Foundry Freelance Assassins

Here is another set of figures from the Wargames Foundry Street Violence range - set SV032 - Freelance Assassins. I bought these figures years ago as part of the Dark Heart of the City collection. This is a very varied bunch of figures whom I'd describe as five individuals rather than a team of five.

At the far left of the group is Kitty Starr, an urban cowgirl. You can tell she's a contemporary cowgirl as no woman in the 19th Century Wild West would ever dress like her. Her hot pants and crop top remind me more of a trailer trash lass. Maybe she is, or maybe she just likes to dress sexily. She is armed with a pair of revolvers kept in holsters on her hips. It is impossible to identify what type they are.
"Razor Ruth" Kressel is dressed as one of the Foundry Street Girls gangers and would fit in perfectly with them. She is dressed in black leather bondage gear with chains hanging from her belt. She is armed with a 9mm Glock 17 Pistol, so named because it holds 17 rounds.
In the centre of the group is Sachiko, a Japanese Yakuza assassin. This figure is really small, measuring just 25mm tall, and yet she seems perfectly in scale, given that Japanese women are quite often small. She is armed with the traditional two swords of an ancient samurai - the katana (long sword) and wakizashi (short sword). I really should have added some tattoos to her - an oversight on my part.

The two males are massively overscale for 28mm scale figures. Normally, with the Foundry Street Violence packs you get one overscale figure per pack, but here we have two. First up is a character known only as "Brute." He is a dead ringer for the actor Rutger Hauer. He stands 35mm tall and yet I don't think he is overscaled. His height and build just looks right. He is unarmed but one look at those huge hands of his and you get the impression that he could crush skulls with them! He is a truly menacing figure.
Last in line is Garth Bellamy, whose expression suggests he may be a simple minded soul. Ha! Don't be fooled! He is a stone cold killer. His weapon of choice is a 9mm P220 Sig Sauer Pistol. He stands at 33mm tall and once again, he suits that large size.
This is very much an eclectic bunch of figures. I can see them as individuals but not as a collective whole. Still, don't take that as a criticism, it's merely an observation. I like them a lot. Set SV032 Freelance assassins costs £12.00 from the Wargames Foundry website.

3D Forge Miniatures Kickstarter Project

Earlier this week I was notified of a new Kickstarter project run by 3D Forge Miniatures. 3D Forge Miniatures are a new figure company run by Alan Dickinson from County Durham, not far from where I live. I got friendly with Alan earlier this year when he told me that he was going to set up his own miniatures company and that he wanted to concentrate on zombie sculpts. Having seen some of his previous larger scale work I knew that he was a very talented sculptor

You can visit his Kickstarter website by clicking on the following link -
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1934394318/zombie-miniaturessurvivors-barricades-and-walls-in?ref=category
To the left of here is a picture of the 12 basic 28mm scale zombies that will appear as a box set. If you click on the link you can see close ups of some of the individual figures and very nice they look too. These are all typical and iconic American zombies, which is fine by me.

As well as sculpting the zombies, Alan has also sculpted five survivors to do battle with them and they appear in the picture to the left of here. That guy with the crossbow is a dead ringer for Daryl from The Walking Dead TV series. I like the sheriff (a not-Rick Grimes) with his big bag of weapons slung over his shoulder. They all look hard ass. Note that whilst the zombies will be one piece castings the survivors will come in two pieces.

Anyone who makes a pledge before 24th of December 2013 will receive this special zombified Santa Claus. He couldn't care less who's been naughty or nice - he just wants to eat your brains!

As well as sculpting zombies and survivors, Alan is including an option for scenery items. To the left of here is his Dumpsters and Barrels set, comprising of a skip, a dumpster, wheelie bins, metal bins, metal barrels, tyres, a wooden pallet and sandbags. All very useful scenery items. They'll look good on anyone's gaming board.

In addition to the above fortification pack are a collection of walls and barriers as shown in the picture to the right.
I have made a pledge for £50.00, which will get me everything I have showed here. Having spent a small fortune on the Zombicide 2, Reaper Bones 2 and Mars Attacks Kickstarter projects earlier this year I did say that I was going to cut back on my figure spending. But this was one project that I simply could not ignore, especially as it is run by a friend of mine. I should point out that all the figures and scenery shown here will go on general sale after the Kickstarter project has been delivered. However, the prices will go up so it'll pay you to be an early bird and pledge soon. For example, my £50 pledge buys me £76.60 worth of goods. A damned good saving, I reckon. This project runs until 10th January 2014. To succeed, Alan needs to raise £6,000 and at the time of writing he is very close to that goal with another 30 days to go. Let's make it happen, folks. I really want this project to succeed.

World War Z DVD

When I was in hospital earlier this month I missed the cinema release of World War Z. Despite being unimpressed by the trailer it was still a film that I wanted to see. So when I got out of hospital I ordered it on DVD and decided to watch it with an open mind. I had read a lot of negative comments about it, especially by fans of the book. But as I always say, there is only ever one critic who counts and that's yourself.
THE FILM. The film is very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Max Brooks. I say very loosely because all they have in common is the title and the fact that both feature a zombie apocalypse. The big name attached to the film is, of course, Brad Pitt. He plays Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who is coerced into returning to help lead the investigation into a world wide pandemic that has infected millions of people, turning them into flesh eating zombies. Mireille Enos played his wife, Karin. For me, the most interesting character in the movie was a female Israeli soldier, known only as Segen, played by Daniella Kertesz. Doctor Who fans may be interested to know that the newest Doctor, Peter Capaldi, has a small role as a World Health Organisation scientist. How ironic that the new Doctor Who is working for WHO! The film was directed by Marc Forster and had a troubled history with rewrites and a delayed release date. Ultimately, it was a box office hit and a sequel is in the works.
THE PLOT. Warning - Spoiler alert! The film opens with Gerry and his family (wife and two daughters) in Philadelphia when the zombie apocalypse kicks off. They are stuck in traffic but manage to leave the city and head for Newark, New Jersey. Gerry's old friend, UN Deputy Secretary General Thierry Umutoni contacts him and sends a helicopter out to bring the Lanes to a US Navy vessel somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Here, scientists and military personnel try to make sense of the outbreak. Gerry is flown to a military base in South Korea, where it is believed the outbreak started. He is accompanied by Dr. Andrew Fassbach, who doesn't last long. He slips when exiting the plane and accidentally kills himself when his pistol discharges. A dumb and stupid death! Why couldn't he have been killed by zombies?
Gerry learns that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service knew a lot about the virus before it went global, so he flies to Jerusalem, where a huge wall has been erected around the city to keep out the zombie horde. He meets with Mossad chief Jurgen Warmbrunn but is forced to leave quickly when the wall is breached and the city is overrun by zombies. Gerry, accompanied by Segen, a female soldier depart on a commercial airliner, one of the last to leave the stricken city. Gerry had helped Segen by cutting off her hand when she got bitten by a zombie. This drastic measure prevented her from succumbing to the zombie disease. He persuaded the pilot to fly him to a World Health Organisation research facility in Wales. Unfortunately, a zombie had stowed away on the plane and Gerry was forced to kill it with one of Segen's hand grenades. Naturally, this caused the plane to crash but luckily, Gerry and Segen were the only survivors and even more luckily, they were close to the WHO facility. Whilst in Jerusalem, Gerry noticed that the zombies ignored a sick old man and an emaciated boy. He surmised that anyone with a terminal disease was immune to the zombies so to test his theory he injected himself with a lethal but treatable disease. It worked and the scientists were able to produce a vaccine to render humanity immune to the zombie virus.
THE VERDICT. Oh dear! Where do I begin? This has to be one of the worst zombie films I have ever seen and believe me, I've seen some bad zombie films. There are so many holes to pick in the plot, right from the start when the zombies first appear up until the ludicrous ending. For a start, the zombies are not as described in the book - slow moving and relentless. No, these zombies are all Olympic sprinters spliced with the DNA of ants so that they can climb on top of each other to scale huge walls. I hate fast running zombies and I particularly hated the zombies in this movie. They just looked so silly and stupid. To me, what was unforgivable for a zombie movie was the fact that we never got to see a drop of blood spilled throughout the film. For fuck's sake it is a zombie film! Where was the gore? How can you cut someones hand off and not show any blood? If I had to describe the film in one word I think I'd chose the word anaemic!
I get the point of Gerry flying all over the world to show that this is a global event but how he gets to his destinations does beggar belief. Can a Hercules transport plane fly from the Eastern seaboard of the USA to South Korea without refuelling? It was established very early on that zombies react to sound so why when we travel to Jerusalem are so many refugees singing at the top of their voices just inside the city walls? Also, why have so many helicopter flights around the city? They're even more noisy. No wonder the zombies outside got so agitated and scaled the walls. Although how they did that left me shaking my head in disbelief! As for zombies ignoring the terminally diseased, what a load of bollocks! Zombies will attack and feast on anyone with a heartbeat! This so-called cure was never mentioned in the book, so why spoil the film with it? This monumental oversight made the ending even more of a letdown.
Oh, and don't get me started on the flight from Israel to Wales! How did the zombie stowaway in the first place? Why was Segen allowed to carry hand grenades with her? And what was Gerry thinking when he threw a grenade at the zombie? Also, are we really expected to believe that Gerry and Segen were the only two survivors of the plane crash? Come on, get real, folks! Credit the audience with some intelligence! I loved Max Brooks' book of  World War Z but I hated this film with a passion. As a result, I can only give it a 1 out of 10 rating. Avoid at all costs. Read the book or catch it on TV when it airs but don't waste good money on it. Don't let my suffering be in vain!

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.