July 2014 - Little SWAT Team on the Prairie

Good evening, all. I have decided to start making monthly posts to a) keep you in the loop regarding any happenings at PZM HQ, be it painting, sculpting or gaming and b) to inspire me to actually do those things more often.

So, even though it is now August I thought I would begin by showing you what July brought to the table.

The main project on my desk this month was getting my SWAT Team prepared for Hospital 911 from Two Hour Wargames, a supplement for All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out.

And here they are...

These are just a single Project Zeke Miniatures P-Sec Private Security Squad with an additional converted P-Sec officer for the commander. 

The obvious choice would have been to paint them in the traditional blue/black uniform but I keep seeing SWAT officers wearing more military-coloured fatigues on TV and in films so, to be a bit different, I opted for the green/black motif you see before you. I also got a hold of some SWAT decals from Company B and they really complete the look.

Some of you may already recognise the SWAT commander (second from the right). Yup, it's Bridges from Safe House 2014.

The conversion was a simple head swap as I had a spare Bridges head after doing the A.J. conversion. I know a Stetson is hardly tactical but we're playing with zombies and toy soldiers here; I think I can probably afford some artistic license.

Anyway, here's a closer look...

SWAT Commander Bridges

SWAT decal from Company B

Faithful followers of Safe House 2014 may remember mention that Bridges had a background in law enforcement - Texas Rangers, to be precise - so I thought it would be fun to develop the character further with a sort of  'origins' campaign as a SWAT Commander using the SWAT Team scenarios from Hospital 911 and some non-zombie encounters set before the outbreak, using the new Chain Reaction v.3.1 from Two Hour Wargames.

AARs of Bridges' story will be coming shortly.

Finally, in a recent trip to the Scottish Borders, I happened across this little number in a charity shop...

It's actually a bird house but the scale is ideal. And with THW's Lew's Booty coming out soon I thought this would make a great centrepiece in a rural campaign.

That's all for July. I will catch you fine survivors soon.

Safe House 2014 Update 03

Our fourth update will cover some more of the characters that will feature in our campaign and the first lot are in honour of one of the staples of zombie fiction: the fuzz!

Lets face it, no zomb-apoc story would be complete without the boys (or girls) in blue getting a fair shake at the horde and these are my answer to this time honoured tradition:

First up are Officers Diggs and Ramirez, two city cops stranded in Bloomburgh, trying to survive against the zeds and the gangs alike. Both are from Wargames Foundry's Street Violence Range but the one armed with the shotgun is sadly unavailable online.

We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life.

Officer Jesus Ramirez

Officer Tyson Diggs

Up next are Deputies O'Reilly and Finn. Since our campaign will travel outside the confines of Bloomburgh and into the outlying suburbs of Springvale and the greater rural areas of Spring County, it only seemed right to alter the flavour of the characters we encounter accordingly. To that end I added a couple of Spring County Sheriff's Deputies to the mix. Both are from Wargames Foundry but neither are available online. I have converted their hats to a pair scavenged from the Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors box.

We're all highway 

Deputy Sally O'Reilly

Deputy Todd Finn

Finally, here are a couple of player characters that will be used by my brother, Tom, during the campaign. No names as of yet but I'm certain he'll come up with something.

The first fellow is another one from Wargames Foundry's Street Violence Range and was an experiment for painting the three colour desert camo.

This last guy is a conversion of Studio Miniatures' Dixon - Human Survivor using an AK47 from the Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors box and a backpack from an old GW Imperial Guard kit that I actually can't recall.

Thanks for reading, folks. As always, please kindly share the Safe House JustGiving page with the world.

Catch up on all of the Safe House action below:

UPDATE 01, UPDATE 02, UPDATE 03, UPDATE 04, UPDATE 05, UPDATE 06, UPDATE 07

Intro, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Epilogue