Umbrella Security Service: Infected

When painting up Umbrella SWAT Gamma Team and Sigma Team I also added a few USS members who had come a cropper when deployed.

Ex-Comrades

The figures are from KingZombie.  As has been noted by many they are quite “cartoony”, with large sometimes banana-hands, big deformed heads and a generally pretty large stature.  Despite all of this, I really enjoyed painting them and I think that they look good overall.  I rationalise that the somewhat deformed appearance of some of the guys as simply part of the overall effect of zombification on human biology, just in case any of you were wondering

Their appearance reminds me a little of the heavily deformed and made up zombie/possessed Deadite guys from the Evil Dead movies, which obviously is no bad thing.

The Umbrella Health Plan Wont Cover This...

The guy on the left below isn’t strictly speaking a USS (SWAT) guy, seeing as he has “POLICE” sculpted onto his body armour.  I decided to paint him up with these guys regardless.  He is in mid “action shot”.  His left eye appears to have just become an entry wound and the exit wound is visible as an explosion of gore on the back of his head as shown in the second shot below.

Entry Wound: Targets Left Eye...

The figures are very gory.  Up until now most of my zombie miniatures have had an old and rotting look, whereas these guys on the other hand look pretty fresh.  I enjoyed painting the gore on these guys and so I am going to paint my zombies a whole lot bloodier in the next batch.  I also hope to get around to upping the gore on some of the poorer examples of the zombie paint jobs in my collection in an effort to make them look a little better, but that may not happen for a while.

Exit Wound: Entire Rear of Targets Head

These figures came moulded onto their hexagonal scenic bases.  I wanted to ensure that there would be no ambiguity as to which USS figures were zombified and which were not so I kept all of the Gamma and Sigma team members on my usual circular bases which were flocked as usual.  All of the zombie USS retained their scenic bases which were by and large unflocked.  That, in addition to the large quantities of gore on the figures should keep the dead and the undead clearly defined.

Since I photographed these guys I noticed that they required another quick coat of matt varnish in some areas.  I went back and sorted that out, but didbnt have an opportunity to re-photograph them.

Zombie of the Week #9: Davies

Officer Davies

Officer Davies survived the early days of the outbreak, despite being a cop on the front line.  He was lucky enough to be equipped with body armour which kept him breathing for that much longer.  With crushing inevitability his time on the zombie infested streets eventually led to infection and Davies animated corpse turned on his former comrades.  He didnt last long as a 9mm round in his left eye blew what was left of Davies brains out.

"Headshot!"

Davies is a rather gory miniature from Kingzombie.  Davies got lumped in with the batch of Umbrella Security Service figures that I painted, even though he is actually a model of a cop in armour, rather than SWAT.  In restrospect I probably should have painted him to match Rachelle from LNoE but its not a big deal.

The KingZombie figures are quite goofy and cartoony in some respects but I am pleased with how Davies came out.  I like that the figure is sculpted in mid-headshot.  His brains are travelling out of the back of his skull

Sin Eaters Brother Chaplain Bakul

 

Not very Xmas-y, but what can you do?

Brother Chaplain Bakul of the Sin Eaters (note the eeevil Rosarius)

According to the 40K fluff, all of the original Chaos Marine Legions bumped off their Chaplains during the Horus Heresy.  The Word Bearers held onto their guys (they became Dark Apostles if memory serves.  Big into their false idols those Word Bearer scamps). While I understand that GW wanted to give the Chaos Marines their own identity and feel, I do think that the idea of a eeevil Chaplains of the Dark Powers leading Space Marines into battle is potentially fun.  With that in mind I put this guy together on a whim in 2001 or so.

Lots of Skulls on the Shoulder Pad and the Backpack Nozzles

Brother Chaplain Bakul is entirely plastic and is covered in enough skulls to make a rocker blush.  It reinforces the Chaplain skull motif I suppose, although spiky skulls are perhaps my least favourite element of GW Chaos stuff.

Yet More Skulls on the Shoulder Pad and on his eeevil Crozius Arcanum

I don’t like the way that GW have canonised the colour schemes for Chaplains (black), Librarians (blue), Techmarines (red), Apothecaries (white) etc.  I think that the additional colours can ruin a palette and are often unnecessary. 

 Additionally, GW policy seems to be to cover the relevant miniature in that colour when perhaps just a little of it would suffice (for a good example check out the jarringly blue Librarian that features with the Blood Angel Terminators in 3rd Ed Space Hulk.  It ruins the effect in my opinion.  And don’t get me started on the Blood Angel yellow helmet=Assault, blue helmet=Devastator thing.  Ugh). 

The Chaplain is the least offensive of the marine specialists in that regard as adding some black to a scheme isn’t as disruptive as adding an actual colour to it.  Still, when I added a Chaplain to the Sin Eaters I wanted to use the minimum amount of black to make him stand out a bit without ruining the army uniformity.  I think that it worked fine.  Not brilliant, but not awful in my opinion.

“Bakul” apparently means “sweet smelling”.  Ho, ho, ho etc.

Clogheen Cannibals Pt 2

The Cannibals Goblin Contingent

More of my orc Blood Bowl team continued from last week.  Note the pogo stick and chainsaw guys above.  On the other hand please do not note the chipped paint on the middle goblins spikey helmet.  Thanks.

Lineman and Blitzer

Another Lineman and Blitzer

Zombie of the Week #8: Louis

Louis

Louis cared a lot about his hair, much to the amusement of the rest of his frat house.  Despite the urgency of their situation, the other residents of Cappa Delta Gamma still managed a chuckle upon seeing Louis cadaver play with its floppy fringe, even in the grip of undeath.

Frat Corpse

Louis is another old GW (Marauder maybe?) zombie, probably sculpted by Gary Morley I think.  I first started to gather zombie figures for Necromunda games in the late nineties.  Back then pretty much the only option I had for 28mm figures was to buy from GW mail order.  As such I went through the catalogue and bought one of a whole load of those available.  I tried to get guys without weapons and in clothes that didnt look too medieval and ended up with guys like Louis.

I still cant really explain that boot though.  A Cappa Delta Gamma prank perhaps?

Edit: this year I went back over a whole load of my zombie minatures and added a bit more gore to them.  This brought them in line with some of the more recent zombies that I have painted and helps to give the whole lot a more unified look.  Hence the 2009 tag.

Umbrella Security Service: Sigma Team

I painted up Umbrella SWAT Sigma Team at the same time that I painted up Gamma Team, both for use in modern zombie games.  All members of Sigma Team are helmetless, which makes for an easy way to distinguish the teams on the table if necessary.

Sigma Team Trooper and Sniper

Sigma Team was painted in exactly the same fashion (and at exactly the same time as) Gamma Team.  The flesh tones were a bit rushed so they could be better really.  Deciding to paint the flesh areas after midnight on a boozy Saturday evening also contributed to the slipshod look somewhat.  I might go back to the figures and dot in the pupils etc at some stage, but I am just as likely not to bother: they look good enough for my purposes as is.

Officer, Heavy Weapons Specialist and Trooper

Sigma Team has a lot more variety in its weaponry than Gamma Team, which was armed identically with a machine gun of some sort (ID-ing modern armament isn’t my strong point).  Sigma Team weapon highlights include the sniper rifle in the top photo and a very large (M60?) machine gun in the second shot.

Since I photographed these guys I noticed that they required another quick coat of matt varnish in some areas.  I went back and sorted that out, but didbnt have an opportunity to re-photograph them.

Iacon Guardian Squad Nephtys

Two Iaconian Guardians

The Iacon Craftworld was the last 40K army that I painted, and it broke my heart

A bit of an aside here, bear with me:

The first army that I painted for 40k back in my teens was Eldar.  I have always been more interested in the creative side of the hobby than the gaming (although I love that too) and as such always chose what forces to play based on one of two things: either they were the figures that looked the nicest to me (Eldar) or that I thought that I could have a lot of fun with them as a modelling project (Sin Eaters).

Squad Nephtys Guardians

I played a lot of games with the Sin Eaters and they were pretty well regarded aesthetically.  That meant that when I finally got around to doing another Eldar army that I wanted to do “a good job” on them.

The Sin Eaters each took a very long time to paint and although it may not look like it, the Iacon guys possibly took even longer.  Painting that gold took ages and it doesnt even show.  Oh well.  They still look good I think, they just dont really look as good as they should considering the time spent on them.

This army was a turning point for me when I decided that the painting methods that I was using were too time consuming and that I needed to rationalise the process more.  That principle has continued up until the present day.

Nephtys Gunner and Guardian

There is a vaguely Egyptian theme running through the force (it isnt really that visible other than colour choice in Squad Nephtys) that should hopefully be more apparent in some of the other units.

Nephtys Gunner and Star Cannon Grav Platform

The hand painted symbol on the cannon fairing is repeated on the right shoulder plate of each squad member.  Although the plates used varied from squad to squad, that variable glyph motif continued through the whole force.

Zombie of the Week #7: Mike

"Mouldy" Mike

Mike doesnt really know what is going on.  He knows just a little more than the horde of plague zombies that follow him around, but not that much more.  The battery in Mikes bionic eye still seems to be working, but it is questionable as to how much Mike even uses his eyes anyway.

Zombie Hero

“Mouldy” Mike was painted up with another couple of zombie figures in 2001 or so.  He was intended to be used as a zombie leader for a squad of cultists that were at the time a legitimate part of my Sin Eaters Chaos Space Marine Army.  Although I used the cultist stats when gaming I figured that using a rabble of zombies from my collection would be in keeping with the Nurgle theme in the Sin Eater force.

A leader zombie is a questionable concept really, but at the time it was a concept that I was willing to accept in order to make my army (already shackled in terms of unit selection due to theme) that little bit more competitive.  And so the min/max slide continued, paved with good intentions…mostly.

As the rest of the zombies that Mike was “leading” were pretty generic I decided to “sci-fi-him-up” a little.  Hence the addition of the silly but fun bionic eye.  Mike also allowed me to use one of the zombie bodies from the GW sprue that looked the least feasible in a modern or sci-fi setting.  Reasoning that Mike is in a position of authority and the he needed to be easily identifiable on the tabletop I used the body with that tatty looking tea-towel like “cape”.  Regal, no?

Nurglings

Nurgling Swarm

Nurglings featured in my Sin Eater Chaos Space Marine army from day one.  For some reason which I cant put my finger on I have liked (if that is the right word) them since I first read about them in 1989.  Its probably the fart and other biological function jokes.

Tide of Decay

I spent way more time painting these than they really required.  I like them though.   They variety and character in the figures made them painting them more entertaining than it would normally be.  They were originally based on large GW titan bases, in preference to the horrible square WHFB bases that they were supplied with.  Once the large, circular 40k base was released I rebased them (and turned four bases into eight in the process).  Go me.

Clogheen Cannibals Pt 1

The Cannibals Troll Blocker

Blood Bowl is one of, if not the best game that GW has ever made, right up there with Space Hulk.  The rules are fun and reward good play, even though luck always plays a part.  I would play the game a whole lot more if it didnt take way too long, almost always over two hours.  The fact that the result after that <two hours of brain burning activity is often apparent after five minutes compounds the game length issue.

Regardless, Blood Bowl can be really great fun and as a result I have quite a few teams painted up.  The one painted to the highest standard is the Clogheen Cannibals.

Cannibal Thrower and Lineman

They worked out pretty “clean” looking for an orc team, but at the time I was pushing my blending and other painting techniques hard.  It show mostly I think, most of the figures are technically pretty good.

Two Cannibal Black Orc Blockers

Two More Cannibal Black Orc Blockers

The rest of the team to follow next week.