End of the Month, and Moar Xombeez

Since my last post I've been quite busy hacking minis apart, drilling holes, and putting in pins. Every last join on these minis, save those that already had tabs, has a pin in it. I've gone through many a paper clip in this endeavor, and I must say that most of the minis are looking pretty slick at this point. I'll post some closeups once I get some paint on these fellas, but for now you'll have to live with the WIP shot to the right. What's really nifty about this conversion kit is that the zombie and ghoul torsos fit right into the top of the Enforcer legs, making for some excellent kitbash opportunities. Of course the Marines, being at first single-piece leg/torso combination parts needed a bit of sawing, clipping, and filing (as well as a fair bit of gap filling) but all-in-all this project has been a blast! I'm the sort of fellow who loves hacking minis apart and putting them back together in new and strange configurations, as will be shown by this project. Plus, zombies.

The process of sawing minis apart for conversion is not easy, and would be impossible without my trusty jeweler's saw. The accuracy of cuts it produces is amazing, and once complete the resultant product requires little cleanup. Then pinning, gluing, and gap filling, and voila! A new Zombie Marine. The challenge of bringing two unrelated minis not intended to go together into a coherent whole is a great time, and to those so inclined I would suggest this kit highly. Yes, there is quite a bit of "restic" involved, but it's not as horrible to work with as I had been led to believe.

I've put quite a dent into the project, finishing Mortis (gaps, basing, and all), 25 Enforcers (with four rocket launchers taken from left over Dust "Bot Hunters") 3 snipers (whom I regret not showing the process of converting their rifles), 2 Marine officers (made from regular minis plus random oddbits I had lying around) and ten Marines.

What has started to irk me is that I still have not heard or received anything from Mantic as far as the missing Marine minis are concerned, and I really don't want to have to shoot off an angry email to get the items I paid for. I have heard that Mantic has pretty good customer service, but regrettably I have yet to see it.

Primer was applied yesterday, as well as some of the paint on the first batch of zombie Enforcers. I'll have pictures of the first completed squad up soon.

Zombees!!!

Yep, my order from Mantic arrived, and now it's time to get crackin'. I first opened the box and found a bunch of loose frames. Ghouls and zombies to fuel my conversion fever, and a good many of them too.

I was of course thrilled at this, as I have been waiting for a couple of weeks to get my hands on these bits. The ghoul sprues (the little ones on the right) are old hat to me, consisting of parts I have seen before when Mantic sent out promotional minis to those who asked. I got one, slapped the fellows together, and promptly lost them.

What interested me much more were the zombies (center). I gleefully looked at the frames, checking out all the different pieces- especially the heads as I have been spending my time looking around the internet at unboxing articles, and both the Enforcers as well as the Marines come with their heads separate. Because of this I wanted to figure out how to put the minis together as best I could. I determined that the best route to go would be to drill holes in the arms and neck, insert some wire, glue the extremities to the pins, and use green stuff to fill any resulting gaps. The heads in particular would be challenging as the zombie and ghoul heads attach entirely differently than the Warpath minis. On the Kings of War stuff the neck is attached to the torso, whereas on the Warpath items the neck is attached to the head. I'll show pictures of this in my next post on this subject.

Next I pulled out the bases (above image on the left) and eyeballed them. Interesting enough they were, but not the focus of my attention.

Mortis was the next out of the box. I took him out of the baggie he came in and began counting and dry-fitting parts. It was immediately apparent that he was just covered in mold release agent, as he was slick to the touch. I tossed him into a screen colander I have just for washing minis and stuck my hand back into the packing peanuts. One, two, three, four, five baggies of Enforcers, all with five minis inside. Twenty five, exactly as expected.

It was then that I stuck my hand back in the box. I didn't feel a single thing. NOTHING. I flipped the box over, spilling styrofoam all over my floor. No sign of any more minis. I began rooting around, and found two baggies underneath one of the flaps. Two baggies seemed a touch ambitious to fit 70 minis into. Very ambitious. I ripped open the baggies and... Sure enough, only twenty Marine miniatures.

That seemed a bit off. The website claims (as above) that there are 70 zombie Marines to be made. Twenty Marines' worth of parts is a bit much to want to spread across 70 models.

I have an inquiry in with Mantic, as I'm pretty sure that this is just some shipping error on the part of a picker, or at least I hope so.

As you can see I have pulled out my converting tools and gotten ready to go to town on some minis. As I'm a pretty experienced kitbasher I should have no problem getting there minis to look fairly slick. Keep an eye on this space for some pictures.

The Deafening Sound Of Silence

Annoyed Etna is annoyed.

Yep, I've been a bad blogger. I have not been posting any updates. Honestly, the reason for this is simple:

I have not done anything of note wargaming related since my last update. Nothing. Sure there have been the occasional X-Wing skirmishes with Demitra (who has also fallen off of the face of the earth in terms of blogging), and we tried out the new Dust Battlefield rules (which are awful), but no real progress. I guess I've hit a spell of the "gaming doldrums", which every gamer has a run-in with from time to time, and that's ground my progress to a halt. I can't paint Malifaux right now (I promised my wife I'd paint with her), and I've pretty much hit the wall in terms of Super Dungeon Explore.

All is not lost though! A week ago I placed an order for Mantic's "Zombie Apokalypse" deal. Normally it's 96 minis for $99, but after the US got eliminated from the World Cup Mantic ran a 25% off sale, and 96 mans for $75 was just too good a deal to pass up. Now the minis are winging their way over from Jolly Old England, and they should be waiting for me in a week or two.

 I ordered this army for two reasons. First, the above deal reasoning, but secondly because this army is a conversion project from A to Z. Lots of chopping up bits and building up minis- kitbashing galore!

I have been chatting with Demitra, and as he wants nothing to do with 40k at this time, I've been trying to convince him to play a game of Warpath (Mantic's answer to 40k) with me. Once my Corporation zombie horde is completed I hope to convince him to try the ruleset out using his Orks as Orx.

My army list is long, and does not belong in this post, but the list of minis I'll be making go here just fine. First there is of course Mortis, who I won't mess with at all. Next the Marines. Sixty, with one Energy Gauntlet and one Tactical Flame Unit for every ten. I will be giving them two of the actual TFUs and then two each of the various other weapons supplied on the special weapons frame. My other four troopers will have the other two weapons supplied on the frame. My Enforcers will consist of two Strike teams with a TFU each, and three suppression teams. Two will be armed with a pair of rocket launchers, and one team will have four burst lasers. For those who don't know, four Burst Lasers cranks out twenty shots per turn! Finally I will be making two Marine officers and three snipers. It has been pointed out to me that zombie snipers "don't make sense", but wait until they're done. They'll be a mass of wires and scopes, making them more than adequate at range.

I'll be left with five marines, and I'm really not sure what I'll do with them, so they'll be bits box fodder for the time being. I also have some ideas as to some "counts as" models (a Panzer IV D as a close assault gun toting battle tank, some Ogres converted into big hulking zombies with tiny little heads for Striders, etc.) so this should work as hobby fodder for the time being.

I promise I'll do an unboxing when they arrive, so bear with me for another week or two. Until then, I'll try to find worthwhile content, but I'm not going to muck up this blog with nonsensical ramblings if I can at all help it.

TTFN!

More Malifaux Minis Manifest

Misaki's completion marks the end of me painting up my masters for the Ten Thunders- at least until I pick up Mei Feng and her constructs. Ototo was every bit the pain to paint that he was to assemble. I am finished now though, and that eases my pain- at least until it's varnish time. Yep, still no varnish as the last day I was able to seize was used to protect my now finished Greys (continues to pat self on back).

The next minis in my painting queue were the Torikage. Since they're basically ninjas I decided to forgo the green on all my other minis so that they wouldn't stand out too much. I know, the purple is pushing it, but look around this blog. It's my favorite color, so it made the cut. Yeah, the masks are gold too, but hey, they look cool so in the color went.

Last up (and only because this is the order I painted everything in) come the Thunder Archers. Those little arrows are still super fiddly, so a lot of care was taken painting them up. You may notice that the green on them is not as vivid as on the other minis that sport it. That's an oopsie. I forgot that I had been doing one further highlight with the base green and I washed them. I'll consider redoing the green bits, but now that they're "done" I'm ready to charge on to the Oiran.

...Or maybe the Ronin...

I think I'll paint them differently than the crew "proper" as the base will tie them together. Now to come up with a color scheme.

Almost Forgotten, But Not Quite

Yeah, I know- a picture of a tablet.

Woohoo.....

It's what's on the tablet that counts. Yep, I've upgraded. Since my FNSLGS (Friendly Not So Local Game Store) now has a 40k night, and since I have a freshly painted "Not Tau" army, I figure I need to get out and get my game on. In order to do that I will of course need the current rule set- 7th edition, so I broke down and dropped the $60 to get a digital copy of the rules. After finding that the Google book app doesn't read books not stored on the Google cloud, and the storage system won't accept a file larger than 100mb (the book is 130), I had to root around and find an app to read directly off the device. I downloaded a free one, and since Avast didn't go nuts after scanning it, I started my reading.

First up, the file itself. The thing should have been broken down into three files- three books just like the hardcover. Then I could have put it up on Google, and skip the first book which is a flagrant catalog and advertisement for the company. Look, guys- I just bought your book, obviously I'm interested in your toys. Well, except for my Greys... I also don't need the background of the game. I've been playing for 20 years. I think I know it by now. All I bought the book for was the rules, which start 259 pages in. I am honestly baffled as to who thought that this was a good idea.. *Sigh* Oh, GW...

To the rules themselves. Well, as you've probably read elsewhere the system is 6th edition with some tweaks- the Psychic Phase, new missions, slightly different special rules. I've read a lot of whining that this is a rip-off, but let's look back here. There has been no, and I mean NO serious rules overhaul since 3rd edition. Every edition past that has been building on and re-tweaking Andy Chambers' rules. No exception. I can and will side with those who say that this edition was released far too quickly after the last. Two years does not the lifespan of an edition of a game make.

Gameplay. Well, nobody in either of my home gaming groups is willing to get into this edition of the game, so I'll have to reserve judgement here. Hopefully in a couple of weeks (when my schedule clears up) I'll be able to go into this aspect. If you were to push me I'd say that my first-glance impression of the game is that it'll be tighter and brighter for your gaming pleasure.

So, what I'm saying is, despite the disdain toward "Unbound" armies I expressed on Three Geeks to the Wind (a statement I stand by), I hold out hope here. Now let's see how it functions once the rubber meets the road.