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

Survivor Week 9- Bridget!

An update today chaps- this weeks survivor is Bridget!

I haven't had enough time to get a story written for her, but it is safe to say that Bridget likes her teddy bear, playing field hockey and punk music. If she could update her Facebook status with her zombie kills, she would. Pity that the Internet went down, and her phone ran out of batteries to take selfies with. However, with her no nonsense boots, and with her typical rebellious take on her school uniform, she is taking the fight back to them living dead.

Smacking Zeds has been great therapy to get out her anger issues tho....

Bridget comes from Crooked Dice miniatures, and is an absolutely lovely figure. I have tried to get a good mix between the more formal colours of the uniform, with the more out there colours of her hair, her bracelets and her hockey stick. I hope to do her justice with a good story, but I just haven't had the time this week to get it done. To maintain my schedule I had to get the pictures of her up on the blog (which I have now done), so hopefully over the weekend, I will be able to share her story with you, along with some better pictures I think!

Chris

Eighth Survivor- Coop Part 2!

The story follows on from here, the story goes that a Marine Recon team is about to storm a building, to get someone out from the inside...

... There were people on the streets, some running, some seemed to be just wandering about. There wasn't time to think about them as we got to the door. It was unlocked, opened easily in my hands.

Weapon up, I entered the room, with the rest of the team following. The hallway we entered into was empty, there was rubbish strewn about the hallway, some doors were open, windows were smashed, and one of the lights swung free from the roof.

There was blood on the floor.

Not a little. A lot. You know how in all the cop shows, the smart cop says stuff like "there are signs of a struggle"? Let me tell you, there were signs of a big damn struggle in here.

We entered the hallway, two by two. Munch was with me, skinny for a recon marine, but he worked hard and was a likeable kid. We moved slowly down the hallway, finding nothing. We entered rooms, nothing. No signs of life, just rubbish strewn everywhere, signs of panic, and blood.

At the other end of the hallway was some stairs.

One set lead up, one set lead down. Munch and me headed up, the other two headed down. I don't know if it would have gone down any different if we hadn't split up. Can't think like that you know? It was about then that the comms died. Whatever we were bouncing our signals off had stopped working. We got to the top of the stairs, I swept left, Munch right. Nothing there so we moved out. We got around a corner when Munch started whispering "Coop... what the f..."

I turned and saw what he had seen, a single figure, standing in front of a doorway. She couldn't have been more than thirty, sensible clothes, sensible shoes, glasses.

Munch had his gun up, pointed directly at the figure. I called out to it, and the figure turned towards us. Behind it's glasses were two white eyes, no colour. Blood ran down her chin, ran down a wound in her arm.

The figure started to move. Its mouth opened and it let for a moan, quiet at first, but it somehow cuts you to the core. It is a sound that I still hear in my nightmares. She started to move towards us.

The figure moaned again.

Then there was a loud bang from the closed door next to us. By this time my gun is up too.

"Coop...." Munch pleads.

I had only turned around to look at the door for a second, when I hear Munch's M16 fire. Two rounds have hit the female figure directly in centre mass, two shots into the sternum. The figure drops.

I punch him in the back, "what the f.. man?", he doesn't respond, just staring down the sights at the figure on the ground.

It moved.

An arm first. Then both. Pushing itself up to it's feet.

Another figure came around the corner, just past the doorway she had been starting at. He started moving towards us too. Crappy suit, balding. a moustache Tom Selleck would be proud of. If it weren't for the blood stuck in it. It has the same staring white eyes as the female, locked intently onto us.

The banging on the door next to us continued.

The two figures start into a sort of a run, not an aimless walk like before, they head straight for us.

Bang, Bang, Munch's M16 fires again, hitting the figure again. This time they don't even slow. Overpenetration. Too much energy, goes straight through. I remember some History channel docco on it about why it made the AK so much better. Big, slow bullet makes for real dead corpses. Or at least, it used to.

Another figure appeared, and then another. I brought up my weapon, the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. It fired the same round as Munch's M16, but it sure fired a whole lot more of them. Munch was reloading as I opened up, cutting the first one clean in half and peppering the others with rounds. Short, disciplined bursts of fire. Just like we were taught. Just like every other time firing on the ranges, or in the 'stan. Except this time they got up. Even the woman who was clean in half. She dragged herself forward, glasses askew. Her dead eyes met mine, and if I had needed a piss before, I didn't now.

Munch lost it, it was too much. He stood up and ran. I hope he made it. I really do. All I know is that I never came across him again. If I didn't see him on my way out, that's a good sign, right?

Just me, with these shapes coming towards me. And then the box on my SAW runs dry. 200 round belt, gone like that (snaps his fingers).

No time to reload, so I pull my pistol, and begin shooting. I am trying to move away, trying to get downstairs.

The door next to me bursts open, a little girl crashes through. Her blue dress is stained with blood, bright orange hair and cold, dead white eyes. She was on top of me in a flash, trying to claw, trying to bite me. My pistol had gone skating across the floor, and I couldn't break her hold.

Automatic weapons fire returned- but not Munch's M16. This was less controlled, faster bursts.

The little girl's head exploded as she tried to bite me. Thank god I had my mouth closed.

I tossed the remains off me, and looked up to my savior. She was four foot nothing, wearing a bright yellow sun dress and holding a smoking Uzi sub machinegun. On her head was a Kevlar helmet, complete with peace sign and US flag.

"Are you here to rescue me?" She asked in a timid voice. Like meeting a stranger for the first time, or when ordering at McDonalds.

"Something like that" was the best I could do in response. "Sasha right? Where did you get the gun?" I asked.

"Yea.... it was from my friend.... he was here to protect me". The pauses in her speech were long and painful. She pointed at one of the bodies, a tall man, wearing a black suit with a shoulder holster. a radio earpiece hung loosely around his ear.

"OK Sasha, my name is Coop, and it is time we got you to your dad..."

We headed downstairs to find the rest of the team...

I apologies that this has taken so long in coming, I have been absolutely swamped with work, so sitting down on a computer to type was the last thing I wanted to do! It did however mean I got some good painting done, so there will be a whole heap of new Zees ready to go next week.

The bonus survivor is Sasha, the person who Coop is meant to be rescuing. Points to you if you know who she is, and where her name comes from. I don't think I made it very hard at all! The figure is a Wargames Factory plastic one (see I can use them for things other than Zombies, honest!), and is probably one of my favorite ones from their sets. I am sure I will wax lyrical about the Wargames Factory stuff in the future, so I will leave my comments on them until then.

In case you are wondering, this is how Zomb-Annie finally goes down...

Are Coop and Sasha safe? Well...

New Survivor Friday, see you then!

Chris

Eighth Survivor- LCpl Sean Coop Cooper- Part 1

This week's Survivor is part one of a two part story...

A tall man in what was once an expensive suit knelt on the floor, trying to will his friend back to life. He beat on his chest, hitting it harder and harder. But there was no response. There were eight men in the large, round room. Five wore dark suits, Uzi submachineguns in their hands, fully loaded clips. All of the guns were pointed at entrances, doors and windows. The final man wore body armour and camouflage fatigues, standing beside the man attempting to save his friend's life.

One of the black suited men ran forward, speaking to the man. "Sir?.... Sir?... He has gone Sir, I need to get you out of here now, Sir?..."

No response from him, his attempts at life saving continued. He wasn't like the soldier, or the other suited men. He wasn't used to death. But who could be used to this much death?

A rasping sound came from the supposedly dead man on the floor. A "dead" arm moved to grab it's one time friend.

The soldier moved immediately. Drawing his pistol, he forcibly pulled the man off the "dead" man he was trying so desperately to save.

The single shot brought the suited man to his senses. Seeing his friend, his co-worker, his ally, someone he had worked with long hours, through good and bad times get shot in the head brought it all back to reality. Who could be used to death? There were a few people. But who could be used to this? He sat, leaning against the heavy wooden table.

With a groan, he stood up, his voice spoke slowly, trembling "...get her. Please get her.... then you can save me"

The soldier turned, holstered his pistol and said matter of fact, "Sir, yes sir. The team has already been sent"

Or that is at least what I imagine happened. I wasn't there. I was in a briefing, me and every other Special Forces Soldier this side of Baghdad. Every single one of us got packed into whatever bird they could get in the air to save this person or that person. No one could predict how fast the cities would fall, how many there would be, how ineffective our preventative measures would be. So they sent us in, the "best of the best" and all that on these suicide missions to save some five star general or some politician who couldn't get out of town fast enough.

So I'm there, taking a briefing on the lawn, all the while I can see and hear the reservists setting perimeters, getting guns ready and squaring themselves away. I have nothing but respect for those reservists, man if I had a family? no way in hell I would be here, I would have nicked off the first chance I got. Would have taken my rifle and all the bullets I could carry too. But they were there, they were the biggest god damn heroes that day if you ask me.

Our tasking was somewhere across town. Should still be still in the main building. Should. If there was a main building left. We had better intel on what is happening on Pluto than we do about the streets between us and them.

Our ride for that day was the Channel 7 News Copter, it was landed nearby, so we grabbed their pilot and hopped in. Pity the weather girl wasn't part of the deal. She was sitting there with her head in her hands. She wasn't crying, her tears had run out long ago. Lucky for her she didn't come for a ride along, she was safer with the reservists. The bird is in the air two minutes later, it didn't exactly take long to share our zero intel at the briefing. At least we knew the name of the building I guess.

Out on the street, the city is burning.

It doesn't take long to get there. The chopper lands on the nearest piece of flat land, and my team moves out. The door ahead of us is still closed, there is no movement anywhere near us. The chopper takes off again, and it seems quiet. It isn't, alarms and sirens scream, fires burn and engines roar. Somehow, in all that noise, it feels quiet. It just doesn't feel right.

Our four man team stacks up at the door, guns up, with no idea what we will find on the inside....

LCpl Cooper comes from Eureka Miniatures, from their SEAL Team Six pack. I really like the set of figures, they are characterful and well sculpted. You can be sure that the rest of them will make an appearance here soon too! I decided that Cooper was a Recon Marine, so his camo is woodland MARPAT (Marine Pattern). I also gave him a big pack, taken from one of the 1/48th scale Airfix soldiers. After all, you have to have a place to keep all your supplies! The join between the was filled using greenstuff, and some pack straps added too. I resisted the urge to put a camo pattern on the pack, fearing that it would make the model too "busy".

I quite liked painting the camo actually, it makes me want to do more of them! One of the big drivers for me starting this project was to paint something OTHER than camo, and here I am, right back on the wagon. It is possible I have some form of addiction....

Anyway, there you have it, "Coop", with his M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, ready to go. And as for part two, seems a bit cruel to make you wait a whole week until next Friday. So I think Part 2 will be up Monday, as a bonus survivor. Sound good?

Chris