Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 17 June 2013

Loot

I went to Durham Wargames show on the 8th June and picked up a few bits but the title "Loot" is rather grandiose for the meager "haul"  I managed to get. I ventured to the show for the first time in many years with my son and a mutual friend as company (and excellent company they both were). The most pleasing part of the whole visit was seeing and chatting to many old friends and meeting several fellow bloggers (all of whom I already knew but hadn't seen in a very long time).
As for the actual 'Loot', I picked up two buildings, from the ever-friendly Dave Thomas. The first was the "North American Farmhouse" which I quite liked the look of, being very similar to the cottages I scratchbuilt a while ago.
It'll fit in with my own modern set-up as houses like these , I'm led to believe are still used all over America. Even if they're weren't it could still perhaps be a preserved historical building (birthplace of Jebediah Springfield perhaps?).
The second building was the Renedra "Ramshackle Barn". It's a very simple barn and can easily be used in a modern setting.
It's barns just like this one you can see used as garages, hideouts and so on in all sorts of eras. It obviously won't fit in with my modern city set-up, but for the rural areas (and maybe in the suburbs), it'll be usable.
Both models consist of very similar and basic components - four walls and a roof, with no measurable internal details. the farmhouse has the extra 'L' shape on the front, whilst the barn has a 'shed' type structure tacked on the side.


The farm house
Renedra fences
The farmhouse has three sprues, two for the main building and a 'Renedra" fences sprue which has three different fence types on it making it less than useful. It does encourage the buying of a box of these in future to have a fence of usable size at least.

Side walls and roof
Barn front and back
The barn's three sprues have one sprue duplicated, containg a side wall and half of the roof. Although this means  the side walls are identical one of them is intended to have the 'shed on it' so it isn't really  that noticeable.The most annoying thing on this model is that the front doors are one piece and overlap, making it a nightmare for conversion.
In addition to the two buildings I picked up some d20s that I could actually see (my current ones are mainly all very dark colours) and some animals, both from the very friendly Ian and Ron at the "Irregular Miniatures" stand. As long as I can remember I've always used whatever cash I have left buying things from them at this show.
I've slowly been writing up my zombie game rules (based heavily on ATZ - of course) and I'm using d20's for shooting and for some aspects of melee.
The animals I bought were mainly dogs (there is a cat there somewhere) which I intend to either use as feral domestic animals, as yet another hazard for survivors to face or as markers for PEFs (potential enemy forces). In my latest game I realised I hadn't anything to use as PEF markers and had to simply use dice, which wasn't a particularly elegant solution. I'll be adding to my dog pound in the future with the dogs from "Black Cat's" gangster ranges and I'll be adding a few from their other animal ranges too.
Other than buying yet more things to paint I've had a burst of energy and undercoated another batch of figures ready to paint (aarghhh)
Zombies, Civilians, Survivors, MIB and Hazmat guys


"EM4" Plastic Troopers
 I've also finally assembled my "EM4" plastic troopers I'd bought more than a year ago along with the metal heavy weapon conversion pack.
They were easy enough to assemble and do some minor conversions on.
I'll be using these as the Military in my games (if they ever get undercoated and painted) even though they're a bit Sci-Fi.
Other than the zombies (Blue Moon) all the figures bases are 20mm washers and gunked up with wall filler from Poundland.


That's it for another week, I'll be writing up the last game for my blog next week.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

17 comments:

  1. Glad you had fun!
    Those buildings are both fantastic and would suit my "New England" well. I was checking the barn at the salute but didn't buy it in the end. I can't wait to see how you will paint it up!

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    1. Thanks Mattyoo, I do like both buildings, but I doubt I'llbe able to get them looking any near their box art

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  2. As with Mathyoo I am looking forward to seeing the buildings, They are also on my potential buys list.

    I did not know for sure that !Irregular" are still going, I have not seen them at an southern shows for years nor seen any adverts in the wargames press. So really good to know they are still out there. I'll have to get some dogs and other animals from them before the year is out.

    Not the biggest bag of swag ever, but still a good one.

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    1. Yep, a meagre haul of Swag, but other than real-life pecuniary matters there really wasn't that much there of a "must have" nature, despite the great numbers of Traders.

      Irregular Miniatures are indeed still going strong and, as ever playing catch-up with current trends.

      The only set of Wargames Factory survivors I saw was snatched up by the mate I had traveled with ! I would have bought them, but it would have been one building less.

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  3. What a bloody good haul. I'll look forward to your review of the building models. I've never known whether it is worth while investing in them or building my own. Those figures look mean also.

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    1. Thanks Irqan, I went for the buildings purely for the speed factor in building them. I will continue to make my own too.

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  4. Nice buildings, I've though about getting the cottages before. Look forward to seeing what you do with them.

    Some great looking figures there. Looking forward to seeing them with a splash of paint and zombie hunting :D

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    1. I think the building will be built and painted long before the figures; figures painting has been put on hold until after my next eye op.

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  5. I have a lot of the blue moon zombies, there not bad I actually like them. The terrain would look good for a run down houses or a foreclosed home, or an abandoned home. Nice loot!

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    1. Thanks Commissar, I really like Blue moon zombies although many others don't. run down and foreclosed homes are a great idea, I just need more building though !

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    2. Thanks Commissar, I really like Blue moon zombies although many others don't. run down and foreclosed homes are a great idea, I just need more building though !

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  6. The barn is indeed most interesting; I've thought of getting it myself (what, with my backlog of unpainted models?!).

    Irregular seem to have given up the trips to the further away shows - I haven't seen them in Edinburgh or Glasgow for some years - but are still very much alive online. Their web site's "new" page is regularly updated.

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    1. You're probably right about Irregular Minis, there are quite a few shows within less than a two hour drive of them.

      As for the barn, I'll be pleased when it's usable.

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  7. Well you certaintly have something to use your spare time on (just like the rest of us nerds)

    Looking pretty good. The barn is a nice feature.

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    1. I prefer to think of myself as a geek LS !
      The barn is probably the better of the two kits overall, but have flaws.

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  8. Nice little haul! Thanks for the shot of the plastic kits, those and the store have been on my list for some time. They may be on my list a bit longer as finger and toe just released the shotgun shack for less than $3. There is so much good PDF out there that the MDF and plastic kits keep getting bumped to the end of the wish list!

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    1. Thanks David, I'd go for the pfd stuff too if my card-fu was better.

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