Reply To: Andy Zeck Has Passed Away

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The Boot Camp

So gutted at the news.

I met Andy at The Walking Dead Boot Camp in November 2016.

I had admired his work from the website before i met him and I was oddly star-struck to meet him, but he was so humble, generous with his time and skills that he made my time there some of the happiest i have ever had in the hobby.

It was my first boot camp. He made it feel like we were being cheeky by grabbing some paints, sharing some primer before anyone else and getting some paint on our new models. Andy had painted a fistful of models in next to no time and complimented me on my efforts with Abraham and some tokens.

Andy had brought along a couple of painted models from his Mars Attack collection to see if the marines scaled well with the new models. They were all painted with his brilliant style, with minimal but so effective basing and it was a true pleasure to see him enjoying his hobby.

A measure of the man that comes back to me… Even though he was so good at painting he still made a b-line for the studio painted minis when they were taken from their silver travel case, some from expansion waves we weren’t due to see in a while, and was so impressed by them, offered great praise and joked about taking them home if they left them out too long.

We were able to share drinks in the evenings, he played some of my first games of The Walking Dead with me and contributed heavily towards my love for Beasts of War and the hobby. His beautiful paint jobs inspired me for years to come. Sadly too few years to come, taken from us too soon.

I saw him at Salute each year there after. Had a fist full of Facebook messenger chats with him over the years and regret not chatting with him more often, because he was always really pleasant, humorous, easy with his tips and praise for shared pics and projects and it was always a pleasure to share time and comments with him.

I really miss him now that won’t be possible ever again.

Naming an annual prize after him as mentioned by so many others in this forum already would be a great gesture.

I know we have had Beasts of War OnTableTop members pass before, that were no doubt equally appreciated and well loved in the community and gone without such accolades, but I really feel it would be an awesome gesture to add his name to an existing or new annual painting award because for me he was such an inspiration and such a skilled painter that I can only hope to get close to emulate his efforts some day.

Sorry for going on and on like we were best friends or family or something, but it has been nice to share these memories somewhere and it is hurting far more than I ever thought this kind of news could.

RIP Andy.