Vampifan's Views 62 - Monthly Musings 40

Miss Vampirella March 2015 - Avery Misuraca

I start this month's musings post with a look at the third of my Vampirella models - Avery Misuraca. Avery was an actress with a deep fascination for the horror genre. She is probably best known as the inspiration behind the character, Countess Vladimira, who appeared in a number of comics of that name in the 1990's. This photo was taken when she was invited by Harris Comics to join their stand at a New York comic convention in 1996. Her costume is very good apart from the garish yellow bat logo over her crotch. It should be gold and the wings should be much shorter. On her right wrist she has a plastic bat bracelet which doesn't impress me much. It looks cheap and naff. Although you can't tell from this particular photo, she is wearing strappy high heel shoes, which is just so wrong for Vampirella. Still, I can't fault her looks. Physically, she certainly looks the part.




Moving on to hobby news, this has been another very busy month for me. I have finally finished painting my Super Dungeon Explore figures by doing the Rocktop Turtle Gang from the Caverns of Roxor expansion set. So that ends my foray into Chibi miniatures for a while. I know this will please some of you. Currently on my painting table are a real mix of figures - 5 Reaper contemporary Survivors, an ultra rare Zombicide Survivor and Zombivor (Kyoko, whom I bought from e-Bay just last week), 5 Zombicide Toxic Zombies (an Abomination and 4 Fatties), 4 A Touch of Evil Heroes, 1 Rackham Wolfen and 1 Mantic Deadzone Plague Demon. The last two were gifts from my good friend, Lord Siwoc. I recently bought the two Zombicide paint sets and so, naturally, I am using them to paint my Toxic Zombies. My initial thoughts on the paints are highly favourable. Reviews of all these figures will follow soon.

Although my card modelling has taken a rest for the time being I did buy and make this 28mm scale detached house you see to the right earlier this month. It is from the 4Ground World at War range and is described as Detached House 2 on their website. This is the first time I have ever bought anything from this firm and I must say I was very impressed by the quality of the model, the very clear instructions on building it and on the speedy delivery. It cost me £30.00, which I think is a fair price to pay for an MDF model that comes fully painted with removable floors and roof, interior detail and working doors. This photo was taken from the 4Ground website. As I said, I have made the house but I don't know whether to review it soon or wait until I make and add furniture items for it. Although it is sold as part of 4Ground's WW2 range there is no reason not to use it in a modern day setting, which is what I intend do.

I have been playing a few more games of Super Dungeon Explore using the Von Drakk Manor expansion set. Von Drakk is one seriously powerful opponent and is hard to kill. However, I have mostly been playing A Touch of Evil and you can expect to see a review of this mighty fine board-game and its figures in my next few posts.

I'd like to say a few words about Super Dungeon Explore and The Forgotten King and which set should you buy? The simple answer is both. TFK changes the rules in a BIG way. It will come with four books, offering differing ways of playing the game. These will supercede the rules in SDE. In addition, the stat cards are changing, although in some cases it is nothing more than a change of graphics. Some characters, however, will change more dramatically. An upgrade deck of cards for all SDE figures currently available (this includes the Von Drakk Manor and Caverns of Roxor expansion sets and the unique figures that don't come with the boxed sets) will be available to buy separately for about $15.00. So what does SDE have to offer given the changes that are afoot? Quite simply, the figures. The figures are not changing and if you want the original figures then you should buy SDE whilst it is still available. The expansion sets of Caverns of Roxor and Von Drakk Manor will be re-released but will contain the newly designed stat cards. SDE will eventually be phased out. I don't know when (probably after TFK goes on sale) and I don't know if the figures will be re-released. I hope they are. It would be a huge shame if they were discontinued.

I received a huge parcel this month that contained all of the figures I had ordered for the Reaper Bones II Kickstarter project last year. My god, I had forgotten just how much I had ordered! There were so many figures in the box. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Zombicide season 3 Kickstarter parcel, which should be soon. I recently received an e-mail saying it had been posted. Fingers crossed it will arrive next week. Looking further ahead, the Studio Miniatures Z-Clipz: Outbreak set of figures are due for release in April; The Forgotten King expansion set for SDE is due to be released in May and Rum and Bones should be released in July. I am very excited by what lies ahead. It's going to be a great year for gaming and figure collecting!