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

Monday 6 October 2014

EMS

William Flowers and Benjamin Potts
The Emergency Medical Services that should feature in the early stages of every zombie apocalypse game, are sadly not represented by many (if any) suitable figures, (along with the firemen -US or British).
There are however British medical teams - available from Warmacre |Game (a very underrated range of excellent figures). They have two paramedics in the set along with four British bobbies for £6 !
Benjamin Potts
I therefore set out to make my own and converted a couple of figures from plastic "kits" that I have  acquired over time (the latest being two sprues of Wargames factory Survivours and a nearly complete spure of their weapons !).
The figure on the left though has a Studio Mini's zombie plastic torso and arms from goodness knows where, though I suspect they're from the Wargame factory zombies.
The case he is carrying is scratch-built from a central body of cork with slivers of cork for the end and side pockets. The handle is a very small staple, straightened out then gently curved and forced into the cork, as it's a very tight fit it didn't require any gluing.


Rear view.
A quick googling of US, EMS crews revealed that they generally don't look like our own green overalled  paramedics, but are uniformed with more in common to Amercian Police forces with a very similar uniform of black trousers and shirts. I did however find a couple that wore white shirts with their black trousers and plumped for that.
The Hi-vis vest is inherent in the Studio Mini though it's meant more of a college -type jacket. as I later found when painting it, but I think it does the job.
Blue plastic gloves feature a lot with paramedics and I thought it helped break up monotony of the figure along with the red medic case (also found by googling).
William Potts

For the second figure I used the torso from the survivours boxed set (intended for the cop-type character) with suitable arms  - Right handed arms with open hands are quite rare as most are carrying a weapon of some description or have shirt sleeves etc.
Rear view
I had intended to use both the cop torso I had at my disposal, for these but I'm pleased now I used the Studio one.
 Other than varnishing, I'm happy that these are as finished as they will ever be, they look distinct enough and are fit for purpose (well for my purposes anyway) and at least it's another two figures off my current painting tray.
State of play on the painting tray.

My gaming table is currently in a state of flux (OK, for in a state of flux read - "it's a mess) following the gluing, converting and basing of figures and as I continue to work  on the doll houses.
Sid's got a lot of work to do getting this cleaned up.



Whilst I may not be officially participating in Zombtober, these two may well keep someone from Birmingham bugging me (mentioning no names) and I may have some actual zombies finished by next week too !

Finally let me welcome my two latest followers R.A.E. Gingerbhoy and Arabianknight both of whom have very good blogs.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.



36 comments:

  1. Great conversions Joe.
    Warmacre have quite a nice little range going on.
    That's a lot on the paint table dude!
    But Bill and Ben, really?

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    1. Thanks Bob, my first attempt at the 'hard ' plastic conversion game.
      ll my paint tray serve as mixing pallettes too (also used for spraying undercoats !) I like to paint 30-40 figures at once as these are ciivilians, if they'd been uniformed figures then I'd be painting 100-200 at a time !
      Good spot on the names...

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  2. They look great and thank you for introducing me to another range of cracking miniatures. I just adore the painting table - I'd love a space like that.

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    1. Thanks MIchael, my painting table (and tray) are in my living room whilst my gaming table which doubles as a workspace for buildings and larger projects that need painting, making etc.

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  3. Yep, they should work well enough :-) . I agree that it's difficult to get paramedics and firemen; converting your own seems like the only way to go.

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    1. Thanks C6, strangely enough I think it was your own efforts that inpired me to do these, but I've never had the figures - now all I need is a sprue of female surviours and I have one of eachof the suitable plastics available.

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  4. Yes First responders of all types should feature in the first few weeks. Nice conversions and a great painting table.

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    1. Thanks Clint, I'll also have to refer you to my reply to Micheal's comment above.

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  5. Nicely converted and finished. Thanks for the welcome and link.
    Roy

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    1. Thanks RAE G. (your new abbreviated name), Inow that I know how to link I try and do it regularly.

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  6. Definitely need more of these, very nice work by the way!

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    1. Thanks Fran, nice compliment coming from such an artist as yourself.

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  7. These are much needed figures if you're gaming the early days of a zombie outbreak. Nice conversions. I had to laugh at their names, mind you!

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    1. Thanks Bryan, C6s conversions, your own Firemen amongst many others efforts are truly the inspiration behind these.

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  8. Nice work Joe. I can imagine these characters will be in high demand in the event of a Zombie outbreak!

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    1. Thanks Paul, I've had call to use substitute figures in nearly all my games which isn't really satisfying.

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  9. Nice conversions and they've come up trumps with the paintjobs you've done as well. I keep thinking I've seen some paramedics somewhere but I can't for the life of me remember where! I will come back to you on that one,

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    1. Thanks Brummie, as I mentioned the only ones I;'ve seen have beenthe Warmacre ones -C^6 mentioned something similar on a thread of his a while back.

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  10. Well done Joe!

    I have used the same zombie body as the basis for mine, but I'd never think of cork to make his bag - it's amazing what you can do with it!

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    1. Thanks Mattyoo, I couldn't actually think what else to make it out of, a soft plastic was my other thought, but cork did the job just fiine.

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  11. Excellent job on the EMS guys. I will have to look at that myself...

    Plenty to do on that painting table, wow!

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    1. Thanks N667, I really would like to see others attempt a similar task making some EMS personnel, just togive me some ideas !
      The paint-load is slightly smaller than the previous batch !

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  12. Fantastic conversions Joe, they look rgeat!

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    1. Thanks ZA, nothing that many others do better.

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  13. Very nice work there Joe. Like it very much.

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    1. Thanks Shuby, I get the inspiration from others, I odubt anything I do is original

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  15. Never heard of this figure range but these figures are very nice and well painted!

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    1. This is a conglomeration of at three figure ranges - Wargames Factory, Studio Miniatures and Mantic all plastics that go together fairly well.

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  16. Lovely stuff. Not thought of Warm Acre before. I've got their Hour of Glory board game somewhere with more a few of their minis, but I didn't like their sculpting tbh. Your work on these emergency guys though means I'll dig them out and have another look. Great blog btw.
    Blaxkleric
    http://fantorical.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Thanks Blaxkleric, I went for their civilian line from No go Zone iirc as they were cheap and I liked their proportions.
      I surprised myself with the end result of my EMS figures.
      Welcome to the blog btw, glad you like it.l

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