Zombie Spawn Points

[cheetor]

I put together eight zombie spawn points recently, all for show below.

Most of them are pretty standard fare but I definitely enjoyed putting a couple of them together a bit more than the others.  They are intended as gaming pieces and as such dont have too many fiddly bits and pieces stuck to most of them.  In my experience they almost inevitably fall off.




#1 Dr Javad



This is probably my favourite spawn point.  It is intended to represent the "big blue phone-booth-sized containers" that terrorists use to transport zombies to strategic locations in the book "Patient Zero". 

The plan in the book is that at a prearranged signal the booths open and release "walkers" to contaminate the infidels land with the biologically engineered Sief Al Din (Sword of the Faithful) virus. 



I added a Wargames Factory figure that I got in a trade to represent a zombified scientist.  I also added a laptop made of plasticard to further thematically tie the scientist to the containment units.  There is a little more info about this spawn point on my blog here.





#2 Private Molina



Pvt Molina has a slightly more familiar spawn point look, being made from Fenris, Pardulon and Eureka parts.  While this type of spawn point isnt particularly inspired, I definitely had fun getting Molina and co finished. 

I went very much for a Return of the Living Dead Part II look with all of the green toxic waste, crappy zombie flick fans






#3 Doug




Personally, I like my living impaired to have been rendered that way by pseudo-scientific means.  This, in my opinion renders the zombification of buried corpses "unrealistic"

On the other hand, a zombie bursting from the grave is a classic zombie image.  When an opportunity to make something fun like that comes along I dont like to let "realism" get in the way.  When Doug showed up in my Frothers zombie pack last January I put it to one side, knowing that he was destined for a cheesy looking spawn pont.

The gravestone is from the GW zombie sprue.  The grave is from a Horrorclix Jason Vs Freddie set plus some balsa scraps, flock and gravel.  I had to trim the bottom of it to get it more flush but it still sits a bit proud.  While I could have made a little more effort to get it flush with the base I was happy to leave it looking like disturbed earth caused by personal, voluntary exhumation.

I definitely should has taken more time with the "engraved" text areas on the tombstone however.   





#4 Private Maberry



Maberry is another off-the-peg spawn point in the same vein as Pvt Molina above and Watford below.





#5 Bud



I have never seen C.H.U.D. (although the DVDs are en route as I type).  I am however familiar with the cover of the VHS which I could never get anyone else to rent with me as a child.  I figure that this Black Cat Bases manhole-with-hoodie figure was inspired by it.



The warning barriers come from some cheap Pound shop toys that I bought years ago.  I hopefully applied enough ink washes to them to remove most of the toy look from them.  Those things look so plastic-y in real life that I wasnt sure how far to go.

Naturally I then ladled gore all over them too.

As I have already painted up a pair of hoodies as Left 4 Dead Hunters I followed the same routine while painting Bud.






#6 Private Watford



Another stalwart making up the numbers.





#7 Cerberus



For the hell of it I stuck a zombie dog on this one, rather than a dead human.  I assume that it is marking its territory with cold, dead, bloody dog pee.





#8 It



Tentacles dont tend to suggest zombies to most people.  The figure is designed more as a Cthulhu thing really I suspect.  Nonetheless I was happy to use a manhole with tentacles coming out of it as a zombie spawn point.  I suppose that it goes back to my zombie grounding in the Resident Evil franchise, where mutant animals…

[ comic store guy mode ]
…and not necessarily zombie animals.  There is a difference of sorts…
[ /comic store guy mode... well... reduced to normal levels at least ]

…are reasonably common due to reasons related to the zombie outbreak.



The newspaper is an image that I found online a few years ago and held on to.  I printed out a sheet of tiny papers back then but always found them just a little too big to fit on most 28mm figure bases.  I am pleased with how they look on the spawn base above though.

This was a nice, quick sub-project that I enjoyed.  I dont often get around to things like spawn points, objective markers and the like so it was that bit more pleasing for me to finish because of that.

Comments and criticisms all very welcome, as usual


_{EDIT: so that I learn to type good.}

[Dr. The Viking]

Haha!

Great stuff. Quite imaginative.

[Remington]

AWESOME! (Yes, I am shouting!) 

[blackstone]

Good stuff... really like the colours on the "It" tentacles. What rules are you using that require spawn points btw?

[cheetor]

Good stuff... really like the colours on the "It" tentacles. What rules are you using that require spawn points btw?

Thanks.  The tentacles were painted grey and highlghted with a lighter shade.  The ends were then washed two or three times with old GW purple glaze at the ends and turquoise glaze where they meet.  Its not terribly neat but I do like the effect.

Haha!

...and...

(Yes, I am shouting!)

   Thanks for the positive feedback guys.

[Commander Vyper]

Nice pallet there!

Lovely spawn points mate well done.

[uti long smile]

luvverly.

[cheetor]

What rules are you using that require spawn points btw?

I have played AR:SE a few times and enjoyed that, so I will use the spawn points in that.  There arent specific rules for them in AR:SE but its straightforward to include some.

The problem with a gaming zombies (or bug-hunt or anything that involves one-against-many) is that there has to be a time limit of some sort.  If there isnt then it becomes feasible that players could slowly and deliberately cure the infection, one bullet at a time.  It isnt so much a rules lawyering approach to gaming, more that there isnt really any reason for a player to approach it any other way.

To counter this and to provide a timer of sorts, the spawn points generate a set number of new zeds at certain intervals.  That way, regardless of the urgency of the gaming "mission", the characters will have to make progress or they will be swamped.  It also means that shot zomibe miniatures get recycled, which is a good thing from the point of view of available models if you are short of zombie miniatures or anything like that.

Nice pallet there!

Lovely spawn points mate well done.

Thanks CV.  The other traded pallets will make it to the table eventually in some form or another.

luvverly.

Thanks for the feedback.  Im glad that you like them

[Hawkeye]

Nice, Cheetor! Nice, nice, nice! Where in the world did you get the boxes/caskets for the first spawn point? They look fantastic! They remind me a litle bit of the cardboard caskets (made by the Milwaukee Casket Company, believe it or not) that contain the teaching cadavers for the college's human anatomy programme which I pick up from the mortuary in Kansas City twice a year with the human anatomy prof, who is a friend of mine. I don't know why the blue boxes remind me of them, but they do. The spookiest thing about the cardboard caskets? The "recycle" symbol printed on the side!
The Fenris/Pardulon/Eureka bits and bobs have come out really well too. Great work!

[supervike]

Very cool stuff.  I really like these alot.

[Sterling Moose]

I like 'em too.  The tentacles actually look like bloated maggots to me, but that's not a bad thing considering the genre.

[rob_alderman]

These are great, really inspired.

Can't for the life of me understand why/how a zombie would be crawling out of a barrel of toxic waste!

B movie stuff, I guess! 

[phreedh]

Can't for the life of me understand why/how a zombie would be crawling out of a barrel of toxic waste!

Zombies do the damndest things... =)

Nice work Cheetor, really like them! Especially the C.H.U.D reference, always wanted to rent it but my parents wouldn't have it. Would probably have given me nightmares though - so good call. When I was old enough to rent movies myself, it was long gone from the shelves. Saw it a few years ago, and it's crap. Enjoy it! =)

[cheetor]

Nice, Cheetor! Nice, nice, nice! Where in the world did you get the boxes/caskets for the first spawn point?

Thanks Hawkeye.  They are the longest and most coffin-like of the several types of sci-fi crates that Fenris stock.

They look fantastic! They remind me a litle bit of the cardboard caskets (made by the Milwaukee Casket Company, believe it or not) that contain the teaching cadavers for the college's human anatomy programme...  I don't know why the blue boxes remind me of them, but they do.

Awesome.  You say the nicest things  

The spookiest thing about the cardboard caskets? The "recycle" symbol printed on the side!

That is creepy!  You can consider that recycle symbol idea recycled borrowed for cadaver containers part 2.

Very cool stuff.  I really like these alot.

Glad to hear it

I like 'em too.  The tentacles actually look like bloated maggots to me, but that's not a bad thing considering the genre.

That works too
As long as the general impression is that of something pestilent or "wrong" then thats fine.  Thanks for the feedback.

These are great, really inspired.

Can't for the life of me understand why/how a zombie would be crawling out of a barrel of toxic waste!

B movie stuff, I guess! 

I am most familiar with it from Return of the Living Dead Part II.  The cause of the outbreak is scientific and military in origin.  Naturally, the military keep a few zombies around for research and they store them in alarmingly fragile barrels.  Definitely a B-movie thing alright.

Nice work Cheetor, really like them! Especially the C.H.U.D reference, always wanted to rent it but my parents wouldn't have it. Would probably have given me nightmares though - so good call. When I was old enough to rent movies myself, it was long gone from the shelves. Saw it a few years ago, and it's crap. Enjoy it! =)

I was in the same boat, always wanting to rent it but never getting around to it.  I am certain that it (and its sequel C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the CHUD) will be nearly unwatchable garbage.  I will soldier through it (probably while painting) nonetheless.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Hawkeye]

Fenris? Thanks, Cheetor. I'll have to pick some up, they look excellent.

I like the idea of using the 'recycle' symbol somewhere in the future on more containers - it would, indeed, be very creepy to see on a zombie board!

Keep up the great work!