The first official Dawn of the Lead prize draw has now concluded. There were eight participants, numbered in the order of comments received. I then utilised a hi-tech manual random number generator:
As it happens, entrant number seven was none other, than one Colonel Shofer. The good colonel has been notified and will receive his prize in due time.
Thanks to all participants!
I decided to start off this new year with something special. As every miniature gamer knows, we tend to accumulate far more miniatures than we can paint. I got a fair few freebies for my Colonial Marine review, and while most will end up in my own use, there are a few that are simply extra. In this case, the Fenryll Science Fiction Troopers.
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
From my review:
French resin miniature manufacturer Fenryll has six more or less obviously not-CMs in their science fiction range. It has to be said right at the start that these miniatures are very big. While the Fenryll site lists them as 28mm, the models actually measure 33-35mm from top of base to top of head. The size is a real shame, since the miniatures are very nice. The sculptor Dominique Seys has done a nice job with the troopers’ faces and gear, and resin produces beutiful, crisp detail. There is one thing about the first pack that bugs me a lot, and it’s the way the troopers hold their pulse rifles. They’re all holding them one-handed (two of them are holding a grenade in the other hand), and the guns look entirely weightless. This gives the troopers of the first pack a very action figure-ish look, which I’m not partial to. The troopers in pack 2 hold their guns much more sensibly with two hands, and I prefer this pack to the first one. The models come with separate guns and backpacks, and they’re all on square integral resin bases, with some sculpted detail and texture. There were some casting flaws, with quite a lot of flash and mould lines/misalignment.
The size of the Fenryll troopers will probably put a lot of people off. As the comparison pictures below show, they’re very tall, standing head and shoulders above most other miniatures in this review. While this might make them unappealing to a fair few gamers, their large size does mean that they’re a perfect match size-wise for the Horrorclix Aliens or the Heresy Hurn, which tend to be pretty big compared to most 28mm miniatures. In terms of price the troopers are at the higher end in this review, with a pack of three models costing 10 EUR, which amounts to £8.40 at the time of writing, or £2.80 per miniature.
The latter part is why I’m giving them away. While wonderful minis, they’re simply a bit too large to fit in with my other models. They’re still very nice, and really should find a nice home.
How to get them? Simple, just drop me a comment on this post. Using magical powers (and a random number generator) I’ll pick the lucky winner and notify them. The winner will need to pay postage, which should at most amount to 2-3 EUR or something similar even for overseas delivery – the Finnish post office is quite cheap and very reliable. Payment via PayPal is preferred.
Good luck!
As the year is grinding towards its inevitable end, I must say I’m somewhat satisfied with this year hobby-wise. While I didn’t get a whole lot done, I managed to actually keep old projects alive and do some gaming for a change. Here’s a quick look at what I did. There were basically just two miniature projects that occupied me during the year.
Aliens/Predator/Colonial Marines
I really did most of the work on these during 2010. Still, in 2011 I kept the project alive, and painted most of what was still unpainted in my stock of Alien and Predator miniatures as well as a whole bunch of Colonial Marines. I also did a very thorough review of the latter, and it has actually become my third most popular post ever, with close to 4000 direct clicks and probably a whole lot more through the front page.
I also managed to use them in gaming as well. While Triton-4 is on an undefined hiatus at the moment, it was important for me personally to actually get some use out of all the stuff I’d painted and the scenery I’d made. While somewhat time consuming, the games were a lot of fun, and I’m sure(-ish) we haven’t seen the last of the campaign yet.
Blood Bowl
The second part of my miniature gaming year consisted of a Blood Bowl league. I managed to almost complete an orc team, and I’m currently hard at work on an undead one. As for the games…weeell, most were pretty solid whippings for yours truly, but that hasn’t deterred me in the least bit. 2012’s league is starting up, and there are a fair few skulls to crack. Some might even be in my opponents’ teams.
Zombies
This was a good year for zombie media reviews. I reviewed four different zombie book titles as well as six different movies. I was more than happy to do my share of promoting indie and short films.
I managed to keep up my “Upcoming zombie goodness” series of posts, keeping people (myself included) up to date on what’s happening in the zombie pop culture world. You can definitely expect to see those in the future.
What’s next?
I’ve no idea. The Blood Bowl project will continue, as will the Alien vs. Predator one. I’m hoping to get more gaming done, as usual, as well as more stuff painted. I purchased hardly anything this year, and I’m in no hurry to bury myself in more unpainted miniatures. It’s been satisfying to paint and use minis that have been sitting in boxes and cupboard for years. That’s what they’re for, anyway.
I like how the blog has turned out, and have no intention of stopping writing it. I’ve garnered a pretty solid base of followers, and whether you’re one of them or just a random passer-by, I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks for making it worth my while.
Happy New Year 2012, everyone. Let’s hope we skip the apocalypse part.
Unless it's a zombie one. That might be awesome.
The year is ticking towards its inevitable end, but there’s still time for one more post of zombie movie news. All of these are set to come out in 2012, so unless those Mayan bastards were right, we’re in for a few treats.
Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Not another NotLD re-hash – what’s it this time? 4D?” At least that’s what I was thinking. What the producers had to say (via Dread Central) changed my mind a bit for the positive:
Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection is aiming to serve as an entertaining companion piece to the original film rather than attempting to do the impossible and improve on it. This project is being produced by a group of filmmakers who are genuine fans of the horror genre. We have fresh ideas for how to revitalise the zombie sub-genre and have created a story that combines modern elements with the classic premise. We are sure genre fans will be happy to see a modern horror film which focuses on genuine suspense and tension, utilises practical FX rather than CGI, and provides characters that the audience will actually care about.
Of course that’s what they always say. The trailer looks very nice, though, so I remain optimistic about this project.
[REC]³ Génesis
[REC] is one of my all-time favourite zombie movies. [REC]² was okay-ish, though poor in some parts. Now there’s [REC]³ on the way (set to premier in Spain March 30, 2012), and it’s looking tasty indeed. I’ll just let the trailer speak for itself.
Zombie Dawn
This Chilean low-budget venture has actually been doing the festival circuit since 2009. It’s really been travelling under the radar, as I only recently ran into it via a friend’s tip. The movie centers on a group of mercenaries entering a quarantine zone to investigate the roots of the whole catastrophe. I have a strong feeling that things don’t go quite as planned. I’ve always been a sucker for these military-squad-vs-monster-of-choice (like Predator, Aliens, Dog Soldiers or Outpost), so I’m looking forward to this one. For more information, see the film’s official site.
The Upcoming zombie goodness series will of course continue in 2012.
First of all, pardon for the awful (if there is another kind) pun in the title. It was my rather quaint way of letting you know that I’ve completed two new models for the Ravens. Let me present to you… Karl Eye-Popper and Oswald Strangler!
Both are ghouls from Mantic (reviewed here), and lovely miniatures to paint. What made them even easier to paint is the fact that I made the conscious decision to leave the uniform colours without shading to convey something of a game piece vibe as opposed to something more realistic. So, plain black and purple it was. To counterbalance this, I did some extra work on the skin and the self-inflicted wounds, trying to make the former deathly pale and dirty and the latter nasty and infected. I’d love to hear your comments on whether it worked or not.
Here are my new players, along with their thoughts on their existence.
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Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.
– Karl Eye-Popper
This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on.
– Oswald Strangler
Another player has joined the ranks of the (painted) Ravens: Ludwig Wightenstein. Ready to beat down opponents not only by reducing philosophical problems to linguistic puzzles, but also with his mechanical claw of nasty death.
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Ludwig is an all-plastic conversion composed of several bits and pieces. The torso and pauldron are from GW’s Empire knights set, while the head, left arm and legs are from their classic (80s-90s) plastic skeleton set. The right arm is from GW’s zombie set, and the right wrist with the claw comes from Mantic’s ghoul sprue. I also greenstuffed tattered remains of clothing around his waist to mask the join between the legs and the torso. Wightenstein’s right arm still bears old, undead flesh – no doubt kept in its state by some vile magic in the claw.
He was given a quick, simple paint job. I went for a rusty, old armour look. The clothing (or rather lack of it) posed a problem, but I tried to convey the black and purple uniform of the Ravens nevertheless. I’m fairly happy with the model, but less so with my progress with the team. The league is scheduled to kick off soon, and I’d love to field a fully painted team for once.
I’ve been waiting for this movie a long, long time. It has popped up on Dawn of the Lead several times, first almost two years back on February 6 2010, and I’ve been following its progress closely. Now I’ve finally seen it, and for once it’s great to see a zombie movie actually live up to my expectations.
The Dead, by brothers Howard & Jonathan Ford, tells the story of two men. One (played by Rob Freeman) is an American Air Force engineer, who is the sole survivor when an evacuation plane crashes off the coast of Sierra Leone (I believe). The other one (played by Prince David Oseia) is a local soldier who has lost his son in the chaos of a zombie catastrophe. The movie follows these two men, as one tries to find a way out of the country while the other tries to find his son.
This movie does a lot of things right. Where do I begin? First of all, it’s a return to the roots of zombie horror. The zombies in the movie aren’t the type that jumps around and screams using that “generic monster scream” sound effect that’s used in pretty much every low-budget movie nowadays. Instead these are the zombies of Romero and Fulci: not fast, not smart, but persistent, inhuman and ever present. This is something The Dead does very well. The zombies are scary in a very profound manner, as they are simply automatons craving human flesh. They walk around slowly with a vacant look in their eyes, and when they manage to catch someone, they chew their food thoughtfully. This is something that makes them really unsettling. By stripping their monsters of overt monstrosity (wild aggression, screaming, frenzied speed), the Ford brothers have made their zombies something more than scary. They’re at the same time terrifying and sad – former humans stripped of all humanity. Their terror is increased by the fact that they are everywhere. Whenever there’s noise, you can be sure that in a few moments a zombie or two will silently wander in. This is in my opinion a cornerstone of zombie horror that has been lost in the past years. The zombies in The Dead aren’t scary because they run up to you and rip your throat out. Instead they are scary, because their steady lumbering makes it perfectly clear that there will be no rest or respite to anyone trying to avoid them. It might take them a good long while, but eventually you will tire and they will find you.
This leads me to another of the film’s strong points. The Dead is bleak. Not rub-it-in-your-face-go-cry-emo-kid-teen-angst bleak, mind you. There aren’t witty one-liners, nor comedy zombies going up escalators, just the dead everywhere, abandoned villages and hopeless survivors. The parallels between contemporary developing Africa are obvious. It’s apparent that even without the zombies, the people aren’t living a luxury life and the soldiers are used to putting their AK-47’s to use. For the most part, the movie doesn’t luckily overdo this. There are warm moments there of hope, friendship and community. These aren’t too sappy and Hollywood, so they fit the tone of the movie. Simply put, The Dead is a zombie movie for grown-ups.
The trend is continued in the down-to-earth setting. No massive explosions, high-tech weaponry or things like that. Most of the movie features two men, a few guns and a rusty, stalling pickup truck. The moviemakers have relied on the sights of Africa for their visuals, and that is an excellent choice. Shot on location in Burkina Faso and Ghana, The Dead is easily one of the most beautiful zombie films I’ve ever seen. A lot of the film happens during sunny daytime, and the beautiful vistas of Africa get a lot of screen time. In addition to eye candy, this really changes the tone of the film. Most zombie movies are set in cramped urban environments, producing a sense of claustrophobia. In The Dead, there is lots and lots of space, yet you can almost always see a zombie somewhere, walking along. Again, this enhances the zombies’ effectiveness – you can simply walk around them, but they will follow. The directors have also wonderfully conveyed the oppressing heat and bright sun of the setting. The cast is dusty and sweaty throughout the film, and the cinematography is impressive.
I really liked the movie’s pacing, but this has divided opinions somewhat. The Dead is quite slow. It takes its time, and is largely a road movie, a story of travelling. At times the movie might feel like it slows down too much. For me, it’s a much needed departure from contemporary hectic zombie films and allows the viewer to enjoy the sights and sounds (or rather, silence) of the setting. If I’m allowed to be poetic for a moment, I’ll say the movie leaves you time to think about what’s happening, where it’s set and contrast it with reality.
There aren’t many flaws in the movie. The pacing mentioned before might make the movie seem boring to some, but that’s a matter of taste. There’s also some rather heavy handed social commentary of the “I don’t understand you white people” kind, but there’s not a lot of it. One of the movie’s potentially very interesting storylines is skipped over very lightly, which was a bit of a letdown as it was a very interesting one. The characters could’ve used just a little bit more depth, even if they are not cardboard cut-outs by any means. These are, however, small things compared to the film’s overall quality.
Overall verdict: The Dead is one of the best zombie movies I have ever seen. It’s thought-provoking, adult and genuinely scary. The setting is brilliant and really makes the movie stand out from its contemporaries. This is what zombie movies can be at their best.
You can get the movie on dvd from Play.com and other stores. Be sure to check out the movie’s official site as well.
It’s time for another look at zombies on film. I haven’t done these in a while, so pardon me for showcasing some that are already out there.
Zombie Massacre has a nice name to it. It’s a new movie from the makers of the zombie film Eaters, which was rubbish – it was actually the first time I fell asleep watching a zombie flick. The trailer seems very stylish, though, so maybe there is promise in this one.
Nazi Zombies: I Think We’re Alone Now is a fun short homage to Call of Duty’s nazi zombie part, featuring four WW2 soldiers from different nations fighting nazi zombies in slow motion. Yes. It’s included in its 2½ minute entirety below.
Zombies: A Living History is a pretty interesting History channel documentary on the zombie phenomenon, exploring the history of the zombie and the possibility of real-life zombies amongst other things. It features zombie pop culture experts, such as Max Brooks and Jonathan Maberry. There’s a trailer embedded below. I’ve no idea how you can get your hands on it commercially, but you can watch it on Tube+ and the like.
Exit Humanity is something of a rarity – a period zombie piece set ten years after the American Civil War. It looks pretty tasty in the trailer, and has been doing the festival rounds lately. For more info check out the trailer below as well as the movie’s official site.
I Survived a Zombie Holocaust looks to add to a small number of zombie comedies. This NZ film promises to be a fun story of actual zombies invading the set of a zombie movie in the making. The trailer shows great promise, so let’s hope they can pull it off. The movie is due out in 2012.
There you go, plenty of new(ish) stuff to feast on!
The Blood Bowl heat is still going strong. Earlier I showed you the pitch, now it’s time to take a peek at the team. As shown before, our Blood Bowl teams have mostly taken their inspiration from existing teams and this time’s no exception. My Necromantic team – the Drakwald Ravens – is modelled on the NFL team Baltimore Ravens. The black & purple theme fits perfectly into the undead look, so this was an obvious direction to go to.
In an effort to avoid buying too many new miniatures, I’ve tried to use miniatures I already own. The only exception to this are a bunch of Mantic zombies, which I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for a while. Even these I managed to buy second hand at a low price. The rest of my team consists of Mantic ghouls, West Wind werewolves, FU-UK tank zombies (as flesh golems) and two wights assembled from bits and pieces. As most readers should know, I’ve started a few projects along the years, mostly revolving around the undead and various related critters. It should come as no surprise, then, that I’ve more than enough minis to make a Blood Bowl team. Funnily enough the zombies were the one thing that I lacked! This is mainly due to actually converting all of my medieval-ish zeds into a more modern look.
Naming is always important in Blood Bowl (to me at least). The BB/Warhammer universe is filled with more or less succesful puns and bastardisations of existing contemporary and historical names. Never one to skip a chance for some groanworthy punning, I decided to name the Ravens after various philosophers of the German-speaking world. Enter such stars as Immortal Kant, Georg Henrik von Wight, Arthur Schopenhowler and Karl Eye-Popper. Oh, I had so much fun with these. If I ever need foreign additions to the team, I’ll be sure to include David Exhume and John Stuart Kill.
Anyway, I’ve already started painting my team and I’m happy to present you my first flesh golem, Max Hurtheimer. He’s a Left 4 Dead inspired tank zombie from the 2009 FU-UK sculpting competition. In Blood Bowl, the flesh golems are usually creatures styled after Frankenstein’s monster, but I’ve always wanted to find a good use for my two tanks, so I figured they fit the bill just fine. The paintjob’s a bit more messy than my usual fare, but I still like him as I think he manages to look pretty menacing and corpse-like. He was painted mostly following my general recipe for zombies.
Click for a larger version
That’s it for now. Expect to see some more Ravens in the near future. I plan to grind through painting them in short order. After all, it’s just 14 or so models, one of which is already painted (as well as another, if I just repaint the pants and the base). How hard can it be?
Dawn of the Lead 