More Figs and some Transport

I need to pull everything out and get a good zombie game going again, but in the mean time, I've gotten some painting done.  First up are Rebel Minis' Modern Spies set.  Unfortunately, they are all the same pose and in this pic they look mostly to have the same paintjob, but I assure you they are individual.  I painted each one a different color, like they were trying out various colors for night camouflage.  There is, in no particular order (mainly 'cause I don't know which one's which), black, dark grey, dark blue, dark brown and a dark purple/plum. 

Next up, we have Rebel Minis' Gang Task Force.  These guys are in your basic olive-ish green with black equipment.

Finally, my government contractors/gray ops/black ops outfits have some new transportation - a black Ford Explorer (HO scale from River Point Minis) and a black MH-6 (QRF).  These boys get around!  Additional equipment installed in these vehicles is classified.  Sorry.

Sorry about the picture quality, they all have a reddish cast because of the dark red walls in the room, as you can see in the background.  Next time, I'll light them differently.

A Couple of New Figs

Rather than catching up, I'm falling farther behind.  I just have a couple of things to put up here today.  First up are Rebel Minis Irish Hitmen.  For the zed campaign, they are just more zombie hunters, but they might come in handy if I branch out some. 

Although I haven't been able to get a game in lately (hopefully later this week), for my birthday, my wife got me this rather amusing tome:

Although not as hilarious as the author bills himself, it is a fun book to pick up and browse from time to time.

I also have to note that the wife actually recorded Zombieland for me one day just on the whim that I might want to watch it.  Had I known it had Woody Harrelson in it before hand I probably wouldn't have, but I have to admit it was a reasonably decent film, although it has zombies running (!) in it.  Heresy, I say!

Until next time!

Alphabet Soup

You know.  FBI.  DEA.  ATF.  Pick an agency of your choice.  Here they are - Rebel Minis' Government Types.  I didn't paint any big yellow letters on the backs of their blue windbreakers, so they can be pretty much anyone - even the ZIA.  That's the Zombie Intelligence Agency, in case you didn't know. 

I just couldn't help but think Rosie O'Donnell when I saw the one second from the right in the second picture.  I could see the scene as if it was playing out in a movie:

"Sir, the zombies are gaining on us."

"Throw them Rosie.  That will keep them busy for a while.  They could feed off of her for days."

"Uh . . . Sir?  They only eat the brains."

"Oh, crap!  In that case, she won't slow them down at all!"

*     *     *     *     *

Hopefully I'll have the next game for you this coming week.  Things were a little crazy around here.  'Course, they're only going to get more crazy for a few days, but I should be able to squeeze in a game.

Heah Com' da Fuzz!

I got Rebel Minis pack of police officers and it comes with 22 officers in five poses.  Since the THW rules that I use work well with small groups, I divided the officers up into four groups of five and a group of two.  I couldn't really see a time when I would need much more than four or five officers since I also have the SWAT pack and I could always mix a local PD with a county sheriff's office if I needed more officers for a particular setting.  I then painted them up, each group with its own uniform.  Here you can see the five poses that come in the pack and the five uniforms I used - tan and brown, light blue/dark blue, all black, tan and green, and all tan.

These guys will be making appearances from time to time in the campaign.  And the next campaign adventure will be coming at you real soon!

Hands Up!

I got the Rebel Minis Hostages to do some police type games and for a couple of other ideas I had.  In the post-outbreak world, though, there are definitely some not-so-nice people.  Hostages might come in handy for a game or two so I'm putting them up here too.  Besides, I don't have anything else this week.  I've got my raw minis and paints packed to go home, and I'm packing my painted ones tonight (Tuesday).  I've got a roll of toilet paper, two rolls of Scotch tape and whatever old tv programs I can find on Hulu.

Unfortunately, they're a little dark as my desk lamp got packed for shipping today (Tuesday, in case you forgot).  But you get the idea.

Figured I'd get the post written up today and stored in memory since I'll be traveling all day on Friday and probably won't have time to do more than hit "PUBLISH POST" on Saturday.  BUT I should have an AAR for you next week!  At least I hope I will..

Odds'n'Sods

Unfortunately, I don't have much new this week.  When I looked at the picture of my innocents last week, it didn't look like I had done much with their faces.  I admit I don't do a lot of shading with cloths, but I put a beige wash on their skin to highlight eyes, nose, mouth, fingers, etc.  It didn't really come through in the photos so I gave them another wash.  Much better now. 

I did get some rioters throwing rocks and bottles and waving baseball bats painted up.  I have a pretty basic selection of colors and I didn't want to get into mixing a bunch of different colors, so they tend to be in variations of the same colors over and over.  Most of them are wearing hoodies, either alone or under trenchcoats - at least that's how I interpreted the sculpts as the trenchcoat figs have something hanging out of the coat around their necks.   

The baseball bat guys could be zombie hunters also, and might appear as such in action.  I will probably just use the guys throwing rocks and bottles as looters in some of the action, or 'unarmed' civilians who don't respond well to my heroes. 

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the first guy has a John Deere hat on and the second guy has a Cubs hat.  Saw the colors and couldn't resist.

In a discussion on The Miniatures Page, one of the guys brought up the idea of using medieval crossbowmen and archers in sci fi gaming.  It suddenly clicked that I could use them as modern zed hunters as well.  I don't think the clothing was too far out there to not be used like that.  I'll have to look at them again when I get home and see if I can use them as is or do a simple conversion to make them look more modern.  I might have just acquired a couple more zombie hunters!  If I'm stuck in CA, I will have to wait a while for them as I don't think my wife will be willing to brave my mountain of lead in the basement to dig out the couple of leftovers that I have from my Crusader/Norman army. 

Next up, hostages.  I'm in the midst of packing to go home, but I hope to squeeze in enough time to get them done before I go.  I don't know if I'll get a post in next week or not, so we'll see.

Please Welcome Global Security, Inc.

Executive protection and overthrowing small countries are our specialties, but we can handle any job you have for us.  No job is too big or too small.   Our professional soldiers . . . er . . . security specialists are trained and experienced in a wide variety of arms and combat situations.  If we can't do it, those weenies at Blackwater sure as heck can't, so don't even ask them! 

Here are a couple of examples of our executive protection/corporate field security teams.  Depending on the circumstances, we offer two man and four man teams with supervisors, and by grouping teams, we can create any size force you want to meet your needs.  Even with a zed outbreak in the works there are still Very Important People in the world who deserve better protection than the little people should expect. 

Two man team with supervisor

Four man team

I don't foresee a lot of use for these guys in the outbreak, but I'm sure they'll come in handy occasionally.  I have a couple more of them - might paint them up as more of a merc force.

Then we have the survivors.  Innocents.  Lunchmeat.  Whatever you want to call unarmed civilians, we need some of them too.  You never know when you will have to rescue a damsel in distress.  Or accept a bribe to save Congressman McTwit from his former-constituents-cum-zombies.  Heck, let them have him.  What good's money in the post-outbreak world anyway?  Save the damsel instead.

Good news.  I ordered the terrain to get going on my first zombie games.  Trees.  Can you believe it?  I've been miniature gaming for 10 years and don't have any trees.  Always played at a friend's house and used his trees.  Always bought minis instead of trees.  Now I'll have my own and be able to game at my place, too.  I'll be (temporarily) moving back to PA around the same time I'll be getting the trees so, although we're still looking at 2+ weeks, a game IS in the works.

Why Zombies?

Some friends have asked, 'Why zombies?'  OK, not in so many words, but that was kind of their meaning.  I've seen some of the classic zombie films like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead and enjoyed them, so it wasn't like I was getting into something I wouldn't enjoy.  To be honest, I'm not sure I've been bitten by the 'bug' either.  I sort of fell into zombie gaming.  I had a little free time on weekends and wanted to do some gaming, but I haven't been able to hook up with gamers here in town because of schedules and timing.  I wanted something simple, different, that I could game solo, and that I didn't need a zillion minis for since I didn't have time to paint that much.  I've been in school for the last 15 months 3000 miles from home, and my friends, family and minis are still back in PA and IL while I'm here in CA. 

I was actually looking at sci fi skirmish gaming with GZG figures and while poking around on the internet for rules, I checked out Chain Reaction 3.0, the free rules on Two Hour Wargames' website.  I liked the mechanisms in it and the fact that it could be played solo, and shortly after that someone on The Miniatures Page just happened to offer ATZ1 for sale at half price.  I jumped at it, reasoning that since I liked the game system and I knew you could play with just a handful of minis in addition to a bunch of zombies.  While researching figures for ATZ, I ended up at the Rebel Minis website and I haven't been the same since!  They have almost everything I needed.  In fact, one more order and I'll have everything I need for zombie gaming and more, since the figures have a lot of modern crossover potential like hostage situations, police reaction to bank robberies, active shooters, riots, etc..  Unfortunately, that last order will have to wait as I now need to get the terrain for the zombie games. 

In the meantime, I'll keep painting what I have.  For example, here's part of my Bioterror Reaction Team:

They are a government paramilitary organization that is so secret no one knows anything about them.  They follow their mandate to the 'T', but I can't divulge what it encompasses.  However, I can say that it does not include hunting down and killing zombies.  They leave that to the police, military and civilians to accomplish.  Congress keeps funding them because they each figure someone else knows who they are and what they do, and the name sounds pretty darn impressive when embedded in funding legislation.  "Why, I voted to continue funding the Bioterror Reaction Team," Congressman McTwit recently stated while defending his position to his constituents.  See - it does sound good, doesn't it?  We do know that the team only answers to one person.  Who that is, though, no one knows either.

And then there's the team of intrepid journalists in army surplus flak vests to keep them safe from all sorts of potential hazards: 

Everyone needs journalists to get the story, get in the way, be rescued or get munched by zombies.  My own opinion is that most journalists should be munched by zombies, but I'm sure somewhere along the way, my zombie hunters will end up rescuing this bunch.  The journalists are from QRF Models LTD. 

And here's my last two zombie hunters:

I particularly like the way the camo pants on the girl on the left turned out.  So there you have it.  Until next time.

SWAT Team and the Zombie Hunters Up Close and Personal

The SWAT team was actually the first set of Rebel Minis that I painted - they paint up fast since they're just black with a grey drybrush, flesh with a brown wash and hair in various shades with a highlight.  (I'm still working on getting the photography down as you can see.)

Some friends wanted to see close-ups of the zombie hunters so I reshot them with the macro setting.  I haven't named all of them, but some of them bear a resemblance to, or in other ways remind me of, real people.  So let me introduce you to my zombie hunters:

Tina, Jessy and Ahmed

The first one is Tina.  Tina is a sheriff's deputy in Louisiana with a military background.  I know she knows how to take care of herself and her friends.  Next we have Jessy.  Jessy is a great friend, former spec ops and a professional body builder who's been in Mr. Universe competitions.  He is also a martial artist extraordinaire.  Visiting the school I trained at, he accidentally broke my collar bone (yes, really).  He felt really bad about that, but was ecstatic when I was in his town on business and called him up to train with him.  Next we have Ahmed.  He resembles one of my teachers, who is from the Sudan.  So he had to be Ahmed.  Two notable quotes: "So this is '50 Cents' [sic].  I wondered who this '50 Cents' [sic] person was.  You call this music?" and "What do they export from Yemen?  Terrorists."   You have to imagine these being said with the appropriate accent. 

Bob, Rich and Emily

This is Bob.  Bob was an excellent ASL player, but he disappeared a long time ago and no one has seen or heard from him since, at least that I know of.  He used to have trouble traveling to Canada because one time when he flew up there he forgot he had a bag of weed in his pocket.  And they found it.  Then we have Rich.  Rich is also former spec ops who basically made military schools a way of life.  He was the most overtrained, overqualified person I've ever known in the civilian or military world.  Finally, we have Emily.  I dated Emily for a while years ago.  The real Emily wasn't as interesting or exciting as this Emily is.  Just made me think of her for some reason.

Hillbilly rednecks or street punks?

In some ways I want to call these three Billy Joe, Bobby Joe and Joe Joe.  Or Jim Bob, Joe Bob and Bob Bob (to distinguish him from Bob, of course).  But somehow I just don't see them as the hillbilly, redneck or backwoods types.  They seem more like just plain old street punks to me.  I also suspect that in action they'd be more like Moe, Larry and Curly if allowed to operate together.  Or maybe Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Meet the rest of the girls.

The girls are some of my favorites, but I don't have names for them.  I guess I'll have to work on that.  The first one might be Maggie.  Not sure.  I'll have to think about that.  I think the second from the left was supposed to be a native American guy with the loincloth, but I figured I'd just paint the figure up like a girl and I'd have a female with a shotgun.

My zombie racing stable for Dead Heat.

These are my favorite zombies.  They turned out just the way I wanted them.  If I only had one more, I could run a complete game of Dead Heat, the zombie racing game from Two Hour Wargames.  I'll have to pick one of the others just to fill in.

I hope to have the scenery I need to do my first zombie game in a couple of weeks, but timing will be tight as I will be moving in the middle of September so it may get put off for a few days.  I'd also like to use the Comic Life software to build my AARs.  I like the way they look and feel of them for this type of gaming.  So there's another few days purchasing and figuring out the package.

Before I forget, if any readers have a dedicated zombie blog, they'd like me to add to my blog list, drop me a comment. 

Zombie Hunters and Zombies

After working on them for months, I've finally finished my 15mm Rebel Minis zombie hunters and zombies.  Don't know when I'm going to get my first game in yet, though, as I don't have any scenery here!  Perhaps in a month or two.  In the meantime, I will be painting up various figures so check back occasionally to see what's up.  I can only promise that posts will be irregular, but that I will keep posting.

Most of my intrepid zombie hunters. 

Some zombies for them to hunt!

And more zombies!

I apologize for the poor photography.  I didn't realize that my camera had a macro until I was almost done taking the zombie pics.  I'll do better in the future.