@ Luca: maybe this drawing will help, "WENDY" runs on treads with a gas turbine engine, the weapon on top is a gas generated energy/ray gun.

@ Thomas: love the plow and rust on your mean machine, can not wait to see the complete dio.

@ Matt: "Omega Man" was bssed on the book Legend more abount vampires but hollywood changed it a little then came "I Am Legend" based on "Omega Man" again hollywood changed it a little:-X

Bob

hi bob,

thanks for that info ill try include them as 'WENDY' is a fast recon vehicle and the base is forward recon/attack base. would you be kind enough to tell me what tracks she runs on

thanks,
luca

Christopher, I thought you wanted shotguns. If you cannot find a copy of Dragon #3808 there are options for shotguns of varying types. My suggestions were the SWAT/special unit figure sets. At least there you also get a variety of equipment to use like assault vests and gas masks. If I knew you wanted AKs there are more options out there with entire weapon sets devoted to the AK family.

Phil, Shotguns and bows/crossbows are those cliche style weapons movies love to include. Shotguns have a use, but movies tend to take them out of context for imagery reasons. There's also a misconception at what a real shotgun can do. Shotgun shells are heavy and bulky. And even with a high capacity shotgun you'll spend more time reloading than shooting.

And bows are almost comical. You could recover and reuse some arrows. But you have to assume that you can clear a mob to try. Plus, arrows get damaged in use. Bows also require skill to use. The stealth aspect is undermined by the limited range. You're going to be limited to a range of 15-20 yards max and firing at a target the size of a grapefruit.

And zombies with ballistic vests could be soldiers or police that were overrun by zombies.

Just been looking at the T-34 in the Bosnian war thread, there are some great ideas for End of Days vehicles there particularly the "Strasko" (scary thing) and the armoured furniture removal truck "MIKES"

@ luca: I am up in the air about which tracks, thought of using the tracks from a Tamiya Pkfw II at the moment. This may change after I dry fit running gear (bogies, drive, return).

Bob

As Alex said, dead soldiers and police would have their bullet-proofed vests.

Per, ruined buildings and aliens, probably an end of days scenario. Unless they're friendly, peace loving aliens.

Alex, I don't know what I want? No, I lie, I did want an AK, a single AK. The only weapons set I've managed to find with just a basic AK, no optics, suppressor etc. would be from a figure kit. Many of the kits that have basic AKs however are figures from an era I probably won't ever us (Viet Nam) the 'Head For the Huey' kit is interesting to me due to the pose and therefor an exception)) or are resin casts, thus they're incredibly expensive to salvage for a few guns. As for a shot gun? I don't remember saying I wanted a shot gun specifically as I'm aiming for a realistic theme; having current or ex-police/military who have managed to survive due to their weapons and survival training. A shot gun might end up in my display just as 'clutter' or a spoof/parody?

In any case, we still have a couple months to go before we can even start building.

Alex couldn't agree more about the bows and arrows ..arrows are bulky to carry and you gotta carry a heap of those and just me you need one hell of a lot of skill to use one with the ability to hit a moving target and i used to bow hunt and many times i lost arrows and bolts cause of missing the meal and hitting something solid like a hard wood tree .
Back to shotguns and yep the movies do over do it a bit but i have used the shotgun many times for many different things and with my Mossburg and a deer slug hitting a target at 80 metres is not hard to do ..special forces use shot guns for entry and room clearing ..they do get to use sabot and HE which is bloody impossible to get if your not SF .
Two rounds of OO buck will tear a door to pieces ,,the human body is nothing against those rounds ,a rifled slug or deer slug will put a 6in hole thru a human body and they will tear of limbs with one hit..there is a few deer i have killed with these rounds and its one hit and dead then a very nice meal follows shortly afterwards
Your right about the reloading side of things thats why i would use the shot gun as my No3,handgun is No2 .
Here's a couple of pics of the team i was in ..this was taken a few years ago now ,,most of use are retired now but a couple are still active .


Trust me ,,shotguns have come in pretty handy for us quite a few times .

Phill

ok guys,

i decided to changge my build to a zombie killing bunker, also my figs will have different kinds Ghillie suits, the full body, bush rag and half body.

the base will be my eod 3(if there is 1) build. Sorry if you were looking forward 2 it but As im a kid i dont earn money so the base is just to expensive at the moment.

luca

Chris thats all true I am purely to use as a secondary weapon, for those moments when they need to slow them down a little or 'clear' a room, almost a holdout weapon for when you run out of your primary ammo and are heading for the transport.

Paul

Christopher, in an earlier post you said you were looking for the Fire Support Weapons Set and that you hadn't found any shotguns, AKs, or 9mm pistols. That's why I mentioned shotguns. I didn't know why I was brought into the AK discussion though.

Phil, That's all fine and good if we are talking about using a shotgun in conventional ways, against a human target. Zombies' strengths are in not being human. They don't feel pain, get tired, feel thirsty/hungry (in a conventional sense), and are devoid of emotions (fear, mercy, etc). Without those traits zombies really wouldn't be nearly as big of a threat. The zombie basically runs contradictory to most conventional crowd control measures. And lethal force only works when it is directed to some specific target areas.

I use a shotgun for birds, so I don't shoot alot of buckshot or slugs. At 30m could you reliably hit a grapefruit sized target with a slug? And if you can, would it be worth it in terms of ammo, reload times, shooting fatigue, range.

Movies tend to portray shotguns as a heavily intimidating "point and shoot" type weapons that you can clear a room with. They'll portray a sawed off double barrel like it's a tactical nuke. But it takes more skill than shooting in a target's general direction. So much of it is imagery. Like how they love to use the pump action of a pump shutgun to emphasize a point.

I am not completely tossing out the shotgun as a viable zombie weapon. I wouldn't want to have to depend on as my sole weapon in a zombie scenario. Maybe as a weapon to clear houses to search for loot or to defend a closed close quarters area.

luca, I think the bunker will be fine. You could actually use the EOD campaigns to tell a story. This one, we are introduced to your main character(s) at the bunker. EOD 3, you have them in a larger facility almost surviving with a degree of adapted normality to the situation. Give them a cool name like "Chesty Rockwell" or "Deke Slayton".

I'd have to agree with Alex, most movies seem to have excessive amounts of shot/pellets from a single buckshot.

Luca, sorry to hear that but again, I'm agreeing with Alex. And really? We'd have to be crazy to not have an EoD 3.

I tend to over think things. The imagery thing isn't a big deal. I've almost come to expect it from Hollywood. And while we were airing our thoughts on weapons it seemed like the thing to do. Of the two, the bow thing is the one that really gets on my nerves.

Yeah the bow thing would not be a great idea, unless your a fantastic shot it would be a dumb idea. I used to do field archery and its very hard to shoot a bow accuratly enough whilst having to concentrate on anything else!

Paul

Took ALOT of searching but I found the base vehicle which I will turn into a armored fighting vehicle, Pick up Truck platform. When the enemy heres the throaty exhaust screaming into the zone they are going to be overwhelmed with what is coming at them moving at high speeds.

I love that a 1 Inch plate of hard steel scales down to 1mm.

Hey guys ,, Don't count out the bow yet ,,was talking about this with a mate and we did come up with a very good use for the ol bow and arrows ... now before you over think this (Alex) imagine this .. say you have got yourself a base and you have walls around this base from which you can patrol from .. now times are going to get pretty boring when you enough supplies and there is no need to head out on a mission .
You have to kill time one way or another ..now i will bet that some or most of who ever is in this base will be smokers ,,there is nothing better than having bets for smokes and instead of wasting ammo on dead head's when in base the bow and arrow is perfect ,pick one and who ever hits it in the head with a arrow wins say 5 cigarettes, it would be fun ,,your wasting something you can't use for assaults and it would keep the smokers happy
Think of Dawn of the dead .
Other than that bows are no good for anything else .

Phill

Phil, but that moment of levity is classic Hollywood horror set-up for someone's going to die. Either some zekes slip through while the guards are amusing themselves or one will somehow get bit, then hide the wound, then end up changing at the worst possible minute, and infect half the compound.

I actually can see a bow used as a situational weapon. Under that same scenario, you might be able to use other primitive weapons as well, like a long handled pike to skewer the odd zeke that gets to close to the battlements.

My problem with how bows are often used is that Hollywood will have the heroine go all Legolas on them because they had an archery class at her summer camp ten years earlier. Likewise, the always recoverable arrows is hard to accept. I've been into archery since I was little.

Alex ,,, Ya same ,,i still play with archery in different forms ,cross bows ,,long bows ..still hunt now and then with a old recurve bow i've had for years .
I know what you mean about the hollywood time to cock up the compound bit ..every movie in one way or another you things are going to turn to poop cause its not exciting if the base is always safe ,,my idea of a very well protected base is using 20 and 40 foot shipping containers and here in NZ getting those is not a problem and with a little bit of team work its pretty easy to sort out .
Using containers for walls are bloody near perfect ..flat sides all way around ..good height so dead heads can't
climb them and the best part ..plenty of flat land here far enough away from the ports ( there's a port less than 5 minutes away from me ) and with double haul trailers (2 40footers at once) wouldn't take long to build up something very safe ..they are also very good for guard duty .
Oh did i mention shooting dead heads with bows and arrows for fun

Phill

Except when you die loading or off-loading said shipping containers. Plus it's going to be extremely stressful always hearing banging noises through the cargo containers. Plus you'll just get eaten when one or two of the containers in-conveniently rusts in just the right way where the freaks can break in. More then likely eating the brains of a sleeping guard before you even know they're there.

On the topic of bows and arrows; I would believe, having only ever used a bow for about an hour, that a crossbow would be more effective. Unlike a bow, you have a blunt-ish weapon as well as your pose. Drawing a bow is a sort of awkward movement that would leave you defenseless in the all to common event of not noticing a zombie behind you (usually hiding in a closet or behind some boxes); leaving you with a eaten brain. That tends to ruin peoples day.

Alex, within the next week, though it'll probably be longer than that. I plan on going to my local hobby shop and picking up some polystyrene tubes to make a shot gun like you said. I happen to have a spare PPSH from the DML JSU 152 3 'n 1. Plus the shotty will work well as one of my spoof/parodies.

Christopher .. One thing about containers is that they take many many years to rust ..the steel they are made from is called Corten and this stuff is brilliant when it comes to rust ..if they rusted fast they would be useless for the job they do as they spend most of their lives on ships and hell i have one in my yard (work yard) and its over 15 yrs old ..the only rust is nothing at all to worry about and its still weather proof .
Zombies don't really beat against things .they more like try to scratch their way thru and there is no way in hell they can scratch their way a 40 foot container .
As an engineer i know that these would be the fastest and easiest way to protect a compound,using off road 10 ton fork hoists,swing lift trailers and doubles you can move a heap of them fast and best of all ..the ports i have in mind would be free from zombies as there is no homes anywhere near them so the chances are there is nearly no chance of being annoyed by a dead head
Once set up you would have a wall which will last for at least ten years and with a little bit of maintenance 20 yrs and they are always available.

Oh good luck using your PPSH more than once ..7.62x25 is a very hard round to find in the US ..but damn those things are huge fun to shoot ,loved using my fathers one

Phill

The strength of the shipping containers is they are relatively inexpensive substitute for a bunker. Nat Geo's "Doomsday Preppers" say you can get a used container for around $4000 (USD). Most people bury them and use them for supply storage as well as a safe room. But on one episode of "Doomsday Preppers" they had a couple that made their house out of them. They were testing the walls' bullet resistance.

I think the key thing is that most people would be caught off-guard, at the most have only a short window to prep. So you'd be limited to what you could acquire or already have. A lot of people would be forced to equip themselves with whatever they come across. Or take refuge wherever they can. For that matter, even a prepared bunker may not work for extended periods, requiring the inhabitants to move on to find new supplies once their stores have been depleted.

Christopher, I thought 1 mm sounded a little thick. 0.725714285714286 according to my scale calculator, 0.75mm plastic card would be a better option.

Paul

Phil, I'm thinking down the line, more like in a movie I'd seen. After about 30 years the survivors had managed to recapture most of a city and had a small 'utopia' going. Somehow some uglies got through a chain-link fence as a first defense and infected a guard (not sure if he was sleeping). Plus, you have the noise factor of all that heavy equipment which will likely attract more of your new neighbors. Also counting the fact that many people don't live by a port, and it also seems like a stupid place to go, exposed and you've got one large body of water (there've been a couple movies that show zombies aren't 'afraid' of water and can even 'swim').

Plus, some zombies make noise! Resident Evils 'friends' are a very noisy bunch (and the new film is usual Resident stuff, massive trip, has no relevance to previously existing lore but still an amazing film).

Alex, there's actually a small apartment complex in England made of shipping containers if memory serves me right. I know I won't be able to use the PPSH, I'll still save it and maybe place it so you can't see the missing stock. Maybe under some rubble or a vehicle.

Paul, what scale are you going by? He might be using a larger scale.

Christopher, that's a good point about noise attracting zeds. Even with zombies in their most basic instinctual terms, they'll be attracted by the prospect of food.

On the topic of Mad Max, apparently Aoshima makes a model of 'the Interceptor'. It's 50$, rather expensive for a car kit though but now we just need a figure set of some half-bred '80s punk rockers / asylum escapees and we're good to go!

I've been thinking. Black powder can be bought/looted and relatively easily made. Don't rule out older breach loading 9-12 pound cannons. They will fire anything for whatever effect you need. Grapeshot, nuts and bolts, and of course cannon balls or sabots. Would be ideal to have 2 with a crew of 2 or 3 to each and a machine gun for downtime suppression. I would love to have a large supply of rockets for a RPG but thats not really sustainable, fun no less.