Eureka Miniatures Zombies

Eureka Miniatures are an Australian company and this review looks at 100MMR03 Pack of the Dead Zombie Set. It contains 10 finely sculpted figures in 28mm scale from Eureka's Movie Monsters Range. At a glance you can tell these are not your normal zombies. The phrase "toxic zombies" seems perfectly apt for them. There is an almost skeleton-like quality to them as their bones show through their emaciated skin. All ten are naked, bald-headed and suffering from horrendous wounds. Gore-hounds, like me, can really go to town painting these. Huge lumps of flesh are missing from their bodies. Some have entrails hanging out of gaping stomach wounds. Normally, I paint my zombies in very pale grey-flesh tones but for these I wanted them to have a greenish tinge to their flesh. Games Workshop's Rotting Flesh acrylic paint was the ideal colour to use. The detail on them is fantastic and makes the use of washes and dry-brushing techniques so easy. Also, because they lack hair and clothing you can get them painted up very quickly; no worrying about what colours to paint their clothes or hair. Then comes the fun part - painting the gore. I usually write a few lines about each zombie in the photo but these zeds are identical in looks that it would be impractical and repetitive to do so.

However, having said that, four of the five zeds in the two photos above are worth commenting on. The zombie to the extreme left of the photos is very similar to the previous six apart from a slight pot belly. Next to him is the only fully clothed zombie in the group and he is a lot fatter than the others. There is something about fat zombies that I like. Maybe it's because I'm a fat bloke myself and I think "that could be me!". Now, I have seen examples of him painted up as a naked zombie and he fit in well with the others. I have also seen other painters doing as I have, and painting clothes on him. You have to decide if those rolls of fat are skin or clothing. I'm not sure if there is a right or wrong answer; it all comes down to what you think is best. Moving on, we have two zombies that I converted into females. I added hair on their heads, breasts and rounded out their backsides. With so many of the group looking alike I wanted some variety, and in particular I wanted a few female zombies. I suppose having added hair to them I could have done the same to some of their male brethren. The final figure in the group is not part of this set. The zombie emerging from the barrel was a freebie that Eureka sent me. I love it when companies send you free stuff. At the time that I ordered this set I knew nothing at all about the barrel zombie. He did not appear on their website, so I was even more happy at receiving him. He clearly fits in with the rest of the group and gives further credence that these are toxic zombies, created in a laboratory. As we all know, such experiments inevitably end in disaster! I recently revisited the Eureka website and discovered that he is now one of a range of six. 100MMR07 Toxic Zombie Emerging From Barrel is his website description. He is available for $2.95. Be aware that the website proclaims that the six variants are supplied randomly. I would hope that if you ordered six they would all be different. I'd be well pissed off if you got six of the same figure. As for the Pack of the Dead Zombie Set they retail at $27.50. Those are Australian dollars, by the way. They are available separately but once again, are supplied randomly so you can't specify which one(s) you want. If you can find a supplier in your own country you might want to use them instead but I had no trouble when I ordered mine direct from Eureka.