Picking the Remains

Having cleared out the attic, after recently moving house, I've discovered a haul of bits and bobs I'd completely forgotten about. Its amazing what gets shoved up into the attic (by the wife) once you have a baby on the way!

I used to play in a band and my picks of choice were made by Hot Picks. I used to play with a medium gauge zombie pick, and was a regular buyer from their store (so much so they sent me a promotional poster to stick to my amp).

Nothing better than soloing with a zombie head

After the clear out I was sent to the supermarket to pick up some dinner. Whilst there I bought a copy of Remains on DVD. I'd spied this online and thought to give it a watch with the wife later that night.
Picking any movie to watch with her is intimidating enough; my track record for picking good movies is awful, and this movie just hammered the point home.

It was the worst kind of bad...boring.

I can watch a truly awful film, and enjoy it for what it is, but when a movie just drags, and is full of dull dialogue and lack lustre acting then I'm done with it.
It actually made me angry. Reason being that I loved the comics this was based on. The story was fun and the characters interesting. The action sequences moved along at a nice pace and you felt drawn into the world he'd created.
So when Steve told us the comic had been optioned 7 years ago, I thought it would be cool to see. Even more so after seeing 30 Days of Night.

I can't even recommend it as a so-bad-its-good movie. At the end I just felt cheated and disappointed at a missed opportunity.


On more of a hobby note, the whiplash is all but gone, so I've started work on building some pieces of terrain/street furniture. First up are some coffins/body bags for my morgue.

More to follow...

Undeady Goodness

 
The local gaming club I've joined are running a Mordheim campaign, and never having played a WFB themed game, thought I'd take the plunge. I had a look at the various warbands made by GW but nothing jumped out at me. They all seemed a bit 'meh', so I reluctantly settled on an undead warband as I've always had a liking for the mortally challenged.

I like the idea of creating a back story for my miniatures, It especially motivates me to get them painted up and ready for the table. The Mordheim Vampires didn't really inspire me so I thought I'd have a go at customising some Vampire Counts figures. I wanted to create a warband with real character so started brainstorming. An hour later I'd come up with my entire roster and just needed to find the proxy models to build on.

The first character I created was Lucian Leville, an insane Jester who would ride into battle on a hobby horse made of human bones. The closest Proxy was Jules le Jongleur from the Bretonnian army list.

I drilled out his face (ouch) to make room for the Necromancers face from the Corpse Cart. I also removed the horse head and balloon. I replaced these with some skulls, ribs and a flaming torch.

The second character is my favourite. Heinrich Folter, The Plague Doctor of Ostermark. Driven from his home town for 'corrupt' practices with the newly dead, he collects bodies for his own nefarious ends. I liked the Necromancer With Skull miniature, as he had such an open pose that could be customised without too much difficulty.

Having drilled and pinned a tiny metal rod into his face (again ouch), I built up his 'beak' with green stuff. I cut off bits and pieces that didn't fit my theme, skull, sword, cloaks collar etc. I added some decapitated heads and a nice curved serrated knife, perfect for a deranged surgeon.

Excuse the awful picture quality

                   

                                               

Third and final (so far) is Malediction, a Vampire who leaves a trail of plague and death in his wake. I used the Necromancer from the Corpse Cart and replaced the whip with a withered hand.

 

My next post will feature the rest of my pustulent warband plus some modern day zombie goodness.

Pffft

What a week...

The stars aligned, the Gods conspired, and the universe decided it was high time to dish out a metaphorical wedgie of bad luck on me.

Firstly, a senile old man drives into the back of me leaving me with chronic whiplash, so bad that I cant even hold a paintbrush still for a second; any miniature I paint looks like it was done with a roller.

Secondly, Hurrah!! My OSX Snow Leopard disc arrived. Ten minutes later and I want to put the stupid disc in the toaster.
Half way through the new OS booting onto my mac, it crashed. My Macbook is now stuck in a constant state of laptop limbo. Then the cold tentacles of fear start to creep up my spine, I forgot to back up my hard drive before starting...

All my campaign scenarios, music, movies, rulebooks, research, GONE.
A disc recovery programme managed to locate the files but they're all corrupted and totally unsalvageable.

In a torrent of rage I destroyed the nearest thing to me, a box of coco pops. Then, having popped a load of pain killers for the whiplash, went off to bed (at 4:30 in the afternoon) in protest to a rubbish day (and mainly to avoid any more bad luck).

Seeing as I can't paint or build any terrain at the moment, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the mountain of lead and plastic I have yet to complete.

Vampires, Zombies, Marines and Insurgents

My Vampire warband for Mordheim 

My first smattering of zombies

Some Insurgents for Force on Force games

 A Rifle Platoon of US Marines

Beginnings

Welcome to the blog of a self confessed zombiephile. 

I've arrived late to miniature gaming. I had friends who played 40k and WFB growing up, but it didn't capture my imagination. Then, 2 years ago, a friend convinced me to accompany him to Salute, and It was there that I picked up my first zombie miniatures. 

Two years later and they're still sitting on a shelf, ignored, unloved and unpainted. Im hoping this Blog will be the kick up the arse I need to wade through a mounting pile of miniatures, and a head full of scenarios unwritten.

At ten years of age this image terrified me. Having snuck downstairs to watch Dawn of the Dead, I turned the TV on and witnessed a plaid shirted zombie stumble towards the camera; I think my scream woke the whole neighborhood...a horror fan was born.

I recently met the man responsible for my fascination with all things zombie. He was everything you would hope your hero to be; friendly, witty and very, very talkative. We chatted about his movies, upcoming projects and the state of genre movies today. He inspired me to pull my finger out and get creative.

Sorry for the long winded introduction, and thank you for making it this far!

My next few posts will show the mountain of plastic and lead I have yet to tackle, as well as a sneak peak at the 'living' campaign I'm devising for an outbreak in the fictional, small American town of Ravensbrook, AZ.

They don't know what hell is about to be visited upon them...