Mark Copplestone does unique and interesting work. I’m working my way through my first several packs of minis from his “Future Wars” line, and I’ve been really impressed with the imagination and attention to detail they’ve shown.

The “zombie troopers” pack is a case in point. It’s very rare to find zombie minis using weapons or equipment, since tool usage conflicts with an important element of the classic zombie trope. These heavily-armed zeds are certainly out of the mainstream, but I know of several SF settings and RPGs where they would be right at home (PEG’s excellent Necropolis 2350) for example. They wouldn’t look terribly out of place in a normal zombie horde if you think of them as simply fallen soldiers who are still dragging their weapons along with them after falling to the undead, no different than the “props” used to give personality to many zed minis.

As I have come to expect from Copplestone, these figs are impressively detailed. The fabric in their clothes wrinkles and creases beautifully, and their fatigues are somewhat battered and torn as one would expect from fighters who have fought a tenacious but losing battle with the undead.

There is an interesting variety of equipment among the squad. The majority wear the body armor one would expect from modern troopers, but two wear only t-shirts as if they weren’t able to draw their full issue of gear for their last emergency deployment. Of course the missing armor might also be artistic license to allow Copplestone to inflict some more interesting and extreme torso injuries on the luckless squaddies.

Regardless of the variations, the is enough uniformity in clothes and equipment that it’s clear that these men all came from the same unit. Copplestone thus neatly avoids one of my pet peeves: packs of “uniformed” figs that sport wildly different clothing and equipment details. See my review of West Wind’s police officers for an egregious example. Getting details like this correct is the mark of a real craftsman, and I’m always glad to call attention to it.

Good poses are essential for good zombie minis, and these troopers all have the trademark postures and attitudes that would tell you they were undead, even in silhouette. The odd, pigeon-toed way they stand makes you think of them moving in the classivc zombie stagger. The unnatural cocked position of their heads is another (excuse the pun) dead giveaway. It all helps “sell” that they’re walking corpses, not just regular troopers in body makeup.

Good zombies must also have interesting injuries. While the need for them to be functional soldiers precludes any truly drastic damage like amputated limbs, these zeds have clearly been through the wringer, sporting a variety of bite marks, bullet wounds, and even an exposed brain. One poor soul caught without his flak jacket has been disemboweled, offering an opportunity for gorehound painters to really go to town.

There are only minor shortcomings with these minis. The heads are uniformly odd, strangely bulging and perhaps a bit disproportionate I think perhaps the intention was to make them look more alien and menacing, but the result falls a bit short of the mark in my opinion and ends up just looking strange. Overall, the heads and faces are not quite up to Copplestone’s usual high level of quality.

As long as we’re nitpicking, the weapons carried by the squad make no military sense at all. What kind of a unit packs two shotguns, an SMG, and two assault rifles? And why does one pack an Uzi, a gun obsolete even by modern standards? Aren’t these guys supposed to fight in “Future Wars?”

My semi-neurotic equipment obsession aside, these are really nice minis. Well-designed and nicely “animated,” they fill a nearly unique niche as the only gun-toting zombies I have run across to date. That alone makes them worthy additions to the horde of any zombie collector.

Pros: Good poses, Nicely detailed equipment, Interesting injuries

Cons: Odd-looking heads

Final Verdict: 4/5

MSRP: £8

Source: Copplestone Castings

Popularity: 21% [?]

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