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The Undead and Philosophy – a review

April 15, 2010

My first reaction to hearing about this book was approximately this. Philosophy of the undead? Yeah, right. While books like this – the philosophy of [enter pop culture icon] – do come up fairly frequently, their quality is often dubious: they’re filled with pseudo-philosophy and illogical leaps and generalizations. Why is this? Probably because they’re written by self-taught kitchen philosophers and the like. Don’t get me wrong, books like that are often very entertaining, but they also tend to lack enough hard substance to make you really want to delve in. I’m happy to say that The Undead and Philosophy – chicken soup for the soulless positively surprised me.

Part of the ongoing series of books called Popular Culture and Philosophy (which I will definitely check out, if the quality equals this book), the Undead and Philosophy consists of 19 articles by various philosophy professionals – professors and associate professors mostly – focusing on the philosophical questions that surround the undead, the term in this book meaning zombies and vampires. While some people might dismiss something like this outright – a few friends of mine did – the questions are actually valid and interesting. Here are some examples of articles in the book:

  • The Badness of Undeath by Richard Greene – Is it actually bad being undead? Is undeath bad in itself?
  • When They Aren’t Eating Us, They Bring Us Together: Zombies and the American Social Contract by Leah A. Murray – Individualism and communitarianism in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
  • Zombies, Blade Runner and the Mind-Body Problem by Larry Hauser – The self awareness of zombies paralleled with the replicants in the movie Blade Runner.

Now if these didn’t sound interesting, this probably isn’t the book for you. If they did, read on!

One thing that strikes me as excellent in this book is that the writers know their undead culture sufficiently. They’ve seen their Romeros, Draculas and Buffys, so they can pose valid questions and observations. For a reader like me, with some knowledge in philosophy and a lot more in undead pop culture, this is of huge importance, as failure in either category immediately knocks the book down a notch.

Simplifying the classic philosophical theories to a comprehensible level is a challenge in itself, and again one which the book clears. Many of the writers are teachers, and it shows. They do a good job of making the book an easy read without dumbing it down too much.

The great thing in this book is that it adds a whole new level to the horror genre that we love so much. The articles in the book sparked a lot of those “hey, that’s true, I never thought about it that way” and whenever a book manages to do this, it gets a solid thumbs up from me. I know that watching the movies dealt with in this book after reading it will make me see them in a new light. Not a bad achievement, since we’re talking about films I’ve seen time and time again.

Overall verdict: You’re apparently already interested in the undead since you’re reading this blog. If you have even a passing interest in philosophy to boot, I strongly suggest you pick up this book. It’s bound to give you a few new points of view.

The Undead and Philosophy is edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad, and you can get it in bookstores around the world. I picked mine up from  The Book Depository for 14 EUR.

Posted in Book reviews, Books, Zombies | 5 Comments »

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Just another bughunt

April 11, 2010

As you may have noticed, DotL has been very quiet lately. This is mainly due to real life stuff, such as work and doing research for my Master’s thesis (on RPG’s, no less!). This means I’ve not had the time nor the energy to work on new miniatures, so I’m going to show you something a bit older.

Ever since I could whip up the courage to watch them as a pre-teen, I’ve loved the Alien and Predator franchises. With the exception of the rather silly Alien: Resurrection and the god-awful AVP films, they’re all among my favourite scifi movies. In fact, I just recently had a solid dose of Aliens as I watched all of the four films back to back and then went to Tampere a few days later to see a wonderful H.R. Giger exhibition. All this has lead me back to an older miniatures project of mine, namely Aliens vs. Predator.

This project has been once of those that seem to last forever and not really progress a lot. I was actually doing pretty fine on it, but then I really got into zombie miniatures a lot and consequently my little critters have been gathering dust since. Maybe doing a post on these might help things to get going again? One can always hope. I’ve also been thinking about picking up the new limited edition Space Hulk, although I’d probably have to pay an arm and a leg for it. From what I’ve heard, it just might be worth it, though.

That’s enough idle chitchat, on with the minis! Sorry about the inconsistent lighting in the pics, was in a bit of a hurry.

There are different possibilities for Alien miniatures, but I ended up using what I think are hands down the best ones available: HorrorClix Aliens. While they’re now out of production, I picked up a few boxes cheaply off the ‘Nets a year or so back so I have around twenty or so. Like all HC stuff, they come pre-painted and are actually quite usable straight from the box. I wanted them a bit more black and glossy, so played around with washes and drybrushing and painted a gloss varnish over the end result. They came out lovely, I think. I used some glue to simulate the resin-like goo the creatures secrete, and liked that end result as well. The Aliens are  a bit on the large side, but then so was the original creature in the first film.

Click for a larger view

For Predators I went with Copplestone Castings. While I think they’re the best stuff available at the moment (and back when I bought them), Heresy’s new Hurn is pretty tempting. And while Ainsty’s INAPs are definitely showing their age as sculpts, the idea of clear resin figures is excellent. Also, the name always brings a smile to my face, as INAP=It’s Not A Predator.

Click for a larger version

No alien monster would be happy without heavily armed futuristic humans to decapitate, maim and/or impregnate. Again, enter Mark Copplestone and his wonderful scifi troopers available through Copplestone Castings, em4 and Mirliton. I went for a generic urban camo on the regular troopers, while the beret wearing guys in red and black are something like corporate security or special forces.  Actually, they remind me for reasons unknown of the Omni Corp troopers from the classic game Laser Squad. Maybe that’s how I always imagined them.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Actually just writing this post makes me want to finish this project. And maybe buy Space Hulk.

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments »

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Plague – a review

March 27, 2010

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m really not into low budget films. While the occasional gem does appear, most zombie flicks on shoestring budget aren’t worth the time spent watching them. Therefore I’m very happy to say that the indie short film Plague blew me away.

Directed by Matt Simpson and produced by Frances Moylan, the 2009 Australian short film Plague tells the story of Vilhelms, a Latvian gun-runner that travels to the UK to escape in search of a new life. As is often the case in this genre, a zombie plague sweeps the nation and Vilhelms is swept along.

Zombie movies are all about characters. Zombies as such aren’t really interesting, but the survivors’ reactions are. This is what I liked most about Plague. It’s simply a low-key story of one man’s survival in an apocalyptic scenario with a voiceover narration from the character. The film manages to capture that “what would I do?” feeling so crucial in zombie stories. What you have here is an ordinary guy. Sure, he’s done some gun trafficking, but that doesn’t make him an action hero even if he uses a gun a few times in the film. Whether he’s hammering zombies, cooking beans or shaving, you can relate to Vilhelms.

While I’m not into low budget stuff in general, I love good short films. They’re usually made by young indie film makers who aren’t forced to conform to larger studio standards nor to cater to the needs of the general public. Also they’re not burdened by the need to create a full-length feature, so what we’re left with is a very concentrated, intensive piece of cinema. Plague has a running time of approx. 16 minutes, which is just about perfect. The story is told in full, not dragged out or cut short.

The crew on this film is obviously very, very talented. Makeup is easily on the level of big budget zombie films in terms of quality, and there are enough zombie extras (19, to be exact) to create a convincing scenario. The cinematography is excellent, and this is probably the artsiest zombie flick I’ve seen, definitely in a good way. I hope that Mr. Simpson has a chance and the drive to work on more zombie projects, as I’d love to see a full-length film of this quality.

Overall verdict: Plague is one of the nicest pieces of zombie cinema I’ve seen in a while. It’s inspired, clearly a labour of love and definitely makes the most of – and surpasses – its meagre production values. There’s absolutely no reason not to see it.

You can watch Plague for free at the official website. And when I say can, I mean should definitely now go.

Posted in Movie reviews, Movies, Zombies | 3 Comments »

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Ghouls by Mantic – a review

March 14, 2010

When it comes to plastics, the zombie collector isn’t really spoilt for choice. There are the GW plastic zombies and the Wargames Factory ones, and that’s about it. Of course you can use pretty much any set of plastics and make quick conversions: a lolling head here, a twisted ankle there makes for a nice zombie. Apart from this there are no real zombie plastics that I’m aware of.

Mantic is a fairly new miniatures company catering to fantasy gamers and producing miniatures mostly in plastic. Their Undead army includes plastic ghouls described as follows:

Ghouls are devolved, cannibalistic creatures that tear and claw at their prey’s soft flesh, ripping it from the enemy before gorging themselves in an unearthly feast. Before battle, Ghouls impale themselves with vicious spikes and deadly barbs, working themselves up into such a blood frenzy that they can shrug off most fatal wounds.

Now this sounds really fun, doesn’t it? They’re not really zombies, but the potential is there. I was lucky enough to be contacted by fellow blogger and DotL reader sho3box suggesting a trade between his brand new set of Mantic ghouls and a sprue of my Wargames Factory zombies. We made the trade and here’s my take on the ghouls.

The sprue contains two ghouls, with two different lower and upper bodies. There are three optional heads and three hands with different weapon options – a long dagger, a cleaver and a Freddy Kruger-ish claw thing – plus a bag with a hand and foot sticking out. Sorry for the picture quality, these were a bugger to photograph so I settled for less than perfection.

Click for a very large version

Click for a very large version

The two torsos are very similar to each other, with raised hands and tattered clothing. The clothing pretty much looks like a shredded toga, so those of us looking for contemporary stuff will have to get creative with either greenstuff or painting. There are the spikes and nails mentioned in the description, which are jutting out from several places around the bodies. I’m of mixed opinion about these. Some of them, especially the nails, are wonderful while others just look a bit silly. Luckily it’s just a quick flick of a hobby knife to rid myself of those. Detail is fairly crisp and looks nice, somewhere between GW plastics and WF, although definitely closer to the former.

What was said about the upper bodies applies to the legs as well. The two variants are quite similar with the main difference being that one pair of legs is more bent at the knees than the other. There are the spikes and nails as well, and what was said above could be said again. But I won’t. There is one major gripe however, and that is that the toes on the more bent pair of legs have been mangled by the casting process to the point that the right foot has no toes to speak of. It does not ruin the model by any means, but isn’t a pretty sight either.

The three different heads are very crisply sculpted and characterful, and I simply love them. The three alternative heads provided means, that there are always spares and if I end up buying more ghouls, the extra heads will easily find use in conversions. The looks on the faces are wonderfully malicious.

And now for the important question: are the Mantic ghouls suitable for use as zombies? That’s both a yes and a no in my view. The intelligent faces and dynamic poses render them unsuitable for classic zombies of the Romero variety, but on the other hand make them excellent picks if you’re looking for 28 Days Later style ragers. The overall look of the ghouls makes them suitable for other uses as well. They’ll naturally be great ghouls, but won’t look out of place as mutants, crazies or feral vampires either. Incidentally, Mantic is producing a set of zombies later on, and I can hardly wait for those.

The Mantic ghouls are sculpted by Bob Naismith and come on integral round plastic bases that fit into square “unit” ones supplied with the models. Of course if you’re like me, you’ll just ditch the squares and glue the integral bases to slottas.

The ghouls currently retail at £8.00 for ten models or £20.00 for 30 models, so the price is alright. They’re available direct from Mantic or from various retailers.

Overall verdict: The Mantic ghouls have their uses depending on what you’re looking for. If it’s zombies you’re after, I suggest you look elsewhere or wait for their zombie release. If, however, you want rage zombies, degenerates, cannibals and mad vampires, you should already be placing an order. The miscast toes on one pair of legs is the only real point of complaint here. It isn’t a major one, but still worth noting.

Posted in Miniature reviews, Miniatures, Zombies | Tagged | 3 Comments »

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My zombie horde

March 1, 2010

For a zombie blogger and miniatures collector, I have surprisingly few painted zombies, only around 50 or so. Since I was asked to show more of my painted stuff, I figured I’d put up my horde along with some closeups of my favourites.

Here’s my “horde” in full. 50+ models don’t look like much, do they? At the moment they’re a mix of  GW plastic zombies, GW plastic Catachans, Mega Miniatures, Recreational Conflict, Ral Partha and Copplestone Castings. Additionally there’s one model each from Heroquest, GW Imperial Guard, Warzone, HorrorClix, and HeroClix.

Click for a very large version

I already showed some of my favourites in the post on GW plastic conversions, but there are others as well. Here’s a selection:

The Zombie Patient is a repaint of a HorrorClix model. It’s quite an improvement, don’t you think? Sorry for the horrible quality on the comparison original, I had to snatch it from an older pic and resize it. The promotion picture for the model was far better looking than what I received. Also note the change in lighting. White daylight bulb on the left.

Click for a larger version

Zombie Kids are always fun and creepy. The following three are all from Mega Miniatures. The freehand on all models rather shows that I’m not really that focused on neat painting on zombies, they’re very much test pieces to try stuff on. These ended up looking nice enough for the tabletop, though.

Click for a larger version

The Chewed Up Shambler from Recreational Conflict is a nice model. I usually give my zombies fast, rough paintjobs and it shows. Here, however, I wanted to try and paint a zombie to the standard that I use on other models, and I’m very happy with the result. If I only had the time and patience to do this on all zombies!

Click for a larger version

The Classic is an old Grenadier mini – still available through Mirliton – from the 80s, making it probably as old young as I am. I started my gaming with Dungeons & Dragons (or actually Miekka ja Magia, the first Finnish RPG, which was basically a simplified D&D) with my big brothers, and this also introduced me to miniatures. This Frankensteiny zombie dates back to those days, and it was a moment of great nostalgy for me to paint him. The model show its age, but is still one of my favourites.

Click for a larger version

The Neo-Nazi is a conversion based on a HeroClix thug, with a GW zombie hand and head, and the other arm cut off. Simple, characterful and effective in my opinion.

Click for a larger version

The Rambo is a GW Catachan jungle fighter. The left leg has been cut up and repositioned and the head glued on in a zombie-ish angle. The hanging left arm adds to the effect. The right wrist that he’s missing was used in the soldier zombie conversion shown in the previous post. This model is a nice example of how simple it’s to make zombies out of other models, especially if they’re plastic. With very little work you could transform a full box of plastic troopers into zombies with limb repositioning.

Click for a larger version

The Officer is a metal GW Imperial Guard model from the Last Chancers box set. The left hand was holding a massive weapon, so I cut the wrist off and replaced it with a plastic one from the Catachan set. The model ended up looking like it’s reaching for someone, and the bandages and torn clothing only enhance the zombie appearance. The Officer is another example of a zombie that I spent a bit more time painting as I liked the model too much to just give him a basic zombie slap-on.

Click for a larger version

The Jogger and The Beach Bum are my own sculpts, so I naturally gave them more attention than my usual zombie fare. While the sculpts aren’t that great, I think they look very nice painted and certainly don’t look out of place in my horde. The feeling of painting metal that you’ve sculpted yourself, man that was cool.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

I’ve got plenty more to paint, and I’m slowly starting to attack my backlog. Anyway, here’s what I have managed to do so far. I’d be happy to hear your comments, as usual.

Posted in Miniatures, Zombies | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments »

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Converting GW plastic zombies

February 23, 2010

A lot of people bash GW’s cheapish (£18 for 20 minis) plastic zombies for their crazy anatomy and medieval looks. While I agree with this, they’ve got one excellent thing going for them: plastic offers great conversion possibilities. Let’s take a look at what you can do with some cutting, green stuff and very little work.

The Doctor has had clothing crudely sculpted on. Since he is supposed to look rough, don’t worry too much about the quality of your sculpting. I didn’t.

Click for a larger version

The Priest has simply had his shirt lengthened into a cassock (very crudely, I was very lazy with the GS) and a small cross added. He has also some added hair, unfortunately not visible in the picture. The model’s also a good example of the way posing brings character to your plastics.

Click for a larger version

The Sports Fan is my answer to the question “who in their right mind would wear a cape these days?”, that springs from one of the plastic zombies having a torn cape on. I selected a suitable head and sculpted a cap on, and cut away weapons from a couple of hands to make it look like he’s still cheering for his favourite team even in undeath.

Click for a larger version

The Axed Zombie is one of my favourites. I love it when miniatures tell a little story. In here the story’s pretty simple, with someone having chopped the arm off a zombie, only to have the fire axe catch in the zombie’s side. The axe is simply a leftover from some fantasy mini in my bits box, that I painted red to create the impression of a fire axe. The unceremoniusly cut off the zombie’s arm and carved the axe blade to fit nicely into the zombie’s side. You don’t have to be too careful, since the polystyrene cement will melt the plastic a bit. Since that’s how it works.

Click for a larger version

The Lady is another fast conversion. Take a zombie, roughly sculpt on some hair, add breasts and use the entrails from the plastics set. Cover all rough sculpting with gratuitous gore, and voilà!

Click for a larger version

The Goth aka Mr. Angsty is a regular zombie with a mop of hair sculpted on. The paint job makes him one of those The Crow -fanboys that suddenly realizes that not everyone thet comes back from the dead becomes a rock star.

Click for a larger version

The fact that the zombies are plastic of course means that they can be easily mixed and matched with GW’s and other manufacturers’ plastic sets. Two examples follow.

The Soldier is a combination of a GW Catachan jungle fighter torso and legs with emaciated zombie arms. Some gore and a reaching, open hand as well as the right head from the set leave no doubts about his health. For added effect I drilled a few bullet holes in his chest.

Click for a larger version

The Roast Zombie tops off this gallery. A skeletal torso  from the zombie set combined with jungle fighter legs with a suitable paintjob give the appearance of a horribly burnt zombie that just keeps on coming. True, the waistline is a bit wonky, but you could easily fix it with a bit of GS. It didn’t bug me. And yes, the eye would have burnt away too, but it’s much more effective like this, no?

Click for a larger version

And that’s it! Time to get a set and go wild. As wild as miniature gamers do, anyway.

Posted in Miniatures, Zombies | Tagged | 14 Comments »

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Werewolves by West Wind – a review

February 20, 2010

My review of the Reaper werewolves is one of the most read articles on Dawn of the Lead, which would suggest that there is an interest in werewolf miniatures. Another thing leading me down that track is the fact that I have a bunch. It’s time to put three of those under the looking glass and see what some of West Wind Productions’ lycanthropes are all about. Two of them are from West Wind’s Secrets of the Third Reich WWW2 (Weird World War 2) line. The line includes all sorts of fun things, with nazi zombies, vampires and the like adding to the chaos of war. The line has several werewolves, and I bought a few for use in my Underworld miniature project. The third one comes from West Wind’s Gothic Horror range.

All sculpts were very nice, and almost completely devoid of flash or mould lining. Big thumbs up to West Wind for this, since cleaning up bad casts is one of the aspects of this hobby that I hate.

Jager Werewolf “Wolfgang” looks vicious. His head is tilted up and his teeth are bared. His posture suggests that he’s either going through a painful transformation or simply howling at the sky in fury. His pants are torn and his whole upper body is bare. I really like this model except for one thing – and this holds true for all the WW werewolves reviewed here. The model has lost one finger and two toes in the transformation process. While I’ve no qualms about the shapeshifting altering the number of digits, the three-toed feet look birdlike. Combined with an almost scaly texture, Wolfie and his buddies look like they’re walking around on chicken feet. Other than this, he’s a wonderful wolfman. Wolfgang comes with a round 25mm slottabase, and is sculpted by Andy Cooper.

Wolfgang

Click for a larger view

Jager Werewolf “Mondheulen” translates smoothly as Moonhowler. Whereas Wolfgang looks very much like a wolf, Mondheulen looks like a werewolf in mid-transformation. His face/snout is almost rat- or bat-like, a little bit like this fellow or his friend. His proportions are weirdish, with an improbably slender waist and long limbs.  These don’t really bother me at all, but simply add to his menacing presence instead. Mondheulen looks very bestial and bloodthirsty, and his pose suggests he’s charging after some unfortunate victim. Like Wolfgang, Mondheulen has torn pants and chicken feet. Doesn’t mean I don’t love him, bless his little heart. Sculpting and basing as above.

Mondheulen

Click for a larger view

As the comparison pic below shows, the two werewolves are slightly larger than your average 28mm humans, making them just a bit more intimidating.

Jager size comparison

From left to right: Foundry, West Wind, Hasslefree, West Wind

Loup Garou (Great Werewolf) is a solid chunk of metal. He’s as big as the Reaper ones and even bulkier, a big beast. He’s a multi part casting, with the arms and the head being separate components. The parts fit well enough, but you’ll have to fill in gaps with greenstuff if you want a smooth finish. The werewolf itself looks pretty nice – again apart from the notorious feet (how hard could it have been to google some info on the subject?) He’s reaching forward with his left arm and his face is locked in a ferocious snarl. In my opinion it’s not quite as good a model as the Reaper ones, but comes close enough to be lovely nonetheless. The Loup Garou comes on a fairly thin integral metal base, and I unfortunately have no idea about the sculptor. If some reader knows this, do drop a comment. (Note: Thanks to reader Joel, I found out that this one – and apparently all of West Wind’s stuff  – is also by Andy Cooper. Thanks!)

Loup Garou

Click for a larger view

Loup Garou size comparison

From left to right: Foundry, West Wind, Hasslefree, Reaper

All the models are available through the West Wind Productions online store. The Loup Garou retails at £5.00 and the Jager werewolves at £4.00 each. This isn’t that bad a price for quality models, so I had no qualms about paying, even if £13.00 for three models sounds a bit steep.

Overall verdict: The West Wind werewolves are well worth buying. While they’re not quite as good as Reaper’s offerings, and if the chicken feet don’t put you off, you have some nice wolfmen in dynamic poses, and that’s always a good thing, isn’t it? Also, the Loup Garou is large enough to become a centrepiece model, if you put some time and effort in his painting and basing. All in all, these are a fine offering and well worth adding to your collection.

Posted in Miniature reviews, Miniatures, Vampires/Werewolves | Tagged , , | 8 Comments »

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FU-UK 2009 Sculpting Competition – review part 2

February 18, 2010

Welcome to the second part of the Frothers Unite! UK 2009 sculpting competion review. If you missed the first part dealing with the winning entries, read it here.

Just because the competition had its high quality winners, it doesn’t mean that the runners-up weren’t great as well. Let’s have a look at the minis that didn’t reach the highest podium, but were considered good enough to cast up.

Model #1 – Cosplay Zombie is a young cosplayer. To those not familiar with the term, cosplaying is where you dress up in a pop culture character costume and play him or her. As any hobby, it has its good and its bad sides. Anyway, this cosplayer’s excellently cosplaying a zombie now, with a brutally injured knee, classic pigeon toe posture and a vacant stare. And to satisfy the gaming crowd, her petticoat has ripped, revealing her panties. The model comes on a metal oval slotted base, and is sculpted by fellow Finn Vesa Mäkelä, mostly known for his amazing painting skills. Multi-talented, isn’t he?

Model #2 – Rising Zombie is in a fairly large scale (30-32 mm). This doesn’t matter too much, though, since he’s only visible to about chest level as he climbs out from his grave. He looks like a fairly chunky fellow, with a torn burial suit. I love the expression on this miniature’s face, with one of his eyes bulging and his tongue lolling out. The model has no separate base, but I’ve mounted him on 25mm plastic slottabase as usual. The Rising Zombie is sculpted by Sjoerd Trouwee.

Model #3 – A Shambler with a Snack is one happy zombie. Why? Because he’s got a nice, juicy leg to chew. He’s barefoot and his clothes have some rips and tears, but other than that he’s doing pretty well for a zombie. This model wasn’t really one of my favourites, but mainly just because he’s a pretty basic, simple miniature. He’s not bad by any means, I’m just not very into him. As is the norm with the FU-UK sets, this model comes with a oval metal slottabase. He is sculpted by Snuurg, who also did the next two.

Model #4 – Tank Zombie 1 is immediately familiar to anyone who has played either of the two Left 4 Dead games. What he basically is, is a zombified version of the Hulk, with huge bulging muscles all over his body. This particular tank is wearing lovely tighty whities and looks like he’s about to bring down a world of hurt upon some poor survivor-until-now. The tank’s jaw is distended and his slavering tongue is hanging out.  There’s huge damage to its abdomen, with entrails coming out and ribs showing. I absolutely love this model, as it captures the L4D tank image perfectly. Basing as above.

Click for a larger view

Model #5 – Tank Zombie 2 is another rendition of the same theme. This one’s wearing shorts or ripped jeans. The model’s hunched over a bit, and looks like it’s charging. The arms are two separate castings. Tank #2’s face makes it perfectly clear that he’s one of the undead, as it’s emaciated with one of the eyes hanging on his cheek by the optic nerve. This tank’s just as nice as the first one, and a worthy addition to any zombie horde. There is, however, one tiny detail. Namely, this model is a terrible, terrible example of how to do a multipart metal miniature. The fit of the arms is more than a bit dubious, and once you have them glued on, you will notice some glaring gaps which need loving greenstuff treatment. I really would’ve settled for a different pose and a single part casting, like the first tank zombie.

Model #6 – Zombie Raven looks just like a regular raven, actually. It’s still very raveny, in a raven kind of way. If ravens are your thing, you’re on to a winner. No base included, and sculpted by Ben Parker.

Model #7 – Reporter is a young female. She’s holding a large news mic in a dynamic pose suggesting that she’s talking into it. She’s apparently reporting direct from a hot zone, as she wears a bulletproof vest. Biteproof clothing and covered arms might be a better alternative here. Since there’s nothing here to make this model specifically zombie related, she’s a fine civilian reporter to be used in any modern game. A beautiful sculpt from Andrew Rae, one of my favourite artists. Standard slot tab on the mini.

Model #8 – Cameraman is the reporter’s trusty companion, keeping that camera on rec even in quarantine (groan). Like the reporter, the cameraman is wearing a bulletproof vest. He carries a camera on his right shoulder, and I assume it’s running and capturing whatever happy situation these two find themselves in. This is a very smooth, clean, no-nonsense sculpt that complements the reporter perfectly. What I said about the reporter holds true here as well.

Click for a larger view

Unlike the first batch, this set was riddled with heavy mould lines and plenty of flash. The models took a lot of filing, and I know that I didn’t get all the trash off.

That’s it, folks. Let’s start crossing those fingers and hoping that these minis come out through one company or another. Anything else’d be a crying shame.

Posted in Miniature reviews, Miniatures, Zombies | Tagged | 3 Comments »

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Getting all trendy

February 15, 2010

Do you want to be notified whenever there’s a new posting on Dawn of the Lead?

Does RSS equal WTF in your mind?

Are you loathe to receive email notifications?

Your worries are now over – if you’re on Facebook, anyway. I’ve started a fan page for DotL, where members will be notified of new posts. There might be other content from time to time as well. Click on the Facebook link below, come in and show your (possible) support!

Posted in Editorial, News | Leave a Comment »

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Love of the Dead

February 13, 2010

For Dawn of the Lead’s Valentine’s Day special I was thinking of writing an article called “How to get your significant other interested in wargaming”. The only thing that came to mind was “By lying”, so I decided to change the subject a bit.  So…

How to get your significant other interested in zombies?

This is probably a problem a lot of zombie fans run into every now and again. For some curious reason, many people – girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives et al – are not in love with zombie culture. They might even not want to pick a zombie movie for Saturday night’s feature. You might hear such comments as

  • All zombie movies are the same. BRRAAAIIINS, BRAAIIINNS and then they just eat people.
  • I just think it’s silly. You know, walking corpses and all. Vampires are fine, though. Especially the sparkly ones.
  • Couldn’t we watch a movie with Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock instead?

Familiar? It is for me. So, here’s a bunch of tips on how to trick guide your loved one into enjoying the one thing you hold dear.

Clothing

In all honesty, zombies aren’t really cool or hip. Except if you make them into cool and hip clothing. Such as these examples (click on the pics to enlarge or the names to buy):

 

Games

Games are a good way to bring a sceptic into the fold. If it works with kids, it should work with spouses. Now, Dead Rising, Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead might not be the most suitable. They’re all pretty deep in the whole zombie apocalypse scenario. Let’s try something a bit different:

Plants vs. Zombies is summed up brilliantly by the developers:

A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and your only defense is an arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants. Use peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they can reach your front door.

An excellent blend of cartoony zombies and addictive gameplay will bring your significant other just a bit closer to the world of the undead.

Infectonator! is a simple Flash game. The idea? Cause devastating chain reactions by launching a zombie infection into populated areas. Destroy civilization in 60 seconds. Highly addictive, with a notable “one more try” factor.

Zombies!!! (what’s with the exclamation marks here?) is a light beer & pretzels kind of game, where survivors try to get out of an infested city by reaching a helicopter. Only one can survive, and it quickly devolves into backstabbing and tripping one another. Great fun, in other words.

Movies

The two categories above are a good way to start, but when you really want to reel someone in – which you do – then movies are the way to go. Now, instead of just telling what movies to choose, I’m going to suggest different tactics to use.

  • Director familiarity: Honey, do you remember Trainspotting and The Beach? Danny Boyle actually directed this one movie called 28 days later, too. Want to check it out?
  • Actor familiarity: I can’t believe it, Zombieland has that girl from Little Miss Sunshine in it! And Bill Murray!
  • Theme familiarity: You liked the movie Outbreak didn’t you? This movie’s pretty much it, but the disease is just a bit worse.
  • Zombie factor playdown: Shaun of the Dead is not really as much a zombie movie as it is a romantic comedy, you know. And despite the gore, Braindead is actually a story of a young man’s struggle in today’s society.
  • Intellectual challenge: As a matter of fact, Romero’s original Dead trilogy is a nihilistic view of mankind’s incapability to work together. Night of the Living Dead had a black leading character, which was remarkable in 1968. Dawn of the Dead is a scathing critique of consumerism, while Day of the Dead mercilessly attacks the flaws in the military-industrial complex. Oh, and the remake of Night replaces the black lead with a strong female one.
  • Pop culture challenge: Well, zombies are THE pop culture phenomenon of the early 21st century, you know.
  • Conditioning: Remember the night we went dining, got a bit tipsy, watched Resident Evil and made out in the theatre? I’ve got RE: Apocalypse on DVD.
  • Guilt: I just wish you could share my enthusiasm. Note: Use at own risk, don’t repeat.

And the common and very functional, mentioned at the start of this post:

  • Lying: No honey, there are no zombies in this one, I swear. What I did with [Rec] was a mean thing, I know. Look, this one‘s about Norwegian teens going camping. Note: Stable relationships only.

I also cannot stress once piece of information enough: Unlike in cuisine, keep away from Italian. While there are some classics, the Italians pumped out amazing amounts of zombie schlock in the 70s and 80s, that can be best described as gorenography. Blood, entrails and softcore nudity were the operative words here.

Whether you’re already in a relationship or looking to get someone hooked on zombies (and thus admire you for your knowledge), this should get you started. In true Valentine’s Day spirit here’s a thematic poem to send you off:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

If I’m ever a zombie

I’ll make you one, too

Posted in Editorial, Zombies | 7 Comments »

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