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.

Mantic Zombie Apocalypse bargain box: the Zombies

 After Mantic Games discontinued the licence for The Walking Dead: All Out War, they must have had a few Zombies left over.

They had a Summer sale in 2022 with a Zombie Apocalypse box comprising some random ex-TWD:AOW zombies plus some figures from their SF range and a hard plastic truck.

What I did not do was photograph them in sufficient detail to be able to reference what zombies were included.

I have made up for that.

Now I just need to identify the named zombies (the last two are from the Michonne set).

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.

The Walking Dead - Lilly Booster: Lilly

 In the comic and the novels, Lilly Caul starts out as a member of the Woodbury faction.

During the attack on the prison she does a Heel-Face turn and ends up as the leader of the Woodbury survivors.

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.

Mantic Zombie Apocalypse bargain box

 As part of Mantic's Summer Sale, they had a Zombie Apocalypse set.

It included a large number of "modern" zombies that looked a bit familiar.

They are sorted by design (there are a number of duplicates, but as this post shows, different colours make all the difference).

Some will receive replacement heads and arms from various sources.

Here they are all mobbed up.

The set also included a hard plastic model truck.

Two weird mortar, crew and creepy crawly piles.

Three largish monster zombies.

And one big Alpha Zombie.

Not sure about the mortar and crew, but the rest will eventually find a home.

Anvil Zombies

 Anvil Industries do a range of multipart/multipose zombies in 28mm size. One of the body types is the Modern Military Zombie. You select your required body type, then add a set of suitable arms. In this case the Zombie Fatigues arms.

The pieces are cleanly cast in a white resin. Minor flash is easily removed and there is next to no moulding lines. I wish some plastic figures were so nicely moulded.

Each body is wearing modern military body armour, in various degrees of damage.

The supplied heads include four with helmets and one bare headed.

Here is the first one assembled. Though there are only five body poses, there are plenty of assembly options plus other heads and arms in the range.

This shot does show some minor mould lines which will need fixing.

Scale comparison with the late and lamented The Walking Dead: All Out War zombies.

This one is shorter than  these two figures, though part of it might be the pose.

The height difference is slightly more noticeable with these two TWD:AOW characters.

One solution will be to add a piece of plastic card over the slot in the base rather than just filling it.

The obligatory William Killian comparison shot.

Some of the TWD:AOW figures are bigger than others.

The Walking Dead: Abernathy - Woodbury Gladiator

Abernathy is one of the the Governor's Gladiators who engage in combat in the arena in Woodbury to entertain the people of the town.

He fights with a crowbar, and has improvised body armour.

Police Office - Alternative use for Woodbury House D

When the new Out of Town shopping development was in the planning stage, one of the regularly asked questions was "where is the police station?".

There was a perfectly good police station in the centre of the town, but the Marketing Department's questionnaires and polls kept highlighting that the absence of a police presence in the development was putting people off.

So, to deal with this concern, a Police Office was included in the plans.

The Police Office would have a (civilian) receptionist during the day, and would provide facilities for the patrol officers so they would take their breaks there (rather than the doughnut shop or diner) to be a visible police presence.

The receptionist could deal with all the inquiries and local calls, contacting the patrols if required.

After a few years, there was a requirement for a communications room, so one of the locker rooms was converted.

All was fine until Joan, the receptionist received a call about a disturbance at the mini market...

Having painted four Crooked Dice Lawmen with Shotguns for The Walking Dead: All Out War, they needed a ride and a police station to defend.

As Sarissa Precision provide all the buildings for Mantic, I wanted something compatible.

With the TWD:AOW expansion Made To Suffer, there was the Woodbury Housing Estate comprising a pack of four different MDF houses.

One of them was more like an office, but unfortunately not quite right for a Police Station.

 You may note the missing cross piece in the from window in later photographs, I broke it by accident.

The small rooms at the back look almost like cells, but the location directly off the lobby would not make them very secure. The lobby is too small to fit a desk and chair so you cannot use it as a reception.

You may also spot I managed to put the partition between the two larger rooms in the wrong way round. This means that the internal door would not fit.

I had a look at other options (I even asked for suggestions on Lead Adventure Forum), but there was nothing that met my requirements.

I then remembered the concept of the Police Office (a bit like a grown up version of a Police Box) - hence the story above.

So the part completed Woodbury House D was dug out of storage and completed.

The structure as shown above had the windows and doors masked up and PlastiKote Rust Effect spray was applied to the walls and roof.

The roof was then sprayed with Halfords Grey Primer, and the outer surface with a subsequent coat of Halfords Black Primer

The roof ventilators are from Debris of War and were spray painted with Army Painter Standard Uniform Grey.

The window surrounds were sprayed with Halfords White Primer and glued to the windows. The door lintels and doors were also sprayed at the same time (masking the sockets in the lintels).

Once dry, the doors were assembled and checked that they opened correctly.

The walls and interior were then sprayed with Halfords White(ensuring the doors did not stick and did not leave shadows).

Interior walls were then painted with Humbrol 90 Beige Green.

Front view.

Three quarters view showing the air conditioning units and junction box installed when one of the locker rooms was converted. They also provide a route to the roof.

Aircon and junction box in detail.

Another air-conditioning unit to cool the two offices.

View from above. Note the  FigureBitz/Crooked Dice Computer Console fits neatly on the end wall.

 I think I might paint the floors as well.

View of the roof. I do need to add a communications rig to the roof and possibly add a roof hatch

The Lawme face up to The Herd.

Retreating inside.

They really wish that the contractors had fitted the roller shutters.