Held Hostage

Time for the final batch of minis that I thought could be fun for Zombicide.  These are hostages from Armorcast.  Perfect for Malls or workplace hostage situations.  Rescue the hostages before the Zombies munch on 'em!

These were also part of the set of officers, SWAT teams and criminals that I painted back in 2007 and 2008.

As with the other sets, these would be just the right scale to go with those zombies!

It's dangerous at those malls!

And now for the whole set...

Rolling rocks downhill

I was doing some cover art photography, so I decided to set up a few arrangements for blog posts.  Let's start with the basic terrain.

Some of you have seen the way I produce these hills in previous posts.  These things have proven to be very playable and very durable.

Of course, I always love my big rocks made out of 'useless' scraps!

I still fondly remember the day I discovered this idea, completely by accident.  From what I can recall, I had a few pieces left over from cutting the main hills, and pondered what could be done with them.  One piece happened to be sitting upright in the scrap box, which must have given me the idea.

Tack on some tree branches, flock and a few Woodland Scenics trees, and you have yourself some very fun terrain.  

I shot some images of the Lord of the Rings Elves on this setup, which was very fun!  Those are for tomorrow night I think...

Yar!! Some more old timey figures

Here is a batch of figures from Armorcast that I painted back in 2008.

If you look at previous galleries of my painted Armorcast figures, you will see a lot of interesting characters like this fez  toting gnome...

And a Cthulhu pirate!

They also made a series of objective markers.

This is one of my favorites.  A big ogre with a lot of character!

And finally... a zombie pirate.  Time to walk that plank!

Then, and then, and then and almost now...

Ok, so this version of the Then and Now is even more interesting than the last one, since I kept running across all these old versions of the Jade Dancing girl.

I had gotten a bunch of these about 12 years ago to use as Blood Bowl cheerleaders.  None of them were ever used for that purpose in the end.  Every so often, another would be painted.

The earliest version that I could find went back to the very beginning.  This one was painted in the August or September of 2002.  The "Now" is more like 2009 or early 2010.

As I mentioned, I just kept running into these things!  The green one was painted in the first few months of 2003.  I didn't locate the other images until after I had made these pictures, so sorry about that!

A few years later, after much more exposure to Cool Mini and other related websites, I started to do more elaborate stuff... like basing!  Gee, go figure. :-)  

While I don't remember too much about these old minis, I do remember that rug taking a long time!

In fact, the whole mini took ages compared to what it would be today.

The next figure was done in late 2006, I believe, and was part of my experiments with various dried foliage.  That stuff was used extensively on the dioramas I was making at the time, so I tried to incorporate them into the regular figures as well.

I guess I was also learning how to make freehand be a little more subtle.  It would be neat to see the old green dancing girl next to this newer version.  If I still have any of these around, I will obviously have to try it again!

Finally, we have the most recent version I could find.  It does not have any fancy freehand, but I noticed that it had some verdigris on it.  There are also more subtle lights and darks, and more flow.  In general, more toned down.

One thing that caught my attention was how the bases of that 2002 attempt was so similar to this effort... with big differences!  Many years ago, we didn't even know you were supposed to paint the rocks and gravel.  Heck, even static grass was this brand new magical thing.

So, like I said, if I can track down one more of these, I will see if it looks any different.  I already know it will take much less time :-)  However, since I have discovered the wonders of the razor saw since all of these versions were painted, she will be on a much more elaborate base.  Or even a plinth.

Scary to look back on something from 4 years ago at most, and see it as ancient history.

One more to go...

Well, I am almost done with this group!  Just one more figure to go, and that is the standard bearer.

This is the first time I have seen all of the squad together, which is fun.

I will take another batch of group shots when # 5 is ready!

I never thought I would be painting this much yellow over the years.  For the longest time, it seemed like I was painting stuff red... over and over!

OK, back to finishing the last guy...

These officers are not gentelmen

Here is the second set of officers that I promised!  These are also from Armorcast.  Bloody these guys up, and they are ready for some Zombie prison breaout!

I am pretty sure that I painted this batch of minis back in 2008.

I was very tempted to put Chicago flags on the shoulders, but I had to keep it a bit more neutral than that.  So, I settled for the sky blue shirts and black pants...

There was even a female officer, which was cool.

It would have been neat to see these guys up against actual Zombicide minis, but alas, they are long gone.

Look, here's the whole Precinct!

Mystery Forgeworld mini

I tried to look this guy up on the Forgeworld site, but for the life of me, I could not find it!  I ran across some of the other command figures I have been working on, but no luck here.

I assume he is some sort of Astropath?

Anyway, more to come!