Zombies, Zombies - Everywhere!

I was recently asked, by DocStout, how many zombies I could put on the table before I ‘ran out’ and up until the point I answer his question I hadn’t actually bothered to count.

"They're coming to get you Barbara."

Make-Do-and-Mend

For my first batch of zombies for ATZ I adopted a classic gamer made-do-and-mend, using whatever I happened to have in my unfinished projects bitz-box. I had a couple of packs of Games Workshop Warhammer zombies from which I selected the least medieval looking and based on 25mm round bases. I used my 'normal' style of basing painted in an urban style.

Games Workshop Zombies - What big hands you have.

I also had set of Copplestone Plague Zombies, a couple of modern zombies which I think are from Ral Partha or Grenadier and one old GW metal zombie.

Copplestone Plague Zombies - Standing the test of time.

Ral Partha or Grenadier and Games Workshop Zombies

The first batch turned out ok and it was great to be able to crack on with a project without actually buying anything but at the same time I was, pun intended, chomping at the bit for some modern looking zombies.

Zombie Hunger

After trawling the interwebs and studying as many blogs with zombie miniatures in as I could, I settled on Studio Miniatures for my first batch of ‘real’ zed-heads. I ordered the Horde 1 pack because I couldn’t resist the exclusive George A. Romero model.

Studio Miniatures Zombies

What can I say? The sculpts are superb, they come in a cool retro video case with a very cool cover and they have the perfect balance of character and Every-day-Joe feel to them. My only criticism is that de-flashing is difficult. Not because there is lots of flash, on the contrary there is very little, it’s just the models are so highly detailed I was simply worried about ‘blurring’ out detail, such as flods in clothing, as went.

Inspired by the Studio Miniatures promotion pictures and by the superb work of Christopher (aka Axebreaker) and Gnotta I modelled Miliput bases and picked up some Army Painter 'tufts' to help with the look I was after.

Studio Miniatures Zombies - Dawn of The Dead (2004)?

Studio Miniatures Zombies - Roadkill!

Studio Miniatures Zombies - Flesh-munchingly good

How many zombies does one need?

In answer to Doc Stout’s original question, I have just 40 zombies. It doesn’t sound like much of a horde but believe me, once the flesh-chomping little blighters are on the table it’s more than enough. That said I’d like the collection to grow. My current target is 60 zombies and I haven’t yet painted the Mr Romero model - I want to give him a little one-on-one time. 60 zombies would seem to be about the right number of zombies for most zombie miniatures games, allowing for a little recycling here and there.

Seeing the release of Studio Miniatures' latest offering, Zombie Mob 008, reminded me how much I love their models and I’ll definitely be adding another one of their Hordes to the collection soon.

Studio Miniatures Zombie Horde 008 - "Need!"

Enough is Enough?

I have just one question...will 60 zombies be enough?

Scale and Bases and Who's Who is Zed-land

Having decided to create my own little zombie apocalypse in miniature there were a few questions I needed to answer early on. Scale was the easiest decision, a short delve into a dozen boxes of unfinished projects revealed a pack of undercoated Copplestone Plague Zombies (purchased back when they were first released),  a Games Workshop Zombie horde and a few individual other miniatures I suspect might be Ral Partha, but I honestly have no idea. 28mm is my typical scale of choice and the majority of terrain resources for modern gaming seem to be in or around that scale, it seemed the simplest way forward.

Copplestone Y-Z

Basing was a little more complicated. Most of my miniatures are based to an earth brown, dry-brushed with flesh tone/light cream then flocked. This helps them fit onto either of the two gaming boards I generally play on; grassland and desert. Whilst the zombie apocalypse might happen anywhere, we all know that the big city is where it is really at.


Copplestone Plague Zombie

I decided on a standard 25mm round slotta-base, regardless of how the miniature came and a few painting sessions later the first batch of zombies was complete. I settled on a grey to light grey/white dry-brushing on a base of umber. The first batch turned out ok, but I wanted something a little more special for the survivors and it was clear that not only did the bases look a little too ‘rubbley’ the Copplestone miniatures also stood out and choosing manufacturers to add to the set whilst keeping some consistency with so many decent offerings was going to require some thought.

The first finished zombies