Vampifans Views 106 - Monthly Musings 76

Welcome to another of my Monthly Musings where I tell you what I've been up to and what my immediate plans are. As ever, I start with a picture of Vampirella. I'm showcasing the work of Spanish artist Manuel Sanjulian this year, who painted many a front cover of the old Warren Publications Vampirella monthly magazine in the 1970's. I have to admit that I have no idea who the woman with the sword standing behind Vampi is. She is not a character I recognise. Quite often the front cover illustrations bore no relationship to the comic strip inside the magazine, but this particular painting was never used as a front cover. Obviously I like it but I am curious to know more about what is going on here.

The most frustrating part of this past month was being without my computer for ten days after it developed a fault and had to be taken away to be repaired. However, as a result, my painting and modelling output increased considerably. Without the Internet to distract me, I got a heck of a lot of work done. My modelling output has been exceptionally prolific these past few weeks. I have been making more buildings for my Wild West projects, all from 4Ground. For sure, their buildings are expensive, but really, you're paying for quality. Plus, with them coming pre-coloured, the time saved not having to paint them is invaluable. I am now at the stage where I have enough buildings to post my first Wild West batrep, which I'll be playing soon. I'll be using the original Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory rules, playing a simple Confrontation scenario between two groups of outlaws. I have also been buying, painting and making furniture items for my buildings. I've bought some resin furniture packs from Great Escape Games for their Dead Man's Hand range, and some resin and MDF sets from TT Combat. In addition, I've been making lots of Stoelzel's Structures card furniture items.

Thanks to my good friend, Greg aka Wargame Addict, I've purchased four Corvus Belli Infinity scenery packs to use in my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game. Greg had used some of the items from the Neon Lotus set as a backdrop for a few of his Blade Runner figures and as soon as I saw them, I thought of Mega City One. Greg advised me to purchase them from eBay, which turned out to be good advice. Each of these four sets cost me just £7.65 from The Troll Trader, who has the Buy Now option, which I love. Post and packing was free and they arrived very promptly. Each set contains four rectangular buildings, six container units and a map made of paper. In each pack, the buildings come in two designs and the container units in three designs, so you do get duplicates of each one. The buildings and container units are made of thin card. Greg described them as "cheap and cheerful" which is spot on. However, I have reinforced my buildings and container units with 5mm thick foam-board, making them very strong and sturdy. I also made them so that the roofs are detachable, but none of them have any interior detail. I'm really not sure if it's worth the effort giving them interior detail or not. They work well enough as empty shells. The set above is the Hephaestus scenery pack, which is a research and/or science park.

 This set is the Mototronic scenery pack with a mixture of offices and power plant buildings.

 This next set is the Navajo Outpost scenery pack, which is a military outpost.

Finally, is the set that Greg has, the Neon Lotus scenery pack. This is obviously an urban set-up, with shopping centres and hotels. Instead of container units it came with four smaller, square buildings and two overhead walkways. From a gaming perspective, this is the most useful set. I have made all of the buildings and all of the container units, something I'd never have got done if my computer hadn't malfunctioned. That was time well spent and was incredibly productive. I do like the buildings and you can never have too many container units. The sets are well designed but I acknowledge that they won't be to everyone's taste. I'm glad I went the extra mile to reinforce them. However, my one major criticism of them is that the maps, whilst a nice size (about 2 feet by 3 feet) are very flimsy, being made of paper. I don't think I'll be using them very often.

As for figure painting, once again, I got a lot of figures finished this month, which is most pleasing given how many unpainted minis I have. Almost all of the figures I painted this month were Wild West themed. As well as humans I've also been painting scenery items (cacti and furniture) as well as animals and birds - dogs, buffalo, prairie wolves, rattlesnakes, a hawk and some vultures. I'm busy painting a bunch of bears - black, brown and grizzly. I feel I need more horses, both saddled and unsaddled, so they're high on my shopping list. I'll be showcasing all of these newly painted figures next month.

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of the Zombicide games. So it is an absolute no-brainer that I am backing the brand new Zombicide: Invader Kickstarter project. As you know, the original Zombicide was set in the contemporary era. It spawned four sequels. Next came Zombicide: Black Plague, which was set in a fantasy world. It spawned three sequels. Now, Zombicide: Invader takes the action into outer space with a sci-fi themed setting. I must admit that I am super excited about this game. I can see me using the figures in my Judge Dredd and N.E.W. games. The heroes are a combination of civilian and military types and the "zombies" are now alien creatures called Xenos but are still similar to the more traditional zombies with a combination of Walkers, Runners, Fatties and Abominations, which have been renamed Workers, Hunters, Tanks and Abominations respectively. Sci-fi has always been my favourite genre and I can see me getting a lot of use and enjoyment out of this game. Check out this picture to the left of the different figures that come with the starter boxed set. I think they are awesome! The only downside to backing this project is that it won't be released until May 2019, which is more than a year away. It's just as well I'm a patient person. You can check out this Kickstarter here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/zombicide-invader
It still has a few days left to run and is fully funded. If you are interested in this game, you'll be pleased to know that it comes with a huge amount of free stretch goals, making it even better value for money. In addition, there are numerous add-ons as well, including two big expansion sets, which I will be buying. Did I mention how much I love Zombicide?