West Wind Vampire Bikers

It is easy to forget that this blog is called Vampifan's World of the Undead and not Vampifan's World of Zombies! Not every figure I review is a zombie, even if it does feel that way. Anyway, this is a preamble to let you know that this week I'm going to review two sets of contemporary vampire bikers from West Wind's Road Kill range of 32mm scale figures. The two photos above show the four figures from set GRK001 Vampire Biker Gang (A). As you can see, you get mounted and dismounted versions of the vampires, which I think is an excellent idea.

At the left is the only female vampire out of the group. The dismounted version has her armed with twin pistols (they look like Glocks to me) and a combat knife, which rests in a sheath at the left side of her belt. To me, the most striking aspect of this figure is her hairstyle, which is very weird. I'm showing my age here, but the two clumps of hair sticking up on either side of her head remind me of Deeley Boppers, a hideous fashion craze of the 1980's! I had a lot of difficulty in getting the mounted version to sit on the bike with her feet on the pedals and left hand where it should be on the handlebar. It was her left hand that caused me so much grief. In the end, I decided to have her standing on the pedals as if she has stopped her bike and stood up to survey her surroundings. The pose works well and I'm happy with the way she's turned out.

The male vampire next to her is bare chested and his face is contorted into a feral snarl. His musculature has been well sculpted. I particularly like his bulging neck muscles. This guy is Mr. Aggression all over. He is armed with a pair of combat knives. Note how the blade extends over the fingers of his right hand. I had no trouble in fitting the mounted version to his bike. You can alter the angle of the front section when you come to gluing them together. Maybe this is why I had so much bother with the female.

The second set, GRK002 Vampire Biker Gang (B) contains a pair of vampire males. At the left is a punk vampire with mohican haircut and a totally silly goatee beard. Can goatee beards look anything but silly? He is armed with just a single pistol, which he holds in a two-handed grip in the dismounted version and by his side in the mounted version. I should point out that in each of the two sets the back two thirds of the bikes are identical. However, each set contains two different front sections. Both sets contain the horned skull versions that you see in all of the photos. The second version is not so sleek looking and lacks the fancy wheel cover and large horned skull. Instead, a human skull is perched atop the headlamp. What I did was make all four bikes identical by swapping two of the front sections with those from the two werewolf biker sets that I bought at the same time as these. This helps make both groups look uniform, thus tying them together as a coherent whole. You'll see the alternate front sections when I review both sets of the werewolf bikers next time.

The last figure of the group is dressed in a long leather duster and is the best armed of them all. He is surely the leader of this coterie of vampires. The dismounted version is armed with a sub-machine gun and a Bowie knife A pistol is stuck under the belt of his trousers. His hair is long and flowing and his stance is one of arrogance as if he's daring an opponent to come and have a go at him. On the mounted version, I love the way the coat tails are flowing behind him. It gives a great sense of movement. He fitted on his bike far easier than any of the others. When it came to painting the red on the bikes I used Citadel Blood Red with Citadel Red Gore for the shading and Citadel Blazing Orange for the highlights. They looked okay, but I gave them a coat of Tamiya Clear Red, which I use for all of my gore effects, and that really made the colours pop. It also helped give them a glossy look as if they were highly polished. I love my TCR!

These are among the best sculpted contemporary vampires on the market today. I highly recommend them. When you look at the current crop of vampire minis, most are designed with the fantasy gamer in mind. These vamps are unashamedly modern day and all the better for that. I just wish there were a lot more available. 

The sets cost £9.99 each from the West Wind website. My only criticism of them is that it can be a bit difficult to get the rider to fit on the bike properly. Novice modellers may struggle. Another potential problem with them may be their size. Although West Wind describes them as being 28mm scale, in truth they are closer to 32 or 33mm in scale. Not a problem for me but your mileage may differ.