Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Jordan Peacock]

After reading the "modern horror minis" thread, I was curious to check to see just how many minis Reaper had that might be suitable for a modern horror campaign a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a zombie-apocalypse campaign (perhaps using the new Horror Companion, or the Zombie Run adventure).

Several figures veered into "near future" or "sci-fi," and I made some arbitrary inclusions and exclusions on that count; a couple of figures would be perfect for "Men in Black," but with a slight mod to the gear they're holding, could pass for ordinary modern-day secret agents, for instance.


Human Combatants:
* 03229: Elise Anya, Vampire Hunter
* 50007: Veronica Blaze, Agent of GUARD
* 50010: Daniel Sterling, Secret Agent of GUARD
* 50024: Candy, Anime Heroine
* 50032: Jake Ryan, Hero Explorer
* 50033: Horace "Action" Jackson
* 50035: El Diablo, Pro Wrestler
* 50040: Janus, Cybertech Hero
* 50043: Ernesto, Revolutionary
* 50044: Frank Russo, Mercenary Hero
* 50047: Mike Noe, Biker Boss
* 50048: Eden, Cybertech Heroine
* 50053: Sly Withers, Street Boss
* 50065: Rex, Dark Future Hero
* 50071: Kelly, Corporate Assassin
* 50082: Cobra, Modern Ninja
* 50094: Butch "Killer" Davis (boxer)
* 50108: Achmed, Terrorist
* 50133: Mira, Post-Apocalyptic Heroine
* 50148: Astrid Berger, Female Spy
* 50149: Natalia, Female Secret Agent
* 50153: Berkeley, Zombie Survivor
* 50159: Sister Maria, Nun (with a pistol)
* 50166: Iris, Scuba Girl
* 50167: Frank, Scuba Guy
* 50174: Stillwater, Zombie Hunter
* 50176: Sugar, Anime Heroine
* 50179: Ebony Foxx, Modern Heroine
* 50190: Chan Lee, Martial Arts Master
* 50194: Cleo Greene, Mod Heroine
* 50198: Gallup, Zombie Survivor
* 50199: Denver, Zombie Survivor
* 50200: Bobby Jo, Redneck Princess
* 50205: Joplin, Zombie Survivor
* 50210: Bonnie, Futuristic Heroine
* 50228: Whitney, Anime Heroine
* 50229: Ishio, Anime Heroine
* 50232: Karla, Anime Heroine (battle nurse?)
* 50233: Grace, Holy Assassin
* 50238: Farrah, Sci-Fi Heroine
* 50268: Bill Foster, Lumberjack
* 50272: Stubbs, Biker Thug
* 50283: Evie, Post Apocalyptic Heroine
* 50291: Billy Joe, Zombie Hunter

Military:
* 50058: Navy Seal Diver
* 50226: Ivanetta Kozlov, Russian Sniper
* 50276: Delta Force Commando


Law Enforcement:
* 50191: Officer Terrell, Zombie Survivor
* 50256: Joe Don Mitchell, Sheriff
* 50267: Deputy Wayne Tisdale




Human Civilians:
* 50034: Kassia Switlick, Skydiver
* 50042: Townsfolk: Modern Children (3)
* 50052: Professor Laura Pringle
* 50055: Sid, Rock Star
* 50067: Nancy, Punk Rock Girl
* 50070: Toad, Punk Rock Drummer
* 50074: Roller Girl
* 50081: Father Thomas, Vicar
* 50090: Townsfolk: Jock, Chick, Nerd (3)
* 50093: Dr. Unsinn, Evil Mastermind
* 50099: Surfer Dude
* 50109: Tasker, Henchman
* 50124: Merlock the Magnificent (stage magician)
* 50125: Yvette, Magician's Assistant
* 50143: Agatha Fox, Female Spy
* 50157: Townsfolk: Ladies of the Night (3)
* 50163: Peaches, Biker Girl
* 50192: Boy Campers (3)
* 50231: Townsfolk: Geeks (3)
* 50235: Edna, Crazy Cat Lady
* 50257: Dr. Thomas Welby
* 50258: Nurse Anne Foster


Near-Future / "Secret Technology":
* 50001: Sascha Dubois, Time Chaser
* 50016: Rosie, Chronotechnician
* 50064: Briony, Cyber Technician
* 50123: Space Hero (fairly easily passes for a modern guy in a duster)
* 50132: Jessica Blaze, Smuggler
* 50156: Gretha, Female Sniper
* 50202: Government Agent Jones
* 50203: Government Agent Smith


"Terminator"-style Cyborgs:
* 50097: Cyber Reavers (4)
* 50201: Cyborg Parts


Psycho Killers:
* 50037: Harvey, Psycho Killer
* 50245: Bonzo the Killer Klown
* 50247: Zonkers, Killer Klown


Modern Lycanthropes:
* 03250: Classic Horror: Wolfman
* 50045: Jesse Moonwalker, Werewolf Tracker
* 50095: Kyoko Silvers, Cat Girl
* 50211: Tommy the Wolf Man


Modern(ish) Zombies:
* 03471: Zombies (3) (unarmed; warning: partial nudity)
* 03598: George & Gracie, Zombies (2)
* 03601: Ronnie & Reggie, Zombies (2) (unarmed)
* 03604: Billy & Earnest, Zombies (2) (unarmed)
* 03620: Zombies (2) (unarmed)
* 06135: Zombies, Necropolis Adept (9) (same as 03471, but x3)
* 14410: Necropolis Zombie (unarmed)
* 50038: Urban Zombies (3) (unarmed)
* 50066: Urban Zombies (3) (hand weapons)
* 50069: Zombie Dog Handler
* 50091: Chainsaw Zombie
* 50213: Zombie Strippers (3) (warning: zombified naughty bits - ewww)
* 50218: Alien Parasite with Host (just remove the chest-burster)
* 50222: Charlie, Zombie
* 50223: Linus, Zombie
* 50253: Lucy, Zombie
* 50266: Zombies: Doctor, Nurse and Patient
* 59017: Undead Outlaw (cowboy outfit, revolver)
* 77014: Zombies (3) (plastic "Bones" zombies - preview)


Modern(ish) Vampires:
* 02990: Crypt of the Vampiress
* 03150: Siobhana, Vampire Noble
* 03383: Vampire Spawn
* 03618: Pennangalan


Cthulhian Horrors:
* 02634: Well of Doom
* 03334: Creature Components
* 50039: Gug, Eldritch Horror
* 50248: Shoggoth
* 65095: Eldritch Demon


Misc. Little Monsters & Weirdness:
* 02870: Familiar Pack VI (7) (Halloween-themed little monsters)
* 02887: Evil Toys (6)
* 02983: Familiar Pack IX (6) (evil monkey, doll, demon cat, devil baby, urban griffon (cat/pigeon), baby-Cthulhu)


Modern Weapons & Gear:
* 50025: Futuristic Weapons
* 50026: Modern Weapons Pack
* 50030: 20th Century Weapons
* 50098: Modern Adventuring Accessories
* 50239: Motorcycle
* 50234: Weapons Pack III (modern / near-future weapons assortment)

[jltsavage]

Very nice. Kudos for going to all that trouble.
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JT's Game Blog
http://jtsavo.org/

[warrenss2]

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/Chronoscope/sku-down/50042

YES!!!

A little bit of filed wounds. Blood spatter here and there... CHILDREN ZOMBIES!!!!


Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

BTW, JP. How do you do the "link" in your posts? I use the url codes to show a link, but it just shows the.. er... url.
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[Jordan Peacock]

[warrenss2]

Thanks!!!!

Gonna try it out soon!
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[Jordan Peacock]

For my hybrid "War of the Dead"/"Zombie Run" campaign I ran last year, I relied heavily on Clix minis, especially given that most of them were pre-painted and could be modified with just a bit of touch-up work. However, I've been entertaining the idea of getting "back on the rails" and starting up WOTD again after my Pirates RPG campaign wraps up, at Chapter 2 with experienced characters -- and for that, I figured that a few "experienced"-looking zombie-fighter minis would fit the bill.

So...

Reaper Chronoscope #50153 - Berkeley, Zombie Hunter:


This is my favorite of the Reaper Chronoscope "survivor" miniatures.  I mean, she has a CHAINSAW.  Okay, okay, according to the Zombie Survival Guide, that's not a very practical anti-zombie weapon (noise attracts zombies, high chance of maiming yourself in the process, excessive gore-spray increases the chance you'll get yourself infected, awkward to try to start quickly when you need it, and it becomes dead weight once the gas runs out).  But it still looks cool.  

The backdrop brick wall is made from a broken Hot Wheels "city" play set I got from a thrift store.  (Another piece of the same play set forms part of the Slipstream rocket-ship prop I put together.)  

The boxes and bin are papercraft models I put together for my last zombie-apocalypse campaign as a cheap and quick way to litter skirmish zones with obstacles. (If I ever get called upon to make another figure flat set that happens to feature modern-attire characters, I might try to work these in as extras.)
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[Neal5x5]

For a War of the Dead or other zombie game, I'd highly recommend Wargames Factory's Zombies (http://wargamesfactory.com/). For $20, you get parts for about two dozen zombies for you personal undead horde. The parts are plastic and you have to supply your own bases, but the molds are great and there's a lot of options with various legs, torsos, arms, and heads.





I always feel bad when I see the littlest zombies not getting any.



The zombies are a little shiny because of the varnish I just did on them (WIP). Nothing like a sparkling clean undead!
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"Neal, Your cock game is AWESOME!" - Clint Black, Genghis Con '12

[Ranger Dave]

Great pics and posts. Adding my savage zombie game link to this:
http://rangerdavegames.blogspot.com/
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Ranger Dave Ross

[Jordan Peacock]

And here are some additional Chronoscope zombie-apocalypse survivors that I just finished painting up:

Reaper Chronoscope #50198 - Gallup, Zombie Survivor


This is re-based on a round 25mm laser-cut flat base, with a bit of Apoxie Sculpt textured to make pavement, a gutter made by impressing a toothpick in the putty, then a grill made by pushing the round end of a paper clip into the putty a few times, with a piece of mat board to form the sidewalk section.  The figure is painted without conversion, otherwise; the guitar piece is actually a separate piece (on the same sprue) that can be left off, or glued on.


Reaper Chronoscope #50199 - Denver, Zombie Survivor


One curious thing about this figure is that the base tab is so wide that it simply won't fit into the 30mm slotted round base that comes with it, thanks to the roller-bag dragging behind the figure (also attached to the tab).  Some trimming of the tab would be necessary.

However, I just re-based this on another 25mm round particle-board base; to get the texture, I just applied a thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt to the flat base, then mashed the lid from a bottle of shampoo into it (which happened to have an interesting grip texture).


Chronoscope #50203 - Government Agent Smith (converted)


This figure was originally holding a futuristic-looking gun, but I replaced it with a more conventional-looking (if over-sized) weapon so that this guy might be suitable for a zombie-apocalypse or other modern-horror setting.  The base is another particle-board flat round 25mm base, but to make the carpet corner, I used a bit of Apoxie Sculpt putty, then rolled the handle of my hobby knife across it (the textured grip area) to create the "fabric" texture, and used the knife blade to cut "tassels" along the edges.


Reaper Chronoscope #50205 - Joplin, Zombie Survivor


As with the others, the base is made with texturing in Apoxie Sculpt.
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[Jordan Peacock]

Okay, this is more "modern sci-fi weirdness" than "modern horror," but I painted up some "Men in Black" -- and worked in Frank the Pug as well.

Reaper Chronoscope #50202, Dark Heaven P02756A, Chronoscope #50203


From left to right, we have Reaper Chronoscope #50202 (Government Agent Jones), the pug from Dark Heaven #02756 (Familiar Pack IV), and Reaper Chronoscope #50203 (Government Agent Smith). Agent Jones has a new chin courtesy of a crumb of Apoxie Sculpt two-part epoxy putty (as the original model is goofily chinless), and Frank the Pug has a cigar courtesy of a very small piece of wire super-glued in place.
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[DHRDawg]

[Jordan Peacock]

Reaper Chronoscope #50097: Cyber-Reavers (4):


These have got to be some of the easiest paint jobs of Reaper minis, ever. At least, as long as I'm being lazy about it.

These guys come in a pack of four models. One is a complete cyborg (arms, legs, gun), one is missing both arms, and the remaining two have a left or right arm missing -- and all the "missing" arms come on a separate sprue, so you can attach and have some slight customization potential in posing the arms. If there's a flaw with these figures, it's that they're very skinny, so it's VERY easy to bend the arms and legs, and tricky to try to straighten them back out again so they look right. (This was more of a concern when I tried re-basing these guys.)

I was inspired by some of those overpriced pewter figures I see in mall stores -- you know, those pewter figures rubbed with blackening, then adorned with shiny and garish "gems," typically of dragons, fairies, or bearded wizards with gazing orbs. Terminators -- er, I mean, CYBER-REAVERS -- should be shiny, and the pewter was already shiny, so ... why not use a similar technique?

I thinned out some cheap craft black acrylic paint (Apple Barrel Paint), and painted over the figure, aiming to get all the recesses and not really caring about the high points. Once that was given ample time to dry, I went back over with a soft-bristled large brush (an older, frayed one I use for dry-brushing), and brushed over the high points, buffing down the paint on the exposed areas, while leaving black paint in the recesses, and buffed the shiny "chrome dome" skulls by hand (so as to avoid losing any of the fine details on the sides of the skulls). It could probably use a little buffing as I notice in the picture that those skulls look shinier than the rest of the body.

Then, I applied a dot of white to each eye point, and then a dot of red for the typical Term-- er, CYBER-REAVER glowing eye effect.

Voila! A very quick paint job, and something for my IMEF squad to shoot at (and vice-versa), or else perhaps I could have a Men-in-Black/Terminator crossover with the serial numbers filed off. (Talk about mood mismatch!)
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[JDSampo]

Wargames Factory released a new box of 30 all-female zombies: Zombie Vixens.

Review and pics here:
http://roebeast.blogspot.com/2012/08/wargames-factory-zombie-vixens.html?m=1
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"I drank what...?"
-Socrates

[DHRDawg]

[Jordan Peacock]

Reaper Chronoscope #50024 "Townsfolk: Modern Children," painted, re-based on laser-cut Gale Force 9 25mm round bases, modified with some Apoxie Sculpt two-part epoxy and decorated with 600 dpi printed paper elements.

For an upcoming Savage Worlds RPG campaign I will be running at a local store in November (using the "War of the Dead" setting rules from Daring Entertainment - http://www.daringentertain.com), I have been painting up miniatures of zombies and survivors, some from Reaper, some from Guillotine Games (Zombicide), and some from Wargames Factory.  One thing I've been short on would be anything to represent kids.  (Not that I expect anyone to play kids, but there are bound to be some among the survivors they'll be rescuing ... and, quite possibly, among the zombies, though I haven't gotten there yet.)

The background terrain piece used for these pictures is a section cut out of a broken "Hot Wheels City" play set I found in a thrift store, glued down to some mat board, repainted, and decorated with some more paper signage.  (I basically put together a whole sheet of images via Google Image Search of newspapers, magazines, signage, "police / crime scene tape," hazard stripes, and other details that I thought I might be able to apply as 600 dpi paper print-outs rather than attempting to paint it all by hand.  I just don't have that sort of skill.)

"Pavement" texturing on the bases was achieved by applying thin layers of Apoxie Sculpt two-part epoxy putty to each base.  I then dipped the whole thing in water to apply a temporary wet film, and jammed the base, putty-first, down on the work-table I was using (which has a rough surface that makes for a passable "pavement" texture once inverted).  Due to the layer of water, I was then able to lift the base back up without the putty being pulled away by the texturing, then flip it back over, and apply additional texturing, such as cracks, sidewalk curb, etc.



Here's the "hoodie" kid, holding an EXTRA JUMBO-SIZED edition of the Zombie Survival Guide, or else maybe they've started releasing binder folders with ZSG covers for those back-to-school supplies.  I wanted to add little details to the figures that would somehow say "zombie apocalypse!" but without going so far over the top to include blood spatters and zombie gore all over.  After all, I might get some more use out of these figures in a Ghostbusters or Men in Black or some other modern-scenario game.  Hence, things like this which COULD be appropriate for a zombie-apocalypse setting, but might very well just hint that the kid has some peculiar reading interests.  Alas, my scaling estimate was a bit off, so the "book" is suspiciously large for the figure.




Here's the "flower girl" figure.  What I was going for here was EXTRA CHEERFUL, so I put some extra work into trying to make those big expressive eyes (with little speck-of-white highlights), and took quite a few passes to get something resembling a toothy smile.  Good grief, but I tried all the techniques to keep my hand steady, but I kept on jiggling the brush several millimeters at bad moments, so this took several tries to get even as far as I did.  The newspaper she's standing on has a headline with something along the lines of "ZOMBIES ATTACK - THE DEAD RISE!" that I found as a "bogus newspaper headline" image via Google Image Search, so I claim no credit for any of the printed elements.  (Well, except for the caution stripes and the "POLICE LINE - DO NOT CROSS" where they apply.)




And here's the kid on the skateboard.  I had a bit of trouble basing this one, since the wheels of the skateboard didn't provide very much surface area for pinning, nor for just gluing straight to the base surface, once I'd removed the tab.  (Perhaps I shouldn't have been quite so hasty.)  I added the curb with some Apoxie Sculpt since I thought it might add a little more "cool kid" aura if it looks like he's "jumping" off the curb with the skateboard (such as it is).

During a Google Image search, trying to find pictures of packaging I might use as papercraft trash for the gutter, I found several images of a Chick-Fil-A take-out bag from different viewpoints -- enough for me to make a "micro-papercraft" of a bag.  I used dots of paint instead of glue to hold the fragile little bag together, as I didn't want to overdo it with the tacky glue or craft glue.  The bag "handle" is affixed to the outstretched hand with a dot of super glue.

As for WHY he has a Chick-Fil-A bag in the zombie apocalypse, I have no idea.  If it's the apocalypse (or if it's Sunday), it's highly unlikely Chick-Fil-A is open, but it was just sort of an impulse thing.  Having the bag sticking out like that just did a little extra to convey motion, to my mind, like the kid is really buzzing along (and there are some zombies off camera, to whom people "taste like chicken").  The poster in the gutter is a bogus "safety poster" on tips for what to do in case of zombie attack (though once reduced to that size, it's all quite illegible).
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[Jordan Peacock]

Reaper Chronoscope #50071 "Kelly, Corporate Assassin," painted up as a "Men in Black" agent.

I'm tentatively naming this character "Agent CC." I figure once they run out of the alphabet, double-letters might follow. "BB," "CC," "DD," "GG," and "JJ" sound like they could work for agent letters/names, much in the same way that "Agent J" sounded like "Agent Jay," while "Agent K" sounded like "Agent Kay," and "Agent L" seemed perfectly reasonable as "Agent Elle." Maybe for a gag later on, I could have some guy with a huge beard and sunglasses, with an alien weapon that looks suspiciously like a giant silver guitar, and call him "Agent ZZ." But then, now I've gone and spoiled the joke!

Anyway, this again employs some of that 600-dpi paper base detailing. Similarly, I've gone back to "Government Agent Jones" and put some tiny paper "Weekly World News" issues on his base, while "Government Agent Smith" might get a magazine or a proper newspaper. He might have to roll it up to help in dealing with "Agent F."
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[Jordan Peacock]

Reaper Chronoscope 50191 - Terrell, Zombie Survivor


Terrell, Zombie Survivor - painted up as a police officer and zombie-apocalypse survivor for my Necronomicon scenario (as a pre-generated PC) and for my upcoming campaign.  I tried out a friend's "rust powder" on the War Cast Studios base to go for a more "distressed" effect.


Reaper Chronoscope 50024 - Candy, Anime Heroine


Candy, Anime Heroine - painted up with an attempt at a plaid skirt and stockings. I also tried painting some blue lines on the skin in an experiment at taking a normal figure to make it fit better into a "cyberpunk" setting (perhaps hinting at either flashy cybertech, or perhaps near-future fashion with luminescent body paint -- I'm honestly not quite sure where I was going with that).
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[Jordan Peacock]

Reaper #03229 - Elise Anya, Vampire Hunter


This is actually a miniature I've wanted to paint for quite a while, though I was struggling to settle upon what paint scheme to go with.

Despite technically being in Reaper's fantasy Dark Heaven line, she makes for a great modern "goth" combatant, and especially works as a vampire hunter, what with the stake conveniently located on one hip, and a crucifix accessory.

For a while, this figure was actually a pretty good deal from Reaper's "Boneyard," as you could get Anya herself (minus the tombstone) for $2.00 -- whereas if you want to buy just the tombstone, it used to cost nearly as much as just getting the entire blister pack. (I'm going to take a guess that the tombstone must sell a lot more than Anya does, hence the price imbalance.)

However, that's how it was earlier this week; I just checked now (after making a similar comment on the Reaper forums), and it appears that this must have been some sort of mistake, because it has been CHANGED considerably. Oops. I guess I should have bought my army of Anyas while it was still at $2, before saying anything.
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[Jordan Peacock]

On the more sci-fi side of "modern horror":

Reaper Chronoscope #50097 Cyber-Reavers (4 sets)


Once I replenished my stock of War Cast Studios "industrial" 25mm resin bases at my Friendly Local Game Store (and picked up some of the new "industrial tech" bases -- http://www.warcaststudios.com/home?page=shop.product_details&category_id=15&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=67), I went ahead and based and painted the rest of my Cyber-Reavers.

Model Variation:
In the sci-fi scenario I've been building up around the IMEF troopers, this "endoskeleton" design is a common one, put out by a number of manufacturers, so I wanted some variety in how the 'bots look. I have a few old Ral Partha "Necrovores" and some Heartbreaker Hobbies Warzone "Machinators" that I might polish up a bit to represent other design variants as well. But for these particular models, I hinted at some variations by painting some of the robots with a shiny white carapace, versus the "burnished pewter" look going on with most of the rest. (The "burnished pewter" look was done just by applying some slightly-watered-down black acrylic paint to the bare metal, then wiping off the surfaces, to leave black shadows in the recessed areas.)

I experimented with the arm sprue that comes with the blister pack, and rather than going with the conventional "one robot, one gun" lineup, I paired a few "empty-hand" arms together so three of my Cyber-Reavers are unarmed (though this means that it's offset by three Cyber-Reavers who are going all "John Woo" with paired pistols as a consequence).

Further slight variation is fairly easy, considering how thin-limbed these figures are, as stance can be easily adjusted by slightly widening or narrowing the space between the feet, and the amount of bend at elbows and knees can be slightly adjusted without noticeable warping, with a bit of care.

Basing Considerations:
One tricky thing about basing these figures is that the "skelebots" are extremely thin-limbed (not surprising - they're skeletons!) and this is a challenge when trying to pin them down to bases. Normally this process would involve taking a hobby pinning drill and boring a hole in the heel of one or both feet, then inserting wire, and matching it to holes bored into the resin base. The shin area on these figures is exceptionally thin and warps very easy with very little pressure (it's pewter - soft metal), and the bottom surface area of the feet is so small that, combined, it makes for a bit of an ordeal to try to drill those holes.

Thus, after my first batch of Reavers (not pictured here), I tried another method: The figures normally come on tabs that are meant to be fitted into the slotted plastic 30mm bases they originally came with. Rather than cutting off the tabs entirely for re-basing, I used metal snips to trim away all of the tabs EXCEPT for the areas directly attached to the bottoms of the feet. I then tapered those sections of pewter into triangle/wedge shapes, so I'd have some built-in anchors. I used the conical head on my Dremel to bore some anchor holes into the surface of the resin base under each foot, then inserted the wedge anchor points, and filled any remaining gaps with tiny amounts of epoxy putty. Once the putty hardened, the figure usually popped right back out again, but this was easily fixed with a dot of super glue.

Making Battle-Damaged "Synth-Skin" Reavers:
I still need to make some "battle-damaged" bots with "synth-skin" remnants, but for that I am going to have to chop up some other figures and use a bit of Insta-Mold and Apoxie Sculpt. My basic plan: Take a cheap plastic HorrorClix figure that I didn't like the face of anyway, chop off part of the head, then use Instant Mold to make a partial copy of a Reaver skull, and insert that. Voila! Battle-damage with a part of the "synth-skin" torn away to reveal cyber-skull underneath.

"Battle damage" on limbs is going to be a bit trickier, since I'd need some meatier limbs to have much ROOM to expose cyber-circuitry underneath that will paint up well with my limited skills. This may require a bit of trial and error. Of course, this could be a great excuse to get #50201 Cyborg Parts, but price-wise, it would be more cost-effective for me to just do the unthinkable and chop up some perfectly good complete Cyber Reavers. (I might just go back and do that at some point; it's not like I put very much effort into the paint job on the "burnished pewter" ones.)
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[Jordan Peacock]

Shambler Horde Base - Work in Progress:


(Figures: Reaper Bones 77014 - "Zombies" (pack of 3) -- http://www.reapermin...ie/latest/77014)
(Base: War Cast Studios resin "industrial" 60mm base -- http://www.warcastst...l&product_id=46)

Grr. These are nowhere being near finished painting, but I didn't even SEE the mold lines until I took this picture. Ah well: WORK IN PROGRESS!

...

Anyway, to explain what's going on here, I have more than plenty plastic zombie minis for my Shambler horde for "War of the Dead."

The trouble is, it takes a while to MOVE them all when I want to make it clear that the horde is advancing upon our intrepid heroes and they'd really better carefully consider whether they should take their chances looting, or pack it up and RUN. The natural solution seemed to be to borrow a cue from my Warhammer Fantasy days and put zombies on a "movement tray," but that wouldn't necessarily pack them in quite the way I'd hoped -- I've got a lot of terrain to maneuver and squeeze the horde through and a big rectangular tray of wobbling 20mm bases won't necessarily cut it.

My partial solution (a work in progress) is to try making a "horde base" with several zombies on it, pinned to the base in the usual manner -- except that the pin is not actually glued to the hole in the base. I still have a lot of painting detail work to do on the zombies and on the base (and I have plenty of room to cram more zombies in there), but here's a picture of the basic idea (with an overlay circle to highlight the piece of wire used as a "pin" inserted into the foot of one of the shamblers).

Savage Worlds Usage:
I was originally thinking of treating this as a Savage Worlds "swarm," except that, unlike the typical "swarm" of biting insects or rats, there should be a fairly finite number of zombies in here, and it seems unfair to treat it as if normal concentrated weapons fire hasn't even a chance of whittling it down.

Instead, I'm thinking of just treating this as a stand in for several individual zombies in a tight cluster, "spawning" individual zombies that break off from the horde to pursue the heroes down a tight corridor, etc. -- in which case I remove one "pinned" zombie from the base, and dig through my "box o' zombies" to put a self-standing model on the board to represent the straggler. If someone directs fire at the horde and succeeds at taking out one or more zombies, I can represent the casualties by simply removing figures from the base.

I think that one "special effect" of the horde base is that Shaken results will be inconsequential unless you have some area-effect means of Shaking the ENTIRE horde. An individual zombie that staggers for a moment under gunfire is just going to be shoved along by the rest of the pack.

Base Plans:
As for the base, I plan to give it a good dose of rust, caution stripes and distressed, flaking paint (plus the obligatory "zombie ick" splats and streaks) before this is done. I just base-coated it grey and gave it a black wash so it wouldn't look like a featureless grey blob for the photo.

If this works well, I'll probably make a few such bases. Scenarios that call for a large onslaught of zombies will have one or more of these bases to represent the tightly-packed horde with some of my more repetitive and less-detailed (and generally cheaper) zombie figures. The Bones "zombie" pack works especially well as a cheap-but-still-close-to-32mm-scale source for the horde. Once the Kickstarter Bones minis get released, there will be another zombie pose/model for me to choose from ("George") to add more variety.

Zombie Plans:
As lamented about before, I'll need to go back and trim off those mold lines. Fortunately, that's pretty easy with a hobby knife and the Bones plastic.

I also want some variety, so they're not all in the same wacky "Hi there!" wave pose. Unlike pewter, I can't just bend the arms into new positions and expect them to stick. I may experiment with using wire to force them to new positions, or just cut and re-attach (or dig through the "bitz box" for replacement arms).

Of course, I have plenty of other-brand zombies I can add to the horde, but this thread is nominally about REAPER minis, so I'll stick to that for sharing here.
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