Polishing More Turds

I posted what is possible with basically the worst figures available in your local discount shop a while ago: https://deathzap.co.uk/2021/08/15/polishing-a-turd/ And recently I had a strange hankering to paint some truly terrible figures. I think the worst a available (although if you’re aware of worse please let me know) are these guys: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Y-Republic-Traditional-Army-Battle/dp/B0BCL3YDLV/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=25YJ3OYRJ6KMV&keywords=army+men+figures&qid=1688734468&sprefix=army+me%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-3 I’ve had […]

A Couple of Very Cheap Armoured Cars

In my last post I played out a quick ambush battle report featuring a couple of armoured cars. The cars themselves came from a cheap set of soldiers and vehicles: https://deathzap.co.uk/2022/06/27/soldiers-of-the-combat/ I wanted to use the cars in my ambush scenario, but was concerned that paint wouldn’t stick to them. It’s seemed to be that […]

Another-nother lesson in never throwing anything away

In the dark, dark house, there was a dark, dark staircase. Down the dark, dark staircase, there was a dark, dark cellar. And in the dark, dark cellar, some space marines were in a plastic container covered in goo. I’ve been holding onto these marines for a long time, and they had been somewhat unsuccessfully […]

Weird and Wonderful Warbands

I’m still working on my one page skirmish rule set for the one page game jam, and a big part of that is playtesting, and so obviously I needed minis to playtest with. Sticking with the same ‘grimcandy’ style I’ve been figuring out of late I’ve been kitbashing various 28mm plastic kits together: A few […]

Miniature Painting Styles?

I occasionally like to get artsy fartsy on this blog. In this case I’d like to talk about miniature painting styles. This has been spurred on by my recent delving into Grimcandy/Grimbright painting, but also this YouTube video from Lenric’s Realm: So as Lenric points out most painting styles come under the heading of ‘realism’, […]

Grimcandy

So biting off more than it probably is possible to chew for the one page game jam mentioned in my last post I’ve decided to revolutionise skirmish wargaming. I think I have a problem. I’m not posting about the rules here yet (they’re top secret), but in putting the rules together I realised that I […]

Warhammer 40k 10th Edition and My World Eaters

I suppose this is necessary despite this being a blog about cheaper wargaming. I was spurred on by a comment by Brother Brutus on my blog post regarding Grimdark future: Sorry for the late post – just finding this article. Yes, OPR and GrimDark Future are the WH40K that I’ve been missing. Our group loves […]

Another Army in an Afternoon and some simple rules

So I’ve finished my Strelets WW1 Russians in a similar style to my previous Fallschirmjager: The Russians came in green plastic so I was able to do the same black paint and Mod Podge wash directly onto the plastic. I picked out their gas masks and weapons with citadel’s Black Templar and then just a […]

Army in an Afternoon

So like you (I’m sure) I’ve got piles and piles of figures. Which is fine, but it’s the unloved ones, the ones tucked away in bags and boxes not getting any attention which I don’t like. Back when I visited my parents on the Isle of Man I picked up a box of Italeri (former […]

Repainting Cheap Train Figures for Slasher Gaming

As mentioned in my previous post I’ve been working on some figures for playing out a slasher movie scenario. They’re very cheap train layout figures I picked up from Amazon, 100 for £5. I went for the standard basecoat, wash and highlight: Albert Fielding is taking his students on a trip to the abandoned village […]

Slapchop Deathzap

Short post from a slow week. I’ve been experimenting with the slapchop painting technique on my deathzap figures. For those not in the know to slapchop you first prime the figure black and the drybrush them white: Then you apply contrast paints, I use citadel’s although other manufacturers equivalents are available and often said are […]

Discount Titans

My friend and I are working our way towards a very big game of Grimdark Future, hopefully 20,000 points, which should pit his entire Blood Angels army against my entire World Eater army (plus some allies). This year so far I’ve already managed to add 1000 points to my force with a box of Horus […]

Hobby Spend 2022 and Setting Goals for 2023

So how much money did you spend on your hobby in 2022? My goal this last year was to track all of my hobby spending just to see how much this hobby was costing me, and I completely forgot about that goal in the second half of last year. But I did manage to recover […]

Deadwars

So thanks to copious amounts of cold and flu capsules I managed a little painting yesterday and a little game today. After realising I had a box of Mars Zombie Pirates and Dark Alliance Mummies I was pondering the possibilities of an all out war between the forces of Davy Jones and Imhotep (I wonder […]

Comfortable Christmas Wargaming 2022 – Best Laid Plans…

I didn’t get my usual comfortable game in this year using Stuart Asquith’s rules and Italeri figures, I instead played a game of Grimdark Future with a mate actually on Christmas Day. His Sisters of Battle fought against my Eldar from Craftworld Ashon-Sen and as seems to be the case with Grimdark we’re always having […]

Battle of the Rulebooks Part 3: Gathering Forces

Of course I had to take this opportunity to buy more little plastic people. This wasn’t as simple as grabbing whatever I wanted though, I did have a few goals in mind. My main goal was to have two forces, one elite with few models, decent armour and weaponry, and the other with more models, […]

Speed Painting Thousand Sons

A couple of friends and I are building up armies for One Page Rules, starting slow and building up 500 points a month. I’ve always wanted to do Thousand Sons, but the painting has always put me off. However I think I’ve found a scheme I can really work with.

The Second Global War

The causes of the Second Global War on the planet Jendar are obvious. With the end of the Camerian Civil War and the new United Cameria joining the Jendari Collective in 2100AC the power balance between the two great powers of Jendar had shifted. House Baronor now in a weaker position chose to strike first […]

Orctober

With Orctober upon us I went about looking for Orcs to paint up and enter into the various Orctober painting competitions you see around on the web. Alternative Armies is always a go to for me if I’m in the mood for a characterful figure. However in this instance I went to Essex Miniatures and […]

Still Painting Poundland Figures

After the fun I had messing around with my universal skirmish rules I wondered about using them for skirmishing in the Deathzap universe. To that end I’ve been painting up more Poundland figures: I think the 25mm Warhammer style bases really make them look like ‘proper’ gaming figures: Not that there’s such a thing as […]

Blanchitsu Barbie

Here’s a blast from the past. A project started around 4 years ago and only just finished today. Some of the pictures are even from our old house! So I started with your average discount shop barbie, a box of milliput, some old clothes and a tub of bits. After a repose, covering her in […]

Still Death Duelling and Reflecting on My Hobby Spend

It was a busy weekend so there was a lack of hobby progress, however I have still been duelling, refining rules, speeding things up, buying miniatures and painting them. The figures bought are mostly from the weird and wonderful areas of Irregular’s 28mm range – zombies, futuristic cops, ninjas and aliens. But a duel with […]

The Charge! – A Comfortable Wargaming Battle Report

A comfortable start to some comfortable gaming, two infantry forces go at each other: I fully expect the Pavlovians to hold the line, but this should none the less be a fun go at some simple horse and musket rules that borrow heavily from Stuart Asquith and Donald Featherstone. Turn 1 was uneventful, but rolling […]

Easy Terrain: Craters

Good for Bolt Action, 40k, especially good for Lunar if you skip a step, and of course good for Deathzap! Start out with a foil pie plate: Then mash it into your basic shape: I then coated the entire thing in texture paint. Mine is home made and hard wearing. It’s a mix of filler, […]

Getting Stranger

That strange creativity flow hasn’t yet slowed down it seems as over the last week I’ve been adding even more odd creations to my collection. Starting with some town guards, they were your garden variety plastic knight figures in rough 54mm scale, with head replacements and added cocktail sticks. One guys weapon was replaced with […]