Sunday 25 November 2012

Zombie! Guardsmen WIP

Greetings all,

This week saw the first of The Hobbit miniatures go up for advanced order on Games Workshop's website. As a fan of The Lord of the Rings models and game when it was first released, I collected and painted the Fellowship, some Uruk-Hai, and even went as far as to model some of the scenes from the movie. The end result? The game was a flop, and all my little hobbits are collecting dust in a spare room half way across the world. You can imagine my excitement upon hearing about the upcoming movie, and then horror when I learned it was to be screened in three parts, a money grabbing exercise if there ever was one. My jaw literally hit the floor, however, when I took a look at some of the pricing for the models, especially in my native Australian dollar (which has been hovering at or above USD parity the last 2 years). $140 for a book? $200+ for a starter set? I always compare the value of purchases vs a holiday to Las Vegas, and Elvis has left the building (on a West Jet flight out of Bellingham...)


Zombies are always more exciting with an exclamation mark.
So what's a keen (and thrifty) hobbyist to do? Well recently I have been looking to expand my Imperial Guard, and can't quite stomach the cost of a full Battleforce. The online deals for the old 20 guardsmen in a box were looking like a winner, but I do love to support my local Brick and Mortar game store as much as possible. I had been looking to do some 'alternative' models for Penal Troops or Conscripts, and recently came across some cheap human models which suited any future Chaos Cultist modelling plans, while at the same time passing as slightly 'unwell' Guardsmen, or literal meat shields!

Braiiins.....
As the first non Games Workshop box set I have ever bought (such a fan boy) I was pleasantly surprised with how easily it all went together. The only slight snag is that these models are true-scale 28mm, whereas my Imperial Guard are 'herioc' scale and look very well fed and toned by comparison. These are meant to be emaciated re-animated corpses, however! With a little green stuff and patience during assembly I am hoping that once painted they will match the rest of the army and create interesting ideas for scenarios and further modelling opportunities.

'Heroic' 28mm scale, left. 'Jim' on the right.
I have always shied away from non 'GW' models in case I ever need to play my army in a tournament, but after a combined 12 years of gaming I have only attended three tournaments, and come on... 30 models for $25??? That's partying like it's 1999 all over again. 

Until next week, hold on to your Las-Rifles, and be sure to confiscate Jim's cos he doesn't look too well...

Matthew

Update: The finished models can be seen here and here!

Related Links:
For a much better review of Wargames Factory Zombies! Check out the Tale of Painters Blog
Another Zombie Guard army


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