Wednesday 11 April 2012

Battle Bunker Zombies

It has been such a long time since I reviewed any undead figures. So, it's time to put that right with a review of two sets of 28mm scale zombies from a not very well known firm called Battle Bunker Games. My good friend Adam, aka ZombieAd, who runs the Zombie Shop, sent me a blister pack containing two of these figures. Much appreciated, Adam! I liked them a lot and ordered a second set. You'll see why if you read on.
Each blister pack contains two zombie figures, minus their heads. You get a sprue that comes with a choice of three heads and two shoulder pads. To use all three heads I needed a second set. This would of course, leave me with a spare figure. Looking at how the zombie is posed I realised it would be very easy to convert him into a corpse, so, this is what I did.
The figure at the far left of my photos has been slightly altered by gently bending his arms into new poses - right arm down and left arm up. I used the bare head for him. His shirt and trousers have been severely shredded and he is missing a sock and shoe from his right foot. His injuries are very extensive, ranging from cuts and bites to his head all the way down to a massive bite wound at the back of his lower left leg. I have smeared his hands in blood, which just adds to the overall gory look of him.
In the centre of the trio of standing zombies is your basic figure with no changes done to him. I gave him the American footballer's helmet head and glued a shoulder pad to his right shoulder. I painted him in the colours of the Mayhem City Marauders. I'm slowly building up a small collection of American footballer and cheerleader zombies from various figure companies. I did paint a number on this guy's shirt but when I came to painting on the gore effects (TCR mixed with black) it got totally obscured.
The third standing zombie was given the biker helmet head, and so I gave him a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans, to reinforce his biker look. His arms have been ever so slightly repositioned to move them closer in to his body. You can do this easily enough just by bending them in your fingers. The colour schemes and different heads help to make all three look different. I've painted more gore on his arms than on the other two, again, just to make him look different.
To make the corpse, I first of all cut off his slottatab with a pair of model clippers. I slightly repositioned his arms and I added a small amoubt of modelling putty to the small of his back, to fill in the gap between the bottom of his shirt and his belt. I snipped off the back of his left boot so it lay flat on the ground and I ever so slightly bent his right foot forward. Finally, I gave him the bare head, which I stuck on at an angle, facing to his right. I drilled a small hole above his left ear and a much larger hole above his right ear, indicating that he'd been killed by a head shot. All in all, it was a very simple conversion, but one which I think works very well.
I have no idea if Battle Bunker Games will be adding any more figures to this range or not. They are nicely sculpted figures and they do have a lot of wounds on them, so gore-hounds like me, can really go to town splashing on the claret! The choice of heads is a nice idea but I would recommend doing what I did and buying two sets to get the most use out of them. This brings me to what could put a lot of you off them - their price. A blister pack, containing two figures and the sprue of heads costs £7.99, as near as dammit as £4.00 per figure. This, I know, will put them out of the price range of a lot of you guys and I fully understand. If you're on a tight budget, these would appear to be a luxury you could well do without. Even so, I'm glad I have them as part of my horde. Plus, even if Adam hadn't gifted me with a set, I'd still have got round to buying them.

22 comments:

  1. They're not bad and a step closer to you having every 28mm zombie figure produced!!!!!

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  2. Nice paintwork (as always) and a good conversion, but I feel that these are for the dedicated collector only, given their price.
    Their pose does make a good corpse though.

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    1. Dedicated collector? That would be me then! Also, see my reply to Fran.

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  3. Ooooh.... That is pretty good. I like the idea that you can customize them a bit.

    Well done on a great review Bryan.

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    1. I like the customisation aspect of them as well, Johnny.

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  4. They are a great set and will fit in perfectly with your giant horde.

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    1. You're not wrong there, Adam. Every little helps, eh?

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  5. Those are nice. I like your corpse conversion. Small entrance wound and big exit by using different sized drills. Very smart.

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    1. Yes, I just changed the drill bits for the entry and exit wounds. I'm very happy with how the corpse turned out.

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  6. Always liked the corpse Zeds that you do, this one is no exception, well done mate.

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    1. Thanks, TE. I think corpses are now an essential part of most gaming boards, especially if your campaign is as advanced as mine.

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  7. They're great. Especially the football guy, whole zombified team, eh? :O

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    1. Hmm, not sure if I could manage a full team but I'll do my best. I think the Mayhem City Marauders might have to change their name to the Mayhem City Corpses.

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  8. They look great Bryan. I wonder if these will be harder to kill having helmets?

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    1. In some games they would, Simon. GURPS readily springs to mind. But in the likes of ATZ, it makes no difference.

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    2. They made me think of the riot police zombies in 'Monster Island'

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    3. I haven't read that novel, Simon, but I do have a few zombie SWAT Trooper figures, so I can well imagine what they'd be like.

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