Scarlett and Browne, a very British Post-Apocalypse

 Jonathan Stroud (also the author of Lockwood and Co - made into a single season on Netflix) has just completed a British Post-Apocalypse trilogy.

After an undefined Great Cataclysm, Britain is divided into seven Kingdoms. Most of the people live in the highly regulated Surviving Towns, under the watchful eye of the Faith Houses who ensure orthodoxy, both behavoral and genetic.


The map of Britain is both familiar and different. Between the Surviving Towns are the wilds, infested with a whole range of nasty and deadly fauna, including The Tainted (think Rage Infected).

Scarlett McCain is a young robber, who specialises in robbing banks, and occasionally Faith Houses. She is deadly accurate with a revolver and has no hesitation in using it.

Her life changes after she finds a crashed bus with a single survivor, a teenaged boy.

The figure is from the Gunfighters II by Great Escape Games with a Stargrave head.

I still have to find a suitable figure for Albert Browne. I am hoping the Wargames Atlantic Male Survivors set will provide something suitable.

A Faith House Operative (book two).

The body is from the Great Escape Games' Dead Man's Hand Gunfighters set, the arms are from the Frostgrave Wizards set and the head is from the Stargrave Crew set.

The bowler hat seems to be the official headgear, occasionally colour coded for your convenience.

Two Town militia, in their official bowler hats and (when painted) tweed jackets. 

More Dead Man's Hand Gunfighters.

Anvil Zone Mercenaries

 Anvil Industries have recently released a Print on Demand range called Zone Mercenaries. with male and female figures.

They are equipped with reinforced armour, helmets and gas masks and AKM assault rifles.

The problem is, the weapons are rather large, partly due to the limits on the materials used for their normal resin ranges, but I suspect mainly to be in scale with their normal market of gamers who want something similar to but more interesting than 40K.

This is a bit of  problem as they do not look okay with my modern image type standard Empress figures' weapons.

However a plan emerged to use them as alternative figures for The Walking Dead: All Out War.

Size comparison between a female (left) and male (right) Zone Mercenary and TWD:AOW zombies.

Their weapons and equipment are a drop in replacement for The Commonwealth Trooper (you can probably build them using various existing equipment from the original range)

They are slightly shorter than the Commonwealth Trooper but look okay with the walkers and survivors.

To hide the height difference, I used Crooked Dice supplied slotted round bases and put a thin plastic card panel over the slot. It raises the head height slightly.

Commonwealth Trooper - The Walking Dead: All Out War

 With Mantic Games renewing The  Walking Dead: All Out War, the first faction they released was The Commonwealth.

The figures are in multi-part resin.

This Commonwealth trooper comes in three parts: body, gun and supporting hand ahead of the magazine, and head.

There are two identical bodies in the set, but two different heads, one bare-headed, the other in a helmet.

There is another two troopers with a different body.

The figures are supplied with the new Mantic round base (with magnet insert space) but I have chosen a slotted base from Crooked Dice.

Crooked Dice Cold War Jeep - UAZ-469

Back in November 2021 I assembled and painted the Crooked Dice "Alien Jeep".

Comparison with other 1/50 scale vehicles showed that it was a bit large to be a proper UAZ-469 (even ignoring the two door design).

At Warfare this year I picked up one of Crooked Dice's new Cold War Jeep.

The kit comes in six pieces: A one piece body, four road wheels and a spare wheel.

The model has a fixed canvas roof.

Basic paint job:

Citadel Chaos Black spray undercoat.

Citadel Snot Womble Green base colour.

Windows are Army Painter Royal Blue.

Canvas is Citadel Death World Forest.

Tyres and windscreen wiper blades are MIG Rubber and Tyres.

As you can see, the Cold War Jeep is smaller than the Alien Jeep.

But scales a lot better with the Crooked Dice Land Rover.

Prodigal Son - Walking Dead: All Out War

 Paul "Jesus" Monroe is an ambassador for the Hill Top faction and an accomplished martial artist.

The figure is made of resin (a photograph of the the unassembled parts were posted earlier).

The figure was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray.

The coat and boots Citadel Dryad Bark.

The hat and rifle strap are Citadel Death World Forest.

The trousers are Citadel Death Korp Drab.

The hair is Citadel Catachan Flesh.

The shirt is Citadel Rakarth Flesh.

The belt, scabbards and straps are Citadel Steel Legion Drab.

The rucksack is Citadel Steel Legion Drab, with side pockets Citadel Snot Womble Green. the edges were highlighted with Citadel Morghast Bone.

The bedroll is Vallejo Blue Grey.

The rifle, belt buckle and scabbard reinforcement is Vallejo Black Grey.

The boots, especially the laces, were dry brushed with Citadel Golfag Brown.

Prodigal Son - The Walking Dead: All Out War returns

 With the announcement on the First of December 2023 that TWD:AOW would be returning to the fold, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at the resin figures that made up the last sets produced by Mantic before they originally discontinued the game.

And what better figure to start with than the Prodigal Son himself Paul 'Jesus' Monroe.

The figure is in three parts with an additional moulded base.

The feeds are quite thick, but only the elbow and the rucksack require careful cleaning.

Anvil Industries Leaper for Zona Alfa

 

Anvil Industries released a Print on Demand option at Salute and have been adding figures to the range.

At the end of 2023 they added Leapers, humanoid figures with long clawed hands, torn Gorka suits and gas masks.

There are four figures in the set, one crouching, one crouched down, one on all fours and one leaping.

There are four bodies (the one on all fours has both arms and legs attached). There are three pairs of arms, two sets of four heads (with different gas masks) and two tree stumps for the leaping figure.

The Gorka suit is Citadel Death World Forest.

The gas mask hood is Citadel Steel Legion Drab.

The flesh is Citadel Rakath Flesh.

Mask hardware is Vallejo Black Grey.

Lenses and wounds are Citadel Mephiston Red.

The flesh was washed with Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade.

The suit was washed with Army Painter Military Shader.

The hood and the boots with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

The flesh does seem excessively grey.

So how do they compare in size to my Zona Alfa figures?

The comparison is difficult as the Leaper is crouched over. 

Here it is crouching next to an Empress Modern Russian.

Here it is with the compulsory William Killian comparison.

Gaslands Refuelled Highway Patrol

 As part of the Gaslands Refuelled game, North Star released a range of 20mm figures.

One of the packs is the Highway Patrol.

The figure is based on a Renedra 20mm round base. The figure's puddle base has been smoothed in with Milliput.

The figure was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black.

The uniform was Humbrol Oxford Blue 25. The gun's metalwork is Vallejo Black Grey.

The boots and the cap band and brim are Army Painter Black. The badge is Army Painter Stone Golem.

The shotgun slide is Citadel Rhinox Hide and the belt, holster and pouches Citadel Catachan Flesh.

New York, Paris, Pripyat...

 At Salute I bought a Brick Workshop from Warbases. I was looking for a base of operations in The Zone for some dodgy dealers in black market goods (portrayed by some Rogue Traders).

The large doors will be replaced with roller shutters (removable) and external roller shutters over the door and window (raised). The door will be a suitably reinforced one (scratch built probably).

The workshop doors are big enough to take a Crooked Dice Transit van, not sure about the Soldiers of Fortune van.

The building will be in a compound (using the Sarissa Compound Walls). The ones here are the unfinished ones.

Renedra 20 foot container as cover

 I reviewed the Renedra 20 foot container earlier , but mentioned that I would take some photographs of the container in use as cover.

Empress Miniatures HMMWV.

Empress Miniatures GAZ Tigr.

Empress BMD-1

Clockwork Goblin/Warlord M8 Grizzly walker.

Warlord M4A4C

The cupola peeking over the container.

Empress Miniatures Challenger 2.