Monday 6 January 2014

DUST: Axis Zombies and Grenadier X (Rated B for ''Bloody'')

Happy new year dear readers!

Its been a long time since I posted any picture of a painted miniature...the reason being that I was dead busy first with school and then with Christmas-new year... I managed to get one day for myself out of the two weeks ''vacations''.

With that day, I painted a miniature for the Oldies' Gift Exchange (A little Christmas painting exchange where we all bring a miniature than randomly assign a mini to everyone to be painted. I got lucky and got Madelyn Corbeau from Privateer Press.) and while I'm dying to show it off and give it back, I'll refrain myself from posting any picture or talking about all the trouble I went through painting it in order to keep some surprise to its owner.
I think that one day ''off'' represents my whole 2013 perfectly: I was busy with school and work and yet, somehow, managed to paint a LOT of my Dust, built terrain and played more games than 2012.

For 2014, I'm expecting to paint: My Flames of War models so I can get a game with Matt, more Warmachine/Hordes in order to continue my Minions so I can face Dave's Convergence of Cyriss, my kickstarters...when they'll arrive one day, a couple of spaceships here and there for my Firestorm Armada and a LOT of Dust as it still is my favorite game and painting these minis is close to relaxation for me: no stress, not too hard and it feels good. ;)


Now, if you are still reading (or clicked on this post in the first place), you probably are expecting some zombies and maybe even a Grenadier X...

Untertotens:

Okay, I'll show them, but first, their fluff in my Elba campaign:

As the Allied recon troops managed to escape the encirclement on Elba's beachheads, they started venturing too closely to key locations and the Blutkreuz Korps on Elba had no choice but to release the Untertotens, Axis Zombies, in order to repel would be intruders and make the woods and deserted villages of Elba much more dangerous to any living thing.
As Grenadier X and Totenmeister are not on Elba, the control over these zombies is tenuous, and Elba High Kommand fears they might start to attack Axis troops. In order to avoid ''accidents'', Untertoten-infested areas have been written on maps like minefields.


Painting Zombies, 203-style


I must admit that in my 'super-organized elite' 203 Panzerabteilung, the idea of having zombies running around and requesting one of my precious transports made it so that they never were at the top of my list of things to be painted...
And then I got Gloss Super Heavy Gell and it made me think I could use that for drool...and what is the leakiest thing in the Axis army? Zombies!


Colors used:
-Clothes: Field Green (Val71093)
-Shoes: Black (Val71057)
-Skin: Underbelly Blue (PIP93050), followed by a wash of Algae (SWMW013) and then a slight wash of Drying Blood (SWMW024)
-Fists: Black Metal (Val71073), if you really want to go pro, go ahead and highlight with Gungrey (Val 71072) and then last highlight of Chrome (71064)...Personally, I went lazy and just did the Black Metal, then I applied little blotches of Mephiston Red (Citadel) but it was too bright for blood so I then found out my Scab Red (GW61-04, discontinued) survived the passage of time (a miracle for citadel paints!!!!)...And it turned out to be a nice color for blood so I generously applied a lot of it...then I generously washed the fists with Drying Blood (SWMW024).
-Drool: get white sewing thread, hang it over a little pot, make sure they are fixed, then apply superglue drops and let it dry...that's the theory...It was ''okay'' but not as cool as I had expected so after that I just dipped them into Gloss Super Heavy Gel from Liquitex and let it dry.
After that, I cut them in small bits and glued some to the zombies' mouths to do drool.

Zombies...Why would you play that?


In Dust Warfare, I've only faced Zombies once, and I don't recall them being too problematic to my Heavy Flakk Grenadiers. Nonetheless, I think Zombies will soon be used more and more as people realise that:
-1: They are soft and can easily be killed by SSU infantry 4
-2: Throwing 10 dice, they probably can damage that squad of SSU infantry 4
-3: Add Grenadier X in that squad, and suddenly they throw an extra 4 dice and get an extra 4 wounds!!

Bleuuuarrrgh!!!


Of course, all of this is paper-theory, yet to be tested...But I'll do it soon!
I do think it is one of Axis best options against the dreaded infantry 4, as a bonus, this squad is killy to anything in the game except planes...Which the Sturmprinz you'll give them will take care of.
Talking about Sturmprinz, I must stress that important point: give your soft infantry a transport!!!
In a world of Grim Reapers throwing 12 dice at infantry 2, and SSU infantry 4 being equipped with heavy shotguns and machine-guns, it is important for your zombies to get a transport: not only will it keep them safe, it will also provide the covering fire (able to put suppression on two squads) to allow them to get in melee without any reactions.

And now...

Grenadier X:





Colors Used:
-Clothes: Another try at Italian Camo, this time with the right colors: Gunship Green (VAL71014) for the base, then blotches/spots of Middlestone (Val71031...or something, the lettering is auto-erasing itself on the pot) and then conect some of the spots with Chocolate Brown.

A quick google search gave me this about Italian Camo

-Face: roughly the same as the Untertotens: Underbelly Blue (PIP93050) followed by a wash of Algae (SWMW013) and Drying Blood in the mouth (SWMW024).
-Circular Chainsaw: The yellow parts were painted with Middlestone (Val71031), the metallic parts were Black Metal (Val71073) highlighted with Gungrey (71072) and then Chrome (71064).
-Blood: Scab Red (GW61-04, discontinued) and Drying Blood (SWMW024)

So...the fact that Grenadier X wears Italian Camo, does that makes him an ex-SS from the 1st or 12th (according to the blog post about italian camo)? I'm thinking that in Dust, the SS got given two choices: execution or inoculation of the serum...

On the battlefield, Grenadier X, like all Dust units (but the Herman), is a very viable choice. He brings much needed ablative wounds to the zombies as well as the ''Assault'' skill to the zombies and a good amount of dice against vehicles.
He might not be on the Island of Elba, but little warning to my Dust opponents: be ready to see him on the battlefield very soon!

See you soooon!!!


On that note,

Happy 2014, may your paints not dry in their pots (follow the example of my Scab Red ;)) and may your dice roll well.

1 comment:

  1. Hello, I love these models! Are they for sale, by any chance?

    ReplyDelete