Sunday 2 January 2011

RAFM Survivors 01

A very happy new year to you all. I hope you had a great time over the holiday period and that Santa was kind to you. He was to me, although I didn't get much gaming related stuff. My dad bought me a beautiful card model of the Tower Bridge, London, but sadly it's too small in scale to use in my batreps. I ordered 16 Recreational Conflict 28mm scale zombies from the states a couple of weeks before Christmas, hoping I'd receive them before the 25th but I'm still waiting for them. A couple of days ago I stocked up on Citadel paints to beat the VAT increase, which comes into play on Tuesday. A curse on our government! I foresee troubled times ahead for this country as Dodgy Dave's and his fag, Nick the Liar's austerity package kicks in.
Anyway, I don't want to get on my soapbox about politics so I'll resume normal service. I was asked if I could do more reviews of survivors so I'm going to kick the new year off with just such a review. I plan on doing lots of reviews of figures that may be useful for survivor types, as well as more reviews of cops, gangers and the military. But first, here's a look at four very usable survivor figures from Canadian company, RAFM.
 
These are part of RAFM's range of 28mm scale USX Modern Day Heroes. At the far left of the photo is RAF02816 Harold Smith, white collar survivalist. This figure is clearly based on Michael Douglas's character William "D-Fens" Foster from the film Falling Down. But to us followers of zombie blogs, he's Mr. Whiteface, alter ego of Oliver/Whiteface who runs the wonderful Obviously Zed blog. I can see the attraction in wanting to choose this particular figure as a hero player character. The pump-action shotgun is a nice weapon to have but the way the figure is holding it makes it very easy to replace with something different. Best of all, the figure is carrying a big sports bag, which could contain any amount of weapons and/or equipment. If you wear glasses, as I do, this a great figure to use, as very few figures wear glasses. If you don't wear glasses ( I believe Oliver said he doesn't) then paint them as sunglasses for that added cool factor. I'd say this is possibly the best figure on the market to use as a player character.
Next up is RAF02803 Hanna the survivor. What I particularly like about this female is that she's left handed, which is something you rarely see on weapon carrying figures. Her weapon of choice appears to be a .44 Magnum, which I'd class as a BA Pistol in ATZ. She kind of reminds me of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from The Terminator films. She looks like she could take care of herself in a fight and I do like her choice of pistol. Dirty Harry meets Dirty Hanna!
Third in line is RAF02802 Desiree Dark the mercenary. She's dressed to thrill in a leather basque showing an impressive cleavage, skintight leather pants, long leather boots and a leather duster. Yep, she's a real heartbreaker! She's armed with twin pistols, but it is the big combat knife slung across her lower back that I particularly like. She is a beautiful figure whom I see in the LTL Mom mode, i.e. do not mess with her!
Lastly, is RAF02804 Briggs the rogue cop. He certainly looks like a rogue, with his crewcut hair, designer shades (well, they'd have to be. He wouldn't wear cheap tat!) and chomping on a cigar. Moreover, he's armed for maximum overkill with a minigun! The closest equivalent in ATZ is the Squad Automatic Weapon or SAW. This is another figure with oodles of star quality who'd make an ideal group leader for any party of survivors.
Harold, Desiree and Briggs would be more suited as Stars in ATZ, whereas Hanna seems more appropriate as a Grunt. Each figure costs $4.95 from RAFM's website. When I ordered these in 2009, they were only part of my order. When the package arrived in the UK our Customs and Excise chaps slapped on a £16 fee! Unbelievable! I paid up but I was not a happy bunny. I've ordered figures from abroad many times but this order to Canada was the only time our Customs Office intervened. In hindsight, I should have sent two small orders instead of one big order. So I'd caution you if you're thinking of ordering direct from RAFM. I have since found a few companies in the UK who sell their figures but sadly none of them have the complete range. I will order from RAFM again, I'm sure, but it won't be a big order like last time. I've learnt my lesson.

20 comments:

  1. This is an excellent review. Great paintjobs and some very nice minis. I especially like your treatment of Harold, and Hanna.

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  2. Thanks, Luckyjoe. I wish I could claim credit for the paint schemes but I just copied them from RAFM's website.

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  3. Great job on Harold Smith. I love his tie!
    You're right about the shotgun. I would have replaced his gun as well for Mr. Whiteface, but hadn't any useful firearms available at that time. Now I have some M16 from Hasslefree and M14 from TAG lying around, but obviously I won't modify my finished miniature. Strange thing, I had thought about buying this miniature a second time (for modifying) earlier this morning - without having seen the topic of this post.

    Happy 2011!!!
    Whiteface / Oliver

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  4. Hee, hee, Harold's tie does stand out. Subtle, it isn't! It's funny that you should mention the Hasslefree M16s as I just got them when I placed my last order with HF. I'm thinking of sticking them to the backs of Big Sil, Gap and Angie (and possibly Rhiannon) to show that they are armed with the correct weapons.

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  5. Guess which of my Copplestone miniatures received the first Hasslefree M16. Hint: it's a miniature from one of the Citizen Militia packs.

    I miss one RAFM miniature in this collection: Hubert, the Equalizer. Nice mini with star qualities.

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  6. Hmm, tough one that, Oliver! Lemme think. Would it happen to be the fat one who bears a close resemblance to a certain Vampifan? Hey, now that you're computer's down this will give you more time to paint figures1 So, get him painted and show him off.

    I'm missing lots of figures from this range and I really would like them all. My bad experience with our Customs robbers have put me off ordering more. However, whilst checking out their website to confirm the prices for this post I saw a few new figures that I really wanted. Kali with her .50 cal Barrett sniper rifle is just awesome! So, I've placed an order for her and four other figures. Hopefully, that will be a small enough order to avoid any unwelcome attention.

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  7. "Briggs the rogue cop" might be based on Rutger Hauer's character from "Split Second". He wears the same trenchcoat, sunglasses and futuristic minigun as in the movie, and the "rogue" persona also fits.

    Great movie by the way.

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  8. Thanks for that info, Chernoskill. I've never heard of that movie before. One to check out, methinks.

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  9. You should definitely check it out, it takes place in the partly submerged London of the near Future. Upon closer inspection of your description, i'm 99% sure it IS Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer), as he is seen in the movie with a cigar all the time and even steals a whole handful from his police captain in particular funny scene!

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  10. Guess what, Chernoskill? I have seen the movie! The name meant nothing to me, but your plot summary certainly sent alarm bells ringing in my mind. Isn't there a scene near the end of the film when Rutger and his partner visit an armoury to stock up on weapons to kill the creature and his partner says something like, "we're gonna need bigger guns!"? A great line! No doubt about it, the figure IS based on Rutger's rogue cop character. RAFM makes a second figure of Briggs but with different weaponry. When I buy him I will paint him up as Rutger. It is such a looooooooong time since I saw the movie but I certainly wouldn't mind watching it again. So, thanks for the memory jog!

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  11. Hey nice work, paint jobs are sweet, especially liking the chick with dual pistols and the push up bra...... Yeah Boy !

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  12. Hi:
    I'm a spanish fan.

    I love this blog and zombies too

    Can i ask you questions about painting?

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  13. Hi Lafosacomun and welcome aboard. Yes, of course you may ask me questions about painting or any aspect of the hobby.

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  14. I'm painting zombies (a lot of them) but i can't choose a correct colour for the flesh.

    How do you do it? (i have all the Gamesworkshop palete of paints...)

    Do you have some tutorial?

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  15. I don't have a tutorial yet. It's something I have been asked to do so I hope to run one sometime in the future.
    Here's how I paint zombie flesh using Citadel paints.
    1. Paint the flesh areas with Dheneb Stone foundation paint.
    2. Apply a Badab Black ink wash.
    3. Dry brush over that with Dheneb Stone.
    4. Add Skull White to the Dheneb Stone in a 1;1 mix and dry brush that on.
    5. Paint eyesockets Chaos Black.
    6. Add a dot of Skull White for the eyes.
    That's it. For blood effects buy some Tamiya Clear Red. Believe me, nothing works better!

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  16. Ok.
    I'll try it.

    Before this i used a white and violet mix...
    or bleached bone and green ink...

    In the future i will post some zombies...

    thanks!

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  17. You're welcome! I'd love to see your painted zombies. Best of luck to you and remember - there is no right or wrong way to painting zombies. Just go with whatever works best for you.

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  18. So now I know who makes these minis! You've got one serious encyclopedia of miniatures. Great job.

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  19. Willy, you have no idea how big my figure collection is! I don't even know how big it is! I've been collecting since the late 1970's and over the years I must have spent a small fortune. But I don't smoke or drink and I get a lot of pleasure out of my hobby. What makes me so happy, is that now I can share my passion on the Internet.

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