Zombie Survivor Wedding Cake Toppers: Specialized Weaponry

The back to back couples remain the most popular of the cake toppers that I make, and the couples I work with come up with some very creative things for their weaponry.

 Here are a few couples with some rather powerful weapon loadouts.

 



 

How to say "I do" Like a Ninja

One thing I've learned throughout the years is that there are very few things in life that cannot be improved by adding ninjas.

 Here are three couples who have, evidently, learned this same lesson.

 

Kaelly the Nether Strider

Here is my rendition of the evil elf (also dark hero) for Super Dungeon Explore. Chibis like this are loads of fun to paint.

 My concept for her color scheme was to make her a Nyss.

 I used Cylena Raefyll's colors as a starting point, and went from there. Overall, I think she looks good in Nyss colors.

 

Bows and Crossbows for Zombie fighting Wedding Cake Toppers

I've been making zombie survivor cake toppers for brides and grooms for a while now, and somehow I feel that there's a lot to be said about the weapons they choose.

 Firstly, I'd like to thank The Walking Dead for pointing out to us just how useful a crossbow is when fighting zombies. Sure, the shotgun or chainsaw will kill loads of them, but it's a double edged sword (erm, a double edged chainsaw?) because you're likely to draw the attention of far more than you kill.
But a crossbow- that's silent. And there's even a decent chance of recovering precious ammo.

 
(of course, that's all for nought if you hang around with a guy who's all the time firing his assault rifle).

 Also, I feel that The Hunger Games has taught us that a traditional bow is actually a pretty badass weapon, and has a place in the modern arsenal. And with many of the advantages of the crossbow.

 


 


Of course, many of the couples I make toppers for are far more interested in battling orcs than zombies, and a good number of the bows and crossbows I make aren't considering those advantages vs. firearms. Some of them might even be enchanted.

 

Menite Adventuring Party

This is an adventuring party I created for the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Our group has been playing for years, but this is the first time we've really gotten into playing Menites (there's an issue of them not playing well with non-humans).

 Our group started their own order of knights who like to emphasize that "there's a place for all at the feet of Menoth." In role playing terms, it has been a lot of fun- they're quite condescending to the non-humans, but at the same time, they try to convert the dirty children of the Wurm rather than simply killing them all off.

 These minis all started life as Reaper Bones minis, and have had varying amounts of conversion done to them.

The Warcaster/Priest had the most done to him. He started life as a Pathfinder Iconic Wizard.  He likes to argue about the meaning of the Cannon of True Law, and is the group's main preacher.

 

Out Paladin/Man at Arms needed no alteration before he could be fielded. I simply removed the base from the mini and mounted him onto some more Iron Kingdoms appropriate cobble stone.



 Our Cutthroat/Acolyte of the Order of the Fist also did not need very much conversion. I cut her hand off and reposed it so that she's provoking an enemy rather than throwing something or casting a spell.



The last mini here is a Spy who generally impersonates a local Thane (ordic aristocracy). I altered the mini to remove the cutlass in his hand, but again, there wasn't a whole lot of work that needed to be done.

Videogame Inspired Cake Toppers

While Zombie survivors have still made up the majority of the cake toppers that I do, there have definitely been a nice rise in the number of cake toppers that express the bride and groom's love of videogames. Here are a few examples.

 We'll start out with the Steampunk Halo Spartans, and move from there:

 

Super Spy Cake Topper

I've been doing custom cake toppers for a long time for lots of couples that want something less traditional, but I have always been surprised that I haven't had very many same gender couples. It just seemed that is a fairly large group that has been ignored by more traditional cake toppers for a long time.

 Here is one such non-traditional couple- their wedding had a super spy theme to it, and I really liked making their tuxedos.


 

Darklands Meloda

Here is Meloda, from the Darklands range of minis. I generally think of Mierce as a manufacturer of big crazy monsters (and that is definitely a thing that they are- stay tuned, I've got another to show off soon).

 But here is one of their human characters. From their line, she is probably the least exaggerated of the lot- her weaponry and anatomy are scaled about right (ie- not at all Boris Vallejo like). In fact, I think she'd fit in pretty well with some Dark Sword minis.

 (Man, with Dark Lands, Dark Sword, Dark Age- too many Dark Something miniatures lines).

 

Wedding Cake Topper Survivors and Zombies in combat

The zombie survivor brides and grooms are definitely the most popular of the cake toppers that I make, and I really love it when I get a chance to do a whole set together for combat. They really feel complete to me when the whole zombie battling scene plays out on the top tier of a wedding cake.

 

Reaper Miniatures enters the Chibi market

Chibi miniatures have been making a big splash in the gaming world ever since Soda Pop first showed off their Super Dungeon minis at Gencon. Since then, they've grown into a whole style of miniatures that strongly contradicts the Grim and/or Dark traditions that so many miniature lines follow.

 I mean, they're just so dang cute!

 Clearly, chibis have been spreading a lot. We've seen Impact! miniatures enter the fray with their inexpensive lineup (that features some outstanding Ponies) and Coolmini bring some caricature style to the medium, we're starting to see Chibis turn from a style used by one game into a style used across the board with a strong variety of different sculpts available.

 Reaper's been selling their Bonesylvanian throughout October. The current set available are three adorable vampires (the ones shown here were painted by Rhonda Bender).
 

And- from the sound of it, these are going to be minis that we'll see again in about a year- just not in metal. I'm so excited to see Reaper make some Bones Chibis. The medium seems perfect for them, and I've really loved painting up the bones minis I have from them already.

 I know this is the end of the limited run for these ones, but I'm super excited to see more chibis from them. - Here's hoping we get to see some official Pathfinder chibis. And more Chibi Sophies, like this one (also painted by Rhonda)

 

Nocturne

Here is my take on Super Dungeon's Vampiric boss fight.

I painted him as a practice for doing really harsh top down lighting- but I realized a little too late that I had basically decided to blend all of his areas from black to white.

I worked on him for quite some time, before giving up and calling him finished with the blending as is. He got a base and got put on the shelf with the blending on his back at a definitely not working stage.

I then went on to paint my entries for Gencon and a few other things before coming back to him and deciding that I really wanted to fix the flaws in my Nocturne. So I pulled him out and started touching up the blending (and it went much better this time).

So, here he is in his actually finished state.

Kissing Gamers

The kissing gamers seems to have become one of the most popular poses I've done for our brides and grooms. It figures, I guess. They're so cute, and they fit in well with even the most traditional of wedding cakes while still adding that extra personality.

 Here are a few I've done recently. Of late, the console of choice might be changing for a lot of brides and grooms:

 



 

Austrican the Ogre

Here is my Austrican from Relic Knights. The largest of the Shattered Sword Paladins, this mini was definitely one of my favorites from the Kickstarter.

 I had a lot of fun with his face- the harsh lines gave me plenty of room to make high contrast areas that really pop. He really has the same cartoonish characterfulness that we're used to seeing from Soda Pop Miniatures. And with the Anime themed minis from Relic Knights, I felt I could go with a really out there hair color.

 

MMO Cake Topper

Here is a cake topper that I made to match some MMO characters.  These make some of the more complex characters I've created, as video games tend to have lots of detail on their clothing and weaponry.  And I love making the elf ears.

Here is a picture.

 

Nethyrmaul the Undying

This might be my favorite mini to come out of the first of Reaper's Kickstarters (he does have to compete with the likes of Wyrmgear and a few other beauties).

 I decided to color him in green to help emphasize the red portions on him. I don't think it shows in the pictures, but the red areas have gloss added to make the wounds seem fresh (I do this with most of the zombies that I paint).

 He was mounted on a CD (which is exactly the same size as those 120mm Warmachine bases we've been seeing lately) and some of the rocks on his base were sculpted to match the ones from the mini.

 

Converted Iron Kingdoms RPG party

So, I'm a miniatures guy, and I have a weekly RPG group. I generally love converting minis for our whole party.

 I don't always get to do the whole thing, because there are other players who also love to convert and paint minis. This time around, however, I got to do a mini for each party member.

 We're big fans of the Iron Kingdoms, so these are all characters from that setting.
 
 
This is our Skilled Ogrun Artillerist/Alchemist. The mini started out life as a Reaper Bones orc. His cannon was made from a Citadel missile.

 
This is our Mighty Gobber Man at Arms/Duelist. He started life as a Reaper Bones female dwarf- he had his head and breastplate completely re-sculpted.

 
This is our human Priest of Cyrris/Arcanist. He was converted less than the others- I altered the hair and ears, and changed the knife in his hand into a tunning device.

 

This is our most complex character. She is riding on a unique dragonspawn. I took Ruby (from Studio McVey) and got rid of the scales on the raptor, and added a little to his head plate so that his eyes would be covered.

Dragon Slayers Cake Topper

I had a couple contact me and ask me to make the two of them into fantasy RPG characters for a cake topper. That sounded great to me, so I was all kinds of on board.



Then they added- and we want to fight a dragon as well. Now, Cake Toppers aren't the same scale as most fantasy miniatures (the toppers tend to be around 5" tall, while gaming scale minis are tiny in comparison).

 But Reaper has been making some fairly large dragons of late, and I definitely couldn't pass up a chance to put Nethyrmaul the Undying onto a cake. They tell me they were thrilled too.

Chibi Centaur

This is one of the Chibi miniatures that Impact! Miniatures has been making of late.

This is one of the earlier ones that they made. One interesting thing I discovered while at Gencon this year- Trollforge (the guys responsible for casting these minis) has been upping their quality quite a bit.

 The newer castings have a much smoother finish on them. If you have some of the older chibis, the surface can be easily smoothed out in any problimatic places using either gloss or fine grit sand paper (I mostly use the second). But the newer ones don't need it so much, and that's quite nice.

 Anyway, here are some images for you.

 

Gencon 2014 Miniatures Roundup

Well, there were loads of cool minis to see at Gencon this year. Here's a selection of a few of the highlights I got to see. Corvus Belli were there this year to show off the new edition of Infinity. They're still as dedicated as ever to releasing the full rules online, but I'm sure their new book will be as pretty as their minis. Speaking of which, the demos they were showing off used the studio minis. That surprised me alot, but I know I preferred playing with such a splendidly painted demo set. Just getting to see them in hand (no glass) was pretty awesome.  Their studio painter was also teaching classes and generally showing off.

 

     

 Games Workshop had a presence (which is nice since it seems there won't be a Games Day in the US this year).  Hopefully, they'll start sending their game developers or 'Eavy Metal painters soon. The big thing they were showing off is their new Hive world terrain set.

One thing I thought was funny was that they were showing it off with a set of Storm Lord space marines. One of the first commissions I got when I started my business was an army of Storm Lords, so they're pretty dear to my heart.  To be honest, I'm often surprised to see that someone else painted them (a google image search for Storm Lords will yield mostly minis I painted with a few outliers). Their bright color scheme definitely pops against the grey terrain.  

 



    Ninja Division definitely had a busy time at the con.  Their booth was pretty packed with people looking for all the new Relic Knights minis. Naturally, there were quite a few of them that I had to pick up.  And I was in on the Kickstarter. Somehow I find myself wanting to collect all of their minis.  I'd best get to painting the ones I have.

   

 I also got to talk to their new studio painter, and I'm definitely fond of his work. The mini below is a new Anti-hero for Super Dungeon Explore (he comes with both a hero and mini-boss card).  I picked up the resin version of him, and it looks like he was popular enough that they're making a plastic version for their Forgotten King Kickstarter backers.      

 

     Something else I found that was pretty cool- Mierce Miniatures is making a game for their Bane Legions line of minis. It's going to be fairly small scale skirmish game.  The mechanics reminded me of War Gods- both players give their soldiers secret orders, then alternate activating one at a time and see how screwed up their plans get. But  the selling point for me was the massive monsters that you get to play with.  Mierce has some winners in their range.