BRAAAIIIINNNSSS... 1/72 scale Zombies for Kings of War

Given that its that time of the year again, thought I would paint something in keeping with the 31st of October...Halloween (cue thunder, sound of screaming woman nearby and wolves howling in the distance). Yes folks its Halloween and, although I don't celebrate it, it did seem like a good time to paint something frightful. Plus I like Undead Armies. Can't have a fantasy setting without undead roaming around in it somewhere!

So, given I have been on a 1/72 fantasy painting spree of late, what better than to show off my just completed (on Halloween too, spooky!) Caesar Miniatures 1/72 Zombie Camp Followers. Caesar make some great 1/72 plastic fantasy sets and no self respecting necromancer would be seen dead without a cadre or two of fresh Zombies to show off to his mates.

Team Z!

Painting Guide?

• Fist up, basecoat the blighters in Army Painter Skeleton Bone
• Then, dry brush them all over in Citadel paints White Scar,
• Paint the metals (weapons and armour) in Boltgun Metal,
• Paint the weapon shafts and back of shields with Scorched Brown.
• By this time, they should look like the lads in the image below: 

Next:

• Paint the clothing in a variety of colours. Whatever you choose will look great once they have been washed and sealed (more on that later).
• You may want to include some interesting features, such as a grave stone, or Zomb's rising from the grave.
• Right now, the painting looks like it was done in a kindergarten. But this is all about to change!

Shading and Sealing:

• Now dip the miniatures in Army Painter Strong Tone and allow to dry. This will give it a deep shade and also seal the miniatures.

Looking better already!

Post-op:

• Once dry, spray with Army Painter Anti-shine Matt Varnish. Make sure that its not too humid when you do this or the spray coat will look ugly.
• Next, dry brush very lightly with White Scar over the skin and clothing.
• Paint blood on the appropriate locations with Blood for the Blood god Citadel technical paint.
• Now they should look like the below group of images... 

Once properly based, these Zombies look like a shuffling hoard.

I've put this lot into a War of the Ring movement tray to show them off as a unit. However, I will be getting some larger movement trays from eBay with five circular bases across and two rows deep for Kings of War. So I've done a total of ten bases worth so far, with two zombies per base. Ten bases equals ten 28mm Kings of War models for a Troop. So I will be using one movement tray for a Troop, two movement trays for a Regiment, and three for a Hoard.

More images of Team Z below. They still require grass to be added to the base. So not really finished yet but I like how they turned out, especially after how they looked before dipping in Army Painter Strong Tome. Brrraaaiiiinnnnsssss....

Mantic Games, Kings of War Rulebook version 2

I picked up a copy of Mantic Games newly updated Kings of War rulebook back at MOAB. I've finally finished reading it cover to cover, and thought I would post about it.

First impressions when I picked it up at MOAB was that it was comprehensive. The world background, rules and army lists are all together in the one volume, which is a big bonus. The book itself is very well laid out and comes in a sturdy cover, with lots of colour images and drawings. So I thought I would share some images of it, if you haven't seen it already.

The book is roughly divided into three equal parts which cover the history and background of Mantica, the rules for play and the army lists.

The world of Mantica

 

The rules are simple enough for even me to understand! Certainly much more simple than Warhammer or War of the Ring, providing for a fast pace game. The rules are also extensive enough to make sure that their complexity makes the game seem not too basic.

All the armies in one place!

My favourite, the Undead

Lots of cool units to traumatise the world of Mantica with...

So this has got me thinking about my 1/72 War of the Ring project. The army lists in WotR should be fairly simple to port across to Kings of War. There are also enough similar style of troops that you could easily find a list for a Warhammer troop type in the KoW army lists.

So my final impressions of the ruleset is that it looks like a great system, easy to learn and play. Its also inspired me to use the KoW rules for my 1/72 WotR project. So stay tuned for more on that in the future.

Warmonger Miniatures brilliant new 10mm German Landsknecht Armbrustschützen (Crossbowmen) live on Kickstarter NOW!

If you are not aware of it, Warmonger Miniatures do a fantastic line of 10mm Landsknecht miniatures that are great as proxies for Warmaster Empire figures.

Warmonger has just announced a new Kickstarter campaign to get 10mm German Landsknecht Armbrustschützen (Crossbowmen) in to production. You can find it here.

I have helped fund two of his previous Kickstarter campaigns to get these beauties into production. Warmonger does a wonderful job and if you are after great proxies for Warmaster Empire figures, then jump in and support the Kickstarter campaign. I haven't had any issues with him fulfilling the Kickstarter and he keeps you up to date on the projects progress. Right now his Kickstarter is almost funded but needs to break the $500 barrier to make it all happen. So you can take it from me that he delivers as promised and you won't be disappointed with what he produces.

You can buy his 10mm German Landsknecht produced in the previous Kickstarters from his website store, and you should be able to see his previous work if you check out some of my older posts.

Well worth considering backing this. I've joined in again and will be getting the four units deal. So jump in and help out with confidence that Warmonger will deliver!

Peter Pigs new Viking Longships... are they any good for 10mm?

Well might you ask, dear Reader!

In my last post I noted that Micks's Metal Models had a stall at MOAB and I was fortunate enough to nearly buy him out of the Peter Pig 15mm Norse Longships that he was selling. He had two varieties of the ship, one of which you can see on Mick's website page. The other variant however you can see above. This second variant I purchased is un-crewed and open, giving more possibilities for variation in what you add to the basic ship, and is definitely the better option of the two in my humble opinion.

So, any good for 10mm?

Simple answer is YES!  As you can see from the images below, this scales to 10mm very well.

But first up, some details of the actual product.

Instructions on how it fits together.

Two stands from the GW Warmaster range next to the ship for scale.

Its just shy of being wide enough to fit a Warmaster stand (40mm x 20mm) on it and so you can't sit a standard Warmaster unit on the deck, sadly (queue sad face!).

But they can still fit in length ways as you can see below. Also you get some perspective on the size of the Helmsmen. It isn't a true 15mm figure, being closer to 12mm in height.

This is good though for the Kallistra range of 10mm figures, because these are more 12mm in height also. So these ships will certainly suit Kallistra's range of Normans, Saxons and Vikings.

Two Norman's chat to the Helmsmen

True 10mm figures will however look undersized next to the Helmsmen. The figure below is a Pendraken Imperial Roman Command figure (10mm size) showing the size difference.

The image below shows the various components you get with the model.

Finally, its worth noting that there are two varieties of the figure heads as well. One variety is more of a fantasy dragon figure head. The other is more of a historically accurate dragon figure head. Both are equally suitable for fantasy and historic gaming. I have both varieties but only show one variety below. The stern also has a "tail" that comes with the core set.

So there you have it!

If you are after a longship for 10mm wargaming (and I have been after something like this for years!) then this is the ship for you.

MOAB 2015 (Mother Of All Battles)

I managed to get a leave pass to get to MOAB on Saturday. MOAB (the Mother Of All Battles) is about the only real wargaming convention that I manage to get to each year and its always a worthwhile experience in my humble opinion.

Trade floor and demonstration games

Amongst some of the scores I picked up, Mick's Metal Models had some excellent 15mm Longships that look fairly suitable for 10mm, got a stash of Reaper Bones miniatures, the excellent Kings of War Rulebook (ver. 2) and some great Lord of the Rings terrain in the Bring and Buy.

I took a bunch of photos of the event, mostly to capture the variety of games available and some of the excellent paint jobs for inspiration. Most of what was available was 28mm, so not much for the 10mm (God's own wargaming size!) enthusiasts sadly. Dropzone Commander was on sale, but no demo games sadly.

The first group of photos were of some skirmish game. The mini's were excellent. Sadly I don't know what game this was.

Next few are of a Kings of War demo game using the new version 2 rules. Sadly I didn't have time to play the demo. Too much to see and do before I had to head home.

A Bolt Action game being set up. This diorama had a fantastic German submarine in the centre of the map. Obviously it was going to be the primary objective for the Allied Forces.

One the German sub was a funny tribute to Titanic

Fantastic painting detail on this mini.

The gentlemen running this Bolt Action game told me his son now plays and is now a better painter than he is. His son did the fantastic French soldier painted in the image above. His son is now repainting all of his miniatures, much to his chagrin.

The next few images are of a Mad Max demo game.

Also two gladiator demo games.

A Western Game.

Bolt Action demo game in action.

All Quit on the Western Front demo game.

Another Bolt Action game.

A really nice gaming table set up for a skirmish game set in colonial America by the look of it. The game wasn't played whilst I was there. But the terrain set up looked excellent.

A Mantic special, Dreadball.

Another Mantic special game, Warpath.

I could only stay for a few hours, but thank goodness I didn't stay longer. Spent too much as it was whilst I was there anyway.