CARJACKING THUGZ

First of all let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas, I hope your holidays are going well thus far,
My latest additions to the 'survivor' catergory are a couple of Carjacking thugs, these guys are already use to the rigors of a hard life, and were kind of prepared for the zombie apocalypse (if that were possible), the first guy on the left is wearing a brown jacket, jeans, t-shirt and joggers, he is armed with a crude sawn off double barrel shotgun, his accomplice on the other hand is wearing a beanie, his daddy's army jacket, tee shirt, jeans and joggers, he is armed with a 9mm glock pistol, both are sporting some nice 'bling'

Both of these miniatures are from the Bobby Jackson range of 'Thugz' I got these from Fantization Miniatures, it took them 6 months to send them to me but hey, I got them in the end didn't I ? this range along with my US National guard are my favorite miniatures I have painted to date. These miniatures are great, plenty of character and attitude, Bobby Jackson really managed to capture the right poses that typically represent the african american street ganger, if your into gangers then this is the range you 'must' get, HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

COUNTY SHERIFF

I painted this mini up a while ago, I was trying to organise a vehicle for him but too many things have gotten in the way, so I decided to post him up, the vehicle will come later, as most of you will probably recognise him, he is a Hasslefree miniature, and I have painted him up as a sheriff, armed with a pump action shotgun and a 9mm pistol in the holster.

I believe the miniature's Hasslefree name is Ken ? but to me he has a real Vin Diesel feel about him, a nicely sculpted miniature with nice detail and a little prep work involved as the arms and gun come seperate to the rest of the torso, overall a great miniature, and lets face it, a cop with a shot gun, thats a classic party member to have in a Zombie Apocalypse, right?

UNLIKELY SURVIVORS

I'm always a little unsure as to whether to include child like miniatures in games, especially if the games involve violence, somehow it feels wrong, this is something I would be interested in hearing the opinions of my fellow gamers, are you for or against this and why, I decided in the end that it is in context of the setting and reflects something that may actually happen (assuming a zed apoc would ever happen), violence in context I dont have a problem with, as long as it isn't violence for the sake of violence, I am looking forward to your opinions on this matter.

  
So these two miniatures are Comfy Chair miniatures from there orphan range, a couple of young kids with a strong will to survive, the male has multiple weapons, a dagger of sorts and a pair of scissors, while the female hides a dagger behind her back for the surprise attack, both miniatures are well sculptored, a little manga in style, and a little plain in there design but real nice overall, minimal prep work and easy to paint.

These miniatures I will probably use in a random encounter situation, or if players want to use them I guess they can, but I dare say they would be at a disadvantage, being kids with melee weapons, or they may also be mission objectives, who knows we will see.

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)

The other night I had little to no motivation for anything miniature (due to a busy day at work) so I decided to throw on my Blu Ray copy of Dawn of the Dead (2004 Remake), now there probably isnt many of you out there that haven't seen this movie, Right ? But I thought I would post on it because this movie would have to be another one of my top five zombie flicks, so basically the movie follows a young nurse through the outbreak of a Zombie apocalypse, firstly on her own and then with a group of survivors that she joins up with, the group eventually barricade themselves in a mall, and towards the end of the movie they attempt an escape to the seaside in an effort to grab theselves a boat and get off the mainland, their thinking being no land no zombies. 
The movie was well acted with good effects and directed by Zach snyder (300), the stand out moment for me was when they were sniper shooting zombie celebrities from the mall roof in the zombie crowd down below, great moment funny as.
This is the second of my five favorite zombie flicks, the first being Day of the Dead (2008), as I watch them again I will review them and post them up here, let me know what you think if you have seen this movie.

US NATIONAL GUARD

So the good guys are finally here ! put your hand on your chest and sing with me 'The Star-Spangled Banner' ... "Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light....." The US National Guard are on the scene fully decked out in 1980 / 90's kit and the old faithful Woodland Camo, most of the Guard are carrying M16 assualt rifles, except for two of the Guardsman off who one is sporting an M60 LMG affectionally known as 'The Pig', the other guardsman is carrying an M4 carbine with an M203 grenade launcher attachment, another Guardsman worthy of a mention is the Corpsman (Medic), if you look closely you will see him carrying a medic bag, which is the only distingushing sign, otherwise you would struggle to pick him out, because as far as looks go, he looks just like anyone of the other Guardsman.

These miniatures are Mongrol Minis (Now sold through Newline designs) and I must say are really well sculputed with loads of character depicting that 1980 / 90's US Army feel, the type you see in a lot of the Zed films, I ended up purchasing the whole line, they are great minis with little to no prep work required, If I had to pick a fault, it would be a couple of minor things, the guns could have been sculpted a little bit crisper, and there were one or two minis with awkward stances, outside of these two minor issues, this is a great range. 

DOG SOLDIERS

I remember watching this movie few years ago with my brother, and I remember having a blast watching it, so the next time I was near a dvd libary I borrowed it and rewatched it, watching this movie the second time around was a real blast also, everything from the plot to the acting to the special effects was of a good quality standing, there was plenty of action and even some key funny moments, my favourite being when one of the human survivors were barring up or repairing the front door (cant remember which) with a hammer, when suddenly a werewolf hand reaches in through the top glass panel on that door, trying to grab him, he just starts to frantically hammer bash that doggy hand with the hammer..... thats funny shit right there, I laughed for like ages, loved it, so If you want a good solid movie with plenty of action, a touch of humour and your into these types of movies then definately give this one a try, after writing all this I have realised that I have actually told you nothing about the movie's plot, hahahah, so here is the basic premise, a british army unit is dropped into an english forest for the weekend (which happens to coincide with a fullmoon) on a routine training excersize, unbeknownst to them they are not the only ones in that forrest with a bad attitude.

Now on the miniatures side of things, I so enjoyed this movie that I decided that I wanted to game this, yes... you guessed it, by this time impulse has taken over and I'm online ordering werewolves and some modern british troops, talk about an impulse buy ! so, you can all expect too see in future posts, modern brits and werewolves all painted up.

I just got news that they are doing a Dog soldiers 2.... very cool, here is the IMDB movie insert:

In the highland forest, Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham) and his Special Forces Unit, which includes Sergeant Walker, are spying on the squad of British Soldiers who have been set up as bait for a family of bloodthirsty werewolves. However, the werewolves attack the Special Forces Unit first. Ryan is badly injured and watches helplessly as his men are dragged screaming into the surrounding trees. Walker manages to escape the apparent slaughter, but unknown to him his unit’s distress signal is picked up by a U.S. Command HQ on a nearby Isle. A small U.S. Unit, led by Sgt Martinez, are immediately sent in to discover what has happened to Ryan’s Unit. They quickly find Ryan’s demolished base camp and the apparent only survivor, Walker; but there are no signs of any dead bodies! What has happened to Ryan and the rest of his men? Now the Unit hear a distant gun-battle. Walker leads Martinez and her men on a race across the moonlit forest to rescue the original British Squad who are trapped in the remote farmhouse. However, a second pack of savage werewolves are in pursuit. The new pack is in fact the surviving members of Captain Ryan’s SAS team now transformed into werewolves, but they have retained trace memories of their commando training. The new werewolves are faster, deadlier and smarter then the original Highland werewolves. These are true Dog Soldiers – and they are hungry for fresh meat

VENDING MACHINES

I managed to pick up some Vending machines this week, these should make for some good terrain clutter, they will help to make the terrain homely and give it that lived in feeling, I think there is nothing worse than playing on empty unrealistic looking terrain, they should also serve well as something you can push over in front of a door to lock out the invading zombie hordes. 

These vending machines are from K-line, they are actually illuminated vending machines, but I dont think I will go that far(hooking them up to electricity), there is no assembly required they pretty much come straight out of the packet and straight onto your terrain, gotta love that.

SURVIVOR #5 - LEROY BROWN

So here is survivor #5 - Leroy Brown and his faithful zombie killing pup, he is an Obelisk miniature, again, the miniature is full of character and its wonderfully sculpted, probably not anatomically correct but still an awesome miniature, there was minimal prep work involved as the cast was a little rough in the wrong places, it required some filing to get that smooth surface look, other than that no problems, with Leroy I decided to use him as a test subject for when my National guard turn up, so I practiced painting some Camo pattern on his pants, I think I did a statisfactory job on him, and it wasn't anywhere near as hard as what I thought it would be.

The Doberman is also an Obelisk miniature, nicely sculpted, the only problem I had with it was that its ears, to me, seemed a little weirdly sculpted, so I ended up filing and slightly reshaping them, small problem,  minimal work, other than that the Doberman looks great and has a real presence.

DAY OF THE DEAD

I watched this movie the other day, not for the first time, and I thought I should post on it, this would have to be one of my favorite Zombie flicks of all time, top five easily, for me this movie had a lot in it off what I like in zombie flicks, set in a small quiet american town Leadville, Colorado, (the perfect setting for all Zombie flicks, in my opinion anyway), a military Bio-Hazardous accident plunges the small town into a zombie apocalypse, friends turn on friends even family turn on family. The zombies in this movie are excellent, there are the fast variety, Zombies that jump/ Leap on you, they run at you then run up the walls at you sideways, and then from there they switch down to a fast crawl at you upside down along the ceiling and then leap at you from the ceiling, its crazy shit ! There are also Smart zombies and even (would you Believe It) friendly zombies !?! WTF ? zombies with weapons, half bodied zombies, leader zombies you name it its in here ! the movie has other good points aswell, it attempts to tackle the typical scenarios, like you know, what do you do to infected family members or friends ? kill them ? or not ? what sort of person do you become when faced with death and danger ? this and other crucial scenarios are played out, along with the above mentioned the movie has the typical character types, like the shady/ weasal goverment types, the strong sacraficial military types, and even the fat lardie selfish types, but wait there is more, if cool character types isn't enough then the survivors get there hands on some nice gun hardware, and you better believe it, the zombie body count escalates exceptionally, the movies two big names are Mena Suvari and Ving Rhames, amongst other low key but familiar actors, overall the movie is very entertaining, well acted with minimal gore (which I prefer) and a lot of imagination injected, if you haven't seen it, then I definitely recommend it.    

BILLBOARD

I managed to find this advertising billboard on Ebay the other week, I thought it would make a great addition to Small Town USA, I even found an applicable billboard poster to go on it !(poster was found on the internet), now I believe that it actually lights up aswell if I electronically hook it up, not bad, this will be usefuI for overall atmoshpere, construction wise the billboard is made of wood with the base made of metal sprayed black, the actual lights are of an aluminum type material with real miniature globes fitted. I must say that If I ever get to the finishing stages of this terrain between the billboard, the street lights and park lanterns I should easily be able to achieve a eerie dusk effect if I turn the room lights right down, now that would be pretty cool I think.

S.W.A.T. - SPECIAL WEAPONS AND TACTICS

The other night I managed to finish of a small team of S.W.A.T. members to help 'Small Town USA' survive the zombie hordes that will invade its quiet sleepy streets, these miniatures are from Eureka and they required extra work to get them looking Cool, they originally came in three pieces, head, body / arms and pelvis / legs, so once I glued them together I had to putty up the gaps, wasnt too hard, but if your the 'cant be bothered' types then I would suggest buying a different range.  

Overall they are a nicely detailed range, with a very SWAT like look and stance about them, paint wise they were very easy, with such a simple colour pallete, navy blue and matt black with a splash of flesh, how can you go wrong ! with these guys I did something a little special which I think has added a lot to the miniatures, I managed to put S.W.A.T. patches on the back of each members vest, now tell me do they look cool or What ?

"Your either S.W.A.T. or your not !" 

HARLEM HOTTIES... NOT !

So many miniatures to paint but so little time to paint them, this seems to be the story of my life at the moment, I'm also currently working on a few different things at the same time, what I do is I'll start something new, get stuck somewhere along the line and then I'll start something else until I can figure out where to go from where I got stuck, too funny, so I am currently working on a Swat team, County Sheriff, with respective vehicles, I am also putting together a few picnic tables and a bunch of forklift pallets, and of course I'm still trying to finish stage 2 of my terrain, Small town USA's small central parkland area.

But today I managed to finish off a couple of survivors, I call them Harlem hotties, now I can confirm that one of them is a female but the other I am suspecting is of the Drag variety, either way the Z's look like they will have their work cut out for them, ones carrying a shortened pump action shotgun and the other one is armed with a Smith and Wesson .44 magnum hand cannon (Dirty Harry's gun), the magnum will make for a nasty weapon in game, as the powerful caliber gives this handgun overpenetration issues, it will easily punch through the intended target hitting anyone or anything standing directly behind it, but the recoil will also cause issues, making target re-acquisition difficult. Both miniatures are Obelisk miniatures, nice sculpts full of character. 

COCA - COLA, "ITS THE REAL THING"

Hi all, this week I managed to pick up some cool Coca - Cola accessories off ebay along with a ride on forklift, this stuff looks great and will add lots of character to the back warehouse of one of my convenience stores, that I will set up in Small Town USA, I picked up 10 crates full of Coca - Cola bottles, and ten empty Coca - Cola crates, the forklift came with a single pallet and seven crates full of the precious black liquid, I have also ordered another 10 actual wooden pallets to use as props, the pallets should turn up real soon. This stuff looks great and is in scale, extremely happy with this purchase.

 

GANG BANGERS IN ZOMBIELAND

So, I managed to get my hands on some Bobby Jackson Miniatures, I absolutely love these miniatures, they have so much character and attitude, BJ really managed to capture the feel of a LA Ganger, from the first time I saw these minis I knew they would turn out looking real sweet, very happy with this purchase, now some of the miniatures had sculpting flaws but they werent anything I would be worried about, still happy with this purchase.

 

These guys painted up a treat, nice crisp casting with deep details, this makes the miniatures easy and enjoyable to paint, I cant speak highly enough of the presence and feel of these miniatures.

So the storyline for these Gangers is that they were passing thru Small Town USA when the Zombie Apocalypse happens to occur... wrong place at the wrong time, its probably payback for all the crap things they have done in their lives as Gang bangers.

now as far as the ride is concerned I purchased for them a 1969 Dodge Challenger ...cause thats how they roll.

LA HORDE

Here is a cool Zombie flick for all you crazy Z day survivor wannabees, its a french movie, so you have to put up with subtitles (all you Sub haters beware) but its not long before you dont even notice your reading them, I purchased a copy off ebay, and waited patiently for my copy to arrive in the post, that night, the night it arrived, I went straight home and watched it, being a foriegn flick I wasnt expecting a whole lot, but, to my suprise it turned out unexpectedly fun and adventureous, the acting is good, the story is believable and the characters are likeable in a Zed kinda way, there is a bit of gore, but all in context and not really abused, all in all an enjoyable Zed flick, there is even a few scares thrown in for good measure, if you have the resources and like Zed flicks get your self a copy.

MORE STREET ACCESSORIES

Hi all, so what have I been up to this week ? well I have been working on a few different things, a group of gang banger survivors, stage 2 of Small Town USA, the County sheriff and his vehicle and some more street accessories, so, first items finished are the street accessories, three Bin skips, two small ones and a large one, these I plan to fill up with junk, just another place for the survivors to hide in and around, then I finished off a couple of park benches which should work well with the stage two parkland, and finally I have some LPG gas bottles, these items I'm sure will be in high demand, because when you shoot these little suckers they go BANG! more items real soon.

STREET ACCESSORIES

It wasn't that long ago that I looked at the streets of Small Town USA and thought that they looked bare and empty, what would the survivors of this Zombie outbreak going to hide behind ? how would they move from point A to point B without being seen ? so I stepped out my front door, onto the street and had a bit of a look around, I tried to imagine what I would use as cover, from here I went back home and jumped online and began ordering my street accessories, one week later they turned up at my work place.

Scenemaster are the makers of these fine street accessories, I bought a couple of packs, 'just in case', they are nicely detailed and handpainted (nice paint job), you get a pair of mail boxes, telephone boxes, dust bins and four fire hydrants, I purchased them in O scale to suit my 28mm miniatures, as you can see, scale wise they match up quite well, very happy with the purchase.

SMALL TOWN USA - STAGE 1

Stage one is now finished, what a marathon that was hehehe, I ran into so many problems, bad colours, other colours not looking 'right', shading issues, the list goes on, but its all done, well at least stage one is, what a sense of satisfaction you get... well the photo was taken with the terrain set out on carpet, not the best place to do it, with certain parts not aligning and some of the lines not matching up, but hopefully you get the idea and you can start to see Small Town USA form up, even if it is slowly.

So where to now ? onto stage 2, the next piece of terrain I am going to tackle is the centre area which will be the local town's central parkland, grass, trees and park benches, this I'm sure will be full of challenges as I have never made any terrain with grass, let alone trees and parkbenchs, should be fun-ish lol.  

SURVIVOR #2

So, I have been very busy lately, unfortunely not always doing the things that I want to be doing, But what I have managed to fit in this week has been fun and interesting, firstly I continued to shade and weather my roads and pavements system for Small Town USA, unfortunately for me this is quite a monotonous task, so its taking longer than it should, but, theres not that far to go now. 

I also managed to find some time to paint up another survivor, this guy is a local biker who has managed to get caught up in this Zombie Apocalypse, He is probably a friend of survivor #1 and is packing a Remington pump action shotgun, another poor sod to throw into the zombie killing machine.

I have also made some progress on a County sheriff along with his SUV, I will post him up real soon, But what has taken up most of my time is a new project invoving, the creation of a line of miniatures that I have wanted to see in existence for a long time, I will post on this soon aswell, very exciting stuff !

I want to make a couple more posts before the month is up, so stay tuned for a few quickies !

SURVIVOR #1

Hi all again, I'm still working on my 'Roads and Pavements' for Small Town USA and I am at the final stages of it,  while going throught the process I had to change colours as the original colours used had a strong blue hue running through them, which made the roads and pavements look unusual, so I went back to a more realistic tone, the roads and pavements should be finished by next weekend, its been real interesting painting wood, it reacts differently to how lead does, you have to use different painting techniques, anyway, so while I'm finishing off stage 1 of my Zombie terrain I painted up the first of many survivors, this guy may end up being either a Biker gang member or a Gun shop owner, but to be perfectly honest this mini reminds me of Paul Teutul Senior from American Chopper, am I right or what ? 

Sawn off pump action shotgun, not a bad choice of weapons, up close its lethal, believe me !