Before and after...

Zabadak asked to see what the Horroclix Freakshow figures looked like before the conversion into Brutes so here we go...

I'd like to thank everyone for their extremely kind comments regarding my blog postings, it certainly inspires me to do more.

Regarding the painting style on the zombies I must give all the credit to Army Painter for their Strong Tone dip which works wonderfully over GW's Rotting Flesh. I am literally block painting the undead and then using the dip to pleasing results.

Zombie brutes...

The army lists in Apocalypse-Z allow for the inclusion in the horde of zombies who have "for some unknown reason grown to massive proportions. These "brutes" as they have come to be known, have all the same horrifying characteristics as their smaller counterparts, yet can tear a living man limb from limb in its quest for a meal".

Clearly the Wargames Factory zombies weren't going to be up to scratch. I did track down some photos of some old Reaper Flesh Golems that looked like they would do the part but unfortunately the ones I liked were OOP. The Horrorclix Freakshow series had a couple of figures in that looked interesting but would require work to fit in the background I am using (freakshows are so un-British these days!)

First was Herculon, a great undead figure of a zombie strongman holding aloft half a victim he has just torn apart (fitting in perfectly with the brute fluff). However the figure had some chains around the torso and was only wearing a pair of tight strongman shorts.

This necessitated some conversion with the chains being cut away (carefully not clipping away the lovely guts falling out of his stomach) and adding some clothes in the form of the remnants of a torn shirt (helping covering the areas damaged removing the chains) using Green Stuff and some badly torn trousers.

Overall quite pleased with the end result after he was painted and dipped, he towers over the main horde...

The Hungry Bertha figure is truly gross and I really wasn't sure it work in the horde as I am trying to avoid comic elements. The figure is nude apart from a bib, holding a cleaver and sat on small wooden stool.

The cleaver and the stool were removed and quite a bit of Green Stuff was used to build her backside back up! I added some Green Stuff to her back to make it look like she was wearing an ill-fitting vest and around painted Liquid Green Stuff around the legs and buttocks to make it look like she is wearing those horrible lycra leggings.

I positioned her slightly leaning forward which seems to work quite well. Bearing in mind I was very unsure whether she would work at all, I am pleased with the end result, she makes a great brute.

More zombies...

I managed to finish a few more zombies for the horde today, five from the Horrorclix range, a couple of old Copplestone that have been sat on "Lead Mountain" for a while and a D&D figure.

The Horrorclix figures have all been rebased and repainted to fit in with the Wargames Factory main horde. Some of the figures are noticeably larger than the WF ones but people are all different sizes and shapes aren't they? From left to right we have the Shambling Zombie, Zombie Patient, Zombie Lawyer, Hardhat Zombie and Sorority Zombie. I'm not keen on the shambling one but the hardhat and lawyer zombies are very good.

The two old Copplestone Metals have been painted using the same block then dip method along with a D&D Strahd Zombie which is suffering from a bit of backwards bend which I haven't managed to fix despite the old hot/cold water trick. Still it is not too bad for a zombie and the fantasy costume looks rather like that of the New Age folk you see wandering around Glastonbury.

And the dead will rise...

Zombies... Like many wargamers I love them but despite playing them in fantasy and Weird War Two games and had many hours fun with Twilight Creations' Zombies!!! I have never tacked zombies in a contemporary setting as a tabletop wargames project. However, with three packs of Wargames Factory 28mm zombies amongst my son's Christmas presents the time has now come!

Both Saul and I love The Walking Dead but 28 Days/Weeks Later is also very popular here and having a slight apathy towards the traditional US zombie background I have decided to set our gaming in a zombie infected UK which should also make it easier to obtain vehicles and scenic items.

There is also another reason for choosing a UK background. I have been slowly working on a contemporary UK Civil War project (England Prevails) and I realised that the soldiers, police and militia units I intend to raise for that could do double duty fighting zombies (as could scenery and some vehicles).

Rules wise whilst All Things Zombie is very popular (and we may gravitate towards them) we are going to kick off with Apocalypse Z, a zombie Battlefield Evolution supplement from Exploding Goat Games as the basic game is highly playable and I picked up copies of both off eBay for 99p each.

With other demands on my time I suspect blogging on Undead Kingdom will be in fits and starts but there is an appetite ("brainsss...") to get the risen dead on the table and start double tapping them in the head to make sure they stay down!