"PLASTIC FIGURES ARE DEAD TO ME" Topic

Just finished working on some 28mm plastic zombie horde from wargames factory-very disapointed. They are a pain to put together and the detail was so bad, I even put some heads on backwards cause I couldn't tell which way it faces. You would think that going to plastic would mean tons of detail, but not so. I will never order plastics again. I am waiting on some zombies I ordered from Cold Wad miniatures in UK, hope they are better.
I guess for $14 USD for 30 figures you get what you pay for.

Are there any zombie painting guides out there?-(only this group would have them) Next I'll get PMs asking what scale/country/era/WW II zombies or regular,metal/plastic,newly animated or long dead,zombie animals or humans… what a great comunity this is.

I have heard thatbthere is an Osprey on Zombies.
I am not sure if it was not just an April Fools joke.

I'm with you on the plastics! I've sworn them off! The detail doesn't come close to metal. I still have a couple of boxes of WF saxons & vikings, but I'm leaving them for another time. Strange thing is, I don't that feel that way about my GW plastic figures. Go figure…

Plastic zombies are undead to you… :-)

There is a Zombie Osprey. I bet it is one of the bestselling ones as well!

link

Yes, I meant undead.
Maybe its the ADD in me, I would just rather paint than spend two hours putting these things together.

This crop of WF put me right off of them. I really wanted the Samurai, but the torsos (torsi) came as multiple parts.

The Zombie Osprey is very real (unlike its topic) – so real I gave a copy to No. 3 son last Christmas

I am doing an ImagiNation with the Wargames Factory WSS infantry – so far they are OK – not exceptional, but great for bulking out those big infantry units

I just finished a Sci-Fi army with the Greatcoats- they look pretty good if you substitute the arms they come with with arms from the GW Cadian Imperial Guard kits (in fact, the GW arms actually fit better)

You just got some bad ones. WGF zombies are alright if you just need tons of zombies for cheap…if you want quality, go with someone else. Anyone else in fact. I still haven't finished my box of WGF zeds from a couple years ago because I liked the 15mm zombie horde I was doing much more than the 28mm one.

The zombies were WF's first set. They are soft detailed and hard to paint, and I'd pass on them myself. Sorry to say this, but you're probably going to find the Cold War ones hard to paint as they're smallish 28s and have shallow detail.

More recent WF sets have improved a great deal. The Zulu box is in my opinion as good as the Warlord box- in some ways it is more accurate (they both have ups and downs, hitting where the other missed). The WF Ashigaru sets clearly surpass the WF samurai.

The Perry plastics beat out their metals in detail and overall quality in many cases, particularly the medieval offerings. Many people, even those who are familiar with the range, cannot tell the difference by looking at them. The Sudan box destroys the metal Ansar. Some Perry metal miniatures from the Sudan and Samurai ranges are very sloppy- exposed armatures on the arms etc. They can't get away with sloppiness on the plastics because of the tooling process and the necessity of avoiding undercuts.

Not trying to convert you back, just stating some facts. Not all plastic sets are created equal :)

There is a really interesting take on painting zombies here, halfway down:

link

I have several of those plastic zombies assembled and painted. They are not that bad. Maybe because I built plastic models for years but the assembly is pretty standard for plastic figures and I had no issues with it at all.

Once painted they look fine too. They are not character figures and help fill out a horde nicely.

There are at least 5 of them in this picture:

The old ZombieSmith metal multipart ones (also a few in this picture) were harder to assemble.

Zombie painting guide = whatever looks scary and disgusting to you. Then use Tamiya Clear Red for blood effects. Looks real icky in a good zombie way.

I have a box of those myself. I have 5 assembled and glued to bases. They've been like that for months. The joint lines on the things are HUGE. I originally planned to fill them in, but I'm so SLOW at this stuff. Just need to slap some paint on and call it a day.

Victory Force Miniatures has specials on their zombie hoards pretty often. I like them for inexpensive zombie filler. Nicely done. Very little flash and clean up on mine. Only downside was slotta basing. I don't care for that. But they painted up very nicely and quickly for me.

Dr Mathius thanks for the link I like the look of the hoard. Since I spoke last I have painted 8 and they turned out like crap, so I dipped them in funiture stain (the cheapmans army dip) and think I will try dry brushing for the mono chrome look.

@GoGators, go Gators. When I was there they were 1-1-10, we used to cheer for first downs.
I am not a fan of the slot base either, cant see why they use them at all.

WF is pretty much the bottom of the barrel for plastics. I cant seem to find anyone who hates plastic after they worked with Perry!

I have plastics from Warlord, Victrix and Wargames Factory. The Warlord and Victrix are lovely minis. Really nice sculpts, clean castings and they go together well. The WF zombies I have on the other hand were not great sculpts, the detail is not very clear in the casting and I found the arms went on rather awkwardly. Pics I have seen of other WF sets do not fill me with confidence…

I'd say avoid WF, but don't give up on plastics all together.

Don't take Wargames Factory as an example of what is possible with plastic minis. There are plenty of companies making great, detailed models.

Assembly is still a pain, no matter who you get. I've heard that Perry's are designed to be easy assemble. I have Victrix and although they make me yearn for single-piece metal figures they look great. Here are some examples. Now Zombies though.

Here they are bare plastic:

And painted:

Victrix are certainly at the comples end of the spectrum as far as assembly goes – but the corollory of that is more flexibility and scope for conversions…

Perrys are certainly easier and quicker to put together, and Warlord Games are easier yet – their Napoleonic Russians are simply head, backpack and body- 3 pieces!

"Assembly is still a pain, no matter who you get."

Assembling plastic figures is the BEST PART!! You get to pose them and hack them about and swap bits… you can make all these little characters and stuff. Assembling them is fun.

Cutting the (often fragile) bits off the sprues is the pain.

I have looked at reviews of WF zeds & zulus both say they are poor. But WF are getting better all the time. Their skeletons are undergoing a make over as many have complained of broken pieces in their box.
Plastic figures are better one coat of varnish great. at times one coat of varnish for metal figs is not enough

Gee. I guess if you get some crappy metal figs you'll end up doing resin only. Until you find a crappy resin figure…then…hand carved bones maybe? Wood? I dunno.

Exactly. Not all metal figures are great either. Too be honest, it's difficult to find metal zombies that don't look rubbish to me.

Why don't you try Mantic Zombies? They are easy to put together, have decent detail and come with just enough options to make a couple of score look different from each other.

Leigh

I will never order plastics again.

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Sorry but that is a bit OTT isn't it?. I really wouldn't judge the world of plastics by one of the least good exponents and even then by some of its earliest offerings (not that I would ever buy/play Zombies whether well done or not).
Why not say I will never order WF plastics again. Its like buying some poorly cast metal figures and saying I will never order metals again – or a car with mechanical problems and saying I will never buy a car again!

I just went to Subway. I will never eat food again.

Got to be honest, I don't mind the WGF Zombies, they are what they are – cheap filler.

For character Zombies I'm using Hasslefree ones but to fill a full horde of them would bankrupt me, so WGF are fine for the horde.

Gnrep8 just one manufacture is better than another takes more care & usually charges more. Just seen some WF zeds in the (rotting) flesh they don`t seem very good.

just hit a small pothole in the road …never drive again just to scary out there……lol

Zombies are civilians except they are dead.Watch a zombie movie and that is your guide. I don't like the weight of platics. Won't buy them. That is me.

I think the problem is more Wargames Factory than plastics in general. I've always thought the WF stuff looked a bit crappy. The Perry, Victrix, and some of the Warlord plastics are brilliant.

WF are terrible. Really awful. I bought a box of their Dark Ages figures to go alongside my Gripping Beast and they looked so terrible in comparison I couldnt bring myself to use them. Whereas Victrix, Gripping Beast, PSC and Perry plastics are amazing, really can't fault them.

I was very disappointed with WF Celts, they were the first and the last I bought from WF. I must admit the WWS figures are not that bad, but not my period.
I didn't stop me from buying from other companies.

Pictors Studio made coffee come out of my nose. I will never use the internet again.

The zombies were WF's first set.

AFAIK they were their third (or so) set, preceded by the Romans and colonial British.

Nice painting trojan, that's what I expect from plastics @ pictor studio, I don't blame you subway sux.

More and more people pay people to paint their soldiers -- why --??? Because they do not have the time or do not want to -- or both -- In fact -- I remember the day when finding a painting service was hard to do.
In a world where ease, speed/simplicity of games,etc is the norm, what makes anyone think that those same people want to become modelers and assemble?
Regards
Russ Dunaway

"I will never order plastics again."

You have to remember that these are very old plastics. At least 10 years old. They aren't made from the latest technology that is making plastics today. These Warzone figures were originally from the last box set that was sold.

8)

Grossman,

I got spoiled. My last graduation was after the 2006 season. And things only went up from there.

But then we had that whole "episode." My household doesnt speak of it. It is not nice to think ill of the dead.

Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that by the time my kid is old enough to last 5 hours in Gville heat, we will be good again.

Anyway, the thread inspired me to break out my 5 assembled plastic zombies and slap some black gesso on them. Some quick painting and some gore and they'll be good enough sooner or later.

-Stephen

Swearing off all plastic figures because of Wargames Factory's plastic zombies makes about as much sense as refusing to ever buy another metal figure because Mega Miniaures metal zombies don't have the sort of detail you saw on Hasslefree's website when you were looking at their character zombies.

You're buying the cheap-and-cheerful, low end of the totem pole "bulk" figures, w/the Wargames Factory plastic zeds, and therefore, you're getting what you pay for.

- Monk

I just bought a gummi bear and it had a bubble in its face! I'm going to have to fill that in with marzipan! I'm done with sugar jelly figures. Forever! And yes that includes Swedish Fish! And Gumdrops! And licorice!

Here is another vote for not judging 'plastics' on the basis of Wargames Factory plastic kits, they are to date not the best example for what you can do with plastics. I wish the Perry's did some plastic zombies ;-)

For plastics I used Mantic ghouls and zombies with mix and match they are rather nice though not particulalry modern.

For zeds

Cold wars are nice, a little dated now a days others are Studio miniatures including a range of plastic German ww2 zeds and a plethora of others,

Victory force which seem cheap as chips and Tengu for some other special types. Hasslefree also has a goodly few that can be used.

Other manufacturers are Reaper, Musketeer who carry a few

Also dont discount using the mantic heads for normal figures, they can work out quite well

I've put a couple of painted WGF Zombies up on my blog, along with a Hasslefree one for comparison:

anotherworld15mm.blogspot.co.uk

I don't know what to say really, having been able to tell my WF zeds faces from the back of their heads, had my share of plastic corkers (Dragon) servicable (Trumpeter) and shockers (some Airfix) and even just don't-ask (High Planes), as well as seen many a shapeless lump to pass for a metal miniature.
Why not just use standees or tri-folds? Oh, wait- the machine will give a low toner warning and you will never try to print stuff again etc…..

Lowtardog, those LOOK GREAT. ACW ZOMBIES- only on TMP!