Four Characters from Brigade Games Post-Apocalyptic Miniatures

   Four post-apocalyptic survivors from Brigade Games -- I love the minis, they have tons of character!

With the success of my two games of Zombie RV...er, meaning the RULES were a success -- not necessarily how it turned out for the survivors -- I decided I needed more survivors. Considering we were losing them at a 25% rate, maybe I need even more than I think! Anyway, when I went to Historicon 2024 one of my missions was to find a survivor armed with a crossbow. All the rules sets seem to have mechanisms for these silent killers, and I don't own any figures armed with them. 

My first stop was to visit Lon Weiss of Brigade Games. When I asked him if he had any, he immediately walked me to the box full of his Post-Apocalyptic Miniatures. He pulled one out and said (I think) the character was meant to represent Darryl, the crossbow-armed survivor from the series The Walking Dead. At that point, I had not watched the series, so shrugged and snagged the pack of four survivors. It also included ones named "Curly," "The Fixer," and "The Mechanic." This week, when I went looking for more survivors to paint up, it was only natural to pull out that pack and get them primed and painted up.

    The crossbow armed survivor, who I painted up as Hispanic and named, 'Hector'

One of the things I like about painting post-apocalyptic miniatures, is I can portray them as different ethnicities. For the crossbow-armed figures, listed as "Bo" on the Brigade Games site, I decided to make him Hispanic rather than good old Georgia boy Darryl. I used a medium leather base color for the flesh, dry brushed in lighter shades. He appears to be wearing a leather vest and pants. So, I gave him a sleeveless, brown leather vest and blue jeans. His straps for the quiver and bag over his shoulder were painted as canvas or lighter leather. I painted the crossbow a very dark gray with lighter highlights. The flights on the crossbow bolts were a fluorescent green -- hey, that's what came up when I Googled it! I really like how Hector came out, and he will doubtless see use on the tabletop one of these days. In the meantime, if anyone knows where I can buy separate 28mm crossbow weapons to strap to the backs of other miniatures, I would love to get some!

    'Junior' is an iconic good old boy dressed in jean bib overalls and t-shirt, carrying a shotgun

Probably my favorite pose of the pack is called "Curley" on the Brigade Games website, but I immediately nicknamed "Junior." He is a walking stereotype of a good old boy. Heavy set, blue jean bib overalls, stained t-shirt, shotgun -- he checks all the boxes. I decided to give him a faded, light green t-shirt underneath the bib overalls, but otherwise, there weren't a lot of decisions to make on how to paint up this miniature! I really like how he came out. He's sculpted with a double chin and rotund body shape that is exaggerated but believable. Great miniature! I know Jackie and the boys could use Junior and his shotgun to beef up their ranks in our Zombie RV games!

    This pink-haired, punk rocker carries a shoulder bag with tools, as well as packing some heat!

Another figure that oozes character is named "The Fixer" on the Brigade Games site. She looks for all the world like a punk rock mechanic. She has a very punk rocker looking midrift vest, mini-skirt, and oversized, fancy boots. Her hair is shaved on one side and unruly, virtually screaming to me, "Paint me bright pink!" I faded out the hair color a bit, though, figuring that finding the time and supplies to re-dye hair might be hard to come by after the apocalypse. I gave her lots of tattoos, a black leather outfit, and impractical powder blue, knee-high boots to go with her pink hair. The tattoos were done with black and red micron pens and give her a hard-bitten look, which I really like. I named her "Daisy" because it sounded like a good name for a southern girl.

    Cleaner cut and more nicely dressed than the others, 'Jimmy Chin' seemed to be a city boy to me

Listed on the Brigade Games site as "The Mechanic," this figure looked anything but your stereotyped automobile mechanic. He looked very...well, almost "metro-sexual." Relatively clean cut, modern hair style, neat clothes -- I wasn't sure what to make of him. First, I decided to paint him up as Asian-American. Then I went with the city boy look, giving him a dark gray track suit pants and lighter gray long sleeve shirt. I gave him white tennis shoes and a dark red scarf around his neck (to pull up when splattering zombies, so none of their blood gets in his mouth). I gave him a military style web gear belt with a pistol in an olive drab holster. In the end, I really liked how he turned out, too, and named him after a former Asian-American coworker. 

   Junior, Jimmy Chin, Hector, and Daisy hanging out at their fortified trailer home

These figures painted up very quickly, I felt. They are not carrying a lot of excess equipment to slow things down. They're very cleanly cast and required almost no clean up of flash or excess metal. Not that I am hoping more of my Zombie RV crew dies, but at least if they do, I'll have some cool characters to substitute in! 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 104
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 111