Acheson ATZ Minis - Pt 1

Searching for inexpensive 28mm Survivor types, I found Acheson Creations "All Things Zombie" figures.  The line is made in conjunction with Two Hour Wargames ATZ.  They are reasonably priced at $7.50 plus shipping for 4 figures.  There are 9 set; although only 6 of them have pics in the online catalog.  I bought three set in order to see what they were like.  I'm going to do a set of quick reviews of these minis as I ready them for the table.  I bought the following packs:

Clown and Cultists

This set comes with(from L to R) a bearded knife and shotgun armed homeless looking man.  A chainsaw wielding clown.  A figure armed with a silenced pistol and machete who's mug bears an uncanny resemblance to Ed from THW.  The final figure is a pot-bellied man, with a scoped rifle.  As you can see, three of the four figs are rather large; much larger than the forth figure.  These three figs will fit in well with my burgeoning "clicky" zombies.  The detail on all the figures is good, and they had very little flash on them, which is the same across the sets I got.  

Males Crazies and Cultists #1

This set contains (from L to R) an individual with what looks an old field jacket and bull-pup style AR.  I can't tell if his outstretched hand is miscast, or just poorly sculpted.  Next is a man in a jump suit armed with an M-79 grenade launcher.  Third is a bio-suited flame-thrower operator and finally a youngster, or maybe a dwarf, wielding an M-60 machine gun.  The figures are equal in scale to the pot-bellied man from the set above.  These figs have some character; even if the youngster/dwarf leaves me a little flat.

Militia Set #1

The final set I purchased has 4 figs kitted out in paramilitary gear.  Three are bare headed, while the fourth has a patrol style cap on.  All have headsets and mikes on.  They are armed (from L to R) with a nondescript SMG, another bull-pup AR, and scoped rifle and a combat shotgun.  These guys would make good survivalists, or guards.

As you can see from the pictures, with the exception of the first three figs, the minis fall well within the 25/28mm range.  While the details aren't the best in the world, they do look like they were worth the price of admission.  We'll see how they paint up as I work on them in the coming weeks.  I will be honest. I am not impressed with the paint jobs these minis got on Acheson site.  I think these minis can look way better than they do in their online catalog.

Hmm, I'll be able to squeeze at least 3 more posts out of these minis.

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and GAAAAHHHHGG!!"

Santa made his rounds last night, and his last stop was the city of Lazarus.  It's not that his night's work was done.  He just ran into some troubles that kept hm from completing his rounds.  No photos of the jolly old fat man have turned up.  We were able to snap one of his eight tiny reindeer, though.

OH MY!!! I certainly hope he made it to your house before he stopped in Lazarus.

All joking aside, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas

Mantic Zombies - The Start Of A 28mm Horde

I made the decision to game the Zombie Apocalypse in 15mm several years ago.  For some reason, though, recently I've had the itch to start collecting minis to game it in 28mm.  There are just so many excellent minis for the genre now, I can't fight it.  To that end, I went out and got a Mantic Zombie Regiment box set, containing 30 plastic zombies.

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You get 10 identical sprues, with 3 torsos, 3 legs, several left arms variants, and 5 heads.  The only problem I see with the set has is that the right arms are attached to the torsos; not separate, like the left ones. This does lead to a limited amount of poses you can make.  Still, the figs paint up quiet nicely, with lots of character, and despite the fact that they are meant for use in a fantasy setting, they will work quite well in a modern Zombie Apocalypse.  In my opinion, these are the best plastic zombies on the market, and some of the best in general; plastic or metal.

 

On these figures I used what I call "The Dip Plus" method.  That is blocking in the base colors, using "The Dip" method, then going back and heavily highlighting the figs.  It is a bit more involved than a basic Dip, and not as much work as doing a "proper" paint job on them.  I based them on the 25mm square bases that come with the set.  You could just as easily base them on other style/size bases, though.  I will use them to fill out the coming horde; sprinkling in modern looking metal ones.  Here are a couple of my favorite figs from the batch:

 

 

 

Big John and the Zombies

Big John and the Zombies...heh, sounds like a rock band, of some sorts.  Actually, they are a Foundry Street Violence figure and a couple of re based/modified/painted Horrorclix figs.  It's a strange combination for a post, I know.  If you'll bear with me for a minute you'll see the connection.

First we have "Big John"  He's a slightly modified Foundry figure I had floating around.  He originally had a big semi-auto in his had.  I used it on another mini, so I replaced the gun, hand and all, with a revolver from one of the Reaper Chronoscope weapons sprues.  It works well.  With the cheap looking grey suit, he has that haggard low rent Dick look to him...at least I think so:

The next couple of figs are re based, re painted Horrorclix figs.  The one on the left is the "Hard Hat Zombie"  He's a straight re base/ re paint.  The other is the "Human Fly" figure, with the head and arms replaced with  Mantic Zombie ones.  I like the way it turned out:

Here's a group photo with the other Horrorclix zombies I painted up a while ago:

Now on to why I lumped this all together.  If you hadn't caught on by now by reading this blog, I am some what of a stickler about scale; specifically between minis and vehicles on the table.  I do not like it when they are too far out of scale with each other.  With that said, the "Big John" figure is a giant, even compared with other Foundry figs.  Here it is with Foundry and Black Cat Bases figs for comparison:

The guy looks like Andre the Giant to me.  The same can be said for the Horrorclix figs,as well:

They are all just a tad to big for my tastes, when put with my other figs.  Here's the good news that wraps this all up in a tidy little ball.  When put together, Big John and the Horrorclix figs are perfect match:

In fact, they are such a good match that I was moved to start a side project to beef up the number of Horrorclix zombies in my collection, via E-Bay, and also have found a home for 3 more survivor type figs I have kicking about that are too big for my tastes.

MIBs and Gunmen; more from The Scene

As I stated last week, I have another group of figs from the British company called The Scene.  This time it's a group of government agents, aka MIBs and gunmen.  Again, these are great miniatures; filled with loads of details:

As with the other batch, these minis are on the large size:

The up side of them being larger is that HO scale vehicles, which there are many to choose from, scale with them much better, than they do with true 15mm figs.  Real HO vehicles tend to be a bit large side by side with 15mm figs, IMO.

On The Workbench - 12/11

Here's this month's "On the Workbench" post.  Despite my best efforts, I ended up adding more stuff to the pile of unpainted minis.  My finished items and new items offset each other, a bit.  Still, not a bad month's output for November.

The new items and projects that I added stuff to are denoted by an * next to them.

On the Workbench for December 2011:
(This is all stuff that is partially finished; in no particular order)

15 28mm PA Survivors* - 3, 5 man packs from Lead Adventure Miniatures
20 Clicky Zombies* - Beefing up the amount of clicky Zeds I have.
20 Mantic Ghouls* - Mantic Ghoul Regiment
20 28mm Zombies - Wargames Factory Plastic Zombies
6 28mm Survivors - Obelisck Nighthawk gang 
6 28mm Vampires - Pontoonier Wierd West vampires for Two Hour Wargames.  Unfinished commission work that needs to be done ASAP, as I've really let Ed down on this.  I have a feeling that I am just going to finish the project gratis
12 28mm Survivors* - Atcheson Creations ATZ figs.  I will be doing a review and size comparison on them, soon.
28mm Post Apoc Ruins Project - Ruins made from Gamecraft's Foamcore 6 story building.  This one is half done.
10mm Ruins Project - Foamcore ruins for a BTech style game using Mechwarrior figs; another half finished project.
28mm River Barge - Post Apoc watercraft
28mm Vehicles* - 6-8 vehicles for my survivor; added another vehicle in November
15mm Suburbia - Paper/foamcore houses for suburban Lazarus. 
50 20mm WWII Russians - Minis for a semi defunct NUTS! East Front project I planned
2 T-34/85s - Same As Above
Various Fantasy/Sci Fi minis* - I have a box of old minis I use to try out techniques and hone my skills.  I have quite a few half painted figs that I'd like to finish


November's Finished Projects/Minis 
 (I will be posting these up through out the monthr, as I get photos and such)

15mm Armor - USMC LAV-25 and a US Army M2 Bradley
30 28mm Zombies - Mantic Zombie Regiment Box (Look for this post over at Welcome To Lazarus in the future)
2 "Clicky" Zombies - (Look for this post in the future) 
1 Foundry Street Violence Figure (Look for this post in the future)
6 man 28mm Post Apoc gang - Junior's Salvage Crew
10 15mm Survivors -You can see the first half of the "Here"
15mm Suburban House Test - Test house for modeling a suburan area for Lazarus
1 "Clicky" Scarecrow Conversion - Not sure where this one will show up, yet.