Wednesday 14 July 2021

All My Zombies

 Introduction

"All My Zombies" - it sounds like the title of a not-so-good sitcom, doesn't it?  No, I haven't entered the business of television script writing.  Rather, there is a completely different reason for this post.

A few weeks ago, someone asked on TMP (The Miniatures Page) "How many zombie models does anyone have?"  Glibly, I answered that I hadn't counted but that my collection must be at least several hundred.  Well, I was feeling a bit guilty about this lack of accuracy and so I decided to conduct an inventory to find the correct answer.  It turns out that I don't have as many as I thought - but it depends!

What Counts as a Zombie Model?


It might sound like a silly question at first, but I need an accurate definition of what constitutes a zombie model.  In many cases it is very obvious, I think - but before you start laughing at the question please consider these cases:
  • For a multi-base, do we count each individual figure or do we just score one for the entire piece?
  • What about ambiguous figures which might be zombies - or which might be humans pretending to be zombies?  Or indeed zombies pretending to be humans?  Do they count as survivors or as zombies?
  • Should we count figures which are lying down?  They might be truly dead - or they might  be zombies lying low and waiting to surprise some unwary survivor.
  • OK, if we're talking about my entire collection then what about medieval zombies based for mass battle games such as Hordes of the Things, or for fantasy skirmish games such as Frostgrave?
  • Do unpainted models count?  [I'd say a firm no to that!]

The Count



In this picture, I've arranged all my modern, zombie-apocalypse-style models in groups of ten, with a few "character" zombies and mini-dioramas at the front.  Here's how I count it:

  • 16 blocks of 10 = 160 zombies
  • 5 "left over" zombies (at the back) = 5 zombies
  • 6 "character" zombies (near the front.  One of these might be a human in disguise and another might be a voodoo spirit, but they'll still count for now) = 6 zombies
  • 1 diorama base of 6 dancing zombies (front, centre) = 6 zombies
  • 1 diorama base of an "oil drum" zombie = 1 zombie
  • 1 diorama base of a pile of corpses = 0 zombies (let's assume they really are dead)

If I've done my sums right, this gives a grand total of 178 zombies.  Note that this is not quite "several hundred", as I had initially claimed.  If I include my fantasy zombies as well then this must add another 20 or 30 at the very least (there I go again, making assumptions without actually checking!) - still not enough for "several hundred".

Conclusion


Well, the only possible conclusion is that I should check the facts before making vague claims.  This has caught me by surprise as I could have sworn that I had the numbers I had said.  Oh,well, I guess I was wrong.





So, let's sign off with another picture of the horde, this time from a different angle.  It may not include "hundreds" of figures but they still look scary to me!


12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks, Simon. They're not all great models, but I'd like to think that they're painted better than average.

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  2. That's some collectio C6, it's a bit jarring to see them as if they're in units though.
    I hate to think how many I;ve goy - somewhere in the region of 400+ iirc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, the grouping was purely for ease of counting and not to suggest that these zombies are organised.

      Mind you, I'm now having visions of a May Day parade of zombies. Probably shuffling past the reviewing stand, rather then goose-stepping!

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  3. Great collection...and you may have missed the opportunity to split hairs. If I hit a zombie which falls down (assumed to be reslain), but then rises, does that count as a new zombie for the purposes of counting? At the end of it all, I think I am safe to assume, one can never have enough zombies....

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    Replies
    1. Hmm, do you think my definitions were too fussy, then? Or not fussy enough :-) . Either way, thanks for your support!

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  4. Whoa ... seriously cool collection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. It's not as big a collection as I had thought.

      Maybe I should do something similar for survivors too and see how many of *them* I have?

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  5. That's got me thinking.

    I have around 40 Fantasy zombies (although some of those are just hands bursting out of the ground), a similar number of 7TV zombies and perhaps 35 Walking Dead zombies. Give or take a few oddments (Solomon Grundy, Guildhall Morticians proxies, etc.) I've probably got about 120 zombies.

    Your post has convinced me that I need more...

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    Replies
    1. More zombies required? You didn't seem to need much convincing, Kieron! But yes, more is probably a good thing :-) .

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  6. Replies
    1. Well, not quite *'undreds*, but still a goodly few.

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