The Fourth Form!

Introducing the all but feral members of my St. Trinians' 'Fourth Form'!  The cast list for my planned '7ombieTV' episode calls for the inclusion of at least one member of the lower school and these fabulous additions from 'Hasslefree Miniatures' seemed to fit the bill perfectly. 

'Hasslefree's' Katie needed little conversion, other than pinning her to the chosen base, and seemed to fit the description of these unstoppable urchins perfectly armed, as she is, with a rounders bat and dustbin lid shield.  Rose, however was to pose another question.

  This wonderfully bizarre, gas mask wearing miniature is so tiny, but lacks little with regards to the quality of the sculpting and detail - that Kev White is a very talented chap!  What she did lack, however was any form of armament and I was really worried about setting about her with my scalpel, what to do? In the end I went for a totally improbable sledgehammer, the ridiculousness of the weapon in comparison to the fragile frame seemed to fit with my interpretation of the rule set.

Using my smallest drill bit and a paperclip, Rose was 'tooled up' with an off cut from another miniature - more of which later.

The final miniature, another fine 'Hasslefree' sculpt, is the rock chick, Alyx, perhaps not as comfortable a fit for the 'Fourth Form' stereotype she does rather match the cast list details for 'Violent' Elizabeth.  To quote directly from my copy of 'Crooked Dice's' For Ghouls and Colleges supplement:

This precocious horror was destined for stardom before the outbreak cut short a promising career on stage and film. This loss has left the poor love in a terrible state, but she is able to focus her rage and formidable set of lungs to provide an excellent early warning system for the school. Elizabeth has developed an odd fondness for the feral Fourth Formers, and they seem to allow her to lead them.

Rock and Roll!

Matching the blues of the uniforms and continuing with the gymnasium themed basing the girls are stating to form a formidable looking unit - even if I do say so myself, but what next?  Well there are some more 'Sixth Formers' in the queue, but more pressingly is the need for some terrain pieces including trees, barricades and even the school bus!  All of which I hope to complete of the next month and a half.

Here come the Girls!

After what seems like an age, I am delighted to reveal the first members of my 'St. Trinians' zombie hunters!  In order to get the team underway there had to be some serious decision making with regards to uniform, basing and even names.   It seemed the best way to do this was to start with a couple of miniatures that didn't require any conversion and the obvious choices had to be Misty, the Zombie Hunter from 'Crooked Dice' and 'Fantascape's' Zeta the Zombie Slayer.

Both these miniatures were great fun to work with and having decided to go for a 'St. Trinians' look, painted up rather easily; Misty (who is now known as Nikki) causing some concern as I tried to figure out how to paint tights!  Although both great sculpts there is a concern with the scale of the 'Zeta' figure, not to put it too finely, she is a giant of a lady and wielding the style of stick my Grandfather would have been more akin to using.  Still as Hockey Captain, I think I can get away with it!

I knew I wanted to link the girls by something other than just the uniform, if for no other reason than the possible addition of staff members later on that obviously wouldn't be as identifiable by what they were wearing.  In the end I decided to do this with the basing and using some precast floorboards from 'Fenris Games' tried to sell the illusion of the school gymnasium with its confusing array of multicoloured lines.

On the whole, I'm pretty pleased with these tentative first steps and now have to turn my attention to the Fourth Form that are proving a tad unruly on the painting table!

28mm 'not' Michonne

Still buoyed with the news that my copy of the third series of the 'Walking Dead' is but a month or two away from been delivered to 'Awdry Towers' it seemed churlish not to get this second set done having completed the 'Post Apocalyptic Family', earlier in the week. 

As with the previous set, 'Michelle – Human Survivor' is a loosely veiled incarnation of Michonne, a character from  the 'Walking Dead' and comes complete with a couple of pets!  It will not surprise many to hear that the sculpts are good and clean with very little flesh as seems to be the norm with the wonderful work from 'Studio Miniatures'. 

Michonne appears very briefly at the end of the second series as Andrea, seemingly surrounded and out of ammunition awaits her fate in the woods following the chaotic escape from Hershel's farm - this of course will mean very little to anyone who hasn't seen the program!  Drawing my reference directly from the program has been problematic this time as even a cursory 'google' search  has the potential to contain spoilers for the third series, but it would appear that our katana wielding heroine maintains her grisly companions as a form of defence.

The sculptor has obviously decided to have fun with the pets creating some truly revolting animated corpses; one complete with a beer belly, an affliction I can relate to of late!  Still at a push I can use these as additions to the growing horde, taking the tally to sixteen - just another fourteen to go then!

A Post Apocalyptic Family

It is funny how the smallest thing can spark a series of thoughts that can lead to a subtle change of direction - sometimes there is nothing subtle about it at all!  Just the other day, I received an email from the good people at Amazon to notify me that 'The Walking Dead' series 3 was available for pre-order.

Now I was very late on this show and had only finished watching my box set of series 2 whilst series 3 was already underway here in old Blighty.  Having decided not to rush you can imagine my excitement at hearing news that more celluloid cadavers were heading my way - this called for a celebration!

And so it was the 'Rich and Family' (as 'Studio Miniatures' have surreptitiously named them) saw themselves promoted through the massed ranks of the painting queue.  I have managed to convince myself that these, and the set that will follow shortly, are only the smallest of distractions as they do at least pertain to the zombie apocalypse! 

As with my previous experiences with 'Studio Miniatures' they were great fun to paint, although the 'not Carl Grimes' was a touch problematic given his stature and my fixation with trying to replicate the Atomic Paw logo on his T-shirt!

In fact it soon became a bit of a mission to base all three on America's number one, post zombie apocalypse family - I such a sucker for a television or movie tie-in!  Roll on September when I can finally get my hands on series 3 - now no spoilers please! 

Tea at Granny's?

More from the wonderfully grotesque 'Studio Miniatures' pack that I have on the go.  This time Granny and Grandson take to the streets!  Once again they are great sculpts, but they did require a little bit of work to clean them up.

Nothing particularly original in the colour palette with inspiration coming mostly from the company's own website that said I'm pleased with how they turned out, especially when seen with the previous two 'shufflers' - just another fifteen to go!

'Why did the chicken cross the road post?' can be found here.

9pdr Hales Rocket

My goodness me what a busy week or so!  Just when you think you are on top of everything along comes a healthy dose of 'real life' to scupper even the best laid plans.  That said, today marks the first day of a long summer holiday, that I've been dreaming about since September!

I can't say how relieved I am to see this piece vanquished from the painting table; probably one of my first purchases from the wonderful 'Empress Miniatures' this group has been left abandoned for a good couple of years now.  I had hoped to have entered it for the 'Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge', but sadly not - see previous mention of best laid plans!

This 9pdr Hales rocket with trough, bombardier and infantry 'hired help' was such a delight to work and a wonderful representation of the notorious ordnance used at the battle of Isandlwana.  I use the word 'notorious' as the rocket was potentially as dangerous to the men operating it as it was to its intended target.  As a psychological weapon, it was certainly affective causing fear and confusion to all that heard it whiz and zoom around them, with sparks trailing; a shame then that only one rocket was discharged before the battery at Isandlwana was overwhelmed by Zulus from the iNgobamakhosi regiment.

As you can see from this photograph, my corner of the dining room table is in desperate need of attention, so after another cup of Earl Grey and a peruse around all those other wonderful web logs out there it might be time to hit the brushes! 

Book Review#17. - Achtung Schweinehund!

As is my want, and having finally finished this latest spot of bedtime reading, it is  customary to pen a short review, but with this splendid tale of 'Imaginary Combat' by Harry Pearson I intend to break with tradition a tad and direct you to the reviews of others.  The first thing to acknowledge is that I own this book as a direct result of having read the positive reviews at both Paul's, 'The Man Cave' and Ben's, 'Monsieur le Rosbif & Johnny Frog'.  Both Gentlemen had written such glowing reports that I quickly scribbled down the title and added it to my Christmas wish list - yes, I really do that!  

On completion, I thought I would revisit their reviews and measure my own findings against their own and I have to confess that I found myself in total agreement with both, this really was a gem of a book and probably should be required reading for all that share an interest in this most wholesome of hobbies.  So good, in fact, are Paul's and Ben's reviews that it seems a little churlish of me to reinvent them here, so I shall just quote a little from both and encourage you to read them in their entirety by following the links to their respective blogs.

from 'The Man Cave':

...the author goes on to make other wonderfully self mocking commentaries which apply to all of us gamers really.  For example, after recording the time it took to paint 28 20mm soldiers (43hrs, 27mins - a full working week with a bit of overtime) he observes 'I thought of all the figures I had painted in my life.How many years it had taken to paint them.  If I had put it into some sensible activity I might now be a lawyer, architect or neurosurgeon and you'd be reading a book by somebody sensible like John Grisham, Bernard Cornwell or Alain de Botton.'  Certainly a perspective most gamer wives would agree with, even if only from a financial perspective.  Nonetheless you can feel the love and enjoyment of modelling and gaming all the way through the book. 

from 'Monsieur le Rosbif & Johnny Frog':

This book is a rolled-gold, authentic, laugh-out-loud cack-fest that should be required reading for all historical wargamers. While I only took up this hobby 6 years ago, my childhood was so filled with toy soldiers and dreams of heroism and glory that the author's reminiscences struck a clear note of recognition in me. His descriptions of role-playing-games and their players had me laughing till I shed tears, and his descriptions of wargames conventions and the people who attend them was uncomfortably close to the truth! 

There will be no 'tie in' miniature to this title as in previous posts just the most sincerest recommendation and a strong four crown rating from yours truly - certainly worth every penny in my humble opinion.