Zona Alfa - Hostile Recruits and Other Little Projects

Original Draft 2020-11-16

Back when I was looking at assembling hostiles for ZA I pulled out the Zombicide box, decided the zombies were too tall, and back on the shelf it went.

In light of needing something a bit more 'horde-y' in my hostile collection I revisited the situation, did an about-face, and ordered an expansion box of Zombicide zombies.

I think that back when I originally looked I was looking at ebay with its overly bloated prices (and they still are). Now, however I have better stockist.

Given I also can't print anything at the moment dur to a ripped FEP (and I really really don't want to) it's also an expedient option.

Anywho, the box has '15 walkers, 6 runners, and 3 fatties'. I only really did a height comparison on the walkers as that's mainly what I'm interested in using, however I considering adding the runners as a small 'elite' hostile to throw onto the list of available options as well. Might up their speed a fraction (6") just to differentiate them from the regulars.

This should give me more than enough to run a zombie based horde which I think will really suit the 'Defend the Compound' mission far better than the wide spread of hostile types that I ran it with.

I've also since adjusted that mission, changing it to d10 with most rolls bringing 2 squads onto the board per turn.

Additionally, I've reviewed the hostile types, adjusting the stats slightly, giving mutants and rad-ghouls (snorks + bloodsuckers) 2 wounds each and possibly some other minor changes i can't remember.

And, just because...   

I ordered a little baggy of trees. Was cheap. Isn't going to give a lot of coverage but it will add something different again to the table. Will probably just keep adding piece by piece when it comes to tree terrain. Would have ordered a couple of these if they'd had them in stock. They didn't.

Update 2020-11-16

Going to chuck this on here cos it's another little project.

Sooooo, as often happens in my hobby space i see something on a project someone else is doing or similar and go "ooooouh, i could do that".  And that's what happened.

Someone has a bat rep (battle report) up on a post and on their board they had some chainlink fence. I'd tossed around the idea before but i was kind of hung up on the gauge of the 'wire' being used/available easily from bunnings.

Decided to see how it would look with the gutter guard i had (as used for the rock bastions) and see how that looked.

It looks... chunky. However i can live with that.

In MY zone the powers-that-be are mildly smarter than their real life counterparts and after determining that zombies and critters are not stopped by regular chainlink (see almost any zombie/critter movie for confirmation)  that the zone would be surrounded by solid fencing made of treated pine logs with rebar as the wire (sharpened to blades at the top for extra spikeiness).  

With material at hand it is not uncommon for smaller fences such as those at compounds and facilities to be constructed in a similar if toned down manner.

Drilled holes for the (approx.) 7mm dowel pieces (about 2" long) glued them in then cut segments of gutter guard. little wire loops to attach them to the dowels.  8 lengths of about 6" each.

Then broke out the plaster bucket and zuzhed up the base a little. Makes it slightly less plebeian.

Also plastered up some 3d print sandbags I'd done up. 

When that's dry it'll get a sprinkle of glue and sand. Then paint.

I think it's generally a better option for my board especially with the military base, container yards, docks etc. Will definitely get some use. And there should be enough length there to enclose some larger areas without skimping. 

Anyway, bit of fun.

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update 2020-11-19

glue and sand.

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update 2020-11-20

Brushed off the excess sand and dolloped on texture paint yesterday evening. This morning a black with primer rattle can on the fence parts. Then the very dribbly dregs of a silver rattle can over that. Then touched up the texture paint on the base again.

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update 2020-11-23

And chainlink fences done. 8 sections worth completed as planned. There's a whole bunch of subtle washes and dry brushing on the fence and base that the camera totally ignored. Better in real life as usual.

Just a quick diorama-esque pic to show scale.

Was a easy, quick, cheap project that will definitely add something to the table.

In other news:   sandbags still on the paint table - need to colour match the sandbags i already did.

Zombies were all rebased onto mdf. I like the uniformity and a little extra weight of those bases. They are all also on the paint table and have been undercoated black.

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update 2020-11-26

The two tree stands and the resin printed sandbags are now completely done. Reasonably happy with the result.

The sandbags are just thematic non-descript board filler. Will use them around the compound and military base.

Trees pretty much the same. Without a greater volume of these trees they're just going be spot pieces. They weren't the worst thing i've constructed in terms of mess and fiddliness...

Zombie reinforcements have been waiting for these other projects to finish off since those were relatively close to done and boxable.

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update 2020-11-30

Colours blocked in on the horde. Since then the basing, washes and gore has been added. Didn't bother dry brushing at all.

Will give them a spray of clear varnish some time today, and if I could be bothered making magnets they could potentially be boxed today (or they could just slide around in the box I guess).

We have our game club meet next Saturday so I won't be able to rerun the scenario that these were built for... maybe Sunday, but not counting on it.

Zombie kebab, about to get some spray.

Gore is a little more subtle/darker than the pic might indicate.

No magnets but they're sitting in the box already. Calling it done.

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Until next time...