Vampifans Views 103 - Monthly Musings 74

It has been another very busy month for me. My mum's funeral went very well - the sun shone on the day and it was quite mild for February; the church service was very beautiful and well attended. Everything went so well, and I'm sure my mum will have been delighted with the send off she received. God bless her.

Now that life has returned to normal, I start off with a portrait of Vampirella painted by Miguel Sanjulian, who painted many of the front covers of the original Vampirella Monthly Magazine produced by Warren Publishing, which ran from September 1969 until March 1983. Over the next few months I'll be showing more of this talented artist's work. I do love the idea of Vampirella being the queen of hearts. On a related note, earlier this month, I received a Vampirella tarot deck of cards that I'd ordered. I'm not into tarot at all, but I did think they were a cool memento to have. Sanjulian's artwork appears on a number of the cards, which all feature artwork from the Warren Publishing series of front covers.

On the hobby front, the game that is taking up so much of my time is Necromunda. This new version has me very excited. I have only just finished painting my new plastic Eschers and they look fantastic. Expect a review very soon. I only recently received some new stuff that I'd pre-ordered including the new plastic House Orlock gangers. See picture to the right. Note this picture was taken from the Games Workshop webstore and these are not my painted figures. I'm probably going to go for a similar colour scheme but I haven't fully decided yet. I won't be basing them on the "official" Necromunda bases but on MDF bases instead.

I also received the new set of Zone Mortalis gaming tiles called Badzone Delta-7. This boxed sets adds nine new double-sided tiles to the game that are fully compatible with the ones found in the boxed starter set. These offer new perils and challenges to your Underhive battles. Rules for them can be found in the Gang War 2 supplement, which I also bought. This book also covers the rules for the House Orlock gang, hiring bounty hunters, hive scum and/or hangers on, making it an essential purchase if you plan on expanding your games.

Speaking of Bounty Hunters and Hive Scum, my willpower failed me and I ordered the Hired Guns Collection set of four figures from Forge World. They were very pricey (£38 for all four) but really gorgeous figures. I relented because I really wanted that figure of bounty hunter Yolanda Skorn, formally of House Escher, shown at the front. The beastman at the back is a large and impressive multi-part figure called Gor Half-horn. He is also a bounty hunter. The other two are both hive scum, Grub Targeson aka Lumpy Nox at the left and Mad Dog Mond at the right. These are all resin cast figures. The detailing on them is very impressive. Once again, these are not my painted figures.

I have ordered 200 rare earth magnets to attach to the sides of my Zone Mortalis scratchbuilt walls and columns, acting upon Vagabond's excellent suggestion. However, they are coming from China and delivery time is an estimated four weeks, so I'm in for a bit of a wait. It can't be helped. I have also been buying some Warhammer 40,000 scenery items to use in Necromunda and other games, but not from Games Workshop. Companies like Element Games and Wayland Games offer considerable discounts, usually 20% off GW's prices. I have bought from both companies and found them very reliable. I'll show what I got when I paint them.

I do like to have a few projects on the go at any one time, just so I don't get bored and I am still forging ahead with my other two passions - Weird Wild West and my N.E.W. campaign. Last year I backed the Tombstone Kickstarter run by Black Scorpion Miniatures. I ordered all of the figures that were on offer and they arrived at the start of this month. This consisted of 7 gangs of 15 figures plus assorted add-ons, so that's well over 100 figures to paint. Gulp! Some folk are put off by them because they are made of resin, but I have never had any problems with any of the resin figures I have ordered. The sculpts are up to Black Scorpion's usual high standards. I did not order the rulebook as I already have three sets of Wild West/Weird West rulebooks - Dracula's America, Shadows of Brimstone and Six Gun Sound. I don't really need another set. I did, however, get a free PDF copy of the Tombstone rulebook and whilst they look okay, there is nothing new in them that isn't covered in my other three rulebooks. On my painting desk at the moment are yet more Shadows of Brimstone figures and Dracula's America figures.

As for N.E.W. I'm pleased to announce that I have begun the second scenario of my The Ace of Spades Campaign on my WOIN blog, called Alien Base. You can check out part 1 here - https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/the-ace-of-spades-campaign-alien-base.html
If you like narrative driven scenarios, you should enjoy this one. My The Ace of Spades Campaign concentrates more on the characters and the story than on dice rolls and rules. The first scenario ran to an impressive 16 parts, but I don't think the second scenario will run quite as long. If you'd like to read them in chronological order, I collected them all together on this page here - https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-ace-of-spades-campaign-scenarios.html
I am still making scenery items from my Battle Systems Sci-fi 2 terrain sets and they really add so much to the look of my scenarios. On the figure front, I have just finished painting a bunch of North Star 28mm scale Rogue Stars figures to use in my campaign. I also found some more robots to use in my Alien Base scenario that were freebies I received from Johnny Lauck but had somehow overlooked. The actual aliens from Alien Base were converted and painted months ago but I'm keeping them secret until it is time to reveal them in the scenario. I am also rebasing and in some cases, repainting some of my old 28mm scale sci-fi figures that I used in my first two The Ace of Spades Campaigns. You wouldn't believe just how many sci-fi figures I have!

So, there is lots to keep me busy. March will be another month heavily influenced by Necromunda  posts on this blog, and by my Alien Base scenario on my WOIN blog. I hope this cursed winter weather isn't making your lives too miserable. Personally I HATE snow with a deep passion. I didn't ask for it and I don't want it! The sooner it goes, the happier I'll be.