A Field In England

"Hold fast!" Creedence Hopkins called to his compatriots and the evil spawn shambled closer. "The Lord Christ is with us!"

Forsaken Smith snorted, "I'd rather 'twere Richard Ingoldsby's men." With a crack his pistol discharged and he cocked the second one.

Hopkins raised his Holy Bible and stared down the hill at what had once been his friend. He drew in a might breath and roared, "In the name of God, GO!"






*****

Well, it's done; and I'm quite pleased with it; we can think of it as a very late Zomtober entry.

If you've been keeping up with the construction blogs, you've seen how this came together bit by bit.



The last stages were sticking the miniatures into the base after the base coat. I then added some gravel and blended the painting in.





The last stage was adding the foliage; varying it between static grass, clump foliage and long grass to create a more natural feel.

Here's some more shots of the final piece - when I took the photos the last few bits of loose grass and what have you were stuck to the miniatures. That's been blown off now.

















I'm happy with the painting of the miniatures and I'm quite pleased with how the tree turned out although my sculpting skills are still not really up to scratch. I like the effect of the different landscaping materials and I'll use that again.

I'd like to thank Mr Michael Awdry of the 28mm Victorian Warfare for putting me on to Tamiya Clear Red for the blood and everyone who has stopped by and offered their support.

I just need to paint the edges of the base black and then it's done. And then? This and the Dinosaur model will be being donated to the school library next week in the hopes that they might inspire some Small Person to pick up a paintbrush or a book.

On to the next project!

It's ALIVE! - sort of Zomtober

It's true what they say; no idea you have after midnight is a good one. I performed surgery on the thumb with a pair of snips. Although this restored some movement it did give me a few more issues.

However, the most important point was that I was able to move my digits about enough to crack out the sculpting gear.

I've never been a particularly good sculptor - the Top Secret Filler Project will amply prove in a couple of weeks - but it's nice to see the techniques come dribbling back. So what did I need to do?

The cut and shut and method of the conversions on the walking dead was fine for tabletop use but for a diorama it's worth going the extra mile.

So this chap had some hair added to cover the complete lack of neck and to help blend the head into the existing shoulders. I also added a couple of tears and rents in the material of the coat - fairly simple musket damage.



This chap needed some raggedy bits of material and flesh to show where the leg had been ripped off (sorry about this poor photo)



As to leg thief this one wasn't a conversion so much as an issue with the original miniature; the Zombie sprues, although excellent, sometimes go from rotting corpse to skeletal too quickly depending on the choice of pieces and so it was with this chap. So a bit of torn material added around the shoulder joint helps sell the transition.

I actually forgot to take a picture of him, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Finally, this fellow needed some extra attention. As he'll be leading the charge and so will be the most immediately visible of the horde, he needed a little extra attention. The zombie arms did not really fit well with the ECW body, so the jacket was extended and torn to help blend the two pieces together; at the same time I added some tears in the trousers and jacket to make him look a bit more beaten up.



I also decided - based on rewatching Mark Gatiss' Horror Europa at the approach to Zombies in The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue - I'd like him to have an obvious cause of death; so a quick edged trauma to the head was added.



These chaps, along with the gravestones and a couple of bits for the Top Secret Filler Project, were undercoated today; so my Half Term Plan is to crack on with the painting tomorrow.

Incidentally, you can see in the background there the ridiculous amount of greenstuff I bought off ebay by mistake. I thought I was ordering 6'' and instead got 36''. Still, I'm not going to run out any time soon, eh?

Interregnum

After posting last night, I decided to do a little more landscaping work whilst watching Twin Peaks. Alas, I forgot the golden rule about always cutting away for yourself and, well....



It took three dressings but the bleeding finally stopped. Anyway, it looks like the schedule will slip slightly as I can't bend the thumb.

Still, one must be prepared to suffer for one's art, eh?