Sunday 22 November 2009

Cold War Miniatures Zombies 06

And so I finally come to the last of my reviews of the Cold War Miniatures range of 28mm scale contemporary zombies. Here are sets 012 Cop This and 013 Good God. The two photos above show the five figures from set 012 Cop This, and they are, as you'd expect from such a title, all cops, three of them being ordinary American uniformed cops and two being SWAT troopers. 
At the far left of the two photos is a female cop, leaning over to her right. I rarely ever use gloss paints on my figures but for my three uniformed cops, I gave their shoes, belts, pouches, holsters and cap peaks a coat of Humbrol gloss acrylic paint. Any brand would do, I just happened to have a very old pot of Humbrol gloss black in my box of paints. This gives the afore-mentioned items a highly polished look, which is what I was after. She suffers from a small bite wound to her lower right arm, a much bigger wound to her upper right arm and a couple of largish holes in the centre of her back.
Her colleague next to her is also leaning over to the right, but whereas she had her arms hanging loosely by her sides, this slightly overweight cop is stretching out with his right arm. He has quite an impressive bushy moustache. You don't see many zeds with moustaches, do you? He only has the one wound, and it's a nasty one. All of the flesh has been stripped from his lower left arm and hand.
The cop in the centre of the group has lost his cap. His head is thrown back and he is reaching out with his left arm. He sports a number of wounds - a chunk has been taken out of his stomach; there are holes in his upper left arm and left shoulder blade and his left knee has been scraped.
The first of the two SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) troopers shambles forward with his upper body bowed down as if he is totally exhausted. He has suffered a similar fate to the overweight cop in that the flesh has been stripped from his left arm, only his wound is worse as it is his whole arm that has been affected, not just the lower half. Notice that his goggles are missing from his helmet.
The second SWAT trooper stands with his arms stretched out to either side. Note that he has his goggles in place. Most of the time when I describe what wounds a zombie has suffered, it is pretty obvious to see them from my photos. But with these five, because of their dark uniforms the dark blood stains don't always show up so clearly. They are much easier to see in real life, I assure you. This guy has a nasty bite wound on his left thigh and a deep cut to his upper right arm. Blood has dribbled from one corner of his mouth onto his flak vest.
Set 013 Good God was accurately described by 6MilPhil, one of my followers, as religion, religion, religion, religion and Elvis. Whether you think Elvis is a god is for you to decide. I appreciate the figure but I'm not sure this is the right set for him to appear in. Again, 6MilPhil raised an interesting point with me - how come no-one makes zombie Muslims? Too controversial? Possibly, but no zombie is going to refuse to eat the flesh of anyone just because of the victim's religious beliefs.
Anyway, let's look at what is on offer here. Anyone who has seen George A. Romero's superb Dawn of the Dead film will appreciate the inclusion of the Buddhist monk in his orange robes, carrying a tambourine after Fran was memorably attacked by one in the movie. He appears to be bald but look closer, and you can see he has a small ponytail at the back of his head. He wears large "jam-jar bottomed" spectacles. I've said before that not enough zombies wear glasses, so this figure gets a big thumbs up from me. His two wounds appear at the front of his right leg and the back of his left leg. The more I look at his face the more he reminds me of Mahatma Gandhi!
The zombie nun came in two pieces, with her arms and a strip across her shoulder blades being a separate piece. I actually think her arms are too long and her head too big, making her one of the weakest looking figures in the entire range. There are no obvious wounds on her so I have added blood oozing from her mouth. I like the idea of a zombie nun, but I must say that Griffin Miniatures made a far better job in the sculpting department with their zombie nun.
Next in line, Cold War have once again come up with something truly unique - a zombie rabbi. His style of clothing and his beard readily identifies him as a member of the Jewish faith. Once the zombies got hold of him they made quite a mess of him. He stands lopsided because of a twisted ankle and large bite wound to his right leg. His shoe and sock have been torn off as well. He has also been bitten in both arms. He is a stand out figure!
Set 014 Survivors (reviewed here
http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/09/cold-war-miniatures-survivors-victims.html )
 contains a priest holding a cross and a bible. This figure is clearly based on him as both figures share very similar looking heads. The zombie priest has lost his cross and bible. He has wounds to his lower back, left arm and left leg, along with a couple of small holes to his chest and right arm. I like the idea of survivors and zombie versions of them. It is something I'd like to see a lot more of.
Finally, we come to the Elvis Presley zombie. Is he the real deal or just an Elvis impersonator? Well. that's for you to decide. He wears sunglasses and I've painted him in a white suit with lots of gold sequins. The white certinly shows off the blood stains to maximum effect. There is large gaping wound in his right armpit. His lower legs, especially his right leg, have been badly chewed. Finally, he has a deep hole in his left arm. This is one dude who is "all shook up!"
By now you must surely know that each set costs £7.00 and that you can buy each figure individually for just £1.75. As a reminder, you can buy all 14 sets for the bargain price of £80.00, saving you £18.00 over buying them separately. It's the option that I went for but I do appreciate it was a lot to pay in one go and not everyone can afford that amount. Plus, some folk might not want every pack in the range.
These are both very useful sets to own. Like doctors and nurses, cops are going to suffer heavy casualties when the zombie apocalypse kicks off. So dedicating a set to just cops makes a lot of sense. The religious set contains three unique figures - the Buddhist monk, the rabbi and Elvis. The nun is a disappointment but the zombie priest is a welcome addition. Don't let one bad figure out of this set put you off purchasing them. On the whole, all of the Cold War Miniatures zombies from their The Dead Will Walk range are extremely well sculpted and they fit in very well with other 28mm scale ranges. I heartily recommend not only both sets but the entire range.

4 comments:

  1. I really spend a lot of time on this site Vamp. My last game alerted me to the fact that I need a lot more figures and your reviews are invaluable. After that game, I can see that it is very easy to have a couple of hundred Zeds on the table. Gee wiz, who'd have thunk it?
    I have the entire horde from Cold War, and will finish painting the rest soon. I have some bits from Copplestone that are in progress too and I really like them so I will be doing more from Mark. I also have few figs on the way from Hasslefree. Looking at your reviews I think that Studio is the other company that is on my agenda. Your blog is awesome!

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  2. Wow, thanks, Veloci. That's high praise indeed. For most games of ATZ the complete zombie horde from Cold War Miniatures should have been enough. But I've read your second battle report and the unfortunate incident with the car with its engine left running would have left most gamers struggling.
    For sure Studio is worth looking at. As you know I rate them very highly; in fact I'd say they make the best zombies from any manufacturer. If you do buy any, go for the horde sets so you get the free figure. Both the Copplestone and Hasslefree ranges are good choices, albeit limited in numbers. This is such a great time to collect a zombie horde as so many companies are making them. Incidentally, my own horde is hovering around the 330 mark and there's more on the way!

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  3. Wow, now that is a horde. You can handle military situations where SAW's are blasting away with no probs.
    I've pretty much made up my mind to go for the Studio Zeds next and I'm like you, when I decide to do something I don't go halves. As soon as I recover from my last drunken spending spree I'll order my first horde set.
    Nick found out about ATH and he's already starting to bug me so I'll be needing advice on Vamps and Werewolves in the near future, and I know just where to go!

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  4. Yep, my zombie horde is kinda huge but then again I have been collecting them for years. One of my followers has asked me to take a photo of my horde in its entirety and it's something I want to do as a Christmas special. It should be quite a sight!
    Vampires, ghouls, wights and werewolves will certainly be covered on my blog in the future. At the moment I am concentrating on zombies and showcasing my complete collection in handy bite-size chunks. Other undead types will have their share of the limelight in the future. I have a very large collection of vampires (easily 100+) and over 50 werewolves, so there's a lot to cover.
    By the way, I am absolutely loving your ATZ battle reports. What comes across in spades is the amount of fun you guys are having. And mum is just a star!

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