The Pork Chop Express

I finished this bad boy up today. Now I just have to paint up my Jack Burton Mini.

 

Some zombies for scale purposes.

 

Painting Goal for January. Complete!

The goal: 10 miniatures a month.
Here's January
5 zombies. It's hard to tell from this picture but the zombie cop on the left kinda looks like Burt Reynolds. The little girl zombie is still clutching her teddy bear and on the containment suits I added some clear plastic visors to them.

The cops are Heroclix (Aaron Cash with new hands) miniatures and the other 3 are from the Zpocalypse Hospital Horde set.


5 Survivors (yes, I am including the motorcycle).
It's hard to tell in this pic too but the blonde detective has a bloody bandage over her nose. The miniature was damaged and it looked weird as I painted it, so I flattened it out a bit more and gave her a busted nose.

The survivors are all repainted heroclix miniatures

Game Board

Awhile back I realized that I would never get anything done if I didn't figure out a way to focus on my projects. I start on a project, get about 1/4 of the way into it and think of how I could make something else. That would then draw my interest into the new project leaving the old one sitting on my desk. Repeat that thought process about a 100 times and you can paint a picture of what the studio looks like. I have an area of "to paint" miniatures, and an area of "to convert" miniatures, some random 1/48 scale cars to weather, a few 1/48 scale motor homes & ambulances to convert, a pile of white plastic fences that I'm building a gate for (that opens, of course), there's some mesh to make chain link fences, a box of o-scale train tracks, 4" card board tubes and fake brick to make some subway boards, some black grout and plastic strip that will eventually become a paved road set, boxes of 1/48 scale city building models to put together, and on and on and on...

So... my idea to focus came to me as a game board set. I figured I had most of the parts to set up a farm house and surrounding area.
I had made some wood fences .
http://confessionsofaminiaturemodeler.blogspot.com/2013/10/making-fences.html
I had bunch of trees and I had made the fields already.
The silo was painted.
http://confessionsofaminiaturemodeler.blogspot.com/2013/10/thrift-score.html
I had my Machine Shed.
http://confessionsofaminiaturemodeler.blogspot.com/2014/04/ertl-farm-country.html

And I found an Ertl farm house (which I had started working on how to add some interiors to). Most of my grass boards were in pretty good shape and I felt like this was my best shot at getting something done. There is a TON of stuff to do to it still but it's coming together.

The ERTL Machine Shed conversion Part 2

I built up the area around the door and added some side supports.

Then I sprayed the interior pieces with the metal spray. I'll have to write it down next time I go to the studio so I can post it here. I really like the look of it on the structures.

Some miniatures for scale purposes.

And the door pieces (again, I forgot my camera so no step by step pics).
I glued a thin piece of plastic down to the inside of the door, then added some strips of plastic to give it some depth.


Next I will add a black wash to the inside to give it more depth, then add some rust spots.

After that,  I have to mask off the interior and spray the exterior of the building and the roof.
And finally,  I have to create a poured cement floor for the interior.
And since nothing is ever really finished. I might add an interior office type structure, or some work rooms on one end, or along the side maybe? Dunno. We'll have to see what happens when I get closer to finishing.

The ERTL Machine Shed conversion Part 1

Recently, I posted about the ERTL Farm Country Machine Shed set. (http://confessionsofaminiaturemodeler.blogspot.com/2014/04/ertl-farm-country.html)
I'm really happy with the way it looks with all the 25-28mm/O Scale/1:48th mish mash of stuff I have going on so far. Once I finish I'll take some better pics for scale purposes.
So far, I've glued the roof pieces together and sprayed them with a gun metal-ish silver spray paint.
I had forgotten my camera for this step so there are no step by step shots. (I can't afford to waste any time in the studio by going back home to grab the camera). Here's the roof.
I plan to spray it with a dark(ish) green.

And the inside of the roof.

I scraped off the numbers and mold marks so that the interior would be smooth. Then I cut some strips of plastic and glued them on to give it some character.

Next I cleaned up the wall sections and glued them together.
Inside walls (you can see the circular mold marks)

 Outside walls

Then I took some of these drink stirrers (Not sure where I got these, which is a bummer because I can see lots of uses for them now) and cut them down to make support beams for the walls.

Pic of the stirrer support beams,

Then I used some plastic to cover up the joints.

I'll spray the interior with the gun-metal silver and the outside with white.
Here's a shot of it (mostly) together.

I still have to figure out the outer doors and the large sliding doors but it's coming along nicely so far.

Boats

I found the same Dollar General boats at Toys R Us. 

The Toys R Us price?

$5.99

AND...

It has a slightly better paint job to it and looks a bit nicer to me.
Even though it's pretty much the same boat.

Update to my Conversions post

Here are the hospital orderly zombies all painted up.

 

I am very happy with the way these guys turned out.

Original post here:
http://confessionsofaminiaturemodeler.blogspot.com/2014/02/conversions-top-5-list.html

Getting there...

I usually feel like I'm not getting anywhere when I go to the studio. I look around and there are bits and pieces of stuff that I like and a pile of things to work on.

Yesterday I decided to set something up to see where I was in developing a "board" for playing. It's not much but it's better than I thought.

I'm hoping to finish a few more things over the weekend and take some better pics but this will do for now.

I need to finish the bases on the trees, more scenery boards, and I still need to build a barn, chicken coop, farm house, windmill...

More for the Horde 2

Here are some more infected for the horde. These lovely ladies are from Wargames Factory's awesome Zombie Vixens set. I highly recommend it.

Here they are with yesterdays batch.

I also finished a few survivors.

I ran out of Dull Coat so I'll need to grab some so I can spray these guys, then I can base them on some clear plastic bases.

More for the horde

Finished 3 infected the other day. The figure on the right started as a Heroclix Adaptoid. I added some pants with green stuff and the busted up jaw with the tongue sticking out.

More tomorrow.

Conversions! A top 5 list.

I've been trying to build up a big horde of zombies (as cheaply as possible). I love the clix figures because they're plastic and easier to cut apart and glue together. Green stuff sticks to them pretty well too. I've bought a bunch of clix figures and have managed to keep the average to around 60¢ to 75¢ per figure (I bought a case a few years back and it averaged out to about 25¢ a figure after I sold the ones I didn't want on ebay). Anyway, here are my top 5 figures for converting.

Number 5:

Hal Jordan Heroclix.
A new paint job and a head swap with a Horrorclix Hard Hat Zombie and you've got some city workers that hunger for flesh. Why yes that is reflective tape on the figures. I was hoping it would flare up in the photos but so far nothing. :(

Number 4:

Flasher Horrorclix.
This one has LOTS of grabby hands (and a couple arms) that can be used in MANY, MANY ways.
See Number 3 below for a good example.


Number 3:

Insect Man Horrorclix.
This one is a pretty good base figure, you just need a head (maybe from the flasher?) and a left arm (definitely from the flasher), then again, maybe you don't really NEED a left arm. Maybe you just need something hanging from where the arm USED to be. Eh? Huh?
Most of these guys have the Pod Zombie Horrorclix head attached to them.
Also, I shaved off the ankle cuff on most of mine.

Number 2:

Hulk Heroclix.

I remember grabbing a bunch of these as promo pieces when the first movie came out. My idea back then was to turn them into Ogres for use in Blood Bowl. I did that.

Then sold them on ebay.

Years later I would see them as part of the Left 4 Dead Tank. So, I made these guys. With the torso of the Giant Horrorclix figure.

Also, you can use the arm from the Hulk as the left arm for the Insect Man and you've got yourself a Left 4 Dead charger.

 Notice the Chargers heads? Yep, those are flasher heads, one sans mohawk.

And last but not least...

Number 1:

Project Superman Heroclix.

I find this one to be a great base for making lots of different figures. Swap heads and get creative with the green stuff.

Two orderlies and a patient.

And a few more that I've finished. I figure lots of people will be caught off guard during a zombie attack so you need a few in various states of undress.

Honorable mentions that I forgot to take pictures of: Bruce Banner, Lex Luthor & Matt Murdock Heroclix. Does anyone have any other "favorite" clixs for conversions?

Thrift Score.

On Monday, I stopped at the local thrift store to find some items for a Halloween costume and stumbled upon this.

Mondays are 50% off days so this grain silo was 99¢.
I took it to the studio yesterday and cleaned it up. Here's a shot to show the scale.

 I was probably not warm enough for spray painting, but I did it anyway.

Next, I have to weather it a bit and add some rust and such. I may even rig up some kind of interior for it. Just in case the players want to explore the inside. ;)

Weathering done. Thinking about altering the door to be closer to mini height.