Gray Havens Finest

I finished up the police officers the other day. I really like these models, my only complaint is they all have Corpral or Sergent stripes on the sleeves, and I had planned on painting one up as a Lieutenant to be the supervisor. I didnt notice this until I was sell underway painting. Oh well.

Two more buildings will complete this town, its taking me forever and I really want to get done.
Till next Time,
Papa Spanky

Fall Cemetery aka the zombie playground

So this is where the zombies are all coming from! I finally decided on how to finish the one short board edge for Gray Haven. I was going to make a separate board in the future that was just a cemetery, but this worked out nice to put it here. On with the pictures!

Here is the overview shot. Lets look at the details a little closer...

 

 

Zooming in a bit on the left side, we see the main concentration of dead folk. The tree is removable for storage, and the gates are magnetized for storage or when they get smashed down in-game by the undead hordes.

 

Zooming in more we see the detailed weathering on the grave markers. I make full size prop headstones for Halloween, and these use some of the same methods for painting, only smaller.  

 

 

Back out and move to the right, and we find the entrance, some more dead folk and the entrance to the mausoleum.

 

Here's the mausoleum and the back part of the property. About this part of the board: I put the power module for the lighted sign (seen in a bit) inside the mausoleum. I was going to run the cord under the grass, but had forgotten about the pumpkin patch the crazy old groundskeeper had planted. I had to put in a electrical "drop" over the patch. I tried to hide/integrate it the best I could, I think the crows help. Why is there a casket out back? Maybe the groundskeeper has his garden tools in there. Or fertilizer...

 

This is the welcome sign that sits outside the cemetery. It lights up, that's why I needed the power cord run. The little mound and rock is there just as a natural element.

 

 

I took these two shots to help if you needed a little perspective.

 

 

The Grass is teddy bear fur, all the leaves, bushes, and vines are Woodland Scenics products. I used lots of Sil-for clump foliage as well as dyed birch seeds. I picked up the walls and fence at Menards during Halloween last year. The pumpkins are from JTT, the headstones are from Renedra and GW.

 

Questions and Comments are welcome!

 

Papa Spanky



They're coming to get you Barbara...

I finished up my second round of zombies a few weeks back. There are 4 Zombiecide zombies and the rest are Mantic ghouls and zombies mixed. Everyone is painted the same dull tones as before, with exception for the Zombicide ones.Those guys will be "bosses" so I put a little color in these so they stand out a bit.



This is a group shot of all of my finished Zombies so far.

Tomorrow: Just where did these zeds come from anyway?

Papa Spanky

Watching the Detectives

I finished the Detectives minitures from Road Kill. They turned out pretty good considering they are marginal sculpts with horrible casting. However finding modern US police and detectives not kitted out in SWAT gear is not easy, so these are still a good find. They will also double as FBI or some other Gubmint agency in some games. I still have no names as of yet, so if there are any good suggestions, shout em out.

Papa Spanky

Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors: The Men Review

I ordered a box of these directly from Wargames Factory last week, and here is a quick review of them.

I built one up to see how they look. Now, looking at the website and comparing the model parts that are in the box, there are some arms that obviously go with some bodies. There are also some that should go with some bodies. The beer gut body in flip flops should go with the arm holding the beer, (can) but the arm isn't quite big enough. I put it on anyway. I mean come on a PA survivor swinging a machete holding a beer while wearing flip flops and a backward hat- that's good stuff right there. Really they don't look that bad, and it probably the worst body/arm match-up in the box.  

From left to Right: Copplestone Castings, Tactical minitures, GW, Wargames Factory craptastic zombie, Wargames Factory Survivor, Copplestone Castings on washer base, hunger games clix, Reaper Chronoscope. 

OK now for a size comparison. As you can see, they fit in nicely with the selection of models presented. I raise or lower my model height using different bases, so for me there is fudge room if needed. 

Cool stacking design

Besides stacking cool, there is a ton of great stuff in these sprues. Guns, guns and more guns. If you see the pictures on the website, there are AKs, ARs L8s (?), some kind of machine pistols, a couple of shotguns,street sweeper shotguns, and hunting rifles. You also get a lot of pouches and ammo packs, However, there are no separate pistols, and only one holster per sprue. Also of note is the extra chainsaws and arms holding the bible.

So these models are everything I expected and a little more. Worth the money? Absolutely. I see a lot of good combinations that can be built with lots of extra parts for conversion. These are exactly what I imagine suburban commandos will look like when the zombie apocalypse happens. I will find lots of uses for these guys and probably will get some more.

I hope this helps you,

Papa Spanky

Dark Knight, Hunger Games minis

I got a few Dark Knight Clix models and several Hunger Games "Clix" models a few weeks back. The HG ones weren't really Clix, they were mounted on a pedestal but are the same figure wise.
Anyway, I re-based them and gave them all a wash of GW delvan mud and Presto! More fodder for the town of Gray Haven. I think they turned out pretty good for what they are and the time invested. I did have to add a hand swap on the big guy who is hunched over as he was holding this weird rock/ball looking thing in one hand and a sword in the other. Oh and that IS Bruce Wayne. As fodder. Yep.

Comments welcome!
Papa Spanky

Im coming (back), and hells coming with me...

or just a zombie horde. That look like hell. OK so they are not that bad, but I'm getting ahead here.
 Sorry for the lack of updates but when life goes up against blogging and hobbies, life wins, every time. It sucks, but that's the natural order of things. I wont bore you with the details though.
 So here it is, my craptastic first zombie horde:

To be honest, they are exactly as I expected them to be and I'm really actually happy with them. The craptastic part is the fact that they are made up of GW and WF zombies, and the GW ones were originally done a long time ago for Necromunda. Some of them still have weapons. (I let the one guy keep the second edition Ork pistol on purpose, he earned it)
 As individuals, most of the models are pretty bad. But as a horde, they make a great character. To me the zombie horde has always been the character, not so much the individual zed. I painted them (with help from my daughter)  with that in mind, sticking to 4 colors and a wash.

It also will help me differentiate survivors from zeds more easily, as the survivors will stand out more.

Speaking of survivors, I got  a few more to show ya. 

I didn't give these any names yet, and I dont think I will. These fellers will be part of my "catch all" group of models that will fill in when I need thugs, gangers, protesters or any other nameless fodder in a game. 

Till next time,

Papa Spanky

Modern building made from Dollar Tree container

A while back I bought a foldable storage bin from Dollar Tree because it looked interesting as a possible building. Well, after some re-working this is what I have so far:

Front side- I havent finished the doors yet.

Back side- the door is hinged and opens

This is the second floor. When the roof comes off, the outside walls go
with it leaving an open floor plan. That design was dictated a bit by the
plastic crate, but I really like it.

This is the ground floor. Notice that the second floor comes off by itself.
In the back left corner you can just see the stairs.

 I haven't glued down any of the interior walls yet, that will happen after painting. Also please excuse the poop colored roof, i needed a thick paint for a tar and stone roof technique and that paint was the thickest I had. The more I look at it though, the more I dislike it and probably will change it soon.
As far as uses this is going in my town that I m building; usable for zombie games, Combat Zone, some post apocalyptic and the like.

Let me hear from ya,
Papa Spanky