CHAIN REACTION

 Phil had got up early, as he needed to go to the mall and get an outfit for the 80's party, it was going to be an all day event, and you could turn up whenever you wanted. Not being a big fan of the 80's he had no idea what to get, but as Becky was going to be there later, he wanted to make an effort. As he left the house, he saw Gladys his next door neighbour Gladys, she obviously had hit the booze early today, stumbling around the garden in her slip. He walked over to the fence to see if she was okay, as she stumbled towards him, she looked strange, and then lunged and bit him.

Lenny, was on the way to the 80's party early, as he wanted to make sure he was there before Phil, as he also liked Becky. The costume was easy as he hadn't changed his style since the 80's and still wore Chino's and LaCoste T-Shirts on a regular basis. As he left his street he spotted Phil heading towards him, what a costume, he looked like a zombie from Thriller, now that was going above and beyond he thought, especially as he's even doing a walk to carry off the look. He headed towards Phil, telling his friend how clever his costume, was just before Phil bit him.

Becky was on her way to work, she was looking forward to the party later, but hoped the brunch over privileged idiots will have left by the time she got there. Her boss had seen their behaviour towards her, and suggested moving her shift to later to avoid them. As she walked towards work, she saw Phil and Lenny stumbling towards her dressed as zombies, what awesome costumes she thought they look so realistic, and waited to talk to them, they had something else in mind !

Jack, Ken, and Lionel were sat in the restaurant, they would have normally left by now, but Lionel insisted they stay until he saw his favourite waitress Becky. The other two laughed at him, you know she's not interested don't you ? I'll have what I want was his reply. He turned and saw Becky behind him, boy you look rough out of your uniform, was the last words he ever uttered.

Simon was practising for the marathon, for some reason his running buddy Brad hadn't turned up this morning, so after waiting a while, he decided to carry on regardless. He had got about a mile into his run, when there was a commotion outside the restaurant, as he ran over to see what was going on two zombies set on him.

Carl was on his way to the gym, he wanted to do a set before going to the party, the guy at the desk had promised to get him some stuff to make the party exceptional, so was looking forward to seeing what he'd got his hands on. He saw Simon round the corner, it looked like he'd had an accident, Are you alright buddy ? was the last thought as his face was ripped off.

Kevin was sat at the desk of the gym, the pay was terrible, but the side line of selling what his customers thought was top notch drugs, kept him in a lifestyle he liked. The door opened and Simon, and Carl stumbled in, what the hell happened to you two ? as he reached for the phone, he never placed the call.

So got a few zombies finished and a little backstory for them, hopefully I'll do some different ones as well, but good to get these finished. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

HOLLYWOOD ZOMBIE

 After a week of new distractions arriving I actually have my first Zombie finished, this is one of the Zombicide mini's from Bryan Scott's collection that Joe (Zabadak) distributed amongst the community. When I first saw the model it reminded me of a zombie from the remake of "Dawn of the Dead", as zombies go she wasn't in it long, but was the first clue for the survivors that if you got bit by a zombie, you would become one yourself. The model required a small bit of conversion mostly the hair and removing the handbag.

Below is the reference picture from the movie, and below that what the model looks like before conversion.

I've kept the blood to a minimum, other than the bite and around the nose and mouth like the reference picture, was a fun one to do, that's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

SO MANY PEOPLE TO THANK

 Recently Joe has been showing some of Bryan's vast collection  of models that with the permission of Bryan's brother he has been redistributing to other members of the community. For those that don't know Bryan passed away a few years ago, but was an avid gamer and painter, you can see some of what he did here vampifansworldoftheundead these days his blog is plagued by the spammers, which means a lot of the comments are hidden by these terrible people.

I put in a request with Joe, for two sections, The Judge Dredd Fatties, and some unbuilt zombies, these arrived on Monday very well packed. The only request that Joe made, was that if you got some of these models that you did something with them. I have plans for the fatties, just want to change the bases, to my normal for JD games, intend to keep the painting faithful to what Bryan did, just need to do a couple of repairs,

As for the zombies, I'd like to do a lot of them for Zomtober/ Apocalypse me, but in keeping with Joe's request I've painted up 5 this week, The models are all from Zombicide, now I have to thank Azazel's insane painting of his models from this set for inspiration, all the freehand and Tattoo's he's done really encouraged me to push these models. I also have to thank Matt Roger and Keith for their renditions and awesome backgrounds they add to each model. So here's my first go at these :

Bob was a simple man, he didn't like confrontation, and liked to take the easy path if possible. He liked working at the Gas Station, his boss had a don't cause trouble if you're being robbed policy, and just hand over the money, it was insured after all. Unfortunately Bob didn't know that Zombies prefer flesh to money, and ran as soon as the first one bit him, by the following day, he was part of the undead horde, but it was a simple life like he'd always wanted !

Brad got up early every day, to jog 5 miles before getting ready for his office job, he hated his boss, but was great at his job. Secretly he was a huge comic book fan, and his favourite character was Superman, hence his jogging outfit matched the characters colours. His girlfriend disagreed about him being Superman, and would often say he barely qualified as a man, let alone a super one ! The day of the infection, he noticed it was quieter than normal until he saw Bob from the Gas Station stumbling towards him, looking really sick, he ran to him to check he was all right, just in time for him to bite him.

Reece had always thought he was better than everyone else, coming from a privileged background, and had no time for the common people, he ran the family business, where he cut corners to save money, and even refused to pay for health insurance for the staff, even though his other cost cutting exercises had caused multiple injuries to the staff. The day of infection, he had got to the office early, to find it empty, while stomping around trying to work how the coffee machine worked, and cursing Susan for being late, Brad burst through the doors in jogging attire. " What the Hell are you wearing ? I don't pay you, to pursue your interests on my time !" Brad covered the room in record time and bit his arm. 

Susan decided she was taking the day off sick, Reece could make his own damn coffee, and keep his hands to himself today, and was going to enjoy the day by the pool. the walk there had been quiet, which was surprising for the time of day, until she saw Bob, he was always a quiet timid man, and kept himself to himself, but seemed distracted today, she walked over to him to check he was okay, when he spun round and bit her. She punched him hard to cause separation, and ran towards the hospital to seek medical attention.

Karen was stood outside the casino, giving the manager another piece of her mind ( many would say she didn't have enough to spare !) The manager was trying to explain that the staff had done everything right, and that she was no longer welcome in the casino, when Susan sprinted up and bit them both in quick time.

I've tried to push the painting on these models with bite marks and infection marks on all and a bit of freehand, I don't normally paint modern day models and these were a refreshing change of pace from the other projects I've been doing recently. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

UPRISING

 Phil over at dizbustersge had suggested doing a model in memory of Bryan Scott who passed back in March, had hoped he'd just been quiet while recuperating, but Phil confirmed my worst fears and suggested we dedicate a model to him during Zomtober as a tribute.

Roger last night came up with the idea of a-vamp-for-vampifan as he had a passion for Vampirella, which I thought was a great idea.

I already had a vampire that I started many years ago, which was a gift from a friend, and I believe it was a Reaper model produced in metal. Now I don't have an undead force of any kind so thought I would make it into a little vignette of a vampire rising from the grave.

As you can see above I added a couple of graves to the base, to add to the feel and an area to look like something had emerged from the grave. This was my first attempt at sheer clothing and was inspired by the art of Chris Achilleos, who is one of my favourite artists.

That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

OLD TO NEW

Have put up some new releases on the company website today, but for long time followers of the blog you will have seen these over the last year in sculpt form, first is the two Zombie victim and feeder sets

Next is the bar room table and chair sets

Also have released a bed and chair for use inside of buildings or spaceship interiors

To add to the bar room furniture I've made a barman, I will be using one as Wuher in my Star Wars cantina

The last piece to show today is something for my Kroot force, now you may be wondering how this fits with today's title, well this model was until recently going to be a Clawed Fiend for my Dark Eldar force, but was only a basic shape, and have now made it into a Warp Kroot. This has all come about from Roger highlighting Monster May on Angry Pipers blog angrypiper  he has also got some great gaming on his blog especially if you like Star Trek.
The idea behind this figure was one that Mark Bedford and I were chatting about when he worked at Specialist Games, when Kroot win a combat they always consolidate so as to recover parts from their kills to eat then or later, the one exception to this was Chaos, as they won't eat tainted meat, we thought it would be cool if a Dark Shaper experimented and tested out the meat on a Kroot to see what would happen to their mutagenic genes, and this is what I came up with

Looking forward to starting to paint this tomorrow and change some of the tones I normally use, unfortunately I don't have any plastic Kroot to make the Dark Shaper and handlers at the moment, so they will have to wait.
That's it for today, so until next time stay safe and have fun !
Cheers Dave

DAY OF THE DEAD

Continuing on with the undead this month, I am getting close to finishing the two groups of victim and feeders, just a couple of details left to do on a couple and then they will be ready for casting, but this week has been taken up with trying to get my new sculpting room to a point where I can use it.
Here are the pictures

Hopefully shouldn't be long now to finish and also get the wheelchair Z done as well, short post today as I'm about to wrestle with a carpet !
Until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave

RIP CHAIR

Well this month is truly turning into the month of the dead, as my computer chair of 14 years finally gave up the ghost, unfortunately I happened to be sat on it when it happened, fear not dear readers no models were damaged in the process, just my already damaged body ! LOL Who say's our hobby isn't dangerous !

Fortunately I had finished the child feeder Z before this happened

It's a bit hard to see at the moment all in green but finally found a use for the bizarre teddy leash that I've seen available for kids toys, have also gone for mated hair to cover the face as child Z's can upset some people.
That's all for today, will hopefully have all the feeders finished by next week, and the wheelchair Z too, so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave

DAWN OF THE DEAD

As I start DEADCEMBER I decided to start with the victims and eaters, this was due to the fact that each piece is effectively four sculpts in one and would take some time.

The first one is a male victim getting bit in the neck by an old Z, hence the emancipated look of the Z, the other two Z's will be chewing on his arm (separate cast) and a bloated Z chewing on his intestine's (separate cast)

The second victim is female, with a torso Z crawling over to get to the soft bits. There will be a child Z eating intestine (separate cast) and another Z eating her detached leg.

Have also started Dai's idea for a wheelchair Z, never let it said we are not an equal opportunities Z force ! That's it for this update so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave 

AND THE DEAD SHALL RISE !

First off today I have some sad news, for the first time in 10 years my company will not be going to Salute. This has nothing to do with the event as we were allocated the relevant space we needed, but due to the very trying year we've been through, the construction of our new facilities is still not finished and added complications has delayed the completion. Hopefully the following year we will be back but that depends on being able to get the relevant space if available.
Now to something more interesting, Phil is running Deadcember over on his blog dizbustersge and I'm going to use this to create some undead miniatures. I have already started 3 models, two sets of Zombies and victim, and an enraged spirit. The Zombie idea came from Andy (Da Gobbo) and will be based from this idea

The enraged spirit will be a ghost, now I'd like to do two more undead pieces, what would you guys like to see ? It can be anything to do with undead, drop your ideas in the comments.
Very short post today, next week will hopefully have some work on the undead to show, so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave