Zombie Shaun and a quick update

After reading a post from Bryan (a.k.a Vampifan) about a month or so ago, I was somewhat disheartened to learn that the zombies he posted were limited freebies to those who backed studio miniatures recent kickstarter for their new plastic zombies. You can read Bryan’s review of them here: http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/studio-minis-18-freebies.html

As I really wanted to get my hands on the zombie Shaun miniature, and not one to let the fact that it was a limited edition fig stop me, I set about getting on the net to see if I could source one from somewhere. God bless eBay, as merely a few days later, I’d found myself one!

                                        

As you can see, I made sure I won that auction, and now that I've painted him up, I present my very own limited edition zombie Shaun. He cost me roughly £4 in the end, £2 of which was on P&P, so not a particularly outrageous purchase I have to say, considering he is a limited edition figure.

I’m going to leave it at that for now on the figure as i just want to add a quick update on some other news. Firstly I finally managed to finish up the figs I bought at Salute, and I hope to start posting them along with many more of my other completed miniatures sometime in the near future. Moving on to future projects, I’m not planning on buying and painting many more figs for a little while as I really need to cut down on some spending for a bit and I’d really like to get back to work on fleshing out my city. I have many ideas in my head in regards to making a few more cheap terrain pieces, so with that in mind, and the fact that I’d like to get some more gamming in, I’m sure I’ll have plenty to keep me going for some time to come.

That’s all for today guys, so have a great Star Wars day!

 And May the 4^th be with you!

Salute 2013 Pictures

Okay guys, this post is a few days later than I had planned but as I started a new job Monday, I’ve been so tired that this week in general has been a bit of a right off. I’ve barely got going on painting any of my Salute haul, and as for today’s post, I’ve barely got the energy to go back through all my pictures and figure out which Salute game was which. As most of us wargamers follow pretty much the same blogs, you’ve no doubt already seen by now many pics of the games on at Salute, and as mine are pretty much the same, in my tired state most of you will probably be more insightful at this point as to who was putting on what games. So today, a nice easy reading post full of pics for you all and hopefully I’ll be back on form once I’m settled into my new routine.

Salute 2013

So yesterday I managed to get myself down to Salute 2013. I got into the venue just after 10am and spent my morning walking around, getting a feel for the whole thing as this was the first time I’d attended a wargamming show. I didn’t particularly spend much; in fact I think my miniature spending was just over £20 in all, but honestly the main reason for me wanting to go was to attend the blogger meeting.

So the meeting was at 1pm, and here’s a picture I’ve lifted from one of the Rejects, of all the bloggers together.

I’m just right of the center of the photo, and I’m the one in the black t-shirt, denim jeans and black trainers. I’m sure most of you wargame bloggers will recognise the faces of all the Posties Rejects, and also in the photo are zombie bloggers Mathyoo, and honorary Postie Clint. Mathyoo is slighty behind me, to my right, and Clint is to his right.

After spending the morning wondering about by myself, meeting the bloggers was a much welcome change, and I wound up wandering around the rest of the show with Mathyoo and Clint. Mathyoo and I both hadn’t attended the show before, so it quickly became apparent that Clint would become our unofficial guide, and he even managed to get us some photos with zombie hunter Misty from “Crooked Dice games”

Mathyoo’s on the left being attacked by a zombie, while Clint’s on the far right, next to Misty.

Here are links to Mathyoo and Clint's blogs

http://mathyoo28mm.blogspot.co.uk/

http://clint-anythingbutaone.blogspot.co.uk/

Sadly towards the end of the show we lost Clint, so Mathyoo and I trudged on by ourselves for the last hour or so, managing even to get a quick game in before we had to leave when the doors were closing. I did get some pictures of the game we played, along with many other games we stopped by to take a look at and snap a few photos of, but I’ll leave them to probably my next post as I’ve still got to sift through them all and try to remember which games were which.

I’ll finish up today with my modest line Salute loot. From left to right we have the promotional free Jason figure, zombie hunter “Misty” from Crooked Dice Games, “Ellie Mental” from Heresy miniatures, and “Frank Cisco” and “Eve” from Hasslefree miniatures. While at Hasslefree’s stand, I also picked up two sprues of Studio Miniatures plastic zombies, of which the one pictured to the far right has had a gun added to be painted up as the Day of the Dead “Bub” zombie.

Anyway that’s all for now, and hopefully next time I’ll have sorted all my Salute pictures.

Alfie's Train Set

Ok guys, before I get on to what I initially intended to post today, I’d like to take this opportunity to say that all of us Round Dave’s send our thoughts and well wishes to all of the families affected by the saddening events in Boston yesterday. That being said, I’d like to now continue on with my intended post as hopefully it will bring a few smiles to some of you guys faces, on what is otherwise quite a sombre day.

So here is a video I’ve been intending to share for a while now, shot by one of my mates this past Christmas of the moment when he gave our cocky mate Alfie (a.k.a Mr D) his first ever train set! The quite emotional response of a tanked up Alfie had our lot in fits of laughter, and thus I couldn’t resist posting it and embarrassing him further!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GVx0H4Flws

On a final note today, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I should be attending Salute for the first time this year, and I hope to meet some other bloggers while im there. Apparently there will be a blogger meeting at 1pm in the seating area near the bring and buy stand, so I hope to see some of you guys there!

Happy Birthday Round Dave's

Yes it was a year to the day that a few of my mates and I started this little blog of ours, and as with a lot of projects that my little group start, the excitement of posting about our little game nights soon began to fade and thus it seemed it was up to me to keep the blog going! Now one year on, I’m glad I did, as the blog is doing better than I could have ever expected. The blog is still open to the rest of my gaming group to post should they wish, and hopefully one day they may if we ever get our act together and stick to some of the projects we start as a group. However, until then, as long all you guys out there keep reading my little posts, I’ll keep going and hopefully this time next year the blog will be still going as strong!

While I’m here, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank some people. Firstly, a big thanks to all my followers for the support and comments over the past year. I’d also like to thank the guys out there who aren’t listed on my followers list but have still bothered to advertise my blog on their respective blog rolls and such, helping to get my posts out there to the wargame community. And lastly, I’d like to thank the guys over on the ‘Board of the Living Lead’ also for the support and comments I’ve received since joining last November.

That’s all for now guys, so here’s to another year of blogging!

"Billy Joe" - Zombie Survivor

So rather than wait a week or so, here’s the survivor I intended to post a couple of days ago. I’m currently trying out taking pictures with a different camera and light setup, so I’d thought I should post one of these new photos, and more importantly, a miniature I have actually painted quite recently. So here is the latest painted addition to my collection.

 

This is “Billy Joe” from Reaper Miniatures “Chronoscope” range, and from what I can tell, this is one of their newest miniatures in the range. This is the only non fantasy miniature I currently have of Reapers, and from what I have read and heard, they tend to size up slightly taller than most 28mm survivor ranges and this one is no different. This doesn’t really bother me as people come in all shapes and sizes, but I know some gamers do sometimes find this off putting. That being said, even though he is on the tall side, in my opinion, due to the nature of the sculpt being that of the huge hillbilly/redneck B-movie stereotype, the character still sizes up really well other miniatures in my collection and doesn’t look out of place at all.

As I said, I already have a few fantasy miniatures of Reapers, so I did buy this guy already expecting a good quality miniature. I’m pleased to say, the sculpting on this miniature is again fantastic, and honestly a bit better than I was expecting. I really enjoyed painting this guy and as a result, I definitely think I’ll be eventually adding more of the Chronoscope range to my ever growing collection of survivors.

Foundry Miniatures - Customer Service

Ok guys, I was going to post yet another one of my survivors today but instead I have to share something that happened this morning that quite truly stunned me!

As many of you guys know, it was my birthday on March 1^st, and as a result of my loved ones not knowing what to get me, I mainly received cash to eventually spend on miniatures. So on the 19^th I finally got round to getting the wife to order me some, and thus decided to finally try out Foundry miniatures. I ordered both sets of street cops from their “Street Violence” range, and after two weeks of waiting, it seemed quite obvious that Royal Mail had again lost another parcel of mine!

So being as yesterday was two weeks to the day, my wife decided to give Foundry a call and explain the situation. After a brief and seemingly pleasant conversation from what I over heard, she told me that they were sending some more out to us and I should expect them by the end of the week. Being as that was about 1pm yesterday, imagine my surprise when this morning, a little white box with “Foundry Fantasy” stamped across it came through the door!

As you can see from the picture above, not only did I receive my minis within 24 hours, enclosed also was a note which reads:

“Vanessa,

Sorry for the delay, here are your cops.

Enjoy the free Yardie too.

Alex”

Now the lost parcel was in no way any fault on Foundry Miniatures part, so I was truly amazed at receiving both the note and a totally unexpected extra miniature free with my cops!

Even though this may never be read by Alex at Foundry Miniatures, all I can say is thank you to yourself and your company for the wonderful service I’ve received.

So far I’ve only cleaned the figures up and stuck some bases on, but my first impressions of the miniatures are good, and so far I really like them. I will probably go into some detail on them in another post once I’ve painted them up, but today I just wanted to share my little story and give credit where credits due, as based on the service I received, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Finally here’s a link to their web store:

http://www.foundryfantasy.com/

"Frank Gallagher" Miniature

Ok guys, another quick post today as I’m still recovering from the mantic weekend of madness that was the daughters 2^nd birthday! So up today is “Frank”, another one of my zombie survivors from Hasslefree miniatures. This sculpt is definitely one of my favourites of theirs, and one of the first miniatures I just had to pick up when I first discovered Hasslefree miniatures. Frank is obviously based on the Frank Gallagher character from channel 4’s “Shameless”. Again I have to praise the quality of sculpts from Hasslefree miniatures as this one in particular is such a great likeness, it brings a smile to my face every time I look at it!

Again, I hope you all like the miniature and hopefully the posts will pick up a bit again now I’ve got a few real world things out of the way and am now able to devote a bit more time to gaming again!

"Shaun of the Dead" Minatures

Only a quick post today, as I have some real world stuff I need to be getting on with, but none the less, I’d like to quickly show off a couple of my zombie survivors from Hasslefree miniatures. I painted these a while back now, but being as one of them appeared in my recent batrep, and the fact I had already previously taken the pics, I thought I’d quickly post them.

First Zombie Bat Rep

So last night I sat down and managed to get in another quick zombie game. This time I decided to take notes of the game as well as some pics, and try my hand at an actual bat rep this time. The rules used for the game were a slightly modified version of Akula’s AR:SE rules, with a few bits taken from ATZ thrown in.

So first up, we’ll meet the scenarios cast. From left to right we have Dave VanDam, armed with his trusty shotgun and a backup handgun. Next we have Alf (A.K.A Mr D), armed with a sawn-off shotgun and lucky cricket bat. The third member of the group is Alf’s hillbilly cousin Sammy D who is armed with both a crossbow and hunting knife, while the last adult of the group is Gabby. Gabby is armed only with his trusty satchel, which knowing Gabby, probably contains a packed lunch of some sort! Lastly we have DVD’s missing daughter Bella.

The idea of the scenario is that my daughter has recently gone missing from our base camp, and I’m out searching for her with the most able bodied of our group……. and Gabby.

Upon entering each building, before rolling to see if any zombies are inside, a roll of 1d6 would be made with a score of 6 meaning that instead of zombies, we would find Bella safe and sound inside. Should Bella be found, the group would then have to escort her back the way they came, and off the table to safety!

Above is the entire setup, with Team VanDam and the initial zombies already placed upon the board. The four points where the roads leave the table act as possible spawn points and may or may not churn out new zeds at the end of each round, while noise from gunfire and such could also result in more zombies entering from random edges of the board.

Team VD would enter the fray from the road leading off of the left side of the board, whilst unbeknown to them, a little way down the road hordes of zombies lie out of sight of our unsuspecting heroes!

Two groups lie up the street from Team VD, hidden between the first and second buildings on the left.

Meanwhile another two groups lurk around the first building on the right. In total there where 29 zombies initially placed on the board.

Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s crack on to the actual game!

Barricades, Fencing and Skips….Oh my!!!!

As many of you know, a little while ago I made an entry for the ‘Board of the Living Lead’ diorama competition. http://rounddaves.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/dead-by-dawn-diorama.html

And as any of you who follow the board know, I actually managed to scrape a much unexpected win! So while I’m on the subject, again I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all the guys who took part, voted, and any others for their kind comments.

Since entering the competition, and receiving all of the positive feedback, I have been extremely motivated to continue with some cheap scenery/terrain type builds, and so I have decided to share a few today.

First up are some cheap barricades I’ve built. There are plenty of tutorials on youtube on how to do this barbed wire effect, so nothing to fancy here. The frame is simply cut down, painted toothpicks/cocktail sticks, while the barbed wire is telephone wire which has had the sheathing stripped off. Two lengths of wire were then tightly twisted together, and then wrapped around a pencil to give the coil effect.

Secondly, we have my fencing. These are simply toothpicks mounted on cardboard, with a mesh, cut and stuck on! The cardboard I used for the base was from one of the wives old catalogue books, which is very rigid, and quite reasonable for basing. It was then covered in some newspaper for some texture, and then simply dry brushed.

As for the mesh, it is the small type of mesh you find on gift baskets and such, which again I nicked off the wife, and simply stuck on and painted.

Last up are my Skips/Dumpsters. These are entirely made from normal cardboard, which then had wall filler applied to the edges to hide to corrugated bits on the ends of the card. The rubbish inside is just a mix of odd off cut bits of rubbish I accumulated on my work table, which were simply glued in, dry brushed, and touched up for some details.

Anyway hope you like my cheap bits and pieces, and I hope to be building more odds and ends to fill my zombie city with as and when I get the inspiration!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Movie review

Last Sunday I finally got round to going the see the new Hobbit movie, and being a big fan of the LOTR trilogy, I was really looking forward to eventually seeing this film! As I’m already a big fan of the series, I admit, I have a slightly biased view when it comes to me telling you all that I thought this film was awesome! I like the fact that the films look was very much in keeping with the other LOTR films, yet it had a slightly different feel to it. As is with the books, the story of the hobbit is a much more light hearted story, which when written, was intended as a children’s novel. This light hearted nature comes across in abundance throughout the film, and the difference in feel to the films, really captures the difference in feeling between Tolkien’s books. Another thing I enjoyed about the film was that there were additional story elements added, which was not originally in novel. Some people may dislike these additional elements, but I can see their necessity, as they really help the film to tie in with the LOTR story. As a fan, I really enjoyed the fact that the additional elements within the film also allowed for some of the original LOTR cast to reprise their roles once again.

I won’t add any spoilers, so I’ll just add that overall I really enjoyed the film, as will anyone who enjoyed the LOTR movies. Also, given the light hearted nature, the film is far more family friendly than the LOTR, and definitely one I’d recommend for the family.

Predator Miniatures

In the past few days, a lot of what I’ve seen and read have been something either to do with the “Aliens” or the “Predator” franchises. So today, being as I had already photographed them a while back now, I thought I’d show off my four Hunter Aliens (A.K.A Predators) from Copplestone Castings “Future Wars” range.

I got these a while back now for an AVP project which I started, and sadly, eventually gave up on. Along with the Predator models, I painted up some figures for use as Colonial Marines, and I even made my own face-hugger miniatures. I gave up on the project for the same reason many other have done when attempting AVP in 28mm, and that is the lack of reasonably priced Alien figures in this scale!

Not to let something go to waste though, my marines do see a lot of use in other games, as do these Predators when I fancy a laugh, or just like to shake things up a bit! All in all, I really like the figures and how they painted up, and even though my AVP project is on the back burner, I’m pleased to have them in my collection.

A Cure For The Outbreak

Emergency Vehicles

While on my way home a couple of weeks ago, I passed by a local shop, which is kinda like a home depot/pound shop type place. On previous visits, I had noticed that they sell cheap toys and what not, so I decided to pop in an see if they had anything I could use in my games. So after a quick peruse around the shop, I took a stroll down the toy aisle, and to my delight I found these.

This box containing six plastic vans (two for each of the three emergency services) was priced at a mere £3.49! Safe to say, after a quick check to see if they were roughly the right size, I nabbed them up instantly!