From ForestP: Can you ever have too many zombies? Three 28mm Zombies [Under Construction] [35pts]

 

One could argue that playing zombie games has become passé. Certainly the heyday of zombie gaming is about 15 years or so in the past. I guess that's why I never got around to painting these three 28mm zombies that I believe I picked up at some HMGS-E convention between 2007-2010. I don't know who manufactured these miniatures, but one is plastic (the thinner one) and two are white metal (one painted as a Gen Z'er, and the other one with shorts). I'm fairly certain that the plastic mini is a Wargames Factory Zombie, but the white metal ones I have no clue. I'm all for ID help here.

I always meant to start on zombie gaming, but for some reason my historical miniature gaming always got in the way, and so these test minis never got painted. Not until now anyway! These were the perfect minis for me to get back into the painting mood, and pop my posting cherry for this year of the AHPC. I got to have a little fun, and I knew that there was no pressure to get uniforms "exactly right." Ultimately, the fun I had in painting these minis got me to pull out the other unpainted zombie and survivor miniatures that I bought on a whim a few years ago from some clearance rack. Now I'm looking at them, and thinking, yeah... lets do some zombie gaming! Hence, my entrance at Under Construction Studios. Do you think zombie movies will make a comeback? I have no clue, but I can give about a 60% chance that zombie gaming will at least make a comeback on my table this year!

3 x 28mm foot @ 5 pts = 15 pts

Under Construction (green pass) bonus = 20 pts

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Total = 35 pts

While this is a modest start, one has to start somewhere right? I will say, it is nice to be back. For those of you who recall, last year I gave great detail on my painting process, including hyperlinking specific paints. I'm going to take a more laissez faire approach this year, and simply have fun posting what I paint.

Forest

It's a modest start, but a good one! I believe that the "rule" for zombie gaming is that you always need more zeds than you actually have, so I think you should go out and buy some more. Then more still. then even more.

Tamsin

From ForestP: Thanks for allowing me to participate in a wonderful Challenge

So with this last post I want to say how thankful I have been to be able to participate in the Challenge this year. Given the stressors of my work I really needed the accountability that this Challenge provided to ensure that I could actually do some self-care. In fact things have been so busy (I have been traveling the past few weeks for both vacation and then work), I haven't even gotten around to this end-of-challenge post until now.

I set myself a modest goal of 500 points, and somehow more than doubled that, ending up with 1177 points, and was even in the top 25! I think next year I will have to up my game. 

Without further ado, there's "The Whole Shebang." Sorry for how small everything looks, but when the Alamo covers nearly my entire game table you can kind of get the full scale of it.

Lastly, here's me, saying "hello" and "thanks." Until next year my friends. Also, I intend to occasionally host Zoom meetings so people can collegially say hello and paint together throughout the year. I will post up notifications on the Challenge facebook group.

Happy painting!

Forest

From ForestP: 6mm Sci-fi Buildings to close out the challenge (50 points)

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I doubled my points estimate, and frankly my painting slowed down as work picked up. I intended this challenge to be a source of self-care for myself, and I believe that it did the job admirably. Well, that and the weeklong vacation my wife and I took to visit her family this past week. We returned just in time from the vacation for me to get this last post up. That was truly some much needed self-care.

I don't know who makes these buildings. I know they are resin, and they are scaled for 6mm (1/300) miniatures, and I believe I bought them a decade or more ago to use with Battletech mechs. If anyone know who made these please post up a message. I actually painted these buildings a couple weeks ago as an exercise to try out my brand new airbrush, a Neo for Iwata. I'm still getting used to the airbrush, so in concentrating on the process I wasn't as diligent as I normally am with regards to noting colors. I did use some of the ColorShift paints from Turbo Dork as you can see.  I'll just let the photos do the talking for me on this last post.

Here's the lot. You can see some primed, but not yet painted buildings in the background.

The color shift paints really look nice here. Notice the purple-to-gold gradient on the left building.

Another shot showing the whole lot.

Ruined version of the gold/bronze-green building.

Interesting little silo buildings.

Housing blocks, I think.

Little squat buildings, maybe for a futuristic strip mall?

For those who are interested, the building dimensions are as follows:

The two large brightly colored buildings are 3.75" x 2.5" x 3.5" 

The destroyed brightly colored building is 3.75" x 2.5" x 3.5" 

The building with the satellite dish is 3.25" x 2.5" x 3.5" 

The two squat (strip mall) buildings are 2" x 2" x 0.5" 

The six housing blocks are 1.25" x 1" x 1.25" 

The four silo buildings are 1.5" x 1.5" x 2" 

I'm just going to estimate my points and whichever minion approves this can give a true points total:

2.5 x 6" cubes @ 20 = 50 points

I look forward to participating next year, and I think I'll shoot for a higher score next time!

Forest

From Millsy:

These are absolutely wonderful Forest! I've no idea who makes them, but I think they are some of the coolest 6mm sci-fi terrain I've seen in long time. I love all the little details you've picked out like the roof hatches, highlights on the windows and the subtle shades you've applied to the concrete. I've never heard of the colour shift paints so I am intrigued to give them a go.

Well done on your Challenge mate, you've shared some amazing work with us. I'll never forget you mind-blowing 15mm Alamo which remains a highlight of this year for me.

From ForestP: 15mm VMI Corps of Cadets at the Battle of New Market [Noel's Comet], (175 points)

Having found myself near Noel's Comet I thought about both the miniatures I had currently, what I wanted to paint, and how friendship intersects it all. One of the defining features of my life is that I grew up in Virginia, and spent a lot of my post-secondary education in the Shenandoah Valley. My wargaming took fruit in this fertile ground that was littered with battle sites, primarily American Civil War. In fact, when I was going to college in Harrisonburg, Virginia at one point I lived in an apartment building that literally was on the grounds of the Battle of Harrisonburg (Gen. Turner Ashby fell there, and that is primarily what that battle is known for). So, with that in mind I settled on needing to paint a unit from the American Civil War. Since this was a formative time in my education I settled on deciding to paint the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets as they fought in the Battle of New Market. I did this for multiple reasons. First off, in terms of friendship these were young men, teenagers, children really, who were called up to battle. Their bond as classmates and fellow soldiers I daresay were strengthened by their friendship with each other, perhaps more so than other units. In fact their commanding officer, LtCol Scott Shipp (who was only a mere 24 years of age himself), was their superintendent and knew these soldiers more as his boys than anything else. They equally loved him and called him "Old Billy" because of his penchant for wearing a goatee. On a more personal note when I was completing some graduate classes my friend and classmate, Salmaan, was a graduate of VMI, and would regale me of his tales as a rat (what they call first years), and of his marching with his class between Lexington and New Market to honor the sacrifice of the 10 cadets killed and the 47 wounded. It was even more interesting to me that Salmaan, at the time he was a cadet, was already a commissioned officer in the Army, having previously served as an enlisted combat medic, and going through officer's candidate school since he'd earned an Associate's degree after high school. He would tell me that he had to hide this fact as a cadet because essentially he outranked all of his classmates. His service is actually one of the things that led me to become an Army Psychologist. So, here we are, in honor of friendship both past and present, and the comradeship of soldiers throughout time immemorial, I give you the VMI Corps of Cadets from the Battle of New Market, including their artillery section, and their commander, LtCol Scott Shipp. 

The miniatures are from the Stone Mountain Miniatures range. The infantry were from the ACW15 range, and I can't actually recall which artillery figures I ordered. For uniform painting references I primarily used Philip Haythornthwaite's Uniforms of the American Civil War (1861-1865) by Blandford Press and Philip R N Katcher and Michsel Youens' The Army of Northern Virginia (Men-At-Arms 37) form Osprey Publishing. The I decided to paint the artillery in the colors that VMI is using for its display cannons now, largely because they just look interesting that way. I used the following sites as references: Site 1, Site 2, Site 3.

As usual I mounted the figures on craft sticks with hot glue, and primed the lot with Design Master Flat Black (725). I did toy with the idea of priming all of the figures in gray, but thought I'd do a better job than that. 

I used Privateer Press Formula P3 Bastion Grey to paint the uniforms before giving a light dry-brush of Vallejo Sky Grey (70.989) to bring out highlights. Every 4th figure was also given a very light dry-brushing of Folk Art Camel (953) to give either a dirtier look, or butternut; take your pick. Guns were picked out with Vallejo Mahogany Brown (70.846), and bayonets and swords were painted with Vallejo Natural Steel (70.864). Skin was painted with Vallejo Basic Skin Tone (70.815) and then hit with some Flesh Wash (73.204). Details were painted in various colors ranging from a 2:1 mix of DecoArt Americana Royal Fuchsia (DA151) and Vallejo Sky Grey (70.989) for the socks/leggings, to a 1:1 Vallejo Flat Earth (70.983) and Ivory (70.918) for straps. Canteens were picked out in Sky Grey, pommels for swords were in Vallejo Bronze (70.988), and hair was a mix of Yellow Ochre (70.913) for blonde, 1:1 Scarlet (70.817) and Bright Orange (70.851) for gingers, and Mahogany Brown (70.846) for brunettes. Hats and boots were touched up with Black (70.950).

For the artillery pieces they were primarily painted in Vallejo Flat Red (70.957) and Black (70.950), with the cannons themselves painted with Bronze (70.988).

The miniatures were based up in three companies, and flocked using BTC Open Flock Mix from Battlefield Terrain Concepts. After basing and flocking I hit the lot with Armory Clear Matte Sealer. There looks to be a bit of frosting, and I may attempt to clean it up later with a light gloss coat, followed by another light matte coat. We shall see.

I really tried with these photos, but the gray against the white background is tough for me. Sorry.

I really think taking these photos in daylight, with a bright day, caused everything to look too dark.

I will say, the detail on these figures are great.

I had some wonderful fabric flags commissioned for them from Maverick Models, but they have not arrived. However, flags for my Grand Duchy of Warsaw figures and for the Alamo have arrived, so here they are in all their glory! I fulfill my promises, damnit!

Flags just make everything nicer.

Now that's an Alamo to fight over.

Anyhow, this is my entry; sorry for the delay, work has been hellish. Not to mention weather and traffic issues. So, as an extra bit I quickly painted up a 28mm traffic cone to honor the delay. The traffic cone is produced by Offensive Miniatures, and I got it from one of their sets from the Rioting Mob and the Law range.

28mm D&D mini for scale

In summation, my points are calculated as follows:

69 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 138 points

4 x 15mm artillery pieces (2 cannon, 2 caissons) @ 4 = 16 points

1 x 28mm scenic piece (traffic cone) @ 1 points

Noel's Comet (Middle Ring) bonus = 20 points

Total = 175  points

With that I believe I have burst through my points goal of 1000. Since I was so lucky to get to my point total, I feel like I should stretch my luck further. Millsy, I want to jump headfirst into the Warp Maelstrom between Noel's Comet and LV426. Tell me where I am going next!!!

Forest

PS - With a little research I realized that I am now the second person to attempt the VMI Corps of Cadets in the history of the challenge. I want to give a shout out to AdamC who painted up his boys back in March 2015.

From DaveD - AKA Millsy North 

Thats a great bit of history Forest and you have done a good job - as you say a bit better light on the photo might have helped - buy hey . Congratulations on reaching your points target Herr Millsy will be pleased. I  reckon you may have a few hundred in you yet. I suggest you pop to Mars! 

From ForestP: 1 Squadron (12 6mm? vehicles) of Imperial Armada of Marduk Spaceships from Hydra Miniatures [LV426] (44 points)

So, after that absolute unit of a terrain piece, The Alamo, I needed to take a little rest from painting. Quite honestly, my painting hand hurt something fierce after that much work, and since I have to write and type as a significant portion of my career, I wanted some time to heal. I seriously feel for those individuals who have to suffer through carpel tunnel syndrome on a daily basis. Now, however, that I am suitably rested it's time to get back in the saddle... or is it cockpit?

Having taken a Warp Maelstrom to Arrakis I found myself compelled to travel the Void Sea to the Alien world of LV426 next. What better way then to be escorted by a squadron of the finest Imperial Armada of Marduk Class 1 and Class 2 spaceships from Hydra Miniatures? I've had two squadrons of miniatures for Hydra Miniatures War Rocket Retro Sci-fi Space Combat wargame a little over a decade now. I half-way painted the Zenethian squadron all the way back in May, 2010 (proof), and I decided to finish them up prior to doing the Imperial ships. I'm obviously not counting these for the Challenge, but I figure you'd enjoy seeing how they look.

In case you are wondering I used Windsor & Newton Brilliant Green ink to do that translucent green.

Now, with that out of the way, onto the matter at hand. I decided that I really wanted to use some of the Turbo Dork Color Shift and Metallic paints that I bought last summer on these miniatures, so as per instructions from Turbo Dork I primed the ships in Krylon ColorMaxx Gloss Black (5505). 

The lore of the Imperial Armada of Marduk indicated that the paint scheme of most of their ships are liveried in the standard Imperial colors of red with gold and black accents. Well, I don't want to do that, so nyah. Evidently "His Imperial Majesty Marduk permits alternate color schemes for veteran commanders as long as they still include red, black, and gold." I considered that, but no, I want more flexibility. A-ha! "More latitude in color schemes is allowed for the vassal planets of the Imperium." Yes, that'll do quite nicely. I decided to make this squadron the 1979th Nightcallers of Kavinsky (listen to the unit's march here). May you enjoy them in all their synthwave/80's pastel glory. 

Working from a lighter-to-darker framework I started by painted each ship in Pearly Gates. The ColorShift and Metallic paints by Turbo Dork all require multiple coats to get the full effect. As you can see by image below, three coats of the Pearly Gates does give an amazing metallic look to the miniatures. Dare I say it, this paint is my favorite silver-chrome paint to date.

I love how this metallic paint looks!

The bulk of the ships were painted with Turbo Dork Bubblegum Crisis. As you can see from this little video the paint goes between bubblegum pink to a gold color. It's a little hard to see in the video, but trust me, it's there!

The color shift doesn't show up well in photos or video, but it looks great in person.

Moving forward I picked out details and accents using Bubblegum Crisis, Crystal Cavern, Purl Grey,  Sakura, and Shell Shocked, as well as Vallejo Deep Sky Blue (70.844), Deco Art Americana Pistachio Mint (DA253), Deco Art Americana Electric Pink (DA231), and Deco Art Americana Royal Fuchsia (DA151). Windows were picked out with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue (703899) and given a highlight pop of Vallejo Deep Sky Blue (70.844). Weapon ports on the Class 2 ships (the bigger ones) were picked out in Craft Smart Neon Green (23669). Finally, exhaust ports on all ships were dry-brushed with Vallejo Flat Red (70.957) followed by Vallejo Deep Yellow (70.915). I finished off the miniatures by sealing with Hobby Lobby Clear Acrylic Coating Gloss Spray (706945).

The whole squadron

Now, who wouldn't be terrified of these? :-)

Close-up of the Class 1 fighters.

The three Class 2 ships.

Close-up of the Class 2. I love the retro futuristic look of these miniatures!

Anyhow, this is my entry for the week. I wasn't super happy with the Color Shift paints from Turbo Dork, but that may be because I'm just not comfortable with putting them on. Also, from what I've seen online they are better served being airbrushed rather than with a traditional brush. I really like Turbo Dork's Metallics though! In summation, my points are calculated as follows:

12 x 6mm vehicles @ 2 = 24 points

LV426 (Middle Ring) bonus = 20 points

Total = 44 points

Not as much as last time, but a decent showing nonetheless. I'm definitely not as good painting sci-fi as I am historical figures. I think I prefer painting with a guide as my imagination just runs too wild otherwise. Until next time!!!

From Millsy:

Certainly not as big or involved as The Alamo but a great post nonetheless Forest!

These ships have a groovy Flash Gordon feel to them and your vibrant colour scheme really takes them to the next level. I particularly like the go fast style of the Class 2 ships and you've really managed to pick out the detail for such a small scale. Nice choice for LV426 too.

Top work mate and here's hoping we see more of this stuff before the Challenge finishes up.

Cheers,

Millsy

From ForestP: 15mm Alamo (yes, the whole thing) [Arrakis] (480 points)

So, after my last post I decided to dive headfirst into a Warp Maelstrom and humbly asked Millsy to give me a challenge. He sent me to Arrakis... the desert world, vast and deadly. In the immortal words of Frank Herbert, "You never talk of likelihoods on Arrakis, you only speak of possibilities." So, of course I needed to do something to match this sandy and lofty challenge, but what? 

"Remember the Alamo."

Oh yeah, I have one of those! Purchased nearly a year ago from Old Glory Miniatures and languishing on my "to do" shelf.

It's... a lot.

Why languishing you say? Well, the whole thing, when put together is 40" x 58" (see below). Even when piled up, and not laid out in it's proper configuration, it fills a 44" x 18" shelf. Most of the buildings and walls are 2.5" tall, but the largest piece, the Church is 3.75" tall. Doing some math the whole thing in component parts would fit in 22 6" cubes... 

In all it's glory.

I started out laying it out as you see above, just to see what I am getting myself into. Next I used a Dremel to grind out windows and doors/entrances that should be open, and made some minor repairs to cracked pieces.

This is going to be fun to paint.

You know, one good thing about the pandemic is that I now have plenty of disposable masks laying around that I can use when grinding resin. Nasty stuff, but oddly enough has a rather sweet, almost apple-like smell when grinding. How odd. Once I was satisfied with opening up the windows, doors, and other entrances that I wanted I gave everything a quick bath to clean up resin dust and mold release agents. No pictures here; too wet.

The next couple nights, and a few early mornings before work, I ended up priming ever piece in Krylon Colormaxx Paint+Primer Matte Sand Dollar (5600). I went through an entire can of primer, plus part of another before I was finished with the job. There are a few spots that only got a light coat, but I figure they will look just fine once I started with the dry-brushing.

The whole jobber primed up. What a beast!!!

Since I had much of Thursday devoted to, yet again, another online training where I primarily just had to listen, I decided to go ahead and start on the dry-brushing. I am using both George Nelson's "The Alamo: An Illustrated History", as well as my own photographs from visiting the Alamo multiple times during my many TDY's to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio.

The first step was tackling the church interior, going from the lightest-to-darkest. The interior walls were slathered on with Folk Art Vintage White (4646), and the areas of rubble also got a light dry-brush coat of the same color. The wooden ramp was painted/dry-brushed with Apple Barrel Brown Oxide (20511), and more of the same color was lightly brushed onto the rubble to provide more depth and variety. The exterior brick was all dry-brushed with Folk Art Linen (879). The marble columns and sculpture at the front of the church were also brushed in the same Folk Art Vintage White as above. I finished up the rubble with a very light dry brush mix of 2:1 Folk Art Vintage White and Pure Black (2957CA/4656). The last bits were dry-brushing the wooden door with the Apple Barrel Brown Oxide, and highlighting over that with a bit of the Folk Art Linen mixed 1:1 with the Vintage White, painting the bricked over windows with Vintage White, and finally the sand bags with a 1:1 mix of Folk Art Linen and Vintage White (then hitting them with the lightest dry brush of 1:1 Folk Art Vintage White to make them pop).

That looks like it was properly weathered in the desert if I don't say so myself.

Great detail, even on the interior of the model.

This piece me a whole night to paint, it's so large.

Saturday was the main day for painting for me. After fortifying myself with coffee I decided to simply work around the Alamo and just knock out as much as I could. Wooden parts, like the artillery battery positions were dry-brushed with more Apple Barrel Brown Oxide, then given a light wash of Vallejo Sepia Shade (73.200) before being highlighted with a 2:1 mix of Brown Oxide and Folk Art Camel (953). Areas of exterior brick were still dry-brushed with Folk Art Linen, with plaster being painted with a 1:1 of Linen and Vintage White. Thatched roofs were brushed with Folk Art Camel, and given a Sepia Shade wash to give depth, and then a Linen highlight. Areas of rubble were dry-brushed with a mix of any of the aforementioned colors, or mixes thereof, to give depth and an interesting visual look to each.

Here are a few simpler pieces to give you an idea of detail.

Interior view of the kitchens. Man, these models really have great detail.

Main gate with the roof on.

The Trevino House.

And here is the entire thing in al its glory! Took me about a week and a couple days of working every night, plus all day on an entire weekend to knock it out. I think I'm done with terrain/scenics for a while...

View from the South.

View from the West.

View from the North. Note, the model comes with the northeast corner before it was breached.

View from the East.

The entire piece did come with two small scenic pieces in metal/wood, the well, and the rubble and flagpole. 

Well with 15mm figures to give a scale reference.

Same with the flagpole.

I love the fact that one of the details were the outside latrines!

Soldiers got to poop!

This is a great model. My only gripe is the some of the buildings don't quite like up like the should. If you see in the above overall images the long barracks don't quite line up all the way. It's fixable with how I've laid things out, but still annoying. Other than that, a great bit of kit.

In summation, my points estimation is as follows:

22 x 6" cubes @ 20 = 440 points

Arrakis (Middle Ring via Warp Maelstrom) = 30 points

From Millsy: Monster crafting bonus: 10 points

Total = 480 points

Until next time, folks. Where I'll be painting something... smaller. 

Forest

From Millsy:

I'm kind of lost for superlatives here to be honest Forest. When you told me what you were up to I knew it was going to be worth waiting for, but even then I wasn't prepared for what you've delivered. This is something else mate. This would have to be right up there with one of the largest terrain submissions we've ever had.

Never mind the size of the thing, the level of care and attention to detail you've thrown on top is wonderful. The stonework on the church, the weathering on the walls and thatch, even just the consistency of the finish across such a big piece is brilliant. It would be a privilege to game on a table graced by your Alamo and no mistake.

Cracking effort Forest. Worth absolutely every minute you invested. BOOM! 480 points!