Los Chicas

Having just arrived back from my short break I had to photograph these figures for this week's blog, rather than just having to press the publish button just before I left.
The photos were a bit rushed and the figures themselves hadn't been varnished so they do appear a bit shiny and bright.

The figures themselves came from Black Cat Bases, but are unfortunately no longer available on their web-site.






There were 6 different sets in the gangster range each of five figures and an animal (all but one were dogs) and this set compliments their male counterparts.


They're meant to represent some form of Hispanic gangers and I've painted them as such.
I've adopted a light blue as the main gang colour and it features  with the males too.

All the figures armed to varying one degrees,  pistols, pump action shotguns and a machine pistol all feature.

This figure was intended to have a machine pistol, which came as a separate piece (with attached hand) and would need gluing on.
being the spam-hands that I am, I of course, lost it.
It was replaced with a pistol and hand from one of the plastic survivour figures.
The gun itself is at a strange angle (as is the rest of the figure) .

With their somewhat limited firepower they will of course be usable as typical street-gang types at the start of the apocalypse  ans either as survivours post apocalypse and they will of course also make excellent gangers to oppose survivours too.

This is another one of those figures that have been affected by Hollywood stereotypes,  that of the shooter with two pistols. Luckily they are at least down by her sides and not in that other seemingly favourite position of sculpters with one of the pistols over her head !
Anyone who has handled guns will soon realise their weight and the impracticality of wielding two of them, let alone having one of them raised over your head for no apparent reason.

There was quite a bit of flash and mold-lines on these, some of which I didn't spot until after priming and some not until I'd started painting them. There are some great bit of detail on the models though, bracelets watches, necklaces and such, which I find a pain to paint.



Next week I'll be showing you the male counterparts Los Chicos, (though they were actually called something like The Nortenos when I bought them).
With these completed (except for varnishing) that leaves just another eleven figures on my painting tray to blog about over the next two weeks, by which time I'm hoping to have finished the two doll houses I've been working on.

That's it then for this week except of course to welcome my latest follower Toni Morey who makes both 1/35 scale and 28mm survivours.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Protestors

Mixed in with a few armed and unarmed civilians, we'll have a riot

 These have come about because I received a partially complete box of the Wargames Factory survivours and couldn't face having yet more armed civilians.
I've made these figures up from various plastics that I have, namely the Wargmes Factory Surviours (men) and the WF male zombies, though there is a single head from the female vixen's sprue (the girl).



It will be noticeable no doubt that there are no women in the ranks of this protest, but if I ever come across a sprue of the female survivouors, I will no doubt add to the masses.

Moe, Larry and Curly

 So in batches of three, here's a few close-ups as I know you'll be more interested in reading the signs than looking at my painting efforts.
Just in case you can't read the sign on the right it says "LEGALIZE MARIJUANA. Quickly before they search my Fanny pack!"

Obligatory boring rear view.

Winken, Blinken and Nod (solicitors)

There not that many of them armed with anything more than an improvised melee weapon, but I'm sure the 2 x 2s of the placards can be quite effective.
The right hand sign has the word "I'd" covered by the central sign making it read "I'd make my car...etc."

Rear view (obviously)

Two and a half men (not soliciting)

The signs themselves were all taken from the actual protests on the Interweb and photoshopped to a usable size.
They were glued onto some thin card and the back were given a quick wash of paint in an attempt to mask the card.

The 'boy' has a head from the vixens box !

Chico, Harpo and Groucho

The rough looking 2 x 2s for the signs were filed down matchsticks (into a rough paddle shape for easy of gluing the sign onto).
They were cut to size after the signs were allocated to them.

No coffee stirrers were used in this production

Hank, Bruce and Brian

Gluing the wood matchsticks to the plastic figures was a real pain, as was finding sufficient left or right hands that didn't already have weapon in them.
As these were plastic figures I cut my own very thin plastic bases for them, for ease of gluing, rather than the normal washers I use.

Note the "lack of detail" painting technique I used

There are scenarios for mobs in ATZ (Haven) and mixed in with a few rioters (molotovs, etc) these will at least help 'bulk' them out.











That's it for this week, as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated, but as I'm away on holiday for a few days responses to any comments may be delayed until I find internet access.

Octzomber

OK I'm, not officially taking part in Zombtober, but coincidentally I was about to start on my next batch of figures, that included these eight zombies. They're are all plastics and are made from a mix of manufacturers' bits and pieces. I'm sure those of you who own any of the plastic zombie figures will be able to recognise their origins.

1st three front

All the bodies I've used are from Mantic zombies (the fantasy ones I believe) and the legs from mostly Wargames Factory zombie sets, though I have included one set of Mantic zombie legs on the female zombie.
It's nothing new of course, I've seen others do similar Frankenstein monsters from different kits.

1st three, boring back view

2nd batch

The heads were an assortment of Wargames Factory, Mantic and Studio Minis, with the single female's head from the W.F. Vixens set.

2nd batch rear view

They do vary in quality and size quite a bit and do look a bit strange on the 'wrong' torsos (as indeed do some of the torsos on the 'wrong' legs).









The final two both look a bit strange for many reasons, (not just the bad photograph).
The left hand zed just looks too animated for me, but it's probably due to the legs I've put him on (the mantic legs are all more squat-like).
The female, well, talking about squatting...

Still it's another eight zombies to add to my ever growing horde, bringing it close to about two hundred now, maybe I should take a head count ?



I'll take this opportunity to welcome my latest follower, Blaxkleric, whose blog Fantorical is well worth a look.
On the subject of blogs, I apologise if you have anything other than a straight-forward comment  box on your blog (atom, google+ etc), I'm very much a technophobe - I'm even reticent about replying when there is a 'captcha' request.
That's it then for this week except to say that as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

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.

Transporter

It must be a truck -it has it written on the side !

I haven't really got much to post about this week for like many others I suspect, I have quite a few projects going on and none finished.
However in one of my recent shopping trips to Poundlandworld (for glue) I came across this transporter, complete with some sort  of bladed tractor.
It may not fill many of you with excitement, but at the very least it is another two cheap vehicles to add to my burgeoning collection.
It's not that far out in scale as far as I can tell, though it is difficult as trucks and tractors can come in all shapes and sizes.
For a £1 though who can complain ? 

Sid alongside for scale comparison

Like many similar models the rear "arm", with shovel is very maneuverable and likewise the  front blade can be elevated somewhat.

Sid alongside for scale

 I can now field quite a large fleet of "corporation" construction-type vehicles (I don't know what the American equivalent is)

In other news, it is seemingly "Zomtober" yet again, wherein bloggers pledge to complete a survivour or Zombie by each Sunday during October. I won't be taking part in this but coincidentally I have started to load up my paint-tray/table with my next batch of figures for my zombie project.
They have been started upon in the last week or so and I guess they will be finished by the end of October, though two of my favourites will be completed very soon.
They are mostly plastics, a combination of Wargame Factory (zombies, male survivours and vixens) with some mantic Zombies parts along with sixteen metal Black-Cat gangstas and Bikers; there is also a military general type whose provenance is unknown (a present from #1 son).

That's it for this week except to give a plug to Stoetzel's (the maker of probably the finest card-models currently available) new forum Stoelzels Structures to replace his previous forum. Photographs of his line of models can be found at Wargame Vault including his free abandoned warehouse.

All that remains to be said is that as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Ammu-Nation

Ammu-Nation

Many of you will no doubt recognise what this model is from the name alone, but just to make things clear this is my rendition of a gun-shop.
It's a card build, built from a WorldWorksGames'  product, namely the old "Mayhem Armoury" set which incorporated three distinct pieces, a shop, a garage and an apartment. I've used all three elements of the original set for this model.

Front

 Unfortunately when they changed their system they also made three sets from the original one, so it's no longer available.
The sign at the front is obviously not part of the original model, but I didn't like either of the ones that were offered,  "Mayhem Armoury" and "Bob's Bullets" were both to bland for my liking and already in use my many others. The notice is backed in a very thin card but is reinforced by coffee stirrers and some thicker craft sticks for support.

The sign on the corner where Bob is standing doesn't come with the set and is one of the many random signs that I've gleaned from the net over the last two or so years.
I've used this sign before, in my construction site build, and I've also used many more random signs throughout this model.

Side wall

Onto the clockwise tour around the outside of the building; the second wall was looking a bit dull so I added another Ammu-Nation sign

Rear wall

The rear of the building has graffiti from the standard wall set and whilst I could have easily removed it from the print with a bit of photo-shopping I thought it looked OK and left it.

rear door

The door by Bob however was a different matter and I added a poster, which I thought fitting for the shop.

It's obviously a new sign as it hasn't been graffiti-ed yet !
(In case you can't read it, it says "Never mind the dog, Beware of Owner"

I left the already present graffiti on the door by choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other (boring) side

The roof  - who'd have thought ?

The roof was entirely scratch-built from card and 5mm foam-board.
I've used 5mm foam-board for all the walls throughout this model. The side walls are thicker card glued onto the outside walls and are little deeper than the edges of the roof so that the roof sits onto the model and overlaps slightly,
The roof itself is also foam-board and it too sits inside the building.
I sprayed the roof black and sprinkled a bit of sand on top to give it texture before painting it.
The top of the wall surrounding the roof was first covered in a very thin card (about cereal packet thickness) an the entire roof walls were covered in wall filler before painting and "dirty-ing"  with a dark wash.

The shop bit from above

This top-down view of the shop shows its general layout.
The stairs are made from scrap foam-card and an additional wall was printed and cut to size.
originally there was going to be no alcove under the stairs but the positioning of the door into the garage dictated that I had to have one.
The front of the shop is at the bottom of the photograph, in case you're wondering (but I'm guessing you're not)

Boring back door

Some internal shots, showing signs I've added by the back door. (left), two shelving units I made from the single double-sided one provided, above which is a knife display and lastly one of the two gun display cases provided (below)

Equally boring shelves

Another view (yawn)

The counter was provided by one of the doll's houses I bought and I've added two signs that can be seen in this view. One is a Winchester Rifles signs behind Sid and the other is the sign in the top right (it reads "due to the increased price of Ammunition, no warning shot will be fired)

Overhead view of the garage

The "garage" was meant more as a storage place than as an actual garage, but I did leave enough room to get a vehicle in before I stuffed it with all manner of crap.

Entrance from shop to garage

The photograph below shows the back wall and entrance from the shop .
I've added some posters from various sources other the the set itself.
The boxes are from Ebbles (I think) which I printed off a couple of years ago.




I'm very aware when making buildings of being able to get figures into them, so I tend to have gaps sufficient to allow room for figures to stand.
The boxes of course were placed strategically too, to provide cover.

Corner opposite the shop door

The storage shelves almost certainly came from Ebbles and the oil barrels were a recent addition to my scenic bits supply.
In the corner are some garbage bags from my stock as well as some newspapers which I like to add to models too.
I added a toolbox from goodness knows where and one of the myriad of books I made sits on top of it.

Front corner.

The other corner (fairly boring)

The final corner of the garage is more or less as standard, with just a couple of newspapers I've added on.
The apparent "orangey" square in the centre of the garage floor is a trick of the light (and not due to poor photography - no sirree), it is actually the same colour as the "surrounding" grey-with oil stains floor.






So  swiftly moving on upstairs.

General view

Sid risking life and limb

Continuing with the tour to the first floor (second if you're American), here's Sid standing over the very dangerous stairwell, wondering where the protecting rail is. (Little does he know I forgot about it and had ran out of glue anyway by the time I had realised)
Nothing really interesting here though I did add the welcome mat.

The sitting/living room below shows some of the doll house furniture along with my scratch-built sofa and a couple of extras.

The mess never ends

The other end of the room showing two bits from the doll house  and my home-built chairs, whilst the book was my addition, the newspaper and carpet were integral to the flooring whilst the TV came with the model.










Through the open doorway (I was sick of doors by this stage) is the kitchen, my only addition here being the pizza (left).

Kitchen

Still the kitchen

The various other kitcheny stuff came from sources I've already mentioned.
At the other end the "Fat Dragon" table has a microwave on it. and my own additions of a newspaper (again) and some rubbish bags. The bench seat is deliberately placed askew to allow a figure access to the window.

Unremarkable Bedroom #1

 The first bedroom, nothing remarkable to see, I've added a picture to the wall and my own scratch-built bed.

Unremarkable Bedroom #2

The second bedroom has had a single bit of furniture added from the doll's house with one of my bonks for good measure (in case you hadn't noticed them yet) and another scratch-built bed (from stock). The pictures were also my  additions.

Finally two view of the smallest room utilising the Doll house bits again and with no added bits of my own (for a change - no wonder Sid looks confused.)


That's the five cent tour complete now and whilst this model is no great shakes in comparison to others that I've seen, at least (and at last) I have a gun-shop ! The windows are all see-through and the doors do open, (even though the garage door is merely a "plug" in door) and I'm happy enough that it's usable enough for my purposes. Its footprint is about 7" x 14" (175mm x 350mm) and it's about 8" tall (200mm) to the top of the parapet.
It didn't really take that long to build but did take up a lot of print - about 12 sheets of A3 !

That's it then for this week except of course to say that as always your comments are as ever both welcomed and appreciated.