“Don’t put your Daughter on the Stage!” (Forced March Challenge)

Posted on March 28, 2026 by rantingsfromunder

My second submission for Keith’s “Forced March Challenge” (Yes sadly I have only done two) are these “Stage 3Z, Plague Zombies” by “Mantic Games”. Now I glued (God I hate doing this!) all the bits I had left on the sprues together and came up with these seven figures, now this struck me as a little odd as I’d painted up two a while back (quite a while back to be honest!) that my son had assembled along with some “Stage 3A” types, but this came to nine (an odd number) zombies in total from two sprues? Having looked into this though I think he mix and matched one of the bodies into the stage 3A types. But I digress let’s get on with the painting and such shall we.

As usual their bases were covered in a few layers of basing sand along with a few cat litter “rocks” here and there and it was out for a coat of  matt black and a dry-brushing with chainmail. Then I attacked their flesh with a combination of ruby red, polish crimson, sanguine scarlet and plum, these were blobbed about their fleshy bits and then blended haphazardly into each other. I then went back in and dry-brushed some Italian red over this before adding there eyes and mouths in black with pupils and teeth in white star. Next the “boney” growths they have about their persons were added with another selective dry-brushing of Eurasian flesh and another of coffee. Now three of the chaps are wearing the remains of what look like hazmat suits, now of the other (stage 3A) figures I done these in orange, but so as to make differentiating between these and them I decided to go with grey for these ones, so a base layer of dark grey was applied first then dark sea grey (which is lighter) was highlighted over this.

The other four I decided were wearing some sort of combat uniform so I went with deep bronze green as a base with these and used interior green for the highlights, I originally thought I’d cocked up here as the contrast between the two was quite extreme, but the Quickshade seems to have dulled the whole lot down to a less stark appearance and I think I’ve gotten’ away with it!  The rifle waving lady appeared to be just wearing a vest top (Out of uniform! Put her on a charge!), so I just went with the old pairing of coffee and cream here. To match the two I did last time I went with chocolate brown highlighted with leather for all the boots, bags and belts, and after I’d done some black lining around the rents in their clothing and such (as it all looked a bit of a mess to be perfectly frank!) I just had to add the hair that was visible of a few of them, this was either chocolate brown with chestnut highlights or dark sand (colour party paints) with sand highlights (miniatures paints which is lighter).

As usual they were then given a brush coat of “Quickshade” (strong tone) and once dry had their bases painted to match the rest of my Dead Zone collection, so that was chocolate brown, dry-brushed with khaki, and again with coffee, as usual I’ve forgone the static grass on these chaps, but they did of course still get the matt varnish spray coat. So that is thankfully the last of my Dead Zone Plague figures done, I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel with this project now! (Though it might just be the lamp affixed to the engine pulling the trucks containing my next project! as that has now finally arrived too late for Keith’s challenge), Along with my last submission for Forced March 2026’ (hopefully it will be back next year).

My next post should hopefully detail my next project, which should keep me going for a while, but till then…Cheers Roger.

Posted in 28mm sci-fi, Dead Zone, sci-fi, Zombies | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

“Forced Fathers” (Forced March Challenge)

Posted on March 7, 2026 by rantingsfromunder

Another month and another challenge, this time Keith over at “Dead Dick’s Tavern & Temporary Lodgings” is running his new “Forced March Challenge” where you have to paint up a unit of figures in any scale, but it must be a unit of more than one figure (details are in the link above, if you want to take part). Anyway I did have figures planned for this, but in the finest traditions of these things plans have gone awry and the figures have not yet arrived, a shame as these figures will form my “big” project of the year. But like all good commanders I do have a backup plan in the form of my “Mantic Dead Zone” figures, so for my first submission I thought I’d knock out the last five of “Forge Father Steel Warriors”, this now only leaves six of the Power Armoured “Forge Guard”, left to do (but as I’m sure you are sick of seeing Forge Fathers now I promise to leave them till later in the year to do!).

But for now let’s get down to this last little unit of “Space Dwarves!” as always it began with the worst bit, sticking bloody multi part plastic figures together, now I know some of you weirdo’s chaps out there love doing this…I don’t, but anyway I did it and at least this lot were all armed with the standard “Hailstorm Rifles” and were backpack free! (though I did add the odd bit of stowage around their belts. Once they were all stuck together, I covered their bases in a few layers of basing sand and added some “kitty litter” rocks, then it was out for a coat of good old matt black courtesy of the rattle can and touch up brush, and I could get into the good bit, the painting.

As with all my other “Forge Fathers” I began by dry-brushing the guns, with chainmail, then all of their armour was painted in German field grey, this was then highlighted with dark turquoise. The under suits that can be seen on their arms and legs were then undercoated with dark grey, and mid grey was used to highlight these areas. The gloves, belts and the odd other area were then painted in chocolate brown before being highlighted with leather. Next it was time to add the eyes on their helmets for this I first took some Humbrol lime green  and painted the eye area in this then I added the dot in the centre with some “Fluorescent” light green. I also added the gun lights with these colours too. Lastly I added the accoutrements on their armour with a little copper with bronze highlights. Basically exactly the same as before, the only addition being the grenades hanging from a couple of the belts (three on the back of one chap, he is seriously tooled up!) had a very WW2 German stick grenade look to them so I added the shafts in dust bowl with a little skeleton legion highlight.

Once all this was done it was time for the requisite coat of “Strong tone” Quickshade, and once dry I painted the bases with my usual “Dead Zone” recipe of chocolate brown with subsequent dry-brushings of khaki and coffee and a spray coat of Humbrol matt varnish finished them off, so that’s one unit under my belt, I can relax a little now knowing that I have at least one thing done for this challenge, on to the next one, and I’m really sorry but it is going to be more Dead Zone stuff (ducks for cover!). One quick note before I go, as you’ve probably noticed over the time we’ve spent together that I like to give my posts a bit of a “pun” related title (sorry for that too by the way), but I was really struggling to come up with another “Father” related title, when all of a sudden it occurred to me that “Forge” sounds like “Forced”, and it was obvious! Why it took me so long to come up with this I don’t know, I really do thing I’m starting to lose the plot! Oh the joys of getting older!

So if I don’t forget how to write a post or even that I have a blog! I’ll see you next time, cheers Roger

Posted in Dead Zone, sci-fi | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

“Good Doggie” (Paint what you’ve got challenge)

Posted on February 21, 2026 by rantingsfromunder

Time to squeeze another post in before the end of February and the end of “Dave’s Challenge”. Now these definitely qualify as “paint what you’ve got”, as these figures were a very kind gift from Simon of “Fantorical” fame a couple of years back now. I think it’s pretty obvious that these now OOP (Is that right Simon?) Nexus miniatures are supposed to be, Wolverine, Sabre Tooth and Magneto from the X men movie franchise, and I did originally think of using them as the “not” versions of themselves in our Superheroes games as I’ve had a bit of a hankering to get back into “Supers” for a while (I actually dragged them out of their enforced captivity, of a draw in the garage for just that). But after I’d re-based them onto two pence pieces (as is my way), I…

  1. Thought they looked a bit drab compared to a lot of my other supers.
  2. Thought they had the look of some sort of sci/fi dignitary and his bodyguards.

Therefore that’s the way I decided to go, but first the two “feral’s” as I’m calling them would need weapons! Out to the garage I went and the draw containing my (ridiculously large) collection of Sci/fi guns was rifled (pun intended) through, in the end I settled on a pair of GW “melta guns” on space Marine arms, one left handed and one right. These were cut away at the hand and then the corresponding hand was cut off of the figure, the arms were and hands were drilled out and florists wire inserted to secure the superglued new hands in place. Then it was out for a coat of matt black, and a dry-brushing of chainmail. It was about this point that I realised what a huge mistake I’d made, the new hands/guns looked absolute s**t! They were far too big and completely ruined the figures, so all three were pushed to the back of my desk and would hopefully disappear forever!

That was till I was painting my Forge Fathers last week, when it jogged something in my memory and I remembered that the hands and pistols on my Dead Zone Enforcers were a lot smaller if I was correct, so up to the box containing the rest of the unpainted Dead Zone figures I went dug out the remaining bits I’d cut off of the Enforcers sprues (I don’t throw anything away you know!) and low and behold there were left and right arms holding pistols along with a holstered version too. As before these were cut away at the wrist, the space marine ones were pulled off and the new perfectly scaled hands and guns were glued in place, I also added a holstered version to the dignitary figure. And these new bits were painted in black and dry-brushed in chain-mail again. The Space Marine hand/guns were squirreled away back in their draw for possible future use (see nothing gets thrown out!!)

Anyway, taking the “feral’s” first, I’m calling them “Olly” and “Lon” (after my two favourite Werewolf actors), I started the painting “proper” by undercoating their bodysuits in navy blue then highlighted this with some royal blue, next I added their belt buckles in chainmail before turning to the ribbed padding they have at the shoulders, hips and knees, these I painted dark grey then added the highlights here in mid grey. When it came time to do their flesh (which was now to be honest) I decided I wanted a darker almost brown tone to reflect their animalistic tendencies, so mixed some dwarf skin together with some chocolate brown, and under coated with this, then after I’d added their eyes and mouths/teeth I highlighted the skin with a mix of more dwarf skin, a touch of chocolate brown and pale flesh. That really just left their hair and mutton chops, “Olly” I did in chocolate brown with chestnut forming the highlights here. And “Lon” I started by undercoating in dust bowl (I think this might be the first time I’ve ever used this colour), and I highlighted this with my colour party version of sand, these two then just needed me to highlight their belts and boots with a little dark grey and they were pretty much ready for the next stage.

My Dignitary (or some sort of V.I.P anyway) was begun by taking dragons gold and painting in his belt buckle, buttons, jacket edge and the brocade. Then I undercoated his jacket in dark red and highlighted in ruby red, his pants and cape were given a coat of coffee followed of course with cream highlights. For his skin I stuck with the tried and true European flesh with the same mixed with a little pale flesh for the highlights after his eyes were added. For his shoulder/hip and knee pads I went with just black with dark grey highlights same as his belt, holster and boots. His hair was next on the list, and I mixed a tiny amount of black into some chocolate brown and used the resultant dark brown as the base for his hair and added some mid grey highlights at the temples, then for some inexplicable reason the thought struck me that he needed a moustache, so I added one (he reminds me of “Charles Bronson” now for some reason), it does make him look a little more distinguished I think. I then highlighted his hair with just chocolate brown. A quick round of touching up followed this and I was calling him done too. On to the next stage.

You can probably guess what came next…yep “Quickshade” soft tone this time, followed by basing painted in my usual fashion, followed up with some PVA wood glue and summer mix hairy grass flock curtesy of “Javis of Stockport” and a final spray coating of matt varnish and they could attend the next planetary conference in style! And that dear reader probably brings me to the end of my submissions for “Dave Stone’s Paint What You’ve Got Challenge”, as I mentioned last post “Keith’s Forced March” starts next month, and I have something coming through the post (hopefully) in time for that, but if not I can always fall back on more “Forge Fathers”, or something I was saving till later in the year, but rest assured I will be painting something for this challenge, so till then, dig out your units to paint and I see you then…

Cheers Roger.

Posted in 28mm sci-fi, sci-fi | Tagged | 25 Comments

“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father” (Paint what you’ve got challenge & Miniature Assembly Challenge)

Posted on February 15, 2026 by rantingsfromunder

This has rather turned into “Mantic” Month, as I have another group of figures by the Nottingham Company for you this week. These were originally glued together last month as part of “Anne’s Miniature Assembly Challenge” and though I won’t go through the rigmarole I had trying to get in contact with Anne to ask if I could take part, I got it all sorted in the end (this was my fault and in no way Anne’s by the way). Even though I do want to get the rest of my “Dead Zone” stuff finished this year, I really needed the extra motivation of this challenge to finally get five more of my “Forge Fathers” stuck together as this is something I’m sure regular readers will be aware, that is not my favourite way to spend an afternoon, so many thanks to Anne for allowing me to join in the challenge.

I decided as I only have ten of these standard “Steel Warrior” to complete I’d add three heavier weapons to this group, along with backpacks to all five (the Magma Cannon operator needs a backpack as his weapons thick cable plugs into it), this means hopefully the last five, when I get round to them should all be easier Hailstorm Rifle carrying basic troopers. Anyway once all five were assembled, I covered their bases in a few layers of basing sand and added some “cat litter” rocks as usual with my Dead Zone chaps, and it was out for some matt black courtesy of the rattle can followed by a touch up of the bits it missed with a brush and more matt black, ready for painting.

Again as usual my “Forge Fathers” were begun by dry-brushing the guns, and backpacks with chainmail, then their armour was painted in German field grey, and highlighted with dark turquoise. Where they could be seen their bits of under clothing were first undercoated with dark grey, then mid grey was used to highlight these areas. Their gloves, belts and the odd pack etc… were then painted in chocolate brown before being highlighted with leather brown. Time to add the eyes on their helmets next, I first took some light green (Horizon Paint’s) and painted the lenses on the helmets, then as usual I used my (Tamiya) “Fluorescent” light green and added a dot or pupil. I also added lights with these colours to their weapons and backpacks. Next on the list was to add some accoutrements to their armour with a little copper with bronze highlights. Basically  these were done exactly the same as the basic Steel Warriors troopers, the only additions being tanks on the flame throwers (Dragons Breath, to give them their official name) and the cables on the Magma Cannon that were added in ruby red with Italian red highlights.

As usual they were then given a brush coat of the old strong tone “Quickshade” and once this was dry had their bases painted to match the rest of my Dead Zone figures, this means they were first painted chocolate brown, then dry-brushed with khaki, and then again with coffee, finally they all got my now obligatory spray coat of matt varnish spray and they were done.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to squeeze in another post for Dave’s challenge before the end of the month, but Keith has another challenge starting next month, his…”Forced March” challenge, to take part all you need to do is paint a unit of troops of any size or scale during the month of March (for details follow the link above), I hope to see you joining us and taking part in that one, but till next time.

Cheers Roger.

Posted in 28mm sci-fi, Dead Zone, sci-fi | Tagged , , | 14 Comments