The Big Con

     When I started wargaming some forty plus years ago, the only figures that I could afford were soft plastic ones, namely  "Airfix". They came in a box, normally of  "48 pieces" for what in current money would be about 7 1/2 p, with about 36  of the 48  pieces generally being usable, the  others less so. When a new box was released it was always a time for great excitement of course, from civilians to confederate infantry, Germans, Foreign Legion etc.  However, I think every Wargamers dream was to own metal "lead" figures, but they were (comparitvely speaking) very expensive.  There were few suppliers and virtually no shops supplying them, outside of London and for those in the provinces (me) it was a very difficult task indeed to obtain them.  The "obstacles" of course were eventually surmounted and purchases of Hinchcliffe figures and Miniature Figurines  were eventually made. 
It was a slow and expensive business building up a wargames army in lead.

      Nowadays though we seem to have reverted to some form of inverted snobbery, where we're being brain-washed into believing that plastic figures (be they the new "hard" plastic rather than the soft polyethylene Airfix type) are superior in some way to lead miniatures.  My firm belief is that the only reason the "major" players in the figure manufacturing business have taken the step down the plastic path is money.  I haven't got a problem with firms making money, after all, it's what they are in business for, but when 5 plastic figures could knock me back £25 I draw the line. 

      There are plastic figures on the market that are excellent and fairly reasonably priced too, but equally there are many, many ranges of figures produced in lead/white metal that are on a par for cost per figure.
    
       Oversized plastic figures, which tend to be mainly, but not exclusively,  in the fantasy market have great detail on them, making them easier to paint - which is hardly surprising though when a shoulder strap 1 mm thick is possibly up to 2 inches thick in scale !  This in itself would warrant another rant, but it is another feature of the plastic market, that finer details cannot always be had the way they can on a metal figure and detail comes at a price.

     The photo above  shows the "waste" from a few sprues of plastic figures (6 figures to a sprue and assemble them yourself), I really can't imagine the same waste from metal figures not being re-used.

     In case you're wondering, yes I do have plastic figures of the modern "hard" plastic variety but I haven't come across anyone that prefers them to an equally sized metal figure.  Randomly looking through the interweb I came across 16 plastic men-at-arms for £20 or £1.25 a figure, which seems fairly reasonable (if you're prepared to put up with the bunches of bananas they have for hands) and a similar pack of 30 figures in metal for £24 or £0.80 per figure !

     Plastics are not always cheaper - its a Big Con !

For some reason (probably my ineptitude) last week's blog was missing the group shot that I took of my entire Gangstas collection., so here they are.

The basing "problem" has still yet to be resolved, but I'm getting there - you'll no doubt have noticed that my photography skills are still pretty dismal.

The building in the background is basically a large length of thin card wrapped around a polystyrene block and was used in many Indian Mutiny games, though it wouldn't look out of place in New Mexico, Spain or the Middle East either.


Next week's blog should feature my "Offensive Miniatures" SWAT figures as there are only a few minor details to finish off (barring any catastrophes with varnish, as happened with the Gangstas !).

Thanks for looking and all comments, are of course appreciated and if I haven't already welcomed you to my site "Welcome", I hope you find something of interest here.

Gangstas

After a great many trials and tribulations with this particular group of figures I've finally got to the stage where I can say that "I've finished them", or more correctly "I'm finished with them".

Some of the girls.

They are a mix of Bobby Jackson's "Thugz" and "The Dawgs" from Black Cat Bases.

They mix in so well in size and style that unless you know the figures well I doubt you'd be able to tell them apart.

The major difference with the two sets is that "The Dawgs" are on slotta  bases.  I find that the slotta bases are not to my liking (and that's being very polite) and so I've mounted those figures on 20mm washers, whilst the "Thugz" are on pennies.

Another girl with an eye in the boys

I fully intended to try and paint these in gang colours, but found that deciding what exactly would be gang colours was too difficult, so instead I opted for little to no reds within the group.

What I thought would be quite a straight-forward paint job  (to my standards at least) turned out to be quite a tricky affair as the more you get into painting these figures the more you find to paint. 

They have watches, necklaces, buckles, earrings, baubles bangles and bling aplenty !  For those who like painting that sort of detail, you'll have a field day with these !

Another girl (?) and three more guys

   Not one of my best photographic efforts this one, but I've never claimed to be a David Bailey.

The figure on the left, though not entirely apparent is, I've decided, a female; although she's quite butch and bald, her facial features I decided were female enough to qualify.  Above her left eye is a piercing with what in scale would be a curtain ring - luckily I didn't file this off when I was cleaning the figures up ready for their undercoat.

My three wannabe Rastas

Another one of my photos which should be marked "FAIL", but as I know how long it takes me just to get to this standard I'm afraid it has to do for the moment.

Not immediately apparent is that the dude on the left is wielding a machine-pistol, a Mac10 probably or similar, the guy in the centre has two pistols, whilst the jolly good chap on the right has but a single pistol.

One of the things that I really liked about all of these figures is that they are not blessed with huge amounts of firepower.

The boss (in the centre) and two of his homies

Of the twelve "Thugz" the heaviest firepower they have is a single shotgun, whilst the "Dawgs" come with a variety of sidearms including, revolvers, automatics, machine pistols, and shotguns, (pump action and double barrelled).

Not that I'm an expert on inner-city gangs but it does seem to be the typical type of armament that they could get their hands on.

My "Boss" of this little family I tried to give a Caribeean look to, hence my efforts to give him a bright flowery shirt and his pistol (in his left hand) is also gold, just to make him stand out a little more.

Two more guys.

More girls and child.

I tend not to name my figures, but the chap in the dark red hoody is named Mickey after one of my friends, who he reminds me of and will be used as his character in any zombie games we play.

The other character in the photo  was lost to me for over a month, but luckily I found him hiding within a group of zombies in time for him to be painted alongside the rest of the gang.




 This gang I think may feature quite heavily in my run-up to the start of the zombie campaign proper.

I intend to start making up the background stroy about a year ahead (in game time) of the actual apocalypse, which in my game will occur on 21st December 2012 (or possibly 23rd).

In real time I need a few practise games too, so gang-related games will fit the bill nicely.

Now all I need are more gangs (Chicanos are on the list), which means more painting....

....ARRRRGGGHHHH.


As always, thanks for looking, any and all comments are of course welcome.

And if I haven't already welcomed you to my site "Welcome",  I hope you find something here that interest you.

Ramblings

I was hoping to get my “gangstas” finished this week as they were intended to be the subject of this week’s blog.  Real-life events however conspired against me and I lost a day’s painting to a hospital visit.  It does however give me the opportunity to show off some more of my pal Dog’s artwork.  This particular one being dedicated by me to Bryan (Vampifan), who’s first love, as many of you will know, is for Vampires, with Zombies, Werewolves and generally things that go bump in the night a close second.

The title of the piece "Vampiric Babe" gives it away a bit.

I've added Zombie Shop to my list of favourite links, although I've only ordered books from once from Zombie Shop, the service was first rate.

I’ve managed to watch a couple of films recently, the first of which owes me one and a half hours of my life back, whilst the second was a well produced enjoyable watch and highly recommended.

 The first “Target Earth” was described as “There’s an alien invasion coming and only little Tommy knows when.  Zombies hunt the kid, while a sheriff teams up with the desert Hippies to save the world” (1998).  The film had nothing to do with zombies and was a pretty humdrum affair despite some well known faces amongst the cast (probably before they were well known.  Whilst not a complete waste of my viewing time it was still pretty dire and not what I was expecting; on my scoring system it would appear as a 2.  I’d recommend giving this a miss unless you’re desperate.

 (For "Scrubs" fans out there, yes, that really is Dr. Cox in the centre of the three chaps on the right)

 

The next film I watched was “The Crazies”, the very title of which filled me with apprehension, but the TV description of “A virus turns the inhabitants of a town into murderous maniacs” suggested that I was in familiar territory.  Strictly speaking though this film was a horror film rather than a zombie film, but of course it had all the elements of a zombie film, with overall good make-up and special effects.  Whilst it may well have been a low-budget film, it certainly didn’t appear so.  If you replace the murderous near-humans with zombies then it would have been a great zombie film with all the key elements you would expect.  I thoroughly enjoyed this film and had it been scored on my zombie film scale I’d have given it a whopping 5 ! 

It should have come as no surprise really that when the credits rolled at the end the producer was George C. Romero! 

Recommended viewing for all zombie fans, I doubt that you’ll be disappointed.

Next week I’ll be presenting my first gang for my zombie campaign, unless real-life events thwart me yet again; I also have a secret assignation that I may or may not spill the beans about (but it will include a shopping trip to the ubiquitous "Poundland").

Thanks for looking, all comments welcome and if I haven’t already welcomed you to my site then, “Welcome !”

Civilians

First off, let me say that I will try and update this site's links etc. as  and when I can, but there are just too many demands upon one's time, as I'm sure many of you will empathise with, real-life has a way of interfering with our hobby big-time !

 First off are three of my twelve civilians from Warm Acre Miniatures, although I bought them off e-bay at about half price !

Perhaps not too noticeable in the photograph is that the guy on the left has actually got a weapon, in the form of a baseball bat and even though the hooligan in the middle has a spray can, I can't see it being much use against zombies in the coming apocalypse.

The guy on the right is armed with a tinny and a burger  !

 Next up are three more from the set whom I have labelled as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", although you'll have to make up your mind as to which is which.

I've  attempted to paint up all these figures as being from the seedier, seamy side of town. 

As stated above only one figure in the entire set has anything resembling a weapon, hence these are "Civilians" rather than "Survivors", although "cannon-fodder" or "vicitms" may seem more appropriate

Here's the "puffa-jacket" twins and another female; it is not a very well known fact that people "and miniatures" in such attire always appear slightly out of focus.

One of the features of the Warm-Acre miniatures is their "double" bases, which I was completely unsure about and so I scrapped the plastic bit and replaced it with a penny.  I'm pleased to say that you can hardly see the join on most of them.

 The final three in the set; the chap on the left could easily be mistaken for a "suit" except that he's not obviously armed, unless you count his hot-dog!

The bruiser in the middle has actually got his right hand in a fist, but is also suffering form the effects of having seen too many puffa jackets.  He should really have "H.A.T.E" tattooed on his fingers but I'll justimagine that they're there.   The lad on the right is obviouisly up to no good, as he has a hoody and a backpack ! (Whadya mean typecast ?)

 Just in case anyone was wondering what structure all the figures were standing in front of, here's a snap that should explain all.

I build this models probably about ten ago for a friend's Chinese Opium wars scenario and I kept it to use in my Boxer rebellion games.

It was made from thick cardboard, dowel and what I know as plastic canvas (doors, windows, decorations and balcony rail)

The vehicles are sports cars that I picked up a while ago from (you've guessed it) Poundland !

At first I thought they looked a little on the small side, but I decided I'd go with them anyway.

I don't think that they look that bad really, considering that the figures are on thicker than normal bases (my normal).  The door open on them and they vary between left and right hand drives.  I'm not too keen on the red  head-lights though, I can see those being painted out at some future date.


If I haven't already welcomed you to my site, then "Welcome",  I hope you'll find something here to enjoy.

Suits and Militia

First off, let me say that it has been quite remiss of me not keeping the appearance of my board up to date so to speak.  After the initial design template and the addition of  a couple of pages of my views on things I never really returned to "update" it.   Well I've made a start, I've added more links to my favourite links side-bar and there are still more to add. I've also updated my to view list of films - I didn't realise just how many I've yet to look at, but that's a problem we've probably all got, there not being enough hours in the day to do all we want.

This last week I've been very self-disciplined and put aside at least an hour each day to do some figure painting.  I didn't manage to finish all the figures that I started, as I've still got the final finishing touches to a dozen Warm Acre Civilians.  I have managed to finish ten Foundry figures though, five "Suits" and five Militia.  The latter  will probably be joining  my other five militia types (also Foundry) to be a "gang" of modern-day survivalists and will probably centre around a gun-shop, if I ever get round to making one !



Shown here are the two women from the Wargames Foundry set Sergeis Korporation.

The vehicle behind them is one of my recent purchase from Poundland, note the great split down the side of it (easily fixed), air conditioning at its worst !

The "Suits" will be used in whatever capacity I need, whether it's as  Detectives, Corporation Execs, Mobsters or whatever.

The photgraph on the right shows the remaining three figures from the above set, with the obligatory giant figure.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I'm still not happy with the bases, but it's on the list of  things that need doing.

The vehicle is another Poundland special.

The vehicles did look very large in the shop, but they're OK up against the figures.

These three are from the Wargames Foundry set Backstreet Militia and will be joining up with the set Mercenary Fire Team, giving them huge  amounts of firepower.

I've attempted to paint them in what I think is a British Summer Camo though I doubt it's the current one being used as I copied it from a friend's fatigues!

Last two of the Milita and as always my camera-work goes a little astray.  I've found what is called a Macro button and you know what they say, "A little knowledge...etc."

More reading of the blessed Camera Manual is in order (must find out what the little dial, with all the small lettering, on the top does).








Here is a shot of my four most recent purchases from Poundland en masse.

I'm not a great fan of all the "Stickers", (transfers ? decals ?) on them and will probably remove them in due course.  The stickers are not apparent in the photos above, but as we view our games from above most of the time I think they'll stick out like a sore thumb.

Final photo of all my recent finds and purchases from the last month.

The majority came from Poundland (of course), but not all of them.

 I think the most expensive was less the £2.50 and several of the least expensive were 10p (car-boot/tabletop sale).






Finally, comments are always welcome and if I haven't already welcomed you "Welcome !"

Zombie Horde

Well, my "horde" has increased by 19 figures and here they are!


I'm not altogether sure about the basing on them and I think I will be looking to add a little more texturing to the bases at a later date.

These three photographs show all but five of the 19, they are all Blue Moon figures, from Old  Glory UK, although I can't remember which particular set they're from.

The Blue Moon figures are not everyone's cup of tea, due mainly I think to the "ragged kilt" effect on many of them, but I quite like the effect.

This photograph is quite unremarkable, save for the figure in the back -right which is my first attempt at an African/African American zombie.  It's a bit indistinct and should probably stay that way !

I have mainly used a simplified version of Vampifan's technique for painting the zombie flesh.
I use a normal flesh colour, then apply a grey wash, which does the trick for me.

The eye sockets are of course painted black and the eyeballs white.  Blood and gore are added as one of the final stages (very satisfying doing that) using Tamiya's clear red.

 This group shows two of my favourite figures, the two males. The chap second from the left has an excellent head, somewhere between skull and normal (hardly noticeable on this photograph). The other male on the right I think is my favourite out of this batch. I really like figures that are not standard size, by which I mean they're either a bit fatter, or thinner or balding or some such, rather than "normal". 

He's obviously been recently zombiefied (that's a real word right ?), his clothing is hardly effected and other than his eyes, his head is almost normal (if balding).

So here's the entire group, including five that were missing a photograph (due to technical problems - that is to say I'm rubbish), in all their glory (?). I'm not the best painter in the world, but I'm happy with this group - My new spectacles, some better brushes, the longer daylight hours and my ongoing recuperation have all helped.


Lastly here's a couple of shots of my entire horde as it currently stands (or crawls, or shuffles).

  The older figures have all had a gloss varnish, whilst this latest batch have had a "silk" or "vinyl" varnish applied.

I feel this latter effect is far more satisfying than the pure gloss and will probably apply it to all my collection.


The basing on the first two batches is also noticeably lighter, this too will be addressed when I add texture to all my figures' bases.

Sadly, my photographic skills aren't improving much, if at all.

"Getting a Sunday newspaper never used to be this difficult."

Thanks to all for following my blog and comments are of course welcome.


Finally, if I haven't already welcomed you, "Welcome !".

Nipper's Newsstand

Here's my latest building effort, "Nipper's Newsstand".

Some of you may recognise the origin of this particular piece as being the small upper floor from  "The Horseman's Deli", the free downloadable  building from Microtactix,  which I've adapted into a ground floor building and extended somewhat.  Its footprint is about  4" x 2.5" (10cm x 6cm); I think the original was about 2.5" square, which to my way of thinking was a tad too small, so  I extended it a little using my newly acquired photo-shop skills. The height to the top of the roof parapet is about 2.25".
The photo above and these next two photographs show Nipper's in its closed mode with the shutter down.  The shutter was made to be able to slide in and out a sandwich of three pieces of thin card that makes up the front wall, the sides and back are made from 5mm foamcard.

Obviously the two side walls and the back wall are nothing to write home about and will have posters added to them when I print some interesting ones out. Though not obvious from the photo the window is of the "see through"  perspex variety
 

This next photograph shows Nipper's open for business, the shutter has been removed and the various hoardings and counter (all one piece) have been put in place. 

The various newspapers and magazines etc. have all been gleaned from the Interweb and reduced in size to what I thought looked right for the scale of figures being used - there was no scientific methodology involved, just pure guesswork. There are multiple prints of the newspapers and magazines, to give a more "3-D" effect though this isn't readily apparent from the photo.  The "plywood" texture was gleaned from goodness knows where and backs all the hoardings as well as the newsstand sign. In the back of the shop, viewed through the opening can be seen magazines and more newspapers on the wall. The counter may look a bit skew-whiff, but I can assure you that that is down to my ineptitude as a photographer, not modeller (I am reading the camera's manual though).

This photograph (a little out of focus) shows the inside of Nipper's with the inherent detritus of piles of old magazines and newspapers.  The slot for the shutter can be only vaguely made out at the tope of the photograph.

In the bottom right can be seen a box on top of which has been placed more rubbish.
The door just seems ajar but it does open fully to the
side wall if necessary.

Here's another view of the inside (slightly more in focus), showing the box, now in the top left corner, a little more clearly.  The box (and many others) was downloaded from "Tommygun's" site, which has lots of very usable card/paper downloads (free).  The slot for the shutter can be seen a little more clearly on this view too. The more astute amongst you may recognise that the box is a "Blue Sun" packing case; I intend to have "Blue Sun" as one of the suspects for the cause of the zombie apocalypse in my campaign.

All of Tommygun's freebies can be found here:
http://tommygun.sector-17.com/tommygun/main.php
 
This final photograph shows the scale of the model along with some of my latest efforts at painting zombies. The zombies are Old Glory and are from a batch of 19 that are nearly finished, a bit of highlighting, varnishing and some work on their bases still needs to be done to finish them off.  I'm quite pleased with them though as they are, as I'm no great shakes as a figure painter.

Thanks for looking and if I haven't already welcomed you, then "Welcome"

All comments welcome too.