Zombicide Survivors

Change of pace from the historical miniatures!  I purchased the Guillotine Games board game 'Zombicide' a short while ago, and painted-up a few of the miniatures you get with the game (three uses of 'game' in the same sentence... bit clumsy). 

For those who don't know, Zombicide is a collaborative board game where players co-operate to overcome attacks by zombies in order to achieve objectives, all set in a nicely bloodstained post-apocalypse type setting.  The quality of the game contents is amazing - the board composed of beautifully printed street and building plans (liberally soaked in gore and brains), with decks of cards for all your player equipment etc..  The real gem for me, though, was the huge number of miniatures included.  Zombies, survivors, and a huge monstrosity aptly named an 'abomination'.

Modelled to a slightly larger scale than most of the historical 28mm that I do, but more realistically-proportioned than a typical Warhammer miniature, they were an interesting diversion from my usual painting habits.  For a start, I must say now that the quality of sculpting (detail, pose, proportion, animation) is faultless.  These are great models.  The only downside is that (of course) they have to be moulded in one piece, and in 'forgiving' plastic - because they are meant to be plying pieces.  This meant that some of my usual way of working had to change; no leaving off the arms and weapons and painting them separately for a start, and definitely no speeding-up the drying time with a hairdryer!

The first two I've shown here were the most fun to paint of the survivors.  The survivors are not generic, they have back-stories, and appear in the artwork etc., so I didn't want to just splash any old scheme on them.  The 'hobo' guy is more-or-less taken directly from the rule booklet art; and the skater-dude doesn't deviate much either (I liked his Guillotine Games hoodie, so I copied those and gave him straight-edge tattoos).

The 'cop' figure is a sort of sheriff (apologies to citizens of the U.S. for my limited knowledge of your great nation's law-enforcement agencies), and reminds me of tough-guy actor Michael Madsen.

The office worker tips a wink to Michael Douglas in 'Falling Down', and I loved the nerdy pens clipped neatly into his shirt pocket...  I've worked in offices for two decades now, and I've never seen a single employee ever clip a pen in his shirt pocket - but it remains an iconic badge!  As with the hobo, I used a two-tone blue solution for the spectacle glass (like some Far East cartoon artists do).

Not sure this is the best photograph I've ever taken... but the katana-wielding Goth / Emo girl survivor is the best clue so far to the gender of the sculptor.  Personally, I've never fought any zombies - but I'm pretty sure that miniskirt / stockings / nu-rock boots is not the most practical outfit for such activities.  On the subject of stockings, I was going for a semi-opaque effect here - modelled on a friend of mine who dresses in a not-dissimilar fashion.  I've since seen the same thing done but with rips and ladders included - wish I'd thought of doing that!