My top 11 of 2021

Crap, I spared every expense doing a header image and then accidentally deleted it. Oops. So here's one I nicked.

'I admire its purity'

"A survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. I can't lie to you about your chances... but you have my sympathies."

Jakul Frosti, the First Krampus

Jakul Frosti stalks down a snow-covered street past gaily decorated houses. He knows if you've been naughty and he knows if you've been nice, but it really doesn't matter. You'll still be getting an ice sword through the abdomen if he spots you.

Hazmat Team Beta

Hazmat Team Beta cautiously makes its way through a zombie-infested area in search of survivors. So far there's no sign of Team VHS.

Nativity Scene

This is my all-time fave nativity scene. The pack of Camels just elevates it to absolute gold status. But unfortunately it's not the topic of this post.

Dragoth

Dragoth the Defiler, Undead Lord, has just stepped on a Lego brick. And yes, that is my giant wererat on the left in the background, which shows how long this model's been sitting on my desk.

Temple Dragon

In case anyone is thinking "wait, this looks familiar", it's because I got 90% of the way through painting this dragon when I realised I was using the same technique and pretty much the same colours as I did for my byakhees back in May. Oops.

Cultists of Hastur

I gave up on these guys back at the end of Monster May(hem). I couldn't get Hastur painted right, so I didn't see the point of having a go at his merry band of followers. But then I decided to try something different...

Angels of Sorrow

The angel statues outside the abandoned crypt seem to be in slightly different positions and poses every time you see them, but that's just your imagination, right? Right?

Warhammer Undead Chariot: Finished!

I guessed this would be a bit of a sod to paint, and I wasn't too wrong. But happily the painting and basing went well in the end... I just wish I could say the same for the final steps.

Mo'Vember: Luwin Phost, Wizard

YOU SHALL NOT oh wait wrong wizard.

Warhammer Undead Chariot: Horses

After bringing the primed chariot from the garage to the spare room, I discovered I'd forgotten to spray the undersides. So I took another trip downstairs and sprayed the unprimed bits white. While it was drying I decided to just get on with painting the horses.

Mo'Vember: Dark Dwarf Pounder

I bought this bushy-bearded Reaper mini off Amazon last year, and if you're thinking "I bet he got it to get free shipping" you'd be right. At the time I didn't know Mo'Vember existed, so he's come in handy for this month's challenge. I've named him Hywel Rhysson and he's the first dwarf I've ever painted.

Warhammer Undead Chariot

Way back in January I mentioned how much I wanted to make and build this chariot, and almost a year later I've finally made a start. It's just occurred to me that doing it for Zombtober would have been a good idea, but this is me we're talking about.

Great Obelisk of C'thulhu

In the middle of a dark, forbidding forest, a stone obelisk has stood for as long as locals can remember. They speak of it in hushed tones and outsiders are advised to keep away from it. But some adventurous types believe there is a copy of the Necronomicon on its base, and have gone in search of the obelisk to secure the tome and its powers. The forest has quietly absorbed them.

Apocalypse Me: An in-tents experience

A couple of zombies stagger past an abandoned tent on a patch of wasteground behind the inevitable convenience store. The decomposing body of its owner lies outside, oblivious to the shambling undead.

Apocalypse Me: Zombie hunters part 11

Four more survivors battle a horde of zedheads by the dumpster. It's the only place they can afford to rent.

Apocalypse Me: The ones that didn't make it

I saw these TTCombat corpses on Amazon in late 2018 and bought them with the same amount of thought a Kentucky meth head gives to stealing car stereos. These chaps have spent almost three years lounging around in the Magical Box of Unloved Lead, and the double whammy of Zombtober and Apocalypse Me is the perfect reason to finally get at least some of them painted.

Zombtober: A quartet of corpses

Calvin gets ready to take out some zedheads who are stinking up the alley behind the convenience store.

Apocalypse Me: Soul survivors

Well it's been five weeks and I'm assuming my Hasslefree survivors have succumbed to a zombie apocalypse in the depths of Caerphilly. Luckily these groovy mofos turned up a couple of days ago and gave me another chance to do some stuff for Dave's Apocalypse Me challenge. Here they are in the usual crappily-lit photos.

Apocalypse Me: Mucking up a Mustang

Edna waves her deadly walking stick as the zombie hoard makes its way around an abandoned car behind the convenience store.

Zombtober: Six more shamblers

Another group of crumbling corpses make their way past what's apparently the most popular convenience store in existence.

Zombtober / Apocalypse Me: Survivors and zombies

I usually do my zombie survivors in groups of four, but as I'm STILL waiting on an order from Hasslefree (which I'm not blaming on them, from what I've heard it's more to do with a shortage of postal workers in Vermont) I dug around in my storage boxes for any suitable minis for Zombtober. Luckily I found this pair and set about slapping on the paint.

Space Wolves Terminator Librarian

Despite being ecstatically happy at getting a Terminator Captain on Ebay, I wasn't exactly happy with how much he cost. I swore off buying Oldhammer minis for a while, but that lasted all of two months when I found this classic mini selling for the astonishingly cheap price of $12 including shipping.

Zombtober: Zombie Vixens

I can safely say I've never before painted so much cleavage.

Ashen Claws Kill Team

Bear in mind I haven't actually bought any of the Kill Team rulebooks as they're hugely overpriced and, as the latest one's only just come out, are probably full of errors. I have been able to find basic rules and datacards online so they'll do for now.

Gug

It's back to huge metal monsters today as I'm waiting on more zombies and survivors to show up in the mail for this month's double challenge of Zombtober and Apocalypse Me. So strap in and enjoy.

Zombtober / Apocalypse Me: Maggie get your gun

Your eyes do not deceive you: that is indeed former British prime minister, baroness and milk snatcher Margaret Thatcher wielding a Bren gun as a small horde of former cabinet members zombies attack.

Lardgulp, Two-Headed Troll

Another day, another troll, apparently. This chunky boi isn't a recent purchase; if memory serves I bought him back in 2019 and found him a few days ago in yet another box of crap. He was still in his blister pack, and apart from a slightly bent sword was in great condition.

Marsh Troll

This dour chap was an impulse buy off Amazon. Sculpted by Bob Olley, I really like his air of melancholy as he trudges home through a cold and bleak marsh.

Zombie hunters part 10

Here's the latest survivors who are shooting or bashing their way through a brave new world of shambling undead horrors. They're all by Hasslefree.

Season of Scenery: Monster Egg finished

Well, it's... done, I guess.

Mean Little Zombie

Mackenzie might be a walking corpse, but she's never going to stop judging you, your clothes, your hair, your makeup and your social standing in high school. She's also never inviting you to one of her parties. 

Zombie dog handler

I think this 'orrible chap and his decaying doggo were started in May last year. After finding him while tidying up my shelves and storage (our spare room is a bomb site of crap right now) I thought it was about time I got him finished.

Theris Vinsom, Mercury Flyer

I saw this on Reaper's site a few months ago and thought it was pretty cool. It's one of those minis Reaper does that's just kind of there: I don't know if they're going to do a series of these futuristic vehicles but I hope so as I'd buy another. It's also another Reaper mini that has literally one painted example when you google it (well, two now).

Death Eagles Space Marine

One day, home alone and bored, I typed "death eagle space marine" into Ebay. You can guess what happened next.

Season of Scenery: Some bits and pieces

Rihanna's waiting for Mercedes to shuffle a bit closer. 

Zombie hunters part 9

Having painted stuff for eight(!) challenges* this year, it's nice to just paint something for the hell of it. Meet Rihanna, Dakota, William and Neil, just chillin' in front of the abandoned convenience store. All of them are Hasslefree figures.

Season of Scenery: One of them had to go wrong

Nothing to see here, move along...

Season of Scenery: Billboard

One great thing about this build was that I barely used any actual model paint; it was mostly done with craft paints. I have to admit that I used to look down on cheap acrylics, but for doing large bits of scenery they're excellent, especially at 55 cents a bottle rather than the usual $3.50 for a pot of Vallejo. Anyway, here we go.

Season of Scenery: Barricades

Officer Neil, one of my new Hasslefree figures who'll get his own post soon, stands guard in front of barricades protecting the ruined convenience store. Rumour has it the world's last can of Coke is in there. 

Making some moulds

As part of the ongoing Season of Scenery challenge, I want to make some urban barricades. They're way more suited to post-apoc/zombie games and 40k than weird eggs or fences or ruined chapels or skull rocks... well, the fences will probably work. I enjoy making the sci-fi or fantasy scenery, but I need to concentrate on one genre till I've got enough.

Season of Scenery: Monster egg 2

A bit of a short update just to prove I'm alive and still working on this thing.

Season of Scenery: Convenience store finished!

Berkely fires up her chainsaw to battle Suzi for the last roll of toilet paper. Yes, I've finished the store (FINALLY) and I'm happy with it, but pissed off with the crappy photos.

Blood Angels Terminator Captain

An artist's impression of me when I saw this mini on Ebay.

Season of Scenery: Monster egg

I saw this last month on one of the few Black Magic Craft tutorial videos I hadn't watched and wanted to give them a go. Luckily Alicia had bought some cheap hollow plastic eggs in Walmart at Easter, so I had the basic ingredients. In the interests of full disclosure, I will be copying a lot of BMC's work in terms of techniques as he did an awesome job.

Season of Scenery: Convenience store 3

This is where I got to last time: plenty of progress made, but plenty still left to do.

Season of Scenery: Convenience store 2

With the Warhammer cottage finished I turned my attention back to the store, at least until I start doing one of the other two projects I have lined up for this year's Season of Scenery. As I was building this in short bursts in between completing the cottage, this post might be a bit disjointed, so bear with me.

Season of Scenery: Warhammer Cottage (yes, *that* one)

HI GUYS! REMEMBER ME?

Season of Scenery: Convenience store

It's here again, the challenge at which I failed miserably last year. This year, however, I'm raring to go with an MDF building I bought back in December specifically for the 2021 Season of Scenery, along with a couple of smaller projects. And I might even complete one this time!