Survivor Week 15: Deena

It's Friday, so along with a whole mess of zombies, I have managed to get another survivor painted!

No story today, have been too busy at work to get any creative juice flowing sadly. That also explains the poor lighting for the images today, had to do it before I went to work!

This survivor comes from Recreational Conflict, and was ordered because I got tempted about some other of their figures, and couldn't resist buying a bit more. Overall, the figure isn't my favourite so far, but she is another one completed for my mob of survivors.

The face of the figure isn't great, but elements are good, the shotgun, the pose etc are nice. The figure is also a bit short, see the comparison below:

So, apologies for a quick update, but I just haven't been able to do much writing. I will remedy that next week :).

Chris

Even More Zombies- Wargames Factory male zombies

Earlier in the week I posted up my Studio Miniatures zombies, this time we have their counterparts from Wargames Factory. With my goal of painting 3 zombies for every survivor, I am currently behind by almost 20 zombies.

With only one sprue of Studio Miniatures zombies left, I am looking at other alternatives.

One of those, is the Wargames Factory plastics. I am not a big fan of the Wargames Factory zombies. They just don't inspire me as much as the Studio Miniatures zombies, they are a bit less detailed especially in the faces. But, they are plastic, they are cheap, and when you are part of a 40+ strong zombie horde how much detail is really needed?

Given the faces were my biggest issue, I decided to replace the Wargames Factory heads with spare Studio Miniatures zombie heads (spare because of the head swaps from the Studio Miniatures zombies this week). This keeps them consistent with all the zombies I have painted so far, and I am really happy with the result, so happy in fact that I will be doing this again!

Zombie with a beer gut and red chucks

Paging Dr Zombie....

Soldier zombie back

Soldier zombie side

Zombie with a vest

A former zombie patient, still in his hospital scrubs. Minus a face tho.

Office zombie is trying to return some lost property....

So with those six completed, we are up to 48 completed Zombies. Still 12 short of the required 60 zombies to have triple the number of completed survivors.

Guess I had better get painting!

Chris

More Zombies- Studio Miniatures

I had a very average week at work last week, so to relax, I decided to build and paint MORE ZOMBIES over the weekend.

The first set which I was able to complete was another 4 Studio Miniatures plastic zombies. Now, I have painted quite a few of these now, so I decided to use the Wargames Factory survivor heads just to add a bit of variation, which has been quite successful I think. At any rate, I have one more sprue of the Studio Miniatures Zombies, of which I think a couple of them will become survivors, but then again, I do have plans for more conversions....

And as a close up on them, trying to show off some of their details:

The (former) cop- perhaps one of Bob's that didn't quite make it?

Pizza Delivery Boy

Angry Zombie in blue jeans

Classy windbreaker Zombie

This is the first of a few batches of Zombies I was able to get finished, the horde just keeps on growing! I have decided that my Zombie horde needs to be at least three times as large as my number of survivors. That means that by the end of the year, by the time I finish this project I will have to have completed well over 150 zombies!

Challenge accepted :)

Chris

Survivor week 14: Maya!

After Police Month we are back to our regularly scheduled program....

... Look, I never saw her, but I knew this guy who got his ass pulled out of the fire by her....

His story went that he was somewhere near the Little Creek Naval Base. He thought that military bases would be safe- hell we all did! Thinking about it now, it was a dumb thought. Military bases have aid stations. Soldiers get bit, get taken to the aid station. Doesn't matter how many guns you have up on the walls if the infection is inside.

By the time he got to Little Creek, the place was burning and the last ship had sailed.

No food makes you more than a little crazy, so he decides to go in. Finds a few zees, whacks them with this priceless signed by Babe Ruth bat that he had stolen from the Yankees Hall of Fame, guy wouldn't shut up about how badass he was stealing it- man I wanted to punch him just for that. Everyone knows hockey is a better sport. He probably picked the bat up off the ground as he ran away anyway.

So he is moving in to Little Creek, trying to find a building not on fire so he can start looting. Except whoever torched the place did a damn good job- there wasn't anything not burning.

Now this guy gets a bit bold, he heads into one of the big storage warehouses which looked to be only burning at one end. He said it was untouched, canned goods, guns and ammo, tanks and Humvees. I think he was full of it, but I guess it made the story better.

So he is loading up his winnings, when the Zees catch up with him. They crowd around the door, bashing at it trying to get in. So he has zombies on one side, burning storeroom on the other. He makes a choice- at least you can shoot a Zombie, you can't fight a big burning factory.

He prepares himself, loads up one of those rifles he just found and rushes out of the door yelling at the top of his lungs, finger pressed on the trigger of the M16. But no bullets came out of the gun. Nothing happened.

I didn't want to tell the guy, but the firing pins were probably taken out to make sure the crates were made safe, don't want some loony getting a M16A4 and going postal.

So the guy starts beating on the Zoms with the but of the weapon. He said it broke in half after a couple of Z skulls, but I know you can crack more than a few with one of these (he gently pats the worn, formerly desert camouflaged M4 assault rifle next to him).

Out of options, and left with just his priceless Babe Ruth bat to save him against this horde of zombies.

This is where his story hit the next level of unbelievable. He said that this hooded figure came up, two pistols in hand and started plowing through the zombie horde.

Bam, zombie gone.

Bam Bam, two zombies gone.

Then the hooded figure reloaded and continued firing.

All the Zombie gone, the hooded figure comes over to this guy and just says "give me what you got out of that warehouse"

Guy disagrees, and he gets pistol whipped for disagreeing.

He wakes up the next day, big cut on his head surrounded by a burnt out naval base and the bodies of a whole lotta zombies. Anything useful had already been taken by the hooded survivor.

It took another glass of moonshine for him to admit that the hooded figure was a she, guess he was embarrassed about getting his ass handed to him by a girl- although I think that was a close second once he realized that she had taken his pants and run them up the flagpole.

Guess she had a sense of humour too....

This week's figure comes from the Reaper range, and when I got her originally, she looked like this:

I really liked the pose, the two guns the big flowing hood and so I bought the figure. And then I looked at the figure once I got it home, and she was wearing.... well... not a lot. I have spoken before that I like my zombie survivors to be practical, so out came the greenstuff and off sculpting I went, ending up with this:

Pants, singlet and holsters for the pistols. Not the greatest sculpting you will ever see, but a multitude of sins are covered by painting!

In terms of the paint job, I had it stuck in my head that she would have this big red hooded cloak. Then to add some interest to the figure, I painted the pants in a version of the US Navy camo (I had been watching The Last Ship while doing the sculpting!). Of note is that she is my first survivor of colour- and let's be fair that is because of the Walking Dead's Michonne! There are more on the way too.

Anyway, that is it for this week, painting continues. I am almost finished doing some weathering on my police car, and work is ongoing into expanding the horde even further.... Oh and planning the next theme month!

Chris

Different Zombies- Police Zombies!

Before we get onto this post, I have put a better picture of Sgt Angle and Officer Frost onto the last post.

Anyway, so far all of my Zombies have been plastics, either from Studio Miniatures, or conversions using Wargames Factory plastics.

While I am really happy with how those are going, and I have a fair few more ideas with what I will do with them yet, I did spot these while surfing the interwebs, and couldn't resist adding them to the horde.

The figures come from Cold War Miniatures. The casting quality is pretty good, not many mould lines to deal with. The sculpting has good details, but I think the proportions are off. Long bodies, short legs and just a few pieces of odd details. But, in saying that, they have got a certain charm to them, and I am really happy with how the look when painted up!

The three Police Officers. Two male, and a female officer on the right.

The two SWAT Officers.

This is how the stack up next to a Studio Miniatures plastic zombie, and against one of my converted zeds:

Officers Daniels and Decarlo responded to an officer down call, not expecting this!

And as for the whole horde so far? Looks like this...

And with these Police Zombies done, that brings Police Month to a close. What did you think? Did you like the idea of theming a month purely on a single topic? Should I do another? I have a little backlog of survivors, so it will be random survivors for the next month, but I am very open to ideas for theming months, if people have any ideas! What should I look at doing next time to make it better?

Chris

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