Film Reviews

I've taken this lull in my productivity to review and compare three films that I watched last year within a day or two.
As qualifiers to these reviews, let me state that I'm not a fan of horror films at all and I find zombie films to be mostly in the "B" category and I score these in my reviews allowing for this view.
Neither am I a fan of comedy films, I find most to be trite or the comedy is contrived or forced.
So I present here my view on three films, a standard "horror", a zombie comedy and an apocalyptic tale, categorised as a horror film.

The film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), caused a great stir in the UK when it was first released after, I believe, much difficulty.
Having now seen the original, I can't see what all the fuss was about, probably due to there being much worse gore-fest  available nowadays.
I won't go into the actual plot, such as there is as it's all on the poster, suffice to say it's weak and although it may have once been shocking it isn't now - far worse can be found on You Tube.
I was recommended this film over a year ago and originally only managed to take in the 2003 remake, which is probably a slightly better film.
 I'm sorry to say that neither of these "classic" horror films has warmed me to the genre.

The second film "Dance of the Dead" (2008) is described as a "Comic high school terror", which in my book is never a good start.
The film is a zombie comedy so what could possibly be wrong with that ? To re-iterate, I don't like comedies particularly; there are zombies rising, nay springing from graves; the zombies once risen are a mix of shufflers and of the abhorrent (in my view) fast variety; the main characters are teens (the middle class, US boy/girl next door types) and there's an archetypical old survivalist/apoaclypse prepper.
The main characters are a drop-out, a bully, nerds, the prom queen and a cheerleader as well as the aforementioned survivour.
Well for all the wrong reasons I actually enjoyed this film and even managed more than a wry smile at times.
There are scenes in a funeral home (of course), the high school prom dance hall  (dancing zombies !) and a storyline that I could probably have written. But for all that I would still recommend this as a film to watch, if you can. It's not one that I would go out of my way to find, but it's good enough to pass away an hour or so.
The acters are all unknown to me but put in good performances and I've given this film a 4/5 on my zombie film review scale.

 "Carriers" (2009) is not actually a zombie film, but is actually a post apocalytic tale of four survivors fleeing the spread of a lethal viral pandemic.
The storyline is simple enough, four friends are trying to get from wherever it is they started from to a remote shoreline destination of a happier time in their childhood.
The virus seems to be spread similarly to flu and hence facemasks are appropriate when dealing with others that may or may not be infected.
Those that are infected show bodily bubos and eventually will turn into livng corpses of their formal selves who look uncannily what would easily pass as zombies. These zombie-like forms seem to possess little if any motor skills ( I can't recollect any of them moving) but pose a great threat of infection.
In my opinion this is a great apocalyptic film, dark and  full of pathos and tragedy along the lines of "The Road", but without the budget of the latter.
Once more the central characters are unknowns and give believable performances and again this is well worthlooking out for. I have included this is my zombie film list and I've given it a 4/5 ("The Road" would get a 5/5).

And that it for another week save to welcome my latest follower "Barks" and as always to welcome your comments.

New Toys

At the beginning of December whilst on a one of my regular hospital visits, I took the opportunity to visit Poundland, on the way there (and back) and I spotted a couple of fire-fighting vehicles.
The first vehicle, shown on the right,  was one I'd seen several months before but didn't get and had regretted it ever since.



I've made amends now and have actually bought two !
 The second one I have plans to convert at some stage.
The model is nothing remarkable but it does look about the right scale and size against this foundry figure (Sid seems to be off on a holiday break)

The second vehicle I'd never seen before but I was delighted with it and its extending cherry-picker type platform.

You can see on the photographs that the front cabs and the chassis of the vehicles are identical, which to me is a plus.








And just in case you were wondering, the platform does extend and also rotates. The platform cage itself will hold two figures on  20mm bases (just) but is far to narrow for any bigger base size.
There is a slight problem with the joints in the platform as they are very loose and any lead figure sitting in it will cause it to droop, but tightening it up a bit shouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility. 

The final vehicle I picked up was probably the weakest looking of the three as it's just a plain white box with no details on it whatsoever other than the transfers (decals) on the sides and rear.
It wasn't on display on my first visit, but luckily was there on my return.

When I saw it, I didn't have much enthusiasm for it as part of the fire service, but did think it would be useful for something, quite what yet I don't really know, as it will need some work on the rear "box" to make it look useable in some form or other.

After I'd purchased these my thoughts did turn to the fact that I can't find any 28mm sized models of any firefighters although I'm, sure that there are some out there; the only ones I'm aware of is the dire Mega-minis  set. - so along with paramedics there is a gap in the market there.

That's all for this week and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

2014

I tend not to make New Year resolutions  and this year will be no exception, because after becoming ill in 2011, by 2012 I wasn't making any plans that I ever came to fruition. 
I do hope though that I'll get in some gaming and manage a few more building projects ( I have one in mind concerning a tin of bouillon and another with a plastic chocolate box insert.). When I get out of the current regime of over-indulging and sleeping I may even get around to some painting.
Buying figures is again not on the  list of things to-do this year (it was last year too) and yet I still managed to accumulate another fifty or so. I did buy some figures last year (less than a dozen) - some dogs and a cat spring to mind and although I still would like a dozen more of the former I'm in no rush. Long on my wanted list has been the plastic Survivors, both men and women but there again I really can't justify getting them as much I'd like some.

In case you're wondering about the picture, these are the main tools I use when I make any of my models. The ruler has a groove to protect fingers and a back edge that doubles as a very useful right angle and is about 5mm tall; it's single sided and has an anti-slip pad on the underside; it's one of my most recent purchases (less than 20 years old). The 9" bastard file I use for just about everything I need to file, I only use smaller files in areas where this won't reach. The Stanley type knife is used on thick card, but for most everything else I use Scalpels. I have three scalpels at hand and go through a lot of blades, hence the essential 100 blade pack (and the multiple scars on my hands). The saw I've always referred to as a Jewelers saw, but I believe these days it's called a razor saw. I've had it for a very long time and its shows on its blade. The adjustable set square is a must for anyone making large models in my opinion though I tend not to use it for very small bits as I can judge a right angle fairly well.
I haven't a clue what to call the red handled cutter thing, but again I've used this for more years than I care to remember. I use it for cutting most anything including the inevitable stirrers, but it can also cut through quarter inch garden canes. I do of course have many other tools that rarely see the light of day, cheap craft knives, small files etc. Hopefully this year this set will again see action.

That's it for this week as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Happy New Year

(This is my 101st post - in case you were wondering)

As 2013 draws to a close it's time to reflect on the year and it's highs and low.
For me the year started with my eyesight rapidly deteriorating, which was no fun at all but by September and two operations later I my eyesight fully restored.
My enthusiasm all year has been up and down like a bride's nightie with the inevitable down sometime around the end of November when any pretense of enthusiasm for blogging and gaming in general hit an all-time low, but this has since been lifted somewhat by just one or two recent comments on my blog and replies to my own comments on others' blogs.
Over the last two years of blogging I do feel that I've made several new friends in the Blogging community, which is a strange thing to say considering that I've never met but one of them.
The highlight of the year, as hinted at, was meeting Matevz or Mathyoo as many of you will know him as.

Without Bryan/Vampifan's, Matevz, and many of the regular commentators to my blog I think I would have given this up a long while ago.

In 2014 I aim to game more, once the batteries are recharged and the enthusiasm for it returns.

(These are not mine, the  picture was "borrowed" )

On to the Xmas haul, which on the Wargames front saw me the proud recipiend of a Full Thrust Fleet (FSE for those that know about these things). I blame Colgar6, and his excellent bat-reps that overflow with his enthusiasm for everything he does. The present came from eldest son who has his own fleets for the game and probably recollects from his childhood playing this game with me. It is a bit of a diversion from Zombie gaming but a very welcome one at that.
All was not lost though on the Zombie front as I did receive some related items.

From the overly generous Lord Siwoc I got a rather bulky pack of mantic Ghouls as a prize in his rather unsubscribed Xmas competition.
Expecting one or two sprues worth of Ghouls, my jaw dropped when I opened the package to a veritable feast of figures. When I get back to painting Zombies, I can see these being combined with some Wargames Factory zombies.
It's been quite a revelation to me blogging, just how generous fellow bloggers are, this was not the first competition I've won and I've also been the recipient of other gifts too!  This is surely one of the most wonderful communities to be a part of.

Worst Dice roll ever ?  (Picture again "borrowed"_

With that, it's time to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year and here's to another enjoyable year reading your blogs, making new friends and maybe even meeting a few more of you.







As always your comments are welcomed and appreciated .

It's that time...

...of year again, when we lose several days of lives to do next to nothing and over-indulging
(hopefully) in everything from things  that are either not good for us just plain silly.
So, are you celebrating the birth date of Mithras on the 25th or maybe you'll be participating in fertility rites involving druidic sacred Mistletoe (yours was cut with a golden sickle right ?). It might also be that you're setting fire to a pagan yule log to warm and light you through the winter darkness,  or bringing in a Germanic tree to decorate.
 Whatever it is you do at this time of year (you may even just be enjoying the holiday period like normal folk do with family and friends) I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
I'll also take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you that has read or commented upon my blog. Without all of your participation in my wonderful bloggosphere experiences over the last two years, this my 100th blog post, would not have been possible, so once more, thank you.

Trees

The demise of our local "Model Zone" shop saw my eldest son buying up trees, more than he could use so I ended up being the beneficiary of one bag of trees, with somewhere around 18 trees in it.

The trees themselves lay dormant in their bag for a few months before I finally got around to seeing what I could do with them.

My original intent was to use a couple of them in the park that I built, but as those of you who saw the finished park that idea had gone out of the window. 

 I decided to dig out my old trees and base them up with the new ones I'd acquired from my son.
The few, still "usable" trees that I dug out were in a very sorry state as can be seen by the photograph on the left. It's no wonder the state that they were in considering that they're probably over thirty years old and have been through many, many tabletop battles.

I did think that they were salvageable though and with a generous amount of PVA glue and flock (some of which came from the bag the new trees occupied) I think I made a reasonable job of rescuing them from obscurity.
The result of my efforts can be seen in the photograph on the right. The flock I used is probably just about as old as the trees and is a mix of home-made and commercial (I think).

It only remained for the new trees to be mounted on irregular shapes bases of differing sizes and the refurbished old ones to be interspersed amongst them.
I mounted all the trees in multiples of two, three or more trees; the bases were chamferred and given a coating of wall filler for texture and painted in greens and browns.
The final outcome wasn't as shabby as I thought it would turn out and the 'rescued' trees fitted in well enough for me. (The tree on the right in the first photo is one.)

Although the whole process took quite a while and I was plagued with problems over getting the models and paint to stick to the bases (goodness knows why), I'm quite happy with the result 

That's it for another week and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Fences

For my next scenario, set in the suburbs of Perdition I required some extra scenery as most of my stuff so far has been of an urban nature.
So whilst working on my park I was also working on some bits of scenery too. Although the fences are probably more suited to a rural environment than a suburban one, they're still another addition to my scenery.
The obvious choice (to me at least) as the preferred material to make these with was of course coffee stirrers.

 For the initial preparatory stages I cut coffee stirrers to a length of about 120mm and then laid them out as shown.
They're about 25mm from the bottom of once fence plank to the top of the third,
The pile of "posts" that can be seen to the side are 30mm long.
One central post was glued in place initially to easy handling before the second was put in place.
 To join two lengths of fencing together another post was glued between the two fence pieces.
  As can be seen on the photograph to the right I used a lot of clips/clamps to hold the pieces together whilst they were gluing.
To reinforce the join, a second 'post' was glued to the other side of the fence, this can be most clearly seen in the photograph at the top of the page (in the middle centre).
Some of you will no doubt have noticed that there appear to be a lot more fences in the third photo than those laid out in the second one. Five fence lengths makes about 60 cm (about 2 foot of fencing)

 and my initial estimates of what I'd like were woefully inadequate so I ended up making about about three times more than I initially thought I would.
The photo on the left shows the second 'batch' of fences getting to the same stage as the first.
At what would be the corners of my fences I glued a post made up of four of the post length that I'd cut earlier. This gave me a good surface area to glue one length to another with some purchase and it also made the fences free standing .

The various lengths were glued into 'L' shapes; the smallest 'L' shape was 1 length by 1 length (1x1). I made others of 2 x 1 lengths, 2 x 2 lengths and 3x1 lengths. The pieces with a single length at the corners were made in two versions, a left hand one and a right hand one.
The photograph shows the finished models in their unpainted state. I still haven't got around to painting any of them as my enthusiasm for this particular project diminished rapidly as I thought it would be quite a quick and easy process - how wrong I was !

 I had made just over 40 lengths of fences which, including the corner posts and fence joins used up about 200 coffee stirrers!
 This gave me a total fence length of about 16 to 17 foot of fencing (about 500cm) but still seemed inadequate when I came to use them on 6 foot by 4 foot of my table.
The use of the free-standing fences should be fairly obvious from the last two photographs and the varying lengths used against buildings does provide a good representation of a perimeter.
I have found though that  really should have made some provision for some gates in the overall scheme of things.
Instead of gates I've had to leave a gap in the fence lines as a temporary measure and by trying to use a free-standing fence I'm unable to make a simple straight length of fence, which is a bit frustrating.
This was one of those projects that I thought was a good idea at the time but I do wish I'd thought it through a lot more before starting out on it, but on the plus side I do have some extra terrain even if it is limited a bit in its use.

And that's it for this week, except of course to welcome  my latest follower "Alexis Gayaud" and to say that all your comments, as always, are both welcomed and appreciated.