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!

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.

And Then a Hero Comes Along...

Another update on the ATZ game preparations.   Things are coming together nicely.  I am just about done with my Victory Force Zombies.  That has been at quite a standstill lately, but I started working on their bases.  I may have to touch a few things up on them, but they should be making their appearance on the blog soon enough.

As well, I have brought 5 of my 6 Sarissa buildings to near completion.  I do want to attach a bit more signage in a few places, but they are just about ready to be featured here as well.  They all need some furniture still, but I have printed off several sheets from WWG for this purpose.  I'll probably feature the buildings without furniture in the next week or so.

Also, I have a good chunk of roads from WWG printed out and pasted onto cardstock, and have even set up a little city.  I shouldn't be too far off of some gaming.

While all the above mentioned items are close to being ready, none were quite enough ready for its own blog post, so today I'm going to show a figure I actually finished quite a while ago, but didn't get a chance to update.   The figure is going to be my ATZ representation of myself.

Anyone who has read Vampifan's battle reports know how cool it is to have a miniature representing yourself on the table, and I knew I just had to do the same.  It was tough to settle on something that captured me at least semi accurately.  I knew I needed a few things: short hair, a goatee, a gun in a firing position and clothes that could be made into something I would wear.   I never found such a figure. 

But I ready to tackle my first conversion by combining the best of two figures from Wargames Foundry Line;  Blanco from The Proffessionals and Ace from Juno's crew.

I really liked the pose of Blanco, but he's trenchcoat is not something I could ever say I wore.  Also, he is a bit shorter than most other figures (some of that is due to his pose).   He also did not have a goatee.

The goatee was the easiest issue.  I attached the tiniest bit of greenstuff to his chin, and textured it slightly with a tooth pick.  To deal with the sweater look (I rarely wear sweaters), I just sanded away the textured lines from his shirt.  Now it looks like a T-Shirt.  Then came the tough part, cutting both miniatures in half, and switching torsos.  It actually wasn't that bad!  On the Lead Adventure forums I received some great advice/motivation from Ramshackle_Curtis, who is the sculptor for Ramshackle games (check them out).  Using a jewelers saw, the process wasn't that bad.  Suddenly the miniature was taller, and wearing a coat like I normally wear.  The plaid paintjob was a must.

Again, I'm pretty happy with how it came out, even the paintjob seems to have just worked.   I showed it to my four year old and he had no problem knowing it was supposed to be me.  I also attached a pic of myself just to show the resemblance.
Now it's time to see how he survives in the Zombie Apocalypse.
Comments are always appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 18 (The Assault Group Russian Mafia)

This week I'll be showing off my most recent trio of figures, and they'll be from a bit of a different line of figures.   The Assault Group make a lot of miniatures covering modern and historical warfare, but not many of them have been used in the Zombie Apocalypse setting, so far as I have seen.  I liked the look of a few sets in the Organize Crime line, so I grabbed a set.   They are a little smaller in scale compared to most of my other figures, but not so much that it becomes an issue on the board.  I bought a set of four, but for some reason only primed 3 at once, and so only 3 got painted.  I'm unsure of whether or not the fourth will wind up in the same scheme or not.

These three got painted up in somewhat of a military styling, with camouflage pants, but I picture them as being more of an eccentric militia than official military.   These guys might make great saviours or wind up being just as much a threat as the walking dead.  All three are armed with the sub machinegun version of the AK74.  I really wanted figures armed with AK47s, but there are just not simple to find.  (The Assuault Group does have several, but none with the look I was hoping for.)

 

Each of these three has a nice amount of character, but I have not named any of them (yet).   On the far left is an older militia member.  His grey beard indicates that he's been around a while, and I like to think that he's been in a milita for most of his adult years.   He's been prepared for the communist invasion for as long as he can remember, and probably feels he is well suited to be a leader as the zombie uprising begins.   

Next up with the blond flowing locks is the figure I've been calling Fabio so far.  The name may not stick.  At a first glance this guy looks like he may be too pretty to be in a milita, but the way he holds his machine gun makes up the first glance opinions.   

Last in the line is the headbanded fellow, wearing a long sleeve shirt.  He is in a pretty nice crouched position in order to better target the zombies.     I was a pretty big fan of all three of these sculpts, especially with how aggressively each is posed.  I tend to enjoy figures who are aiming their weapons moreso than those who are just carrying them, and so of course I like this set.  In fact, the reason I picked them up was because I was considering doing a headswap on the Fabio character and using him as my main character for ATZ.    When the time came however, I liked the figure too much to do so.

Hope you enjoyed the trio, all comments are appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 17 (Bobby Jackson Thugs Ladies)

A bit of good news for this update, I've done some rearranging of lights and produced (in my opinion) pictures that are far better than what I had been using lately.   Since that is the case, I will include a few extra pictures of previous updates at the end, just so there are better pictures of older figures.  Now onto this week.

Boomsheeka on the left is actually only about 95% finished, as I still need to add some sort of highlights to here hair, which is just a solid black at this point.  Booksheeka is a big girl, to say the least, but comes unarmed.  I considered adding a weapon slung over her shoulder, but realized that she wasn't likely to become a regular part of any zombie fighting force or ganger, and that I could always use more unarmed civilians, so I left her as such.   She looks tough enough to handle herself without weapons anyway.
Next to Boomsheeka is Blix Moonbeam, local hippy chick.  She may preach the ways of loving your fellow man, and just enjoying some good weed, but that didn't stop her from picking up a gun when the Zombie apocalypse hit.  Fortunately, her gun is so small and tucker behind her back that I could get away with using her as another unarmed civilian if needed.
I'm a pretty big fan of both these figures and how they came out, but I think Blix is just a little bit better.  I also put a little bit more effort into her paint job with the tie dye bandanna and peace logo on her shirt.  I wasn't too happy with how her lips came out (a bit clownish) so I may try to fix that at some point.

Here's another look at the last two week's worth of updates.   The Professional faces off with Aldo and Baldo.   Of course, my camera skills aren't great so I have a bit of the 'focused on one figure and blurring the others' effect going on.  I should have put them in a straight line.  Regardless, this shows them better than the pictures I used last week.

And finally, an updated picture of the zombie horde.  It is not overwhelmingly large yet, but it is getting to the point that would be too much for a small group to survive.  And perhaps, almost enough to game with.   A bit of the same focus issues here, but I think it looks okay for a horde shot.

All comments and criticisms are appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 16 (The Professional - Wargames Foundry)

Just another quick little update with another survivor on the streets of Mayhem City.  He comes from Foundry's set labelled Professionals, and he looks like he is just that.

Dressed in an expensive suit, with a long trenchcoat, this killer for hire comes armed with a high powered assault rifle.   He definitely looks like he is better armed and/or prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse than the average civilian would be.

In actuality, as awesome as this figure is, I can't see myself using him often in an ATZ setting.   He just comes across as too confident, too well armed and too...professional.  As a hired gun in a modern conflict scenario, he would have much more use.   

Sorry again for the lousy pictures.   Got a much better camera, but haven't figure out the settings.  I think alot of the crappyness has to do with poor lighting.  Anyway, I hope you liked this guy, who I did not name, but simpley refer to him as the Foundry pack name: The Professional.  All comments appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 15 (More of Bobby Jackson's Thugz)

Welcome back to those that are still reading, a couple of more thugs have shown up on the street of Mayhem City.  Whether it is to create problems for the police or do their best to survive the Zombie Apocalypse, this duo is prepared to bring the fight to the table.

Today I present the brothers Aldo Prince and Jack "Baldo" Prince, affectionately known as Aldo and Baldo.  Also sports a nice afro, and a machine pistol.  His hand post indicates he may be smoking, though my figure has no cigarette in his hand.   Also is the younger and sportier of the brothers, as he is rocking a basketball jersey and short (for some reason, on top of long pants).  Of course, to dress to impress, he has his share of bling shown off.

Baldo is a bit of a custom figure, as his head is taken from a different Bobby Jackson figure.  What can I say, I liked the original head from this figure better somewhere else.  That will come in a future update.  Baldo also favours the colour red, like his brother.  A little more mature however, hs is satisfied with a regular old pistol to do his talking.  More bling of course, one is never too mature for bling.

The pictures aren't the best.  My wife got a new camera for Christmas, that once I figure out, should produce much better pictures.  However, my biggest problem is lighting.  I need to pick up some better lamps for photos.

As with all Bobby Jackson's thugs I liked these figures a lot, despite modifying one a little bit.  These guys look a little overwhelmingly red as a duo, but they blend in nicely with the rest of the gang.   The full names don't really stick with me, as they are simply called Aldo and Baldo.  That started as Afro and Baldo, but I preferred the rhyming scheme.

As always, comments and advice on the figures is appreciated.

Also wanted to take a moment to point out a new blog/store I stumbled across last night.  Demo's laser cut terrain is looking like a nice cheap way to quickly put together some buildings.  As much as I love worldworkgames' cardstock terrain, the time investment there may keep me from ever getting ATZ on the table.  I will be picking some of Demo's designs up when I get a chance.  Check them out here.

Populating Mayhem City 13 (Bobby Jackson's Gangsta Thugs)

Welcome back to the hood of Mayhem, where we will introduce a few more of it's inhabitants.   They are more great figures from Bobby Jackson's line.  They need little enough introduction, so let's go.

Now there's a tough looking crew you don't want to cross, zombie apocalypse or not.  Starting on the far left we have Heavy C.  He may be gangsta, and he may have two pistols, but his too small t-shirt and belly showing make me view this character as almost comedy fodder.   Even his pose makes him look like he's about one step away from falling on his face.  Next up is Shades.   He's advancing with a pistol drawn, and always wears his sunglasses, day or night.   Under his jacket he's got a hockey jersey on (probably Boston, but could be a retro Pittsburgh).  His pants are an urban blue camouflage style that I didn't really plan on doing.  After starting with a blue base, the highlight I choose was far too bright.  So I decided to really over do it with the blue, and then added some black marks as well.  I'm really happy with it, and pretty sure it came out better than it would had I planned to do camo from the beginning.

Next up is Jimmy Money, with his gun lined up for the deadly kill shot.   He's got a dollar sign charm around his neck for his namesake.  For some reason I picture Shades and Money as brothers (no pun intended), and will treat them as such in scenarios.  Last of the crew is Cliff.  He's a lot less flashy than his cohorts.   Perhaps he is a little bit older, and a little more experienced than his fellow gangers, but this is less of a game to him.   It's not about dancing around and posing with your gun sideways.  It's life or death on the street, and for that reason he carries a big gun, the only in his crew to carry more than a pistol.   Cliffs shotgun will probably make him fair better than the others in both modern/urban combat and a zombie apocalypse.  

All in all, these are great figures.  I have a harder time picking a favourite out of this crew.  Jimmy Money and Cliff are probably my favourite.  If I had to choose one, it would probably be Cliff, just for his uniqueness in weapon choice.

The gang is growing into quite a force.   I'm really satisfied with what they bring to the table.   Here is a picture of them so far:

Thanks for reading, all comments are appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 12 (Bobby Jackson's Gangsta Thugs)

Welcome back, and it's time to introduce a few miniatures from a great line:  Bobby Jackson's Thugs.  This crew is a set of great sculpts, totally nailing the gangsta feel.  Let's look at what I have painted so far.

On the far right you have my favourite of the entire line, who I have named Tyrone.   Tyrone fits to role perfectly.  He is intimidating, muscled, draped in gold and holding his pistol in the dreaded 'kill shot' angle.   Once again I made a small attempt at checkered/plaid clothing as this lad's boxer shorts are exposed.  
Second in line is the duo of Sammy and Little Walter (names stolen from a book I just read).   Now while most of this line is clearly meant to be made up of mean thugs, I like to view this figure a little differently.  Sure, it is possible that the sculptor intended this figure to be a trashy mom bringing her baby along to a gun fight, but I prefer to view it more as a desperate mother fighting to keep her child alive.  Perfect for the zombie apocalypse, where I am certain this figure will find many uses.  I tried painting her up in a motherly colours rather than a tough girl set (where I probably would have used some black colouring).  The yellow shoes look a little goofy, so I may try to add some blue there as well.  Clearly her base needs to be touched up as well, but that is a simple task.

Last in line, and wielding dual pistols is Billy Z.  Veteran street thug in his early 20s, he's been in enough shootouts to recognize the benefit of some kevlar body armour.  Dressed all in black because he is certain it makes him look tougher, Billy Z is a perfect addition for street gang games or zombie apocalypse.

There's nothing not to like about this set of figures, and would be a must have set for anyone in a modern, urban setting (whether there are zombies or not). Every figure in the set has a dynamic pose that looks like it comes right out of a rap video.   I plan on using most of these figures as rival gangers in ATZ, but some can fit the role as a survivor as well.   All will also work as a gang in any modern conflict, such as could be used with the Flying Lead ruleset.

That's all for this week, all comments are appreciated.

Populating Mayhem City 03 - The Doctor (Foundry Proffessional)

Welcome back readers.   Last week we looked at a Foundry Proffessional unit that was used as a Detective rather than the hired killer that Foundry had labelled him.  I mentioned that the next post would be a little more of the same.  So here he is:

The doctor is IN.

Looking at the variety of figures available I figured there would be no shortage of tough looking men, well armed and dressed in trenchcoats.  So rather than paint them all as such, I decided to stray a bit from the beaten path and get a shotgun totting doctor.

Cure for zombies?  Take two shells and a glass of water.

Unlike Detective Talhart, I haven't settled on a name for this guy yet, so he is just referred to as The Doctor.  If he comes up in games, I can create a last name for him, but as of yet, nothing has stuck.  With Talhart, I based it slightly off of his Foundry name.  But this figure's name is Bohunk, which I was unfamiliar with.  A quick google informed me that this is a bit of a derogatory term, so I opted not to use it.

Names aside, I think he'll fit nicely into a variety of situations.  Of course in ATZ he will play a surviving doctor, generally a good person.  But he could easily be a personal caregiver to a crime lord, a psychologist at a mental institute or a research scientist for some government experiment.

Don't get blood on my coat.

Painting so much of the figure white, it left me feeling like it was a little incomplete.   The black lining helped I think, and it was the first time I'd used that technique I think.  For the coat, I started with Space Wolf Grey, and then worked up to Skull White.  I'm satisfied with it.   I also decided to give The Doctor a purple sweater.   I feel that not a lot of tough guys will wear purple sweaters.  The Doctor is not starting out as a tough guy, though he may be one by the end of things.

Intense stare down.

The final item I'd like to bring attention to are the Doctor's eyes.   I was quite proud at how well they came out.  They are a little intense looking, but I think they are possibly the best eyes I have ever painted.  That's not saying much though, because I've mostly painted pretty awful eyes.  Hopefully I can keep this up.

So that is the the Doctor, the second of "The Proffessionals" from Foundry to not wind up as a ganger.  There's five in the set, so at least two will be the thugs they were meant to be.  So until the next update, which will have multiple figures, thanks for reading.