Sunday 9 October 2016

Where are you, you spongy, yellow, delicious b@st@rds?

Zomtober 2016 - post#3
With two zombies to the good already, I thought it was time to even up the sides with a couple of survivors. Memphis & Ohio, from ‘Studio Miniatures’ would surely make wonderful proxies for Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson and Columbus, Jesse Eisenberg, both from the hugely enjoyable Zombieland. I have touched on this little gem of zombie movie in a previous post, 'So do you have any regrets?' and so it was inevitable that these two characters would eventually see the brush.
Both perfectly serviceable sculpts, although the shotgun toting Ohio feels a little awkward in his stance, which I suppose does reflect his film version's character.  The dual Uzi wielding Memphis is much more substantial miniature and when it came to painting, I simply referenced the film for the colour palette, although felt that Tallahassee's snakeskin jacket was a little beyond my abilities.   
Whilst preparing and painting these two it was inevitable that my mind would wonder to their respective scenes in the film and for some reason I became fixated with Tallahassee's search for Twinkies.  Now I was familiar with this particular brand of American confectionary from other celluloid outings, Die Hard and Ghostbusters to name but two, but had never tried one myself - so began my own search for the last Twinkie!  As luck would have it, I didn't need to battle the legions of undead as a very nice man dropped of a box with our next grocery delivery - God bless online supermarket shopping!
Now I have to tell you that these are strangely addictive, in a ghastly sort of way; cloying sponge cake filled with a synthetic cream, what's not to like?  So before the last Twinkie vanished from 'Awdry Towers' I managed to gather together my other 'not' Zombieland characters for a quick photoshoot, not that I needed an excuse to get the toys out! 

68 comments:

  1. Great film and love the minis, is that a zombified Bill Murray in there too?

    ReplyDelete
  2. They look great!

    And on the Twinkie front, I have a hot tip from my American mother-in-law: freeze them - the cream becomes like an ice-cream, and the cake seems to get sweeter and denser!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well I shall just have to get some more now to try that out, many thanks!

      Delete
  3. Great brush work on those lovely figures. That clown hiding at the back looks a bit scary. Top stuff sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Dan, the clown was also painted to represent a character from the film.

      Delete
  4. Great figs, pigging awful cakes, and I know a lot about cakes - I used to be Mr Kipling (really)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Kipling, now we shall definitely need to hear more about that Martin.

      Delete
  5. Lovely work Michael - Great additions to your Hunters!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Awkward pose or not Ohio is a cool fig!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Excellent taking research to a new level ......I will order some powdered egg 😀

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Matt, any excuse to eat things I shouldn't.

      Delete
  8. Great looking figures and the cakes are fun especially if you need a sugar rush!

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely figs...less keen on Twinkies, I have to say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Gordon and you are right the novelty soon wheres off.

      Delete
  10. Oh well...those Twinkies are one of worse memories of my trip to Canada. I really don't get what people do like on them?
    Nevertheless your survivors have come out absolutely excellent!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry to have brought back such painful memories Nick! ;)

      Delete
  11. Great figs and movie Michael, Twinkies were really a thing from my childhood d, in as much as the adverts were in Marvel comics all the time but I never tasted one till a couple of years ago when the new B&M opened near us, I loved them to start with but soon got sick of them, oh well as they say you should never meet your heroes.

    Cheers Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh you are so right Roger, I struggled to finish the box - well in the same sitting anyway!

      Delete
  12. Great looking minis, Michael :D Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  13. The shots with the twinkies are great! Haven't had one since I was kid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Brian, the were certainly an interesting experience.

      Delete
  14. I last had a Twinkie about six or seven years ago. That was the first that I had eaten since childhood, call it twenty-five years prior to that. It was delicious. I tried another one about two months later and... the magic was gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is fleeting that Twinkie love, but at least I can say that I have now tried one, or ten!

      Delete
  15. Nice painting m'Lord but I don't know about those Twinkies :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Tamsin, they are certainly not for everyone.

      Delete
  16. Fantastic work once again! You're really great!

    ReplyDelete
  17. You're going to have to do Wichita and Little Rock too now. Lovely work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that thought had crossed my mind, there was even a good Wichita Zombicide model, but sadly I didn't back season 1.

      Delete
  18. Excellent work, I really rather like the finish on Memphis.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I may know someone who sells Twinkies in the UK. I'll check for you.

    Great additions to the zombie/ survivor project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Clint, I found that I could actually get them through Ocado of all places.

      Delete
  20. Great figures, sir! Twinkies... I've been over here quite a while now but have never tried one of those. My wife, bless her, warned me off them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is clearly a sensible woman your wife, they are about as synthetic as you can get, but strangely moreish!

      Delete
  21. Nice work, Michael. Seems the audience is divided on the Twinkies issue - I would agree that they are strangely addictive, even though you know from the first bite that this is the pinnacle of artificial food.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Jez and I couldn't agree more about the Twinkies, so wrong, but so tempting.

      Delete
  22. Both minis look very nicely as usual painted Michael. Kudos. :)

    I want Twinkies now - I have never tasted them either. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, as for the Twinkies, they are very strange. After the first bite, I thought that I would throw it away unfinished, but somehow the contents of the box disappeared within a week!

      Delete
  23. Fantastic entry for week 2 of Zomtober. I do love Zombieland for me it captures everything that is good about the genre. Zombies, Funny deaths and crazy gun toting badasses

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Simon and I couldn't agree more, there was a sense that it wasn't taking itself too seriously and was all the better for it.

      Delete
  24. You are the best zombie painter on the internet. The Twinkie box is brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  25. HAHA Michael, that whole Twinkie bit, had me thinking about the ode to the Haggis. Though I've had many a twinkie in the past, I am still anticipating an opportunity to enjoy some Haggis. Another fine pair of well painted miniatures to add to the pool!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Two great looking survivors, Michael.

    I once found myself defending peanut butter on a forum with a large UK contingent. Twinkies won't get any such help from me. They're pretty bad.

    ReplyDelete
  27. The Twinkies box to this to a HNL.

    'Hole
    'Nother
    Levol!

    Nice work

    ReplyDelete
  28. Splendid!
    And these Twinkies turned out as an excellent background. :)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Very nice! While I am not into gaming zombies, I do like Zombieland a lot, these figures are pretty close to the characters at that!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Nice work Michael! Glad to see you are building up a team of survivors to end the zombie menace and make the world safe for eating Twinkies once again!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Very cool. Love your zombie stuff. Also congratulations on discovering twinkies. They are indeed a sort of yin yang of disgusting and wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hmm, having eaten 1 Twinkie (like you, just to see what all the fuss was about), I don't think I'll ever want another one. I cannot imagine how you could bring yourself to finish a box of 10 :-) . Leave them for Tallahassee!

    ReplyDelete
  33. What a terrific project! Those Twinkies look - well - very sugary! Hope they taste good. I love the "Zombieland" figures. I really like the film. But hang on - where Wichita???

    ReplyDelete
  34. Terrific brushwork Sir M, unlike the Twinkies, I had a taste a few years ago....yuck!

    ReplyDelete
  35. That's quite the group of miniatures, there. Nice work all round.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Ugh... but Twinkies are rotten and foul.

    But your minis are bloody lovely. Zombieland is a very fun flick indeed - isn't there supposed to be a series coming out based on it?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Hah! Now that's a cool backdrop. I never had me no twinkies. Never ever. Some local copy cats, yes but not the originals. I digress ... great paint job sir!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...