Wild West Exodus - Animated Brute

After finishing my latest Union regiment (the 7th Wisconsin) over the weekend, I had a night to fitter away on a single miniature. I decided to get some paint on the Animated Brute from Wild West Exodus while the Kickstarter is still running. I've been enjoying the blue pants I've been painting on my Union models, so I decided to go for something similar on this zombie, but I added a little more texture, hopefully giving him a bit of a denim feel. Just perfect for the period, I think.

At the moment he may be a little too clean, but I plan to add some weathering powders very soon. I just ran out of time last night.

Check out the Wild West Exodus Kickstarter here!

Cheers
Dave

Almost there!

So, tomorrow (Sunday Nov 7) I'll put up the whole Incursion set I've been pimping all week. To check all of my Incursion posts, click here.

So, as I draw to a close with all this Weird War 2 fun, Here are a few shots of it all in action and the resin accessories made by Fenris Games. Above you can see the board set up with the resin doors, entry points, and the generator control panels. Below you can see the set of resin objectives. Across the back row are the five generator control panels, and in the front row are (left to right) the escape hatch, Zombie pinger, Doomsday Device, and cave-in markers. All of these pieces are very nicely cast and painted up quite easily.

Below are the ten doors that are part of this auction. These cool resin pieces were not only easy to paint, but a lot of fun. The colors I use for the paint on the doors were the same as for the armor plates on Hans the Hunter: a basecoat of Vallejo's German Camo Dark Green, highlighted with Vallejo's German Fieldgrey. I loved the little "portholes" in the doors, so decided to paint them up like thick glass. A few of the surfaces were not as smooth as the others, so I used this opportunity to paint some cracked panes. I hope you like them.

And finally, the entry markers. As Incursion missions use the same board (or two, as the board is double-sided) for each mission, just swapping around the doors and objectives, it relies on varying numbers of entry points for the Germans and the Allies. Fenris Games have done a fantastic job of turning the counters you get in the boxed game into 3D resin. I really enjoyed painting these up! I think you can tell.

So, with all the resin bitz above added to the APEs, the Nazis, the zombies, the bases, and the boxed game itself, the retail value of it all unpainted is around $240. Painted it could only be more right ; )

Tell your friends, club together, and get your hands on this excellent game. I'll post the auction details once I have them all sorted.

Cheers

Dave

The Lucky 7th!

So, after seeing the horrific creations of the vile Nazi, Doctor Hugo von X, it is now time to see the roughnecks that get to sweep the corridors of the The Rock with cleansing fire. Let's take a look at the men of 1st Platoon Company B, 17th APE Regiment.

Above you can see the six models that come in the Allied Starter set for Incursion. In their Armored Personal Exoskeleton (APE) suits, these warriors are anything but monkeys. I'll describe how I painted them up below, but I must point out that I've based them all (like the Nazis) on Tech Deck bases from Dragon Forge Design.

From Left to Right: The APE HMG - toting a water-cooled, belt-fed .50 cal heavy machine gun, an APE Grunt - armed with a .30 cal machine gun and a pair of power shears, and the APE Sergeant - who favors a fire axe for close combat and a .30 cal with underslung grenade launcher for range.

From Left to Right: Another APE Grunt - this time with a powered fist for crushing skulls and doors, Captain "Slugger" Murphy - with his trusted .50 cal revolver (Bambi) and baseball bat (Thumper), and the APE Blazer - with powered fist and flamethrower.

Above and below you can get a closer look at the Captain and the HMG APE. I really liked the scheme on the Incursion site, but I decided to go for a slightly darker look on the armor, something a bit closer to US WW2 tank armor.

These APEs were based with Vallejo's Olive Drab, and highlighted with Brown Violet. For the deep recesses and dark parts of the armor chips I used Vallejo Charred Brown, and I highlighed the edges of the armor plates (and chips) by mixing in some Vallejo Green Grey to the Brown Violet. The armor plates were then given a light wash of Devlan Mud (particularly on the lower parts of the plate) to add "a bit of grime".

For the boots and straps I base coated them with Charred Brown, and then built up the highlights by adding Vallejo Red Leather. The pouches around the models were basecoated with Red Leather, then highlighted by adding GW's Bubonic Brown. Both the boots and the pouches were given a thinned wash of Ogryn Flesh.

The tanks on the backs of the models (presumably fuel tanks for the Exo-suits) were basecoated like the pouches, but built up by adding Vallejo German Camo Orange Ochre, followed by a thinned was of Devlan Mud.

Perhaps the toughest part of painting these "lucky" warriors was putting their divisional symbol on the front right shoulder of their suits. A little bit of patience and building up in layers was the key.

If you thought that was it for the Incursion set posts, you were wrong. Next up is a look at the various resin accessories that have been made by Fenris Games, and are included in the final auction.

Cheers

Dave

Evil Nazi Creations (and poll result, sort of)

Thanks to everyone who voted in my poll. I thought there might be a bit more of a spread in the results, but even at the end things were pretty close. The two-tone scheme garnered a mere 7% more than the simple grey scheme, suggesting it should be the winner. However, all of the commenters went for the simple grey scheme, providing some very insightful reasons for choosing that one. So, I'm going for the grey scheme. More on that later.

Above and below you can see the front and back of Doctor Hugo von X's twin daughters, Ilsa on the left and Gretel on the right. These two characters are inhumanly fast and strong and essentially run what is left of the research facility beneath the Rock of Gibraltar. These are some of the most finely sculpted and cast 28mm metal figures I've every had the pleasure to paint. They seem so incredibly petite, but they stack up really well against the Zombies from my last post.

Below is the Blitzhund, a lightly armored, incredibly swift killing machine. The Blitzhund is capable of sniffing out the enemy in the dank and crumbling corridors below the Rock.

I had a lot of fun painting the Blitzhund. For his whitish pelt I started with Khemri Brown, and highlighted it by adding more and more white to the highlight mix. The armor plates were basecoated with the Vallejo paint German Camouflage Dark Green, and highlighted with German Fieldgrey.

Although the Blitzhund on the Incursion site features camo pants similar to a Fallschirmjager pattern (UPDATE: actually an SS camo scheme - thanks Alex), I decided to go with a simple grey. I'm also really happy with the "warning label" on the barrel of toxic agent (see the first Blitzhund picture), which I freehanded based on the "studio model".

And the final beast on the side of the evil Nazis is the brute to end all brutes. Son of Doctor Hugo von X, Hans the Hunter did not escape his father's crazed predations. After a battery of experiments, he is left the twisted hulk you see below.

For the flesh I started with a basecoat of a Shadow Grey/Liche Purple mix. I then highlighted up by adding Dwarf Flesh, then small amounts of white. The armor plates and barrels are painted in the same fashion as for the Blitzhund, basecoat of Vallejo's German Camo Dark Green highlighted with German Fieldgrey.

Perhaps my favorite part of the paintjob on this model is the rust/weathering. I thinned down some Vallejo Red Leather and applied multiple thin washes in strategic areas over the plates.

So, I hope you enjoyed seeing these guys. Next up, the American 7th Armored.

Don't forget, all of these models and more will be going up on an auction this Sunday to benefit my buddies, John and Justin.

It always starts with the Zombies!

I couldn't let Halloween go by without another post, this time starting on my week-long rundown of the great figures and accessories for a fun game called Incursion, created by my mates at Grindhouse Games.

I've mentioned it a few times before, but Jim Bailey sent me through a boxed game, an Allied Starter Set, a German Starter Set, plus the Fenris Games resin accessories. I've finally finished painting all of these things and will run through them over the next seven days (then put the whole lot up on eBay as another charity Auction for John and Justin.

Above you can see the eight zombies you get in the German Starter Set. There are six Sturmzombies and two Bomberzombies. I chose a fairly simple "recently dead" scheme for their skin. It was:

• Dheneb Stone basecoat

• Ogryn Flesh wash, Leviathan Purple wash

• Dwarf Flesh highlight

• Dwarf Flesh/Skull White highlight

The blood splatters I saved til the very end, but used a combination of Gloss Varnish and Scab Red, applying it in a not completely random fashion.

The coolest thing about these zombies are that they are the re-animated corpses of soldiers from both sides. The figures had been carefully crafted to have recognisable remnants of Axis or Allied uniforms.

These first two (a Sturmzombie left and Bomberzombie right) are former Nazi soldiers. Rather than stick completely to historical uniforms I tried to copy the wonderful paintjob on the Incursion site. Unfamiliar with a lot of the Vallejo paints, that I knew would be up to the task, I experimented a little and decided these guys would look best in a basecoat of Chaos Black/German Field Grey. This was then highlighted with German Field Grey. The uniform was then washed with Badab Black. The jackboots were basecoated black and highlighted by mixing in greys. I know this isn't a completely historically accurate scheme, but then again... we are talking about Nazi Zombies here.

These three walking dead are former British soldiers, two Sturmzombies and a Bomberzombie (right). For their fatigues I basecoated with Beige Brown, quickly highlighted by mixing in Bleached Bone, and finally washed the fatigues with Ogryn Flesh then Devlan Mud.

For these three American zombies (all Sturmzombies) I had to dig a little further. My mate Brien showed me a cool blog where the blogger had laid out his paint plan for paint US troops for Flames of War, so I followed those recipes.

Armour plates (helmet):

• Olive Drab basecoat

• Olive Drab/Brown Violet highlight

• Brown Violet highlight

Jackets:

• Brown Violet basecoat

• Brown Violet/Green Grey mix highlight

• Green Grey highlight

Trousers:

• Olive Drab basecoat

• German Camo Medium Brown highlight

• German Camo Medium Brown/US Field Drab mix highlight

Some great practice for future infantry painting projects.

So, that's it for Halloween. Enjoy your trick or treating, vote in my poll, and I'll see you tomorrow for more!

Cheers

Dave