Sunday 4 October 2020

Zomtober 2020, Week 1

Introduction

It's been a while since I put any new items on my blog.  There are a number of reasons for this, some personal and some to do with the state of the world.  However, I never intended to stop forever.  So, here's a Zomtober post for 2020.

The rules of Zomtober can be paraphrased as this: "show at least one recently-completed zombie or survivor model every Sunday throughout October".  My self-imposed (and initially accidental!) extension to this is to show a zombie and a survivor, posed in such a way as to suggest an imminent conflict.  The question is then "what happens next?" - there's no right or wrong answer, but it's interesting to think about it.

By my reckoning, I've been putting up 'duels' for Zomtober for the past 8 years (I started in 2013).  It seems that the popularity of this event is waning, but still I'll post something for it, if only to amuse myself.

Here's a link to allow you to find all my Zomtober posts (old and new): https://colgar6.blogspot.com/search?q=zomtober


Denis vs. ILP Zombie


Why "ILP Zombie"?  Well, because he has a t-shirt with a logo that reads "I <heart> <pony>".  I don't know if anyone can make this out on his rather creased and folded shirt, but take my word for it - that's what the decal says.

ILP is a rather battered-looking zombie.  In particular, his face seems to be quite badly melted or otherwise damaged.  On the other hand (pun - geddit?), he is grasping what's left of someone else's forearm, so he is possibly more dangerous than he appears.



Denis is a youngish man who seems to be well-armed, fit and healthy.  He is, however, stuck in the fashions of the 1970s or thereabouts.  Does that matter?  Probably not - there's no evidence that his style of clothing or long hair would impede his ability to fight a zombie.




No, it seems to me that Denis' main problem is surprise.  He seems to be looking over one shoulder, as if the zombie has caught him at least partially unaware.  At the very least, his eyes and his gun are pointing in different directions and he might lose valuable time in correcting this.  But that would only matter if the zombie attacked immediately, without giving Denis time to react.  Right?



Denis is a Foundry "Street Violence" model.  I'm fairly sure he's from a packet of Russian mafia or hit men - something like that.  He's mounted on a resin scenic base from Escenorama.  "Street Violence" is a venerable range, but still in production.  I have quite a few unpainted pieces; some of them suffer badly from being wildly different sizes, but Denis is very reasonable in this respect.



ILP is an old Studio Miniatures zombie and is also on an Escenorama base.  I don't think he's the best zombie model I've ever seen - though not the worst either.  He'll do well enough as part of a horde, I imagine.


Conclusion

I don't think there is much doubt that Denis has the firepower to win a ranged fight.  So, will ILP just stand there and be gunned down?  Or will the zombie wrestle with Denis before he can shoot and chew on his sideburns?  What do you think?

14 comments:

  1. Great to see you back posting Colgar6, and with such an awesome pair of figures too. I've put a link to your Zomtober posting on my website so people can pay you a visit from there as well.

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    1. Thanks very much, Blax! It feels a bit odd to have posted again after such a long absence, but I didn't want to miss Zomtober.

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  2. Hi Colgar, I too was wondering about Zomtober this year & is often the reality for me, Sundays tend to be my hobby time days so my posts usually don't get added until the Monday. However with Covid & the more time at home, I should be able to post something on Sunday mornings. Hope the rest of the gang get back to it! Alas its a toss-up, the problem with people & automatic weapons is that they like the auto feature & tend to spit out rounds rather than just going for the single bullet head shot. If he was wearing platform shoes, I would give it to the zombie. As for the zombie, the fact he is just trying to lend a hand may befuddle Denis just enough to close the gap....but again, flip a coin on this one.

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    1. I'm sure nobody will mind at all if you post a Zomtober article on a Monday rather than a Sunday. After all, I always understood it to be a very informal affair.

      Yes, the question really comes down to this (as it always does, I think!): does Denis know what he is doing? Hard to say - if he's just some lowlife enforcer then no, probably not. If he's an experienced hard man then he's got this all day long...

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  3. Keep 'em coming! 31 days are a lot of time.

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    1. Well, this year there are only 4 Sundays in October - so I only need to do 4 appropriate posts to complete my 8 years of Zomtober.

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  4. Back from the deeeeeeeaaaadddddd ;)

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  5. nice come back. But after few month, back for Zomtober, is there any message you want to share? :-)

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    1. Thanks, Cedric.

      If you mean "why did I stop blogging for so many months?" then there are several answers:

      * Primarily, I felt that it was all becoming a bit repetitive, both on my own blog and on other people's.
      * Then, the whole covid pandemic has made me into something of a self-imposed recluse (mentally, as well as physically).
      * Finally, my mother died about 12 weeks ago. Handling her estate (to say nothing of the emotional fallout) has imposed a lot of extra work on me and my wife.

      But those are all just excuses, really...

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    2. Wow, that was a busy period. Sad to heard about your mum. Wishing the best support for you and the family.
      I was not asking why you didn't blog, just suddenly you are blogging about zombies. This is 2020, and as anything is possible, it could have been that you knew from your work at the secret research lab that the virus was released and you tried to send us a warning :-)

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    3. Well, I've always blogged about zombies during Zomtober :-) ! I've been doing this regularly for the last 8 years and I didn't want to break the streak.

      No, my work at the secret research lab is more about world domination, rather than about cryptic warnings of impending doom. Muah-ha-ha!

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  6. Well done getting back into blogging, even if it's just for Zomtober, the last six months or so have been a trial for many of us, for all manner of reasons.
    This pairing has one of my favourite stree violence figures, (the mafia-tyoe guy) and the sudio mini is as good as a lot of zeds I've seen.
    TH ehuman, of course, has the edge, even a jammed or unloaded gun makes a good club, but taken by surprise he could easily be dead meat!
    Definetly a 50-50 situation here !

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    1. Thanks!

      I don't think that either of these figures are more than "average" for me; there's nothing about the models that particularly interests or excites me. Still, it's another two rescued from the lead pile, right?

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