Sunday 5 May 2013

Zombicide Zombies - Season 1 Male Walkers 01

The most common type of zombie in the Zombicide board-game is the Walker. These are your bog-standard, slow-moving zombies. They are easy to kill and easy to dodge, unless they appear in large numbers.The boxed set contains 40 of them in five different poses. Three of the poses depict males and they are what I'll be reviewing today. The female walkers will get their turn in the spotlight next time.
We start with a group of four zombie Walkers, dressed in short-sleeved shirts, ties and trousers. They could be office workers or shop assistants. Who knows or cares?
The Walker at the far left has a large bite wound to his left arm and blood has spattered onto his shirt.
The Walker next to him, in the blue shirt, has been bitten in his left cheek and in the left arm around his elbow.
The third Walker in line has suffered a similar cheek wound and a left arm wound similar to the first guy.
To add a bit of variety to the colour schemes of my zombies, I painted one of each as an African/American zombie and in all of my review photos he/she will be the fourth in line. This particular Walker suffered a bite wound to the right arm.
The second batch of Walkers are more smartly dressed in two-piece suits, shirts and ties.
At the far left is a Walker in a dark grey suit. He has bite wounds to his right arm, lower right leg and a gunshot wound to his stomach.
The Walker in the dark brown suit has similar wounds to his right arm and right leg.
Third in line is my black-suited Walker and you can see from this view just how badly torn his coat sleeve and trouser leg are. He also has a small wound to his left shoulder, which I accidentally missed when I painted the previous two.
Finally, is my bald-headed African/American Walker and he has the same three wounds as the previous Walker.
The third batch of male Walkers are casually dressed in vests and trousers.
The Walker at the far left has been bitten in the right arm and in the back of his lower right leg. I decided to paint his trousers as a pair of slightly faded denim jeans.
For the second Walker in line, I decided to do something different and I gave him a gaping neck wound in addition to his leg wound. His left hand is smeared with blood.
I went to work with my modelling putty on the next Walker in line and I converted his vest into a T-shirt. It was a very simple conversion but it makes him stand out. The design on the front of his T-shirt is the logo for Guillotine Games, the creators of Zombicide. It seemed so appropriate to do it! His only wound is the bite to his right leg.
I gave the African/American walker a neck wound as well, although in a slightly different position to the second Walker in this group. Once again, he has the bite wound to his lower right leg.
When you get a bunch of zombies in identical poses you are left with three choices. First, paint them all the same. Boring in my opinion. Second, paint them all differently to make them appear as a group of individuals. Third, convert them. I only converted one out of this group - the guy in the T-shirt. I will convert the others but I'm not sure when.
These are quite reasonably sculpted and all appear to be very slim. That's not a bad thing for zombies. The hair on the heads could be better defined, as could the fingers on their hands. I have no criticisms with their poses. So far, I have only painted half of the zombies in the boxed set. When I get the second batch painted I will review them.

20 comments:

  1. They look great painted up and for board game piece's are excellent! Look forward to seeing more of your Zombicide figures Bryan.

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    1. Yes, indeed, for board-game pieces, they are rather good. You'll be seeing a lot more Zombicide figures on my blog this month, Simon.

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  2. Look great Bryan, I wish you could purchase some of these seperate!

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    1. Given how popular the game is, it might happen, Dave. You could get extra boxed sets of zombies when the Kickstarter season 2 was active. Maybe they'll go on general sale later on.

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    2. You can already get promo boxed sets off evil-bay at extortionate prices, but given the amount of z's you need for the game (1 set) and what folks got in their kickstarter packs (lots) I'm sure there'll be quite a few on sale in the near future

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  3. They're very good, probably excessive for boardgames pieces, but even with varied colours and simple conversions, they still look identical, which is OK for a boardgame (,akes for easy identification of the various types of Z, but am I right to assume you won't be using them in your campaigns ?
    From what I've seen the figures are generally on the large side too, is this why you haven't mounted them on your regular slotta-type bases (not that they need them). Is it possible to see a comparison figure alongside them when you've finished the whole gamut of them ?

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    1. Joe, the whole reason for giving them textured bases is so that I can use them in my ATZ-FFO campaign. Why waste such a rich source of zombie figures? Yes, they do look "samey" even with different colour schemes, but if I mix them in with the rest of my zombie horde no one will notice.

      I didn't mount them on slottabases as I didn't think it was necessary to. They work fine as is.

      I have taken a size comparison photo and I plan on posting it after I have reviewed the different types of zombies. I'll say in advance that the Zombicide figures fit in well with most other ranges.

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  4. Ooh, shiney! These are a lot better than I thought they might be. Also quite unusual for a board game to have any variety at all amongst the "pawns". I'm still wondering whether I should have bought into Zombicide, though in reality I don't need any more stuff to paint :-) !

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    1. Overall, the quality of sculpting for board-game figures is very good, Hugh. The figures for Zombicide and Last Night on Earth (plus its supplements), are particularly noteworthy.

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  5. Great job on those. I like your conversion of a vest to a T-shirt. Beautiful paint jobs.

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    1. Thanks, LJ. It is so good to have you back on the blogosphere, mate.

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  6. Very nice indeed! We had another game last week and it was immense fun!

    I really do need to paint the rest of those zombies

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    1. I'd totally agree with your "immense fun" comment, Johnny.

      Painted figures look far better on the board than unpainted figures.

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  7. Great example of the differentiation you can achieve with paint. I'll be taking that lesson to heart.

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  8. Bryan I think your right with miniatures that are just copies of others (I hate it when companies do that, sell you multiples of the same), you really need to do something that makes them different, whether its a conversion or a different paint job, maybe bending an arm here or there, whatever you choose to do its worth doing.

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    1. Absolutely, TE. Eight of each pose is pushing it a bit. I may end up doing conversions after all.

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  9. Great job. You've done a good job of creating unique looks out of a repetitive pose.

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