Fat Blokes and Slobs

Introduction

I've promised to play Space Hulk with my younger son this afternoon, so this might be a short post.  Anyway, I had thought of showcasing some of the 28mm modern survivors that I use when playing All Things Zombie (ATZ).  When I started looking through the collection, I quickly decided that there are far too many to describe in a single post, so I had to reign in this idea a bit.

The first subset that came into my mind was unarmed civilians, but a quick count showed that there were too many even of those.  A better subset is fat or unfit civilians; I haven't got a large number of them.  Of course, in a zombie game it many be a bit hopeful to describe all of these characters as survivors!

Unarmed Fat Blokes

From the left, we have:

• Denis is from Killer B Games and is sold as exactly what I've called him - a slob.  I rather like the miniature though; it does exactly what it says on the tin.  Denis' chance of surviving the zombie apocalypse: 0 out of 5.
• Larry is a gamer from Victory Force.  He's fairly chunky, though the extra weight seems to be equally spread over chest and abdomen.  I'm not totally convinced by that shape, but I still like this figure, especially with the paint job I did on it.
• Mr Braxton comes from Foundry and is one of the very few figures in the Street Violence range to be unarmed.  He was originally sold as one of the Mob, though I've repurposed him as a used car salesman in my ATZ campaign (not that he lasted for long!).  This is one of the first 28mm modern figures that I ever painted; it's not the best I've ever done.
• Mario is also from the Mob.  I think there's something very cartoon-like about this sculpt; I challenge any reader to find a real-life picture of someone with this body shape!  Because of his girth, this miniature is a great deal heavier than all the others.
• Finally, Bob is the stereotypical lazy British builder (do other countries have the same cliche, I wonder?).  He's having a cup of tea and a ham or bacon sandwich (white bread, of course) and this lack of exertion and poor diet has obviously taken a toll on his physique over the years.  I hesitated slightly when describing Bob as "unarmed" as he does have a hammer hanging from his belt.

Armed Fat Blokes

 Again, from the left:

• Ernie is from Hasslefree and is clearly based on the character of Ed from the film Shaun of the Dead.  He's a very nicely-sculpted miniature, as I would expect from this manufacturer and is equipped with a golf club as an improvised weapon.  However, Ernie is playing with his mobile phone rather than paying attention to his environment, so I don't rate his chances in a zombie apocalypse at better than 2 out of 5.
• Curly is one of the EM-4 plastic gangers with a metal "heavy weapons" torso/head upgrade, but carrying a standard plastic auto-shotgun.  He certainly looks flabby - his belly is hanging over his belt - but there's something not quite right about the figure as I've constructed it.  Perhaps he's pretending to ride a horse?
• Porkchop also comes from EM-4, but he belongs to the metal Bikers range.  This miniature will probably be quite familiar to many of my readers who follow other zombie gaming blogs, though not in these colours!
• Damage is also a biker from EM-4.  I think he probably counts as fat, though he's obviously got a lot of muscle as well.  He's very heavily armed: as well as his assault rifle he has a holstered pistol, a knife and a grenade.  Chance of survival in a zombie apocalypse?  Hmm - perhaps 3 out of 5.  I'd make this higher (he's obviously used to violence), but I suspect that Damage will lose it when he can't find any more beer...

Conclusion

One thing that seems painfully obvious to me on examining the images above is that sculptors of 28mm figures aren't all equally capable of creating plausible shapes for fatties (or for women either, but let's not go there right now!)  Although I'll be happy enough to use all of these models in a game, most of them just don't look quite right.  There are some exceptions, of course!