Utility Vehicles

I received a nice surprise from my son last weekend, namely four vehicles bought from a Wilkinson's store near where he lives.
They are from left to right a bus/coach, a road sweeper a fire appliance (bit obvious) and a skip lorry (is there a proper name for one of those ?)
I've used a Foundry Mini for scale.

The coach is the longest of the four models at about 7 inches long (170mm) whilst the others all vary slightly around the  5 " mark (125mm).The coach has two sets of double opening doors, operated by a small lever on the underside of the vehicle and a front sign that lights up when the small button in the centre of the roof is pressed (it also makes bus engine noises). I can't see me making use of either of these features !

The road sweeper is the only one not to have see-through windows, but it does have the feature that when it is pushed along a central (hidden) wheel makes the brushes either side of the truck to rotate.
 If only Sid was here to see it (he's gone walkabout to who knows where)

 The fire appliance joins my ever growing collection of these vehicles and is much the same as the ones I features a while back, except it's far superior. One of the side door on this model slides open and it also has a button behind the roof light panel that makes the two lights flash and a siren to sound. 

 The skip truck is my third (I think) of these types of vehicles but is the first that matches the style of skips that I made about a year ago. Like all of the vehicles that I have the skip load can sit on the bed of the truck or be shown with the lifting arms in a variety of positions.


I had looked at what Wilkinson's had to offer before Xmas but there was only the coach then and I really couldn't justify buying it (it being Xmas and all that). I think their scale is perfect for the the scale of figures and they're far more robust that anything I've bought from Pound-land-stretcher-world. I recollect that the bus model (nearly all metal) was about £4-£5 at the time and there were three or four different variants- perfect for that bus depot you were going to make right ?These are obviously toys but I think they'll do fine.

So that's it for another week, (rather bland I know) it just remains for me to welcome my latest follower "Belique" and to say that as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Pirates versus Zombies?

Le Dauphin d'Or

As commented upon in my last blog setting up a game of Pirates versus Zombies can't be ruled out, there is after all the zombie/undead types in Pirates of the Caribbean. Whilst I doubt though that I'll ever go down that path I nevertheless came across a miniature in my last batch of zombies from Zombiesmith that would fit in perfectly as some form of zombie Pirate.
You can just about see him on the deck of the first pirate ship I attempted (and very nearly finished). The ship is made almost entirely from scrap: plastic, card, filler, dowels, embroidery threads, cotton, bbq skewers, matchsticks,  plastic canvas and of course tapers/spills (nowadays I'd use coffee stirrers of course). The original cannon was scratch built in wood (barrels), thick card (carriage) and dowel (wheels). I then cast then all in a lead/tin mix.Up close they're fairly ropey, but they do the job.

Here's the pirate looking type with another two randoms. The girl I've just found out from Colgar6's blog is a heresy miniature whilst the Schwartzenegger wannabe's origins are still a mystery to me.
The "pirate" zombie could just as easily have been painted as a survivor, although his clothing would suggest he has no modern dress sense and is very tattered - he'd make a good tramp though!

The blunt end of the ship has a lift off deck above (where the steering wheel is (see - I know all the right naval terms) and is really nothing spectacular, but you can see the plastic canvas windows, so this is probably the captain's room.
On the rear mast base you can also see a collar around the mast, this gave a little more support to the mast (which is embedded in the deck) and a little more glueing surface.
 The front end upper deck is also removable, but it's just an empty space inside.

 The figures here, survivors and their zombie counterparts, are like the majority of this batch are Zombiesmith minis.
The woman could obviously be used in a pirate scenario whilst the guy would just need his hat filing off as the rifle he carries could easily be taken for a flintlock type weapon.

The Zombiesmith clergyman may just get away with being used in a piratical setting though I'd be happier using him if the bottom part of his trousers were filed to breeches' length.
The other two are a "Zombie me" finally based up (a present) and a Mega Mini "zombie" child hockey player, though I'm going to use him as a child survivor as there's so little obvious damage to him.

The bottom deck back end rooms and guns.
(I haven't a clue now why I split it into two areas)
The tube in the centre of the photograph is a piece of plastic and the mast in the deck above slots nicely into it making the deck above much more stable.
For such a large model I determined that as my Pirates were all based on 20mm squares I needed sufficient space to get at least one crewman on either side of the cannon and one at the rear and I still had to leave a gap for another figure to get between the two rows of guns.

There are a lot of zombie firues that could easily pass as pirates, with or without a little filing and creative painting. Two out the five shown here are probably beyond redemption but the other three could be easily used. The chap wielding the spade originally had a road sign, which  didn't fit any USA sign I could find (it was to all intents upside down).

The steering wheel at the back was the only bit I bought specifically for this model from those very nice chaps Ian and Ron at Irregular miniatures (I think I bought several of these along with many of their pirates).
The railings are all bbq skewers for the uprights but the tops may well be garden canes.The steps/ladders are scraps of plastic.
This may be the biggest of the three ships I started on, but not by very much .
It has an overall length from back to front of about 24" ans the biggest mast in the middle is about 24".
The fighting/lookout platform has a lip around it to give figures a little more security from their inevitable accidental plunge to the table in play. I think about 5 figures could fit on it .

Above are some more zombies from the Zombiesmith horde set who to one degree or another could be utilised on board.

 Finally, a group shot of the Zombiesmith horde and the ship.

Argghh, we be zombies

Whilst I'm sure that out there are already many gamers playing Pirates versus Zombie games and there are probably a shed-load of figures too for suitable zombie pirate figures, but I'll not be looking for them.


That's it then for another week and as always your comments are welcome and much appreciated.

Last Leg ?

Well as intimated last week, I have finished another gang of zombies; they're mostly all Old Glory with some  very medieval-looking types, along with a few Mega Minis.
(The tractor in the background I picked up at Pound-land /world a while ago and like many of my vehicles I've done nothing to it)

Some of the more medieval looking types.
(Think of the zombie with the spear as having a branch lopper).
For those of you that think scythes are a great idea for an anti-zombie type weapon, think again, they're rubbish.



There are quite a few with weapons of various types too, with a lot of wicked DnD style daggers

On the left are a mix of Old Glory and MegaMinis.






 
The four guys on the left are MegaMinis, painted as SWAT types. Mr Hoppy on the end (whose only claim to fame is the inspiration for the title of this week's blog) may or may not be an OG (He could well be a Zombiesmith mini).

As a personal preference I do like my zombies to be whole, insomuch as having all their limbs and no great holes through them. If I want them without limbs, it's not that difficult a surgery to undertake.

So my paint table currently now looks like the photograph on the right and as you see there appears to be no difference to the last photo of it.
On the left is the next batch of zombies needing a little detailing and varnishing, the centre group are mostly civilians and the group on the right are the group featured last week though now they are undercoated and started on.

The "mystery" bag of figures  I mentioned last week, which may well be my next painting batch, though I still have two other zombie-related groups to consider - a hazmat team and clowns (gulp!), which may take precedence.Like a lot of others I suspect, I do of course have a lot more zombies I could paint -at least another 100 or so.

For those that were interested, here's a piccy of one of my half-finished pirate ships.
It's all scratch built and comes complete with spurious plastic bag (?). It's currently sitting high up on a shelf hence the odd photo angle.
It's also the smallest of three (but not by much), standing about 15" from table level to the top of the main mast, about 4" wide and about 21" from the blunt end to the pointy end's figurehead (a black pig). The back end bit lifts off to get to the deck below.
 
That's all for this week and once more let me say your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Guns and Gals

Here's a few more of the civilians from the last batch I painted (they're nothing special other than for the enormous size of the chap on the right) and they are all Wargames Foundry figures which I bought in one of the  many deals that Foundry have about a year or so ago. Below are some more Foundry figures, women this time all again armed to the teeth; two of them will make good survivors whilst the other two are very suitable for "suits".

Foundry have two other newish ranges that some of you may not have seen too: Tim Prows Victorians/Edwardians excellent for IHMS and his Street-Violence range that compliments Foundry's own Street Violence range.

I was very surprised that putting up a post of a boat I made many years ago would generate so much interest, considering it was never finished nor actually used. I may have to use this ruse of using old unfinished projects more often to fill those weeks where I have little to blog about ( and I've more ships too - Pirate ships and a Sudan-style gunboat ! - All unfinished of course)

The paint-table picture from two weeks ago featured the next batch of zombies that are now completed (some pictured above); they're mostly Old Glory but they may have a couple of other makers figures mixed in with them. The ones pictured are among the ones that look the least medieval.
Joining the paint-table production line are another batch of civilians all of whom require a re-check for mold lines etc. before their spray undercoat. I think they're all from Black Cat and there are only a few with guns.

Rather slim post this week, I know, but I was hit by nostalgia when I discovered a set of rules I'd written  in the 90's (I think) and the figures I'd bought for them. I noted that these were classed as "specials" and would cost 20p more making them 70p a figure; the same figure today costs £1.40 and they still don't look dated. Once I get my three current zombie-related batches of figures out of the way I may well get back to this long-lost project, so watch this space.

I was nominated for another bloggers award (which is nice) that is seemingly doing the rounds (along with many others I should add) by Shuby over at 28mmfromhell - go take a look.

That's it for this week other than to say that as always, your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Ahoy, Me Heart-eaties

This was going to be a normal post of "Here's the rubbish I slapped paint on last week", but two bloggers' recent posts  (Mongo's and Irqan's) had me dig out a ship-model I'd made years ago. I can't even remember what I made it for in the first place, though I suspect I may have been a bit bored. I was possibly working on a "Boxer Rebellion" project at the time, but it may also have been for an African Colonial skirmish game.
The hull is made from a polystyrene base covered in filler and smoothed out, whilst the upper superstructure is all card or cardboard.
The various frames (door, windows and hatch) are all made from matchsticks whilst the hatch itself is "plastic canvas". The paddles are probably lollypop sticks and all the decking is made up of tapers (old version of coffee stirrers).
From the pointy front end to the rounded back end is about 16".
Distance across the two paddle wheels is about 6", whilst the main deck is 3" wide for the most part and sits about 1" above the table.
The roof of the cabin does lift off too, to reveal its only internal detail, a ships wheel.
The gubbins at the front is a couple of cog-wheels and a bit of chain, representing something vaguely nautical.
The figures you see are recently finished zombies, two Mega-Minis and one Wargames Factory that had to be repainted.

I finished rebasing my Zombiesmith minis (see right) and found a couple of figures of unknown origin amongst them - very curious.
One is a female (possibly futuristic), the other a large guy with  a pistol that looks too big even for him.
As well as rebasing , I've also added to my paint tray another mixed batch of civilians, armed and unarmed and the occassional misplaced zombie.

The other batch of civilains, some of which I showed last time have now all been finished (as much as they're ever going to be),
Here's my take on the Devil's Rejects although they're not meant ot be a direct take off of the actual rejects.

Here's my  paint-tray currently:
Left hand group, zombies, nearly all finished; centre group mostly zombies, getting there; right hand group mostly civilians, just started.

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

Civilians

I've managed to get a few figures to the stage where I'm happy enough to say that they're good enough for the table-top.
These four on the right are all Foundry figures from their Street Violence ranges, as with all foundry figures they're on the large side, even for a "28mm" figure, but they'll fit in with most of the other figures I have nonetheless. I selected these four from the  group as they could all easily double as rioters too. There is an excellent ATZ-BDTZ scenario with a riotous mob and these will fit the bill nicely as agent-provocateurs.

The next three are all Mega-Minis, whilst I'm happy with the Postman, I'm not that happy with the two delivery type chaps. I've painted these two several times and I've all but given up on them, so they'll have to do as they are. (The blurry photo is not to hide the awful painting, but is merely a reflection of the camera-man's skills -zero.)

It will come as no surprise to most of you that all of these are described as "28mm scale", of course we all know that there is no such thing.
The chap on the left is a Foundry, beside him is a Hasslefree and the three others are Offensive Miniatures (hostages).  The OM's are the most accurately proportioned imo,  though the Hasslefree Kev is also equally well proportioned, for a small adult or a teenager. (The Foundry guy to 1/60th scale woiuld have a hand with knuckles about eight inches across ! - but I still like him)

Last for this week are three more Foundry  (I think) and the nightwatchman type bloke is a Hasslefree.
Nothing much can be said about these four other than the nightwatchman looks like a giant against the Hasslefree figure above and I find kneeling figures aren't as usable as standing figures except in a set-piece.

Having finished the troopers a while back,  I've made a start on the next batch of zombie. They're nearly all Old Glory (and look very medieval for the most part), but there are a couple of Mega Minis in the mix too. You may be able to see a young girl wielding a hockey stick (very vogue atm) and dragging a teddy bear/doll
 and behind her is a basebal wielding kid too - these are both Mega-minis.


As I've started on this group of zombies I also needed another group so that there is a continuity in my production; the group that I pried from their abominable slotta-bases have now all been rebased onto washers.
This group is mostly Zombiesmith miniatures (and very good they are too). There are about twenty zombies and three pairs of survivors and their zombie counterparts. There are also a couple of random figures in the mix which could well be some very cheap Sci-fi figures  I picked up from goodness knows where.

I'll finish by welcoming my latest follower "Belique"and that's that for another week, except to say that as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

This is a test text

On the Cards

Rather than show you what I've managed to paint up this week (they're still awaiting their varnish-aarrgghhh) I'm showing what I received in the post last week.
Those of you that follow Colgar6's blog will already know that he like to use cards in his games and has developed  some of his own. I ordered two sets of cards from Artscow in January one was another set of event cards for ATZ designed to compliment Colgar6's (I already have his original deck) but the other was Colgar6's deck designed to be used with the game "Full Thrust".
This new deck for ATZ was designed by "Spendlove" and whilst I haven't looked through all the deck yet they look pretty good. As in the first deck there is a mix of styles to the cards but mostly they use photographs.

The cards are sturdy and well finished, with a semi-gloss look to them.
I haven't a clue what font is used on them but they are easily read.
They are also what is known as a Poker sized deck which means that the cards are slightly wider than what we'd normally play cards with (they're called bridge cards), which does mean that quite a lot of readable print can be put onto a card.

In ATZ the most frequent occurrence of an "event" in game terms would be the equivalent of throwing a 6 on a d6 each turn, which given that ATZ games have maybe two dozen turns or so means that on average I only expect about 4 events each time I play. Now, with 108 cards in my event deck I doubt I see much repetition of cards for a long time.

As I mentioned above, I also bought Colgar6's  excellent deck of cards for "Full Thrust" a game using miniature space craft.
The cards are of the same  robust quality of the ATZ cards adorned with pictures mainly from Star Trek. Whilst I may not be a fan of Star trek, no others are more iconic perhaps that Kirk,  Spock, Bones etc.






I haven't been slacking from my Zombies either, I painted up two dozen or more civilians and made a great start on the next wad of Zombies that are mainly Old Glory figures.
The picture on the right however, shows the first ever figures that I based for this project. They are zombie-smith miniatures, now released from the hell that was their slotta base. In between painting this week I'm hoping to mount these on my preferred 20mm bases using either washers or pennies.

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