Cold War Survivors

Now for the first set of survivors I’ve bought, these being the “Survivors” set DWW14, from Cold War Miniatures range The Dead Will Walk. A very tasty range available via that Ebay, and rather thoughtfully can be bought as a set for £7 or individually for £1.75. These are their only survivors, the other figures all being zombies.

Although a trifle skinny they’re nicely made, and suit a wide range of painting skills. Yet again the young swine Slug whinged to paint these, but ended up only doing the four above. I’m not sure how efficient the minister with a cross might be against a zombie hoarde, but it should be fun finding out.

The last one is this soon-to-be completed female survivor which is supplied as a two piece casting, which is why I think the boy Slug didn’t want to paint her. If the zombies don’t get her the weather very likely will as she’s barely wearing a thing and she looks like she would benefit from a good meal as well as a jumper.

The rest of the range is enticing, including a lot of very charactorful pieces such as a Zombie Krishna devotee, as seen in the original “Dawn of the Dead”, Zombie Elvis, Zombie British Copper, etc, which aren’t catered for by other makers. I’ll be adding more of them as soon as the pile of WiP has been completed. Meanwhile I recommend them to you.

Shaun but not Forgotten

A serenely delightful pair of figures or, if you like, the same figure in two stages of being. These are both from miniature mongers Hasslefree, for copyright right reasons they’re not Shaun from the zom-com “Shaun of the Dead”. Both very nice pieces, although I smoothly away what I thought was flash from not-Shaun’s shirt only to discover everyone else had spotted it as a piece of his tie flopped over his shoulder. Well mine is smarter looking as a result. Zombie not-Shaun has been given a face rip, on the left side of his face. There’s also a third figure, more dynamic in a hitting-it-for-six pose.

To buy from Hasslefree was indeed free from hassle, they even sent us a badge and a sweet which cherry topped the deal. Price-wise they’re at the more expensive end of the scale, but that’s due more to scale of production and absolute perfection by way of sculpting. There’s a couple more which are work-in-progress, and even another order in the post so expect to see more of them here.  Lastly, but no means least, I had to surrender the painting of these over to a pleading Slug, and he’s done a good job.  What do you think?

Zombie Mob News

At last I’ve completed the Blue Moon zombie set which were my first purchase of zombies and what a pile of fun they’ve proved to be. To see them all together is a joy, and I’m thinking around one hundred zombies would be the best amount to collect to be able to get a good game on. I’m posting many of them in bigger photos with front and rear views, it’s the way Bryan does it over at his blog, but he’s effectively insane when it comes to zombies so I’m not so sure how long I’ll be doing it for.

The chap on the left has been given a full face rip, while the two young ladies are pretty straightforward. The interesting point about all zombie paint jobs is it’s hard to imagine a bad way to paint them. This isn’t a slight on anyone’s painting, more a call to freeform painting, nor is it to say the sculpting is poor as it’s top notch on these, the only mild observation is how many have banana hands.

Nothing special on the rear bar the mucky stringy mess on the foot of the lady in the middle, which is a mix of general purpose adhesive and that Tamiya Clear Red everyone raves about.

A pretty trio, the soldier on the left was painted by the boy slug, and rather smartly I think. The chap on the right has been lucky enough to have some guts added.

Many of these have open hands screaming out for the addition of a few guts, and I’ve tried a few ways of doing it which I’ll share in a later post. What I must mention is how the lack of uniformity to the zombie genre makes them a very good proposition for a group project, Slug’s soldier and the others he’s done fit right in with the ones I’ve done.

A couple of these have featured before, but I think these photos are probably better. I can’t put my finger on it but I find something really funny about a zombie missing a shoe.

A small amount of goop has been added to the ladies charming stump.

Three very good figures, the first another Slug job, the others by me. Plenty of exposed bones on mine plus an added trophy organ.

Missing chunks aplenty, first chaps lost the back of his skull so no more University Challenge for him, middle bloke has a hole in his arse, while the dude on the end has lost a lot of lower leg.

The final three close-ups with lots of wounds all screaming out for a good dab. Typically I’m painting zombies internals pink, brushing that with a red blood and after matt varnishing coming back and high lighting with Tamiya Clear Red, which dries both translucent and high gloss and gives the look of fresh running blood.

This trio waves goodbye as we reach the end of this post. I highly recommend this Blue Moon set of figures, which I haven’t seen mentioned as much as other ranges. Twenty well sculpted figures for around a quid a piece and suitable as addition to any Zombie hoarde or as a starter set.

The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly

This humble blog just passed the 21,000 unique visits mark, which is pretty good for a part-time endeavour started only in April, so it’s probably time for an introspective post which just waffles on about how wonderful we all are. Of course that’s far too metro sexual and hippy like for me to indulge in, especially as I approach an age beyond which I’m expected to only maintain enthusiasm for complaining about things not being as good as they were three decades or so ago. Truth be known I was complaining about just about everything back then, so find myself reduced to complaining about how complaining isn’t what it used to be which is otherwise known as things getting better, and where’s the fun in that?

Neither am I going to thank the Gods, they’ve enough on their plates already and I can’t help thinking how the reason they have apparently stopped listening to us is that we’re dreadfully dull and repetitive in comparison to anything they might think of, and they’re tired of us mere mortals not being able to sort things out between ourselves and holding them accountable for that.

I’m even going to hold back from thanking my readers, whoever they might be, not out of rudeness nor an attempt to reduce my traffic to zero more a healthy disbelief in their existence. Sure I’ve made some chums from this blog, and they know who they are and some slight fawning in their direction is unlikely to effect that beyond sprinkling some embarrassment in their direction. Of course there is a danger that the majority of my traffic is actually one obsessive dress-wearing bearded lunatic with a fetish beyond all understanding other than insane onanism over my meagre words. Sadly the statistics can’t reveal whether this is or isn’t the case, so I’m playing it safe.

Seriously I am grateful to folk who peruse this blog  especially if they find any of it useful, also I’d like to say thanks to those who allow me to repeatedly promote this via their forums, especially as it can come across as mad self-promotion, yet not a word of complaint from anybody.

As the title suggested this post should really address all the good, bad and fugly things I’ve experienced in reaching the Key to the Door mark of 21,000 hits*. The fact is there’s been nothing fugly aside from some of my earlier photography, it’s been almost entirely good, and when it comes to bad there’s just one running grievance, which is how after more than a month a small order from Zombiesmith in the U.S. has yet to turn up. This was my first order ever from abroad and it rates as a disappointment rather than something driven by badness.

If any of this actually encourages you to start blogging I’ve one word of advice – DON’T! Send them to this one instead, I could do with the traffic.

*Yes I know they’re not hits, and hits are something else, but unique visits is too poor a combination to mention twice in a single post.

Sniper’s Nest Games Day

Thanet’s premier game emporium is running their second annual “Red Poppy” games day which raises funds for the Royal British Legion on Sunday 15th November at the Westcliff Cafeteria in Ramsgate. For those not lucky enough to have attended last year this is a fun event packed with participation games for you to enjoy for a humble donation to a top cause. It starts at 10.00 am and finishes around 4.00pm.

Sadly because of a double booking mistake by the venue there won’t be as many games as last year, but don’t let that put you off for a moment, many of Kent’s finest clubs will be there to entertain you. Slug’s favourite last year was the Deal Wargaming Club with their “Saving Private Ryan” game, although you got to play the German’s and the scenario was more about killing Private Ryan. This year they’re back and offering up the gentlemanly sport of Dinosaur Hunting.

Also attending will be the Dover Club who will be playing WW1 in 6mm, the Chatham Club who will be donning tights and all things green for their Robin Hood scenario, while the Sniper’s Nest gang will be all chocks away as they offer a WW1 Bombing Run experience.

Canny gamers should find they’ve time to play each game during the day, it’s all in your timing so get there early. Players are expected to make a donation for each game they play, and quite reasonably so.

The venue is easy to find, even if Google maps does place it across the road and in someone’s back garden. The venue is actually on the left hand side of the circular water feature at the bottom of the map, with free parking along the length of the Royal Esplanade. The venue has a full restaurant and bar, more details here.

Last Minute Update: Unfortunately due to work commitments the Dover club has withdrawn from this event.

Mini Zedtro

I’ve always got an eye out for a cheap option for gaming and 28mm Zombies have proved no exception. Here’s a toy I found in a local pound shop which proved to be almost perfect out of the box, but I’ve done a little work on it to make it fit in better, and the end result is a jolly piece.

The first thing I did was to take it apart, which was easy because it all holds together with a single screw. separated the main components and painted them, created a small scene of carnage in the back seats featuring some parts from Wargames Factory plastic zombies, dulled down all the silver chrome, and blood splattered the windows on the inside, then matt varnished the lot except for the windows. This model is slightly too large, but I managed to shave 3 to 4mm off the height by resetting the axles so the wheels sat further into the wheel arches.

All in all a very quick bash to make a very usable model and costing less than £2 in total. Magic!