65. W40K Photo-Play

Warhammer 40K - Tyranid Infestation 

(a short story in pictures)

Investigate:  Scene 1

 There have been strange reports from the planet. Send someone to investigate.

Arrival

 Materialized right on target, inside the force field.

Discovery

Wait, what's that in the distance?

Uh-Oh. 
That can't be good.

Don't Turn Around
Mr. Investigator is in a bit of trouble....

Investigate:  Scene 2
A missing Investigator, an ancient crashed spaceship. Oh yeah, this is a great place to materialize.

Arrival
Just a small squad, pulled in no particular order from the shelf...er, I mean, the crew room.

Spread Out!
"Search pattern Alpha!  Go!"

Yoo-Hoo
"Are you guys looking for me?  It was a tight spot, but the Emperor guided my shots and I escaped."

Means of Our Salvation
"...and I found this old power coupling in the wreck.  We can set it to overload and blow the beasts up."

Stealthy Approach
"Wait.  Do you hear something behind us?"

Chittering Horde
"Raarrgghh!"

Calm Assessment
"Captain, your orders?"
"Retreat pattern...anything!"

Rack Focus
Ooooo, coooool.  Those are not Friendlies.

A Fighting Retreat
"Back to the teleport homer!  Go!  Go!"

Sell Your Life Dearly
"I'll cover your withdrawal, sir!"

Bravery
"You want some of this?"
{dakka} {dakka} {dakka}
"Raaarrgghh!"

Man Down!
One against the horde is not enough.  But did he at least get the power coupling into overload?

Force Field
"Recall!  Now!"

Teleportation is Good
{blink}

It's Not Noticed by the Animals
{beep} {beep} {beep}

{swarm swarm swarm}
{beep} {beep} {beep}

Ka--
{beep} {beep} {beep} beepbeepbeepbeeeeeep...

{click}

--Boooom!
"We lost a good man down there."

The end.

Thanks for reading.  I created this story several years ago (Feb 2009, actually) and posted it online on Flickr.com because it was before I had this nifty blog.  Inspired by the General Pettygree photo-play I wanted to try my hand at telling a story in pictures.  These figures were all I had nearby, plus I think I had just finished painting the crashed spaceship and craters, so I wanted to show them off.  The Space Marines and Tyranids I had painted from a long time before.

I decided to re-post the story here for a wider audience (snicker, yeah, all my many fans, all three of you) than would ever see it on Flickr, plus the format here is a little better for this sort of thing.  I think it's kind of a cool little story; captures the feel of the 40K Universe, which, say what you will about Games Workshop, I do like their Universe.  This is all pure made-up story, no game mechanics were used or dice were rolled at all.

"For the Emperor!"

64. No More Undead are Invited to the Party

At long last, after the usual excuses, I have finished painting up all the zombies I own.  This is the second 25 of the "50 for $50" bargain I got from Victory Force way back when.  I think he still runs bargains occasionally, but I don't think you'll see the 50 for $50 again.

So without further ado, here are the zombies.

Zombies numbers 26-50, infesting my town of No-Whereville.

Zombies numbers 26-35

Zombies numbers 36-45

Zombies numbers 46-50.  Yes, my zombies have numbers instead of names.  THEY'RE DEAD, er, UNDEAD.  THEY DON'T NEED NAMES!

I used the same quick-paint technique as I did for the first 25, mainly a single color blocking in the clothing and "skin," and then a wash with black water-based furniture stain.  Full details can be found here from my original post on the subject.  This group of 25 plus the next 10 took me, I think, around 8 hours (not including filing/gluing).

I also painted ten Zombie Vixens from Wargames Factory that I got as a freebie from GenCon 2012 (a single sprue).  These, being plastic, were much more fiddly to put together, since they required actually being glued together, whereas the Victory Force zombies are singe-piece metals.  The Vixens are a bit more "animated" (pun intended) and certainly have more personality, but I'll take the metal over the plastic any day.  I'm worried that the plastic figs will break with very much use; that one Vixen in particular (far right below), the one on one foot, was a real pain to get to stay.

Zombie Vixens from Wargames Factory.

It was nice to have some variety, though.  Since all the arms and heads were separate, you can create some pretty unique figures.

I thought it semi-appropriate that the Vixens were either coming out of, or going into, the Gentlemen's Club.

The painted examples on the Wargames Factory website are painted better than mine, but since I used the exact same technique on these as I did on the Victory Force zombies I wasn't expecting anything different.

And after all, THEY'RE ZOMBIES, for cryin' out loud.  I was actually quite nauseated when I finished them all.

But now I've got 60 zombies, which should be plenty for my post-apocalyptic games.

I decided to put all sixty on the table for a group photo.  (I was going to call it a glamour shot, but that really doesn't seem appropriate.  And it's certainly not a money shot....)

"Here we come, walkin' down the street, we get the funniest looks from, everyone we meet.  Hey hey we're the zombies!"  And just whose house is that at the end of the street?

"Shuffle, two, three, four!  Limp, two, three, four!"

I also made a girlfriend for my ST:TNG Captain Picard zombie from the first batch of 25.  They can both be convention attendees, forever undead together unliving out their fantasy personalities....  He must be a special guy, for a Star Trek geek to have a pretty girlfriend.  :-)

I also had a second Hitler look-alike figure duplicated from the first batch of 25.  I didn't want to make a second Hitler, so....  Well, I'm actually a little embarrassed by this and hope it is received in the manner in which I mean it.  In my profession, the pilots for a certain Airline with the initials of AA are AFFECTIONATELY known by other pilots THROUGHOUT the industry as Sky Nazis.  So here is Captain Hilter (yes, Hilter, not Hitler), zombie pilot.  I think I should have made the shirt a little whiter, but oh well.

Last but not least, a fun photo.  Look at that guy run!  He always looks so scared.

I'd be runnin' too!

Thanks for stopping by!