Eureka Kung Fu Schoolgirls 02

As promised here is part two of my review of the Eureka Miniatures 28mm scale Kung Fu Schoolgirls. This time they are all armed with guns. Once again, I have come up with their names. Note that these girls come from a different school to the first set of Schoolgirls that I reviewed. Also, every one of them has dyed her hair a different colour.

At the far left of the group of seven girls is Yukimura with the green hair. She is running along (or possibly dancing), whilst firing her pistol off to her right. That'll give her a negative modifier to hit anything!
Next up is Mari and she holds her pistol in a two-handed grip at the ready. Note her big eyes, a
prominent feature of Manga characters. She has dyed her hair blonde.
Purple-haired Sumika is in a cool firing pose. She is armed with a pair of 9mm pistols and is probably ambidextrous. The term "both guns blazing" springs to mind with her.

Moving on, we come to the four girls carrying substantially heavier firepower. Crimson-haired Tamashi, in the centre of the group has a 5.56mm M16 Assault Rifle slung across her back. She is about to pull the pin from a grenade. She is my favourite figure out of this group. I just think she is so cool!
Fifth in line is Asuka, armed with a 7.62mm AK47 Assault Rifle. She has turquoise coloured hair and she is standing on guard with her rifle in a relaxed pose.
Getting ready to fire her 5.56mm M16 Assault Rifle from the hip is pillar box red-haired Mikasa.
Finally, we come to Yuri, who is the heavy weapon member of the group. This blue-haired young lady is armed with a 7.62mm M60E3 Machine Gun with shortened barrel and pistol foregrip.
I like this set of figures a lot, and although they have been on sale for quite a while it is only fairly recently that I bought them and painted them. I did think of painting them in the same colour scheme as the girls I reviewed last time but eventually decided on a totally new colour scheme. I see them as coming from rival schools, one teaching Kung Fu and the other, Gun Fu.
Set 100FAN04 Kung Fu Schoolgirls with Guns retails for AU$20.00 from the fantasy figures range of Eureka Miniatures, making them AU$2.00 dearer than the first set that I reviewed. Once again, they are true 28mm scale figures, so they do look small when compared to some other ranges. But, as I said last time, this isn't a bad thing.

Eureka Kung Fu Schoolgirls 01

A couple of years ago I ordered this set of 28mm scale Schoolgirls from Eureka Miniatures, an Australian based firm. I remember at the time that some people took offence to them because they were overtly sexy, with all of the girls flashing their panties. Some folk commented that they were in poor taste. That certainly wasn't going to put me off from buying them. I like these figures a lot. You can make up your own mind about them. Anyway, here they are.

 First in line is Mikako, who is doing a side kick to her right. Unlike most of the girls, she is wearing pink panties, not the regulation white panties. Naughty girl! By the way, I came up with the names for all of the girls.
Next up is Keiko, who is doing a side kick to her left. She is the only girl to be wearing a headband. Her pose is more aggressive than Mikako's.
Third in line is Koumei. She is performing a right handed punch to her front. In keeping with the Mangaesque feel of these figures, she has huge eyes. Yes, I know it's not realistic but it is entirely in keeping with the genre.
In the centre of the group is Sousou. She is performing an overhead block with her left arm. She is in a nice defensive pose.

Next, we come to the katana armed girls. The first of these and number five in line is Chidori. She is charging her opponent with her katana held in a two-handed grip ready to slice her victim in two.
The penultimate figure in line is Tsukushi and she appears to be dancing with her katana held aloft in a one-handed grip. Perhaps she is taunting her opponent to come and have a go if he thinks he's hard enough!
Last in line is Sakura. She is different to the other girls in that she has dyed her hair purple. I did this to make her stand out as the group's leader. She holds her katana in a one-handed grip in a defensive posture.
They are indeed a sexy group of figures, with their very short mini-skirts and panties on display but if you know anything about Japanese Manga comics and films, you'll know that these are entirely in keeping with the genre. I think they are very well sculpted and very well posed. I could easily see them doing well against a horde of zombies, smashing skulls with feet and fists and decapitating zeds with their katanas.
These seven figures come from set 100FAN03 Kung Fu Schoolgirls, which can be found in the Eureka Miniatures 28mm scale fantasy figures section of their website. They retail for AU$18.00 for all seven figures. In case you are worried about ordering all the way from Australia may I just reassure you not to. I received my figures two weeks after placing my order and I have found Eureka Miniatures to be very reliable in my dealings with them. Note that they are true 28mm scale, although they do look small compared to some other figure ranges. Being schoolgirls, this should not be a problem. Next time I'll review their follow up set, Kung Fu Schoolgirls with Guns.

Eureka Toxic Zombies in Barrels

Earlier this year I was gifted a set of four Eureka 28mm scale Toxic Zombies emerging from barrels by my good friend Fran, aka The Angry Lurker. Once again, many thanks, Fran. There are six figures in this range and I already had one of them. Fortunately for me, the one I had was not amongst the ones sent to me by Fran. That was a nice stroke of luck! Having just painted them, I thought you'd like to see these very unusual zombies.

I'd guess that the inspiration for these figures came from the "Tar Zombie" who features in The Return of the Living Dead film. He is so called because he emerges from a barrel that should have been left closed and is covered in a dark, slimy liquid gunk. I toyed with the idea of painting these in a similar fashion and tried out what I hoped was a similar looking colour scheme but the results were not very pleasing. So I went back to plan A and painted them as I paint all of my toxic zombies, which is with a greenish tint to their flesh (Citadel Rotting Flesh, appropriately enough). The one thing I did add to these figures was a couple of thick coats of Citadel Water Effects to give them that glossy wet look. You can see this much better if you left click on the photos to blow them up to full screen size.

I won't describe each one individually like I normally do, because they are all very similar. The first zombie in line, moving from left to right, is the one that I already had. The other four are the ones I received from Fran. Some of them have flesh sloughing off their bodies (one and four especially). Two of them (four and five) have got one leg out of the barrel. A nice touch on number five is his shoe, which has a sole that is coming apart at the seams to reveal his toes. Incidentally, the figure that I'm missing from this set is in a very similar pose to zombie number two but his head is in a different position.

The sculpting on these figures is very good. None of them look like fresh corpses. They all look very cadaverous, almost skeletal like. Most are bald but zombie number five has a patchy head of hair.

These are not the kind of zombies you're going to find wandering the streets. They should be assigned to a specific location, like a warehouse, a research laboratory, a storeroom in a military or corporate building or in the trailer of an articulated lorry. You could designate them as Smart Zombies or Ragers if you're playing ATZ. I'd be tempted to make them Ragers if I ever use them in a scenario.

They cost £1.90 each from the Eureka website but be warned they are supplied randomly. However, it has been my experience with the good folks at Eureka that if you specifically ask for no swaps, or as few swaps as possible if ordering more than one of each, they will comply. Each figure comes in two parts - the bottom two thirds of the barrel and the top third of the barrel with the zombie. They are not supplied with bases and will stand up very well without a base. I stuck mine to circular plastic slottabases purely to make them compatible with the rest of my 28mm scale figure collection.

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.