Vampifan's Views 65 - Monthly Musings 43

Miss Vampirella June 2015 - Kitana Baker

I start this month's musings with another of my favourite Vampirella models - Kitana Baker. She was born in 1977 as Christi Michell Josenhans in Anaheim, California. Keen to get into show business, Kitana began working as a showgirl in local clubs, eventually winning Local Showgirl of the Year 1998 and National Showgirl of the Year 1999 awards along the way. She also began modeling, posing for various magazines and web sites, and caught the attention of Playboy magazine in February 2001. Playboy hired Kitana to work on their network, and she has been a feature of the Playboy empire ever since. She was hired by Harris Comics in 2003 and appeared on the cover of numerous Vampirella magazines between 2003 and 2004. She certainly fills Vampirella's red costume magnificently, which I'm pleased to see that Harris have altered for the better. The costume is perfect and whilst I have absolutely nothing against the gorgeous Kitana, she is just far too busty to be Vampirella. That does not mean that I don't lust after her! She's welcome at my home any time!

This month's gaming news is exciting... well, it is to me! First, I have backed the Zombicide: Black Plague Kickstarter project. That was a no-brainer, obviously. There is still over a week for it to run and it most definitely is going from strength to strength with nearly $2.5 million already pledged. Will it reach $3 million? I hope so.
My second piece of gaming news is that a few days ago I received a small parcel from Studio Miniatures, containing the Survivor and Zombie figures I ordered in their Z-Clipz: Outbreak Kickstarter project. Obviously, with these being Studio Miniatures, they are superbly sculpted. I received about 50 figures and a resin cast wrecked car. The figures are primarily based on characters from popular films and TV series, especially The Walking Dead and George A. Romero's classic zombie film, Dawn of the Dead. Ever since I first saw Dawn of the Dead way back in 1979, I have been waiting for someone to make the four heroes of the film. My patience was finally rewarded when this Kickstarter was launched. Sorry I have no preview photos to show you of the figures I received but they are high on my painting list and I hope to review them soon.

I have been adding to my collection of Zombicide Season 3 stuff by buying a few sets I missed out when I made my initial pledge last year. First up is this boxed set of a Murder of Crowz. It contains 15 stands with each stand containing 6 zombie crows. Anyone who has seen the film, Resident Evil: Extinction will know about zombie crows! I must admit that these figures will be an absolute doddle to paint. Although I received a few of these Crowz with my Kickstarter package, I didn't get any rules or spawn cards for them. Now I do have  them.

I bought all of the Special Guest Sculptor boxed sets of figures that were offered in the Season 3 Kickstarter launch except one. That one was the set you see here to the left. It features four characters from John Kovalic's popular Dork Tower comic series. This series has been running since 1997 and features a group of nerdish gamers whom most of us will recognise from our own gaming groups. I passed on this set because the figures are so cartoonish. I didn't see how I could use them in any realistic game, especially one as dark in tone as Zombicide. But the more I looked at them, the more I realised I wanted them. Yes, I am a Zombicide fanboy. I admit it! It did bug me that I was missing a set. So, when I saw them on offer on eBay with the Buy Now option my willpower collapsed and I bought them. I am now a happy bunny. I already have a few scenarios in mind that should be ideal for them. I see no reason not to inject a bit of fun into the game.

Now some of you might be thinking I bought them because they look like Chibi miniatures. Wrong! They may be cartoon characters but they most definitely are NOT Chibi characters. John Kovalic has placed a huge backlog of Dork Tower cartoon strips on his website here - http://www.dorktower.com/ which I have thoroughly enjoyed going through. Yep, I read them all... although not in one sitting! I happen to know that John does a lot of work for Steve Jackson Games so I did a search to see just exactly what he had done. I saw that there was a Dork Tower boardgame, which didn't interest me, and set of 28mm scale metal figures to go with the game, which did interest me. Sadly, the figures were out of stock and out of production, but a quick search on eBay revealed a seller living just a couple of miles away from where I live with a set for sale at the ridiculously low price of £6.95. What a bargain! I leapt on it. This time the characters are dressed in fantasy garb and I plan to use them in an offbeat game of Zombicide: Black Plague sometime in 2016. As soon as I get both sets painted up I'll review them.