Tag Archives: Zombies

Zombicide “Fred” (Shaun of the Dead), “Don” (Basil Fawlty) and “Rob” (John Mason aka Sean Connery from The Rock)

by

8

Zombicide Simon Pegg, John Cleese and Sean Connery

Zombicide “Fred” (Shaun of the Dead), “Don” (Basil Fawlty) and “Rob” (John Mason).

Since my group has been playing a fair bit of Zombicide over the past couple of months, and starting to paint the figures was one of the things that got me restarted with painting models, I’m showing off the first three here. I’m painting S2 Survivors & Zombvivors rather than the S1 figures because I’m painting them in their pairs and we haven’t cracked open the S2 box(es) yet and so don’t have their Zombvivors out.

Zombicide Fred, Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead, Don, Basil Fawlty, John Cleese, Rob, John Mason, Sean Connery.

So here they are, individually:

aka Simon Pegg as Shaun from Shaun of the Dead

Zombicide “Fred” and Zombvivor version

“Fred” is a homage to Simon Pegg as Shaun from “Shaun of the Dead” (2004)

I took Shaun’s black pants as a little challenge, as they’re quite nicely sculpted. To make them look black, (they are SO black in the film and stills) while still picking out the sculpt detail – but without resorting to typical light greys and almost-white highlights. I think I pulled it off. In contrast with the pants (and several other Zombicide figures), the sculpt on his head and face was a bit of a shambles (the artwork isn’t so hot, either!), and his cricket bat was clearly sculpted by someone who has never held or possibly even seen a real cricket bat, as the thing looks more like an American college fraternity paddle from a comedy film. I did pick out his two-tone-red tie, but I fear it is too subtle, and is lost in the general bloodstains on his clothing (taken from the point in the film where he’s using his tie as a headband).

aka John Cleese as Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers

Zombicide “Don” and Zombvivor version.

“Don” is a homage to everyone’s favourite hotelier – John Cleese as Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers (1975-1979)

As always, I googled the character before beginning to paint, and found that in most images Basil’s suit was actually grey and not the brown pictured in the Zombicide artwork. In the end I made the choice to stick with brown as a brown suit just feels so much more 1970s and “Basil Fawlty”, somehow. I did carefully copy the colours of his tricolour tie from the reference photographs, though. This figure is quite nicely sculpted as well, though I found that his face again didn’t photograph all that well. (and the figures appear shinier here than IRL). A small detail that can’t be seen here is the shine and polish on living Basil’s shoes that is absent on undead Basil’s scuffed shoes.

aka Sean Connery as John Mason from The Rock

Zombicide “Rob” and Zombvivor version.

“Rob” is a homage to Sean Connery as John Mason from “The Rock” (1996)

This was the easiest of the three to paint due to the almost entirely black outfit. I’m not really a fan of over-highlighting things, and as John Mason is supposed to be a black-ops type guy, I kept his gear nice and dark. I did pick out his medical lanyard in red, and painted his twin Uzi SMGs in Vallejo Metal Black with a highlight of gunmetal, so they’re actually far brighter than is realistic. The sculptor of this figure did a good job of picking out Connery’s trademark “smirk/people’s eyebrow” look in the sculpt, and I did an okay job of keeping it followed by an average job of photographing it. The Zombvivor also looks better in person, as shiny transparent red over dark grey/black also doesn’t photograph all that well.

And now group shots of the trio in Zombified “Zombvivor” form:

Zombicide Fred, Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead, Don, Basil Fawlty, John Cleese, Rob, John Mason, Sean Connery.

Zombicide Fred, Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead, Don, Basil Fawlty, John Cleese, Rob, John Mason, Sean Connery.

Red Box Games: Lesser Undead (Zombies!) Size Comparison.

by

8

So recently I got over enough of my butthurt from the initial RBG Kickstarter campaign enough to fish these Zombies out of the box. I still haven’t QAed the rest of the box or anything, and I can’t recall the rest of what I got, but I’ll worry about that later. (I do recall that I didn’t get any horses, though!)

Anyway, as part of the Undead Army that I’m putting together for Marouda, I decided that some Zombies would be quick and easy enough to paint. So just before I prime them and start with the painting, I thought I’d do a scale post and review of them, since Tre’ still hasn’t done one. In fact, I’ve just added a new category to the page so people can find these things more easily since I still get a lot of hits from people searching out this information, so this way it will be a little easier to find.

First up, let me state that these figures that I have are made of Trollcast, not metal, as the current ones are. The current ones appear to be the exact same sculpts however, and anyone who likes finely sculpted, detailed undead miniatures should be thankful that these things still exist in a form that you can purchase them in. Tre’ was actually so disheartened by the whole KS experience that he didn’t want to remaster any of these figures in metal, since he thought that he’d sold as many as he ever could or would of them via the KS campaign. Luckily several of us over on Dakka managed to talk sense into him, and these and other figures are now available to purchase in metal.

Red Box Games Lesser Undead/Zombies. 20mm round base as supplied on left. 25mm “traditional” slotabase on right.

The next most important thing to point out is that the bases these figures come with, and are pictured with over on RBG’s site are 20mm round bases. They are not the more common 25mm round bases that most Warhammer 40k and other range figures have come with for the past 25 years. Tre’ has explained that he uses the most appropriate bases for the figures, with no attempt or intention to mislead anyone. He’s also said that he’ll re-photograph his various figures and show them next to a ruler, etc. Well, that still hasn’t happened, and so it’s down to blog posts like these and the occasional thread on forums to show the actual sizes of RBG’s various models.

Red Box Games Lesser Undead Zombies on 20mm and 25mm Square bases

As you’ve no doubt already checked out – the figures are finely detailed, beautiful sculpts. They’re really not rotting zombies, nor do they have the distended bellies of the recently departed. They’ve got a shrivelled, almost mummified look to them. The nods to more traditional zombie models are the twisted, distorted poses, and the semi-skeletal faces.

As you can see, they fill out both types of 20mm bases quite well, and have a bit of space on the 25mm ones. Since I’m basing all single models of this size on 25mm rounds these days, that’s what I’ll be doing, but at least you can get a better idea of their size than from the typical pictures of them showing them mounted on 20mm rounds.

Red Box Games Lesser Undead/Zombies mounted on several types of base for comparison. 20mm round, 20mm sqare, 25mm round, 25mm Square

At this point, I’ll provide a bunch of photos comparing them to other manufacturers’ zombies, and a few other undead in the hope of making this useful for those looking to use them in their army building or zombie hordes. I should probably do a few updates for my own painted undead models.

Red Box Games, Citadel/GW, RBG, Citadel/GW

As you can see, the height is comparable to GW/Citadel models, but there’s a huge proportional difference.

Red Box Games, Mantic, RBG, Mantic

The Mantic zombies are slighter than the GW ones, but still of a very different set of proportions to the RBG.

Red Box Games, Zombicide, RBG, Zombicide Fatty

A lot of people interested in this genre have Zombicide these days, so here’s a couple of Guillotine Games/CMoN’s Zombicide figures. Despite the Zombicide models being overall a smidgen taller. and the RBG ones nominally being “fantasy” models, they’re still generic enough to fit in with “moderns” like the Zombicide figures, and are close enough in height and proportion to work alongside the board game’s figures,  Just paint them as though they’re wearing torn jeans and hospital gowns.

Red Box Games, Last Night on Earth, RBG, LNoE

Flying Frog Productions’ Last Night on Earth is also a popular and fun Zombie game. Shame they seem too incompetent to figure out how to ship their Kickstarter products to Australia (though they’ll do it immediately with free shipping if you buy from their webstore!) Anyway, their figures are a little taller than Red Box’ ones, but close enough so that they would fit in together.

Red Box Games, D&D Miniatures, RBG, Harlequin (Black Tree)

Both the D&D Miniature (Wizards of the Coast) and the Harlequin are quite different in proportion to the RBG Zombies. Both are far close to Mantic and Citadel scale.

 

Now for some larger lineups. I had to set up to take several photos since the line got too long. Just be aware to look at not only the head heights but the base heights as well. I can see I forgot to add Mantic’s Zombies in these larger group shots. Ah well, they’re still up the page. C’est la vie!

Zombicide, Red Box Games, Citadel, Studio Miniatures, Last Night on Earth, Harlequin, D&D Miniatures, Reaper (Bones)

Red Box Games, Studio Miniatures, RGB, Zombicide, RBG, Zombicide (Fatty), RBG

Red Box Games, Citadel, RBG, Citadel, D&D, RBG

Red Box Games, Reaper (Bones), RBG, Harlequin, RBG, Mantic Undead Wraith, RBG, Last Night on Earth

 

And now for more of a wider view against other appropriate figures:

Red Box Games, Citadel’s Lord of the Rings Barrow-Wight, RBG, Barrow-Wight

Citadel’s pretty true-scale Barrow-Wights absolutely dwarf the RBG models. This was a surprise to me since these LotR models are quite slight in many ways. I guess they are very much powerful hero-types, though.

Red Box Games, Citadel LotR Army of the Dead (Metal), RBG, Citadel

Again, I was surprised at how large the Army of the Dead figures seem in comparison to the RBG ones. I think an important thing to note here is that even though Citadel’s Lord of the Rings/Hobbit line is nominally “truescale”, there’s still been quite a substantial variety in their sizes between their sculpts over the past 15 years…

Red Box Games, Citadel Warrior of Minas Tirith, RBG, Citadel

…as can be seen from these Warriors of Minas Tirith. Tre’s Zombies are perfectly scaled alongside these guys.

Red Box Games, Wargames Foundry “Greek” Skeleton, RBG, Foundry

Back to the undead. These WIP Wargames Foundry figures are the only fully appropriate ones I have from this company to share the comparison shot with the RBG zombies. As you can see, these are a little smaller than their GW cousins, but still much larger proportionately than the RBG zombies. Nature of the beat when you’re talking about Skeletons in metal, I’m afraid.

Red Box Games, Citadel “Skeleton Horde” Plastic Skeleton, RBG, Citadel

Citadel’s Skeleton Horde came out in 1986 – one of Games Workshop’s first plastic kits. It was used as the mainstay for their Undead range for a solid 25-odd years afterwards. The Zombies shown above have their slightly odd proportions due to being compatible with these skeletons. Like the Foundry Skeletons above, thicker pieces was needed for sturdiness, but makes them wildly disproportionate to the RBG models.

Red Box Games, Citadel Tomb Kings, RBG, Citadel

Citadel’s line of Tomb Kings Undead are also scaled to be compatible with the very old Skeleton Horde figures above. As such, and with their additional armour, they loom hugely over the RBG Zombies. Also note the smaller height of the bases used by the Tomb Kings here.

Red Box Games, Reaper (Bones), RBG, Reaper

Most of Reaper’s Undead (Bones pictured here) are often slighter than GW’s ones, but still much chunkier than the RBG line. Though as an apparent exception, the unpainted Reaper Bones Zombie up the page looks quite compatible with the RBG ones. Reaper’s range is another that’s grown over decades with many dozens of sculptors in that time (including Tre’ Manor), so like the various Citadel ranges, there’s no “true” consistent scale or style.

Red Box Games, Citadel Ghoul (metal), RBG, Citadel

One of my favourite sets of Citadel’s undead ranges through the years has been these metal Ghouls. While they’re quite lithe and thin compared to much of the Warhammer range, they still look far bulkier than the RBG zombies.

Red Box Games, Fireforge Foot Templar, RBG, Fireforge

Since I had these open and partly-assembled, I thought I’d add in some of these as well. Fireforge’s historical figures are typically “truescale” as so many others are, and would scale well with the Lord of the Rings models, but again appear rather “heroic” compared to the Red Box models. Especially in their head size.

Red Box Games, Citadel Plastic Space Marine, RBG

And lastly, both because it appears to be the law when it comes to figure sizing pictures, and because it is actually incredibly useful for many people, a Plastic (Multipart) Citadel Space Marine. This one is on the traditional 25mm base.

 

So…

Should you buy them? Only you can answer that. Hopefully I’ve included enough comparative photos and notes to make some buying choices a little easier. I personally have no regrets on having picked these up in the KS. I’ll mix in a couple of Zombicide’s Zombie Dogs to make a unit for the KoW Undead Army. Since I’ve got a ton of Mantic and Citadel Zombies, it’s doubtful I’ll need to buy more, since having my units all the exact same size isn’t something terribly important as long as each distinct unit looks good (I’m using Historical miniatures and GW ones in these armies, after all). For less than three bucks each though – for metals of this quality, I’ve got no hesitation in recommending them to people on the fence about them. Just be forewarned about their size, and ok with it before ordering them.