In honor of the apocalypse: Zombies!

There's something going around. I'm getting more and more work for zombies on wedding cakes all of the time.

Trends like these make me think that humanity is going to be all right when the inevitable zombie apocalypse happens.

 Here are some of the zombies that the newly married will be fending off:

 





 And, of course, here are some of these undead with the couples that will put an end to them.

 

Plastic Cavalry for Warmachine

Ok, Privateer Press has been moving a lot of their most expensive metal kits to plastic. So far, most Warjacks and bulkier infantry have moved in that direction.

 The biggest hole in their plastic setup right now is their Cavalry. These units cost well over a hundred dollars for a full unit of five- a price point that has kept some of the people I know from playing cavalry.

 Well, Privateer Press just gave us a preview for new Cygnaran light cavalry- some pretty nice looking gun mages on horseback.
 

The cost of the unit is 59.99- much more reasonable. Something to note- this is a plastic and white metal kit. With cav units that I've used from other companies, I would expect this to mean that the horses are plastic and the riders are metal.

 With that in mind, I'm sure we'll soon be seeing Khadoran, Protectorate and Retribution riders for these same horse minis. And who knows? Maybe even mercenary players will see light cav this time around.

Dark Age Judah

I painted this guy up a little while ago, so I'm feeling a bit sheepish about only now getting around to posting him. I have quite a few minis from Dark Age games, but my very favorite of them all is the Contradiction (Judah). A lot of minis show emotion, but the range is small on most gaming miniatures (mostly just rage or stoicism). The anguish on this mini is refreshing, and rather a joy to paint. Anyway, enough with my babbling, here he is:

 

Malifaux RPG up on Kickstarter

So, Wyrd games is working on a Malifaux RPG, and they're launching it as a Kickstart project.

 
 



 On the one hand, I'm not really sure why Wyrd needs to do a Kickstarter for their RPG book. I mean, it is a Malifaux project in the end, and Malifaux is doing great. I'm sure they have the funds for printing. All together, I can't see a Malifaux RPG failing to garner interest among the community (although Eric and Nathan might not realize that). (Evil Baby Orphanage is a different matter since it won't necessarily have much crossover audience- a Malifaux RPG is a sure bet so long as the system is cool). I guess they'll have a better idea of the demand before they order their first print run. That way, they won't end up running out at the manufacturer level like the Iron Kingdoms RPG did

.


 Of course, the artwork from Wyrd is all excellent, and at this point we can expect some terrific plastic minis from them (I've painted up a few plastic crews now, and the sculpts are great). The rules and concepts that they've released look interesting- it is a card based system in which the GM announces events like "The Gremlin shoots you" and the players contest with "no he doesn't, I dodge" and uses the fate deck to try and dodge. Although I'm honestly most excited about the fluff sections of this rulebook.


 


 The city of Malifaux is kind of a steampunk nightmare realm and it is hard to really get a grasp on what the lives of normal folk living in the city would look like. What does the work day of an M&SU member or someone working on the Ortega's estate? I'm really excited because this book will mean that they'll be fleshing out their world in directions that do not focus on the powerful characters who are altering the fate of the world.

Space Hulk Genestealers

Here are some 'stealers that I painted for my own Space Hulk set. The color scheme was originally inspired by some of the wretches from Gears of War, but ultimately I increased the contrast, saturation and overall cleanliness enough that they don't really look Gearsy.

 Still, I think they turned out rather nice.

 

Families that Slay together...

So, I work with a lot of couples preparing for their wedding day. Unlike most wedding based businesses, I also get to see how well they're preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

 

This couple, for example, sent me a photo of them in torn clothing holding these weapons (and there were even some zombies in the background). To be honest, I think it might have been the clearest vision I've ever been given, and almost none of it was in words.


 
 This couple had me give them both combat vests and military weaponry. Overall, I'm considering them among the best prepared for the zombie apocalypse.


 

 This last one is a little different from most of the zombie fighters that I do. For one thing, both figures are free standing, and for another the groom is wearing street clothes. Also, their cake will have zombies climbing the sides and so they wanted to be able to aim their figures at particular zombies. Overall, I'll bet it will make a great diorama on the big day.

Rex From Gencon

Here is Rex the Ogre from Super Dungeon Explore. I painted him for the Gencon Painting competition this year, and he took third place in the large figure category. I felt that was a pretty respectable award for him.

Painting him was loads of fun, although it is rough to paint Super Dungeon minis for a competition. All of those large areas are pretty tricky to get super smooth, so he took me some time to get right.

 While the sculptor was not credited (to my knowledge) I suspect he's a Jason Hendrix sculpt. The anatomy just looks like Hendrix' style, and painting him felt quite a bit like painting up a dire troll from Privateer Press.

I've also posted him up on Coolmini for anyone who cares to vote.

 

Romantic Ninja cake topper

Most of the cake toppers that I do are similar to ones that I've made before. And by far the most popular are the zombie survivors. However, sometimes someone comes to me with a really original idea, and something like this emerges. No zombies, not even combatants standing back to back. Just a Ninja and his bride:


 

More Cake Toppers to battle the zombie horde

I don't know that I have a whole lot to say here, so here are a couple more couples to fend off the zombie horde:    

Maelok the Dreadbound

Sometimes a mini is very challenging to paint.

 There are a number of reasons this can be the case. Sometimes the mini is poorly sculpted, and the challenge is to keep the badness of the sculpt to a minimum. Sometimes the mini is extremely well sculpted, and you want to do it justice. Sometimes the mini doesn't suggest its own composition, or has a lot of blank space and you need to fill it with freehand and your own detail work.

 In this case, this mini was a challenge because the mini itself is extremely busy. This guy has tiny bobs and baubles on him from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. He's broken up into many areas, and since he's a swampy gator, they each individually lend themselves to be variations on brown.

 But I was painting this mini for Clash for a Cure- and I wanted to give them some of my best work. Not to mention, he's grouped with miniatures from some very steller painters. So, I needed to overcome these challenges.

In order to help each and every one of those tiny fiddly bits show up, I used some intense black lining. Everything on this mini is outlined in black (black makes things show up a little starker than other colors). 

Back when I first started painting, lining like this was only used to divide light colors that are right next to each other (like white and yellow).  Nowdays, not only is lining often done in other colors, but it is used to divide areas all over the mini.

 The other thing that I did was take a very careful look at each and every area, and made sure that the color values were working.  I lightened up the bones and muscles from where I first had them because they needed better value contrast against the skin.  I also painted the leathers in much lighter colors than I normally would have.

 Overall, I feel like I've accomplished something challenging here.

 

A Black Dragon from Wizards of the Coast

I thought I would share this here- it is an older miniature from Wizards of the Coast that is no longer in production. Although some of you may recognize it as Wizard's black dragon, it is not the iconic one from the pre-painted D&D miniatures range. Rather, it is made of pewter (and is very heavy) and is supplied without a base.

 Here's where some of my more strange knowledge comes up. CDs are just perfect for Gargantuan sized creatures, and are also exactly the same size and Privateer Press' new 120mm bases. That is what he is mounted on. As a side note, mini CDs are the size of 80mm bases, and are a perfect fit for the new 80mm bases from Coolmini's games (Relic Knights and Dark Age).

 Anyway, here's the mini.  In painting him, I used a tinge of green to color the black and maintain the look of a natural creature on him.

 

Zombies are weak against Shovels cake topper

If there is anything I have learned from the many hours of videogames, movies, books, RPGs and other zombie related 'research' that I do, it is that zombies are particularly weak against shovels. Sometimes it is the shovel or the crowbar that deals the best damage to them. And unlike the chainsaw or any firearms, it is totally silent and unlikely to attract more zombies.

 It surprises me that I haven't done more shovels on the zombie cake toppers before now.

 With silence in mind, this bride has also chosen a good weapon. The idea here must be to avoid the zombie

horde.

Polishing off Puppet Wars

Here is the latest group that I've painted up for Puppet Wars. From what I can gather, there aren't going to be any new puppets at this scale now- the game itself is getting a re-shaping in plastic.

 At Gencon, they didn't have an official announcement, but at the Paint and Take, Wyrd was offering plastic puppet minis. They were larger than the original metal miniatures, and I really think they put the game more in line with other miniatures board games (Super Dungeon, Blood Bowl, Sedition Wars).

 This group here is of the original, tiny puppets. Because these puppets are all already represented in the set somewhere, I took this opportunity to paint them in different colors (matching the Teddies, they are represented by the Malifaux Faction colors). Well, here they are:


 

The whole wedding party is here

So, people who follow this blog will know that I make a lot of wedding cake toppers, and that most of them involve killing zombies. Sometimes, there is a party that includes quite a few zombies, and in this instance, they are the wedding party. Here you can see the bride and groom fighting off their former groomsmen and bridesmaids.


 

A few recent cake toppers

Well, I often like to post up the cake toppers when I have them. Here are a few of the more recent set: This girl wanted to be armed with a weapon from her favorite shooter.

 

 This couple seems to think that the 'Till death do us part' bit is optional.

 

And this couple wanted something a little darker. I usually imagine the couples winning against the zombies,

but I guess that's not always the case:


 


 And this last one is meant to go on top of a cake that is being climbed by zombies- hence they're both

 looking down.