Wednesday 6 January 2010

Citadel Zombies 01


When I showed off my horde of 332 painted zombies at the end of 2009 there were still some of them that I had not reviewed. I plan on redressing that now and over the coming weeks will hopefully get them all reviewed. The six zombies in the two photos above are all from the Games Workshop Necromunda skirmish game. These date back to the 1990's when the Outlanders supplement was published for Necromunda. These form part of the Scavvies, a gang of mutants and outcasts. You will notice that I have painted their flesh with a green tinge, which mainly comes from the GW Rotting Flesh acrylic paint. It seemed to fit them better than the pallid grey I normally paint my zombies.
Starting at the far left is a rather static zombie holding a wooden club that has been reinforced with metal bands. Like the rest of his colleagues he wears a collection of ragged clothing, with the sleeveless coat being common to all six. He has some deep gouges to his right arm and a bandaged left wrist and right foot.
The zombie standing next to him is similarly armed and attired. He has a fuller head of hair and waves his left fist in a threatening manner. He has a big bullet hole in the small of his back.
Next up, is a zombie waving a piece of pipe with a huge spike hammered through one end. I like how his tongue is sticking out of his mouth. However, the way his legs and feet are positioned makes him look like he is dying to go to the toilet! His wounds are rather minimal - a couple of bites to his right arm and a graze to his forehead.
The fourth zombie in line is wielding a large bone (probably a femur) that has been reinforced in places with metal. His left hand is heavily bandaged. He has lost his right shoe. What at first appears to be a holster on his right hip is actually a quiver for arrows or possibly a quarrel for crossbow bolts. Obviously he was an archer of some sort before he joined the ranks of the undead. His right arm is covered in scratches and unsightly boils. I've painted blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth.
To his left is another zombie armed with a very large bone; too large to have come from a human. He has lost his left shoe and he keeps his trousers up with a rope belt. Hmm, whatever works! He has cuts to his arms and legs but none that look life-threatening.
Finally, is a bow-legged zombie armed with a piece of piping. His shoulder pad identifies him as a member of the Scavvies gang. He is the only figure in this group to be wearing a wristwatch. I do like the way this zed's face has been sculpted. It is full of angry menace. He too, sports minor wounds to his arms and legs.


The two zombies to the left of the photo above are from the Games Workshop Bloodbowl range. Naturally, they are members of the Undead team. I have to admit that I do not like the zombie Bloodbowl player. His hands are far too big and that spike on his shoulder pad just looks silly. On the plus side, his face has been well sculpted. He has his tongue sticking out of his gob, which I like. His pose is decidedly average. I painted him up as part of the Scavvy zombies,
The zombie cheerleader on the other hand, is a delightful figure that I like a lot. She has been exceptionally well sculpted. Instead of waving a pair of pom-poms around, she has a pair of severed female heads, which is a great touch. The severed heads are beautifully sculpted and very different. The one in her right hand has been chopped off at mouth level, which you don't often see. Kudos to the sculptor for that decision. On the other severed head note the two pigtails on either side of her face. Also, note the corn-rows in the hair of the zombie herself. This is a quality sculpt, indeed. Looking at her from behind check out the size of her backside! J-Lo eat your heart out, pet! There are no wounds at all on the figure but that does not matter - you couldn't mistake her for being anything else but a zombie.
The final two figures on view are from the Games Workshop Chainsaw Warrior game, which has been out of production for many years now. The zombie on the right is unarmed and dressed in ragged clothing. I'm pretty certain that I sculpted his shoes on. He got repainted and rebased just last year and looks a lot better now. He fits into my zombie horde very well. He has been shot in the back with an exit wound emerging from his chest.
Finally, we come to another one of my favourites out of the Citadel range - the zombie soldier. Like his colleague he too was repainted and rebased last year. The addition of the rusty barbed wire to his base was a neat touch, I thought. He holds his M-16 assault rifle upside down as if he's going to use it as a club. His uniform hangs in shreds. He appears to have been shot in the heart. His face is almost skeletal-like but in my opinion, is just a bit too big for the rest of his body. This is a shame as I genuinely like this figure.
So, ten figures of mixed quality. The Necromunda zombies, which I regard as being of average quality, are still available at £8.00 for a pack of three. However, when I checked the GW website this morning it said that the figures would be supplied randomly. This pisses me off, not being able to stipulate what figures you want. Caveat emptor, my friends! The Bloodbowl zombie player is available for £5.00, which is way overpriced I think! Sadly, I couldn't see the zombie cheerleader on the website at all. It is not so very long that I ordered her from the GW website, maybe two or three years ago. I think I paid £4.00 for her. Perhaps you might find her on E-bay, as she is a very recent sculpt. As for the two Chainsaw Warrior zombies, they are long out of production and if you can find a buyer for them, good luck to you. No, mine are not for sale!

6 comments:

  1. I didnt expect that stuff from this line could work with moderns. They look really good though
    and fit in just fine. The cheerleader is very cool. Its too bad GW is making their figures so hard to find. You used to be able to buy stuff out of print for many years if you called them, but those were the good old days.

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  2. That's so true, Roger. If it is not part of GW's "big three" (Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 or Lord of the Rings) they just don't seem to care. Fans of their specialist games get short shrift from GW and from the flak GW get on so many games and figures forums it is mostly deserved. I have always bought figures from GW but I find in increasingly difficult to defend a lot of their policy making decisions. Just look at how they sell the Necromundan zombies in my review. I remember being able to buy them individually, which was great. Now they sell them in packs of three, supplied at random. It just doesn't make sense and only goes to alienate even more customers.

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  3. I was always critical of their policies and actions but still thought it was acceptable enough to keep buying their stuff. But the last two years they have become insufferable and I have given up on them. They have made it very hard to get their products in the US. The nearest stores to me that sell gw are very inconveniently far away. Also their prices finally reached what I consider absolutely ridiculous. I'll still buy the occassion paint bottle or something I find really cool but pretty much I have lost interest in their games because they are so profit driven that all the fun has been driven out. Its a shame because they were so great about 13 years ago, when they had the creative forces they did. Now I get the impression they are trying to market their games like a Lexus car and couldnt care less about the gamer on a budget or casual gamer. Its also a failing policy that will hurt them in the end, which would be a shame as they have some of the longest running gaming mythology out there.

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  4. Again, you're spot on, Roger. I must admit that the figures I buy from GW nowadays is considerably less than, say 10 or more years ago. Nowadays I certainly spend more on paints and paintbrushes in their stores than I do on figures. I seriously doubt if I'll ever play any of their games again. Warhammer 40,000 was my favourite of their mainstream games and Necromunda for their specialist games. For my sci-fi fix now, I'd very much like to try 5150 by THW. With its core rules very similar to the ATZ rules I'm sure I'll love it. I don't know if I could ever go back to the "I go, U Go" style of gaming. I'd rather patronise the small independant companies for whom customer service actually means something rather than a corporate giant like GW that has clearly lost its way. Thankfully, nowadays there is so much choice out there that canny gamers don't have to slavishly follow the big bad wolf that is GW.

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  5. I'm becoming a big supporter of the indy companies and artists as I call them. Whether miniature makers or writers, I have them to be great people to interact with and they always come thru with great stuff. Its much more fun to buy what you want and design your hordes and characters than have them forced at you. We need to support the small guy in the sales world because they are making what we really want and in a nutshell, they are us.

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  6. I couldn't agree more. Well said, Roger!

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