Zombtober 2014 - Week 2

Fashionably late, or just too darn stubborn to change the date of my posting? Regardless of which category this post falls into here's my Week 2 update for Zombtober.

Just the base-colours on the two re-based Zombicide models at this stage and one or two colours on the other two (not pictured).

Base colours on two re-based Zombicide Walkers

It's been great to get back to some simple individual miniatures and photographing them against the terrain I made is reminding me how much fun I had just pulling the whole project together.

Working on these and seeing everyone's efforts is inspiring me to return to Outbreak City and get a few more games of my All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out campaign played.

Dust Tactics: Axis Zombies - Blutkruez Korps Undertoten Squad

Whilst I rather enjoy the alternate timeline diesel-punk retro sci-fi theme of Dust Tactics there's one additional element that I REALLY like. The Zombies!

Let's face it, no Weird World War 2 universe would be complete without Nazi Zombies... come to think of it, no universe is complete without Zombies!

The Axis Zombies: Blutkruez Korps Undertoten Squad are an experimental unit, created with the use of the Wieberbeleben Serum in an attempt to create Axis super-soldier. Axis Zombies are fast, difficult to kill and pack a heavy punch, in the form of their panzer gloves, that can damage even the heaviest armour.

They were a pretty quick and simple unit to paint. Skin tone was old GW rotting flesh with diluted dark brown and purple washes and the panzer gloves were simply weathered the same as I would a rusty tank. The sun came out just as I took this shot, so I think they look shinier than they really are. As usual, figures to be re-based, hence the unfinished base.

Music for Zombie Gaming - Part 4

Zombies were human once... they just went and got a little bit bitten by another zombie.

For the most part my zombie gaming playlist is pretty serious, full of dark, brooding soundtracks and ambient incidental music. If I was playing a 'serious' tabletop rpg, I'd keep this out of the list, otherwise, it's all good.

So without further ado, we present 'In the heart of every zombie is a man', by Chris Pickenpaugh.

Incursion: 3D Playset - Part 1

Not much to report on this recently, as I'd mostly been doing stuff related to the 7th Annual Festival of Zombie Culture.

Incursion 3D Play-set

However, here's an update on the Incursion 3D play-set.

I decided to go for a battened board on MDF, the same as nearly all my other gaming tables, because it is a technique I am familiar with an it should suit the scale and format.

Board 1 - Stage 1

This is simply the first board marked out on battened MDF. Early days, but it's a start.

A Belated Thank You To Another Blogger - Colin

This was a post I meant to write and post about two years ago.

Back in August 2011 I'd decided to put on an All Things Zombie display game at the Norwich Wargames Show - Eastern Front.

After seeing my post, fellow blogger Colin, of Down Among the Lead Men fame, offered to come along and help.

We'd never met before and literally shared just a few emails and Colin travelled quite some distance and added his substantial zombie horde to mine and brought some survivors too. It was a good job he did as I had less than 60 zombies at the time, and as we were playing on a 6' by 4', using vehicles and being quite casual with our weapons fire, there were quite a few zombies being created each turn.

The games were great fun and after a few hours of demo play a few passers by asked if they could join in. So the display game turned rather quickly into a participation game, with two guys enjoying themselves so much they came back to play a second scenario.

Heroquest skeleton Feasting Counter Thank you Colin.

Colin very kindly gave me three zombie feasting counters by way of thanks, we used them in the game and I have to say they're a perfect way to count down the turns in ATZ. The fact they are the skeletons from Heroquest is also pretty awesome too.

Thank you Colin.

Music for Zombie Gaming - Part 3

There seems to me to be, for the most part, three typical styles of music when it comes to zombie movies or games in recent years.

Techno/Industrial, Rock/Metal and creepy sinister and often discordant orchestral

He's something from the first category from two rather clever chaps... Tomandandy that finds a firm place in my zombie gaming playlist.

I wasn't so exactly sold on Resident Evil when it I first encountered it, it was the sci-fi element that kinda put me off.

It's certainly not that I don't like sci-fi, I love it, I just prefer my zombies in the more classic sense, even if I don't mind the running 'infected'.

Now... the whole franchise has really grown on me and despite the purist roots, for me the likes of Resident Evil, Left4Dead and Zombicide have created a firm place for 'mutant' undead.

Here's a track from Resident Evil: Afterlife



We got a Mighty Convoy!

We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there.

I'd been looking for an articulated lorry to use on my All Things Zombie games and found a few that would fit the bill, the trouble is, the only ones I found were about £50 each, and whilst I'm not adverse to spending a bit of money on my games, that's a little too much for just one model that'll only use every now and then.

Thankfully, a chance visit to a local Entertainer store to buy some cars for my son, allowed me to find this. Although the model wasn't marked scale-wise and I'm sure that is isn't 1:43 (like the majority of the model cars I use) it seems to fit pretty well.

Best thing... it was £8.00, bargain!

It'll certainly count a location all by itself as there's bound to be either useful supplies or zombies in the back!

More All Things Zombie Survivors

At The Norwich Wargame Show 'Eastern Front' I managed to pick up some 28mm miniatures for £1 each, that's right £1 each!

The offering was pretty broad and everything was pre-based (hence the rather 'rounded' bases (I prefer to keep mine as flat as possible) and was mostly sci-fi or modern from a variety of manufacturers with a few gems hidden amongst a great deal of considerably 'meh' stuff. Thankfully there was plenty of miniatures suitable for my All Things Zombie campaign.

I can honestly say I don't actually know specifically which manufacturers these are, so if anyone does know, feel free to let us know.

Female Survivor with handgun

Street punk with handgun

Female gang member with sawn-off shotgun

The bottom figure actually had a flat base. So as an experiment, the detail of the paving is actually just painted directly onto the flat base.

I think they'll make pretty good survivors or Enemy forces for my All Things Zombie games.

Billy! Get to da Chappa!!!

Ever since I started Zombie gaming I've always wanted to include an obligatory 'Get to da chappa!' scenario in one of my All Things Zombie games.

Trouble is, despite my best efforts, I never really found a decent enough looking helicopter for the right price.

Thankfully I finally managed I pick up this bad boy about 6 months ago.

28mm Model for scale

1/43 scale Fast Lane Agusta A109 fully licensed Die Cast Helicopter.

It was £14.99 from ToysRUs, and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks on the table top and it is likely to feature in my next big game.

Outbreak City: How to Build a 28mm Zombie Gaming Table - Part 4

With the show looming and with TONS of work still to do I kinda knew I had to knuckle down and get the 'texturing' stage finished. You can play All Things Zombie on any surface really, but once I had the vision in my head, I just had to make it a reality.

I was working away from home during the week whilst this project progressed, and I wanted to get this to a 'ready-to-paint' stage before going  away again on the Sunday night.

Rather than lock myself away in the man-cave, and miss out on my family, I commandeered the living room on Saturday morning and set about moving things forward whilst the family caused even more chaos all around me.

The texturing progressed.

Whilst I was 100% behind this method, I couldn't help wonder what had really let myself into.

Cutting out squares of card for something small is one thing, anyone who has scratch built a slate roof knows that by the time you hit the second half the novelty diminishes, but this, as simple as it was in principle, was something else.

Perhaps I had over-estimated the time it was going to take... maybe... perhaps... erm... yeah... I did. A lot.

Minutes rolled into hours and daylight vanished. By the time everyone was tucked up into bed I put a little backgorund inspiration on.

Resident Evil flowed into Night of the Living Dead and as the credits rolled on Dawn of the Dead a little face appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Were they being chased by monsters Daddy?" Whoops, error.

My daughter was a awake and quite possibly scarred for life. It was around half three in the morning and I still had loads to do if I wanted to get a sealing coat of paint into the boards. I should be taking her up to bed again and settling her down.

"Can I help Daddy?"

I need all the help I can get, and my daughter; a hobbyist? Epic.

"Yes please." I confessed.

My other half woke up a few minutes later. For some inexplicable reason, none of us could sleep, so, perhaps in sympathy, an army of cardboard engineers marched onwards.

Cardboard Engineer Reinforcements - 3.30 am. Thank you guys - I love you.

Not only was the help appreciated but with three people sticking the tiles down, things progressed ever more rapidly. We finished the boards by the time the sun came up and thankfully, we all hit the sack, exhausted.

One of three 2' by 4'  sections.

On an easy Sunday filled with lots of sitting down quietly, pancakes and copious amounts of strong coffee I headed to the garage and sealed the edges of the boards and the sidewalks.

Sealing the main detail on the board, and the sides of the battens, with MDF Primer.

So far so good. Perhaps more of a 'How NOT to' guide for this stage, but after a close call the project was back on track again.

To be continued...

All Things Zombie

"Tidy your Man-Cave"

Do you ever get that feeling that you need a clear out?

After a massive amount of recent hobby time spread across several different projects at once the mess on the workbench finally got the better of me.

Spot the Project - If you dare?

With the second half of an unfinished a match of Blood Bowl and a try-out of Dust Tactics planned for yesterday and another Blood Bowl match, 1st try at Malifaux and another Dust tactics planed for next weekend I finally had a clear out of the man-cave and now I can actually see the gaming table.

Blood Bowl was great, despite a 2-0 defeat and Dust Tactics' fast-paced and uncomplicated gameplay sits perfectly with me, and... there's zombies in it!

Whilst The Lead Will Walk The Earth is a zombie gaming blog, and I mostly play All Things Zombie, if you fancy seeing anything else I'll happily post some choice zombie 'Diversions' if there's interest.

The sun is coming out; time to kiss SADS goodbye and start undercoating outside again.

Happy Hobby Days.

28mm Umbrella Corporation SUVs

Back long ago in the summer of 2011, Matt over at Too Much Unpainted Lead dropped me an email to say. "I saw what looked like a 28mm scale Hummer in Poundland the other day, they'd need a re-paint but they looked pretty good in your All Things Zombie games. Do you want me to pick you one up?"

Umbrella Corporation - Our Business is Life Itself.

"Three please." I replied and he duly emailed to report he'd purchased them up and he'd bring them over next time we got together.

Military Affairs? The General's Daughter in 28mm?

Weeks, then months, went by when every time we met I was greeted with "Damn.", then "Shit!", then "Bugger!" and finally "Bloody-fecking-arse-monkeys!" or something to that effect.

Just before New Year we played a French Indian War skirmish in 54mm and at last, Father Mattmass delivered three shiny new Hummers.

When you buy it and paint it right away it doesn't count. So I cracked right on with them right away.

From the outset I had the idea of 'company' vehicles, something to go with my Hazmat Squad and to fit with some planned military types. So a subtle but blatant use of the Umbrella Corporation logo seemed appropriate.

I unscrewed the chassis, took out the windows and seats, and simply re-painted with matt acrylic spray-paint, using plastic primer on the interior piece. I wasn't expecting any wear on the interior, but you never know about the paint sticking to that kind of plastic.

I gave the body of the Hummers a coat of satin varnish and printed re-scaled liveries and fixed them to the doors with Pritt Stick.

I am really pleased with how they turned out, especially considering the price and ease of conversion, as they took less than 2 hours over two evenings to complete.

Umbrella Corporation Cavalry?

Thank you Matt.

Outbeak City: How to Build a 28mm Zombie Gaming Table - Part 3

Part 3 of the construction of my All Things Zombie Gaming Table.

Start at the beginning to read the whole article.

With the raised sidewalks fixed onto the battened boards is was time to go about detailing the board.

The whole philisophy behind this gaming table was detail. The idea was that every inch of the table was treated like an individual figure base, so I felt it was important to avoid shortcuts wherever possible and 'do it for real'. With that in mind I went about cutting out individual paving stones and curbs to ensure the sidewalks would take dry-brushing and ink washes.

"It's Begun!" It was about now I realised how much time this might actually take. 

The curbstones were cut 2/8'' wide and 1'' long. On the corners I switched to 1/2 '' lengths to aid with the curve.

I painted about 10-12'' of PVA at a time as I lay the tiles.

You can just about see the cuts made in the underside of the sidewalk pieces to help define the drainage. I was working away from home for a couple of months whilst I was doing this, so most of the build was done when I came home at weekends but I was able to cut out the tiles during weeknights.

Undercuts, to represent storm drains.

The sidewalks themselves consist of three rows of 6/8'' by 4.5/8''.

Like most gamers, I am a hoarder or all things that 'might be useful one day' so I had a fair amount of card sitting ready to be used. However, to ensure that there was some 'real-world' variation in the paving, to represent replaced slabs, ground heave or gentle localised subsidence, I wanted variation.

For the most part the curbstones were cereal packets and the paving was mostly the type of card that comes in a box of 5 reams of A4 paper (one at the top, one at the bottom) with of different thicknesses card randomly mixed in.

Drain cover, added with checker-plate plasti-card.

On the corners I simply alternated long and short edges to follow the line into the curve and trimmed the edges of the tiles as I went. That gave me a flat edge to work from again.

The tiles were all laid in a basic bricklaying 'running bond' style, offset by half a tile. I deliberately left a small gap between every tile, so that they were not laid exactly flush and a coat of textured paint wouldn't obscure the edges of the tiles.

I added a few random 'broken' slabs, by simply cutting them in half of in thirds at appropriate looking angles.



Finished curb and sidewalk.

To be continued...

All Things Zombie

Outbreak City - How to Build a 28mm Zombie Gaming Table - Part 2

Missed part 1 of this article?

Part 2 of the construction of my All Things Zombie Outbreak City gaming table.

Once I had three identical 2' by 4' battened boards. I lay them side by side and marked the roads and sidewalks.

Measure twice. Draw once. Check, correct and re-draw.

To accommodate tollerances (and my shoddy woodworking) I swapped the boards around as I went, to check that they lined up on every side.

A note on road sizes. I opted for a four inch (10.2 cm) road width, the same approximate size as World Works Games roads, as it strikes a good balance between aesthetics and playability when trying to retain a city-block feel to the table.

Once I was comfortable the measurements I cut to size the second layer sections in 3mm MDF. Being above the level of the roads, this level would represent the sidewalks and hard-standing of the city.

Note: No round corners yets.

I laid out all the sections to check everything was going to fit ok and once I was sure it was within acceptable limits, I cut curves of the top layer into the corners with a jigsaw.

This was also the stage I added a few dropped curbs and cut small notches in the underside of the top layer to represent storm drains. In retrospect, to go the extra mile, I would have cut the storm drains a little deeper and routed small holes in corresponding locations in the sides roads to match.

Finally I fixed the curbs to the base-boards with PVA and, after leaving it to dry for a few days, marked two inch sidewalks onto these sections.

To be continued...

All Things Zombie

Outbreak City - How to Build a 28mm Zombie Gaming Table - Part 1

So, I'd agreed to run a display game at the Eastern Front Wargames Show last year I wanted to make sure the gaming board looked very much a part of the whole set up as I could.

Outbreak City at Eastern Front 2011 - Unfinished, but the foundation is there.

I take most of my 'new toys and figures' photographs on a 2' by 4' section of city board I build a few years back and for games, I use a 4' by 4' board built for a Lord of The Rings 'Shadow and Flame' campaign. Fine for getting the project off the ground and getting some games in but I really wanted to create a new gaming surface dedicated to Modern Zombie gaming.

All Things Zombie is normally played on a 3' by 3' table but to ensure the game didn't look out of place in the context of a big hall next to other large-table games, I decided on a 6' by 4' layout.

Inspired by this EPIC teaser shot from The Extraordinarii and I had a good idea of what I was after. 

The Extraordinarii's amazing 'Small Town USA' layout.

The devil is in the detail on this board: modelled surface with 3D detail, raised curbs, recessed roads, sidewalks and man-hole covers, street furniture, signs, stop-lights, telephone boxes and varying textures and colours. I love the fact this table is quite light and eventually, those are the shades and tones I am after.

I trimmed some A4 paper to scale and began sketching and after a few calculations I set off to the local hardware stores, B&Q and Homebase here in the UK, to buy some timber.

They conveniently sell 6mm MDF in 3' by 4' sheets, and I selected 38mm deep softwood to batten the sheets.

One board down.

I created the batten frame and everything was glued and screwed with all every drill hole counter-sunk.

The batten frame.

I only have one old drill, on a cord, so I had to switch the drill bit and counter-sink back and forth, using a chuck-key for every individual drill hole. My advice; buy or borrow a paired cordless drill set (that's my future plan) and have them set up ready, it will save loads of time.

3 completed base-boards.

Something that bugs me about modular gaming tables is when you accidentally knock them (and I tend to do that) and they shift out of alignment.

To stop this I drilled holes through the battening in every side so that the boards could be fixed together.

Guide holes for linking the boards.

I used a slightly larger than necessary drill bit for these holes to accommodate for unevenness in the boards and my inability to measure drill holes correctly. It worked out fine.

Wing-nut.

They are attached with bots and wing-nuts.

Bolt head.

An extra bit of time and thought, but well worth the effort to avoid player created earthquakes.

To be continued...

All Things Zombie

Outbreak City at Eastern Front 2011

Only slightly more overdue than Episode 1...

Outbreak City at Eastern Front 2011

On Sunday 1st August this year Eastern Front, I made the decision to put on a display game  of All Things Zombie at the East of England Wargames Show. The show was held at St Andrews Hall in Norwich.

After announcing here I was doing so, one of our fellow bloggers, Colin (cmnash) said "I might just try and get over to Norwich to see you there!"

I knew that Colin wasn't local and seeing as he's a gamer and a zombie gamer to boot and making he effort to travel I emailed him to say "Why not play?" A few emails later and, before you know it, a plan was hatched - we were putting on a game together.

Great news because, whilst I was happy to put on the game, I'd only actually done it once beforehand and certainly not alone.

So Colin brought his massive horde of zombies, a few survivors, some wrecked cars, street furniture and a few other goodies and I brought the Risks and Rewards Deck, the gaming table and the terrain.

Colin's rather impressive zombie horde.

For a full report of the games we played, and bucket loads of pictures, check out Colin's post Eastern Front Game with Zombie Ad.

Humorously, Colin turned our display game into a full-on participation event with once quick question to a lady who scanned the board with interest, telling us it was the kind of game she and her husband could play together. "Cool, so do you wanna play?"

"Ooh, ahhh, that's how it starts. Then there's the running and screaming!"

We hadn't realised the impact us taking someone through the game might have on the other people watching. As soon as that game finished (she survived and made it off the table...just) we were approached by another group of gamers who asked "Can we get in on the next game?"

Colin and I exchanged glances and shrugs. "Errr...sure!" we replied.

Things turned ugly fast. Real ugly.

It was great to meet Colin and our combined ability to teach others to play ATZ (with equal measures of us getting the rules right and wrong, the wrong bit being mostly me) drive the narrative and lead the players into as much peril as we possibly could, worked perfectly.

We were busy with people at the table all day long, I was told we had one of the busiest tables and, most importantly we, and everyone who either played or stopped to ask questions, seemed to have a great time. It was great to meet with everyone, discuss gaming, terrain and zombies. Thanks should go to Mike and Dug who both dropped in to say hello and an extra special thank you to Dug, whose photos are shown here. My other half had the camera for a day out she had with the kids and I only had a phone to get pictures on. Epic fail.

Local 'Irwins' capture the action from the roof of the cinema.

One of the most amusing things was more than one person asking "So do you guys play a lot together?" to which we could only answer, "Actually we met a couple of hours ago."

The undead's clumsy ambush was no match for the cowgirl's firepower.

Whilst the buildings had all been built long before the show, the street layout was new and reached the stage it was seen in these pictures in the wee hours the night before the show. It is not finished, there's tons of detailing to go and I'll share the journey of it's development in some future posts.

I'm sure I'll be putting on another public game at some point in the future and this time it will likely be a participation game from the outset.

Thanks Colin, awesome stuff sir!

RTA: An All Things Zombie Batrep - Part 2

With blood on his knuckles and a second body at his feet the realisation hit Troy like an offensive line. This wasn't an isolated incident; not road rage gone insane.

Something was wrong in Outbreak City. Something very wrong.

Above the typical quiet of an early morning, shrieks of terror could be heard in the distance. Low moans and guttural, feral cries replaced birdsong.

"Hey!" he yelled at the woman reaching in through his now broken car window after Hank. Her head snapped in his direction and she shambled towards him with a high pitched scream.

In she rushed, dead eyes fixed on Troy as he prepared himself for the assault. He braced himself as she came in and grabbed her flailing hands as she clawed at his face. He twisted, turned and pulled her to the ground. She almost had her teeth in him as he slammed her into the tarmac and her vicious thrashing ceased.

Hank's heart reached a crescendo as he repeated to himself 'Gotta get outta here!' under his breath. He cursed himself, frozen with fear, cowering upside down with his head in the footwell of his friend's sports car, unable to even close the door beside him.

Hank snapped out of his panic when Troy slammed the driver's side door. Troy fumbled in his pockets for a moment and realised Hank must have the keys.

"Give me the keys!" he yelled as Hank squirmed like an eel in a barrel in the ludicrous position he'd gotten himself into.

Outside, the walking dead, drawn to the commotion, shambled ever closer to the car.

Hank twisted into a seated position and scooped the keys from out of the footwell. Troy snatched them out of his hand and gunned the engine just as the undead were upon them.

As Troy struggled to keep his composure the squeal of rubber heralded their escape and attracted the attention of more creatures. Out of the darkened alleyways they came.

Troy ploughed across the intersection, the roar of the 3.6 liter engine accompanied by high-pitched screams as the undead, threw themselves at the car in a furious blood lust.

"Look out!" cried Hank as two figures lurched out into the road and Troy drifted to avoid them.

As they neared the figures Hank saw a gaping head wound and bared, broken teeth as the bloody mess flung itself towards them.

The car door slammed hard against Hank's shoulder and he winced at the impact. The body spun and crumpled and a shock of crimson spray appeared across the windshield and wing.

"Holy shit!" said Hank as he looked back at the crowd of walking dead gathered in the street.

Troy didn't say a word. Nor did he risk a glance in the mirror, for fear of what he might see.

They'd certainly had better days.

All Things Zombie