We got a Mighty Convoy!

We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there.

I'd been looking for an articulated lorry to use on my All Things Zombie games and found a few that would fit the bill, the trouble is, the only ones I found were about £50 each, and whilst I'm not adverse to spending a bit of money on my games, that's a little too much for just one model that'll only use every now and then.

Thankfully, a chance visit to a local Entertainer store to buy some cars for my son, allowed me to find this. Although the model wasn't marked scale-wise and I'm sure that is isn't 1:43 (like the majority of the model cars I use) it seems to fit pretty well.

Best thing... it was £8.00, bargain!

It'll certainly count a location all by itself as there's bound to be either useful supplies or zombies in the back!

Billy! Get to da Chappa!!!

Ever since I started Zombie gaming I've always wanted to include an obligatory 'Get to da chappa!' scenario in one of my All Things Zombie games.

Trouble is, despite my best efforts, I never really found a decent enough looking helicopter for the right price.

Thankfully I finally managed I pick up this bad boy about 6 months ago.

28mm Model for scale

1/43 scale Fast Lane Agusta A109 fully licensed Die Cast Helicopter.

It was £14.99 from ToysRUs, and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks on the table top and it is likely to feature in my next big game.

28mm Umbrella Corporation SUVs

Back long ago in the summer of 2011, Matt over at Too Much Unpainted Lead dropped me an email to say. "I saw what looked like a 28mm scale Hummer in Poundland the other day, they'd need a re-paint but they looked pretty good in your All Things Zombie games. Do you want me to pick you one up?"

Umbrella Corporation - Our Business is Life Itself.

"Three please." I replied and he duly emailed to report he'd purchased them up and he'd bring them over next time we got together.

Military Affairs? The General's Daughter in 28mm?

Weeks, then months, went by when every time we met I was greeted with "Damn.", then "Shit!", then "Bugger!" and finally "Bloody-fecking-arse-monkeys!" or something to that effect.

Just before New Year we played a French Indian War skirmish in 54mm and at last, Father Mattmass delivered three shiny new Hummers.

When you buy it and paint it right away it doesn't count. So I cracked right on with them right away.

From the outset I had the idea of 'company' vehicles, something to go with my Hazmat Squad and to fit with some planned military types. So a subtle but blatant use of the Umbrella Corporation logo seemed appropriate.

I unscrewed the chassis, took out the windows and seats, and simply re-painted with matt acrylic spray-paint, using plastic primer on the interior piece. I wasn't expecting any wear on the interior, but you never know about the paint sticking to that kind of plastic.

I gave the body of the Hummers a coat of satin varnish and printed re-scaled liveries and fixed them to the doors with Pritt Stick.

I am really pleased with how they turned out, especially considering the price and ease of conversion, as they took less than 2 hours over two evenings to complete.

Umbrella Corporation Cavalry?

Thank you Matt.

28mm BMX Bandits

Like a few other fellow bloggers I've been having difficulty with blogger this last week, guessing it might be an i.e. and hope to be able to sort that out this week. So a short post and deviation from my All Things Zombie gaming table posts for now.

Enjoy the little things, they say. Well some of the things I enjoy really are quite little.

My good friend James, who knows I am on a quest to fill Outbreak City with all sorts of awesome 'stuff' picked me up these BMXs for my birthday. In his words "I thought they'd look great just lying in the street." Thank you James!

The red bike and the blue bike had a race.

If you buy it and paint it right away it doesn't count...right...and if someone else buys it for you and you paint it right away, even better.

I always wanted a Raleigh Burner.

What I got was a Grifter instead.

These 28mm scale bikes are available from Black Cat Bases, as well as all sorts of other fantastic street-filling detritus, junk, bottles, cans and other waste that I can't wait to get my grubby little mitts on. Well worth checking out.

Let's Go Camping! - Even More Vehicles for 28mm Zombie Gaming.

I was going to post another All Things Zombie Batrep this week but having fine-tuned my scale-dar, this was too good not to share.

I went camping with the family this weekend, just a few quiet days with nothing to do except stay out of the rain, catch the sun (when it dared show it's face), eat far too many baked beans and share your sleeping bag with grass and earwigs. It was a chance to completely switch off from hobbies and zombies and I didn't even take a zombie novel with me. My scale-dar had other ideas!

I was looking for a lighter (we'd forgotten ours and uncooked bacon just doesn't cut it) what I found, in the on-site 'glamping' store, was these.

VeeDub
First up was this 1962 VW Campervan from 'Welly'. It's not particularly fancy and it wasn't marked for scale although it is pretty iconic. Having picked up quite a few vehicles recently I was happy to take a chance - the second purchase was marked for scale and the two looked okay side by side. The doors don't actually line up that well but I'm fine with that. It is a toy, not a collector's model. and priced accordingly at just over £4.00.

'Welly' 1/43 VW Campervan with 28mm Studio Miniatures Zombie.

It's the freedom it gives you
The second find was the one that got me really fired up. This 1/43 scale 'Teamsterz' car and caravan set is superb and the caravan would definitely count as a building or encounter location. The generic SUV is nothing to write home about but it's a good representation. A little under £7.00 is not bad, especially as you get two models. The caravan is pretty much all plastic but the SUV is die-cast.

"Pull over!" Teamsterz car and caravan.

SUV from the car and caravan set - with opening doors and tailgate.

These two vehicles have given me a great idea for an All Things Zombie scenario, so it's likely they'll crop up in a future Batrep.

The boxed models - if you want to go internet shopping for these.

Speaking of Batreps... coming soon on The Lead Will Walk The Earth...

More Vehicles for 28mm Zombie Gaming

Finding good die-cast vehicles for a 28mm Modern Wargame isn't necessarily difficult, once you settle on a scale, most of us go for 1/43 (I certainly did), it is simply a case of trawling the interwebs, scouring ebay and visiting high street stores.

Unfortunately, it is not always so easy to pick up suitable models at a reasonable price. Some of the more desirable 1/43 models can sell from anywhere up to £200 (yeah, I was surprised too). And at the lowest end of the price scale, the cars are often not even marked so you know what scale they are.

Whilst hunting for vehicles to fill the streets of my All Things Zombie campaign's Outbreak City one tip I found useful was to keep a 28mm model (unpainted) in my pocket whenever I headed to the shops. So if I stumbled across something that looked promising, I had something to compare it against. This didn't guarantee against the perils of scale creep, but it certainly helped.

This little trick stood me in good stead this weekend when, whilst guarding the trolley against the addition of surplus items (kids do that sometimes) during our weekly food shop, I spotted these three beauties in the reduced goods aisle at Tesco.

1/43 - 28mm stone quarry tipper.

1/43 - 28mm Up-and-over skip

1/43 - 28mm refuse lorry, comes with an 1100l Eurobin

These are from their 'large industrial series' and the three models available were a refuse lorry, a truck hauling a large skip and a stone quarry delivery tipper. These are not the smaller HotWheels/Matchbox scale cars. These 1/43 equivalents are not always on the shelves for long, but they're worth it if you can find them.


£1.75 each in Tesco's reduced section. It got my attention.

The potential of the Tesco models was first highlighted to me over at Colin's Down Among the Zed Men. I've always kept an eye out since. Each one of these models was sold for the princely sum of £1.75. Falling prey to the 'addition of surplus items' demon, I almost bought the lot, but settled on one of each instead.

I think they're actually might be just a little bit bigger than 1/43. But they match very closely in scale to the delivery trucks I picked up - the Tesco Load and Go sets, which I updated with BioFlex livery.

Comparison - same scale, more detail, lower price.

In comparison these vehicles are of a far better standard than the previous ones, with crisper lines and additional detailing. They all have moving parts - great for us gamers who like to move bits on models to represent different scenarios on the tabletop and the inclusion of the 1100 litre Eurobin (sometimes referred to as a Taylor bin) is a bonus.

A little large for 28mm but it works well enough.

However, as the name suggests, I'm not sure they have Eurobins in the states, where my Outbreak City All Things Zombie campaign is set. I think I'll use it all the same.

Highway to Hell: A No More Room in Hell Batrep - Part 1

Whilst All Things Zombie is our go-to zombie game of choice we thought we’d give Iron Ivan’s No More Room in Hell a whirl as part of our Salute-n-zombies-athon. We played the scenario, The Road, for which, as per a previous post, the roads were made specifically for.

Iron Ivan Games put out some pretty solid rule sets with a dedicated fan-base and a quick flick through Matt’s copy of NMRIH lead me to think we were onto a good thing. After all, it’s just the zombie apocalypse...we know what we’re doing right? I mean...Dr Pepper and all that!?... Maybe?

Here’s what happened.

Outbreak City Outskirts: Dawn

The LED sign looked a little out of place in the stillness of the early morning on the I24 out of Outbreak City.

‘INCIDENT: STAY IN YOUR VEHICLE.’

Nothing moved, but the air was heady with a sickly odor you could taste. From the looks of the carnage of haphazardly abandoned vehicles that littered the interstate nobody had paid much attention. Empty cars covered the freeway as far as they could see in the dull light. Trucks, sedans and utility vehicles blocked every route through, at least for anyone not on foot. A few anxious or impatient drivers had ignored the road and skirted around on the soft verges, but it had been no use. Those that tried had mired in the soft mud and marshy ground that bordered the road on both sides. There was a few feet of solid ground either side of the road but otherwise it might as well have been the bayou.

The Road: Scenario Set up.

“Looks like we walk from here.” said Ken as he cut the engine of the pick-up. They would have taken the Hummer, but there were nine of them and there was a little more room in the back.

“Fine by me.” said Jed who, quite literally, rode shotgun.

“You good to do this Dennis? They’re counting on you.” Ken addressed the other passenger in the front of the truck, a man with a shock of red hair who nervously opened the door.

“They need to get out of here. And so do I.” Dennis replied without looking Ken in the eye.

“Is he gonna be ok?” asked Jed as Dennis wandered away patting his thighs repeatedly.

“We’ll see.” said Ken.

The Road.

The people in the back of the truck were a rag-tag band of some of the least likely survivors from the office block. It appeared that they were from some kind of community social group that met in a building across from the office they had holed up in the past few nights. Dennis was their group leader. Ken wasn’t so happy about having them along, he wasn’t sure they would be able to keep up. Thankfully they were all armed, mostly with improvised weapons and small calibre pistols for home defence, but it was something.

Jed flipped the tailgate and slapped the rear-most passenger on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The passengers gingerly dropped down from the truck. They all looked to Dennis, who forced a brief smile and went back to a ritualistic rubbing of hands and drawing and replacing the automatic pistol in the waistband of his jogging pants.

“Keep this with you and keep it on.” said Ken. He twisted the switch on a walkie-talkie and handed it to Dennis. “It’s push to talk.”

“I know how to use it.” snapped Dennis, as he looked up at Ken’s stoic grimace and into his stone cold stare. Dennis’ shoulders sagged. “Thank you, officer.”

Incident: Stay In Your Vehicle.

One hundred yards on they caught sight of a shambling figure that stepped out from behind a truck, it was clear he was one of them. Ken turned to the crowd. “Stay calm. Let’s see if we can keep our distance and skirt around them.”

"Let's see if we can skirt around them."

A deafening yell split the quiet – half scream of terror, half martial battle cry. Dennis rushed forward towards the walker and blazed away with his pistol. He emptied the magazine before anyone could react and every shot went wild or ploughed harmlessly through the walking cadaver. He reached the walker moments later as the slide on his pistol locked back, empty, and the thing lunged at him.

A deafening yell split the quiet.

Jed pushed two anxious looking survivors back behind a delivery truck. With an awkwardly slow movement Dennis twisted as it loomed in on him, broken teeth gnashing after limbs as he clumsily executed a martial arts manoeuvre devoid of any elegance or control. Everyone looked on in stunned silence as, somehow, he picked up his assailant and planted him squarely on its head, snapping the neck in the process.

“Are you trying to draw them all to us? We...” Ken didn’t finish. They swarmed out of nowhere, appearing on every side. “Up there, now!” he yelled, pointing to the tailgate of a utility truck in front.

"Up there, now!"

Dennis wasted no time and clambered into the back of the dumpster. Ken and the others scrambled after him.

Jed saw that the commotion Dennis had caused drew the walkers away from him and the two kids he was with. “Wait here a second.” He said creeping towards a sports coupé.

"Wait here a second."

As they clattered around in the back of the dumpster the moans of the recently deceased increased as they clamoured at the metal walls of the container. “That way.”  said Ken, pointing at a Mini Cooper with its front end in the back of a bus. Dennis sprang up and jumped the gap awkwardly, followed closely by Ken and a man who looked like a college professor.



The dead closed in.

Behind them one of Dennis’ other companions lost his footing and slipped off the roof of the cab. He landed, feet first but the drop sent a jolt through his body. “Sam!” yelled a thuggish youth in the back of the container. The professor yelled for Ken to help but he ignored the horde grasping at him. They dragged him kicking and screaming off the bonnet and fell on him like a pack of hungry dogs. Within seconds Sam was surrounded but somehow, with handgun and fists, he fought them off.

With handgun and fists, Sam fought the zombies off.

Seeing the undead swarm Sam’s way, the thug took his chance. He hopped over the side of the container and dashed for the Mini. But he’d misjudged how many of them there were and was quickly surrounded. They took him down in seconds.

He took his chance, with horrfying consequences.

A pretty girl in a tight vest took a different route and made it to the mini just as they Ken climbed onto the roof of the bus.



Dennis fired into the crowd, close enough to have hit her if she’d still been alive.

“Cease fire and keep moving!” shouted Ken, pushing him on. At the end of the bus they stalled. The next jump, over to the roof of a construction vehicle, looked a little too wide and besides...there was so many of them.

There were so many of them.

The two kids beside Jed clambered onto the sports coupé. Two of the walkers put on a burst of speed and rushed them, arms flailing and teeth bared. The girl hopped out of their reach onto to roof but the other poor kid didn’t stand a chance. He was slammed into the hood with such force Jed figured he must have been dead before they sunk their teeth into him.

Dead before they sunk thier teeth into him.

“Steve!” shrieked the girl reaching after him.

“No, don’t!” Jed shouted. He watched in slow motion as the girl reached down to her boyfriend. One of the walkers turned to her, lashing out at her as the other fed on the boy.

Jed wet himself.

There was no way she was going to match its ferocity. He felt a rush of warmth and wetness in his pants and his hands started to shake. He couldn’t get a clear shot and watched helplessly as she slid off the roof of the car and into its arms and jaws. He backed off and slammed into the delivery truck behind him. It was happening again, just like when they got Emmett.



He closed his eyes and pulled his gaze away. When he looked again, more of those creatures were closing in. He turned and clawed at some hand and footholds on the side of the truck. Up on the roof he looked down on the scene.



Jed pissed his pants...again.

He saw Ken and Dennis a way off, standing at the far end of the bus. Behind them Sam fought his way through a multitude of those things and the pretty girl was struggled to climb onto the bus as a swarm of undead swept in on both of them, he watched the girl slip and slide as more hands reached up and dragged her off the roof into their midst as Sam disappeared under a heaving crowd of flailing limbs in a mist of arterial spray.

The poor girl didn't stand a chance.

Jed shook like a clockwork toy. “K...K..Ken.” He stammered, his voice caught in a dry throat. There was no way they would hear him over the shrieks of the dead and the screams of the dying. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this. For the second time in the space of a few moments he felt a warm trickle flow down his leg.

To be continued...

Pedal to the Metal!

Epic post for an epic week. Far too much hobby giddiness ensued this week, always a good thing, except for the bank balance.

Jim and Matt from Too Much Unpainted Lead and I attended Salute at the Excel Centre in London this Saturday. Even though I’ve been a war-gamer for more years than I care to recall I’d never been to Salute. Shame on me. It was far bigger than I imagined, not necessarily in scale, but in the huge variety of traders, products and display games that were crammed into the show. After an embarrassing detour we finally arrived at around 11:00 and after our first circuit, where we only looked at traders, it had already gone 14:00. Far too many cool things to mention in just one post, maybe next time.

As we had a few games planned for the Salute weekend I was busy trying to get enough stuff ready to play the scenarios we were running. Two zombie games were planned as well as any other board games we could fit it. A trial of No More Room in Hell from Iron Ivan Games and All Things Zombie from THW filled the miniatures slots and Incursion and Pandemic made up the board game quota.

Outbreak City: 'Midnight Munchies Run' teaser.

I have played Incursion from Grindhouse Games a few times now and it is a pretty darn good game. It has had similar comparisons but describing it as Space-Hulk-Nazi-zombie-diesel-punk fits the bill! Incursion components made up the majority of my show purchases and, inspired by the awesome work of Herrodadog, a full 3D board and play-set is in the works.

Incursion from Grindhouse Games

Pandemic is a fantastic cooperative board game from Z-Man Games where the players do everything they can to stop the spread of deadly contagions and stem the outbreaks as they engulf the world. Although it is not a zombie game, it fit the theme of the weekend superbly. We played twice and lost both times, but only just, perfect.

Pandemic from Z-Man Games

As we were set to play ‘The Road’ scenario for No More Room In Hell I picked up a quite a few new 1/43 scale vehicles. I picked up a few from Sainsburys and recognised a few from Colin’s blog. I also popped into a local collector’s store and found a number of old cars for just £1.99 each. As I’d stated in a previous post, I needed some more generic saloons (most of what I have is fire engines and working vehicles). I have no idea what a Lancia Lybra is, but these 1/43 models from Majorette fit the bill perfectly. To avoid the ‘I wish I had bought those’ problem, I bought one in each colour they had.

It's the doors, you just have to!

Widowmaker.

Blingin'

Wilkinsons Bus: 1/50 but it works for me.

Soft-Top

Genuine 'apocalyptic' reason for sale

"May I present the Lancia...erm, what is it again?"

Once the collection of cars was amassed I quickly made a classic gamer-gaff. Come on, we all do it. 4 days before the weekend, whilst happily finish off my zombies, I confidently decided that I needed to make a new road specifically for the scenario too. The game calls for a road spanning the length of a 4’ by 4’ table...hmmm...idea, sketch, realisation...quick!!!! Expect more on that in a future post.

"To The Man-Cave!"

In the spirit of a few other blogger's recent posts I thought I'd share a couple of shots of the man-cave.

The man-cave.

It isn't always this tidy.

When we originally viewed the house some 7 years ago the vendor showed us into a back room as she stated "...and this is the games room." Within seconds I'd re-decorated and was figuring out how to fit in two 6' by 4's. There's a room just off this with a sink, and storage area and a seperate washroom. A kettle was added to the ante-room for our last gaming weekend and once a beer fridge is installed (planned for later this year) we can dissapear into the realm of battle without surfacing in the rest of the house for weeks at a time.

Outbreak City's Aftermath
Whenever I play a game I have been planning and working on for some time two things happen:

1) I breathe a huge sigh of relief, content in the warm glow of gaming geekery
2) I get giddy about new projects and start something fresh for the playset.

New projects include: more vehicles for my 40K Orks, some 15mm moderns, the completion of some Star Wars Miniatures 3d terrain and a stupidly ambitious 1/35th scale WW2 skirmish set. All good stuff, but what about the undead for All Things Zombie?

I recently spent a long session basing my Studio Miniatures Zombie Horde 1 hjust before the big game, but didn't get a chance to paint them all. I used the miliput method and, for the most part, copied the examples of the Studio Miniatures marketing shots as reference. It was only the 3rd time I've used miliput. This week's lesson covered mixing only the amount you can work with before it cures. Whoops.

Base Monkey Mafia. SM Horde plus Hasslefree WIP.

I couldn't wait to get some paint on them and so (after the Hazmats were finished) started right away. I've almost finished the first few. The rest should follow shortly.

Studio Miiniatures - WIP (+an old GW mini on the right)

I picked up a couple of new 1/43 scale cars to add to the collection.

Alpha Romeo - Tourer

New York Checker Cab

I am particularly pleased with the New York taxi. I assume it is only supposed to be seen in New York (perhaps someone can confirm if they are found elsewhere) but they are so iconic - let's just say Outbreak City has yellow checker cabs too.

My first battle report was run using the 2005 All Thing Zombie rules and I felt that an upgrade was long overdue.  I picked up ATZ- Better Dead than Zed from Two Hour Wargmes last week. I experienced superb customer service from Ed at THW. I placed my order for the pdf. version on a Sunday and I was reading the rules just a few hours later. Thank you Ed. They look great so far. We have a couple of games planned for the weekend of Salute, in addition to a trip to the show. One using ATZ - BDTZ and one using No More Room in Hell. I'm looking forward to our Undeadathon.

I ordered some Litko THW token sets (here and here) and eagerly await their arrival. One of the reasons I wrote the batrep in a narrative style was that when I looked back at the pictures I simply couldn't remember at what point in each turn I had taken them (there were over 50 taken in the end). I found it surprisingly difficult to explain what is happening in game mechanic terms and tell the story at the same time. I am interested to see if the Litko tokens help make it a little easier to translate what is going on. My hat goes off to anyone who has written batreps. Writing my own has made me appreciate what goes into them all the more.

Standby, Standby. Go! Go! Go!

The first public appearance of Outbreak City took place this week. As always, an exciting and nervous event for a new project. We played All Things Zombie, the game went superbly well and the whole play-set was well received by the players and other club attendees alike. The battle report is now under construction so expect to see that soon.

In the run up to the game I was, like always, frantically trying to finish as much as possible and fighting the demons of ‘do without and do it properly another time’ and ‘just stay up late and get it finished’. For the most part the former prevailed but I did manage to get a reasonable amount of things out of the workspace and onto the table.

I finished the Hasslefree Hazmat Squad. They were a pleasure to paint. I was also forced to buy a new bright yellow and their tanks received a coat of clear gloss varnish to help them ‘pop’ a little more.



Hasslefree Hazmat Squad. Tip of the spear. Bio-threat style.

"Zulu Down!"

"Stack up."

"Why are there no grey gloves left?"

"100% bada$$ and I still have to wear orange gum boots."

Andy’s Gunworks had its sign fitted at last, although I still need to finish his roof access and add some white garden funiture, a pallet and a barbeque to keep him happy.

"So What's the Bad News?"

I finally finished painting my original four Hasslefree survivors. They were usable before but I wasn’t satisfied with their bases and needed a final pass and highlighting before I could call them done.



Hasslefree Survivors - Ray, Ken, Suzi and Lara

Having spent a little more time on these miniatures than I normally would, and having enjoyed every minute, I am keen to explore acrylic mediums to help with the blending (the paint was drying out quite quickly as I blended). I also want to expand my pallet of tools and colours to help make the most of the models.

With Easter not that far away I decided to add this little nod to Zombielarp. Bioflex is a multi-billion pound corporation that dedicates a considerable amount of its focus on bio-technology and military grade hardware. Worried? Justifiably so.

"Delivery for a Mr P. Anderson?"

Finally, on Saturday the 5^th March I attended Zombielarp: Evolution. The bad news is, the gun-cam footage was not captured. I’d like to blame a technical fault, but once the adrenaline-fuelled frenzy had subsided it was just as easy to point a finger at my own stupidity in the chaos of the moment. That aside, the good news is I captured enough footage during the night's proceedings to put this little ditty together.