Recreational Conflict Civilians 02 and Survivors 01

Recreational Conflict have two sets of eight 28mm scale figures in their Lead Bones horror range called Civics Class or if you want all 16 figures there is a set called Gearing Up. I said in my last post that these were the best figures made by Recreational Conflict and I'd go even further to say that these are amongst the best civilian and survivor figures available anywhere. What I particular like about them is that each figure comes with a choice of arms, allowing you to make an unarmed civilian version of the figure and an armed survivor type. What a fantastic concept! The range is made up of four pairs of males and four pairs of females and covers a wide range of ethnic types, which is another reason why I like these so much.

Set 1 contains the four African-American figures shown in the two photos directly above and below. I got to use a lot of my Foundry flesh paints on these figures. For the two figures on the left I used African Flesh 126 and for the two on the right I used North African Flesh 124, which isn't as dark. The civilian at the far left is a basket ball player and as befits his profession, he is quite a tall figure. Note how taller is than the other male alongside him. Be aware that these figures vary in height, with the females being a few millimetres shorter than the males. This is not a bad thing and quite frankly, reflects real life very well. As well as the basketball, which he's holding under his right arm, he also carries a bottle of some kind of energy drink. His armed version totes an Ingram MAC-10 Sub-Machine Gun.

The civilian on the right is another sporty type but he has taken up skateboarding rather than basketball. Incidentally, the logo on his skateboard reads "Flip." I did a Google search of skateboards and skateboarders to get an accurate representation for the colour scheme for his board and for his clothing. The survivor version of him is armed with a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun.

 

The females in set 1 are made up of a shopper and a businesswoman. The shopper could be described as a Chav if she was a U.K. resident, but I'm going with the sports mum look for her, because she's a U.S. citizen and I think that label is more appropriate. The civilian version of this figure is carrying a pair of shopping bags, so she's probably only just started her shopping spree. The survivor type has swapped her shopping bags for a pair of pistols. I wonder if she's ambidextrous? I used the standard Foundry Flesh 5 for her skin tones.

The businesswoman was clearly an oriental, so her flesh tones were painted using Foundry Oriental Flesh 122. She is speaking on her mobile phone and in her left hand she holds another small electronic device, perhaps a pager. The survivor version of this figure carries a pump-action shotgun.

The males in set 2 are made up of a cameraman and a businessman. I wanted the cameraman to look like he spent a lot of time outdoors, because of his clothing. So I decided to give him tanned flesh, and for this I used Native American Flesh 120. I really love the Foundry Flesh paints! I guess that spending so much time looking through a lens, it was a logical choice for the survivor version to be armed with a sniper rifle, in this case the awesome Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle.

The business man, seen talking on his mobile phone and carrying a small briefcase in his other hand is obviously another African American. This time I painted his flesh tones using Dusky Flesh 6. The survivor version sees him armed with a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun and a baseball bat. He must be skilled enough in the use of his SMG to be able to fire it single-handed.

The two pairs of females in set 2 consist of a tourist and a waitress. The tourist, seen reading a guide book, could be of any etnicity but I decided to paint her as a Hispanic lady and so used Tan 14 for her flesh tones. I also decided to make her a more mature woman and so painted her with grey hair. I do like that she is overweight. With so many people being overweight, fat or obese it's nice to see this being reflected in at least one of these minis. The survivor version carries a bolt-action sniper's rifle.

The final figure combo in the set are the waitress ladies. She had to be a Caucasian female and therefore I painted her flesh bits with the standard Flesh 5 paint. Only she and the shopper were painted with identical flesh colours. I must admit that I'm not happy about how I painted the civilian's face. She looks very stern and harsh. The civilian carries an empty tray and has a cloth draped over her right arm. The survivor has ditched them for a Big Ass Magnum Revolver.
I could have painted all 16 figures differently and I did think about that as that would have given me 16 unique figures. But I was put off by having to come up with an extra 8 colour schemes and I thought it would make more sense to tie the two versions together by painting them both identically.
Let me list the reasons why I rate these figures so highly.
1. The concept of combining civilians and survivors is one that I wish other companies would copy. I love this idea of a before and after character.
2. There is a wide range of ethnic types amongst these figures. Full marks to sculptor Brian Cooke for not making them all Caucasian.
3. The heights of the figures vary, as they would in real life. The basketball player is the tallest in the range, and so he should be. The females are smaller than the males, and again, so they should be. If they were all the same height it would look unrealistic.
4. There is a lot of character in these figures. Each one looks as if he or she could tell a story. I like to see that in my figures.
5. They have been beautifully sculpted in 28mm scale. The proportions of the figures look right and they'll fit in very well with most other ranges of 28mm scale figures, despite their slight variations in height.
I do have one minor criticism of them and that is that I had to refer to the pictures of them on the Recreational Conflict website to ensure that the right combination of arms went with the right figures. Once that was sorted I must admit that the arms attached to the bodies very well.
There is one thing that I think could make this range even better and that is to release a second set of them showing them as zombies and corpses. Civilian, survivor, zombie and corpse - what a winning combination that would be! I mentioned this to RC's head honcho, Richard Brooks but sadly from the response I got back I don't think it'll happen but a man can dream, can't he?
Set 1 and 2 cost $18.00 each or you can buy both sets together for $36.00. Each figure is available to purchase for the price of $2.50. I've had these figures for quite a few months but have only just gotten round to painting them. My bad, as I had a lot of fun painting them. These figures would make the basis of a great starting group of characters thrown together when the zombie apocalypse kicks off. I'd be quite happy to use any and all of them in my own ATZ campaign.