late afternoon day 1 for the Simpsons

"That godamned fool! hair-brained, idiotic, mind-numbing fool! i'm gonna godamn kill that man and when he rises up, I'll be godamned if I don't kill him again!"  

Gracey-Lyn ducked as her raging mother absent-mindedly swung the arrow she was using to punctuate each expletive with.  For the past ten minutes, the volatile woman had cussed out her husband, Gracey-Lyn's father, with very little pause for breath.  Bonnie-May, Gracey's twin and partner in crime, scuffed her foot in small circles as she nervously checked and rechecked the cylinder of the bad-ass revolver she had recovered from the school office.  Seeing this Gracey-Lyn, ejected the magazine of her beloved (and currently being scolded heavily) father's favourite machine pistol, itself a twin piece to a matching machine pistol belonging to her mom, which was still in their family trailer on the edge of town.

"Momma" she began in a really quiet voice, one that she often used when her parents argued and one she hoped would break the current line of diatribe spilling from Mary-Lou's beautiful but very angry mouth.  Adding a bit more strength to the voice she tried again.  "Momma"

With a glare, Mary-Lou spun around and faced her eldest daughter.  Seeing the fierce look on her ma's face  made her want to run screaming , but she stood her ground and carried on. "Mom, I know the boys ain't here" another scowl from her mom caused Gracey-Lyn to take an involuntary step backward, but she persevered "I know they ain't, but those dead-heads can hear you cussing pa out and it's 'bout time we hit the road on home, aint it?" with that outburst she finally let the fear show on her face for her mom to see just how scared she was.

For this final part, the girls had arrived too late to meet the boys at the train yard.  So this would be a straight forward run from one end of the board to the other (simple in ATZ? right....) 

Of course as soon as they moved onto the board they stopped and did not activate for a few turns (yep simple!).  All the while the closest zombies (2 x groups of 3&2 respectively) wandered closer. 

Gracey-Lyn, pointing a shaky finger at the closest zombie, couldn't find the words to warn the others.  The zombie, a lady who reminded her of Miss Kaplowski, the school nurse was a mere 10 feet away.  A groan, came from Miss K's gore covered mouth as she neared the girls.  Two more zeds trailed behind her and their moaning shook the cobwebs from Mary-Lou's mind and brought her back to the now.  Raising her bow she let fly with the arrow that was still in her hand from earlier.  With a barely heard hiss the shaft cleared the space in less than a second to split the forehead of Miss Kaplowski (or her doppleganger).  Gracey-Lyn turned her head in time to witness her sister bring up the heavy barrel of her .357 and blow the other two zeds away!

wrong side of the tracks

they may not be able to move, but they sure can shoot! The zeds moving close enough to charge, triggered the girls into action. GL failed her brown pants and froze (special rule meaning she cannot move more than 4" from her parent) ML passed her charge reaction and dropped her zed with ease.  BM was awesome, passing all the tests required of her and rolling 1's for damage, double dead! what a super trooper.  Better the noise of her shooting did not attract any extra zombies.

Seeing her sister kick zombie butt jolted Gracey-Lyn into action and she followed the others as they strode up the road, a little swagger in her younger sibling's gait.  "Way to go B" her mom purred as she gently tipped the too-big helmet back from her head.  Gracey-Lyn bristled at the smug look her sister threw her.  Lifting the Uzi out at arms length, she pointed the deadly weapon at the next group and pulled the trigger.  The machine pistol jolted wildly as it spat a hail of bullets at the zombies closing in on the family.  The first zed was caught in the legs, chest and finally chin by the slugs and thrown to the floor in a heap while the second zombie had half it's skull exposed by the lead storm.  Throwing her own knowing smile at her twin, she pointed out her feat to Mary-Lou "Look ma, I got two of those darned zombs"

"No need for gloating Gracey-Lyn" was her mother's reply "not when you've woken up two more of the blasted things!" Mary-Lou finished the statement by shooting a zed who had appeared from behind some bushes, in the stomach, the arrow shaft snapping as the monster fell forward.  To compound Gracey-Lyn's discomfort at the rebuke, Bonnie-May dispatched the last of the group with clinical ease, the zombie dressed in a giant chicken suit from the local fast food restaurant wandered for a few steps more before falling down.  Gracey strode angrily over to the zombie that ma had shot and pressed the barrel of her uzi next to its ear and blasting it back into the arms of death.

zombie mascot - GOOOO TEAM Z!!

Looking around to see if the noise had attracted any unwelcome company, she made her way to the line of bushes that surrounded a nearby property.  The tall shrubs created shadows that gave the girls a little cover and allowed them to get further without being seen from the road.  This was very fortunate as a low moan could be heard coming from further up the street, emanating from several undead throats the sound sent shivers up Gracey-Lyn's spine.  Peering around the corner of the bushes, her mother held up eight fingers, eight dead-heads!

there may be trouble ahead...

rolling a 7 for activation generated 5 zombies! to make things worse the girls did not activate. I did rule that as they were in cover they could cower down and not be seen (following a rep test) as that had been the intention of the initial movement to the bushes.  To make things even worse after a turn when no-one activated , in the following turn I rolled another 7 generating 3 more zeds. They generated near the others so I just added them to make a mega horde....damn!

Mary Lou looked a little panicked to Gracey-Lyn, not good considering  her mom was turning out to be the terminator in this apocalypse! Looking frantically around for an escape she spied a small gap in the hedges, Gracey-Lyn gestured to her mother and sibling to come closer.  Whispering softly she outlined a plan that was forming in her mind. "Sis, you remember when we were being pursued by Officer Sandra - sorry ma and we ran down that blind alley." A look of understanding crossed her sisters face as their twin minds raced through that scenario in tandem.  Ma just looked both confused and angry.  Gracey-Lyn sighed, another long 'conversation' with her mother loomed in the near future, if they had a future that is.

Pulling her zippo lighter from the pocket of her dress she beckoned her sister over.  Bonnie-May reached into her slingbag and drew out a string of firecrackers.  Lighting the fuse she moved back as Bonnie heaved the fireworks as far across the road as she could without revealing their position.  Counting quietly in their heads, they began to inch through the gap in the bushes. With a loud series of bangs, the firecrackers started to go off and the girls, realising that the zombies would be attracted to the noise, hauled ass, running behind the building.

As they moved deeper into the shadow of the big house and closer to the edge of town, they could see three people moving toward them at a run.  Two paramedics dragging a third man between them closed in on the girls.

apologies for the poor light

another 7 rolled (i should take up gambling...) this time 3 citizens, i don't have a lot of citizen models so decided it would nice to crack out my new paramedic models.

They didn't seem to slow down and as they got closer, Gracey-Lyn could see the quiet desperation in the eyes of the medics.  Ma, in her usual less-than-diplomatic way stood in front of the girls and swatted at the group with her bow forcing one to go around them wide, bouncing off the wall of the house before continuing on his way.  The second medic got unceremoniously dumped on her backside alongside her patient by the backswing.  Without hesitation Mary-Lou strode off, leaving Gracey-Lyn to stare at her in admiration - who was this woman?!?  Shaking her head in wonder, she grabbed her sister's hand and hurried after her mom.

wondermom settles their hash!

they make good their escape!

and so concludes the day, with the zeds on the other side of the building and no sign of the police showing up the girls were able to move off the board with no further incident.  

hope you enjoyed 
DGG

Simpson day 1 part 3 (and normal, happy, smiley service resumed)

With a piercing shriek, the woman that had dashed past Bonnie-May fell to the ground, a zombie riding her to the floor, it's teeth already snapping at her face and neck.  Bonnie-May, her breath coming in ragged gasps, tried to lift the huge gun with both hands, but it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and she couldn't raise it past her waist.  Mere feet from her, Mary-Lou her mother fought like a lioness, clubbing an infected old lady to the ground with her bow and stepped hard across it's throat crushing the unlife out of it. With, what sounded suspiciously like a war cry to Bonnie-May's ears, her mom took an arrow from the quiver on her back and jammed it hard under the chin of the zombie feeding on the unfortunate man who had been taken first.

"Christ, way to go ma!" She cried out. The sight of her amazonian mother's fierce grin gave Bonnie-May heart and she started feeling strength returning to her limbs.  Hefting her .357 she levelled it at the zed feasting on the woman on the ground and pulled the trigger. At such close range the result was satisfyingly destructive and the hollow point tore the back of the creature's head clean off.  The two remaining humans ploughed into the rest of the zombies, swinging fists and feet at the infected hoping to get passed them. Tripping and pushing the zeds over they managed to sprint off toward the school and ducked into an alley opposite the break in the fence.

Unbelievably the unarmed citizens managed to knock down the remaining zombies that were closing in and scrambled off the table.  Fortunately the family managed to activate finally! 

Mary-Lou, her eyes shining with the adrenaline coursing through her, drew another arrow and thrust it into a zombie that had been trying to get up.  Bonnie-May followed her mom's example and putting the barrel of her revolver behind the ear of the final zed, she finished it off with a single shot, the sound muffled slightly by the scarf wrapped around the zombie's neck.  

Lifting the rim of the oversized helmet and looking around Bonnie-May realised that there were no more zombies moving nearby.  Gracey-Lyn, her twin was tucked underneath the bumper of a car just up the road, clutching her daddy's SMG like it was a comforter.  Passed her, in the middle distance, a large group of infected shambled toward them slowly, drawn by the noise of the fight.  "Momma, we've got more of those things coming."

"We need to go get your sister hon" Mary-Lou said moving toward the car whilst firing arrows at the approaching group of zombies.  Bonnie-May trailed after her mom, admiration in her eyes at the way the woman, who she had always seen as the provider of food and cuddles, was kicking zed ass!  Mary-Lou closed in on the scared Gracey-Lyn and dropped to her knees, putting on her best mom voice she tried to coax out the reluctant child.  Bonnie-May eyed the approaching group warily, hopping from foot to foot and checking the load-out of her revolver.  This was taking too long!!

once again activation problems plagued the family and they could not move or act with a load of zeds approaching.

the horde approaches

Anxiously, Bonnie-May counted up the crowd of infected, she got to ten and round out of fingers, there were still more coming.  "Ma, we need to hurry." she called in a low voice.  Mary-Lou, if she heard gave no mind as she carried on with her patient voice, talking to her sister as if they were back in the bedroom they shared and she'd just had a nightmare. It was then that she heard the sound of sirens, normally a sound that would make her check to see if the evidence of their recent mis-demeanour was hidden away, now it sounded like the triumphant call of the host of angels!

With a screech of tires, a lone cruiser skidded around the corner at high speed, the back end coming wide out as the driver wrestled the car back under control.  A burst of speed before the slamming on of the brakes and the vehicle came to a halt not far from the girls.  A pair of officers exited the vehicle and immediately drew weapons laying down fire on the zeds that were bearing down on the family.  Bonnie-May recognised Officer Sandra from previous encounters, the beautiful but stern woman double tapped the closest zombie, dropping it to the floor.  In the meantime her partner was unloading his standard issue shotgun into the crowd hitting three of them and throwing them back.  Officer Sandra looked at Bonnie-May, acknowledging her recognition with a slight nod of her head and then addressing her mom. "Ma'am, grab your kin and run.  Officer Thorne and I will hold them back."

Officers Rich Thorne and Sandra Bullett hold back the tide.

As per the rules for early on in the apocalypse the police attend shots fired, i had forgotten this rule with my first few games and only remembered it halfway through this one, oops!  The meet and greet went really well with the officers helping the family out.  Timely!

With the arrival of the law, Gracey-Lyn poked her head out from underneath the car and ran into her mother's arms. Bonnie-May, tears in her eyes and looking every bit the 12 year old girl she was grabbed hold of her mom's hand and allowed herself to be led away.

so ends the middle part of the day, despite the misleading title it is still only the second episode of the first day! The girls arrive at the train yard a little on the late side and the boys have already gone, i bet Ma will be really pleased with that......

a bit of a moan

sorry chaps, normally i'm a really upbeat person (bollocks! i hear Rich saying...) but today I have to have a bit of a moan.  I was going to release the next part of the simpson family day 1, unfortunately this happened

bad news man!

This was my delivery of 6 x 4Ground terrace buildings supplied by Wayland Games.  £120 (a lot of money to be shelled out by my retired in laws!) of shiny toys arrived in this box that was stuffed into an old, leaky kennel at the back of my property and left there for 7 hours while it rained and rained and rained. Inside the box 3 out of the 6 packets had a visibly smashed component, maybe the other 3 don't have any broken bits, who knows?!? As these are meant to be a xmas gift from my mother in law to me i haven't opened the packets yet.....

This happened after waiting for a mammoth amount of time for the delivery and being fobbed off each week after my weekly email enquiry as to it's whereabouts to their customer services dept... needless to say an email is winging its way to them again and to the delivery company.

not happy to say the least

Bah Humbug :(

normal shiny, happy service will resume tomorrow

x-ray, canteen and atrium, more WIP

With a rare weekend off and my back less sh*tty than recently, I've been absolutely on fire and really pushed on with the project, so I thought I would put out another post (two in one weekend!)  Last time I finished the office, today I finished off the canteen and entrance hall and also started and finished an x-ray room (up until yesterday it was going to be a library!)

The canteen furniture was made up of foam-board and foam sheets for the counter, oven and sink unit in pretty much the same way I've made up everything else so far.  The sink had the paper backing removed on one side of the foam-board and plastic glue used to melt the recession and then a foam sheet topped it off to give it some detail. The tap was made up of mdf scraps as per the sinks in the W/Cs.  The tables were made up of round mdf scraps and a push pin base and chairs made up the same way as the office chairs just painted white to resemble simple plastic canteen furniture.  A scraps money-till and pile of trays finish the detail.  Later on I might make a sneeze guard and serving tureens to finish the counter, but for now it will do.

the sink unit, since the photo ive added water to the basin

the oven unit

tables and chairs

all but the trays put together

The atrium was going to be a large space with little to get in the way, although later on there will be removable scatter furniture.  It just consisted of a reception area, with scratch built pcs and phones and a pot plant to finish. The counter was decorated with coffee stirrers to reflect wood panelling.  The counter top was going to be marbled but my paint job was not up to task! since gluing it in place and the detailing added I've had a brainwave on how to paint it like marble but alas it's too late....

the atrium and my failed marble top...

looking good

 The x-ray room is now one of my favourites and I'm glad my wife suggested the change, i'll make a nerd out of her yet!  The x-ray machine is my fave build yet and I'm really pleased with it, mdf scraps to the rescue and some wires scavenged from an old pc base unit.  I'm also really pleased with the way the projection unit for the x-rays came out as well and I really enjoyed painting the x-rays too.

the contents of the x-ray room

particularly loved building the x-ray machine

the completed room

good shot of the projection unit

only 3 rooms to go - A&E, resus and waiting room

Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am :)

The office - more WIP

more WIP for my hospital project, which had recently been put on hold while my back recovered from a weird spasm, meaning I couldn't sit upright for over a week! 

I've now managed to paint and glue in all the internal walls for the ground floor and even add a few fire exits and other signage. Again I will add more detail when I've completed the main build, but for now I'm content to put up little bits of detail so the floor is playable. I made all the pieces for the administrators office and some of the canteen furniture too! The desk is made up of bits of foam board with a paper desk blotter (with bloody hand prints!) scratch built phone made out of foam sheet and a fully painted pc that I showed you in another post, complete the desk set. The chair is made from a push pin with the point removed, a piece of foam for a seat and a match stick/coffee stirrer back rest and I'm really pleased with the way it has come out, so much so that I have made up some more for the canteen chairs. The filing cabinet is made out of foam board, card and foam sheet scored with the detail and what office would be complete without a plant! A drinking straw cut to length and painted terracotta with some lichen attached makes a convincing potted plant.

Simpson day 1 part 2

we pick up the story after part 1 where Mary-Lou had picked up her pre-teen twin girls from school, she now had to go meet the boys at the train yard. 

Looking out the main doors of Jungville High School toward her car, Mary Lou Simpson saw a large crowd gathering.  The figures, hard to make out from where she was, seemed to shuffle in random directions before bumping into each other and heading off in another. A low groaning and moaning  sound collectively coming from that direction reinforced the idea that they were more likely to be zombies that concerned parents picking up their children! Turning toward her twin girls standing behind her she beckoned them closer. 

"Reckon we can't be getting back to the car girls, we need to hike it outta here!" She whispered to them.

"No problem Ma" Gracey-Lyn drawled, "we can always go out the break in the fence that we 'happened' upon the other day...." 

"It's out back momma, we er 'found it' er when we erm were helping the janitor with the yard...." Bonnie-May finished with a wry smile that Mary-Lou often worried about when she saw it.

"Stick close to me then girls, we need to do this real quiet like so no unloading those guns unless I tells ya, ya hear?" With their nods of agreement, she edged them out of the doors and around the side of the building. Like shadows they silently drifted toward the gap in the high fence surrounding the school. Ahead a shuffling figure broke away from the gymnasium and began moving toward them. Mary-Lou, with a gulp lifted her son's bow and fitted an arrow to the string, in a swift motion drawing back and releasing the shaft at the zombie, which embedded itself in the forehead of the former athletics coach.  Behind her the twins high-fived with glee at their mom's kick ass attitude!

escaping from high school (looks more like a prison!)

Ghosting forward again, they reached the downed section of fence and stepped into the street.  Mary-Lou gave up a small prayer of thanks for making it this far when all hell broke loose behind the family.  A pair of dogs began yipping and growling as they ran merrily across the playground of the school, straight at her girls, worse the noise they were making had attracted a small group of zombies and was bringing the grey walkers their way!

damn dogs!

random event time, normally it would be one dog but i only had a pair of them based at the time for my Ancient Britons army.  Not only were the dogs calling the zeds following them but also attracting the attention of some other zeds that had been heading away from our heroes....all in all 7 zeds were closing in!

with a snarl, Mary-Lou fired an arrow at the group putting one down.  "now girls, lets give 'em some hell!"

Gracey-Lyn braced her daddy's SMG hard against her hip and pulled the trigger.  The barrel bucked up and away from the target and with a grimace she tried to control the flow of bullets that spat out of the weapon.  One of the zombies caught the burst full in the head and upper chest and was thrown backward like a ragdoll.  Bonnie-May, inspired by her sister levelled the big ass revolver she had liberated from the office contraband cupboard and squeezed the trigger; massive holes appeared in the face of the nearest zombie.

"hoorah! sweet girls, that'll show them sick fools whose boss!" Mary-Lou hooted.

somehow neither of the girls failed citizen brown pants and all 3 hit a target and dropped one! cool!

Her shout of triumph soon faded though when she realised that the other infected were not fazed by the demise of their fellow zombies and were still heading her way.  Worse the noise of all that gunfire had attracted a further four zeds from up the street.

"Well sh*t!" she exclaimed and reached for another arrow. Just as she was going to release the shaft a shout came from around the corner, spoiling her aim and causing the arrow to launch high into the air.  Whipping her head around she saw 4 people dashing up to her, chased by a zombie.  Indecision warred within her and she couldn't decide which way to go

The family couldn't activate for love nor money for the next 3 turns!

Catching sight of the family and the zombies pursuing them, the 3 men and 1 woman slowed down and stopped.  Unfortunately this gave the zombie that was behind them a chance to catch up and reaching out a dead hand it pulled one of the men back and off his feet before sinking its teeth into his neck.  This grotesque attack finally convinced Gracey-Lyn that this wasn't a fine game after all and with a scream she ran off up the road before cowering behind a parked sedan.

actually Gracey should have run off the board but her special rule means that she can only be 4" from an adult before freezing to the spot.

Bonnie-May shouted after her sister in a hoarse whisper, her body unable to run off with her twin. Palms sweaty she gripped the .357 tighter, but could not find the strength to lift it to fire......

things are looking grim!

the Simpson campaign day 1 part 1

Ok for this campaign and maybe going forward I will be adding these comments in blue to add some explanation to the narrative.  I still like writing the stories but felt that sometime explanation was required.  Note this is not rules clarification as I’m certainly not proficient enough to do that! This is Day 1 for the Simpson family, the white trash survivor group I painted up for zombtober.  Rules for using the family are documented earlier in this blog so won’t be repeated here.  Day 1 sees our heroine Mary-Lou (Ma) Simpson driving to school to drop off some sports equipment for her son….

*we interrupt the non-stop Dolly Parton marathon to bring you this special broadcast by the office for public safety – “citizens, is your neighbour acting strangely? Is a family member getting violent and bitey? Then they may have ‘grey pallor fever’ a rare systemic disorder that has recently come to this great country of ours.  Sufferers of this disease have been seen to attack and in some cases kill the very responders sent to aid them.  If you notice the following symptoms call this toll free number; confusion, grey pallor, acts of extreme violence…….”*

Mary-Lou, twisted the radio off with a snarl “goddam foreign illnesses, coming over here infecting our goddam citizens” she muttered to herself “interrupting my goddam Dolly time!”  Looking up from the radio she just managed to slam her brakes on in time before she ran over an overweight soccer mom who was running headlong down the middle of the road.  Behind her ran another lady who was clearly not dressed for a jog in her skirt and blouse combo.  Mary-Lou pulled the car to the kerb and got out “what the f…” was all she managed to say before the overweight lady smashed full into her knocking Mary-Lou on her butt with the soccer mom crashing down on top of her in a heap.  The other lady dashed by without even looking at her companion, a stark look of terror on her face.  By the time Mary Lou found her feet both of the ladies were in the mid distance and seemed to be accelerating!

Essentially Mary Lou got knocked on her a** i.e. a stunned result!

Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs and throwing a middle digit up at the retreating backs of the women.  Mary Lou reached into the back of her old beater to get the archery gear for Junior’s after school activity session and decided to walk the rest of the way.  She could see a crowd of people in front of the school gates and no parking spaces, “so be it!” she exclaimed to nobody in particular and set off toward the school.

Halfway up the street, the strident ringing of her cell phone went off, making her jump! Quickly she picked it out of her sling bag and glanced at the screen #Billy-Ray# flashed across the bright LCD. 

“What does that damn fool want” she muttered angrily to herself, her mood totally shot since being knocked on her keister.  With a stabbing, almost accusational jab of her finger she answered it. 

“What!” she practically screeched down the phone.

 “Yes I have been listening to the damn radio.”  She shouted

“Yes I am on the way to pick up the girls!” the volume began to rise

“What do you mean you’ve got the boy with you?!?” she bellowed, the tinny sound of the voice on the other end of the line got a little quieter and more apologetic.

“Why is he not at school? He’s got archery, he shouldn’t be goofing off with you, plinking cans at the train yard!” the little voice was almost inaudible at this point, Mary-Lou could almost picture her husband, all 6’2” of solid muscle hanging his head and pouting contritely, so much so she nearly laughed out loud…nearly.

“Well you goddamn better wait there while I fetch the girls and I’ll meet you!” with that she hung up and carried on toward the school.

Random event was rolled – argument! As Mary-Lou was on her own I made it a cell phone argument with Billy-Ray, her husband. It also introduced nicely the second part of day 1 – win!

When she was 50 feet from the gates she could see the group of parents talking hurriedly, glancing around nervously.  Gripping the bow tighter and slinging the quiver over her shoulder Mary-Lou raised a hand to greet Tony, a dad of one of the kids at the school, when a loud scream pierced the air “it’s one of them!”   With that scream the group of 3 men (including Tony) and a woman began to surge toward her.

“oh for the love of…” she gasped as she swung the bow shaft at what looked to be the school librarian in an effort to push him to one side, sadly the blow was stronger than she thought and sent him spilling over onto the floor.  On the back swing she caught Tony in the side of the head and he fell to the ground dazed and confounded.  A young woman tried to grapple with her and Mary-Lou was forced to ram her elbow into her midriff, knocking the wind out of her.  The fourth of the group a young man was gabbling insanely about the grey man into a cell phone and swinging a golf club in the air when Mary-Lou kneed him squarely in the private area, dropping him to the floor.

haven't got any civilians yet hence the use of two of my survivors and a couple of nazi figs from warlord!

Dusting her hands off, she looked up to see a man approaching, he was shuffling fairly laboriously and groaning as if in pain.  Looking closer she could see his left leg was broken and he was dragging it behind him.  His eyes were blank, sunken in a pale grey face and did not seem to see but this did not stop him from heading straight for the pile of injured people that Mary-Lou had put down.  In front of Mary-Lou he dropped to his knees and took a huge bite out of the librarian’s neck causing a fountain of blood to cover the others liberally.  “Holy shit!” she exclaimed diving over a hedgerow in an effort to get away.  Tucking herself into a little ball, she cowered under the shelter of the shrubbery, listening to the screams of the people on the other side of the road being feasted on by the grey man.

After a few moments and with the continued sounds of terror over the bushes, Mary-Lou pulled herself together and stood up “Got to get my girls and git!” she exclaimed.  The sound of a groan behind her caused her to spin round, only for her to see another grey man (actually a woman) shambling toward her, arms outstretched reaching for her.  With a gulp Mary-Lou lifted Jr’s bow and drew an arrow from the quiver. Her hands were shaking and not really believing that she could actually think about shooting another person, no matter how sick, she took aim.  Tears streamed down her face and unbeknownst to her she was muttering over and over “no, don’t make me, no!”  A loud piercing scream, came from the mess across the way as the other ‘zombie’ (the word just felt right in her head) bit into the woman’s leg. With that Mary-Lou let go the string and the arrow sped toward the zombie lady in front of her.  With a sickening thud the shaft slammed into her eye-socket, knocking the zombie to the floor and without a twitch it lay still. 

With the screams of the humans still ringing in her ears Mary-Lou dashed into the school gates and up the front steps, calling the names of her girls.  The corridors were eerily empty and deserted, in a panic she strode toward the school office (she knew the way, having had to attend on numerous occasions with the twins!) Flinging open the doors she was greeted by her girls rushing forward, she swept them into her arms, weeping unashamedly.

 “Momma, Momma look what we got from Sissy Steinman, she gave it to us” Gracey-Lyn winked conspiratorially to her sister as she held up an iPad.

“Hush now girls, the world has gone crazy and we need to go get the boys” Mary-Lou said absently looking at the contraband the twins had brandished.

“Ok mom, but let me just get the other things the principal has confiscated from us this year.” Bonnie-May replied, heading toward the big cupboard in the corner with a glint in her eye.  With that she produced a key from her pocket with a knowing grin and looking at her sister, who gave her a minute nod she opened the door.  Reaching in she grabbed a bag filled with fire-crackers and slung it over her shoulder.

“What goddamn trouble have you been causing them this year girls?” Mary-Lou glared at the twins in turn, who assumed their most innocent expressions and shrugged.

“Not much momma” Bonny-May replied reaching further into the cupboard and drew out a huge submachine gun and handed over to Gracey-Lyn. “We was just playing war, is all” back into the cupboard she took out a gleaming .357 revolver and slipped it into her bag.

Mary-Lou’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw the guns “why you little devils, that’s daddy’s Uzi and my favourite handgun!”

“Ain’t no thing Ma” Gracey-Lyn drawled. “We was gonna return them, Momma” Bonnie-May finished for her twin. “But Mr Grossman had other ideas; I think he wanted to tell the police but Mrs Housen, the secretary done told him that that would cause a big scene….”

Mary-Lou stared at her little girls in their matching dresses and angelic smiles and shrugged, reaching past Bonnie-May she grabbed Billy-Ray’s old Kevlar helmet, a souvenir of his service in Iraq and jammed it on her youngest’s head. “Ok girls, let’s go get the boys and then we are gonna talk some!”

apologies for the lack of pics, i promise i will get better!

And so ends the first part of day one. The next part Ma and the girls need to get to the train yard to meet the boys.

Computers and things

a recent comment on the hospital thread asked about how I made some of the detailing for the basement, so I thought I would post about some of the work I've been doing for the ground floor.  All of it is made from scraps I have in various bits boxes.  The most useful being the foam, mdf and card box!

To be honest, before I started this project I'd never really thought about doing this sort of thing, in fact I had planned on buying all the individual furniture bits separately! However when I started looking at costing it was clear that this board would be the most expensive yet if I bought everything in. This wouldn't do as I couldn't afford the amount of stuff I wanted but I didn't want to have empty corridors either, so that meant having a go at making what I wanted....

When making my other tiles I used sarissa precision buildings, the left over mdf make for lots of little  shapes that make great components for all sorts - v useful. The best find ever though was sheets of foam that can be cut to any shape and be scored to make lots of different 3D surfaces. I've been using it to make my pathways. I used it to put detail onto the industrial washers in the laundry, by carving circles into the foam i can represent doors to the machines. I used it on my boiler room to detail the gauges and dials before adding a stripped off tyre I took off a toy car from pound land (6 cars for £1 bargain!) This time I wanted to use it to make something that I will be needing lots of in the clinical and admin areas - computers.

To buy 28mm versions of PCs would cost £1.50 each, I needed at least a dozen so I made these for nothing as I already had the stuff!  Sorry for the poor photos and the odd running order but I put this post together on an iPad and it's a bit crap....the monitors are made from foam rectangles with card edging for rigidity and detail, an mdf scrap on the back represents the electronic compartment and more foam was scored to make keyboards

this stuff is 50p per sheet! really!!

what do you think?

More WIP for the Hosp project

ive been cracking on full steam ahead since submitting my last piece of uni work for this year (just an exam to go...gulp!) all the external walls have been painted inside and out, I'm sticking to the institutional green as it lends itself to a NHS building. The grey on the outside was easy enough, just a spray over a black undercoat. The foam that I used to line the outside to give a 3D effect also helps to disperse the paint a bit and give it an almost dry brushed look, which frankly needed little extra touching up. I will come back to it afterward and add some weathering detail but this will be after the next floor is complete so I can get some consistency in the colouring. The windows were all given a simple black frame to make the blue of the window pop a bit more.  The doors are just a simple fenris grey. 

The problem I had with this level though was the floor. Initially I was going to paint on some squares to represent floor tiles, but this did not sit right with the idea that the model was going to be 3D and to be honest when I started painting the squares it proved to be exceptionally difficult. The solution then was to tile the floor, to this end I sprayed loads of card stock black and white, measured out and cut nearly 700 tiles, hand painted highlights/patterns on them and glued them in! This had its own problems as it raised the floor by a mm which now has to be sliced off the interior walls...d'oh! Still the result is very satisfactory.  Another unexpected effect (unexpected by me alone I'm sure) of gluing the floor in was some warping of the foamboard underneath which has necessitated me putting heavy weights on it to try to flatten it.

150 down, 550 to go!

cutting and painting tiles

the floor complete

I have also started to make some of the interior furniture too, all from little off cuts of foam, foamboard and mdf, starting with the chapel and W/Cs. To that end I have made 2x pews from coffee stirrers. The altar was just rough cuts of foamboard stacked and covered with toilet tissue paper painted a rather clergy like purple. The cross was made of mdf off cuts as was the chalice with a WWII British helmet for the bowl. The arm poking out from under the cloth is from the same sprue as the helmet, painted black - maybe that's where the padre is? The good book was a piece of foam folded over and glued with pva, when dried I scored the edges to represent pages. The toilets were fun to make! Foamboard with the top piece of card removed to expose the foam, I then used plastic glue to melt a bowl shaped indent in the middle, a piece of foam as a lid and a matchstick handle and it looks cracking! Same sort of procedure with the wash basement, the tap was made with mdf offcuts  and a piece of card painted Mithril silver for a mirror completes the look!

making pews and loos!

all your bathroom needs

hope you like it so far

the chapel

gents toilet

Hospital project - ground floor

this post is more WIP for my hospital project. Last time saw me detailing the basement with all sorts of goodies for the survivors to interact with and other assortments such as posters. I have since added parking lines for the ambo bay and some more weeds to the road.  i have posted a pic with it on the table, however this will not be where it stays or the canal in the top part of the pic would drain into the basement....

the board in a position on the table

I will go back to adding more detail later but wanted to move on to the next level so I can get closer to gaming on it. I've made a promise to myself that I won't use it till its completed and I will get the majority of each level complete before moving on.

When I bought the foam board it was on special, so I got 2 X A3 size pieces for £7. This was enough for me to carve out the ground floor, 1st floor and roof to cap it off and to put up all of the walls for the basement. However I started to run out so I've gone out and got a pack of 4xA4 pieces in black from the Range (a large retail chain in the UK) for a fiver, this should see me right for the rest of the project I hope! I prefer the black version, if I miss a bit with the undercoat it's not such a disaster.  The challenge for this level will be Windows and external exits. As this level is above ground these things become important apparently :-P

the floor plan, sorry the pencil marks are so faint as i didn't want to score the board!

the scroll work on the main entrance, scored into foam.

note the different shaped window for my chapel - its going to be stained glass

How to do the windows and door frames while sticking to my desire to make this a textured terrain board like my other boards as opposed to photos or drawn on detail? Well I went back to my foam sheets and started to draw some detail into it and stuck them down on the walls this gives it the 3D look I'm after and plus it will hold the card doors in place, it also allows me to put in some scroll-work for the main entrance. This time, unlike the basement, I will be putting the internal walls in after they are painted as this would be easier to get to (*edit* failed to take into account warping of the foam board, d'oh!) and I could add more detail. The picture below is with the walls just placed in and not fixed down.

how it should look at the end...

Hope you like it so far