Men in Black: Agent G

Agent G

Agent G is about as close as I got to making a character reminiscent of K from the MiB movies.  I used a different skin tone on G from that which I used on either B or C (or the upcoming P).  As I painted the figure using that tone, G ended up looking a bit older than the figure initially suggested to me, so I played it up and painted his face to look a little more aged.  G is probably the crusty old veteran out of my four MiB agents.

"Set for pulsar level five, subsonic implosion factor two"

One thing that does grate a bit is the angle that G is holding his pistol at: it doesnt really scream “old school” to me.  The fact that my grizzled old MiB soldier holds his pistol like a punk from the ‘hood is something that I am going to have to live with.  I really should have repositioned his arm/hand before I painted him.  Oh well.

Gangsta styleee

The top down view above shows the GW Space Marine plasma pistol that G wields.  I always thought that that incarnation of GW plasma weapons had a good look and I think that it gives G the right MiB feel too.

Next up is Agent P.

Zombie of the Week #22: Patient Zero

Patient Zero

Patient Zero exhibits a slower rate of decay than 98% of infected subjects.  In addition Patient Zero has been seem to actually regenerate damaged, necrotised tissue in a fashion as yet not understood.

This heightened state of infection also seems to radiate in an area around the subject.  Within this as yet undefined area healthy subjects are more succeptable to infection, sometimes even contracting the disease without contact with infected fluids.  Essentially Patient Zero causes the infection to become airborne within the aformentioned radius.  Additionally, infected subjects have been seen to become invigorated (if such a word is appropriate) within a similar radius of effect.

The development of an infected with the described symptoms is a sinister development, in a situation rife with sinister developments.

Scabby Sicko

Patient Zero is another Frothers Zombie Apocalypse figure, like Sherry and Faith.  That set was/is composed of figures sculpted by different people.  As a result the style and sometimes quality vary.  But it is a nice set of figures and the quality doesnt vary very much at all, while the style does a bit.

So Patient Zero here has been sculpted in a slightly different style to Sherry and Faith.  Its not necessarily a better or worse style, just different.  PZ has some nice detail: the IV, the pustules on his face, arms and arse, his spine protruding through his back, the nice tiled base (not really visible in the photo), the screwy rats etc.  As a result the figure was satisfying to paint, and nicely creepy.  It very much a little thing, but I was particularly pleased with how the bag of purplish IV fluid turned out.

To tie in with the obviously suspect IV fluid (T-Virus anyone?) I painted the pustules in a similar purplish hue so that they didnt just look like yet more bloody areas.  I had the disgusting boils and pustules from Planet Terror in mind while I painted them and they look close enough.

As some readers may have noticed, I have put a few of my more recent zombie miniatures on square Warhammer bases.  I generally use circular bases almost exclusively: I think that they set off miniatures in a nicer fashion.  Additionally, I try to vary standard things like basing as little as possible as I proceed with projects (although having collected and painted miniatures for almost a full 25 years at this stage a certain amount of variation has been inevitable).

Anyway, the intention of the square base is to make the “special” or “character” zombies stand out a little from the horde on the tabletop.  Almost like a boardgame piece (Cave Troll springs to mind) the intention is to make the figure instantly recognisable via convention, so that ”Oh no, that guy with the bloody face is a super-fast-badass-ninja-zombie. Its the other guy with the bloody face thats the normal zed.” doesnt happen mid-game.

So, although Patient Zero wasnt originally going to be classed as a “Boss” zombie, I couldnt bring myself to leave his nice tiled base out and so I plonked him on a square base and named him Patient Zero  I figure that he is possibly some form of carrier or advanced disease vector.  In game terms he might be a mobile spawn point, as he generates waves of zombie-itis all around him or something similar.

Men in Black: Agent C

Agent C

Continuing on from Agent B and Freddie last week is Agent C.

As another of the Foundry “Suits” she needed  to have her gun upgraded to a more retro 1950s looking sci-fi weapon in keeping with the movies.  In contrast with B, C is quite a petite figure.  As a result most of the sci-fi weapons that I have lying around looked pretty huge in comparison with her (GW dont really do “petite” when it comes to weapons).

I eventually settled on a Dark Eldar splinter pistol which had to be further cut down to look right.  It isnt as small as the “Noisy Cricket” that Agent J wields in the first movie, but it is as close as I am going to get in 28mm I reckon.

Noisy Cricket

As the palette on the MiB figures is by necessity limited I decided to play around with the skin tones that I used for the four members a little more than I normally would. B looks quite ashen whereas C has a warmer skin tone, possibly South American?

Agents B and C conduct "aggresive negotiations" with Diplomatic Envoy Flarz and his entourage.

I picked up some multi-packs of toy cars recently, mostly because they were cheap and had a couple of Humvees in them which I plan to draft in for my Umbrella Security Service.  Also in the sets was a pair of black Lamborghinis.

Now in the first MiB movie J and K drive what is described as a “Ford P.O.S.”.  Thats Piece Of Shit in case you were wondering.  They drive a nondescript car so as not to stand out.  It appears however that by the time the sequel rolled around that this aspect of MiB policy had beenn relaxed as J drives a somewhat less than nondescript Mercedes throughout that movie.

In the spirit of everything in bad sequels being bigger, better and leet-er I figure that by the time my MiB hit the table that MiB policy has relaxed further, allowing them to drive such conspicuous vehicles.

It probably flashes neuralizer beams as it drives past anyway, just like when the Merc becomes airborne in MiB2.  Whaddya mean you cant remember MiB2?  They must have incorporated the neuralizer into the actual feature, wiping the minds of the viewers.  That would be one way to explain why it was so forgettable I suppose…

Agent G is up next time.

Zombie of the Week #21: Faith

Faith

Faith is never going to dance to The Nutcracker now.  For that matter she wont ever play the piano again either.

 

Dont Mess With My Tutu

Like Sherry, Faith is another of the Frothers Zombie Apocalypse figures.  Before I painted it I was pretty indifferent about the figure but once Faith was painted I really liked her.  I think that the simple colour scheme is quite well executed (if I do say so myself) and that the vacant and slightly mournful pose nicely contrasts with the girly pink.  A nice miniature.

Also like Sherry, Faith is mounted on a smaller than usual 20mm base.  While Faith isnt a tiny as Sherry, she is of small and slight stature.  Just like a young girl in fact.

Men in Black: Agent B and Freddie

Agent B

I have had a few Foundry figures sitting in the lead mountain for a while now.  I bought one of their deals way back in 2002 or so and while I got some of them painted, I couldnt really decide what to do with some of the others.  I recently decided to transform some of the suits into MiB, starting with Agent B here.

Series 4 De-atomiser

A quick weapon swap with a spare sci-fi weapon left over from a Reaper figure gave B the right look.  B is a pretty large figure: it seems to be a rule that in every pack of Foundry figures there is one huge guy.  He isnt so large as to be out of scale, but he is a large and imposing model, for a modern human anyway.

The rifle adds to this I think, making him even more threatening.  To add to that, his eyes came out looking quite staring and intense.  I think that it suits him. B is the muscle in my small MiB force.

Freddie the Bulldog

A recurring character in the MiB movies and kids cartoon is Frankie the Pug, an interstellar negotiator.  Frankie is apparently a Remoolian and according to the cartoon (which isnt “canon” I am told) Frankie looks like a green pug with antennae and three (I think) tails when not disguised as a Terran pug.

Anyway, it seems reasonable to me that more than one Remoolian negotiator may live on Earth.  It also seems reasonable that Remoolians show as much breeding variation as Terran dogs.  Crucially, I also couldnt get my hands on a 28mm pug miniature.  Mainly, I find the idea of the fifth and final member of my MiB project being a talking dog to be a gaming opportunity that would be a shame to miss.

Talking bulldogs remind me of Mr Beefy from Little Nicky anyway, and thats not a bad thing.

"You dont like it, you can kiss my furry little butt"

Agent C is up next week, along with a glimpse of my MiBs sweet ride.

Zombie of the Week #20: Sherry

Sherry

Sherry hated it when her older brother pulled her pigtails.  She often told him that she hated him and the she wished that he was dead.  She never thought that she would be the one to end up killing him however.

Zombie Little Girl

Sherry is one of the figures from the FU:UK / Frothers sculpting competition from last year.  The theme this time around was “Zombie Apocalypse”.  The figures on the whole are great with even the weakest ones being very use-able and so, I bought the limited edition set when it came out.  The set consisted of survivors and zombies and I will be putting photos up of the lot of them as I get them finished.

Sherry is a cute/disturbing little figue.  Note that the base is actually a 20mm base, not a 25mm base, so she is quite tiny.  The figures arms are possibly just a very small bit on the long side, but it is a really minor quibble.  The figure has a load of charm (if charm is the right word to describe a miniature rendition of a cannibalistic undead murder victim).  Zombie kids should creep any right thinking person out.

After seeing another painter add a “Hello Kitty” logo to the front of the dress I thought for quite a while about what else would be a suitable and (crucially) achievable other girly logo to paint.  I didnt come up with one and so I took the easy option and had her vomit bloody gore down her front instead.  Lovely.

Running the Zombie Gauntlet

 

A few weeks ago a MT (a long time gaming buddy) and I decided to try out frequent LAF contributor AKULAs zombie apocalypse rules, AR:SE (available for free HERE). 

The rules are simple and provide for automated movement for the zombies, like computer game “bots”.  This appealed to the two of us because it meant that we could play semi-co-operatively if we wanted, which sums up the whole zombie apocalypse genre really.

 

 

Preamble

We decided that we would place as much non-ruined urban terrain as we could muster on a 6’ x 4’ table.  We then added 80 or so zombies (ten of which were based in two “hordes”), which covered the table sufficiently to give us a run for our money.  The amount of zombies placed was guesswork, as although we had previously read the rules (satisfyingly short at 2 xA4 pages), we didn’t really have a feel for how effective our heroes would be.  I would rather play a game of a heroic defeat than an easy victory so we erred on the side of more zombies rather than less.

To this we added two Witches and a possibility of spawned zombies spawning as Tanks.  The likely hood of Tanks showing up increased as the game went on.  Although I have a number of zombie “characters” available, we didn’t want to bog down our first game with too many specials, so we left it at Witches and Tanks.

We also specified that Spawned zombies emerged from the zombie horde closest to any survivors (I have dedicated zombie spawn point markers in the pipeline, but they were not available for this game).

A couple of quick notes about the terrain: my modern stuff is pretty crude but functional.  It was originally made under time constraints for use in Heroclix games, which is why the roofs are marked out with a grid.  That’s what the ugly looking white tile spacers are (I really should get around to painting them black).  Eventually I will get around to making some “proper” modern terrain, but as is often the way with these things, the stuff that I have is functional and so “proper” modern terrain never tends to get to the top of the to-do list.  Still, although lacking aesthetically, they buildings are durable and functional, so I wont make any more excuses for them.

Deployment and Table Set-Up

We set up our forces on the South East corner of the table and placed the car park, replete with potential getaway vehicles at the North West corner.  The Survivors were tasked with getting to a specific crashed vehicle in the middle of the battlefield to pick up the vital briefcase of scientists notes.  From there they have to get to the car park where they can hotwire some of the functional vehicles there to make their escape.

L to R: "Silent" Yoshi, Botan, Suzi

MT chose to chart the exploits of some Yakuza survivors.  L to R “Silent” Yoshi, Botan and Suzi.

L to R: Chris Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong

In an unlikely alliance that could only brought on by impending, walking corpse filled Armageddon I chose to ally the Yakuza with the forces of the Racoon City Special Tactics and Rescue Service (STARS).  L to R: Chris Redfield, Leon S Kennedy and industrial espionage agent Ada Wong.

The view from the South

A shot of the battlefield from the South.  Note the car park in the top left.  That’s where our heroes are headed for.

The view from the North

A shot of the battlefield from the North.  Note  the zombie horde in the centre, just below the overturned yellow car.  Those guys occasionally move around and are lethal if they come into contact with survivors.  Primarily in our game, they were a mobile spawn point.
If you squint, you might be able to see one of the Witches.  It’s the figure with the square base at 9 o’clock to the overturned yellow car.  Witches react to disturbances nearby by shrieking.  This in turn causes shamblers within range of the sound to head toward the Witch.  This is a bad thing.

Northerly view including the Car Park

Another shot from the North, this time showing a little of the car park objective.

Aerial view from the ZTV news chopper

An aerial shot, taken by the ZTV news chopper.

Gameplay

Heading East

The Survivors start by heading north via the Eastern table edge.  The theory was that they should avoid the large concentration of slackjaws in the middle for as long as possible. The more noise that the Survivors make, the more active the living dead become.

Businesslike and professional rolling up of a flank

Leon brings up the rear while Botan beheads a walking corpse with his katana.  Chris gives covering fire as they head to the junction where they will proceed West towards the car which contains the briefcase.  So far so good.  “This is a snap for a international woman of mystery such as myself” thinks Ada as the survivors make short work of any zombies in their path.

The first casualty

As she rounds the corner Ada is attacked by a corpse that has been drawn by the gunfire.  In a surprising display of incompetence, Ada is caught flat footed, while the zed seems to be at the top of its game.  Ada has her throat ripped out in a gurgling spray of blood.  “NOOOO!” cries Leon.  “I never expected our flirtatious will-they, wont-they relationship from opposite sides of the track to end like this!”.

“At least she is properly dead.  She isn’t coming back from that”. Chris advises Leon using stilted, computer game-y dialogue.  Chris then riddles the offending zed with lead.

Objective acquired

Botan is “in the zone” at this stage and advises a stealthy approach as he has heard the crying of a Witch up ahead.  “What are supposed to use now? Harsh language?” says Leon in a predictably action movie quote style as he holsters his pistol.  Silent Yoshi does not speak.

Botan ignores them both and chops up two more undead with  ninja like stealth before he pins a crawler to the ground as he retrieves the crucial briefcase from the crashed car.

The Plan

At this point viewers at home were treated to some expert commentary about the situation from back at the ZTV station, complete with a play analysis.  The circled vehicle is where the briefcase has been retrieved from and the green path is the direction that the survivors have chosen to take to get to the car park and getaway vehicle.

Turning Eastward again

Chris runs forward and clinically dispatches the Witch in their path before it can react.  He then provides cover as the remaining survivors head past the limo and towards the cinema.

The "Horde" in the foreground starts moving...

 A large zombie mob starts to stumble toward our heroes, forcing them to hurry away from it, perhaps a little rashly…

Zombies approach from all sides

 Despite gunning down a number of zeds as they closed, Suzi and Yoshi are forced into hand to hand.  Leon and Chris are unable to help as they keep the other closing ghouls at bay.

The death of Botan...

Botan bites off more than he can chew.  While he makes good account of himself in terms of eviscerated corpses, he is eventually dragged down to his doom…

...and the birth of a Tank!

With a series of bloody, squelchy sounds the thing that was Botan convulses.  With a roar, all of its hair falls out and tentacles sprout from its rapidly growing body. Witness the birth of a Tank.

(In game terms we had been using the AR:SE rules to determine if downed heroes would come back as zombies.  Ada hadn’t but Botan had.  We had also been incorporating a simple incrementing roll to determine when the next zombie to spawn would be a Tank.  As luck would have it, this happened when Botan shuffled off, so he was the one that came back as a Tank.  And all in front of a poster of the Governator.  “I’ll be back” indeed.  Hooray for narrative!”)

 

Decisive action required

 The Survivors have a small chance to re-kill the Botan Tank if they can get to it while it is transforming.  With that in mind the four remaining survivors attempt to circle the Tank and neutralise with extreme prejudice.  Suzi has to riskily dodge away from her close combat aggressors to help out with the tank, but a well timed cartwheel reminiscent of Xiaoyu in Tekken 3 gets her where she is needed most. 

Our heroes repeatedly plug the Tank and barely manage to re-dead it before it gets a chance to get up.  “If its dead, we can kill it!” cheers Chris, confusingly.

Car park bound

 Almost as if our heroes have overcome the main aggressor in the third act, the sun breaks through the clouds (or the camera flash was too close) giving the survivors the strength to run around the side of the cinema toward the car park and salvation.  Chris cheerfully riddles a few zeds that get too close en route.

Bus stop

The survivors jump over the car park wall and line up beside a bus.  Suzi, familiar with hotwiring her own school bus during the many Battle Royale school trips that she has been on suggests that she get the bus up and running.  Leon whimpers self pityingly about Ada.  Yoshi remains quiet.  “Holy $h1t! Its Michael Jackson!” says Chris and heads for the roof of the bus.

Chamone in peace... again

“THAT’S for “Earth Song!” hollers Chris as he empties a clip into the former Prince of Pop turned cannibalistic reanimated corpse.
“Its too late to look at he man in the mirror now sucker!”  says Chris in a failed attempt to deliver a pithy closing one liner.  Zombie MJ’s head explodes in a shower of gore.

Clang!

The bus shudders to life and Suzi floors the pedal, heading straight through the gates with a clang.

Vehicular extermination

Suzi expertly guides the bus over four zombies as the survivors drive off into to sunset.  Billie Jean plays to fade.

 

 

Conclusions

We had good fun with the scenario and rules.  We had a couple of minor rules decisions to make a call on during the game, but as we are both grown ups with a lot of hours gaming time clocked over the years, they were decided upon quickly.

I plan to make cards for each of the survivor miniatures that I use as quick reference for the weapons and abilities that they have.  Having played the game, I have more of a handle on how it works now and I will base the stats accordingly.  I plan to bring a very, very simple points system (as in each character is rated as 1, 2, 3, 4) so that James Bond type characters are distinguishable from some survivor with a two by four.

Next time I will incorporate some Hunters and Jockeys into the mix, along with a different scenario.

Zombie of the Week #19: Barbara

 

Barbara

Barbaras first encounter with infected was also her last act as a human being.  Although the patients symptoms were unlike any she had come across before she selflessly decided to attempt CPR… with the permanent results shown above.

 

Medikit

Barbara is a Kingzombie miniature.  Their cartoony style isnt to everyones taste, but I enjoyed painting them.  Although it may not be easily apparent in the top photo, poor old Barbara has had her mouth and lower jaw ripped off, presumably during some ill advised CPR.

Star Wars Escape Pod

I spotted this in a newsagents a couple of months ago.  It was packaged with a Star Wars magazine.  Although that magazine is available every month or so, the models supplied with it tend to be in scales that are not that useful for my gaming purposes.  This however, was perfect.

Six-Seater Faberstein Lago 37 Escape Pod

The pod is rather hastily pictured above with a selection of miniatures for scale: L to R – Heroclix, Warzone, Hasslefree, Megaminis.

The escape pod from A New Hope although pretty bland, is still recognisable.  As a result I decided not to paint it and to leave it the colour scheme shown.  I did cave a little bit since I took the photos and give the whole thing an ink wash in order to accentuate the detail and make it a little more “used” looking.

Side View

The pod will make a nice terrain or objective piece for gaming with.