Tooth and Nail

Two of my fellow bloggers, Fran and Ray are participating in Broadside  2012 along with their fellow Rejects (the name of their group), but the organisers of said show have hit a snag.

It seems that certain magazines have let them down and failed to put the advertisements for the show into print in time for the show. When I attended a wargames group in Durham many years ago we had similar problems, so I know how frustrating it is.

The cry went out for help in advertising the show and although I doubt gettting the message out to my thirty or so followers (and any others that peruse m,y page) will have any effect, at least I can say I tried.

If you have been watching my blog page closely you will have gathered that I don't change my "Currently Reading" sidebar that often and there's a good reason why that is.

Zombie novels rarely "grip" me and generally speaking I'm not that into reading novels (of any genre); however there have been occassions when I've been truly surprised and engrossed by a book.

I think the last zombie novel that had a similar effect on me was probably "Feed" by Mira Grant, a book that I couldn't put down and didn't want to end.

"Tooth and Nail"  by Craig DiLouie had a similar effect on me, I read a couple of the initial chapters (setting the scene, introducing the main characters etc.) and my initial thoughts were that "This is promising".

Once I got through the fairly brief initial part of the book the pace of the story seemed to quicken and with each new element introduced the need to find out what happens next increased.

Now normally I'll read a chapter or two of a novel, leave it for a while and come back to it, but with this book I really couldn't.  I'd read the inital couple of chapters or so in two days and the rest of the book in a day, I'd found it that engrossing.

The story of how the apocalypse itself came about is not particularly original, but the background detail is believable, as are the characters.  All the action takes place in New York, on Manhattan island and the author's style of writing creates the huge metropolis and the inherent problems it creates during the crisis.

"Tooth and Nail" doesn't suffer from the pitfalls that many other zombie novels do, that of poor editing, proof reading and such (which at best can detract from a read and at worst really destroy it).

As such this book rates highly on my list as one of the best novels I've read and I don't hesitate to recommend it - Its definitely a 5/5 !

In other news, I haven't been slack on the painting front either with another dozen figures finished and a similar number almost completed, but they will have to wait until next week  !


Thanks, once more for looking; all comments are of course welcome and appreciated.

Finally to any new followers that I haven't already welcomed  - "Welcome !"

Survivors

Before I start on the subject matter of this week's blog let me just say a big thank you to all those that have decided to follow my blog and especially to those that comment upon the content, it truly is appreciated. When I started blogging some four months ago I didn't think I'd get more than a dozen followers, but it is very gratifying to have so many in so short a time.
I do try and update my links and other pages as often as I can remember to do so and to this end I'll direct you to the Film/DVD page (click the tab at the top of the page) as I've added a few more comments on what I've viewed lately.
My reading matter lately has been concentrated on the All Things Zombie rules and trying to keep up with all the blogs I try and follow (you'll have to look at my profile for a full list), but for a change of pace I've started to read the novel "Tooth and Nail" by Craig DiLouie. Although I'm not that far into it yet, it's got off to a very promising start and an interesting easy read. 

Well, I'm pleased to say that I've managed to finish off my first survivors, they're a mix of  "Offensive Miniatures", ""Cold Wars" and "Hasselfree".

These three on the right are from "Offensive Minis" Near Future range and are three of their terrorists.

I think that these are really well proportioned figures and are quite animated.

Whilst they may have started out life labelled as terrorists they are destined to become survivors in my zombie apocalypse and I think they fit the bill admirably.

The three girls are also from the same set as above and are as equally well sculpted and animated.

They are also as lightly armed as the men.
The men have two pump-action shotguns, a pistol and a radio !), whilst the girls have a pump-action shotgun, paired pistols and what appears to be an UZI and holdall, with not a hand-bag in sight !

Two of these figures, I believe, are bonus figures (I don't know which two), if you buy the entire hostage set

The final three figure this week are from "Hasselfree" (Gramps, on the left) and "Cold Wars".

There is a good reason why the woman appears so tall, it's because she is and she doesn't just tower over these guys either, but she does fit in overall.

My attempts at a check shirt and plaid jacket aren't that good, I know, but they look OK at arms length (if you squint, and have low lighting) and pass my "can you tell what they are at 2 foot" test.

Needless to say if my photography is getting any better, it's not noticeable.


Thanks for looking, all comments are of course welcomed and appreciated and If I haven't already welcomed you,  then - "Welcome"

Bits & Pieces

As reported by Brian (Vampifan) in his monthly musings last month, we did indeed meet up in Newcastle City Centre to spend a very pleasant lunch and tea, interspersed with some shopping.

Much to my delight and embarrassment he gave me  a present of  a "mystery machine", a model from Armor Cast in the USA : 
http://armorcast.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1510

 Its probably not to be confused to be confused with the "Mystery Machine" of a certain children's cartoon series as it's labelled "Clue Contraption Hippie Van".

 The photographs really do not do it justice; it really is a superb model.

What is more remarkable about this gift and what left me truly gobsmacked, was that Bryan had also painted it for me. 

Other than the two side panel signs which I believe were done by magic (or possibly photoshop) the rest is a Vampifan special paintjob!

Now all that remains to be done is to collect the "crew" for it and whad'ya know there is an all-ready- made gang available from "Hasselfree" :
http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=gang-and-dog~hfn016&category=miniatures~non%252dcoms-%26-civilians
Obviously this is not the gang from the cartoon series (for one thing, their names are different), but they'll obviously do the job.  Hasselfree are also in the process of duplicating the "Not the gang" figures as armed survivors of some horrific apocalypse or other.

 Just to show that I haven't been idle with my own painting, here is another attempt at the Lead Mountain. These are all "MegaMinis", mostly civilians, but there are some zombies amongst them - those civilians that have a "zombie double".
Probably most easily spotted are the two figures in red to the top left of the screen (even though the zombie one is slightly cut off. There are also a civilian delivery-type guy and his zombie duplicate to the front left of the mass - (they appear very yellow).


 Also on my work-in-progress (sub-division painting section) are this little group of figures.

Amongst these figures are Hasselfree, Black Cat Bases, MegaMinis, Offensive Miniatures, Cold War and a plastic Zombie from you know who.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will also spot the five figures that make up the "Devils Rejects".


Again apologies for my lack of any but the basic photography skills; I was trying to show the compatability of "Offensive Miniatures" with other Manufacturers, but that can wait for another day.

 That's it for this week, once I get this little lot finished off it'll be back to building offices, shops and homes for the zombie horde to destroy.


Thanks for taking a look, all comments are of course welcome and if I haven't already welcomed you to my blog-site  then "Welcome", stay a while and don't be shy, for as we say here in God's Country "Shy bairns get nowt !"

SWAT

Finished at last, with only one disaster involving varnish; the photographs are of course up to my usual low standard !

All these figures are all from "Offensive Miniatures": http://www.offensiveminiatures.com/
from their "Near Future" range.  I can't really comment on the customer service as I bought them off e-bay (at half price).

The first Photo shows what I assume to be the Command Team (as they're not wearing helmets), but they are missing one other who appears in a later photo.

Sniper, plus observer (female !)

There are two packs available, both with eight SWAT guys , but should you buy "the deal" of both SWAT teams and the Terrorists (consisiting of 5 terrorists and 3 hostages) then you get an extra  two SWAT figures thrown in. 

The chap I bought them from on e-bay had obviously done this, as I had the extra two figures when they arrived (plus an extra two terrorists!)

I would say that all but one of the terrorists in "the deal" are ideally suited as suvivors for a zombie campaign.

This  photograph shows another three members of the team, the middle guy holds the thing for bashing in doors (I haven't a clue what it's really called) and it's possible that the left most figure is one of the "freebies", but don't quote me on it.

From "Offensive Minis" web site the figures appear to be very diminuative, but this is an illusion caused, I suspect, from their fine sculpted proportions.  They really do fit in well with other miniiatures, from various manufacturers; on the web site gallery there is a comparison of figure sizes too. 

Three squaddies, only slightly out of focus !

All the figures in this set are armed identically, (for the most part) with a side-arm and what looks to me like an MP5, but I'm willing to stand corrected!

Some of the officer/negotiator types have only the sidearm, whilt the sniper has a sniper's rifle (surprisingly enough), though I couldn't possible  tell you what it would be, but I can tell that it's a sniper rifle because it has a telescopic sight !(The sum of my modern sniping knowledge has now been passed on).

Final squaddies, no idea what the third from left is holding.

As can been seen from the photgraphs, headgear is fairly varied; though the standard Kevlar helmet is much in evidence, there are also gas-masks and caps present, and the female observer is without headgear, as are one or two others.

There is a large amount of detail on the figures, which is great if you enjoy that sort of thing (I don't), but I refuse to even try to put the lettering of "POLICE" on the panel allowed for on the figures (approximately 4.5mm x 1.5mm), even "SWAT", attractive as it may seem with two less letters is well beyond my capabilities.  Should I ever get around to it, I may well copy "Lucky Joes" excellent SWAT teams and his use of transfer lettering, after all we can't all be Vampifan with his superhuman eyesight !

This photo shows the building I've used as a backdrop .

I've had this building for maybe 20 years now and I haven't a clue about where it came from, who  made it or anything else about it!

The building is made from very thin card and was probably assembled by me, (though I can't remember doing that either) and to the best of my memory I've  never used it on a wargames table

   Finally a group shot of the whole ensemble.
I was initially undecided as to what colour scheme to go with; blue would clash with (though possibly also compliment) the police, ditto green and the army.  So I settled on this bluey, green grey, which coincidentally is the colour scheme used by the SWAT types on the TV program "Flashpoint"

"Offensive Minis" also do a great bunch of rioters and riot police too, available as two seperate deals or one big deal, with the added incentive of a free news crew (something I haven't got - yet), I'll have to wait a while to get those though as I'm not buying any more figures until my current lead mountain becomes a hillock !

That's all for now, comments, as always, are welcomed and appreciated.

If you're new to my blog and I haven't already welcomed you, then "Welcome".

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 !”