Survivor Elsa the cat burglar

I spent some time at the painting table and made great use of the magnifier to bring Elsa to life. I used the painting plan that I discussed in my previous post. I am quite happy with the result.

I got the facial detail without swamping the model with paint. The definition is retained. I did the eyes and got them on the first attempt. This has been a historic issue for me. I find the pupil very difficult. On this occasion I went with the small vertical black line over the white eyeball. I then covered the the over paint with flesh colour both under and over the eye.

The flesh tones worked out OK. I can do better on this front but that will be for another day.

I used grey paint with blue washes on the guns. There is a final highlight to pick up the top most edges.

I used the light grey layering technique on the cat suit and a black wash to knock it back. The wash worked really well. I was worried that is was all too grey at one point. I used the white hair line highlight very sparingly and it does draw the eye.

The hair was a mess and it took several attempts. I had over used the highlights at one point such that it was really distracting. I knocked it all back and just picked out some of the edges in the end.

I still have the Zombivor to do. I plan to follow a different route for the catsuit. Robert Audin commented that he paints the black areas dark grey, then adds highlights and finally knocks it back with black washes. I think that this sounds good and I am looking forward to trying it out.

Elsa, the cat burglar, the painting plan

I am an attack minded individual. It just seems to be the way I am wired. In 40k I play Orks and just love their fast moving approach to battle. Move quickly into position and plant a well placed choppa or two. You get used to the mind set.

In Zombicide I also like the fast moving characters. Wanda is a particular favourite, what with her being on roller skates and getting to move two squares instead of one.

I discussed the four new characters in Toxic City Mall on a previous post with the result that Elsa, the cat burglar has become a likely favourite for me. I like the free door opening action and later she gains Slippery and enhanced movement making her a potential game winner. Should suit my style of play. As a result she will be first to enter the painting arena.

All the models I have painted so far have had a basic paint job, good enough to get them onto the playing table. At tournaments this used to be defined as having 'at least colours on the model'. I have done a bit better than that and have applied washes and highlights but it is still fairly basic. Works well on the gaming table though.

With Elsa I plan to spend some more time and get some of the detail painted. I want to get some good detail on the face so eyes and lips etc. This will be tough as the model is so small but lets see. I am conscious that I need to get it right first time or I will lose the definition on the models face. Very light layers of paint is the plan.

I want to make a much better job of the skin and get some highlights on the raised surfaces.

The mad auburn hair will be a challenge. It should offset the black very nicely and frame the face perfectly. More reason to get the face right.

Finally I want to paint the catsuit black and achieve highlights. I am a great user of the 'wash' technique and this is much less effective on black. I contemplated 'copping out' and going for a blue cat suit but decided against that line of action. I think that using an extreme highlight might work better to give the effect of light bouncing from the black latex. The plan is to go for black with grey layered highlights. Then wash with a very watered down black for a shine. Follow this with a near white highlight.

Lets see how things pan out ;-)

Toxic City Mall, Zombicide expansion

After enjoying a fantastic day of Zombicide I decided that I 'needed' to get the expansion myself and explore the new characters, paint the zombivors for the the first survivors set and have a play with the new toxic zombies.

The zombivors are cool models and I am looking forward to spending some time with them. I have sorted out the paint set from the garage and am getting ready to make a start.

The zombivors for Phil, Ned, Amy, Wanda, Doug and Josh come with the expansion. I thought they could be bought separately but I couldn't find them for sale on their own. As usual the level of detail is really good and they will be a joy to have a go at.

There are also four new characters, each with their own zombivor.

We have Elsa, Neema, Raoul and Derek.

Lets start by having a look at Elsa, the cat burglar.

The model is super sexy with lots of curves to tackle as well a mountain of red hair. Should be really interesting to paint. I struggle to achieve a good look with black but I am determined to do a good job on the catsuit. She has that zipper a long way down which should provide some interesting contrast.

Elsa has the 'breaking' skill which is very appropriate. The rule allows Elsa a free move when opening doors and she does not have to have a piece of equipment with the door opening rule. Very handy indeed. As she advances her skills she gains Slippery at Orange level plus either 1 free Move Action or 2 zones per Move Action. This could be very useful towards the end of a game. The other options are to give her +1 free Ranged Action at Orange level and then +1 free Combat Action at Red level. I suppose that could depend on what the group needs and how she is armed. It does feel like the enhanced movement is the way to go though.

Next we have Neema, the executive.

Neema has the 'Born Leader' skill. This was discussed when I had a look at Chef Ramsay. A very good skill for the group as it gives one extra action to any member of the team.

At Orange level there are two directions that can be taken a) a free Combat Action which stacks with either a free Melee Action or free Ranged Action at Red level or b) she can be turned into a tank with 'Is that all you've got'. This allows her to discard equipment instead of getting wounds. At Red level this can be combined with Tough, where you ignore the first attack from a single Zombie.

Neema feels like she would be great for the group and the tank option means that she will play very differently from anyone else. I can't wait to try her out.

Next comes Raoul, the contractor.

His standard skill is Webbing. This means that everything he holds is as if it was in his hand. This could be handy to give options later in the game. He could be holding guns and still use hand to hand weapons or door opening weapons without loosing an Action.

At Orange level he gets Hoard or Medic. Hoard allows him to hold an extra piece of equipment whereas Medic allows him to Heal one survivor per turn by removing a Wound Card. They must be in the same zone though. Medic sounds like the way to go here. At Red level there is the option to get +1 free Melee Action, +1 Ranged Action or +1 to dice roll: Ranged. I suppose that will depend to what the group needs at that point in the game.

So he is an 'all rounder' with the Medic skill setting him apart.

Finally we have Derek, the locator.

Derek starts with +1 max range. This can be handy throughout the game. At Orange level there are again two main choices for the character a) go all out for Melee with +1 free Melee Action and combine this with +1 to dice roll: Combat at Red level or b) Toxic immunity and with +1 free Move Action or Slippery at Red level.  Toxic Immunity mean that Derek is not effected by Toxic Blood spray.

In fact there are a few possible combinations here. Toxic immunity could be combined with +1 to dice roll: Combat.

It is a bit of a confusion really. The base skill of +1 max Range means that Derek should be armed with guns and the like, so this does not really sit with Melee benefits or Combat skills. I think that the way to go here is Toxic immunity followed by +1 free Move Action. This should keep Derek mobile and allow him to operate shooting from maximum range.

So in Summary - Elsa is a movement specialist, Neema is a Tank, Raoul is a healer and Derek is a ranged weapons specialist. Different play styles should make for interesting Survivors groups. A good addition to the base game. I like it.

Now - lets get the paints out :-)

Jesse - Chef Ramsay - Zombicide

Yes indeed folks it is nice to play a character that you feel that you know and get into. I received Chef Ramsay as a present recently and was delighted to be able to give him an outing.

(Excuse the basic paint job. Slapped together in a hour just before play.)

He comes with the 'Born Leader' rule. This allows him to give a free action to another character. It must be taken in their next turn or they lose it. He can take it himself, if desired. It doesn't sound much but in reality is really does help the group.

Who is the biggest bad ass in the group that can dish out lots of damage. Lets them have another action and the potential for carnage increases.

Who is in trouble and really needs a hand? Give them an extra action to improve their mobility or damage dealing opportunity.

When you reach the Orange Phase he turns into a Melee expert by adding +1 to his Melee dice roll or becoming a Swordmaster, Treat all melee weapons as if they had the Dual symbol. Imagine welding a couple of Chainsaws. Now that would be some fun!

At Red level there are a further three Melee options to choose from, a free Melee action, +1 die in Melee or +1 to his Melee dice roll.

So Chef Ramsay is a man for getting the sharp knives out and getting stuck in. Perfectly logical really, for a Chef. A bit like 'the butcher' in Gangs of New York.

As a Zombivor he continues along this theme.

At Red level he has access to the Zombilink rule. This means that he will have an extra turn every time an extra activation card is drawn in the zombie pile. He also gets to take this turn before the zombies.

He is a real team player and awesome in Melee. Well worth considering for your Survivor crew.

Zombicide forever

What a day, what a blast, what fun. We laughed and knocked more fun out of a day gaming than I can remember for some time. Zombicide seems to be the game that keeps on giving. Today we played Zombicide Toxic City Mall. This was our first saunter into the expansion and we were hoping that rule changes would not detract from the game experience. We need not have worried and thats for sure!

Zombicide is a co-operative game. The first I have tried. This means that the players work together against the board. In this case we had six Survivors and as there were three of us we played two each.

In the first game - Death Row - I played Chef Ramsay (Jesse) and The Cop (Phil). Chef Ramsay was a recent birthday present and is the only Zombivor set of two that I have. Yes - now your Survivor can turn into a zombie - yikes! I had forgotten that I had Chef Ramsay so when I found him on the morning of our gaming it sparked a mad panic to get some paint on him. A good start to the day.

Joining in the fun were Wanda, Amy, Elsa and Ned. The first game was a four tile game with lots of zombie spawn points. The idea was to pick up the objectives in the rooms and take down the Toxic Abomination. Sounded easy enough, so off we went.

28mm Victorian Warfare had brought along a really cool selection of his own zombies. I just love them and they added really good fun element to the day.

Soon we were joined on the gaming table by Granny and Ronald Mc Donald.

Followed by the Surfer Dude and the guy in a Chicken costume

Every time the chicken guy died I imagined handfuls of feathers flying everywhere, especially when we took the chainsaw to him. Much merriment.

As is usual, things played to character and it wasn't long before chef Ramsay was up to his armpits in frying pans and food. Bloody useless for zombie killing but he could have easily rustled us up a little light lunch.

Soon we were being swamped.

We had been too tentative at the start and with all the larking around we were suddenly in a spot of bother. The decision was taken to put Chef Ramsay in hot water by sending him ahead to open some doors.

Then he was down.

But in Zombicide Toxic city Mall you can rise again as a crazed Zombivor!

It was all great craic. Things got a little out of control and Phil was the the last man standing - I think a better description would sitting and cowering in the toilet, the room he happened to find himself holed up in. More laughter.

In the end Wanda saved the day by using her Slippery ability to glide by some of the zombie crowds before lighting up the Toxic Abomination with a Molotov Cocktail. A win! But only just.

Game 2 was a crazy affair that involved three cars and an insane amount of bloodshed.

The board was much larger, with nine tiles. This gave us a bit more room and we approached with confidence. We split up (a first for me, felt edgy) and opened three doors at the very beginning. This activated 3 buildings worth of zombies as well as the four spawn points in the middle of the board.

We had three Pimpmobiles and just drove them around the square running over zombies. Bedlam and mayhem. Elsa had the big gun for taking down the Fatties and Abominations but her aim was just awful! Much laughter as fail, followed fail, followed fail.

It wasn't long before good old Phil was racking up the kills.

He had to leave the vehicle and go hide in a corner so that we could activate the final rooms before taking us over the final 'red' tipping point. However with the volume of zombies arriving we soon had several Survivors in the same position. Then we were in the red. New territory and really putting us under pressure as the number of zombies coming each turn ticked along.

By this time we had some new super weapons to use. The red level ones. Handfuls of dice to through. Fun, fun, fun!! And then Wanda found the final tank of fuel that we needed and was able to scoot off the board to victory.

It was a truly amazing, breath taking days gaming filled with excitement and dramatic moments to remember. Astoundingly good fun with a couple of great friends.

I salute the makers of Zombicide. We killed hundreds of zombies along our journey of fun. We shot them up, hacked them to bits and ran them over in cars. Whats not to enjoy?

Thanks guys for a truly fab day. May there be many more like it in the future. Phew.

Zombicide - the next step

Yes indeed folks we are back to playing a little Zombicide. Got a game in last month and really got into the whole car thing. It was the first games day in the new house and with all the markers needed for Zombicide you need lots of space. I put both extra leaves in the table and we were good to go.

It was mayhem and really exciting. We managed to win out in the end with the Survivors in two cars scooting away from the gathering hordes. But it was nail bitingly close.

It makes such a difference to be playing with painted models. I invested some time last Christmas getting some basic colour on a fair few of them and it paid off. I still have tonnes to do but it does help get you in character when the model has some colour.

The plan for the weekend is to step up a gear and try the first upgrade to Toxic City Mall.

I have had a read through the rules and 'me oh my' it feels like we are going to have sooooooo much fun.

So far the Survivor's have been very fragile whereas now they can turn into Zombivor's with many more wounds and all kinds of fun stuff. I just can't wait to get stuck in :-). New weapons too - Yum!

Crew assembly

Well I have spent a little time with the new Batman models. They are unboxed, pinned, green stuffed, glued and based.

As usual I have been pinning all the joints as I go. The GW glue that I use just does not do the job. I have taken onboard the suggestion of using a small blob of green stuff to aid the process and this has worked a treat.

The new models came with a rubble base. This is the first time I have seen textured bases being supplied with models. I have decided to give them a go to see what they will look like fully painted up.

I really like the Deathstroke model a lot. I am giving great consideration to his final colour scheme. I want him to stand out on the playing surface. I am thinking that I might go for a purple with orange highlights, tipping my hat to the Joker. Not sure how this will look. It might be better to uses a different highlight especially as the main colour for the henchmen is orange. Much to ponder. However happy with the progress so far.

I have been reading other blogs and have been struck with the thought of Prisoner tube stealing someones weapon during a game. It does sound like a fun concept.