Musketeer Miniatures Vampire Hunters & Zombies

I'll be honest, until very recently, I had never heard of Musketeer Miniatures. I came across them on the Post Apoc forum, which had a thread listing makers of zombie miniatures. Musketeer Minis was the only name I hadn't heard of. So I clicked onto their website and liked what I saw. Here's the link to where their zombies hang out - http://www.musketeer-miniatures.com/store.php?r=10&rule=Historical&id=34 If you do a Google search for Musketeer Miniatures and find their homepage, be aware that the zombies are listed under the tab for Hazel's Heroes. They are a UK-based firm and their figures are reasonably priced.

I'll look at their zombies shortly, but first I want to review their two vampire hunter figures - Night Stalker and Big Kris, both of whom should be instantly recognisable to fans of the Blade series of films. It isn't that hard to find figures to represent Wesley Snipes' eponymous hero. I know that there are at least two Heroclix versions of him and West Wind make a nice male vampire hunter in their Road Kill range, who is clearly Blade in everything but name. For obvious copyright reasons, the Musketeer version is just called Night Stalker but we all know who he really is. The figure comes in two parts, with the katana and right hand being a separate piece. I was glad of the photos on their website to show how the sword should be fitted, otherwise I would not have glued it in place behind his body. He is a very nicely sculpted figure. The weapon in his left hand is a sawed-off pump action shotgun. He has a row of silver stakes strapped to his left thigh and of course, he wears his cool looking wraparound mirror-shades. You can just make out his fangs, which I must admit, were a bitch to paint. It took me four attempts to get them right!

Much as I like the Night Stalker figure, I was even more impressed with the figure of Big Kris. Blade fans won't need telling that he is based on Kris Kristofferson's character, Abraham Whistler, Blade's mentor and weapons' technician. I truly applaud the decision to make a not-Whistler figure and it sure is a good likeness of him. Of course, the figure had to have his leg splint. I know all about them as my dad had to wear one recently after a fall which bust the tendons in his knee. It looks remarkably similar to the one worn by Big Kris. His weapon of choice is similar to Night Stalker's, although his shotgun is not sawed-off. I can see this figure getting a lot of uses. He'd make a great survivor character in ATZ.

Moving on, here are the three zombie figures that Musketeer Miniatures sell. At the far left is Brian the zombie. Sorry folks, it's not me! My name is spelt Bryan and besides, he looks nothing like me. If anything, he reminds me of Colin the zombie from the low budget English movie called Colin. (Memo to self, I ought to review that film here.) Brian is a teenage zombie dressed in the archetypal jeans, hoodie jacket and trainers. Note the crushed Cola can that I added to his base.  Brian has suffered some nasty injuries - half of his face has been ripped off, he's lost his left arm at the elbow and there is a hole just above his right knee.
In the centre of this group is Drew the zombie and he reminds me of a university student. He wears a sweatshirt and jeans. His long hair has been tied back in a ponytail and he sports a goatee beard, both good reasons for turning him into a zombie! A chunk of his right cheek has been chewed upon. He also has a large bite wound to his left arm and a cut to his left leg. There is nothing remarkable about him, but that doesn't make him a bad figure.
Finally, we come to what has to be the star of the show - zombie Gene Kelly! This truly is a unque figure amongst the horde of zombie miniatures! The very idea of turning Gene Kelly into a zombie would never have occured to me. So full marks to Hazel for originality. He is described on the website as "screaming in the rain" - a rather apt description, I think. Zombies are not noted for their singing ability, or dancing ability, come to that... unless you include the Michael Jackson Thriller zombies! I added a strip of pavement to his base using Milliput modelling putty. I wanted it to appear as if he had just jumped off the pavement onto the road. He has been wounded in all four limbs, although not too badly, but his head and body are still intact. Naturally, he is still carrying his umbrella. As soon as I saw this figure I knew that I had to have him.
All five figures are roughly 28mm scale and will fit in well with many other popular ranges in this scale. Night Stalker is the most expensive of the bunch at £3.50. Big Kris and zombie Gene Kelly retail for £3.00 each, whilst Brian and Drew are a very reasonable £2.00 each. These five figures are well worth checking out. I like all of them but I especially love Big Kris and zombie Gene Kelly.

WWG Burned Out Cars

In a complete contrast to my last review, which looked at my sleek, highly polished sports-cars, I present the WWG burned out car models. These two superb models come from the Bits of Mayhem set and I thoroughly applaud WWG's Matt Lyon for producing them.

They come in two colour schemes - red and yellow. Note how the wheels are splayed out, as if both axle shafts have snapped. It's a nice touch which keeps the cars flush with the ground and helps to emphasise the fact that these really are wrecks.

The instructions recommend that you colour the reverse side of the pieces you cut out in black felt-tip pen before making the model. Good advice, as it would be incredibly difficult and fiddly trying to get a pen or a paintbrush inside after you'd built it. I painted the inside of my cars with matt black paint rather than use a felt-tip pen. That is just a preference I have, as I always "edge" my models with acrylic paint.

The windows have to be cut out so that you can see the burned out interior, which is simply a single piece of card that is curled at the front and back to fit just underneath the front and back windows respectively. It is a simple solution to representing the ruined interior that works well.

As always, my cars were reinforced with thick mounting card, although I did use much thinner card for making the tyres and the curved interior section. Mounting card is too thick to curve easily. I really can't praise these two models too highly. As props go, they are ideal for a game of All Things Zombie or any other post-apocalypse game. My only gripe is that WWG have only produced the pair of them. I'd love to see more of their vehicles getting the burned out wreck treatment.
Incidentally, they are not the easiest of vehicles to build but neither are they the hardest. I'd rate them as a moderately complex build but they are well worth having a go at. Even if you use die-cast vehicles in your games, these are worth making as no one makes die-cast burned out cars. Your only other alternative is to look for resin cast sculpts, of which I know a few, but they cost a heck of a lot more than these.

Vampifan's Zombies

These four 28mm scale zombie figures are unique. They were sculpted by me in the early 1990's, I can't remember exactly when. They were never intended for commercial use. None of them are built on metal armatures so if I did want to sell them I'd have to resculpt them. I just wanted some some zombies to use in a contemporary or near future setting. Back then, most zombie figures were designed for fantasy gamers. Some could be used in a contemporary setting but not many. Fast forward to today and I'd say that contemporary zombies far outnumber their fantasy counterparts.

I learnt how to sculpt figures in the early 1980's when I realised that no-one was going to make the figures that I wanted to use in the role-playing games or skirmish wargames that I played. The very first 25mm scale figure I made was of Judge Dredd. I made a lot of characters from the 2000AD comic, all of which I look at now with embarrassment! Still, my other gamers loved them, and at the time, so did I. George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead film had a massive influence on me. I loved it then and I still love it now. I still think it is the best zombie film ever made, with the original Day of the Dead a close second. So I made figures of the four heroes from Dawn of the Dead and about two dozen zombies from the film. They saw a lot of use in a lot of games. But as I look at them now I just see so many mistakes I made on them and I cringe. Sorry, readers, but I refuse to show them!

Four figures that I made that I do like are the four shown in the two photos above. The zombie in the black trench coat and trilby, carrying an Ingram MAC10 sub-machine gun with silencer is based on a character from the novel The Assassin by Shaun Hutson. He wrote it in 1988 and I was so taken by a review of it that I had to buy it. It is one of the most graphically violent novels I've ever read and I loved it. The undead assassin, Charles Ross, was an obvious choice for a miniature. I guess he's more a revenant than a zombie but if you play a game that uses intelligent zombies then Ross certainly fits the bill. He can speak and he moves like a normal human - it's just that he's dead. I used an old Citadel plastic skeleton as the, well, skeleton of the figure and added Milliput to it. I was glad that he used a MAC10 in the novel, as they are very easy to sculpt! The Assassin has a line of bullet holes stitched across his chest and a chunk taken out of his upper left arm.

The two kids came about as no one made zombie kids in those days. I needed them for a game, so I sculpted them. They aren't that good to be honest but they filled a niche and they hold up well compared to lots of my adult zombie sculpts. When I saw the little girl zombie that was a winner in the Frothers sculpt a zombie competition I was immediately reminded of my effort as she is in a similar pose. However, the Frothers figure is vastly superior to mine. Neither of my kids are wounded, although they both have blood-smeared fingers. I wanted them to look as normal as possible from a distance. It is only when you get up close and see their undead eyes that you ought to realise these are zombies. The boy is wearing a T-shirt with the Batman logo on it.

Finally, the zombie biker ought to be instantly recognisable to any fans of Vincent Locke's Deadworld series of comics. He is King Zombie, a pivotal and powerful character in the series. If you're wondering what the writing on his T-shirt says, it's "Helmet Law Sucks!" He's a biker with attitude and no one is going to tell him to wear a crash helmet! He too, falls into the category of intelligent zombie and he can speak. He is holding a snub-nosed revolver in his right hand and a cigarette in the other. He may be a zombie but he still likes his cigarettes! Once again, I used an old Citadel plastic skeleton for his skeleton and built up the model with successive layers of Milliput modelling putty. Back then, Milliput was the only commercially available modelling putty. I still use it today, but mainly for filling in gaps on bases.

If I was to remake these figures today, I'd do a much better job on the kids but I doubt if I'd be able to improve on the quality of the Assassin and King Zombie. Nowadays, I almost never sculpt any figures. Most figure manufacturers cover what I need so there is no reason for me to sculpt. Long may it continue as there aren't enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want to do!

WWG Sportscars

These four sleek-looking sportscars come from the WWG Bits of Mayhem set. You have a choice of four colours - black, red, white and yellow - to choose from. I've made one of each colour.

As you would expect, they are quite low to the ground. I should have included a figure in the pictures to give a sense of their size.

Can anyone recognise what make of car they are? No, I couldn't either, not that I'm very good at car recognition. According to the instructions that came with this set, this is a Lambourarri. It's good to see that WWG designers have a sense of humour. Actually, I like the name. It is obviously not meant to represent a particular sportscar, rather it is just a generic sportscar.

One of the problems with WWG vehicles is that each particular vehicle has the same number plate. Although to be fair to WWG, in this case, four alternative number plates are provided as optional extras. However, it is a bit of a cop-out as they all contain the same six numbers and letters of the original, only they have been rearranged differently. I suppose it would be an easy enough task to kitbash some new plates as well as some vanity plates, which would be cool. On the other hand, given how small they are, who's going to notice? Still, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my card models, so I will make each one different at some point.

These side views show how sleek the cars look. I must warn any potential builders out there that this is not any easy car to make. Basically, you have to make the front half and the back half then glue them together. Looking at the instructions, I couldn't help but think how incredibly fiddly it looked and the joining of the two halves seemed fraught with danger. I totally ignored the instructions because of the way that I make my card models. I began with building the roof and working down from there, making the sides next, follwed by the back, then the front and penultimately, the undercarriage. The wheels went on last.
I have mentioned countless times before that I print my models out onto photopaper and glue the parts to thick mounting card (or artboard if you live in the USA). As a consequence, when I cut the parts out, I also cut off the tabs for joining the pieces together. At first glance, this may seem like a dumb thing to do, but it does make sense. You see, mounting card is thick enough to glue to itself along the thickness of the card. Therefore, there is no need for locator tabs. Plus, the thickness of the mounting card would totally screw up any nice flush joins if I left the tabs on. Often, I have to cut the mounting card slightly smaller than the piece I'm gluing it to just to get a snug fit. It is a very different technique to the one shown in the WWG instruction guides but it has become second nature to me. The primary reason that I build this way is simply because I want my models to last. There is no question at all that my way is a lot more time-consuming than that recommended by WWG but my models will surely outlive me!
One other point that I want to make about my four sportscars is that some of the joins around the windows were not as smooth as I wanted. So I added a thin strip of modelling putty to them and smoothed them with my finger. The result - perfect edges. I was able to do this because of the strength and thickness of the mounting card. Finally, when it comes to "edging" (i.e. colouring in the edges) my models, I always use Citadel acrylic paints. I prefer to use paints to felt-tip pens because I can match the colours far better and the paint helps to seal the edges.
I built these as a batch of four rather than making them individually to save time. Build time was three days, working at least a couple of hours per day. They were complex models, compared to say, the pick-up trucks, but the end results are stunning. I'm very proud of them.

Foundry Figures Victorian Monsters

At the start of the year I promised more figure reviews of undead types other than zombies. During the Christmas holidays of 2009 I ordered this set - BCVIN6 Monsters & Mistresses - from Foundry Figures. The set comprises of eight figures, all approximately 35mm in height, which may be too tall for some collectors but not me.

I'm sure that regular viewers will have noticed that the backdrop that I have used for photographing these figures has changed from the usual grafitti covered concrete wall, pavement and tarmac road. I did not think it was appropriate for Victorian era monsters so I built this little set from the WWG Streets and Sewers of Himmelveil TerrainLinx sets. The cobblestone ground tile came from the Sewers set, whilst the walls are from the Streets set and the Sewers expansion set. I'll use this backdrop for any figures from bygone days or a fantasy setting.

The first two photos above show the bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster. They come as individual figures and as a vignette featuring them both together. The sculptor has clearly been influenced by the 1930's look with Boris Karloff's portrayal of Frankenstein's monster and Elsa Lanchester as the bride.  I think it's a good decision as theirs is the look that most people associate with these two characters.

The figure of the bride is very static but that is probably a good thing as it suits the character. She is not as tall as some of the other figures in this set but hair-do does make her appear taller than she really is.

The bride and monster combo is a delightful sculpt. The two figures are essentially the same as their individual versions but with a few subtle differences. I love the way that their heads have been slightly tilted so they lean in to each other and the monster appears to be smiling. How sweet! The monster has draped his arm across the bride's shoulders as if to say, she's mine! However, note the bride is holding a large carving knife behind her back. Does she fully love the monster and trust him?

The individual figure of the monster has him shambling forward. The musculature on his chest is well sculpted and he has a feeling of great strength about him. The bolts in his neck are prominent. If I was to be picky, I'd have to say that his head and hands are slightly too big and his legs appear to be too short.

These next two photos show two more figures from the set - the mummy and the female vampire. I ordered the skeletal Santa separately.

The mummy is not an an exceptionally great figure although he is well sculpted. As you would expect he is covered in bandages from head to foot with only his face exposed. I wanted his face to look like dark dried leather so I painted it with Citadel Bestial Brown then gave it two separate ink washes, first with Citadel Devlan Mud, then with Citadel Badab Black. I painted the teeth with Citadel Bleached Bone and dotted the eyes with Citadel Skull White. I did contemplate giving him a sand covered base painted to fit in a desert setting but opted for my usual urban rubble base instead.

I bought the skeletal Santa because I wanted a zombie Santa for my horde. He was the closest I could find to fit the bill. How was I to know that a couple of weeks later Studio Miniatures were going to release their Christmas zombies set? Skeletal Santa still makes a good zombie as there are so few bones on display. I've painted his bones in my usual pallid grey flesh tones that I use for the majority of my zeds, rather than paint them as bone. When you see him close up you can't tell the difference. Either technique works well. It just depends if you want to use him as a skeleton or a zombie. I love the way he has been sculpted. His base was a separate component and the section of roof and chimney stack is a great touch. On my base it is just a piece of rubble that has fallen to the ground. Note the toys in his sack and left hand. They are all scary monsters like ghosts and demons. This is a superb figure that I rate very highly.

The female vampire was instantly recognisable to me as I know she is based on a painting by Chris Achilleos. I have the book of artwork she appears in. She appears to be rising from the ground, as her feet are not visible. Her flesh tones are almost white. There is a hint of blue there from the Citadel Asurmen Blue ink wash but it is quite subtle. Her unfettered breasts stand tall and proud. She certainly has a nice rack! I particularly like the way her long black hair is blowing in the wind. It should come as no surprise that I like this figure a lot.

Finally, we come to the three humans in the set. I could have kept my Himmelveil backdrop for the dominatrices but not for the monster hunter with the flame thrower. She had to be photographed in a contemporary setting. Actually, this gives you a chance to compare the two backdrops without having to flip back to previous posts.
The way the two dominatrices are attired is just how you'd expect to see them dressed. I always say, if it ain't broken don't fix it. The lady on the far left is unnamed and is just called the Dominatrix on the Foundry website. Her cat-o'-nine-tails whip looks particularly nasty with its studded metal barbs. One lash of that will certainly strip flesh from the body. Like the bride above, she looks a lot taller than she is because of the way she has styled her hair. Her pose suggests she is in a contemplative frame of mind.
The other dominatrix is called Sadie Stern on the Foundry website. It would be hard to come up with a more appropriate name for her - Sadie reminds you of sadist and Stern tells you just what kind of demeanour she possesses. She could be the twin sister of the other dominatrix or they could be the same person but dressed slightly differently. At first glance they do appear to be identical but note that Sadie's boots are only knee-high not thigh-high. Also, Sadie's basque has shoulder straps, whilst the other one hasn't. The Dominatrix is wearing ear-rings but Sadie isn't. Finally, Sadie is armed with a small dagger as well as her cat-o'-nine-tails. Her right foot is resting atop a small circular box.
The vampire slayer called Hot Wax by Foundry is well equipped to take out a whole nest of bloodsuckers. You don't see many contemporary figures armed with flamethrowers and even less females so armed. The small bottle she is holding in her right hand will, no doubt, be filled with holy water. Of course a flamethrower is an ideal weapon to dispose of any undead threat. I could see her working well with a group of like-minded slayers. All three females are great figures and I wouldn't want to cross any of them!
Set BCVIN6 Monsters & Mistresses costs £40.00 for all eight figures. However, they can be bought separately for £5.00 each or £11.00 for the Frankenstein bride and monster combo. Skeletal Santa also costs £5.00. I scored by ordering them when I did as Foundry were offering a 20% discount on all of their figures as a Christmas gift incentive. I'd been after this set for a long time so I was glad that I waited. All of the figures are very well sculpted. As with all Foundry figures they come with integral metal bases but more often than not, these are far too small, so I ended up sticking them onto slottabases anyway. Apart from anything else, it helps tie them in with the rest of my figure collection. I think the two things that might put some people off buying them is their price (too expensive?) and their height (too big?). As a fan of all things undead, I thought this was a great set to buy and Skeletal Santa is a cracking good figure.

WWG Camper Vans

This review follows on directly from my previous look at my WWG vehicles. I mentioned that I had made the blue and green pick-up trucks that came with the Mayhem Armoury set but that I had converted them by way of a kitbash that transforms them into camper vans. These are the results of my conversion work.

The kitbash that you can download from the WWG website offers you two choices of camper van bodies to fit in the back of your pick-up truck. The small body comes in eight different colour schemes - black, blue, green, orange, red, turqoise, white and yellow. The orange, turqoise and yellow options do not match the colour schemes of the pick-up trucks. The large camper body comes in six colour schemes - black, blue, green, red, turqoise and white.

I have added the small camper van body to the back of my green pick-up truck and the large camper van body to the back of my blue pick-up truck. The camper bodies are very easy to make and simply slot into place in the back of the trucks, although you have to remove the back panel at the rear of the trucks first. Obviously, there is more work involved in the larger body but it is still an easy kitbash to make. My camper van bodies are glued in place and as always, are reinforced with thick mounting board.

I cut the rear doors out and glued them to a piece of thin card that was slightly smaller than the height and width of the back wall. With the back wall being glued onto mounting board this meant that the doors were not flush with the walls and are slightly indented, which was the effect I wanted to achieve. From a personal point of view, I have never ever been in a camper van so I have no idea how cramped they are. The smaller one looks like it will be very cramped. I doubt if an adult could stand up straight in there. The larger one seems to be the better option for travelling in. 

These vehicles would make for useful options for a small group of survivors to run about in in a zombie apocalypse game. The extra space in the back allows for more folks to take part in a mission or allows for more loot and/or newly found survivors to be carried. A pick-up truck is a useful vehicle for any group of survivors to own but these camper vans are even more useful.

I received some great feedback on my review of my WWG pick-up trucks but a common question that I was asked was why don't I use die-cast vehicles? I know that not everyone reads the comments to my posts so I'll explain here. The first and most important reason is a lack of availability of the vehicles I want to use. Living in England, the majority of die-cast vehicles on sale here are, not surprising, English. This is no good to me as I set my ATZ games in Mayhem City, USA, so I want American vehicles. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get say, a model of an American ambulance, police car or taxi in the UK? Or if you can get them, just how expensive they are? Which brings me onto my second reason - cost. On the whole die-cast vehicles in 28mm scale are expensive. Yes, you can pick up some great bargains in supermarket or toyshop sales but you need to be in the right place at the right time... and I'm never that lucky! I do have some die cast vehicles, mostly cars and vans, that I was able to buy cheaply but to match my card model collection would be an expensive proposition and I seriously doubt if I could get everything that WWG issues. The beauty of the WWG models is that they are ridiculously cheap; there is a great deal of choice and the vehicles fit in perfectly with the scenery. Stick with me and I'll show you that card vehicles aren't a bad option at all.

Frothers Survivors

When FU-UK announced their zombie sculpting competition in 2009 it was stated that zombie hunters and survivors would be accepted as well. A sensible decision, I felt, as not all sculptors are fans of zombies. Showing here are the winning survivor entries.

The camera-man and female reporter are a much welcome pair and it's nice to see the sculptor thinking outside the box. Obviously these two come as a team and I found the sculpts to be crisp and clean. Sizewise, these are very compatible with the likes of Hasslefree Miniatures and Studio Miniatures. Not only that, but the style and quality of the sculpting fits in as well. The camera-man is dressed in casual clothing with his shirt sleeves rolled up but in addition, wears a flak jacket. It may protect him against stray bullets in a gunfight but it won't do him much good if a zombie attacks him! I've painted the word "PRESS" on his back to identify him as a non-combatant. I'm undecided whether to add it to his front as well. I might well do later.

The female reporter looks quite young and is very pretty. She is dressed in a very similar manner to her colleague. Note how tight-fitting her jeans are! Her pose is more animated than the camera-man's. I particularly like both figures. They are great civilian types and like zombies, you can never have too many civilians.

The third figure of this trio could be either an axe-wielding survivor or a murderous psycopath. There is a certain ambiguity about him that would make me think, can I trust him? Once again, the sculpting is faultless. He is obviously proud of his physique as he happily shows it off by leaving his shirt unbuttoned. I have deliberately painted his flesh tones darker than I usually do because to me, he feels like a guy who spends a lot of time outdoors. See how tanned he looks compared to the two press crew.

These three portly gentlemen are all variants of Colonel Marbles, the signature figure for FU-UK. The chap in the blue uniform and the chainsaw-wielding Colonel were freebies in the package I belatedly received as an apology for the delay. For this, I was very grateful, especially for receiving the chainsaw Colonel, whom I greatly admire.
As for the Victorian officer type Colonel, I really don't know what to make of him. I can't criticise the sculpting of him. The problem I find is this, what on earth am I going to do with him? I simply can't find a use for him and thus, I feel rather ambivalent about the figure. To me, he is too old-fashioned to suit a modern era game setting. Perhaps I should do with him what I plan on doing with my Cold War London zombies and just say that he is in fancy dress. Or maybe he's an actor in a costume drama.
The centre figure is the original Colonel Marbles and can still be purchased for just £2.50. I like him a lot as he seems to be full of character. Just note the quirky way the left collar of his shirt is sticking up. I should also point out that for all three Colonels I added a touch of Citadel Baal Red ink wash to their noses and cheeks. I imagine that the Colonel is overly fond of his whiskey and brandy!
Finally, we come to Colonel Marbles the zombie hunter. This figure was sculpted by Kevin White of Hasslefree Miniatures and it simply oozes class. I'm wondering if this is a brother of the original Colonel as his face has changed a bit. This chap sports a monocle and a moustache that were absent from the original. His style of dress is similar but slightly different. He has now acquired a pair of plus-fours (long socks) and a deerstalker hat. Rather than show him just wielding the chainsaw, Kev has depicted him pulling the cord for the starter motor. This is a great touch that makes me admire the figure even more.
Before I close my review I should mention that there was one more figure offered with the zombie mega-deal that I have not shown and that was a big bird with its wings spread out. I think it may have been a zombie crow like those seen in the film Resident Evil: Extinction but I may be wrong. Either way, I have not painted it yet. It will get painted when I make my WWG Wildwood Grove cemetary and I'll stick it atop one of the gravestones. It is certainly a curiosity.

WWG Pick-up Trucks

Here we are two months into 2010 and I realised I haven't posted any WWG (World Works Games) reviews yet. Well that changes here. I've shown you all of my scenery that I've built so far but what I have not shown are my collection of WWG 28mm scale vehicles. Just like my buildings, these models are printed out onto 130gm photo-paper then glued onto thick mounting board before I assemble them. This does add to the building time but the benefits are more than worth it. These models are incredibly robust. I accidentally dropped one down the stairs and it suffered no damage whatsoever.

I decided to show the pick-up trucks first for the simple reason that the red pick-up shown in the photos was the first WWG vehicle that I made. The pick-up truck appears in the Mayhem Armoury set and comes with a choice of five colour schemes - black, blue, green, red and white. In the photo above, note the WWG logo on the front grille of the trucks. It's a nice touch. If you can't see it too clearly remember that you can left click on any photo and it will open up in a new page at a much larger size.

Another nice piece of detailing are the logos on the tyre walls - Badyear instead of Goodyear - which you can see in the above photo. Yes, it's such an obvious pun but I still like it. Incidentally, you can fit two figures mounted on 25mm diameter slottabases in the back of the trucks.

There is a bit of glare from my camera's flashlight on the red pick-up truck in the photo above. This is because I print the body of the vehicles onto semi-gloss photo-paper. The wheels and undercarriage are printed on matte paper. I like the look of the bodywork with its semi-gloss finish. On a very few vehicles, like my sportscars, I've used full gloss paper because they ought to look very shiny. A few others, like my dustbin lorry have matte bodies, as they'll quickly lose their shine due to the work they do.

If you are wondering why I haven't made the blue and green pick-up trucks, I have. However, I made use of a kitbash to convert them into camper vans and I'll show the results in my next WWG review.
My views on paper or card vehicles are as follows. First of all, they are nowhere near as detailed as similarly scaled die-cast models. Plus, they don't come with interior details, you can't open the doors or turn the wheels. In an ideal world I'd only use die-cast vehicles in my games. But reality rears its ugly head and that will never happen. So I populate my game boards with card vehicles. On the plus side, they are a cheap and viable alternative. Because they are made by the same designers as make the WWG scenery they fit in very well. The texturing on all of the vehicles is extremely well done. Also, as more and more scenery sets appear on the market, so does the number of vehicles. Recent releases like Mayhem Bank, Mayhem Junkyard and Wildwood Grove all feature additional vehicles. I have all of the contemporary vehicles that have been produced by WWG so far, but I still have a lot to make to complete my collection. And, yes, I will complete it! The bottom line is this - as with all of the WWG products I like them.