Last Two Zombicide: Invader Monsters Complete!

Having finished flocking the bases this morning, I can count these last two "Zombicide: Invader" monsters complete and ready to see action in games of Majestic 13 - indeed, one of them's destined to appear in the next game! 

First up, the "Widowmaker Abomination," a spidery thing with long, spiky legs. It's meant to sit on a clear acrylic post, but the gent who sold it to me couldn't find the base to go with it. 

 Not the end of the world! I wound up cutting off the back legs, drilling the legs and body, and using bent pieces of paperclip to reattach the legs at a different angle, allowing it to stand stably without the post and to tilt it back slightly, raising the head and front set of limbs into a more active position. 

 A little greenstuff to cover the gaps where the legs re-met the body and the fill the peg-hole in the belly and it was ready for priming.

 I kept the paint job simple - prime white, go over with GW "Nighthaunt Gloom" contrast paint, then a heavy drybrush of Reaper "Aircraft Gray." The spikes on the back and the two tentacles at the end of the body were given a little bit of a green glaze to break up the gray. 

 All in all, I'm really pleased with how this one turned out, with the repositioned legs working great - it stands just fine even without the base, all four feet on the ground, which to me is a sign of a job well done. 

The second figure didn't need any conversion; this is the "Shadow Abomination" and it reminds me very much of the "Aliens" action figures I had as a kid in the early 1990s, loosely based on the 1986 James Cameron film. Most of the Xenomorph figures in that line were molded in colored metallic plastic or black and given a heavy drybrush of colored metallics. I decided to follow that look here.

 Over black primer, I drybrushed the figure originally with Reaper "Gunmetal Blue," and when that wasn't quite what I was looking for, went over the entire figure with TurboDork "Let Them Eat Cake," a colorshift paint that varies from dark blue to plum based on the angle the light's hitting it at. I only gave it a single coat so the colorshift isn't too apparent, but it definitely yielded a deeper metallic blue color that I like a lot.

 The tubes connecting to the throat were given a base coat of Reaper "Dungeon Slime," followed by a wash of GW "Biel-Tan Green," highlighted back up with "Dungeon Slime" and finally glazed with GW "Waywatcher Green." The tongues are Vallejo "Warlock Purple" washed with GW "Druchii Violet."

 I think after this I only have 3-4 more monsters to paint for Majestic 13, which is a pretty good feeling! 

While I was at it, I finished a pair of Northstar Robots, originally released for the game Rogue Stars, to use as Destroyer Drones in future "Special" Missions against the aliens who are dropping these monsters off on Earth.

 These were dead simple - spray black, heavy silver drybrush, then going over the panels with contrast paint for a colored metallic look; on the left uses GW "Baal Red" and the right uses Army Painter "Magic Blue" speed paint. I think the blue worked out a lot better than the red but no complaints about either one of them. Picking out the eyes on Vallejo Scorpion Green completed the look. 

So that's four more for the completed side of the tracker, things are looking good...except a buddy of mine found a stash of old Wargames Factory plastic zombies to give to me. Once I receive those from him the red side will be jumping...

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 168

Terrain Acquired: 2

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 10

 

Here Come the Zombies

 The first 20 Zombies are finished, which means hopefully I can get a game of Zombie RV in sooner rather than later!

 This first batch are 50/50 Copplestone Castings and Recreational Conflict figures. I like that there's themed groupings within the Recreational Conflict line - this batch has four zombies in paper hospital gowns, a zombie doctor and two zombie nurses - one in scrubs and a hairnet, right up front, and one in the little white uniform who's not super visible in the group shot. 

So let's break this group down into smaller groups, shall we?

First up are the Copplestone "Zombie Troopers." This was a fun batch, and I kept their clothing uniform - Army Painter "Woodland Camo" pants, Reaper "Desert Stone" shirts, washed with Army Painter "Strong Tone" and highlighted with the base color. The body armor was Reaper "Midnight Blue," washed with "Strong Tone," then highlighted with "Twilight Blue."

 Next, the Copplestone "Plague Zombies":

 I appreciate that two of them are in their underwear. 

Next up, the Recreational Conflict zombies - Doctor, nurses, and four patients in paper hospital gowns:

 And yes:

 And finally, for now, another three Recreational Conflict sculpts I grabbed from my primed pile:

 The one on the left is a surfer, I just still need to paint and affix the remnants of his surfboard, which appears to have been bitten in half by a shark.

 What's next? I've got another 14 Recreational Conflict sculpts to work my way through. But first...

I have to update another line on the tracker as well - Atomic Laser Cut Designs sent me a complimentary copy of one of their kits! They rolled out a new retail store kit and I'd commented positively on it on their Facebook page, as well as provided some free promotion on my own page. Next thing I knew, a copy of the kit showed up in my mailbox - just hours after I'd ordered a copy! Now I've got two; in keeping with the run-down, seedy and a bit low-life vibes I've gone for with my terrain, they're going to be a liquor store and an adult bookstore. I'm already working on the liquor store, and here's a sneak peek:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 164

Terrain Acquired: 2

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 10

 

Majestic 13: Operation Nightmare Fuel

 The final round of "debriefing" - interrogation, really - had barely concluded when the Lieutenant's burner phone chirped. He stared dumbfounded at the message.

"They've already got a mission lined up for us," he said incredulously. 

"Are you kidding me?" Becky whined. "I haven't even washed the antiseptic spray off me after the fourth round of 'checking me for alien implants' and they want me back in the field? My skincare regimen's totally shot!"

"What are they sending us out after?" Hank said quietly, an intense look in his eyes.

"Gzurn Shadow," the Lieutenant replied slowly. "Nasty bastards, nearly totally invisible at night. They'll blind you without even noticing you. Rumor has it these things'll eat an entire M13 squad and the only evidence it was ever there is that it leaves no trace of its presence behind."

He laughed hollowly. 

"They want us to collect tissue samples while we're at it."

"You know what this is?" Maria snapped. "This is workplace retaliation. Someone call HR."

"Whatever," Sarah-Jane said, her voice neutral and empty. "Let's kill the lousy thing and get it over with. Don't give the higher ups any more reasons to suspect us of anything."

*** 

The fireworks stand I got from Black Site Studio feels like a mandate to play a game on the July 4th weekend and have it on the table, so I set up my next game of Majestic 13. Fittingly, I rolled up a monster that looked challenging and a fairly nasty result on the mission bureaucracy table - "Amongst the Enemy," which meant the monster would be deploying after my team and within 6" of two of them. And to top it all off, I got a FUBAR result at the beginning of the first turn - "Civilians" were on the table! 

 

The Gzurn Shadow slithered out of the darkness beneath the billboard, and leapt across the alley to tackle Maria, its dark tentacles flailing and striking her blind. Striking again for good measure, it vanished into the night, reappearing in an alley across the street.

 Hank leapt across the divide from the shoe store to the TeeVee Shak, and sprayed the alley with gunfire - and missed! Maria struggled and failed to clear her blindness, feeling her way down the ladder from the roof of the pizza place and towards the street. Becky and Sarah-Jane both fired on the Shadow with minimal success. 

 With a howl, the Shadow hurled itself up on to the TeeVee Shak roof, engulfing Hank in its tentacles and blinding him.

 The Lieutenant closed in, taking a running leap from the roof of the OTB parlor on to a passing truck, before firing at the creature and missing; it retaliated with an area of effect ability, forcing the entire team to save versus blindness and damage, with the Lieutenant failing. 

 So right at this moment, three out of five agents are blind...

Maria managed to shake hers off, and raced down the street in the direction the creature was heading; Becky followed the monster as it squirted on to the roof of the Urgent Care. 

 It wasn't long, however, before the creature was on the move again. While the Lieutenant couldn't shake his blindness, Hank did and ran towards the creature's latest hiding place.

 The Shadow came boiling out at him, hitting him and unleashing its area of affect ability, blinding him and Maria.

 And the creature was off again.

 It was quickly making a nuisance of itself, as the Lieutenant continued to struggle to clear his vision. Hank and Maria cleared theirs, but couldn't find the creature.

"We're here tonight with a visiting alien monster..."

"Hey girl, you see something tall and twice as ugly as shit run by here?"

The team began to have a lot of trouble putting eyes on the Shadow, with it disappearing between buildings and blending into the shadows. Once spotted, it let loose with its area of effect, blinding Becky as she collected a tissue sample from the fireworks stand.

 The team managed to put enough hurt on it, chipping away bit by bit, that the Shadow went into Extremis, becoming far more aggressive and dangerous - and putting Maria and Hank out of action!

 At the end of the fifth turn, it all came down to Sarah-Jane. As long as she successfully hit the creature with her sniper rifle and didn't roll minimum damage, she'd kill the Shadow. 

 

She lined up the shot, and... 

 

Oh, no. The Gzurn Shadow limped off to menace another day as the Last Liners withdrew to salvage what little OPSEC they could.  

***

"Oh dear, Lieutenant, this is disappointing. But perhaps we allowed ourselves to get our hopes up too far over your past successes? After all, one's luck does run out, sooner or later, doesn't it?" The blond man pursed his lips and tapped his pen against the blotter on his desk.

"We're lucky we got off as easy as we did," the Lieutenant growled. "By all rights that should have been a meat-grinder. The damned monster was in our DZ waiting for us!"

"Yes, it is... interesting, isn't it, that you managed to escape with so little lasting harm done to your team? Other teams have, as you know, disappeared entirely when confronted with a Gzurn Shadow. And yet your team, save for Maria, escaped with only superficial injuries. Some might find that fact suspicious, Lieutenant."

"Where is Maria?" The Lieutenant demanded brusquely. 

"There were some unusual readings on her EEG. She's being held for further study for the time being; once we clear up those little discrepancies on the print-out she'll be free to go."

*** 

Well, that could have gone better, though to be fair when I saw the "Amongst the Enemy" bureaucracy result I was expecting much worse! Did I kill the monster? No. Did I complete the secondary objective? Also no. Rolling a "1" on the last shot of the game, which could have made all the difference, smarts some, for sure. 

Hank recovered from his injuries without issue, while Maria has a "Questionable Injury" and is going to miss the next game.  

Only the Lieutenant, Sarah-Jane and Becky had enough XP, between what they'd banked previously and what they earned this game, to trade in for ability score increases. The Lieutenant boosted Dexterity again, while Sarah-Jane and Becky raised their Acuity by one. 

I tried again to requisition a targeting HUD and got denied, and tried to requisition power armor for Hank now that I've got access to Phase 2 gear, and that also got denied. But I do have a drone control pod for the base now, which gives me opportunities to spot and call in drone strikes on monsters that I don't have direct LOS to, which is nice.  

So what's next for the Last Liners? Next mission's taking them out into the wilderness again... 

Two More Monsters for Majestic 13

 Completed two more monsters for my stable of boojums for Majestic 13 this morning, and well pleased with both of them.

First up is a "Mother-in-Law Abomination" from the board game "Zombicide: Invader," which - I have no idea why it's called that. Some of them - "Stomper Abomination," "Shadow Abomination" more or less make sense and tell you something about how it operates. Is this one going to nag me about not having a good enough job to support my wife? 

 I mostly followed the board game art for this one, though I added a bit more red glazing to the carapace and I changed the tongue color to a vibrant, alien green. 

 This was mostly done with Army Painter speed paints over a white primer coat; two coats of "Ancient Honey" for the yellow armor, and a coat of "Goddess Glow" for the pinkish flesh in between. The red glazing was my trusty old pot of GW "Bloodletter" glaze. The tongue was Reaper "Dungeon Slime" glazed with GW "Waywatcher Green," and the little teeth and the two claws on the tail are Reaper "Yellowed Bone."

 

The second one is a 3D print I got from Etsy - the figure is called an "Adolescent Dark Young," and I got it from TranscendantalPrints, who I've ordered from before. He changed the resin he's using for his prints, however, and I was less happy with what I got in this batch than I was with previous orders, and the figures in that order required some extra curing and cleaning compared to previous figures I'd gotten from him. 

 

The Dark Young is a monster from the Cthulhu Mythos, a waddling, tree-shaped creature on hoofed legs capable of grabbing and crushing multiple people at once in its tentacles. I had this one printed at 50mm tall, and largely painted it based on how the monster's traditionally depicted in game art.

 

Over a white primer coat I painted Army Painter "Dark Wood" speed paint over the entire figure, and once dry I drybrushed with Reaper "Desert Stone." Over that, I gave it an all over wash of GW "Athonian Camoshade." I added another drybrushing of "Desert Stone" over the body and legs, leaving the crown of tentacles untouched, and then glazed the tentacles with GW "Waywatcher Green."

 

After that, I painted the interior of the mouth with Reaper "Dungeon Slime" and applied some "Waywatcher Green" to emphasize the interior texture before picking out the teeth in Reaper "Yellowed Bone." I like how the interior of the mouth almost seems to glow.  

I've got three more prints left to paint from this order, and they're designs I'm really excited for; I'll probably give them one more once-over with isopropyl alcohol and a UV light to be absolutely certain they're totally cured, however, before I try painting them. Getting sent uncured resin has been a recurring problem for me with ordering 3D printed figures; these weren't the most egregiously bad (I ordered a set of printed scenic bases that went straight in the trash because they were so soft I was leaving fingerprints in them) but it's been happening so frequently that I expect these are going to be the last 3D printed figures I buy.  

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 144

Terrain Acquired: 1

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 10

 

More Completed Modern Figures

 I've completed another batch of figures, some of whom have been moldering in my leadpile for...a very long time, let's leave it at that. It's a good mix today, including a bunch that will likely prove useful for games like Zombie RV.

First up, a mix of Copplestone troopers. These are leftovers from "Female Troopers" and "Mercenaries" packs from the Future Wars range, mixed together and given a cohesive paint scheme. The armor might be a little bright, but it's not bad. Maybe they're an elite anti-zombie or anti-alien force?

 The shirtless Ah-nuld clone had a pretty severe mold line running right down the middle of his face that was a doozy to try and fix. 

Next up, some trailer park inhabitants; these are mostly from a Copplestone "Citizen Militia" pack, with the woman carrying a shotgun coming from a "Babes With Guns" pack. I'm pretty proud of the slogans I carefully lettered onto the T-shirts with a brush. Note also the guy with a Dale Earnhardt Sr. cap and a Marlboro jacket. 

 Finally, some miscellaneous; the woman in the silver boots and swimsuit is from the same Copplestone "Babes With Guns" pack as Miss Shotgun above, while the bald guy with the rifle is from Hasslefree Miniatures and has been sitting half-done on my desk for almost two years. I hadn't been happy with how his skin was looking and set him aside, but I got that issue resolved and finished him off. 

The middle figure is from Crooked Dice, and is intended to look like Kelly LeBrock as she appeared in the movie "Weird Science." I went with different colors, painting her legs as bare instead of covered by leotards, producing a wild "swimsuit and tube top look." After I gave her red hair, I thought to myself, "redheads tend to be fair skinned and prone to sunburn, what if I painted a sunburn on her?" A red glaze later she was sunburned, and then I went, "what if I painted some tanlines on her to show areas that didn't get burned?"

 

I'm pretty amused/pleased with how it turned out. 

So that's another 13 figures completed...but I got a pack of 28mm sheep in the mail today (the first scenario for Zombie RV calls for a couple), and I ordered some more cars from Miniature Tanks, so there's a couple lines on the tracker getting updated today.

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 142

Terrain Acquired: 4

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 7

Scatter Painted: 10