From PeterA: 28mm Cartel & Zombies! (165 points)

 Hello all! Although I haven't posted for a couple of weeks I have been pottering away on a few things (and enjoying the Six Nations) and have got some finished for today.

First up are 9 Cartel figures - they are 3D prints from Black Hills Games and Turnbase Miniatures. Last year I came across a modern skirmish solo game called Haywire. The author has a YT channel full of excellent videos showing off the game and his incredible terrain. One of the settings for the game is special forces taking on cartels (think Sicario 2 or Triple Frontier). Suitably inspired I ordered a bunch of 3d stl files and these are the first to be done.

The woman in the yellow shirt and the kneeling sniper are Turnbase figures, the remainder are all from Black Hills Games. The latter are a bit heftier than the former but not so much as to be unworkable together IMO, as the next photo shows I think. The figure all in black is mostly painted in GW Contrast paint over a grey undercoat. The others are painted using standard acrylic paints - I used Army Painter Fanatic colours on the woman as they are quite saturated and bright, and this contrasted nicely with the more subdued AK 3G and Vallejo colours used on the figures with assault rifles. A couple have red bandannas in Army Painter Pure Red for a bit of visual interest/contrast and as a cartel 'colour'.

The three with assault rifles and body armour are, not surprisingly, more lethal than the more lightly armed foot soldiers. The woman will count as a Sicario - a nasty assassin-type in Haywire.

Here we have two figures equipped with SMGs and two with pistols - these guys tend to die quickly in Haywire  but you do get a lot of them!

They are mostly painted in Army Painter Speedpaints, although the trousers/shorts of two are painted in AK 3G sand and green-grey acrylics. I experimented doing the flesh in Army Painter Warrior Skin speedpaint over a grey undercoat given a heavy white drybrush. I don't think it looks as good as my usual method using normal Vallejo Flesh acrylics, but it is a lot quicker! Good enough for the table and from 3 feet I reckon.

Finally, we have a Turnbase cartel sniper - here you can see the difference between the skin done with speedpaints and my usual method of highlighting over a darker skin tone.

As well as the modern ruleset, there is also a zombie game called Haywire Outbreak, which uses many of the same mechanics (and like Haywire, is available to download for free).  This prompted me to dig out an old box of Zombiecide zombies I've had for years and done nothing with. All were painted using GW Contrast or Army Painter speedpaints - getting them done quickly was the aim as these will only be used for the occasional fun game. They then had a generous amount of GW blood effect paint stippled on.

First are three 'bloaters', which can be made to blow up, taking other zombies/unfortunate survivors with them.

Then we have six 'runners'. Faster than the usual shuffling undead, meaning they can get into close combat more easily, so need to be kept at arms length for as long as possible!

The rest of the herd is made up of 15 'normal' zombies. Individually not too dangerous but far more so once they start gathering in numbers!

A couple of group shots to finish.

So that's 33x 28mm figures for 165 points.

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SylvainR for DaveD: Tough looking thugs and rotting zombies. What is there not to love? Your brushwork really highlights the decaying look of the foul undeads while your choice of figurines for the cartel employees and the way you paint their clothes oozes "attitude" and criminal confidence. A very productive week for you!