures of them.  Here we will talk about the reasons why they are picked as proxies.  I made one error with Rick but I love that miniature too much so I'd just let it pass.

a nice collection of miniature from famous manufacturers such as Tales of War,  Knight Games and Reaper

[[[**UPDATE** here's the line-up as of 22 Aug]]

[[[**UPDATE** here's the line-up as of 22 Aug]]

This shall be Claudia.  The Reaper model, Berkeley is good but I think the official one has a lot more character.  The official Claudia felt more noticeable and more worthy to be considered as the main character of a movie.  The resemblances are: both are female, holding a chain sword and wearing a vest.
[[[**UPDATE** She is ready to fight! ==> http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Claudia-proxy.html]]

I had an eye for this miniature from the Tales of War for a long long time.  This game gave me the perfect excuse to get her.  As it turns out Jannet is a lot taller than the rest of the crew though, but I think that fits with the 'Loud' skill Adriana got.  I haven't seen the official sculpt but aside from the pants, and the need to think about how to handle the hockey stick, I regard Jannet  as a very good proxy. The best part I think it's the attitude Jannet shows.
[[[**UPDATE** She is ready to fight! http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Adriana-proxy.html]]

Well a black one piece night nightgown is arguably more sexy then tank top plus bulky pants, for Ivy I think it's all about, again, the attitude and her weapon: a gun.  So it will take a while for me to mod the right hand, plus a bit of sculpting of the fingers, it will be fun.
[[[**UPDATE** She is ready to fight! ==> http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Adriana-proxy.html]]

Fon is almost like a fat ... brute version of Troy.  I am guessing Troy is the main guy in the comics/ TV show walking dead, a reluctant hero (or at least that's how I see him).  Fon seems to have the same kind of vibe about him.  The down side is Fon costs a lot more than the rest of the proxies... With Fon, past of the cost goes to the very neat crocodile resting behind him, and the Hell Boy alternative hand.  I guess I could make use of the spare parts in the future some how....
[[[**UPDATE** He is ready to fight! ==>http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Troy-proxy2.html]]]

Yes this is the error I made.  Originally I picked someone else but I ended up picking up officer Terrell from Reaper.  Oh well.  A local guy got too much bones on hand and he offered to see some to me at a discount, so I guess this Terrel could rest in my mini stock pile for a little while first....
I love using this Survivor, the skill 'Steady hand' would make cover fire easy and driving around a breeze.

hmm.  I didn't really care about this guy and frankly I don't like his movies either.  So I got a biker thug to be his proxy.  Mustache, two pistols, vest and jeans... close enough.  70% perhaps?

I am a Fan of Bruce here, got to love the classic like Die Hard 1 and 2, and finding him a close proxy is too hard.  So I just gave up and find a mini that can give the sense of "Tough", that's Nick's starting skill which  think would be very handy, making him very... tough.   As it turns out the facial expression is pretty close, a bit of mod needed to make him more of a zombie killer than a bruiser though.  40% perhaps?

Originally I thought of getting the Cat girl from knight models as proxy for Ivy, but I gave up that idea as it gets too expensive and I got some other close enough mini sitting around the shelf.  No idea who this El Cho is suppose to be, and I never saw his movies neither.  Need to mod a lot to make the Penguin's Thug into a non-criminal miniature.  The lower mask is a bit of a give away though...
 The other Thug in the pack will be used as Dave.  I guess I need to mod his arms into holding the cocktails, plus I need to sculpt the bottles too...
Oh well.

Yes, I admit, aside for the pose Frank doesn't look Marvin at all, in fact, one is a Caucasian and one is an African American.  But I looked for too long and I can't find one that looks 'Marvin' enough, I just have to give up. And again, Frank is more Eastwood then Jackson.

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External Link

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Tales of War: http://www.taleofwar.com/shop/
Hasslefree: http://www.hfminis.co.uk/
Reaper: http://www.reapermini.com/
Knight games: http://www.knightmodels.com/nueva/

FRP games: http://www.frpgames.com/
And most important of all, FRP had been my one stop shop for all my miniature needs.  Coolminiotnot shop is okay but FRP got a bigger range and better prices :)