Family Zombie Painting

The family that paints zombies together stays together. We decided to get some zombies painted over the holiday break.

My daughter is really getting into the spirit of things.

While we were painting I heard a weird noise outside. I went out and found a sheet of 3/4 inch styrofoam insulation laying in the front yard. Aparantly the gods were pleased with out painting and decided to gift us with terrain making materials. I let it set for about an hour then decided to put it in the garrage.

And here is out little zombie hoard. Just a small group so far to add to what we already have for our Resident Evil campaign. Four of these are from RAFM's modern Cuthulu line and three of them are from Reaper's Chronoscope line.

Spaceport 69 Depo 5

Well I'm finally getting a start on my Spaceport 69 project. I've collected several plastic meat trays because of their interesting shape. I've seen people try and make terrain out of similar plastic packages but they often try and use the package for the main part of the sturcture. That's not alway a bad thing when it's well pulled off but a lot of the time it just ends up looking like a painted bit of packaging on the table. I've decided to use them as roofs for the older more industrial buildings in the spaceport.

I'm building the buildings out of foam core. I'm trying to make all the buildings in this project as playable as possible so I'm making interiors for them. The best way to make interiors for buildings is to plan them out first.

After I finished the basic floor plan I picked out a few miniatures to see how they fit in the floor plan. I wanted to make sure I could get at least one figure on an average size base in every room.

After finishing the floor plans I planned out the front, back, and sides. This took a while but planning makes construction easier.

Of course it's always good to check with the experts. My son was giving me advice the whole time.

After I got the outside walls cut out I put the structure together using sticky tack. Sticky tack works great for this but don't leave it on too long or it could get harder to remove.

After I got everything cut out I used sticky tack again to put the entire building together. Of course there is a lot of detailing to do and painting before I can put the building together.

Here is a shot of the interior with a few minis inside. I left the inside walls a bit shorter so I could get to the minis in each room easier.

Next the detailing and painting.

Resident Evil "Hunters" Episode 2 "Dr. Kruger's Labratory"

July 23, 1998 Raccoon City. Anya Fields and Meredith Hartwick of "Hartwick and Fields Investigations" are at their downtown office. It's mid afternoon when they get a visit from Eddy Williams. Eddy tells them he needs their help to recover incriminating evidence from Dr. Kruger's hidden lab before the police find it. Eddy intends to turn the evidence over to a news agency and he's afraid if the police get it that the Umbrella Corporation will use their lawyers to make sure the evidence never sees the light of day.



Eddy also tells them that Kruger was experimenting on the infected creatures in his private lab as well and that he doesn't know the condition of those creatures at this time. Eddy instructs the investigators to meet him at the McDonalds at 4th and Chestnut at 9pm so he can help them break into Kruger's lab.



Hartwick and Feilds decide to stock up on some supplies in case they run into more infected creatures. They pick up an extra shotgun and Colt 1911 and some ammo at a local pawn shop then they pick up some duct tape and flashlights at a department store. They also check a local map and notice that the McDonalds they are meeting at is within walking distance of Kruger's home.

Hartwick, Fields, and Eddy make their way through the escape tunnel and end up in Kruger's bunker at the far end from the lab. Eddy explains that he's most likely to find what he's looking for in the lab. The lights are out in the bunker and the switch doesn't seem to work. Good thing they all have flashlights.

Hartwick thinks she hears something in the room to her right. She opens the door carefully and shines her flashlight inside. The room appears to be a storage room and at the moment it is occupied by three zombies.



The creatures start moaning and shambling towards the investigator. Hartwick and Eddy start shooting and one of the creatures goes down.


Unfortunately their shooting has attracted the attention of another group of zombies who start shambling towards them from a room down the hall.


Not wanting to be attacked from both sides at the same time the investigators first finish off the creatures in the storage room.


They then turn their attention to the creatures coming down the hall. For whatever reason this group is moving very slowly. Two of the creatures are gunned down at range by Fields and Eddy while Hartwick finishes off the storage room zombies.


With all the gun fire another group of creatures surges out of the room at the far end of the hall. this group seems more determined than the last.


Hartwick, Fields, and Eddy shoot several creatures as they charge down the hall but two of the zombies manage to make it into hand to hand.


Hartwick takes out one of the creatures with a couple buffets from the butt of her sawed off 12 gauge but the other creature hits Fields and shakes her up.


The investigators manage to beat down the creature. For the moment things seem quiet again. Fields recovers from being shaken and they all decide to re-load their magazines before they continue.


As they move down the hall Eddy notices that the room to the chemical storage is half open. He decides to push it the rest of the way open and look inside. Not surprisingly there are several creatures inside.

Eddy tries to shoot the nearest creature but he misses and they charge him. The creatures hit him several times but fortunately for him do no damage.


Hartwick pushes into the fight and takes one creature out. Fields tries to help but can't get through the door.


The creatures attack wildly and score several hits but again do no damage to the investigators. Eddy and Hartwick manage to beat the zombies down. Eddy explains that the lab is the next door up on the right and that he thinks they should get in there and start looking for evidence. He's not sure if the lab had an alarm but he's afraid the longer they are down there the more likely it is that the cops will show up.


When they check the door they notice that it is slightly open. Hartwick carefully pushes the door open to find the room filled with creatures.


With amazingly accurate gunfire half of the creatures are gunned down before they even notice the investigators. The humans fall back into the hallway and continue to shoot as the other zombies advance.


Another creature goes down trying to get through the doorway but two of the creatures make it into hand to hand.



Fields is hit again and shaken up again. Hartwick is also hit but not hurt. The investigators fight back but don't take either creature down straight away.


After a bit more fighting one of the creatures goes down. Anya Fields manages to pull herself together and now it's three to one.


Zombies are tough but not that tough. The last creature goes down without inflicting any damage. Hartwick and Fields quickly check the remaining rooms and find no more creatures. Eddy manages to get the power back on.

Eddy starts downloading information from the computer while Hartwick and Fields search the lockers. Hartwick finds two more doses of T-Virus antidote and Fields finds an AK-47 with 3 full 30 round magazines. A further search of the complex turns up an Umbrella Corporation I.D. badge for a man named Bob Johnson and a first aid kit.

Eddy thanks Hartwick and Fields for their help and explains that he plans to take the evidence he found on the computer to a reporter he knows at the Raccoon City Times.

Note: This was part 2 of my Resident Evil campaign using the Savage Worlds rules. I know it seems like the heroes had an easy time of it but they really got lucky. The zombies got the worst initiative cards all but one round and they failed to wound with really bad die rolls.

Simple Complex: Part 2, Basic Paintjob.

Well I did a basic drybrush of grey over the black foamcore on my underground complex. I think it turned out pretty good since I am basically trying to go as generic as possible with these rooms to get maximum flexibility. I plan on building some more specific rooms in the future.

Of course I plan to add doors next.

Simple Complex

Well I've got some modern and Sci-Fi games I'm working on and I really wanted to do some game in some underground complexes. What I decided to do was make the basic set as simple as I could make it and also make it modular. By keeping it simple I can dress it up however I like and by making it modular I can get maximum flexibility out of it.

Here's what I came up with. This seven room complex is constructed from one 20x30 inch sheet of black foamcore. The basic complex after construction. I will be painting everything grey inside and outside the rooms. The hallway is just one 2 inch wide strip of foamcore and the end of the hallway is just a simple 2x2 inch square with a 1x2 inch rectangle glued to the back of it to hold it up.

The doorways are all 1x1.5 inch which is large enough to fit the average 28mm figure on a Games Workshop round infantry base. Of course figures with larger bases or exaggerated poses won't fit but it's easy enough to just set them on the other side of the door if need be.

And this is basically all I needed to put the complex together. A ruler; pencil, ex-acto knives, tacky glue. That's also all the foamcore I had left over.

These next two pictures show two different combinations. Keep in mind making new hallways is as simple as cutting 2 inch strips of foamcore.

I think I'm going to try to add to this complex 1 sheet of foamcore at a time. The sheets only cost a little less than $4.00 and perhaps another couple dollars worth of materials. Heck even if you didn't have anything to do this project with you could probably get all the materials and tools for less than $20.00.

Next update will be basic painting.

Miniature a Day 2009 day 2

Painted up a couple of Sligg Soldiers from Reaper's Chronoscope line. These guys were a blast to paint. This pair will be working with Kirby McDowell as crew of the Skip Tracker in my Spaceport 69 project.

Just a couple more details about my mini a day goal. I'll track the progress like this:

Day: 2
Number of minis:3
Score: +1

Also unlike last time I'm going to be posting the mini I finished on the prior day and not the one I finished up that day. This way I'll have time to varnish and photograph the mini.

The "Skip Tracker"

Today I finished another ship for my Saceport 69 project. It's the "Skip Tracker" a ship owned by bounty hunter Kirby McDowell and his two Sligg partners.

I purchased the toy this ship is based on a couple years ago at Walmart. It's part of a line of 3 inch action figures called "The Corps". I added my own landing gear from craft sticks and plastic bits from plastic model kits. In order to change the scale of the ship to appear 28mm I put a strip of plastic over the front of the toy's cockpit to scale it down into a front window of the shuttle craft. I also added a hatch made from light cardboard to the side of the ship. After that I painted it up. I still have a bit of touch up to do and varnishing but the ship is pretty much done.

And here is Kirby McDowell and his Sligg partners ready to be painted themselves. That's my next project.

I know I didn't show much WIP on this one but I'm planning on building at least a couple more ships based on this toy so stay tuned for some more detailed builds.