Police Month Week Four- Officers Angle and Frost

The final week of Police Month is upon us, and so naturally we have to have these two chaps from Hasslefree.....

... "Now class, we have a special visitor today. This is Sergeant Angel and Officer Frost from the Police, here to talk to us about Zombie safety"

"Thank you Miss Winterbottom, my name is Sergeant Angle.."

"You are an angel to me love.."

"...right... Officer Frost and I are here to talk to you about Zombie Safety. Now before we get started, are there any questions?"

Officer Frost raises his hand, a wide smile on his face.

"Yes Officer Frost"

"Have you ever killed a zombie?"

"No. Because zombies are already dead, you can't kill them. What you can do is stop the virus, which I have done, yes"

Officer Frost pipped up again "How did you do it?"

"I have used a variety of methods, but each time I have hit them in the head, destroying the brain."

Again, Officer Frost spoke "So like guns and stuff?"

"Yes Officer, I have used my standard issue police firearm to stop a zombie" More than a touch of irritation was creeping in to Sergeant Angle's voice.

"Have you ever shot a zombie from a moving car?"

"No"

"Have you ever shot two guns at once?"

"No"

"Is it true that there is a place on a zombie's head, that if you shoot it, it will blow up?"

"Officer Frost, I am sure the children would rather hear the talk than listen to your questions don't you think?"

Officer Frost put his hand down, and was (finally) quiet.

"Any other questions before we begin?"

One of the children put his hand up, "So is there a place you can shoot to make the zombie's head explode?...."

We haven't had figures from Hasslefree in a while, so I haven't mentioned lately how much I like them! These guys are pretty obviously from Hot Fuzz, so I couldn't resist theming their story around the same film. So apologies for the blatant rip off of their dialogue, but I blame Hasslefree for making such good likenesses. Today's story is different to my other offerings, firstly it is in the aftermath of the Z apocalypse, and it is also trying to be funny (up to you whether I was successful!), so it was a nice change for me to write. These guys have actually been painted up for quite a long time, just waiting for me to post them up here!

These two also come with the first of my vehicles, a police car. I am totally undecided what I am going to do with vehicles, I am really tempted to repaint them all, but that would cause a drastic reduction in the amount which I will have in my games! So for now, it is just in it's prepainted state. Maybe I will just do some weathering...

These two are no exception on the quality from Hasslefree, in fact I see that their kits have gotten even better, with even more weapon options! Do I need another version of these guys? Probably not. There are other things to paint first!

I have one last offering for Police Month on Monday, then back to our regular programming....

Chris

Converted Zombies Part 4: The Women!

Continuing on from last week's post (here), I also was able to complete the sprue of Zombie women, using the Wargames Factory sprue as the basis. It has been quite fun to try and work out how to make them look "natural". Some of the survivor bodies are in very over the top poses, which are great for survivors, bit make for some slightly oddly posed zombies (see disco-prison zombie from the male set!).

Anyway, back to the women. Again, made from Wargames Factory survivor bodies, Studio Miniatures arms and Wargames Factory Vixen heads!

The whole lot:

Paging Nurse Zombie:

Zombie in bright red shoes. Dorothy?:

General survivalist Zombie:

Cheetah print Zombie:

Barefoot and dressed for town zombie:

Yelling Zombie:

The other ones you have already seen a close up of, Zomb-Annie for example!

Coop and Sasha encountered the big horde in their escape...

Don't worry, Coop and Sasha are fine!

Well, there is another set of 10 Zombies, the horde is growing and growing!

Chris

Police Month Week Three- SWAT Team Bravo

Police month reaches it's third week, and this time it is time to call in the cavalry- SWAT are here!

"... Confirmed, SWAT is five minutes out...

Simple briefing, three cops were at the location, contact with them was spotty. First cop on scene, DCI Calvin had called it in, officer in need of assistance. Nothing else heard from him. Second set of cops was Officers Decarlo and Daniels called it in, saying that they had shots fired, and were moving in to assist Calvin. Nothing else heard from them.

SWAT Team Bravo was two minutes out now, helmets on, weapons ready. Other police units were meant to be on their way, but they had been called to other locations. Must have been the heat or something, whole town had gone crazy.

The team arrive at the location, their van pulling up behind the empty patrol car. The four man team swept out of the back door of the van, first stopping at the patrol car. It's doors were closed, nothing out of the ordinary. They then swept forward, towards the building. Calvin's car was nearby, again all closed up, nothing out of the ordinary.

No signs of any trouble. No gunflashes, no panicked calls to dispatch. Not even anyone on the street.

The four man team stacked up at the front door, weapons ready, scanning the area. The front man checked the door- unlocked.

So why hadn't the officers gotten out? Why hadn't they called for help?

The lead man yelled "POLICE, OPEN UP" before the team swept through the front door, guns up. The café was empty, tables, chairs and counter looked as though nothing had happened here. The room was clean, cleared and ready for the morning commuters.

Weapons raised, the four man team moved quickly through the open café.

The team paused as they heard footsteps upstairs.

The men pushed for the rear stairwell, moving up the stairs. Their heavy boots stomped their way up, the men breathing heavily under the weight of their armour and equipment. Reaching the top of the stairs, there was a door to the right for the first floor seating, with the toilets ahead of them. The squad leader paused the team, using hand signals to prepare to move through to the seating area.

The team leader pushed slowly at the door, trying to be as quiet as possible.

The door opened easily, the team moved through, flashlights sweeping the room. The room was a charnel house, blood splatters across the floor. tables were upturned, chairs were strewn about the floor.

The squad stopped. All four weapon mounted flashlights were focused on a single lone figure, standing staring out of the window. The woman wore a police issue stab proof vest, blood dripped from her arm, pooling on the floor. While the rest of their team kept their weapons trained on Decarlo, one officer moved forward, cautiously edging towards her. He raised his arm to grab hers, to escort her out of the room. He spoke softly, quietly. He gripped her arm tightly and gently pulled her forward, moving her from the room.

As he pulled her around, he saw her lifeless white eyes, blood was spread down the front of her uniform staining her once crisp white shirt stained a dark red. Her vest had two neat bullet holes in the front, close range rounds which had penetrated through the vest. The officer didn't have time to contemplate what that meant, as Decarlo lunged, biting the officer in the neck, dragging him to the ground. As the officer grasped at his throat, choking on his own blood, what was once Decarlo stooped over the corpse, fresh blood dripping from her jaws.

The rest of their team had gotten over their shock, their M4s spat 5.56 rounds at Decarlo. The high velocity rounds bit into her, easily penetrating her stab proof vest. The weight of fire tore her apart in a split second, she dropped next to the fallen officer, who was still clutching his throat.

A door on the side of the room burst open, more figures emerged. They had the same deathly expressions, the same grey skin, blood stained their mouths. The officers switched fire to the newly emerging figures. Their accurate fire took its toll on the newly arrived figures, all of them dropping to the floor. The officers moved quickly to the side of their fallen comrade, one officer covering each exit while the third knelt over their wounded team mate.

More figures emerged from the doorway, stumbling over those who had been shot earlier. The officers put them down with calm, disciplined shots.

He was so focused on plugging the wound and starting CPR that he wasn't aware of where he put his foot. Decarlo's upper body pulled itself forward, grabbing the officer attempting CPR on the ankle and biting down deep into his leg. His cries of pain were muffled by his former team mate rising up and biting him in the throat. The officer fell, his former team mate on top of him, tearing at any exposed skin.

One of the remaining officers panicked, firing wildly into the former police officers. His bullets took chunks of flesh, bone and brain as they tore through them. Most of those they had shot earlier stood up, and continued to advance on the two remaining officers. The two continued to fire at those in front of them. Their shooting was less accurate now, no longer neat double taps to the centre mass of the target. Their ammunition running low, the two crouched low behind a table trying to save their bullets as much as they could.

They had been so focused on the problem in front of them that they hadn't noticed one of the figures moving quietly behind them, edging closer to them, arm outstretched, it made a grab for one of the officers.

BOOM.

A single shot to the head stopped it in it's tracks.

"Somebody call 911?" A dry female voice said. The two SWAT officers gave her a look reminiscent of a deer in the headlights.

Shotgun raised, she popped off a couple of shots before sitting with her back to the table like the others.

A bloke in a dull grey suit joined the group.

"Lads" he said nodding to each of them. "Think we probably ought to get a wriggle on aye?"...

My SWAT Team are from Eureka Miniatures, and are most of the remainder of the SEAL Team Six set after I completed Coop. In actual fact, these guys were completed first, but I felt that arming a SWAT unit with an M249 would be slightly odd, which led me to creating Coop, which led to Sasha, and the two of them are probably my favourite survivors so far!

The paint job is pretty standard, black body armour and dark blue BDUs. The only conversions I have done is to give a couple of them balaclavas, and to change a few of the panels on their body armour to make them look a little less military. I added American flag decals from Company B to complete the models and give them a little bit of colour, other than that they are a pretty standard build!

One more week for Police Month, one more copper (or set of coppers!) to go....

Chris

Converted Zombies part 3- The men!

Or at least, I think it is part 3?

Inspired by a long weekend a couple of weekends ago, I got out my boxes of plastics and got to converting. I had previously done a few conversions of the Wargames Factory plastics, combining them with the Studio Miniatures spare parts. My plan was to complete the remainder of the sprue of survivors, getting me 10 male and 10 female zombies which will be very different to my Studio Miniatures plastics (which I have more of- must finish those too).

First up is the men. All are Wargames Factory Survivor bodies, with Studio Miniatures arms and heads. Except the kid, who got his arms from the Wargames Factory Vixens boxed set.

And now, for some close ups.

Tourist:

Matrix-wannabe:

Zomb-cousin Vinny:

Grabbing Office Zombie:

The kid:

Another faceless government employee:

Convicted Zombie:

College Zombie:

Plus there are the two you have already seen, making up the full 10!

And as for Bridget, she has got decidedly mixed feelings about getting so much attention from all these men...

Back to the painting table!

Chris

Police Month Week Two- Police Officers Susan Daniels and Anna Decarlo

Police month continues, this time with two officers, Officer Susan Daniels and Officer Anna Decarlo...

... Officers Decarlo and Daniels stood on the cordon at the entrance to the alleyway. It was late at night, the alley was barely lit by the streetlights. Crappy neighborhood, meant that as soon as the cops turned up in force, there was no one on the street. Hookers and pimps had cleared out as soon as the sirens came, the drunks had long since shuffled off to their beds.

While Decarlo looked at the street, Officer Daniels was looked at the crime scene, she saw another officer giving DCI Calvin a folder. There was a discussion as Calvin opened it, the old man had looked shaken. Hands ever in his pockets, he stood staring at the body in the alley. Calvin started talking to the boss, and the boss looked worse than Calvin did.

After a minute or two, Calvin strode off, leaving the boss in his wake.

Calvin shuffled past the two officers in his usual brusk manner, "Probably got a lead" Decarlo said.

An hour later, the two officers were relieved and headed back to the station. On the way there, the radio crackled into life, the monotonous female voice of the dispatcher came across "..Officer in need of assistance, north corner of 14th and Green...". Another voice responded, the SWAT unit was on the way to the scene. Decarlo responded "Officers Decalo and Daniels responding, 5 minutes out".

"Really Anna? Was standing in that alley not enough fun for you?" Officer Daniels said, a comment which was met by a withering look from Decarlo.

"I was joking Anna, sheesh, lighten up. SWAT are on their way, we are going to be pulling cordon for another four hours. It's going to rain, I'm going to be cold and the fricking uniform officer at the station make us wear these skirts. God damn pig. So excuse me for not wanting to be standing on a rope getting my ass stared at by that creep Frost. Is it so wrong to want to have a little time not freezing my ass off?"

Decarlo didn't respond. This wasn't the first time Daniels had made the point, and she wasn't exactly wrong.

The police car rolled up to the corner of 14th and Green after a few minutes of awkward silence. The two officers sat in their car, and waited. The street was clear, DCI Calvin's beat up old car was out the front of the starbucks on the north corner. The lights were off inside, it was well before opening hours, before the caffeine starved masses needed their fix.

A flash of light upstairs- Daniels caught a brief glimpse of a man in a coat- DCI Calvin.

"At least we are in the right place- let's go" Decarlo said, exiting the vehicle. She held her truncheon in her hand, feeling the weight as she moved up the stairs. She arrived at the front door, noticing that it was unlocked, she paused at the top step.

A flash and a loud bang came from upstairs- a gunshot. Daniels caught another glimpse of Calvin upstairs, this time he has his pistol raised. Calvin hated guns, she had never seen him carry one. For him to be carrying his gun, let along be using it, things must be bad.

Decarlo burst through the front door, truncheon raised.

Daniels wasn't messing about, she went to the weapons locker at the back of the vehicle, grabbed the shotgun with some ammunition and followed Decarlo in....

The whole reason I did an order with Crooked Dice was to get the figure I used for Decarlo. It is such a good, dynamic pose, lovely facial expression and great detail. And when it arrived, I was not at all disappointed. Crooked Dice mush have known that I loved the figure, so they sent me two of them!

Not one to have two of exactly the same figure lying around, I decided to do a brief bit of surgery:

Just a minor procedure...

I married the metal body up with some of the Wargames Factory plastic survivor parts, plus a bit of Greenstuff..

Such as giving her hair extensions

And I was left with Officer Daniels!

I am pretty happy with how she turned out, although to me it is really clear the difference in detail which the lead miniatures provide- the original is so dynamic and characterful, whereas Daniels is just a little more... subdued. It's not a bad thing, I just think that the original is just a bit better. Overall I am happy with these two, they definitely make fine additions to my police force, although I do need to do photography some other time than before work- not enough natural light!

So big question, how do Decarlo and Daniels fare? Is DCI Calvin still alive? And who will be next week's Police Officers?

Chris

Police Month Week One: Tenth Survivor- Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Calvin

The Tenth Survivor heralds the start of my first theme month, February is going to be all police, all the time!

Number 10 is Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Daniel Calvin....

"...another body.

This is his fifth homicide in two days.

She is young, maybe 16? Blonde hair. Pretty dress. Probably on her way home from a party. Took a shortcut to get a taxi home.

Now she is dead in a dark alley way. No sign of sexual assault.

DCI Calvin moves closer. His hands are in his pockets, reduces the temptation to touch things he always says.

The girl's torso is split open, blood and viscera have oozed out onto the dark concrete. Her face is unrecognizable, shattered, crushed. What was once her image had been destroyed.

Calvin looks away, and his mind spins back the past 48 hours, a film reel of horror and violence. Such are the idle moments of a homicide detective. The fifth victim in the last two days.

The first victim was a tweaker, a druggie. Stabbed in the head by his once friend. Apparently he had gone crazy, thrashing, attacking, so his mate stabbed a steel pipe through his eye socket and into his brain. Then the other junkie continued his drug trip, and is now in a coma in hospital. Calvin had seen him, his body was covered in wounds, needle marks, infections, scratches and bites. Life on the streets had not been kind to him, the nurses must have struggled to find a vein to put the IV into.

Victim two was Paul Hastings. Shot at close range by his wife, Susan Hastings. Shot dead in his kitchen, blood on his arm, and a single round through the forehead.

Victim three was Shaun Hastings. Shot at close range, by his mother, Susan Hastings. Same MO as Paul. Both were found in the kitchen, wounds on his skin. Coroner's report yet to come.

Victim four was Susan Hastings. Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Wound on arm, suggests a struggle with Dan. Perhaps Shaun caught in the crossfire? Must remember to check for a history of abuse Calvin reminded himself.

And now victim number five.

Calvin rubbed his eyes to refocus himself. He hadn't slept. Too many questions, too many anomalies. He wanted nothing more than to go back to bed, to curl up and never be seen again.

"This stinks" Calvin said aloud to no one in particular.

"What does?" the coroner replied, as he spoke he went about his work examining and photographing the body.

"This whole thing. Why here? Why smash her head in? Why do so much damage?" Calvin responded. He was staring now at the girl. Willing himself to make sense of it.

"You aren't going to like this Guv" a police officer had arrived at his side, holding a document tightly in her hands. "All of them have been bitten."

"Bitten? As in by a human?" The officer nodded. "A cannibal? Christ...." Calvin replied. He stared into the distance.

His sleep would have to wait....

DCI Calvin comes from Crooked Dice, and is an absolute cracking miniature! He may actually be my favourite so far, which is a pretty big call, but I think he might just be. The story is very heavily influenced by the Luther TV series (hence Calvin as his name too), so apologies to Neil Cross (the creator of Luther) for shamelessly ripping your material off! I do really like the figure, and the colour scheme for the suit is directly from Luther's wardrobe.

Now, as I said. February is going to be all police, all the time. It has begun with DCI Calvin, and will continue for the next 3 weeks with yet more police officers!

As ever, I would love to hear from you, what do you think? Like the figure? Like the story? Let me know!

Chris