Zombie Chow!

What good is a zombie horde without a bunch of hapless victims? I asked the same question, and my answer was "not much good at all."  Therefore, I broke open the piggy bank and sent some cash to Reaper Miniatures. They sent back some blisters full of modern figures suitable for zombie gaming.

Here's the batch, representing "citizens", criminals, and police.  These are all Reaper Chronoscope line models. Click for a larger view.

I'll work down the rows to explain what I've got. First row is a single blister of Townsfolk: Ladies of the Night. Reaper has several of these townsfolk blisters, which are a good value for the price. These girls will fit with an urban area, and can be used in other modern scenarios other than zombies. I guess if I ever find a good prostitution game these figures will be handy.

Next row is Townsfolk: Jock, Chick, Nerd. I bet you can tell who's who. Again, this is a single blister and is a good value. They represent the classic triumvirate of teen slasher movies. I will have to buy Reaper's serial killer model just to go with these kids.

My favorite of the bunch are the bikers. These had to be purchased individually.  You have Noel the biker boss in his duster and shotgun, Peaches the old lady, and Stubs the Biker. I made sure Stubs was a full patched member of his club. From the rockers on his back, you can tell he's with the Cthulhu Riders of R'yleh.

Lastly we have some law enforcement. With all these prostitutes and bikers running around, you need some police. One officer is a Bones model, which you can tell from the non-matching base. The other is a Chronoscope sheriff. The girl is actually a "Sci-fi Heroine" but I figure she can be a professional zombie hunter. Seems to fit.

There you have it. I'll be adding way more to my modern zombie collection. I'm currently working on female zombies, then I've got hordes of modern "armed civilians" to complete. This has turned out to be a seriously involved project, but I'm enjoying it.

Wargames Factory Zombie Horde

Is it strange that I keep hearing "The Monkees" theme song whenever I look at my newly created zombie horde? Substituting "zombies" for "Monkees" in they lyrics really works. You should try it some time. Or not. Anyway....

Behold the start of the zombie apocalypse at my house! Here are twenty male zombies from Wargames Factory. Click for a bigger picture.

I've grown tired of my standard rotation of WW2 and Fantasy models, and decided it was time to do something modern. Zombies fit the bill. I'll be filling in this startling gap in my collection by creating a small horde of about 40 zombies. Then I'll move on to survivors, police, criminals, and plain ol' innocent bystanders. When done, I'll have the foundations of a modern zombie game that I can then expand as I want.

These Wargames Factory models really allow for lots of variation. According to their website, you can make 1,800 unique combinations out of one box. That's pretty cool, though I think the variations are fairly minor and you are stuck with some obvious repetition, like the doctor / raincoat guy and the guy holding a severed foot.  Still, it's a remarkable value even at full retail cost (which you can get cheaper if you look around online).

Here are just a few detailed shots of some of the zombies. Due to their pale flesh, I overexposed the pictures slightly. Still, you get the idea.

I went a little crazy with the GW blood effects paint. Also, I went heavy with brown washes to make them appear dirty and rotting. I think zombies benefit from a rough paint job. Overall, I'm pleased with the detail of the models, though some of it was very shallow and therefore obliterated beneath primer and paint. Take a lighter hand than I do and you should be fine.

My only complaint with these models is they are small compared to my other 28mm figures.  I guess I can excuse this as maybe being dead means they've lost some mass. I was hoping to mix these with other models, but I fear they might not mix too well when it comes to size.

Of course, having only zombie men is unrealistic (which is a weird thing to say when we're talking about the living dead). I also got the box of female zombies. I wince at calling them Vixens, as what could possibly be attractive in a pile of rotting, wounded flesh? Still, I will populate my horde with both genders for equal opportunities at undeath.

I didn't do the whole contents of the box (20 out of 30 models) just to save time. The models need assembly and each one is an individual model for painting purposes. No uniforms to make batch painting speed up things. Once all is done, if I need more zombies I'll finish out the boxes.

So up next will be some survivors and citizens, along with cops and bad guys to add some variety to my games.  These are from the Reaper Chronoscope line, and are a little bit bigger than these models. Still, I think they can match up. I'll have a comparison next time.

Clearing Out More Reaper Metals

It has been a busy week for me and I've not done much on my various projects. What I have been doing is cleaning out a bag of Reaper metal fantasy models that have been hanging around for a while. Not much to write home about, but here they are.

These are "vampire thralls" or something similar. Not a lot of detail on these models but they look suitably undead and evil. They come two to a pack.

Then I had a couple of crossbowmen, a model type not represented in my fantasy collection. So I put them on the painting table this week. These are much more detailed. The female is a Werner Klocke scuplt, and like all of his stuff it looks great. I'm not sure my paint job did it justice.

So there you have it. I also painted a giant snake but forgot to take a picture. It's really nothing to speak of anyway.

Up next are modern zombies, a whole new genre for me!

Copplestone Castings Cavemen

In my last update I mused about adding Copplestone Casting's Cavemen range to my tiny collection of prehistoric miniatures. I got inspired and placed an order. I was surprised at how fast the delivery was from the UK to the US, and it really wasn't all that expensive. I'll be ordering more from Copplestone from now on!

So here's the whole tribe. Click for a larger picture.

I decided that they were a little under-dressed to represent northern climates during the Ice Age. So, I painted them to look more "equatorial" or at least like people from a southern climate. I was thinking of going crazy with tribal tattoos, but decided I had neither talent nor patience for the effort.

The full range comes in four packages. Some of the models don't have their weapons attached, and so you can decided what goes where. For the most part, the poses dictated their weapons. Still, if I ordered more I could create a bit of variety by switching a weapon. The weapons were over-sized for the models' hands and have a tenuous bond with the models. One drop and the weapons will break off. That's my only complaint.

Here are details of the packages.

These are the Caveman Characters pack. They make suitable leaders or shamans. One is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry, a bow! They're all single cast models.

For the unobservant, these are Cavewomen. They look a little too pretty for me, but at least they are solidly built. I really didn't think the bikini tops were necessary, but I guess it gives the models a pulp flavor with a nod toward modesty. Anyway, they're good models with interchangeable weapons.

Here we have the Cavemen pack. These guys remind me of some people I knew in high school. They all have swappable weapons, but I think in this case it's obvious what weapon should go with a model. This package provides the tribe with its hunters, so an extra pack might be worth it.

Lastly we have the More Cavemen pack. This is a cool pack because it give two more adult hunters, but also a range of ages. There's one about 18 - 20 years, one 14 -16 years, and a boy about 8 - 10 years who is throwing a rock.  That's a cool touch, and rounds out a "tribe" theme where everyone contributes.

So that's all of the cavemen I'm going to paint for now. These models don't all have to be from the same tribe, obviously. Combined with the Neanderthal types I painted last time, I'd have a good mix of prehistoric clans for some small skirmishes.

As a bonus, I dug into my bag or Reaper metals and found a large flightless bird I had once planned to use for my aborted World of Warcraft conversions. This was going to be a Plainstrider (WoW has tons of these large, flightless birds in the game). So I painted this up to go with my prehistoric stuff.

I don't know what it represents, but it looks stone age to me! Combined with the sabertooth tiger I have plus some wolves, bears, and a giant snake I need to finish, I have some animal enemies for my cavemen to hunt, too.

Not sure where I'll take this now, but I'm glad I scratched this itch. The models look great and can serve a lot of different purposes.

Cavemen

Here are two blisters of Reaper Miniatures Cavemen. These are really nice models with a lot of character.  Click for a larger picture.

These figures have a lot of utility. They can be used in nearly any genre to serve as any type of primitive humanoid. I'm not sure what I'll do with these yet, but I can see a few applications. In fact, some prehistoric games might be a nice change of pace. I've had my eye on some of those very nice prehistoric models at Acheson Creations. Maybe it's time for a mastodon hunt!

You can readily see the contents of the blister, as I've got two of every model represented except the female. I wasn't too big of a fan of some of the workmanship shown on the handle of her staff/club thing. It takes away from the primitive feeling of it. Also, since she's so distinctive I only painted one of her. I guess I could convert the extra model's staff and "magic bag" into something else. Not sure it's worth the effort at this point.

So now I'm thinking of expanding my cavemen collection. Copplestone Castings has some nice cavemen as part of their Lost Worlds range that are worth looking at, and I may have to get them now that I've got this idea in my head. Stay tuned!

20mm PSC German Heavy Weapons

Got to work this week on the massive pile of 20mm Plastic Soldier Company boxes that are clogging my hobby room. I knocked out a box of the German heavy weapons models. I didn't put together every model in the box.  Here's what I've got.

Click the picture for a bigger view.

There were models in this box that I couldn't imagine I'd ever need to have in multiples. Specifically that'd be the 80mm and 120mm mortars. Realistically those sized mortars would be far behind the troops and not on board. Still, Bolt Action puts everything on the table whether it make sense or not (they need to sell models, after all) and I could use them as objective pieces, etc. I just didn't want to make three of each in one sitting.

The models are excellent quality and I have few complaints. My only real gripe is that they give you six panzerschreks, but only enough models to build three teams. Since I didn't plan to build all six panzerschreks nor all mortar teams, I stole a figure from the mortars to fill out my team. 

I liked having the panzerfausts and wished there were a few more in the box. Six is a good start but a platoon could potentially have more than just six. At least with a disposable weapon like this you don't necessarily have to show which models have them. These guys came with a good amount of gear. I've no clue if it's historically accurate, but it looks good on these models and fits in with their other infantry figures.

The main thing I wanted out of this set was the MG42 teams. A German army can't have too many of these teams, and again my only complaint is I'd have loved to have more than three. These models look great. A little pose variety would've been nice.

Lastly there were the mortar teams. You already know my thoughts on my need for them. As far as the models go, they are excellent. I'll say the mortar model itself was nicely done and sturdy. So many of these mortars in other sets just lean together and need a gallon of glue to stay in place. These PSC mortars, however, were fitted together cleanly.

So that wraps up German heavy weapons. Now I will jump over to do the US heavy weapons teams before tackling all the vehicles. This turned out to be a far larger project than I was expecting. Still, when it's done I'll have a couple of nice looking platoons with plenty of options.

Relic Knights Kickstarter

Nearly two years after my I confirmed my pledge, Relic Knights Kickstarter has arrived! It came yesterday but I didn't have time to look through the contents of the box until this morning. It has been so long I nearly forgot what I chose.

Click for a larger picture.

This picture shows two starter factions with a bonus choice each, hardback rulebook, tokens, card deck (the game is card-driven; no dice involved), various scenic bases of different sizes, an autographed litho, and a couple of other things I don't yet understand.

The two factions I selected were Cerci Speed Circuit (think anime boobs) and The Noh Empire (think anime demons). I mostly based my choices on the looks of the models. I've no idea how these will play in the game.

This Kickstarter experience has left me with a few questions. As far as the execution of it, I have few complaints. Really it just took twice as long to get my stuff, but that's it. Cool Mini Or Not sent me everything I selected and throughout the delays they sent constant updates on progress. In fact one of the highlights of getting this KS package is I will no longer get email updates.

My real hesitation is that this KS represents my gaming interests from nearly two years ago. I've moved on and am hardly playing minis games anymore. I'm doing mostly boardgames and Magic the Gathering as far as my weekly gaming goes. I do have some miniatures stuff going on, mostly with my Reaper stuff and Bolt Action / WW2 projects. I don't know how much I really want out of Relic Knights at this point. At the time, I thought I'd be playing this 5-6 times a year and would like having the models to paint. Now, it might get to the table at some point, and I'll still paint the models. But I've got so much else in front of it.

So that's my experience with Kickstarter. The delay between "buying" and receiving the items creates the risk that I might move on in my interests by the time I get my stuff. That has been the case with Relic Knights. Still, I think CMON did a great job with this and provided excellent communication throughout, and from that perspective I am satisfied with the experience.