Grin and Scowl... Pop Culture and Zombicide

One of the biggest appeals of Zombicide is their pop culture references to their survivors and villains.  This all started in the original Zombicide Kick-starter with many a nod to recognisable characters over a diverse amount of genres one of the more known examples is their Big Bang Theory themed survivors.  

I love the Batman universe and Batman has got to be one of my favorite Superheroes.  Naturally the Joker has to be one of my favorite villains.  Zombicide Black Plague released an exclusive box set in the "Knight" pack during the Black Plague kick-starter.  As a backer I received the two exclusive characters, Scowl who is a hero and a reference to the Dark Knight and a necromancer known as Grin and is a homage to the Joker... most likely the late Heath Ledger's Joker portrayal (haircut aside!).  

So years after I received the kickstarter I am going through a Black Plague resurgence and thought I would add to my ever expanding collection of painted miniatures.  Don't let the sometimes overpriced value of these miniatures stop me, I am in it for fun, not profit. I have even had Scowl slay many a zombie in a recent game.  He is a fantastic survivor.  Grin has yet to hit the table but he is ready and has been added to my box of painted Zombicide models.

The models are painted very differently.  Grin has received many layers of paint all from the Scale75 range of acrylics.  No washes were used om Grin.  I decided to do a very bright base using Games Workshop Contrast Paints and blended them together to show he is a magic user, evil doesn't need to dark.

Scowl was painted my usual go to method, block in, wash, highlight and pick out details.  I think the two are both instantly recognisable for whom they represent... Scowl more so.

There are so many more awesome pop culture references in Black Plague, too many to mention and yes I have them all! I can't wait to add to my Zombicide Second Edition survivors as there are many awesome models that are based on pop culture and real life heroes and villains.  

Back to the Future is my favorite Movie Trilogy EVER.  I have both Undead or Alive and Invader especially for their references to Marty and Doc.  Speaking of Invader, one of my favorite shows which I am rather obsessed with is Rick and Morty and Invader gives a very awesome nod to them.

I can't wait to eventually get around to painting these.

Social Media, my Hobby... and Paint All The Minis

 My twitter account has been very inactive recently. There is no need to go into the reasons why so many people have abandoned twitter but it's fairly obvious the platform has changed significantly since it was bought out. Twitter used to be such a great space for hobbyists but now it's only a shadow of it's former self. I don't like the name X and I much prefer it's former name and the “Twitter” branding. The little bird tweeting was such a nice concept and the chirping alert was just “chef’s kiss”. 

I am not abandoning twitter, I'm simply not going to engage with it as much as I used to. The algorithm alone on twitter is very hard to skew towards the hobby despite me trying to look at and only like content related to the hobby. I will still post occasionally as I got so close to 1000 followers and to abandon it would be sad. It's a great record of my hobby journey.

I am going to be using Bluesky, Instagram and Threads. Instagram allows you to post to Threads at the same time so I may as well use the feature. I think Threads will eventually die out and it didn't really take off. I rarely post anything on Facebook these days. Social media is forever changing and I see it as a necessary evil. I especially do not like the “Metasphere” but it's almost essential for us hobbyists. Instagram is probably my preferred platform at the moment. So many hobbyists are on there and the variety in content is absolutely enormous.

A few months back I created a Bluesky account. Now that I am back regularly doing hobby, I am going to commence posting there and see how much I can grow on that platform. I want Bluesky and Instagram to be my two main social media platforms.  Regardless of the platform, I am almost always hitting the like button on a variety of content to help drive the algorithm and tailor it to what I like.  Strangely my content gets very few likes with my Instagram posts averaging around 20-30 likes per post and twitter around 30-40 likes per post.  Sometimes a post only gets one or two likes. The internet is a strange place at times. I think if you see anything creative online that remotely interests you - give it a like.

Discord is another platform I have been using mostly for video games but I have a separate account to separate the two hobbies.  I think its a great platform but a lot of content gets lost in it.  Its strength is its ability to create communities within a self contained server. 

I am now a contributor at Paint All The Minis (I'm Dave by the way),  the website that supports the legendary Podcast.  I have published a couple of articles. Dan is smashing out the episodes for the Podcast and it is always worth a listen. You will see many of my minis scattered across the various pages of the website. Its a fantastic site and an even better Podcast. If you haven't heard of it... what are you doing, click that link!

So there you have it, a short update on my thoughts on social media and what platforms I will be using.  See the links below to get in touch with me.