Zombie Reinforcements

 I started painting 28mm zombies back in summer 2020 with a group of 14.  I have added more over the years in small groups and my shambling horde numbered 42 as of 2024.  

My friend Mike started playing zombie games in 2024 using the rules set Zombie RV (available on Wargames Vault).  He added some mechanics for a larger game that I was interesting in trying.  But I needed more zombies.  Additional motivation was provided by Mike's collection of 75 zombies.  I was in between painting projects so decided that I would seize the opportunity to regain zombie supremacy.

I started with a batch of 14 Studio Miniatures plastic zombies.  I got a bunch of them as free rewards to a long-ago kickstarter and had painted a few in the past, also converting one of the bodies into a living biker for my motorcycle gang.  They come on sprues with 4 different bodies, 8 heads and various arms.  I had some left-over heads and arms from the Warlord/Wargames Factory male zombies, so used those to add more variety.

I have grouped each of the body types together.  I experimented with some different methods of doing skintones to add more variety.  From left to right, rotting flesh, light gray, and blue, all lightly washed with purple.  The blue-ish ones didn't turn out like I had hoped at first so I added a light drybrush of light gray.

I wanted to do some different miniatures next, so I checked ebay and found a set of the Warlord/Wargames Factory female zombies along with 6 of the original Wargames Factory zombies for a good price.  The original zombies were made before the box sets that Warlord re-released.  They are definitely cruder sculpts than the later versions and have 6 on a sprue.  Unlike the later ones they have separate torsos and legs.

I already had a set of the female zombies in my collection, but thought I could make these different with a combination of different heads/arms/painting.

I was still 2 short of my goal.  Then I remembered that I had 2 metal zombies from Studio (also free from their kickstarter) that are larger and more disgusting than your average zombie.  I dug them out of storage and voila!  

With the 34 new zombies, I now have a total of 76, 1 more than Mike.  I retain an undisclosed number of the plastic Studio zombie sprues in case of emergency.

28mm Miami Vice

If you are going to run a Miami Vice-based scenario, you have to include the good guys.  The Miami Vice Squad consists of 11 miniatures.  Nine are from Brigade Games Drug War Z range, while two are by Studio Miniatures (now available from Hayland Terrain).  I have all the Brigade police models except for one which I overlooked during my original purchase.  If they need backup, I have several police from Crooked Dice in and out of uniform.

As I noted in my previous post on the Colombian Cartel, I painted these models in order to use them in a game I am running at Historicon 2023.  I will be using the 7TV rules, which are perfect for this sort of scenario.  I painted them in spring 2023.  Research consisted of watching the entire first and second seasons of Miami Vice on dvd, courtesy of my local library.  I haven't watched the show since it was first on in the 80s, and I thought it held up fairly well.  It also adjusted my usual color palette towards the brighter end of the spectrum.  I primarily used bright colors from an old Citadel paint set, Vallejo, and GW Contrast paints.  

The detectives are all in plain clothes, and like the Cartel models, are very well sculpted.  They had minimal flash, painted up well, and were fun to paint .  Most are armed with pistols so they will be outgunned by their criminal opponents.  Just to get you into the mood: Miami Vice theme

The stars of the show (l-r): Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs (with his favorite sawn-off shotgun).  I admit that I didn't try and paint Crockett's trademark stubble because I couldn't find a technique I liked and thought would look right.  These are the versions from Studio Miniatures/Hayland Terrain.  

Lieutenant Castillo, played by a young Edward James Olmos.  A good representation of the actor.  He joined the show partway through the first season after the original lieutenant was killed.

An array of undercover detectives.

Two DEA agents.  Various DEA agents appear in episodes throughout the series.

The Brigade Games versions of Crockett and Tubbs.

The entire department ready to arrest evildoers.

The Citadel paint set that provided many of the colors used in this project. They worked well.

28mm Rastafarians

In February 2021 I ordered new decals for my motorcycle gang from Studio Miniatures in the UK.  (see previous post).  I took a look around their website to see if anything else caught my eye; I already have a lot of their Survivors range for post-apocalypse gaming.  The Rasta Gang drew my interest as they would fit in with some scenario ideas I have.

Similar to the motorcycle gang (and the other gangs in the range), the Rastas included one leader and six bodies (three each of two different poses) with separate heads and arms.  There is also another leader available separately.

One of the things I like about these sets is the variety of weapons available.  The only issue I had was that the set of the arms holding a baseball bat broke when I was trying to glue them on and I could never fit them back together properly.  I didn't want to use the chainsaw since I had already used it in the motorcycle gang so I ended up using a spare set of arms left over from that set.  That is why one of the rank and file has sleeves.

With only 8 miniatures I figured they would assemble and paint up quickly.  I pinned the arms before gluing them but the heads fit securely.  I put them together in mid-July and primed them, then they sat on my desk until September 10th, when I finally started painting them.  One week later on the 17th they were finished.  They were fun and easy to paint.  I used a simple color scheme with darker pants and brighter shirts including a lot of  red, yellow, and green, with gold jewelry.  I used GW contrast paints on most of the clothing.  I experimented with skin colors, eventually using four different tones (two mid-brown and two darker brown), each shaded with a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade.  Pictures were taken on an appropriately warm and sunny day.

I wanted to use some Rastafarian symbols and after a quick Google image search I had several ideas.  For the leader (King Marley in the Studio catalog) I painted an ankh on the back of his coat that I think turned out well. The bag is from a set of accessories I picked up somewhere.

For the second in command, I checked my stock of decals to see if there was a star I could adapt into a Star of David.  I ended up finding a lion in a set of 15mm Arab muslim decals by Veni Vidi Vici that fit as a representation of the Lion of Judah.

Part of the fun assembling these miniatures is matching the weapons and heads.  I think these two are my favorites.

For the miniature on the right I used a set of leftover arms from the motorcycle gang set (also by Studio).  

The one on the right started out with an open left hand, I added a gun from the old plastic Wargames Factory zombie survivor sprue. 

The whole gang ready for action.  Note that the leader miniatures are taller than the rest.  I guess that is why they are in charge.

28mm Motorcycle Gang

Recently I was looking for a quick project.  I had just finished painting a Viking army for Saga and next on the list was resuming work on my successor phalangites.  In between I wanted to do something small that wouldn't take more than 1 week.  I decided to fix up my 28mm motorcycle gang.  

My motorcycle gang has a convoluted history.  Back in March 2020 I realized that my vision had started to deteriorate and my detail painting was suffering.  Just before everything shut down due to COVID, I bought a pair of reading glasses for use during painting and they solved the problem.  I also realized that some of my recent projects had suffered, the bikers among them.  I originally painted my bikers in summer 2019 and they were not up to my usual standard due to the aforementioned vision issue; this project gave me the chance to correct that.

A motorcycle gang is one of those groups that frequently appear in modern and post-apocalypse settings, so I would be able to use them in multiple games.  I started collecting the miniatures some years ago with the plastic Warlord Games Project Z Biker Gang sprues, which were originally made by Wargames Factory.  They have been out of stock for a long time as the game appears to have been abandoned.  I bought one each of the sprues; together they had enough parts to make 4 on foot and 3 on motorcycles.  One thing that disappointed me is that only 1 of the Warlord bikers is wearing a leather jacket.

The rest of my gang came via the 2017 Kickstarter for Turf War Z, which I received in early 2018.  These metal miniatures are now available through Studio Miniatures as a set of 7 and a separate leader; The set of 7 has 1 complete miniature and 6 bodies (3 each of 2 different poses) with separate heads and arms.   Included were extra heads and arms to allow for customization.  Most of the heads are clearly inspired by characters from the Sons of Anarchy tv show, which of course I watched during some painting sessions.  After taking stock of all the pieces I had and some test fittings, I assembled them all at once.  I pinned most of the heads and arms to secure them better.

The color scheme is pretty simple.  Lots of leather jackets and jeans, with shirts mostly in dark shades.  I added some different colors here and there for variety.  A lot of the Warlord minis are wearing leather chaps for some reason.  On initially painting these miniatures in 2020, I came up with a gang logo with the help of Google Images, then printed decals on white decal paper.  The design didn't come out as distinct as I had hoped but I used it anyway.

The repainting project consisted of redoing the areas that looked the worst.  This included removing the original decals and substituting Sons of Anarchy decals that Studio Miniatures now sells, re-lettering the backs of the jackets, repainting the eyes, and touching up anything else I didn't like.  When lettering the backs of the jackets I used 'Sons' for the gang name and 'Nomads' for the chapter.  Honestly I don't think I could fit more letters than that.  The minis with decals are full members.  those without decals are prospects or hangers-on.

I also made some additions as part of this project.  When I was assembling plastic zombies in summer 2020, I had some parts leftover.  I noticed recently that the Studio Miniatures zombie sprues had a body wearing a leather jacket.  I wondered if I could use them as living bikers.  I took three of them and added leftover biker heads, arms and weapons from the Warlord biker sprues.  To add some variety, I cut one body off at the waist and used the Studio torso with a Warlord lower body.  The Warlord sprue also had a female motorcycle passenger that I hadn't used.  I cut it at the waist and used a set of extra Warlord legs to make a fourth new miniature.  A quick paintjob later and I had 4 new gang members.

One week later and this project was complete and my 21-member motorcycle gang is ready to go on the table.  I am finally happy with how they look and already have some scenario plans.  It would be nice to have some motorcycles for scenery.  If you know of a source, let me know in the comments.

Three of the Studio Miniatures.  When I did the lettering I used the smallest brush I own.  It isn't perfect but at least it's legible.

The chapter president and a chainsaw-wielding biker ready for close combat (Studio).

The heavy weapons contingent (Studio).

The Warlord motorcycles had a lot of parts to glue together  but they turned out well.

Two of the Warlord/Wargames Factory plastic miniatures.

The ladies of the chapter are ready for a fight.  The one in the middle was originally a motorcycle passenger.  Those chaps don't look comfortable for riding!

These are the ones I converted from Studio Miniatures plastic zombies bodies with Warlord heads and arms.  The one on the right also has a Warlord lower body which made it taller than the other two.

I already had these 2 in my post-apocalypse collection and they fit right in with the rest of my gang.  Made by Project Zeke Miniatures which had a small post-apocalypse range but is no longer in business.

A size comparison: (l-r) Studio metal, Warlord, Studio plastic zombie, Warlord, Project Zeke.  The Studio metal is on a thicker base so the overall height looks better.  Note all the Warlord female minis are very tall.

The entire gang assembled and ready for action.