Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors: The Men Review

I ordered a box of these directly from Wargames Factory last week, and here is a quick review of them.

I built one up to see how they look. Now, looking at the website and comparing the model parts that are in the box, there are some arms that obviously go with some bodies. There are also some that should go with some bodies. The beer gut body in flip flops should go with the arm holding the beer, (can) but the arm isn't quite big enough. I put it on anyway. I mean come on a PA survivor swinging a machete holding a beer while wearing flip flops and a backward hat- that's good stuff right there. Really they don't look that bad, and it probably the worst body/arm match-up in the box.  

From left to Right: Copplestone Castings, Tactical minitures, GW, Wargames Factory craptastic zombie, Wargames Factory Survivor, Copplestone Castings on washer base, hunger games clix, Reaper Chronoscope. 

OK now for a size comparison. As you can see, they fit in nicely with the selection of models presented. I raise or lower my model height using different bases, so for me there is fudge room if needed. 

Cool stacking design

Besides stacking cool, there is a ton of great stuff in these sprues. Guns, guns and more guns. If you see the pictures on the website, there are AKs, ARs L8s (?), some kind of machine pistols, a couple of shotguns,street sweeper shotguns, and hunting rifles. You also get a lot of pouches and ammo packs, However, there are no separate pistols, and only one holster per sprue. Also of note is the extra chainsaws and arms holding the bible.

So these models are everything I expected and a little more. Worth the money? Absolutely. I see a lot of good combinations that can be built with lots of extra parts for conversion. These are exactly what I imagine suburban commandos will look like when the zombie apocalypse happens. I will find lots of uses for these guys and probably will get some more.

I hope this helps you,

Papa Spanky

Fear the Full Moon

A while back I was looking around for a few things that go bump in the night for Gray Haven.  I happened upon the Bones section of Reaper miniatures, where I found this Guy.

Here he is in a a couple of shots all painted up.

Hanna makes a stand against the werewolf on the roof of her shop.

Now I'm going to do a review on this figure, because this model was really a treat. As I said before this is from Reaper minis in their Bones section. First off, this mini was $1.99. Yes that's right, $1.99!!! But wait a minute. On their site they advertise this as some sort of resin that you don't need to prime. Bah. I thought this was going to be some kinda finecrap, so I didn't get my hopes up. At a buck ninety nine though, I had to give it a shot. 

I received the the mini with a bunch of other things I ordered a few days later. (I should note here that this order was from FRP Games, not Reaper. )

I quickly opened the package and gave the model a once over. It was very nicely molded with zero mold lines and no visible bubbles. I then noticed it wasn't really a resin as it was kinda squishy. So did the next thing that popped in my head and dropped it on the concrete floor. Round 1 to the wolfman, as it survived without a ding. So then I threw him about 20 ft, landing him on a throw rug over concrete. Round two to the wolfman as he survived this also and I gained some respect for this miracle material. Did I mention that he was $1.99?

A few weeks later I washed him up for painting. No priming necessary is toted on the package so I didn't. Before his proper paintjob was given I tested a few materials. Everything stuck. Paint, washes, watered down paint, inks, dry powders, Everything. While painting him I noticed another great thing about the flexibility of the material, and that was I could move things like his arm or tail out of the way enough to get at the hard to reach spots. I really like this stuff!

Ok so let me sum it up:

Price- 10  ($1.99!! nuff said) 

Material -  10  (maybe I had a good batch but this stuff is impressive)

Availability- 8 ( yes this model is readily available, but the bones line is limited to fantasy so far and I really want to see the chronoscope line come out in this stuff. Really. Really. Badly.)

Let me know if you've tried Bones and what you thought. Questions and comments welcome as always.

 Thanks for reading, this was a wordy one. 

PapaSpanky

A review- Four Pack of Shops

Today I'm doing my first review (yeah me!). I decided that occasional reviews of products I use will be good for me and my loyal few viewers. I will share my take on whats good, whats meh, and whats really bad, and you can do with that information what you wish.

First victim, er product review is for Demo's Laser Cut Design four Pack of Shops.
I purchased these off of Ebay, for 32.00 +10.95 shipping. In the package you get:
4 different store front walls
3 different store rear walls (4 total)
2 different side walls (8 total)
4 roofs
8 short roof edges
8 long roof edges
parts to make 2 different style of awnings
4 bases
a laser cut sheet of window frames/ signs
8 sign braces
4 different doors (8 total)
8 door frames
instructions

 Sorry I forgot to put in the one door...

These buildings were put together in about 2 hours with no problems. The MDF they are made out of is not something I've seen before, but it is sturdy, flat, has a slight texture (almost like paper pulp) and cut with precision to fit almost seamless. The doors bases and frames are made from a type of plywood.
Since reviews are new to me, I'm going to try to separate into a pro and con group and give an overall rating after that.
PROS:


The instructions for these models are great. They are clear and concise with both diagrams and pictures, multiple ways to square your building, and plenty of modeling tips. As I mentioned earlier, I put these together in about two hours. You could have four painted buildings done in an afternoon.


The window frames are laser cut from a sheet of card stock. They fit well over the window edges, look really good, and the middle "cutout" can be used for building signs and posters.

The buildings are all the same size and shape with plain outside features; the customization comes from the ability to switch doors and door locations and the door fronts themselves. This is going to be listed as a con also, but for now I will explain why this is good. I like to customize. These models will, when they are all finished, have very distinct looks. If they were decorated with laser scribed bricks and detail, they might be more limiting on how you finish them. These are plain enough that they could be used in both a Midwest town and middle east settings.

The "puzzle piece" roof design fits on the building with very little seam and is easy to take on and off.

The sign brackets (pictured below) are my favorite part of these kits. I can think of a dozen uses for these off the top off my head, and there are enough to use elsewhere if you don't mind sacrificing a few signs for your buildings.

CONS:

The bases (pictured above) are made from plywood. They are cut out well with nice round edges, but because of the material I have one with a slight warp to it. Its not a problem for me as I do not plan on using them, but I would like to see bases made out of the same great material the walls are.


The buildings are all the same shape and size. (told you this would come up again) Not everyone customizes like I do. Even with the ability to change doors and door locations, the buildings tend to look the same. If there were optional building fronts, with different elevations ( IE a parapet or two of different heights)  it would make a huge difference in appearance. These could even be sold as an optional add-on kit. (hint hint)

The doors (and door frames) are too thick. The frames have to go on the outside of the wall, and stick out really far.  If the doors were half the thickness, that would fix the problem. I tried to make this a positive by drilling a hinge through the wall and door tab to make an actual working door, to no avail. the thickness of the door and hinge tabs prevented any kind of swing. I would be happier if the doors didn't have the tabs and the frames were made of card stock like the windows.

Conclusion: All in all, I really like these buildings. the cons are minor (to me anyway) and for a little more than $10.50 a building, you get some easy to build terrain that looks good as is, or you can customize it to your tastes.

Overall rating: 8.5 zombie heads out of 10

I hope this is helpful to someone.

Till next time,
Papa Spanky