Sunday 13 March 2011

Foundry Yardie Gangstas

Sticking with the the theme of Gangers to use in your zombie apocalypse games here's a look at two packs of Yardie Gangstas from Wargames Foundry 28mm scale Street Violence range - SV051 Doc Friday's Yardies and SV027 Garfield's Yardies.
At the far left of the two photos above is the leader of this gang, Doctor Reuben Friday. He's a tall dude (he measures 38mm from the sole of his feet to the top of his hat) and he is clearly some sort of voodoo priest. I didn't know much about voodoo, other than what I'd seen in films and TV series until I bought GURPS Voodoo. I bought it for completeness at the time but when I read it, it became one of my favourite supplements for GURPS and I even played an FBI agent who practiced Santera  in my GURPS X-Files campaign. Anyhow, that's all by the by. Doc Friday is not a nice man and he is definitely a practioner of the dark arts. If you want a supernatural explanation for why the dead are returning to life, consider voodoo magic. He could be the big bad behind the apocalypse. Whatever your uses for this figure are, I think he's a great sculpt who just oozes evil intent.
Now we come to his entourage, starting with his most trusted lieutenant, Eugene Mayfield. Eugene is armed with a pump-action shotgun with underslung torch and has a 5.56mm Colt Commando assault rifle slung over his right shoulder. He wears a long leather coat that trails all the way down to the ground. I made him Doc Friday's second in command because he has an alert look about him, plus he is exceptionally well armed.
In the centre of the group is Curtis "Chucky" Brown. He is also armed with a 5.56mm Colt Commando assault rifle. He is dressed in a combination of combat pants and casual clothing and it seems unlikely that he'll ever rise above the rank of foot soldier.
Gideon Downie is the name of the tall guy dressed in faded denims. Just check out the length of his dreadlocks, which run all the way down his back! He is armed with one of my favourite assault rifles - the 7.62mm Heckler and Koch G3. I'm a fan of most Heckler and Koch firearms. Slung over his right shoulder is a disposable rocket launcher, so he's toting some serious firepower!
The only female in this group of figures is called Sharelle Lawrence. I should point out that the names of these Yardie Gangstas are a combination of those given to them by Foundry (either a first name or surname or in the case of Chucky, a nickname) and those that I have added to them. Sharelle, wearing a long leather overcoat and a massive hat is armed with some kind of sniper's rifle fitted with scopesight. I'm afraid I can't identify what make the rifle is as I'm not too knowledgable about sniper rifles. She also has a pistol sticking out of the left side pocket of her overcoat.
At the far left of these next two photos is Garfield Brooks, a muscular brute, who is very heavily armed. Garfield's Yardies could be a rival gang to Doc Reuben Friday's gang but I prefer to use them as all part of the Doc's gang. Garfield's main weapon is a Squad Automatic Weapon and he has plenty of ammo for it draped over his chest and back. His sidearm is a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 machine pistol. In addition, he has a dagger tucked into a sheath on his right boot and he has a couple of hand grenades hanging from the back of his belt. He's a one-man army who ought to be able to wipe out a horde of zeds on his own.
Next up is Winston Taylor, a standard foot soldier armed with just a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun. He has a pair of headphones, which are plugged into a large "boom box" that is slung over his right shoulder. At least he has the good sense to listen to his music through his headphones.
Such is not the case with the next Yardie in line, "Jammin' Trevor" Warren. His "boom box" is much bigger than Winston's and he has hoisted it up to his shoulder. His weapon of choice is a variant of the 5.56mm Steyr AUG assault rifle. Note that his dreadlocks are as long as than those on "Chucky." He wears denim dungarees and a denim jacket. His sunglasses have been shoved up to his hairline, presumably to make him look cool.
Delilah Griffiths, the first of two females in this group, was painted as a blonde-haired Caucasian woman on the Foundry website. Not for me, I thought. She has to be a native, dark-skinned Jamaican, just like the rest of the gang. She stands in a relaxing pose, holding a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun. Note that she also has a pistol in a holster strapped to her right thigh. Her fishnet tights are as badly holed as those worn by the Scabies Punks that I reviewed last time and were "painted" using the same method.
Finally, is Rosemary Climbie, a hard-faced woman who is primed ready for action. She holds a katana in her right hand and a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 machine pistol in her left hand. You can tell she means business because she has rolled up the sleeves of her long leather coat. Her thigh length leather boots and cropped catsuit are a kinky addition to her wardrobe. I wouldn't want to mess with her!
Each set of five figures costs £10.00 from the Wargame Foundry website. I must admit that I don't know how big a threat the Yardies are in America. Certainly, they are prevalent in the UK, especially in London. Whatever the truth is, I will certainly use them as one of the gangs of Mayhem City in my own ATZ campaign. I'd question whether these are true 28mm scale figures, as they all seem larger than that but they are not too oversized and are well worth checking out.

23 comments:

  1. More brilliance Vtg! I've just got a load of offensive miniatures' coppers and will do a review of them soon, along with some move cowboys from North Star and some 'Urban Beat' range of coppers that I'd not seen or heard of.

    I do really like the yardies - might have to get some of them for my new riot police to chastise!

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  2. Great work on those my friend, could be useful in some way for King Willies Voodoo Posse.

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  3. Great painting skills again, The Lurker wil be getting jealous soon!!

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  4. There are some rastas that mean business!!!

    Good paint job on them as always!

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  5. @Colin. Both the Offensive Miniatures' cops and rioters are on my shopping list, so a review of the cops would be ace! I've heard they are true 28mm scale but if they look okay, I'll buy them. I mentioned ealier when I reviewed my Hasslefree UK police figures that I was after more British cops and I still am.

    @Fran and Ray. You guys make a great double act. I love the sly comments you make about each other on your own blogs. And now they're spilling over onto my blog. All I can say is, keep the laughs aflowing, guys!

    Oh, and thanks everyone for the kind words on my painting. I really do enjoy painting most figures, but especially so if they are for a contemporary/near future setting.

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  6. @Lord Siwoc. Ooops, sorry, mate, I didn't mean to ignore you. You posted whilst I was typing my response to the other guys. Yep, these rasta types mean someone some serious harm!

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  7. Hehe no problem mate. And thanks for putting me on your bloglist as well.

    Is it me or are you developing a small love for fishnets? Next we will most likely see a zed in fishnets!!!

    (They are looking good by the way....)

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  8. Those are great. I love your color choices for these.

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  9. @Lord Siwoc. It's a pure coincidence, I tell you, that my last two postings have featured young females wearing fishnet tights. As for a love of fishnets? Nope, not me. I much prefer women who wear stockings and suspender belts. It's such a classic combo that you can't deny its appeal. However, I think for a lot of ladies their mileage will vary!

    As for putting you on my blog-list, that was the least I could do for ignoring you when you started out. I hope it generates more traffic to your site. What we have going here is a friendly community of like-minded hobbyists, one big happy family!

    @Luckyjoe. The colours do work well for these figures, with the red, green and yellow combo on the hats of four of them unifying them. It was far easier to come up with colour schemes for these Yardies than for a lot of my African-American Gangsta figures.

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  10. I love both sets of miniatures, especially Samedi / Friday and the girl with the sword. All minis have a lot of character and you did a great job on the painting.

    On the G3 I have to say that I really hated lugging it around or shooting it on the firing range during my time as a Panzergrenadier. Just a few years later I could have used the G36 instead.

    Whiteface / Oliver

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  11. @Oliver. Wow, my respect for you has grown immensely. You slag off the G3 because you've actually used it, whereas I praise it because I like the look of it. Hmmm, just goes to show how much I know. You can't beat practical experience, can you?

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  12. @Vampifan:
    The G3 surely packs a lot of punch, but it was to clumsy and inaccurate for my taste. I remember that I liked shooting the MG3 instead. Felt like a sniper rifle in comparison to the G3 and - as a machine gun - had every reason to be clumsy.
    BUT...outside of the gaming world I am not a real guns person, so maybe my opinion about this firearm is as qualified as "not liking the colour" :o)

    Nevertheless, it's nice to see different assault rifles on miniatures and not just the usual Ms & AKs.

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  13. Oliver, as someone who has just about zero experience with guns (I once fired a BB rifle at a fairground arcade and scored a bull's eye) I'll bow to your knowledge. Of course, in ATZ, there is no distinction between weapon makes, just weapon types. So it doesn't matter if your character is armed with a G3, M16 or AK47, they're all classed as assault rifles. Now if we were playing something like GURPS, that would be a different matter entirely.

    It is nice to see such a variety of weapons on these miniatures. Hats off to Wargame Foundry!

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  14. Beautifully done Vampifan, nice choice of colours on the Rasta crew, and I'm loving the Leopard skin top hat Ahahah, good stuff, I have these minis aswell and found them to be massive compared to most of my other minis, I purchased them after I watched Bad Boys II, haha hopless aren't I :)

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  15. @The Extraordinarii. Foundry figures can seem large when placed alongside figures from other ranges but it's not a problem for me as I have so many figures.

    If you want a film reference for these guys, check out Predator 2. "Shit happens!"

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  16. You've got the most amazing collection of minis. And it's all painted as well! I really need to direct all of the lead "collectors" over here for some lessons.

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  17. Thanks, Willy. Please feel free to send any one who is interested in collecting 28mm scale figures to my site. I'll be happy to have their company.

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  18. Hey Bryan, The first photo in the post is not giving a link to an enlarged version :(

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  19. Thanks, Colin. It's fixed now. I think the gremlins must have crept in!

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  20. Did you just put a new blogpost up...and then took it down again? EM 4 thugs?

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  21. Yep, I did! I was busy typing it and accidentally pressed the Publish Post button. It will be posted in its complete form tomorrow. Consider what you saw as a sneak preview.

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  22. Hey, Vampi. It looks like there's a problem with the link to your latest post about the EM4 Thugs. It hasn't worked for me all day after multiple attempts.

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  23. Luckyjoe, and anyone else trying to access the EM4 Thugz review, please be patient. If you read my reply to Lord Siwoc above you'll see that I screwed up by accidentally pressing Publish instead of Save. My apologies for being such a klutz! Normal service will be resumed very soon.

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