Friday 30 September 2016

Vampifan's Views 84 - Monthly Musings 58

As we reach the end of another month, I once again present my Monthly Musings. I start, as always, with a painting of the lovely Vampirella. Joe Jusko, my favourite Vampirella artist, has painted her in black and white, which is unusual to see these days. I must admit, it is very effective and it looks like a still from a pre-1960's horror film.

Work continues apace on the three projects I am working on simultaneously - Battle Systems Urban Apocalypse Terrain, Judge Dredd Miniatures Game and Shadows of Brimstone. I have punched out all of my walls, floors, roofs and doors for the many sets I own. Finally, I have started making buildings. You can see the first of my builds in this article I posted on The Gamers Cupboard blog here - http://thegamerscupbard.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/battle-systems-urban-apocalypse-terrain.html
I'll be posting more of my builds there in the next month and beyond. What remains to do is to make all of the furniture and scenery items. That is proving to be very time-consuming. But I keep plugging away and I will get it all made. For me, it is more important to get the buildings done first. I am glueing all of my furniture items and scenery items. I have even glued together some walls (the fire station entrance, for example) that I know I won't be changing. I am also going to keep my buildings intact once I make them. Fortunately, I do have the room to store them, so that won't be a problem. This really is a fun project to work on And will reward me in a number of games.

I am working hard on getting my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign ready to launch. I have been buying a lot of figures for this game from Warlord Games. When I say "a lot" I do mean it. I wasn't planning on buying every mini they make for this game, but it's looking like I will. There are only a few I'm missing now. I would like to give the folks at Warlord Games a big thank you as they have sent me quite a few figures that I hadn't order as freebie extras. For example, I wanted the Orang Utan Gang Boss to lead my Ape Gang. He cost £5.00 to buy. Instead, Warlord Games sent me the complete Ape Gang set - eight figures worth £40.00 in total! What an incredibly generous gesture! I have a lot of JDMG figures on my painting table right now and I'm working my way through them. Thankfully, I have all of my player character Judges completed. My force of Judges has really grown in size. All I have left to paint for them are my Justice Department vehicles - Banshee Interceptor, Judges on Lawmaster bikes and most impressive of all, a Manta Prowl Tank. I have been after one of these ever since it first appeared on the Warlord Games webstore but the price of it kept putting me off. Now that I can afford it I'm really pleased to own one at last.
Speaking of Warlord Games, I was absolutely delighted to see their newest figures that they added to the Judge Dredd range - the ABC Warriors. Now I already had most of the ABC Warriors from the Wargames Foundry range but they never made a figure of Mongrol or Happy Shrapnel. Thankfully, Warlord Games have made figures of both of them. I am a very happy bunny!




In addition to painting figures, I have designed character record cards to use in my campaign. These measure 5" by 3", the same size as my ATZ-FFO character cards, and will prove invaluable when I play my campaign. The campaign should start soon - near the end of next month, hopefully. All is ready for the first scenario apart from the scenery. For that I'll be making some buildings from my Battle Systems Urban Apocalypse Terrain - Shanty Town Set very soon.

The third project that I'm working on - Shadows of Brimstone - came very close to seeing me paint all of the figures I have in my collection. I had exactly 100 figures and more than 80 have been painted so far. The biggest group left to paint, which I was keeping to last, were the 12 zombies. However, I have added a few new sets to my collection this month thanks to finding some cracking bargains on both Amazon UK and eBay. The most outstanding bargain was for this set to the left of here - the Harvesters. These three large multi-part figures cost me just £4.95. RRP should be over £16. The reason the seller was offering them so cheaply was because their box was slightly damaged. To be honest, it was a little crumpled on one side but not badly so. Frankly, I was more interested in the figures and they were just fine. I scored a real bargain with them.
Of the few monster sets I was missing, the one I most wanted to get hold of, was the Swamp Slugs of Jargano set. I'd seen them for sale previously but delayed buying them. Suddenly I found I'd waited too long and no one had any for sale. So, I resigned myself to never getting them. These things happen. Then, right out out of the blue, they reappeared on Amazon UK for the very reasonable price of £13. This time I did not hesitate and I snapped them up. They are going to make trips to the swamp world of Jargano just that bit more dangerous.
Another bargain I got from eBay was this set to the right - the Dark Stone Brutes. Containing three large figures, the Dark Stone Brutes are mutants working for Colonel Scafford and his outlaw gang. Their bodies have grown larger and become fused with rock and shards of Dark Stone. They are very strong but very slow. I was pleased to be able to add to my gang of mutants. Please note, there isn't a tentacle in sight! They remind me of the Thing from Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, only without his intelligence, wit and personality. These are crazed killers.
Finally, I know that Flying Frog make a number of variant Hero figures, including opposite sex versions of the Heroes found in the two core sets, as well as unique archetypes. Typically they are made of resin and are virtually impossible to get hold of in the UK. Ordering them directly from Flying Frog is out of the question due to their extortionate postage charges. So, I was very surprised to see a UK seller on eBay with a few sets of the Drifter Hero sets for sale. I had to have them. They are superb sculpts. Being made of resin they are far more detailed than the normal plastic figures that come with the game. Best of all, the set includes both the male and female versions. I did not think I'd be adding to my collection of eight Heroes but I was wrong. These are so cool!

That's all for this month but I'd just like to mention that if you are a fan of the 2000AD comic, make sure you check in next time when I'll be offering a prize giveaway to celebrate issue #2000 of this great comic. Florix grabundae!

24 comments:

  1. Zarjaz post my friend! so looking forward to seeing JD and chums. ABC Warriors look ace, the sculpts are soooo good

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    1. Zarjaz, indeed, Andy! The ABC Warriors have always been a favourite of mine. Mongrol is just awesome, but I think the sculpt for Joe Pineapples is rather poor. Fortunately, Wargames Foundry make a superb version of him.

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  2. Borag thungg Earthlet, you surely are a superior life-form as it seems clear you've spent your galactic groats most wisely and your thrill-power will be increased one hundred percent. I bestow upon you the title of Squaxx dek Thargo, Splundig vur Thrigg :-)

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    1. No Rigellian hotshots for you, Simon, with comments like that! Vampifan and Tharg the Mighty One approves.

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  3. I like all that you are saying. Judge Dredd especially. What a shame they cannot make a good film of it! Still never mind.

    Great to get free figures. And especially when they are so nice. I will admit to being a little jealous. But Nothing that will make me hate you!

    Brilliant stuff. I love it all.

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    1. Thanks, Clint. I thought that "Dredd" with Karl Urban was a good effort. Not perfect by any means but a vast improvement over the Sylvester Stallone travesty. I wonder why no one has commissioned an animated version of Judge Dredd (or any other iconic 2000AD stories). With the advances in CGI nowadays it could look stunning and would cut down on budget constraints. Just a thought.

      Hobby-wise, I am having so much fun and I can't wait to start my "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" campaign. My squad of Judges are undergoing final training and equipping before being unleashed on the streets of Mega City One.

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    2. Funny I preferred the Sly version of Dredd. (would be better if he kept the helmet on though!) But we are allowed to like different things. Maybe I should look at a Dredd show game!!! I have not seen one for about 20 years!

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    3. There were parts of the Stallone film that I really liked - the look of Mega City One, the Judge uniforms, weapons and bikes, the Hammerstein droid, and Mean Machine Angel. But sadly, for me, the bad points far outweighed the good. Stallone removing his helmet was not good. At least Karl Urban keeps his helmet on throughout his film.

      Yes, we are allowed to like different things and thank goodness for that, I say.

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    4. Definitely prefer the Karl Urban version, much much much better, but as Clint says we all like different things.

      Just as a quick aside their is a fan film of Johnny Alpha - Strontium Dog near completion and it looks pretty damn sweet!

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    5. I didn't know that, Andy. Sounds intriguing. You wouldn't happen to have a link to it, would you?

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    6. http://www.strontiumdogfanfilm.com/

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    7. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vrpjPlL5MmY

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    8. OH WOW! That looks amazing! Thanks Andy! Very much appreciated.

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  4. Very nice projects. I do often think of one day doing judge Dredd but alas its something I will watch others do for now. Its odd that your not keen on him as I quite like the Joe Pineapples mini it looks cool to me.

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    1. Thanks, Simon. Judge Dredd is very popular but I do understand that we can't play every game we'd like to.

      I'm afraid I'm not a fan of this new Joe Pineapples figure. In my opinion, the Foundry figure is far cooler. Still, as I said to Clint, it's okay to like different things. I have no problem with that.

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  5. Great stuff Bryan, and some really cool mini's there too, finally someone has brought out the missing ABC warrior's!! I've been tempted by the Foundry ones so many times but have always resisted because there was no Mongrol or Happy. Mioght have to mix and match a full set together now from them and Warlord.

    I totally agree about Joe, I much prefer the foundry one, and I wasn't too impressed with the Hammerstein fig either if I'm honest, I have the original Foundry sculpt and I think that is the best one, though I think it's oversized compared to the rest of the figs (shame).

    Best of luck with the JD project, I'm really looking forward to this.

    Cheers Roger. (Spread the word!)

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    1. Thanks, Roger. The new ABC Warriors are smaller than their Foundry counterparts but not Hammerstein. He's as tall as the Foundry big Hammerstein (as you know they made two versions). Oddly enough his body is made of resin and his hands, feet, weapons, head and shoulder pads are made of metal. He's actually a really cool figure. I plan on mixing figures from both sets to make up my preferred ABC Warriors team.

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  6. Nice easy thread to read Bryan, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I shuddered in horror at just how much you have to do for your JD project... my own new collection is pretty all consuming, and I KEEP being enticed by new things hitting the shelves, but I am being very good and saying no to each one I see. I figure my AWI, my Black Plague, and SDE is more than enough, and in fact I`m not even sure how I`m going to manage it all as it is hahaha. But I tell you Bryan, of ALL the new things currently on the shelves, this Judge Dredd is the one most sorely hitting my WANT WANT WANT factor right now. Oh Man, I would love to do this subject, and do it with full abandon like you have decided to do. I think this one could be a life time hobby in itself, its so vast and deep a subject to get into (but for me, so too will Black Plague once I make my start on that).

    But for me, there is a sensible tick in the back of my brain goes "Zombicide, Black Plague, Super Dungeon Explore (and a new kickstarter for this due to be delivered to us soon.. "Legends"), Brimstone, and my Liberty or Death... I simply could not DO any more." I think this is what stops me dead in my tracks.

    But seriously, wow, this is a sublime, enviable new project and collection you own. Despite my willpower force-field in place which wont allow me to go there myself.

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    1. You make some very valid points, Steve, and whilst I'd love to see your take on Judge Dredd, I think you're making the right decision to back off and not get sucked in. For me, however, Judge Dredd is a lifelong passion and I have waited most of my life to get to this point where I can play a campaign with cool 3D scenery and figures.

      My focus for the rest of this year will remain solely on Judge Dredd and Shadows of Brimstone. Everything else will take a back seat. Next year I will most likely diversify. But for now I want to get maximum enjoyment out of these two games. I am so close to starting my campaigns for both of them. By next month I should be ready to start gaming big time with them both. Who knows how long I'll stick with them but I have so many plans for them that six months solid gaming sounds very reasonable.

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  7. Quote: {{Judge Dredd is a lifelong passion and I have waited most of my life to get to this point where I can play a campaign with cool 3D scenery and figures.}}

    Oh I know, I know. One of the first things I ever discovered about you, so long ago now, was your love for Dredd.... the second thing I discovered about you was how much you would like to do a massive comic book JD campaign in 3D (we spoke of in over the phone for over two hours haha). Well, my friend.... finally you are there. Amazing how it all dove tailed. The terrain, the miniatures, and suddenly a dream comes true for you. Enjoy every moment of it mate. Black Plague - ALL you other interests will still be there waiting for you when you return to them. Just enjoy your new project for now. Oh, AND your Brimstone hehe. This promises to be a fun time ahead of us :))

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    1. My god, you do have a good memory, Steve. Yes, I do remember that long phone conversation with fondness. I can only agree that for both of us fun times lie ahead of us. We are both doing the projects we have wanted to do for so many ears.

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  8. I was never really into Dredd or any of the other 2000AD series, but I can appreciate the quirkiness and black humour involved. But that's a *serious* collector's obsession you've got there, Bryan :-) ...

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    1. I can't deny it, Hugh. Judge Dredd is an obsession of mine.

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