RV Scratch-Build for...well, Zombie RV!

    Zombies swarm survivors holding out atop their RV, scratch-built from a pizza truck die cast shell

Readers of my blog know that I've been playing Zombie RV over the last few months. Instead of an RV, I've been using my 3-D printed vans, SUVs, land cruisers, etc. But the name of the game is RV (or campervan, Airstream, mobile home -- whatever you want to call it), so I've been trying to pick up one either from die cast, 3-D print, or anything, really. After striking out finding anything I liked commercially, I finally decided to scratch-build my own. I picked up a inexpensive pizza truck die cast toy from the local grocery store and set out to convert it into a recreational vehicle for my survivors.

    The material I used to convert the pizza truck into an RV was JTT Corrugated Siding sheets

First step was to find the corrugated material I intended to plaster onto the sides. I was surprised that the local craft and model trains didn't carry it any longer. I ended up having to order it on Amazon. No biggie, but my mantra is to shop local and support the hobby and craft stores. I feel that if we all end up ordering things online rather than driving down the street to get what we need, our local stores are going to go out of business. Others may disagree, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

    1st step was to glue wooden craft sticks to the corners of the truck to create the frame & level surface

Next step was to cut to size and glue craft sticks to the corners of the flat sides so that the material would have an even and not sloped surface to adhere to. I used tacky glue to do that because the plastic material was going to completely encircle the vehicle. The chances of it being popped off were slim, I felt. The craft stick frame also gave something for the corrugated material to attach to at all corners. 

    Next step was to glue the corrugated material to the craft sticks and front of the truck

You've heard the phrase, "Measure twice, cut once?" I took that to heart and double checked my measurements when I but the corrugated material in the next step. I wanted it to be as exact as possible (especially on top, where I wanted the vent fan to project through a hole). I was pleased that the care I took paid off and I had no disasters or mistakes from bad measurements. Essentially, I was enclosing the pizza truck in a corrugated rectangular box. RVs tend to have a grooved or corrugated material, it seems, so I chose this material to make it give that effect.

    No matter how careful you are cutting, there will be gaps where they don't join perfectly

Even though I feel I did a pretty good job cutting the five sides (including the top), I knew there would be places where it didn't line up perfectly and there would be gaps. The photo above shows what it looked like after all the sheets were glued onto the truck and craft stick frame. Besides no cutouts for the wheel wells, it looks a little haphazard, doesn't it?

    These L-shaped pieces of plastic would cover up the joins between the sheets and any gaps

I had planned for that, though! The local model train store has a great selection of Evergreen plastic pieces (no corrugated material, but lots of rods, L-shapes, U-shapes, and so on). I bought two sizes to be on the safe side and went with the larger one. Weirdly, I don't have a picture of the size I ended up using -- "295" or 5/32". Anyway, I carefully measure these and glued them into place. Where one L-section joins another, you have to slice away a little rectangle of the material otherwise it will stick out. That called for even more careful measurement!

    The RV after the L-shapes are glued into place at each join and the wheel wells cut out

In the end, all these extra steps give you a much more smooth looking vehicle. L-shape pieces can also be used for MDF or hand made buildings at the corners to give it a smoother look, too. As for the wheel well, I kind of eyeballed it. I traced a likely looking arc onto a piece of cardboard. I cut it out the cardboard, and then traced its arc onto the corrugated material with a Sharpie. The corrugated material is thin enough it can be cut with a sharp pair of scissors, which I did carefully, then covering up the edge with arcs of cardboard to represent the trim. The base RV was done. Now, it was time to trick it out with windows, doors, and other accessories!

    The window frames were pieces of MDF from a bag of doors and various other Sci-Fi pieces

I dug through all my various MDF pieces and other terrain pieces looking for something I could glue onto the sides of the RV to be the window frames. Eventually, I found some "Block O" shaped pieces that I thought might work. They were a little thicker than I liked, but the shape appealed to me, so I went with them. I would put two windows on the side without the door and one on that with it. The back, besides the ladder, would have a narrow oval shaped window which I also had a piece of MDF to match.

    Before gluing the MDF window frames to the RV, they were first glued to clear plastic surface

Some of you may be thinking, "Wait -- won't the corrugated material look silly as a window?" YES! You are correct! However, I thought of that beforehand, as well. I dug through my unpainted stuff and found something in a blister pack. I cut out the thin plastic material and glued the MDF window frames to them, first. Then I used an X-acto knife to trim the edges. The blister pack plastic would sit atop the corrugated material and would paint smooth, giving a more believable window.

    The back of the RV with all of its add-ons done, including a ladder and big electrical outlet socket

I got really lucky on the ladder to attach to the RV! I had recently bought some 3-D printed trailers and a water tower from Bad Goblin Games, each of which included ladders in them. Some of the ladders were a bit long, and I could cut off just enough to make a nice ladder on the back of the RV. The circular MDF piece above is meant to simulate an electrical plug-in (in happier, pre-zombie apocalypse days...).

    The other side of the RV with the door, a Liberty Bell coin, and a tank and tube on top

For the RV's door, I just used a piece of balsa wood with a slatted look to it. I created a frame for it from craft sticks, and then almost forgot to glue on a tiny piece of dowel as the door handle (look for the finished pictures to see this late, oh crap, addition! The coin with the Liberty Bell on it has been sitting in my bits box for a couple decades, I would guess. I knew I would use it one day, and today was that day! I glued it to the side so that it would have a nice, patriotic design on the side. Atop the roof, I added a 3-D printed propane tank on its side and a piece of pipe from Miniature Building Authority. I decided not to use the tire in the end, as you will notice in the finished pictures. I figured it didn't make sense to store spare tires up there -- how would you get them up there? And would you just toss them down??

  RV painted and covered in a dirty black wash to simulate the grime accumulated since the apocalypse

I painted the corrugated material with white acrylic gesso, in hopes it would stick to the plastic surface better than just ordinary primer. The corrugated material was painted a craft paint called "Maple Sugar" and then dry brushed a very light yellow. Since nearly all RVs you see on the road are two-tone, I decided to go with a dull red since, well, the die cast truck was red! The corrugated material made making the stripes easier than it might have otherwise, just following in the grooves. I dry brushed the red trim with salmon to give it an equally worn look. The propane/water? tank atop was painted Iron Wind Metals Steel and highlighted Pewter. Same with the ventilation grill on the roof.   

    Zombies swarm the RV on all sides, looking for a way to get at the survivors atop it

I am really happy with how the RV came out. It is not perfect, of course. I need to make the sides of the RV not drag so low to the ground. Maybe there is a way to glue the wheels into place so it stands off the ground a little higher? Or, as I plan on doing another one, I could always cut the corrugated material shorter leaving a higher ground clearance. The window frames are probably too chunky, too thick. For my next one I will experiment with something smaller. I imagine I could also just use thick cardstock cut to the correct shape. I got lazy on the windows. I did them like the windshields on my 3-D printed cars, and it doesn't look as convincing here. Another idea I had was to find an image online of curtains pulled back in a window and just print it out and glue it into place. I may try that for the next one.

    Will the survivors drive off the hordes from their rolling home? Stay tuned & see in Zombie RV!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024 (Next year, I want to tally terrain and scatter, too. If anyone has any ideas how to do that, I'd love to hear!)

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 183 

LAST of the Zombie Horde (and a Vehicle)

    My final batch of zombies (hopefully!) along with a 3-D printed car from Diabolical Terrain

Okay, so I swear -- this is the last of the batches of zombies that I will be painting up for awhile. Hopefully, for quite a while...maybe forever??  We shall see if my horde proves to be enough, though. I think it will be. The ultimate goal is to be able to play a game of Zombie RV with three vehicle's worth of survivors (a dozen) on the table. This should be enough. If not, I have some more of the original 3-D printed on from John Leahy of JS Wargamer Printing I could rush into service.

    Though there is a lot of possible variety with the WF zombies, I was getting tired of painting them

These are the last 10 male zombies from the Wargames Factory box I bought in the flea market at Historicon 2024. It was a great deal ($15), so 50 cents a figure! I do admit I am tired of painting them up...ha, ha! My friend Keith did a nice job putting them together and varying bodies, heads, arms, etc. Still, there are only so many of each type and it is beginning to feel repetitive. Still - my friend Jason M in South Carolina informed me that I have now eclipsed his zombie horde. Keep an eye on his blog (Miros' Games) to see if he paints some more to regain the upper hand!

    Three of my gaming friends as zombies -- Keith, Joel, and Allen (from left to right)

I had been threatening all along to paint some of these WF zombies up as my gaming friends. I made an attempt with this final batch, painting up a Keith Zombie, Joel Zombie, and Allen Zombie. Not 100% sure I nailed it or not. There's only so much you can do with the paint brush and finding a pose that matches my (thankfully) not undead friends! Still, it might be good for a laugh on the table. Especially if Keith Zombie kills Keith's character in a game...

    Guys go off in search of snacks, Allen in his Bexley shirt and Keith in his Rules Lawyer one

These were painted exactly like the previous batches, so I won't bore you with repeating my recipe. Interestingly, I did run out of 1" circular bases with this batch. So, that means I've painted more than 100 figures using this size and shape base this year. I'll take that as encouragement that my production is continue to hum along since retirement. I am looking forward to painting some new stuff. I'm also eager to get back to painting some Sci-Fi stuff, soon. Thanks to a friend's recommendation (Steve P from San Diego), I picked up a set of rules called Space Weirdos from Wargame Vault. They seem quick and easy, and I like the rolling of two dice to get a more consistent average as opposed to a single die. The dice progression aspect, with players rolling as anything from a pair of d4's to d6's, d8's, d10's, and d12's sounds like a nice mechanic, as well.

    Are these the last zombies I will paint up? If I have enough now, then the answer is YES!!!

I intend to try them out for Sci-Fi skirmish games for the Sunday evening crew. We have been playing Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes, which works fine. I'm not crazy about the short ranges for futuristic weapons, though. Yes, yes, I know. Stormtroopers can't hit anything even at close range in Star Wars. However, the short ranges in Wiley Games rules somehow feel wrong in this period. Ranges are line of sight in Space Weirdos. There are modifiers for some weapons if they are further away, but every shooting weapons can hit everything else, range-wise, in the game. Of course, the board is smaller, 2'x2' or 3'x3' being what they recommend for two player games. I will probably have to extend that horizontally for six-player games, of course. We'll see if it feels "weird" shooting the whole length of the board!

    Aww, I think I hurt their feelings...they are walking away. Come back, guys -- I didn't 'mean it...!

The other thing I painted up in this blog post is another 3-D printed vehicle from Diabolical Terrain. Rather than sitting down and painting up everything I bought from Ron, I have been mixing them in here and there. As always, I spray paint the vehicles Krylon Fusion Matte Black, which is followed up with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. I decided to paint this one silver as it is such a common car color on our roads, nowadays. Plus, it will show any discoloration and rust a bit better. I went back to painting a blue band at the top of the windows to represent the sky reflecting off the windshield and windows. And of course, I added in cracked windows because most of my games that I use them in will be post-apocalyptic (or zombie apocalypse). 

    I have been pleased with the 3-D printed vehicles I've bought from Diabolical Terrain

For the rust effect, I painted the area a dark brown first, followed by a lighter "rust" brown inside that area, leaving a dark brown line. Inside the rust brown, I painted a Georgia Clay to show the brighter, more flaky, rust. I am happy with how this one came out. I know that I ran out of 3-D printed vehicles when I set up my board for Hold the Line, so I need to get cracking on working these in more regularly!

    These 3-D prints paint up quickly and look nice on the tabletop, I think...

Speaking of getting cracking, I am actually nearly done with my next batch of figures -- two warlord stands to donate as prizes for the Saga tournaments at Advance the Colors. I also have some Sci-Fi terrain that I have spray painted. So, quite a bit should be coming up soon! Stay tuned, and see what's next!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 164
  

'Nasty Zombies' Plus Another Batch of 10

    2 'Nasty zombies' lead a pack of Wargames Factory zombies prowling through the industrial district

I think I am nearing the end of my zombie painting spree. These two batches should enable me to run Zombie RV for three vehicle crews (12 survivors). That will probably be about as big of a game as I need to run anytime soon. Since the rules have three tiers of zombies, with "Nasty Zombies" being the meanest, I figure I needed more of them. I dug through my Post-Apocalyptic unpainted lead and picked out four that could be painted into zombies, I felt. I also did the next-to-last batch of male zombies from the Wargames Factory box.

    Five of this batch of Wargames Factory zombies - do they sense survivors inside the factory?

The 10 ordinary zombies were done exactly like the others I've been doing (for what seems like quite awhile, now!). So, I won't really talk much about them. I am trying to personalize a handful in each batch. I did some tattoos on the shirtless zombies. I think they look better in person than in the photos. I also tried to put writing on their shirts or lab coats, which I think turned out fairly poorly, unfortunately. I think I was in a hurry because I also forgot to bricks or other debris on their bases. I didn't notice it until I was putting them away.

    Two of the 'Nasty zombies' -- one an OSU fan and the punk rocker...a gamer?

Speaking of which, it IS quite the zombie horde I'm accumulating. And the mass effect of them all together in the box looks really good, I think. Hopefully, they look equally good horded together on the tabletop! Well, maybe not to the survivors, but visually...!

    The other two 'Nasty zombies' leading their pack of five to investigate a downed helicopter

Unlike most metal figures, I did prime these black to go with the same overall look as the rest of the zombies. I made sure when painting the pants and shirts to leave a bit of black around the exposed flesh where their clothes are torn and they've been slashed or shot. I would need the zombie aspect of these to jump out more to the eye, so I painted lots of tears, blood stains, and such. Two of the zombies have punk rock style haircuts or goatees. I decided to have a little fun and paint one of them like a friend of mine. We'll see if he notices that he's been "immortalized" as a zombie. The lettering on the jacket and mohawk color should be a giveaway, if you know him.

    The nasty with the red mohawk and goatee is probably my favorite of the bunch!

The other one has a very bright punk rocker red mohawk and goatee. He's probably my favorite nasty zombie of the group. I think his brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and. bright green shirt worked out nicely together. The one next to him above is from Battle Valor Games and their "Space Cannibals" line. He has improvised armor that apparently didn't work out to well for him against the zombies!

    The hand-lettered lab coat and lawn worker shirts were a 'fail,' I think -- less is more in this case!

I have to admit, I am actually looking forward to wrapping up the zombie painting. They've all painted up quickly and turned out fairly well. I'm just getting a little tired of painting nearly the same thing over and over. You may have noticed the nasty zombies have brighter, brick base texturing. I'm not 100% sure it worked out great. However, I admit, it is more of a game mechanic so players can easily recognize the nasty zombies vs. the regular zombies. The styrene plastic pattern isn't grooved very deeply, so I added a couple tiny bricks atop the metal base the figure is cast onto. It looks so-so. I should probably have done the entire base in those tiny bricks. That would have looked better, I think.

I'm working my way back towards a positive total for my painted vs. acquired tally. I would say I will even it up within a couple weeks. I have that final batch of 10 zombies (sigh...) and two painted warlord stands to do for the Advance the Colors 2024 Saga tournament. That'll put me at 170 vs. 170, most likely!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 154

Undead Ladies of the Night - Zombie Women from WF

    A horde of zombie women stagger from the gas station where they just made a pit stop for brains...

As mentioned in a previous post, my friend Keith gave me 10 of the Wargames Factory female zombies from their "Zombie Vixens" box. I decided to try to individualize them more than I did with the last batch of male zombies. So, they took a bit longer, but still painted up pretty quickly. Some of the poses were pretty active, so I decided to make them "Fast" zombies, or Runners. This mean re-imagining how I flock them so that it is clear on the tabletop which ones are ordinary zombies and which are fast ones.

    For this batch, I tried to do a bit more to individualize their clothes -- like the patterned dress on right

I prepared them the usual way - Krylon Black Fusion spray followed up by a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. The skin is a craft paint called "Wild Rice," and for these I decided to go back over it with a second coat to make sure it covered the black primer a bit more thoroughly. I used relatively bright colors, or at least ones that are more vivid. The zombie women are all depicted as relatively young and fit, so I stereotyped and decided they would be dressed more nicely than I have been painting the guys.

    I thought the red and white polka dot halter top & jean shorts worked well on the blonde at right

I also made sure I bloodied this group up a tad more than some of the others. All of the figures seem to be molded with bite wounds either on their legs or somewhere. I also gave most of them bloody hands and mouths, which makes them a bit more horrifying, if you ask me. I gave them a variety of hair colors, including the strawberry blonde on a couple figures. 

    A smiley face shirt and red bikini certainly made these zombies "Runners" different!

For the "Fast zombie" poses, I decided to redo how I flocked them. Since the ordinary zombies use Fine Blended Gray Ballast from Woodland Scenics to replicate asphalt, I felt the Fast zombies needed a different color tone to stand out. I went with a brown dirt look, using sand which had been given a dark brown vehicle wash a couple times. Hopefully, my players can tell them apart easier than what I was doing before. And yes, that mean I went back and re-flocked the previous three "Runners!"

    The zombie in the pink party dress with the missing right hand is a good example of the unique poses

The zombie party girls will get a night on the town when I run Zombie RV for my friends, this evening. I should have six players, and setting out all my zombies made me realize one thing: Unfortunately, I need more zombies! That's okay, as I have several batches in line to join the party. I have two more batches of 10 Wargames Factory male zombies, two more batches of 3-D printed zombies special ordered from JS Wargamer Printing, and a handful of metal figures I culled from the lead pile that will make good "Nasty zombies," I hope. That will also help me correct the disparity in 2024's Miniatures Acquired vs. Miniatures Painted! Zombies paint up easily, and with the next batch, I will be back in the positive range!

    Having picked up (& eaten) any available men at the gas station, the party girls are hitting the streets

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 149
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 140

Zombie Horde Grows - 10 Wargames Factory Zombies

    First batch of Wargames Factory plastic zombies - they look fairly close in size to my previous ones

My only purchase at the Historicon 2024 flea market was a box of 30 Wargames Factory zombies for $15. Eyeballing them, they seemed close in size to the 3-D printed ones that I'd special ordered from JS Wargamer Printing. Getting them home and opening the box, I was a little dismayed by how many pieces the figures came in. There were heads, torsos, arms, and lower section with legs. I will happily admit that I am fairly incompetent when it comes to assembling miniatures.

Luckily, my friend Keith is a whiz at it. He doesn't seem to mind assembling the odd box that I buy that requires assembly. It took him little more than a week to glue all 30 together. What's more, he based them on MDF 1" round bases for no charge. The bases were a bit thicker than the plastic ones I was using for the other zombies, but that's my fault for not thinking of getting him bases to put them on. Once all painted up, the difference in base size thickness won't really be noticeable. What's more, the following Sunday he showed up at our game night with a box of 10 female zombies from Wargames Factory all assembled for me. For free! Keith's a generous guy normally, but sometimes he goes overboard!

   I like the pose in the lab coat -- a nice touch, I think

Anyway, I pulled all 30 males out and separated them by pose. Keith had done a great job mixing and matching heads, arm positions, etc., but there seemed to be about eight basic torsos, as best I could tell. Once I'd sorted them, I picked out one of each plus a couple extra (I loved the ones in lab coats!) and got them ready to paint up. I decided to treat them exactly like 3-D printed miniatures, as some of the hands and arms seemed a little thin and liable to snap. Readers of my blog know that method begins with Krylon Fusion acrylic black spray paint followed by brushing on a 50/50 mixture of acrylic black paint and water. Hopefully, this gives the miniatures a bit more strength to face handling on the tabletop. 

I normally don't paint in batches of 10 figures, preferring smaller lots. However, zombies don't have a lot of equipment (well, none actually, except for one guy carrying around a foot in case he starts to feel peckish). So, I can handle a bigger number of figures and not feel overwhelmed. Sometimes, I think back to my 15mm days when I would try to paint an entire army of 50+ miniatures all at once, doing all the flesh, then uniform color, etc. I can't imagine painting that way now. It would be too much like work! I like smaller batches as you are more frequently rewarded with the accomplishment of a new batch of minis completed.

    The pose in the middle appears to have a leather vest, so I gave him a biker logo on the back

I began with the flesh, as normal. For zombies, I use a craft paint called "Wild Rice" for their skin color. It is way too pale for living humans, but when given a black wash at the end gives it a nice, decaying, grayish tint. Next up were the pants. There were a number of zombies with shorts in this batch, so I did those in lighter colors. The long pants were done as blue jeans, gray or khaki dress pants, or "Carrhart" brown paints. Once the base color had dried overnight, I went back and did a dry brush highlight on each.

The were a lot more decisions to make on the shirts. I would love to jazz up every single one of the shirts with something special, but considering the number of zombies I need to paint, I unfortunately don't want to take the time. I did make one of them a leather biker's vest, another shirt was given a couple stripes, and a third was done as a kind of flannel. Otherwise, they were basic shirts (that is, if they were wearing shirts -- two were bare chested). As mentioned before, I really liked the poses in the lab coats, so did two of them in this group. I think on the next batch of these Wargames Factory zombies, I will try to do more special details in the shirts to give them a little more personality. I'd love to be able to paint one zombie up as each of my Sunday night gaming group, if I can find a post that matches...ha, ha!

    One of my favorite poses is the guy in shorts and salmon colored muscle shirt in the center

Otherwise, I did these exactly like the 3-D printed zombies I ordered from JS Wargamer Printing. The shirts and pants got highlighting, the obvious wounds were painted in blood red, and the eyes were done with no pupils or irises. Just black with a white area in the center. I made the mouths and hands a little bloody, and smeared a couple places on their pants and shirts with dried blood color, too. I liked how it looked on the hands. This was the first batch I did that way, so will likely do it some more on the forthcoming batches of zombies.

So, you may ask how many batches of zombies do I have in line? The 10 female zombies Keith gave me are up next after these guys. As a bonus, a couple of the female poses look like they could be used as "runners." I think I need to come up with something more distinctive on the bases to make the runners stand out. I should probably go back and re-flock the other three runners I did and just simply use a different color of flocking like I did with the "nasty zombies." But I was counting zombie batches, wasn't I? Well, after the 10 female zombies, I have two more batches of 10 from Wargames Foundry. And I also have 9 more JS Wargamer ordinary zombies and 7 "Infected" ones. And then there are the six child zombies I bought at Historicon from Brigade Games! So, that means I have 52 more zombies on the way?? Wow...methinks I will be tired of painting zombies before I complete all of those! Stay tuned and see, though...

    Street level view as a horde of 10 zombies lumbers towards you, "Brains...!"

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 104
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 130

Four Characters from Brigade Games Post-Apocalyptic Miniatures

   Four post-apocalyptic survivors from Brigade Games -- I love the minis, they have tons of character!

With the success of my two games of Zombie RV...er, meaning the RULES were a success -- not necessarily how it turned out for the survivors -- I decided I needed more survivors. Considering we were losing them at a 25% rate, maybe I need even more than I think! Anyway, when I went to Historicon 2024 one of my missions was to find a survivor armed with a crossbow. All the rules sets seem to have mechanisms for these silent killers, and I don't own any figures armed with them. 

My first stop was to visit Lon Weiss of Brigade Games. When I asked him if he had any, he immediately walked me to the box full of his Post-Apocalyptic Miniatures. He pulled one out and said (I think) the character was meant to represent Darryl, the crossbow-armed survivor from the series The Walking Dead. At that point, I had not watched the series, so shrugged and snagged the pack of four survivors. It also included ones named "Curly," "The Fixer," and "The Mechanic." This week, when I went looking for more survivors to paint up, it was only natural to pull out that pack and get them primed and painted up.

    The crossbow armed survivor, who I painted up as Hispanic and named, 'Hector'

One of the things I like about painting post-apocalyptic miniatures, is I can portray them as different ethnicities. For the crossbow-armed figures, listed as "Bo" on the Brigade Games site, I decided to make him Hispanic rather than good old Georgia boy Darryl. I used a medium leather base color for the flesh, dry brushed in lighter shades. He appears to be wearing a leather vest and pants. So, I gave him a sleeveless, brown leather vest and blue jeans. His straps for the quiver and bag over his shoulder were painted as canvas or lighter leather. I painted the crossbow a very dark gray with lighter highlights. The flights on the crossbow bolts were a fluorescent green -- hey, that's what came up when I Googled it! I really like how Hector came out, and he will doubtless see use on the tabletop one of these days. In the meantime, if anyone knows where I can buy separate 28mm crossbow weapons to strap to the backs of other miniatures, I would love to get some!

    'Junior' is an iconic good old boy dressed in jean bib overalls and t-shirt, carrying a shotgun

Probably my favorite pose of the pack is called "Curley" on the Brigade Games website, but I immediately nicknamed "Junior." He is a walking stereotype of a good old boy. Heavy set, blue jean bib overalls, stained t-shirt, shotgun -- he checks all the boxes. I decided to give him a faded, light green t-shirt underneath the bib overalls, but otherwise, there weren't a lot of decisions to make on how to paint up this miniature! I really like how he came out. He's sculpted with a double chin and rotund body shape that is exaggerated but believable. Great miniature! I know Jackie and the boys could use Junior and his shotgun to beef up their ranks in our Zombie RV games!

    This pink-haired, punk rocker carries a shoulder bag with tools, as well as packing some heat!

Another figure that oozes character is named "The Fixer" on the Brigade Games site. She looks for all the world like a punk rock mechanic. She has a very punk rocker looking midrift vest, mini-skirt, and oversized, fancy boots. Her hair is shaved on one side and unruly, virtually screaming to me, "Paint me bright pink!" I faded out the hair color a bit, though, figuring that finding the time and supplies to re-dye hair might be hard to come by after the apocalypse. I gave her lots of tattoos, a black leather outfit, and impractical powder blue, knee-high boots to go with her pink hair. The tattoos were done with black and red micron pens and give her a hard-bitten look, which I really like. I named her "Daisy" because it sounded like a good name for a southern girl.

    Cleaner cut and more nicely dressed than the others, 'Jimmy Chin' seemed to be a city boy to me

Listed on the Brigade Games site as "The Mechanic," this figure looked anything but your stereotyped automobile mechanic. He looked very...well, almost "metro-sexual." Relatively clean cut, modern hair style, neat clothes -- I wasn't sure what to make of him. First, I decided to paint him up as Asian-American. Then I went with the city boy look, giving him a dark gray track suit pants and lighter gray long sleeve shirt. I gave him white tennis shoes and a dark red scarf around his neck (to pull up when splattering zombies, so none of their blood gets in his mouth). I gave him a military style web gear belt with a pistol in an olive drab holster. In the end, I really liked how he turned out, too, and named him after a former Asian-American coworker. 

   Junior, Jimmy Chin, Hector, and Daisy hanging out at their fortified trailer home

These figures painted up very quickly, I felt. They are not carrying a lot of excess equipment to slow things down. They're very cleanly cast and required almost no clean up of flash or excess metal. Not that I am hoping more of my Zombie RV crew dies, but at least if they do, I'll have some cool characters to substitute in! 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 104
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 111

'Infected' Zombies & Survivor SUV

    Infected zombies from Kraken 3D Studios swarm around a 3-D printed Land Rover

When I had ordered my 3-D printed zombies from John at JS Wargamer Printing, he'd given me a choice of standard modern zombies or "infected" ones from The Last of Us series. Of course, I had said, "Both!" This is my first batch of 10 zombies of the infected variety, with the Cordyceps fungus projects growing out of them. They are from the Apocalypse Dawn range designed by Kraken 3D Studios.

    Bloated or 'Nasty Zombies' painted up as infected "good old boys" in bib overalls and ball caps

Since many zombie games differentiate types of zombies, I decided to use this batch to create "runner" zombies and bloated or "Nasty Zombies" (as the Zombie RV rules call them). In this batch of 10, there was one pose each of a zombie that I thought could work for a runner and another pose that could be a bloated one. So, I tossed three of each into the batch, along with four more standard infected zombies -- if there is such a thing! What's more, I decided to make it even easier for me or my players to identify the runners and nasties as such and did a slightly different basing on these zombies. If you look closely, you will see the bloated zombies have a brick look to their basing and the runners have a smoother cobbled surface as opposed to the asphalt-looking ballast.

    These views do a good job of showing the Cordyceps fungal infections sprouting from the zombies

The most notable thing about this batch is they all have fungus growths projecting from their skin or clothes. In some cases, it is very marked and easy to see. On others, it is a little more subtle. One of the first questions I had was what color I should paint these growths. I did lots of Google Image searches and reading up on fan pages for the show for suggestions. I wasn't overwhelmed by the detail. I remember most of the scenes from the series that contain the infected being rather dark. I ended up settling on a light terra cotta base coat with a dull yellow highlight. A black wash over it would give it more depth and darken it up a bit. All in all, I'm happy with how the "infection" on my infected turned out.

    My 'runner' type zombies with their different bases to hopefully aid in telling them apart

The bloated ones are probably the most characterful of the designs. They are wearing bib overalls that are falling down along with a ball cap. I wanted to make each of the three look different even those the poses are identical. So, one got standard jeans look to their overalls, while another got a very faded, light blue tone. The third one had a brown Carhatt look to them. For the hats, I couldn't resist. I gave one a red and white MAGA cap, though making lettering small enough was probably beyond my skill -- even with the micron pens. Another is supposed to be a John Deere cap, while the third is a Cleveland Browns cap (if you can even tell!). I like how they turned out, in general, though I wish I was better at tiny details.

    I like how Kraken designed the ripped and tattered clothing of the zombies in this line

The runners were a bit easier, since all I had to do was use different colors of clothes, hair, and shoes. I like how the sculpts (can you call them that if they are designed and printed electronically?) have their shoes worn away and toes showing in places. For the runners' unique bases, I found some patterned styrene with a cobbled design. I did it in a lighter gray than the standard zombies, but kept it in gray and black so they wouldn't be confused with the nasty zombies' brick pattern. I really like the running pose and it is probably one of my favorite ones of the zombies I got from John.

    I really liked the other four poses, too -- especially the female crouching in green pants

There was a lot of variety in the four remaining zombies in this batch. Most notable is the female one wearing the bright green pants. Her crouched pose shows off her more female physique than some of the other female zombies from the previous two batches. She looks horrifying and like she's ready to spring on some poor survivor. I also like the one on the far right in the above photo. His dense Cordyceps infection sprouting out of his shoulder looks painful in a very cool, deformed sort of way. I also like the classic pose on the far left holding his hand up. You can almost hear him moaning for brains...ha, ha!

    The vehicle is a 3D printed Land Rover from Diabolical Terrain "dirtied up" a bit for the apocalypse

Finally, the 3D printed land rover was from Ron Weaver of Diabolical Terrain. He had a batch on sale at DayCon 2024 and this is the second of those I bought from him there that I have painted up. They are actually fairly easy and quick to paint up. I spray paint them black, then follow that up with a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint to make sure it seeps into all of the crevices. I like the metallic green craft paint I used for it -- the shade seems like something you see on the streets fairly commonly. I gave it some dents with accompanying rust and a black wash overall. If it has a bit of a "dusty" look, that was unintentional. After four days of waiting to spray coat these zombies and land rover, dissuaded each day by the incredibly high humidity in Columbus, I decided to risk it. I think there IS a little frosting that happened to it. It's much more noticeable on the metallic green car than the zombie skin or clothes. However, wouldn't an automobile in the apocalypse typically have a layer of ash over it? So, in the end, between the dark blasck wash and the maybe humidity frosting, it works!

 So, what's next on my tabletop? A slight change of pace. I had a batch of five Sci-Fi type personalities on my desk that I have begun. More on what I will use them for in another post...

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 90