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Alright been a couple of days. Things have progressed though.


Mini supply run. The dollar store (actual $1 store, not one of those non-dollar stores) finally had some monster trucks with warhammery tires. Now, of course, that I've got them home... they're a bit large. Almost 2x the normal tires, so not sure they'd work for attack bikes. Possibly for land speeder buggy conversions, but whatever. $3 isn't so much, and I'm sure I'll find a use somewhere. Also got a laser pointer for the games I never play, and stocked up on glue for deadzone.


Here we have a prior WIP shot of the zombies and the "done" shot, right after dipping. I still need to put black on the shoulders and seal them, which should be happening tomorrow. Bases were done earlier in the week so we're effectively down to 10 zombies.


Speaking of 10 zombies, here's the first. Nothing fancy, another soulless shambler for my platoon. Head still needs trimmed and glued in place.


It's a bit early, but I couldn't help prepping the Knight Sabers. Trimmed the mold lines and added the brass etch. Stuff was hard to work with, what with being so tiny and all. The little bits really helped distinguish each of the different hard suits though. Sylia is standing in blue-tack because I've gone ahead and removed her from her integrated base. Going to put these ladies onto the same style bases I've been doing, but in what I would call "heroic" poses. Since they're so darn small, I'm gonna put them up on elements of the terrain to help mitigate it a little bit. Especially Nene, her boring pose makes her even tinier!

If I've still got some energy left in a bit, going to go make some more zombies. For now, going to go finish Trigun: Badlands Rumble. I never knew there was an extra movie for Trigun, couldn't help watching it.

Till later, Happy Hobbying!

Boosh, zombie weapon teams done. Two shots so you can see all 3 teams. I'll take more pictures (of virtually everything) at some point in the future. These are basically more of the same, and the next 10 should look fairly close, although... they may be a tad lighter since I'll be undercoating with a brighter color.

Updated TDoD graphic:


Next I will be working to get 10 zombies assembled. Well... I'm shooting for five so I can get them primed and ready to paint when I get a chance. But 10 zombies built, 10 bases built, and then everything painted. Then we're done!

Till later, happy hobbying!

So, damn, close! The complete zombie weapon teams are a joy to look at so we have high hopes for the last zombies!

And then it's party like it's frakking 1999!!!

@TDL thanks! I think the party will mostly consist of scrambling to finish the Knight Sabers and then getting to work organizing and cleaning. The tech marine may or may not make it at this point.

@General Updates since the last post was kind of short:

I was having "writers" block on the builds for the last zombies, but I've got two well underway, so that seems to be clearing up.

Finally bit the bullet and ordered some windsor and newton series 7 brushes as what I've been using has died, and all too fast at that. Well, the fine detail brush is only hooked, but that's bad enough... The other 2-3 regular duty brushes are all badly hooked and splitting. Can get one to just barely hold its form for a bit, but those new brushes can't get here fast enough!

I have a basic idea for what to do for each of the knight sabers. I want to put a good effort in on them, but they're sooooo small, I'm not sure how fancy I'll be able to get! I'm going to try for a close color match and to make them look as good as I can, but I'm not sure how much room on the models there is for fancier highlights or blending at my skill level.

My marines (except the small painted contingent) are going to get packed unceremoniously into a box which will be sealed and hidden from sight. Every time I read another post regarding the new SM codex I run through my inventory and try to come up with fancy lists... its time consuming and Deadzone must be my next project :p

Dying to pick up a Bakunin Jurisdictional Command Starter box. But as above, gotta focus on Deadzone first, at least for a while.

It isn't fair to force myself to go through *every* *single* *model* that I'm going to get, but I've gotta spend some time on it I think as we get closer and closer to "late november", I'll work on some rosters using the beta rules so I can make a paint queue. Of course, random things will be getting painted like mad, but my soft goal will be to make a very well packed 2x2 gameboard as well as having at least 70 points of each of the initial 4 factions. Probably with a couple of models to swap out. Maybe 100 points... For the campaigns... Just in case. If I get a fair chunk done, I'll probably get my Bakunin starter. That will only further inspire me to do more terrain, as this deadzone stuff looks to be nearly perfect for Infinity...

Speaking of terrain, I finally found a can (large one too) of minwax polyshades Tudor. I think its as close as polyshades come to black that isn't the fully opaque classic black. Going to try it on a light grey marine soon and see whats up. If I could airbrush grey, do metals, dip, seal, and have those scenery tiles to a decent look... would help immensely

I think that catches up my thoughts, next episode of GrimDork Hobby Time should include some posed zombies, although I'm getting senior-itis in the final steps of the project and random things have become wont to wander onto my desk.

Happy Hobbying!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And just for anyone staying up late and reading the blog we have a small update. Two things, somewhat different. First:


Second to last batch of zombies posed out. The rightmost two are glued now, the rest can be changed. The leftmost guy looks very close to the rightmost guy in positioning with the arm and gun almost the same. I don't think you'll notice in a platoon of 20 zombie marines, will just have to overlook it for now, as I like both poses individually.

And then I decided to experiment with my new secret weapon; Minwax Polyshades Tudor (satin, though it barely matters after the topcoat).
I wanted to get this ages ago, but neither my local Lowes nor Walmart had it stocked. Found it in Lowes just the other day. I think its technically brown, but its so dark of a brown that its basically black. And it works like a dirty black wash. Here's a before and after on an AoBR marine who was "inbetween jobs":


Right, so the pictures are glossy and the lighting seems to be a bit different between them, but I think the results are pretty good. For *maybe* half an hour's work, I could definitely slap that marine on a table and not be ashamed of him. I would probably do something other than straight black, or I'd go ahead and edge highlight it... but still, you get the idea. Dirty black wash, model wide, plus extra (fairly thick, relatively speaking) hard shell of protection, for just 5 minutes of work dipping and cleaning. I think with a little work on scheme, this could really seal the deal on my deadzone terrain. Hell, I may look to doing my marines this way. I prefer my darker grey, sure, but I'd prefer having half a company done this way as opposed to 10-20 marines in the current style.

Anyway, gonna read and then try to get some sleep for the coming week. Will try to finish working on those five zombies tomorrow, and maybe I'll get ambitious and put a matte sealer down on that marine just to see how it looks.

Happy Hobbying!

Got the mold lines trimmed, things glued into place, and the models mounted. I would have undercoated them, but my compressor was too low to finish the whole unit and I didn't want to chance waking baby by engaging the noisy motor. I matte sealed that grey marine instead, but I didn't bother with a picture... he just didn't look much different for whatever reason.


Yay zombies! I ended up changing the arm's angle for one of the two similarly posed models. I think he looks better than before and less like the other guy. Score.

Hopefully, I get some paint down tomorrow, we'll see!

Strangely, he now looks as if he's telling the rest of his squad to hold. A zombie with some intelligence left? Intriguing

Hope to see the TODO or DIE list nearly done this week

Yeah... hoping to get these undercoated today but we'll see if that goes down... I like the pose better for the zombie in question. Now I just need to make 5 more. And 10 bases. Probably with extra bits... don't wanna make the deadzone bases too tall since they're considered into los and the infinity bases eventually... those will be of a cleaner city scale too.

Ahem. What I was getting at there... was that I may throw some extra junk/height onto these last 10 bases since deadzone and Infinity will both want cleaner bases.

So, here's what we've got in the progress department:


Five zombies thoroughly coated in "ancient mummy bone". Lets see if this approach works better than starting with mahogany ( I think it will)...

And then I got some shots of that marine after his sealer:


Tudor is a nice dirty black wash (just a hint of brown, really), so I think I could probably use the same grey I always use for my shadow knights. Or, better still, if I can find a super close equivalent (either stock or by mixing, like ancient mummy bone) within my airbrush paints... as then I wouldn't have to do as much mixing/thinning every time I wanted to paint a marine.

I'm still a little torn as to whether or not I would still do the lighter grey edge highlighting before the dip. I think the dip has a bit more volume to it than regular washing and it *kind of* ends up looking like both a wash and soft highlight at the same time (if you did it right, and you are lucky), especially after the top coat goes down. Not edge highlighting is preferable as its quicker, but it would probably still look better if I did do it. May experiment some time in a lull.

Besides, even while the TDoD list is nearly done, space marines aren't even on the back burner at this point! Its all that shiny new 6th ed C:SM's fault. Everyone's posting fancy tactics and combos and making new armies... Gah. Hard to stay off the enthusiasm bandwagon/train when I've probably got 4500 points of space marines moping around waiting for paint (and assembly, in some cases).

Anyways... Now that I've got the airbrushing handled, I should be able to chip away at the various steps and stages as the week rolls on. Gotta remember to get on to making those last bases too or I'll have finished models languishing on nails...

Happy Hobbying!

I admit, I don't think I'll ever be tired of seeing SM and there's to me, never enough Space Marines but it all depends: Are you more likely to find a 40k game or another game you still have miniatures left to paint? I would focus on the playable games first

huh. gunz and zombies! Must follow threeeeaaaaddd.....

Also is your name a play on Grim dark?

Yep zombies with guns. Only 10 more and I'm out of corporation marines to zombify though. Have plenty of ghouls, zombies, and corporation arms... but deadzone is coming and 26 zombies will have to be enough for now. Unless you count the plague... they're kind of mutant-zombies with guns. Oh and the hard plastic SciFi zombies too... they may be second shipment though. So I guess a little more zombies :p

@TDL I have no local opponents and the closest game stores are an hour away. Playing is barely on my radar right now. Still, I'm more inclined to work on space marines than retouch one ofmy ffantasy armies . If my buddy gets into it... Infinity is actually my most playable game ATM :p

5 zombies painted and dipped. Gonna try to do bases and finish tomorrow but it'll be close.

Proper update tomorrow for now I must sleep!

@LBM yeah I was trying to think of something less lame than my previous handles and that just hit me while reading a post here about something something grim dark. A little lightbulb went on and I rushed to make an account

Rawr! More shots of me, and 4 of my buddies coming soon (tomorrow?). Our lazy creator muttered something lame about needing sleep so you will have to be content with me for now! Say... Got any spare brains? Can I has? Plez?

Why, you handsome and well painted young man, please tell your creator that's not a valid excuse. That's what coffee is for

Heh, caffeine does nothing for me now, its another chemical in my system. I require it, but it doesn't give me a boost :p.

I took the pictures, just figured I'd sleep instead of edit them. I would have had time but my washing machine was acting up and I'll probably spend some time messing with that tonight as well.

I thought I found a minitaire paint that was equivalent to reaper ash grey but after it dried, it was too grey with not enough of a hint of blue. After a black wash its close. I also discovered that ghost tint oil stain has a fair bit of blue in it and is =\= to black ink.

More later methinks.

Woo hoo, found a bit of time.

First, updated the TDoD list:


Five to go! Awesome!


Here's the batch, woot! I think the middle guy is my favorite, with the zombie to his right being second most. The rest are ok, some above, some below, those who have come before.


Here's a shot of the bases, along with some old friends for comparison. I thought I had an analogue for reaper's HD ash grey in the form of Minitaire badger fur, however, the badger fur was all grey with no light hint of blue like the ash grey. I tried a few things and now I have to redo a few of the other bases for the last batch, like I said... oil discharge is NOT a black wash, there's a lot of blue. It has exciting possibilities... but not for this


This guy isn't my favorite, but he's a solid stock zombie marine. With this (and the next) batch, I've tried to give everyone a gun to balance out some of the more feral zombies from earlier batches.


This guy... Derp...derp... oh hey! shoot shoot shoot. He's only trying somewhat, but at least he showed up. Most people just call in sick when they're dead!


This guy isn't bad, I like him. He has kind of a short torso, and (especially at this angle) his left arm looks a little too large/long. Another solid stock zombie, gotta have some standard/basic guys or the cool dudes won't stand out!


This guy, I kinda like. His hair is green... the same green that, if I had it at the time, I probably would have used for the skin on these guys. Thats ok, I like the brownish tint. This guy looks a bit more like he's got some brain cells left, may remember to keep that tactical flame unit loaded with fuel even. Not especially happy with the highlighting on the brown, I rushed it as I didn't intend to highlight these guys manually at all... what with the dipping and such.


Alright so we've already seen this guy. I need to get some more shots of everyone as there are a few details that stand out better from different angles. This is becoming one of my favorite zombie marines so far. I like the ghoul torso with the legs, while the back has a lot of cloth left, the front really looks like it could be the shirt/jacket he was wearing under his armor. I also like the dismembered hand hanging from his face, its actually meant as an army carrying a head, but I saw no reason not to flip it around


And finally, here we have that same grey space marine from before, but now he's had a second shot of matte sealer. I think he looks so, so much better now that most of the shine is gone. I would need to use a darker base grey, but if I end up continuing my Shadow Knights project, I could see using the dip to really accelerate things. I would have to figure out if there would be any edge highlighting or not... the black would still demand it or look too flat, but if I could get enough definition from the dip that I could skip it on the grey... I think if I could do that, and then just seal them and do the eyes afterwards... I may have the wherewithal to get several batches done. I could save the chipping and battle damage for after I had a playable force. Of course, this is all if enforcers don't just kill space marines for me entirely

So, I have to hit them with the airbrush again to undo my experiments, but the next (last!) five bases are built and have probably less than an hour of time in them total, and all that leaves is assembling and painting the last five zombies. I think if I get a few hours this week (and weekend especially) I can get them hammered out and finish the list two whole months early! Which is great since Mantic decided to accelerate their shipping schedule (which is great ). I should have plenty of time for the Knight Sabers and probably that tech marine. It will be a real struggle to keep from ordering the Bakunin Jurisdictional Command starter box in the mean time

More as soon as I get something done, happy hobbying!

Damn it, I spoke too soon. Here are the Zombies I asked about in all their glorious rot and decay.

I really, really like the more tactical one. He really looks like he has some brains left with that "Squad, Hold"-like movement,

It was glorious to see that list being completed as time flew by. I can't wait to see you curse because of how tiny those Knight Sabers are once you try to paint them

It is going to be rough, I already know it! Worse yet... I'm now regretting not getting a second set when I ordered the first! The shipping actually cost a pound more than the models themselves, and now I have learned that if I want to use them as Riot Grrls, it would really be preferable by far to have five! There are only four, of course, but an alt color scheme would have been sufficient.

Now I'm having crazy ideas of getting out my greenstuff and actually trying to sculpt something beyond fur or fill gaps and the like. Pretty sure its beyond my abilities, but I would like to have five There is always using instant mold and press-molding one, but that's kind of the big Taboo of the hobby and I'd rather not dirty my hands when I could face the challenge head on (and likely fail!).

Wow, just took a detailed look at all the corp. marines stuff. great, great alternative to GW IG models.

Yes sir! I originally picked up the 46 model army set for just that! Something like 3 platoon infantry squads or 2-3 units of vets. They look ok next to marines, they aren't taller than them, but being skinner helps the marines look tougher by comparison. I can't put them next to normal cadians or catachans though, they just don't look right to me... maybe with forgeworld stuff, it seems a bit more on the true scale.

They even include a variety of weapons that resemble plasma/flamer/melta and include them in bulk for the veterans/rangers. Restic is definitely different to work with, but I really like Corporation Marines.

Of course, without anyone locally to play 40k with... I've just reverted to having a nice collection of painted Mantic figures, however, I think I could fidget them into guardsmen if I had to

Bah. Getting these last five zombies done has been like pulling teeth. Well... not mine... Maye like pulling some other person's teeth. I don't think its end of project apathy or anything, I think maybe I just need to work on something different. Fortunately, zombies are done after this (though I'm not ruling out doing more later, especially mixing in the new deadzone-generated sci-fi zombie sprues!), and I've got them all posed. As usual, a couple of them are glued in place (top center and right), and the rest are just blue-tacked. Gotta trim a few of the bits and go in with the glue, may do that tonight.



Running out of good ideas to pose these suckers... Top left is ok, I guess. No love, but I don't hate it, he will get on fine with the other zombies. The middle guy is alright. I may go in and add a bone sticking out of the leg, or just creatively paint it up to resemble gore. The top right though... He's one of my favorites yet I dunno why, something about the quasi-charging position and the one big powered gauntlet left of his "enlisted" days. Bottom left... Least favorite. Possibly of all of the zombies. Just not feeling it, and it took me half an hour to an hour to even get to that point. If I change any of them, it'll be him. May even go to a 'mostly zombie' with just a gun or something. If I don't glue everything and airbrush tonight, I may see about changing him. Bottom right? He looks pretty normal, but note that he *does* have a helmet on... which *could* be interpreted as a way to hide his dead-ness. I'm not really sure, just wanted one normal marine in the bunch. If I ever run the z corp as guardsmen, and I want to use an infantry platoon...If I use the heavy weapon teams inside the units, I can just squish out enough models for the 5 man platoon command squad and two platoon infantry squads. This normal looking fellow would then serve as the platoon commander. That is, of course, on the off chance that three things occur; that I get to play 40k, that I even want to use an IG allied detachment, and that my opponent is ok with the models

I'll try to make some progress on the zombies, or even the knight sabers this weekend. I may lose some time (and or sleep?), however, since my wife was kind enough to pick up a copy of the new space marines codex while she was out of town for work. I don't really like the price of it, and I rarely play... but part of the cost will be recouped in the value as reading material, and much more than that in terms of hours spent making lists (even if I never use them! I've resigned myself to my armchair general fate... for now at least )
But, its basically impossible to get excited about painting space marines if I don't have cool lists for which to build them. The biggest problem will be in choosing which chapter (read: chapter tactics, since I'm hardcore DIY anyway) with which to roll, and especially difficult will be making my marines characterful while still being passable as multiple chapters (at different times, of course).

And she found out for me that, while the gamestore does not carry Infinity at the moment, the store was considering getting Infinity stuff in, starting with the rulebook. The place is still an hour away, but I may be able to sneak out for a quick game of Infinity, I'll have to watch that situation closely

And don't forget, loyal readers ( ), that the Mars Attacks kickstarter will be coming in just over 6 days! I don't think I'll be going crazy over this one, but it looks pretty solid, and there may be a few items within that I'll find too tempting to give a pass.

More later, happy hobbying!

*mini-update* C:SM 6E is in hand, I probably just paid $58 to doom myself into painting at least 1500 points of marines before its over

Glad to know you are still kicking ass. Remember, the only thing between you and working on Infinity / SPESH MAREENS are those 5 zombies, so, DESTROY THEM! ... and when I say destroy, I mean "Paint them as lovely as the previous ones so your list is complete"

Please do enjoy your shiny new codex. I absolutely love it. I have been slowly reading it and enjoying every page.

Yeah, new codex is mini-christmas for armchair generals like me May actually inspire some painting though

Cool zombies. And the codex... If only the cover art wasn't soo derpy.

Kind of like that? I'm more worried about the stuff in the middle, gives me a reason to paint marines and all that

And just for kicks, since I opened the drawer storing them and just had to drag them all out...


I present to you probably the best value I've ever snagged off of eBay!

I've had this stuff for awhile, but I just saw it while going through my storage containers. I came for the speeder, stayed for the ridiculous amount of stuff. I think it was 15, *maybe* $17 after shipping. I felt kind of bad, really, I wouldn't have minded paying more for so much stuff. But, I didn't, and that makes it a stupid value! A fixerupper speeder on ebay was going for around $15 at that time anyway, but look at all of that stuff... Speeder, 4 bikes (one even has a metal chaplain) 4 assault marines (would have to figure out a way to make that work, but still), a full tac squad (in need of some gun swaps but w/e), five metal scouts, a lascannon from LR/razorback, several misc special weapons, and a couple of models (catachan sniper, dark elf w/ xbow) thrown in. That's just silly. Its almost like a mutant special purpose battleforce or something

Of course, they all need a solid bath in LATA, but what an awesome find Stupid deals like that are why I still troll eBay to this day, even though I have more marines than I probably want :p

Got the zombies glued, I did find a better option for the last one. Gonna go mount them on nails and see about a rattle can undercoat. I think I may go back to regular krylon spray priming, its just a lot tougher than my airbrush options, and I'm gonna need durability when I work on the knight sabers and any infinity models for sure.

Stupid marine codex has me rethinking my corporation guys as guardsmen again. All I'd need to do is finish painting my vendetta and decide if/how to use my leman russ and chimera chassis...

Back later with more!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Wee!

Got the zombies primed, and then I had enough time to get the knight sabers on inch long pins (trim them later, easier to handle now) and get them primed as well. Ahh... will be nice to start with a nice flat base, instead of the satin of my airbrush paints. Dunno why they'd make them that way for minis, but oh well. Oh, I also fixed the grey on the two bases that got "messed up", so I just need to finish those as well. Zombies "could" get done this month, but it will probably be early October. The knight sabers are pinned and primed, so they're a bit ahead anyway. Need to think of some nice dramatic bases for them!

Wait, what? All that for 15$?! Now that's what I call doing business! Do give them a LATA bath one of these days, if you don't feel like painting marines I bet you can sell them and make some profit. That way, more money to spend on Infinity! xD

Oh yeah, finish those darn zombies so the list is done!

Oh, and since we are talking Codex artwork:



I freakin' LOVE this codex!

Oh man, I had to go find that one in the book, that's just awesome :p

I've got the compressor charged up, they're ready for a basecoat once the girls are asleep. I may cave and order some infinity models soon... Knight sabers will be hard to do much detail to... so tiny, won't take long to do even if I try to make them fancy.

May paint marines instead though who knows! With 5 marine squads being more of a thing these days, I may be inclined to paint smaller squads with a tank.

May even basecoat the BGC girls later too, if there's time. I'll have to give the zombies time to dry and such.

 TheDraconicLord wrote:

Spoiler:

I freakin' LOVE this codex!

the chaos guy had a fist too. what an idiot.

I found your blog last night and have been skimming through it this morning. Love your work on the zombie corp. Keep up the good work!!!

Thanks Squall, they've been a fun project, though I must say I'll be happy to soon switch to individual models. Hoping to have the last five done in the next few days.

Pull up a seat and stick around, if you like the zombies you will probably like the plague from deadzone I'll be doing in November/December.

I wanted to get deadzone, but dropped at the end because I wasn't sure about mantic's quality. Since then I've changed my mind and look forward to picking it up at release.