Infecting Havensburgh 23 (Studio Miniatures Zombie Mob 8)

More great Studio Miniatures Zombies to look at in today's update.  These zeds come from Zombie Mob 8, and they're pretty fantastic.

Starting on the left we have a young blond zombie.  Her legs are covered in wounds, perhaps from before her infection  but other than that she is rather clean.  Next up is a lady in a party dress.  Originally, I was just going for a random pattern on her dress, but the first mark came out like a star, so I went with it.  Again, a few wounds on her legs, and a scratch on her arm, but not overly bloodied.  Third up is a black zombie, a business casual presence complete with purse still in her undead grasp.  Perhaps my favourite pose of the 3 females, her out stretched arm seems very zombie like.   

On with the male zombies, we strat with a middle aged black zed.  He has a bit of an of balance swagger pose.  Quite a bit of blood stained on his shirt, and his mouth is a mess from a recent feeding.  Great sculpt.  Next up is a bit of an oddly styled zombie.  Bearded with long rockstar hair, he is dressed in a sports coat with blue jeans.  More interesting is the vicious belly wound complete with intestines exposed!  Gross.  Definitely not a zombie you want to see on your first day of the apocalypse, you need to build up to zombies this gross.  Next up we have what I can assume was a homeless man before his infection.  Dressed in a torn coat and jeans, he is using a rope for a belt.  His arm is exposed to the bone indicating that he was likely fed upon a bit before his conversion.   Fourth in line is a business man in a pale brown suit.  I like the way his colours came out.  He is mostly unbloodied, would make a good Day 1 zombie.  And the final zed has been featured in this blog before as part of Zomtober.  While I stated then I was not a huge fan of his pose, I AM fond of his exposed brain.  Very nice.

As expected, these are all top notch zombies from a well respected company.  I'm happy with how they all came out, though perhaps they aren't bloodied enough.  I think I just don't like covering their great detail with gore! 

Populating Havensburgh 21 ( Clearco's Survivors)

Much like last year I virtually disappeared from the blogosphere for the Christmas holidays.  I  did pop in once in a while to try to read some of your posts, and even comment from time to time, but it wasn't as much as I would have liked.   To make up for it I have a bit of a unique post this week.  So unique, in that I believe at this point only the sculptor and myself have copies of.  If you're interested, check out this thread on Lead Adventure, as he has mentioned that he will be selling them in the new year.  Clearco created these to have some more commonly sized women for a horror style game.  I thought they'd make great zombie survivors (I've armed most of mine with guns rather than the melee weapons Clearco intended).  I'm a big fan of variety in body sizes in miniature, especially since most female figures are shaped like barbies and more often than not dressed like whores.   So here they are:

None of these girls have been named yet, so I'll just start on the left.  One of the figures I kept armed with a melee weapon (the post demanded it).  So she may still be dressed a little revealing, but she looks very believable as an average woman.  She has confidence with the pipe resting on her shoulder.  She could be a regular girl, or a tough as nails gangsta.  Note the Jamaican flag painted on her top, I like how that came out.

Next up is a hot blonde armed with two pistols (one which looks larger calibre).  The original version was armed with two hammers, but I prefer the pistols.

Next up, an axe wielding chick.  I copied the yellow shirt and black hair from Clearco's demo versions as I liked how they looked.  The axe is also a common Zombie fighting weapon, so I left her with that. 

Fourth up is the only of the group that is truly fat, but she doesn't seem to care, given the way she is dressed. I painted her with a Hispanic skin tone that I think came out well, especially considering it was my first attempt at it.  Her pose is a little awkward since she I supposed to be propping up a shovel in Clearco's version.  But as she is she works well as either an overly confident chick who isn't even looking at her intended target, and she'd be perfect in a hostage scenario.  

The next curvy babe is a favourite of mine as Clearco sculpted her on my request.  Very cool considering most sculptors will charge you $200 for that sort of service.  She is a business woman or high class gangster. advancing slowly with a pistol.   I am still tossing around the idea of putting another weapon in her left hand, but am not certain.  I do like how her glasses came out.

The last girl isn't curvy at all, but still pretty cool.  I'm not happy at all with how her legs came out (I was going for nylons, but they look too blotchy).  I love her pose however, they away she has her fingers is great.  She looks like she is very confident in her abilities.  I even went so far as to paint her nails as so much attention was drawn to them.  

Something I'm also fond of in my painting of these girls, is the three variations of blond.  I used quite different methods, and think they came out pretty good.

 

So there you have it, quite a unique set of ladies for any modern scenario.  Check out the thread I linked to above if you're interested in picking them up.
Comments are always appreciated.

Populating Havensburgh 20 (Hasslefree Miniatures Tony (b))

Just a single figure this week, but its a good one, Tony (b) from Hasslefree.  Hasslefree miniatures are known for being a cut above the competition, so its fair that I'll review them on their own I think.  Also this figure is almost certain to be featured in my eventual campaign as he is a close representation of one of my closest friends.   He's the type of friend that I wouldn't be all that surprised to find out that he had all this gear on hand "just in case".

                            

So Tony (b) is armed with a couple of Mac-10s.  Incidentally this is my least favourite Hasslefree weapon.   They look a little too SciFi for me, and are quite oversized for a sub machinegun.  Oh well, they are also passable as large calibre pistols I guess.  He is also decked out in body armour and many extra clips of ammo.   I'm pretty happy with the paintjob over all, except for the camo on the pants.  I copied a simple camo technique from the Foundry Painting Guide, and while it was simple and looks passable, I'm not completely sold on the white dots.  I won't be changing it now, but I doubt I'll use it again.

I just wanted to show a close up of the glasses, as they do transition from white to blue, though it was tough to get this to show in pics.  Now that I have a pic this close, I wish I had thinned the paints out more!

Infecting Havensburgh 22 (Studio Miniatures Mob 7)

A bit late this week but I make up for it with a pretty substantial update.  We've got 8 zeds this week, from Studio Miniatures.    This is their seventh mob, but I didn't buy them in order.  I jumped right to 7 because of the poses in this one had a lot of character. 

First up we have a female zombie.  Likely an office worker or something along those lines (though the skirt is a little short).  This girl has lost her left arm from the elbow down, staining her side with blood.  Her other hand is rather mangled as well.  She has not faired too well.  Next up is a woman in a blue dress, with an overcoat.  All the variations of blue you see on my figures these days are Tomb Blue from Foundry.  I really like that set.   Anyway, this zombie isn't that messy, except for a lot of blood on her legs.  I assume they got cut and scratched when she was fleeing the undead.    Third up is my favourite female in this set.   Larger than the first two, she is decked out in pink athletic suit.  Not sure if it was being used, or clearly for fashion.  After seeing these figures on Vampifans's blog, I was informed this figure is likely based off of a character of a British skit show, but I'm not familiar with it.   She is quite bloodied with almost no skin left on her face, and various seeping wounds bleeding through her clothes.   And on the end, the first male of the group, the biker.  This biker has lost both hands perhaps making him seem like less of a threat, but he is still quite a biter.   I don't own any other bikers yet, but I'm sure one day I will.  When I do, this guy will certainly be a zombie used to represent a recently deceased biker from that gang.   I put some effort into painting flames on his bandanna that I think came out well.

Next up, on the far left is a heavy set zombie that's I've painted with African American Flesh.  He wears a thick red coat over a button up shirt.   There were several holes sculpted in the shirt that I've bloodied up as gun shots.   I really like this pose, as it looks as though he just heard a survivor make a noise, and is beginning to move in that direction.   Next up is an office worker that probably survived for a while before becoming a zombie himself.  He has bandages covering wounds on both his head and his wrist.  He also lacks skin on his right arm from the elbow down, so someone has been feasting on him.  Another office worker up next, this time in a pink shirt, which I am fond of how it came out.  I like this guy's pose as he is demonstrating the popular zombie walk of dragging one's leg behind.  And the final zombie looks like a younger male.  His torso is a mess of wounds, but his head is unscathed.   The pose is a bit weird as it looks like a confused survivor, but I still find it a charming piece.  H Is hair is a very yellow blond as I was trying different hair techniques.

Hope you enjoyed the Studio Miniatures Zombie Mob 7.  I would highly recommend them to anyone creating a zombie horde, they are among the best zeds on the market.
Comments are always appreciated.

Infecting Havensburgh 21 (Studio Miniatures Til Death Do Us Part)

Today I'll be showing off a set of Studio Miniatures Zombies, though unfortunately only a single miniature will be completely new to the blog.  The Til Death Do Us Part set comes with two children, a Priest, a Bride and a Groom.  I displayed the Bridge and Priest as part of Zomtober's pledge to paint a zombie a week.  And the children are the same sculpts included in the Tiny Terrors set already featured in this blog.  I was a little disappointed to realize they were the same sculpts, but in the end, I like having more children zombies so I don't mind that much.  The only all new sculpt featured today is the Groom, and he's a pretty good one.

With the children, I went with a pink paint scheme that matches the accents on the bride and groom.  The boy (a ring bearer perhaps) is also blond to match the bride.  He is likely a nephew or younger brother.  Not much new to say about these kids.  They are great sculpts, and add to the creepiness of the zombie threat.   Then in the middle we have the groom.  I love the stance he is in, and the spread of his legs.   Like the drunken walk of a not so sturdy zombie.  He won't be running after anyone.   Bride and Priest have already had their own posts, but it is still worth noting what great sculpts they are.   

Another highly recommended set from Studio Miniatures.  Comments are always appreciated.

Infecting Havensburgh 20 (Hasslefree Zombie Suzi)

Happy Halloween everyone, and welcome to my final post for October, which concludes my postings for Zomtober.   It was a fun little thing to do and thanks to Leon over at http://pulp-citizen.blogspot.ca/ for starting it all.  So here we go, and in this case, I believe I really did save the best for last.

Hasslefree miniatures really are in a league of their own when it comes to detail.  They are a little more expensive than I'd like, but when you're only getting a few of them, I am able to justify it.  Here we have Suzi, who comes both in a hero form and a zombified for.  I don't have the hero version, as it is not as appealing to me, but man, this is one great zombie.  In fact, at this point in time, this is my favourite zombie in my entire horde.  She's that good.

Zombie Suzi is dressed much the same as her human form with a few minor differences.  She seems to have lost a shoe at some point, and her skirt is now torn revealing even more of her panties (pink in this case).   But what really makes Suzi a great figure is the pose.   It reminds me of something out of the films The Ring or The Grudge, neither of which are actually zombie films, but both feature creepy young girls with their faces more often than not covered with their hair.  I like to picture the heroes running around a corner to come face to face with Suzi here, just barely seeing her sneering teeth beneath her hair.

Comments are appreciated, Happy Halloween.

Infecting Havensburgh 19 (Studio Miniatures Priest)

Hello again.  Just another quick update for Zomtober.  This time we have the zombified priest from the same set as the bride previously featured in Zomtober.

So again I have painted a mostly white figure, drybrushing up from grey.   Wounds are minimal on the priest, and he may have fed a little as he has blood on his lips.  His hands however are clean, so he hasn't likely been ripping people apart.  As with all Studio Miniatures zeds, this guy is well sculpted.  I didn't want to mess him up too much, so I went with a few dabs of blood on areas where his clothes were torn.

So that is my fourth zed this month, and tomorrow I'll post my favourite.

Thanks.

Infecting Havensburgh 18 (Studio Miniature Zombie)

Hello, hello, here is just a quick update on my Zomtober painting project.  Nothing special, just one of Studio Miniatures  fantastic zombies.

There's not a lot to say about a single miniature like this.  I will add that when I order his set, he was probably my least favourite pose from the set.   This is because I can't look at his pose and not think of a marionette.  After receiving him however, I grew much fonder of him due to his exposed brain!   He'd probably be a relatively easy zombie to finish off if destroying the brain is really key.  Someone was very close.

Other than the obvious head wound, this zed has several cuts over his body.  They look like stab wounds from the front.  Perhaps some poor fool thought they were dealing with a dangerous drunk that could be felled by a mere knife wound.   Or maybe the wounds came from someone similar to the last episode of Walking Dead, where stabbing was attempted.  Either way, those wounds have character.  Not much else to say, I like hose the paintjob came out.  Still a fan of the Foundry paints.

Comments are appreciated.

Infecting Havensburgh 17 (Victory Force Zombie)

Argh, a week behind again.
Bad news is: I'm a week behind posting for Zomtober.  The good news is that I've completed painting all 5 zombies for Zomtober.  It was the photographing them that was holding me back.  To make up for it, I shall attempt to post twice this week (I was keen and did all of the picture taking tonight).  My goals for Zomtober was to try to pick a few unique zombies.  I would have liked to have tackled 5 different companies to represent as well, but I only had 3 different lines on hand, so that is all I can do.   This week we have a single Victory Force zombie.  He's nothing special, just one of their randoms from the 50 for $50 sale they used to have.  The reason I picked him was that I found him based and primed but forgotten on the floor all by himself.  So here he is in all his glory.

So like I said, there's nothing spectacular about this miniature.  Like most of the VF zombies his arms are sculpt right to the body, so the lack some of the dynamic pose look that other companies like Studio Miniature have.  But for rounding out the horde he does his job just fine, and the price was certainly right.
The paintjob was very basic, following the Foundry 3 paint system.  The highlights didn't show up as great as I'd like, but for a quick job I am satisfied.   With a lot of the Studio Miniatures zombies I have on my table, they are so full of detail that I try to use blood and gore sparingly, usually just filling in sculpted wounds.   The VF zeds aren't quite so detailed, so I decided to take this moment to create a very bloody zombie, drenching his torso.  I like the effect, as it was a nice change to the way I had been doing things.

Comments are always appreciated, and I hope to have another zed to post Wednesday or Thursday.

Infecting Havensburgh 16 (Studio Miniatures Bride)

Just a single figure to display this week.  I've decided to jump onboard with pulpcitizen , Brummie and Rob to take part in Zomtober.  The basic idea, is to get at least 5 zombies painted up and completely this month,  and display one a week.  I have gotten into posting on Mondays, so here is my first.

For this week I painted up the Bride from Studio Miniatures.  A rather basic paintjob as she is mostly white, but white clothes are something I am never certain of how to tackle.  This time, I started with white primer, and then painting the entire dress in Fortress Grey.   This was then heavily drybrushed with Spacewolves Grey, which I did again after adding White to the Spacewolves Grey, and finally a drybrush of just white.  I am rather happy how it came out this time.

I used some watered down black to line the separation points.  Her tiara crown is painted in GW Metallics Chainmail and Mithril Silver.  For a little colour, I painted her wrist decoration in Foundry pinks (which will match the pink highlights of the rest of the wedding party).

For blood and gore, the bride only seems to have scratches to her arms, which I filled with blood.  Her dress is full of holes, some that I left unblooded as they may just be tears, but there are several on her torso that I bloodied.  I like to think that these are gun wounds that some survivor inflicted on her, not knowing headshots are what are needed.

So my first entry to Zomtober.  Should be a good month.  I'm hoping to feature 3 different miniature companies with my entries, though I'll probably use more Studio Miniatures to bring me up to 5 zeds.   All comments are appreciated.  

Happy Thanksgiving Canadians, Happy Columbus Day Americans and any other silly holidays that anyone else may be lucky enough to have this weekend.

Infecting Havensburg 15 (Studio Miniatures Tiny Terrors)

Well for the first time in a long time I've managed to keep with a weekly posting.  It's nothing worth bragging about so let's jump right into this weeks content: Tiny Terrors from Studio Miniatures.  Zombie kids are still a little taboo.  Despite being a large part of the population, zombie children are rarely featured in zombie media.  Even The Walking Dead, has only featured 2 zombie kids that I can think of, and both were rather emotional to deal with.  And in keeping with that, Studio Miniatures has the only zombie kids on the market that I can think of, and they are some great ones.   Let's take a look.

Also worth noting with this set, I gave my first real whirl at painting with Foundry's Paint System triads.  I don't have a ton of colours yet, as what I bought was just trying the system out, but I liked the results.  I am bad at picking highlight colours, so with the Foundry System, this is made much easier, even if you do sometimes still need to mix some paints, you are at least guided in the right direction.

First up we have a little red haired boy dressed in yellow and brown.   He has some minor wounds to his belly and shoulder area, but nothing too major.  Next up is another little guy, who's highlighting I think came out really well.  Again, just minor wounds to the boy, but unlike the first, this one has been feeding. Next up we have a little girl with an eye wound, but not much else.  She stands very stiff, and I can picture some survivors coming around a corner to see her and being very creeped out!  The next girl in yellow is a bloody mess.  She definitely took some wounds in death, but has also been feeding quite well herself.  Sadly, she still clutches her doll from before her zombie days.   The next girl is in a pretty little dress, but also a bloody mess.  I like to think that she was shot in the chest, but too late to prevent her from being infected.   And the final boy has a few wounds of his own, including blood seeping into his eyes.  Doesn't slow him down (anymore than death has, anyway).

This is a pretty great set, and perfect for mixing up your zombie horde.  Just a few children peppered in a crowd of zombies will add a lot of diversity to the group, I think.  I'm going to attach a few closer up shots to the end of the blog.  As always comments are appreciated, and I hope to be back a week from today with another update.

Infecting Havensburgh 14 (Studio Miniatures Police)

After my last post featuring the police force that would be defending the streets of Havensburgh, I thought that this post should contain some of those brave men who responded to calls expecting drunks or metally disturbed citizens, not zombies.   Here are my RCMP zombies.

Starting with the most interesting zombies on the left, an officer toting a severed arm from his handcuffed wrist.   Vampifan recently reviewed this set and deduced that the arm belonged to some other hapless victim due to the length of it being too great to have come off of this officer.  While I agree with that assessment, I do think the intent was for it to be the arm of this officer.  That is how I view it.  Perhaps he was handcuffed to a metal post or fence, as infection was overcoming him, and as a zombie was ever to severe his on limb to escape.  I like to picture it as such.

Next up we have the captain.  His youth behind him, this chubby cop used to command respect from his fellow officers.  Now he only inspires terror.  I really like the neck tie complete with clip on this zombie.

The following two zombies look quite similar and fill out the set nicely.  The fourth actually his a nice leg wound visible from the back.  I like that they both still had their caps.

I didn't overly bloody these zombies up as they didn't have a ton of visible wounds (other than the severed limbs and the leg wound of Officer 4) and I liked the cleaner look to them.  They'll be getting  a lot of use in my first few days of my campaign, I suspect.

Any comments are appreciated.

Populating Havensburgh 19 (Tactical Force Miniatures - Big City PD)

It seems like forever ago, but a while back I made mention of being in the market for police miniatures for my ATZ campaign.  At the time I was trying to decide between Foundry, Copplestone of Tactical Miniatures police sets.  In the end, I went with Tactical Miniatures set, mostly due to the variety of weapons.  If I had gone with any other  set, I would have had to buy multiples to get both Shotgun and Pistol armed officers.  As I am trying to do this as economically sensible as possible, the Tactical Miniatures made the most sense.

As for paint schemes, I considered a typical 'police' blue, but changed my mind at the last moment and decided to go with the modern Royal Canadian Mounted Police look, just to have a home grown feel to them.

Obviously the Tactical Miniatures police do not have hats, not vests, but the rest of the uniform looked pretty good.  My greys wound up a little darker, but I wanted to make certain they didn't come across as white.  I still may try to lighten them a bit (but probably not, they are good enough for me).  First up, the two police officers with hand guns.

And then the duo with shot guns, including the only female of the set.  Each of these duos has one figure posed lining up a shot while the other is more 'at the read' looking around.  I like this diversity.

And finally, the assault rifle officer.  I'm not sure how often RCMP units need assault rifles, so this guy will likely get the least amount of use from the set.   If anything, I may use him as an eventual survivor after the period in which police have dissolved.

 

Overall, I am quite a big fan of this set, and will probably eventually get the Narcotics Division of the same line (though they are mostly armed with Submachine guns, they all have body armour, which is nice).  The scale on these models make them slightly slender when compared to most of my other models, but most of those are Foundry which are on the bulkier side in general.  I don't think it is a big deal.  Highly recommend this set.

(I did realize upon looking at the pictures that I need to add a bit of yellow to the dark blue shields on each shoulder of each officer.  But that won't change much of the overall appearance, so I went ahead with the post.)

Comments are always appreciated.

Infecting Havensburgh 13 and a new Hero (Victory Force Zombies and Juno from Wargames Foundry)

Hey all, sorry in the delays, I've been feeling a little uninspired the past few weeks.   I've got a lot of areas in which I'm working on, but none seem to get to completion.   Well, not none, since these are the last of my Victory Force Zombies I picked up in a 50 pack oh so long ago.  To be fair, I believe this actually equals 48 zombies, as I've selected two that will be painted up as corpses instead.

Here are the zombies:

Good sculpts here as always, but nothing too spectacular about the first two.  In fact, I think this is the third time we've seen the second sculpt from the left.   The middle zombie however, is a bit more unique.  He was very tall, mustached and wearing shorts, which separated him quite a bit from the rest of the horde.  He has a vibe of a bit of a zookeeper or survival guide.  I like him.

Next up is another female.  She is a good sculpt but nothing too exciting.  I'm always happy to have more female zombies though.  And last up, is a bit of an oddball.  A zombie in a full snow suit.  I'm not sure he'll fit in with all the other zombies in their T-Shirts, but he is a little unique to say the least.

So to liven this post up a bit, as the VF zombies are a bit of a tired them here, I though I'd share another of my likely Hero characters for my ATZ campaign.  The character is a representation of my wife, Dawn Marie, and the sculpt is Juno of Juno's Crew (Wargames Foundry).  Dawn Marie is an office manager for a department of the government, hence the power suit.  When picking a sculpt for my wife, I o of course wanted one that not only resembled her somewhat, but was also dressed in something she would wear.  It's actually quite difficult to find realistically dressed female miniatures.  

Of course, since picking and painting this miniature, my wife has pretty much had a make over, and thus, almost never wears glasses anymore (contact lenses) and has ditched the blond highlights for a head of bleach blond hair.  Oh well, I tried.

Here are the heroes of my ATZ campaign:

Comments are appreciated as always.

Infecting Havensburgh 12 (Victory Force Zombies)

Just a quick update here with some more Victory Force zombies on display as I felt I needed to update as I was neglecting a bit.  While I have been a bit slow to update, I have actually been getting a lot of progress done.  I have many buildings ready, and in the past two weeks have started getting vehicles on the board.I counted them up today and realized I had 26 completely assembled from WWG's Police and Traffic sets, with another 5 just needing wheels attached and about 8 more printed but not yet assembled.  On top of that I've started paint up my 5 Police figures from Tactical Miniatures Big City PD.   And today I received my Studio Miniatures order of 2 Zombie Mobs, the Zombie Police, Tiny Terrors and the doomed Wedding Party.  So lots to keep me busy. 

Anyway, here are this week's display zeds:

Nothing spectacular I know, but the horde is building up nicely.   I am very close to game time, actually sat down to do a bit of practice and rule learning, but felt got distracted.  This weekend I hope to get to it.  

I won't be able to comment on blogs for the next few days, as I will be in cottage territory with no net access (that's a good think, I think).  I will check in on everyone's posts when I return, Friday.

Thanks for reading, and comments are always appreciated.