As one door closes another opens

Well after basking in the warm afterglow of a completed project it didn't take too long for me to find another windmill to tilt at.

Back in October I went to the Clash of Kings Kings of War tournament having hardly played KoW all year. I didn't expect to do well and was very surprised to come 2nd. As a prize I got a Mantic ogre army set which means I will now be painting up an ogre army for KoW.

I had some ogres from the first Kings of War Kickstarter and I bought a few more models (more warriors, some chariots and some command models) to round out the army and off I set.

After working out a colour scheme I had a complete tidy of my workbench and kept only the paints and paint brushes required for this project. This has speeded things up can cut down the amount of time I usually spend hunting for the right paint and remembering which colours to use.



And here are the first fruits of the project - a units of ogre warriors:-



And a unit of ogre shooters:-



Next up some more warriors and shooters hopefully followed by some more interesting stuff.

Another milestone

And with another flourish of the brush I have completed another four miniatures. Here we have three Britannia Miniatures Somalis and a Russian officer from TAG. The TAG miniature was a freebie when I placed an order with them earlier in the year (they are nice like that). The Somalis date back to the origins of the project in 2004(ish) - I bought them to add some more assault rifles to the criminal gangs but they don't really fit. I'm not sure what I'll do with them but they are painted at least.



These represent a milestone as I have now painted up every last miniature I have purchased for my Officer Down project. That means the project is complete at last ... until I succumb to temptation and buy some more miniatures.

Now to clear a few more things off my work bench and then who knows, Deadzone maybe?

I will survive!

And here are the last of the survivors for "And Stay Down". Well actually some of these will also see use in Officer Down as well. All of these are from Hasslefree, some were recent purchases and others have been awaiting paint for many years.



And another view just because.



It was nice to paint something with a bit more care and attention than the way I did the zombies. A little less haste and a few extra highlights make all the difference.

Next up are the last four miniatures in the queue for Officer Down and then I'm done with the project (until I buy more miniatures for it!).

The end times

That's it - they're done! At last I have finished painting zombies. Here are the last 6 walkers:-



And the 6 crawlers.



And here are all 66 of them in one place for the first time.





And one last shot for luck.



I'm trying to keep up the momentum and have made a start on the remaining Officer Down/And Stay Down miniatures - a mix of survivors, undercover cops etc.

The end is in sight

12 more Zs finished which just leaves 6 walkers and 6 crawlers to complete. The end is nigh!



And whilst I was waiting for some paint to dry I decided to do a couple of colour scheme testers for my Deadzone Plague faction. These were very quick and don't look too bad. I might be able to quickly blast out the rest of the faction at some point.



But I still have more Zs and survivors to finish before then so on with the show.

Is there no end?

Yet more Zs.



No too many left now. Just as well really as I've only just over a month left to go before the big game and I still have some survivors to paint and some rules to write.

Swarming

In an unprecedented burst of speed I have clocked up another 12 zombies.



At this rate I will finish in plenty of time for play testing the "... and stay down" rules.

Z again

More Zs



And some less fresh ones.



And many more to come.

Gladiators ready!

Well, gladiator single anyway. Here is a Reaper gladiator miniature wielding a trident which I have painted up for our D&D campaign to represent a character who used to be a gladiator and uses a trident. I'd say it fits the brief pretty well.



Elsewhere the workbench is crawling with zombies.

Rise and shine

The first batch of zombies is done. 12 down and another 48 to go.



I'd better get a move on then.

Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't

This is turning out to be a good week for painting. Next off the production line are some zombie hunters/survivors. These are all Reaper bones minis which I got from the kickstarter last year. These are for my "... and stay down!" project which uses the same scenery I have built for Officer Down.



Next up are a couple of Otherworld war dogs which I got as perks from their Indiegogo campaign. These are needed in the D&D campaign as the nature priest has acquired a couple of hunting dogs.



The workbench is currently cluttered with modern zombies. Some may escape soon.

The fantastic four

And here we have the human torch, the thing and er.. okay they are in fact four elementals from Reaper miniatures. I thought these might be handy whilst I am running the Temple of Elemental Evil in our D&D sessions.



In other news I have taken delivery of a very large number (60!) of modern Zombies. I think I know what I will be painting for a bit.

Builders, keep on building

Another building complete, that'll be the last one for a while.



Now to get on with painting some more miniatures. I think I need to break out a new main paintbrush too - all that scenery seems to have messed with the bristles.

Half time

So with half the year gone it is about time I took stock and tallied up my painted miniatures and my purchases and checked on how my wargamer's pledge is coming along.

Total Bought    56
Total Painted    155
Balance    99

All in all that's pretty good new I would say. Loads painted and loads more painted than bought, result.

But actually that total doesn't really reflect the effort I have been putting in this year because most of what I have painted so far has been scenery. Some of this hasn't featured on the blog so far so here are some shots of the scery I have painted up in the first six months of this year.

Amera Factory



Gamecraft City Buildings



Gamecraft 7 Eleven



Sarissa Buildings



Italeri Berlin House



Timeline Miniatures Pub



Demo's Laser Cut Terrain shops



Demo's Laser Cut Terrain shops



Robocop Garage



And the latest one completed yesterday (so 2nd hald of the year):-

Dust Tactics WarzoneTenement




Here's hoping that the second half of 2014 is at least as productive as the first half.

Murphy's law

Officer Murphy was one of Carnage's most dedicated officers until 'the incident'. Now his pursuit of justice is so single minded it is almost robotic earning him the nickname ... AndriodCop.



Murphy is for the 'special missions' section of Officer Down.

All present and correct

As promised I've cleared a load of dwarves off my workbench. Firstly another rank of GW plastics.



And then some BTD metals that I rather like.



Looking in my dwarf army box it is actually beginning to look like I could have a serviceable army painted up with a bit more effort applied. I've been painting the occasional rank or two here and there for a while and it has all been adding up.

But this week's big painting item is some ponies from SLAP Miniatures. I bought these earlier in the year as I had promised to buy some if they ever went into production. I wasn't sure what to do with them but with my youngest daughter's 8th birthday coming up I decided to paint them up as a birthday present for her.



I have put on two layers of varnish but even so I don't expect them to stay intact for long.

The rat pack

I've been meaning to paint up the giant rats and rat swarms from the Reaper Bones kickstarter for a while as they are very handy in a lot of low level D&D adventures. This week I have been laid low with tonsillitis so I decided to paint something easy when I eventually felt up to it and here are the results:-



Next up - something completely different! After that I will be finishing some dwarves who seem to have invaded my painting space. I think I dug them our when I was play testing Hellfire and Stone.

Bring out the big guns.

And here is the final faction for the game - the Russian Mafia. These heavies are a group of former Russian private military contractors who are exploring other wealth generating activities within Carnage. After years spend in war zones and other hazardous areas I guess they felt right at home down town.



These are from The Assault Group's Russian Mafia range. It was a bit odd looking up from my painting desk and seeing these guys on the news with the crisis in Ukraine. Watching the news made me realise that I'd painted the AK74s and AKSU74s incorrectly so I had to go back and re-do them (and yes I did mean AK74 and not AK47 - I've learned more about firearms doing this project than I ever knew before).

Now I only have a few character miniatures left to complete for this phase of the project and I'm done. Of course I still have buildings to complete as well but overall I think I'm making good progress.

Gnome alone

Sorry, gnome pun intended.

Here is a quick paint job I slotted in yesterday. This is a Female Gnome from the Reaper Bones line or as we know her -Syradinkle Finewhistle a gnome thief in our current AD&D (2nd Ed) campaign.



Elsewhere on the workbench the Russian Mafia types for OD are coming along too.

Black and blue

Carnage PD has arrived in force ... well I've finished painting them anyway.



And some more agents - this time with body armour and a couple of assault rifles.



This means that I only have the Russian Mafia and some characters left and then the miniature painting side of the Office Down game will be complete (until I decide to reinforce one of the factions!). After that I will be free to finish assembling and painting the rest of the scenery.

No Such Agency

Yet more figures for Officer Down - this time some agents.



Next up will probably either be some cops or some Russian Mafia types.

Law vs Disorder

Some more photos of the painted stuff for my Officer Down game. As I mentioned in an earlier post I still need to go back and add some road markings to the bases but I've decided to claim these as painted for the purposes of the pledge.



SWAT Team 1



SWAT Team 2



SWAT Team snipers



Gang members



Gang members 2

All of these are from Britannia Miniatures and were started 10 years ago with the exception of the snipers who are from The Assault Group. The TAG miniatures are streets ahead of the old sculpts and would probably be my first choice if I were to start the whole project from scratch.

I've also bee pretty busy painting up some more buildings for the project but I will save those for a later update.

What a waste

Work on Carnage City is continuing and I have managed to fully complete the first building for the new layout - Acme Waste Management Services.







And here is the interior.



Built and painted in under a week, that's probably a personal best.