Wednesday 30 December 2009

My Zombie Horde part 1

In my last post I promised that I'd show you my horde of zombie miniatures in their entirety and here they are! As the year 2009 draws to a close I currently have 332 painted zombies in scales ranging from 25mm to 35mm, with the vast majority being 28mm scale. When you see them all grouped up like this a couple of millimetres here or there makes no difference.
Thanks must go to two of my followers,  6MilPhil for first suggesting I photograph my horde and to Veloci for suggesting I add a figure that represents me in the photos. The 14 photos are split into two groups of seven. The first group shows Vampifan being chased by the zombie horde. As you can see, the horde just about covers two of my WWG modular gaming boards. In the second set of photos, Vampifan stands atop a pick-up truck surrounded by the horde. I was able to fit everyone onto the one board for these shots.
The figure of Vampifan comes from Copplestone Casting's Dark Future range and is from the Citizen Militia set 2. I converted him a bit to look more like me. Don't worry about not seeing him in close up as I'll be doing a proper review of him in my next post. I originally used him as the leader of my gang in the Gangs of Mega City One skirmish game. This is the first time he's ever faced zombies. If I ever get round to doing a full ATZ campaign I'll most certainly use him again.
Setting up all 333 figures was a time consuming affair. For the chase scene I decided to group the zombies by manufacturer, which is how they are grouped in my storage boxes. For most zombies, one row was sufficient but any company that made 15 or more zombie figures were split up into more manageable-sized groups. A lot of fun can be had trying to identify the figures. Don't forget that if you left-click on any photo it opens up on a new page at a far larger size than shown here on my blog. Most photos should then fill your screen allowing you a closer look at the figures.
The photo above and the next two following show the zombies in closer detail and I'll identify them for you by starting at the back and working my way forward. So here's the list from the back to the front. Any entry that ends with a * indicates that it has not been reviewed on my blog... yet.
10 Fortress Figures 35mm scale resin cast zombies
11 Fortress Figures 35mm scale white metal zombies
10 Wizkids Horrorclix 35mm scale zombies *
9 Wizkids Horrorclix 35mm scale zombies*
10 Citadel Bloodbowl, Chainsaw Warrior & Necromunda 30mm scale zombies*
10 East Riding Miniatures 28mm scale zombies
5 Citadel 25mm scale fantasy zombies (with integral bases, which shows how old they are!)*
4 Ral Partha 28mm scale zombies*
8 assorted one of a kind 28mm scale zombies (all out of production now)*
7 Grenadier 28mm scale zombies*
5 Copplestone Castings 28mm scale zombies
6 EM4 converted 28mm scale rockers and roadie zombies
4 Vampifan 28mm scale zombies (yes, I made these many years ago!)*
5 Victory Force 28mm scale zombies
4 Twilight Creations Inc. 25mm scale zombies
3 Black Hat 28mm skeletal marines (converted into zombies)*
8 Heresy 28mm scale zombies
11 Eureka 28mm scale toxic zombies
6 Spinespur 28mm scale toxic zombies
4 RAFM 32mm scale zombies
7 Rezolution 30mm scale zombies
               
I'll carry on with what should be the next row:
12 Zombiesmith 28mm scale zombies
13 Zombiesmith 28mm scale zombies
6 Crocodile Games 28mm scale zombies
14 Hasslefree Miniatures 28mm scale zombies
10 Alpha Forge 28mm scale zombies
8 Griffin Miniatures 32mm scale zombies
7 Griffin Miniatures 32mm scale zombies
10 Cold War Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (sets 1 & 2)
11 Cold War Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (sets 3 & 4 plus one from set 7)
10 Cold War Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (sets 5 & 6)
The final lot of figures follow on directly from the previous group:
11 Cold War Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (sets 8 & 9 plus one from set 7)
10 Cold War Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (sets 10 & 11)
11 Cold War Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (sets 12 & 13 plus one from set 7)
8 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (Mob set 001)
8 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (Mob set 002)
8 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (Mob set 003)
8 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (Mob set 004)
8 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (Mob set 005)
8 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies (Mob set 006)
3 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies
...and of course, the only living human in the photos:
1 Copplestone Casting 28mm scale Vampifan
Now we move onto the second series of photos, in which the zombie horde has completely surrounded Vampifan. Things do not look too good for him, do they?
The pick-up truck upon which Vampifan is standing is from my collection of card vehicles from World Works Games. This particular model can be found in the Mayhem Armoury set. I plan on doing reviews of all my WWG vehicles in 2010.
Once again, I arranged the zombies by manufacturer. It was another time consuming task but not as bad as the initial set up for the chase scene. Nonetheless, it was a hugely enjoyable afternoon's work. Work? Can this really be called work?
In each of these photos you will notice that Vampifan is always facing the camera. I think he's trying to assess where the greatest danger is going to come from!
This must surely be any survivor's worst nightmare! It doesn't matter how many bullets you've got left in your rifle the horde will still get you before you can kill enough to escape. The optimist will call it a "target rich environment!" The pessimist will say "Oh shit, I am so screwed!" The realist will say, "I'm dead but let's see how many I can take out first!"
This is almost an overhead shot and shows just how impressive the horde is. I'd love to run a scenario that uses all of my zombie figures. Note that I called this post "My Zombie Horde part 1." Hopefully, if I'm still around this time next year, I'll showcase my horde again and we'll see how much it has grown. A total of 400 is easily achievable and I'm sure I'll surpass that figure in 2010. Will I reach the magic figure of 500 by the end of 2010? I don't know about that. Probably not but it is a target I hope to achieve sometime in the near future.
I'll leave the final words to Vampifan as he prepares for death or glory - "Come on have a go if you think you're hard enough!"

11 comments:

  1. Fantastic and terribly inspiring my friend. In addition to being a mind boggling display, this post with the mfg lists will be quite useful for us guys who are still building up.
    This is kind of like some crazy horror version of "Where's Waldo?" of kids puzzle book fame!

    Oh, and I would say that this is mini-Vamp's best opportunity ever at getting Zombie kill of the week! If you just had an MG-42 you'd have a small chance.

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  2. Ha ha, I love your "Where's Waldo?" comment, Willy. Perhaps next year I'll hide Vampifan in amongst the horde and you can try and find him.

    If Vampifan manages to kill this lot I'm nominating him for Zombie Kill of the Year, never mind the week!

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  3. Shock and awe! Its a lovely and inspiring sight.
    So did Mark actually make you a fig or did you convert it?

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  4. Roger, the Vampifan figure is a conversion by me. A very simple conversion, I might say. I added the glasses and I extended his belly somewhat. I loved the fact that he was a fat geezer to start with. I simply made him fatter!

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  5. I'm no zombie fan, but thats impressive vampifan... on three fronts.

    1. having so many zombie figures
    2. painting so many figures
    3. having them so organised you can identify them by manufacturer still.

    good job.

    what's your secret?

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  6. Thanks, Alan. I appreciate your words, especially as I know how much of a non-zombie fan you are. The secret is a combination of things - having the time to paint such a horde, having the money to collect such a horde and having the passion to want to collect such a horde in the first place. As for being so organised, that's just the way I am. My bedroom, which is also my study and workroom, may look like a mess to the outsider but I know where everything is. I'm sure lots of other hobbyists are the same!

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  7. That's beautiful, that is. Bryan, you are very positively insane, in the best possible meaning of the word. My hat's off to you and your horde!

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  8. Aw, you don't have any of ours:

    http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/gallerylb.html

    Or any of the Wargames Factory ones. (Oh, and Horrorclix is Wizkids. It seems to happen alot. :) )

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  9. @Mikko. I can't argue with you - I must be insane! But it's a good kind of madness, lol!

    @Ben. Sorry that I don't have any of your range but that will be rectified in the new year. I am aware of what you do and you are definitely on my shopping list.
    As for the Wargames Factory figures, I've already got them but I haven't got round to making or painting them. Coming soon is all I can say about them.
    Wizkids, Wizards of the Coast, my big bad! I've edited the post to correct my mistake. Thanks for pointing that out to me. A slapped wrist for me!

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  10. Awesome, most awesome. Makes me envious, but maybe in many many years my little zombie group will grow to comparable size...

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  11. M, this horde is the culmination of many years of collecting going right back to the 1980's. It was only two years ago that I decided I wanted to boost my zombie horde to epic proportions. I had a good foundation to build upon, which was a great help. What I'm saying is, you'll never get a horde like this overnight. It takes time and patience. Stick with it and you'll get there eventually.

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