Studio Miniatures: Plastic Zombies

Introduction

I have been aware of Studio Miniatures for a considerable time and am in awe of the excellent 28mm zombie and survivor figures they produce.  To my shame, I'd never bought any of these.  Somehow they were always near the top of my wish-list but never quite made it from there to a purchase.

6 months ago or so, in the middle of 2012, Stuart of Studio Miniatures announced a crowd-sourced campaign on Indiegogo to produce a set of plastic, 28mm zombies.  At the time, the only alternative zombies in plastic were the original set from Wargames Factory, which are usefully cheap but are not the best-sculpted figures.  I immediately made a pledge to the Studio Miniatures campaign (albeit not a very large one) and sat back and waited for what seemed to me very generous rewards.  Well finally, last Thursday, a package arrived for me...

The Box

My first thought on seeing the box was "goodness - it's huge!"  The package was much larger than I was expecting.  This is possibly explained at least in part by some of the wording on the sleeve, where it clearly states that the box contains enough parts to make 60 zombies.  Now, my pledge was for 40 models, not 60, so I can only imagine that Studio do plan (in due course) to sell these to the general public in lots of 60, hence the production of packaging that is larger than immediately necessary.

Inside the box were 11 identical sprues of zombies (4 models per sprue), 5 sprues of round bases from Renedra and a small packet containing the 4 metal figures that were offered as part of the $30 pledge level.  That's right: I got 11 zombie sprues and will thus be able to make up 44 zombies, not the 40 I was promised.  I'm assuming that this was a mistake, though a very minor one.  On examining the metal figures, I discovered another error: the survivor model included was not the one I wanted.  I think I asked for the right name, though I cannot verify this since my correspondence on the matter has been mislaid.  Still, I cannot rule out the possibility that it was my mistake, not Stuart's.  Oh, well - I'm not too bothered overall.

The Models

Each sprue contains 4 different bodies, 6 pairs of arms and 8 heads.  This should allow quite a range of combinations to make a collection of zombies look a bit less uniform.  The bodies are fairly static in pose; this suits a shambling horde very well (for contrast, see the Zombie Vixens set that was recently released by Wargames Factory; they have some very distinctive poses).

The zombies portrayed by this set are fairly fresh, I'd say.  With the exception of 1 body, there are only a few minor tears in the clothing and most (not all!) of the heads and arms do not show signs of major trauma.  Indeed, I've been toying with the idea of making some survivors out of 1 sprue, just to see how well it would work.  Finding suitable weapons or other equipment is possibly the hardest part of such a conversion.

So, how do they look when finished?  Here are 4 that I made up and painted quickly.  I have a number of observations from this experience:

• The detail on the bodies and arms is extremely good.  Often I paint 28mm models by layering colours, especially for cloth.  However for these figures I just gave them a basecoat and a wash; the latter was very effective at picking out the many folds, tears and so on.
• Most of the arms fit very well (I've not used any filler on the models above).  However I found at least one pair to be slightly odd in appearance once fitted.  This might just be my imagination, or it might be that some pairs are designed to be outstretched while others are better held down by the sides.  Additionally, the arms on the 3rd zombie from the left (the one with the tie) seem just a touch too long.
• The hands are excellent and have some of the best-sculpted fingers I've ever seen.
• The heads are possibly the weakest part.  They suffer from the general problem of plastic moulded heads: the detail is not equally fine all the way around.  In this case, it's the ears which suffer and are little more than raised bumps.  The hair also isn't particularly finely-detailed.  Finally, the necks seem overlong, though that would be easily corrected by just trimming a bit off.   Having said that, these heads are at least as good as anyone else's plastics of the same size.
• The figures come with small bases moulded onto the feet.  These are surprisingly heavy and give the models a moderate amount of stability.  I was torn between fixing on the extra round bases that have been supplied or leaving the models as they are.  In the end I went for the latter since these zombies are quite tall anyway and I didn't want the extra height.  In future I may remove the moulded bases and add the Renedra ones instead; I haven't fully decided yet.

Comparison

So how do the new Studio Miniatures plastics match up with other well-known brands of zombies?  Here's a comparison shot, above.  The Studio Miniatures figure is taller than most, cheaper than many and less chunky than some.  I'll use them alongside all my other models without any worries, though the height and style differences may be of concern to some people.  Still, plastics are cheap enough to enable a large horde from just a single manufacturer; the Studio Miniatures models are admirably suited to that.   I expect we'll see a lot of these models appearing in people's games in the future!

Update: you can see some more painted examples of these models here.