Vampifan's World of the Undead

Vampifan's Views 19 My Monthly Musings part 6

2012-02-01T12:33:00.001Z


Vampirella by Joe Jusko. Note his name on the gravestone.

Seeing as I normally post my monthly musings at the end of the month I should have posted this yesterday but, hey, I'm a day late. So what? January was a very busy month for me. On the figure painting front, I have finished 12 Black Cat Bases 28mm scale African-American gangstas (5 males, 5 females and 2 mascot dogs), 4 Recreational Conflict 28mm scale survivors and 2 Battle Bunker 28mm scale zombies. On my desk at the moment are the following 20 figures - 4 West Wind bikers, 4 West Wind vampire rock stars, 4 West Wind zombie rockers, 4 Studio Minis Left 4 Dead zombies, 1 Studio Minis Hogan the Santa survivor, 2 more Battle Bunker zombies and 1 Eureka Victorian schoolboy.
Good news for those of you wanting to see my WWG Mayhem City Police Station - the end is in sight. All being well I hope to finish it this month. Yeehaa! I've been making a lot of office furniture for it and I have just five rooms to decorate - four detectives' offices and the large squad room. I only have a bunch of book shelves to make and then I'll be able to complete all four detectives' offices. The squad room will be the last to get made but fortunately, I already have a lot of the furniture for it already constructed. This has been a mammoth project, by far the largest card building I've ever made. I can't wait to finish it and then move on to something else. Don't ask what just yet. I have loads of options available.
I finished reading one vampire novel and two zombie novels in January. The vampire novel was Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - the final part of her Twilight series. It was easily the best book in the series. The one character who has annoyed me the most in this series has been the petulant Bella Swann, the heroine of the novels. However, my opinion of her changed once her new husband, the vampire Edward Cullen, transformed her into a vampire. Vampire Bella is awesome!
The first of the zombie novels I read was As The World Dies: The Untold Stories by Rhiannon Frater. This was a short anthology featuring three of the peripheral characters from her As The World Dies series. If you're a fan of the series you'll probably like this one but it's not an essential purchase. Once again, we have a book that is badly let down by poor proofreading. Five times the word "soldier" is spelt "solider" including twice in one sentence. Unforgivable!
The second zombie novel was one that I bought after reading Zombie Ad's interview with the author, Iain McKinnon, on his Zombie Shop blog site. http://zombieshop.blogspot.com/2012/01/20-questions-with-iain-mckinnon.html The novel in question was Domain of the Dead. It's not a very long novel at 184 pages and I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed with it. Most of the action takes place on a research ship, which gets overrun with zombies, far too quickly and far too easily in my view. I really couldn't empathise with any of the characters, which is a major failing for any novel. Yet again, the book was let down by too many proofreading mistakes. My friend, Joe/Zabadak, states that this a curse of zombie books and I must agree with him.
I'm currently reading Remains of the Dead by Iain McKinnon, which ties in with Domain. At the start of Domain, a small group of survivors are found by a helicopter crew from the research ship. However, the helicopter only has a limited passenger capacity, so some of the group are whisked away and Domain tells their story. Remains concentrates on the group left behind.
As I mentioned in previous monthly musings, the last three months of 2011 saw me making no trips to the cinema. Here in January 2012, I've been three times. First up was to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1. This follows the first part of the novel I mentioned earlier and ends with Bella's transformation to a vampire. Not very exciting but it serves its purpose in setting up part 2, due out later this year. The novel runs to 700 pages, so I wasn't at all surprised that the producers split the film into two parts.
Secondly, was the excellent Underworld Awakening in 3D, which I have already reviewed on my blog. The third film I saw was Haywire, which has nothing to do with the undead. It tells the tale of a female black ops agent who is double crossed on a mission in Dublin. She survives the assassination attempt and goes after those who set her up. Gina Carano plays the betrayed agent and she is very good in this film. As a champion mixed martial artist, she is excellent in her fight scenes. The film drags in places but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's just something about hard-ass females kicking butt that I like.
That's almost all for now, but I would like to make a special mention to Johnny/Lord Siwoc for his wonderful survivor's house he made, dedicated to Vampifan. See it on his blogsite, Brains and Guts! here - http://lordsiwoc.blogspot.com/2012/01/house-of-desurvivor.html if you haven't done so already. Johnny, you really made my day with that. Thanks once again, mate!

Foundry U.S. Street Cops 02

2012-01-29T12:26:00.000Z

This review is tied in to my last one, which looked at Foundry's first set of street cops from their 28mm scale Street Violence range. This time I'm looking at set SV065 Shot Gun Cops. Each of these figures is a conversion of the cops found in set SV031 Street Cops. Note, that once again, I received a bonus figure with this set, but I'm sorry to say, he's no longer available. The first five figures from left to right are the ones you get with this set.

I have painted these figures up in the uniform of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), just as I did with the last set.

The only thing that I don't like about the cop at the far left of my two photos above is the horrible name that the Foundry crew gave her - Bella Oxmix. Yuk! I haven't come up with an alternative name but I can assure you that she won't be called Bella Oxmix in my games. Okay, so a name change is dead easy but it doesn't detract from how well sculpted she is. She is sculpted in a relaxed pose, resting her shotgun on her right hip.
Next up is "Pizza Pete," a figure that almost surpasses Coronary Bob from the previous set for its humour and sheer awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, I think Pete is an excellent figure but I feel that Bob only just shades him. As his nickname indicates, Pete is very fond of pizzas and he has been depicted taking a bite out of a slice of his favourite snack. You just have to admire the humour and originality that have gone into this figure and Coronary Bob.
I haven't mentioned the Police Academy films yet, as so many of the Foundry street cops seem to be based upon characters from that series. That is certainly the case with the third figure in line, who passes a very close resemblance to the overly gung-ho Eugene Tackleberry. To be honest, he is too tall for an accurate representation of Tackleberry, so maybe you'd be better of using the name given to him by Foundry - Baker. The addition of the sunglasses is a nice touch.
Staying with the Police Academy connection, next up is Foundry's version of the unassertive, soft-spoken cop with the high-pitched voice, Laverne Hooks. She does become authorative and aggressive if she gets frustrated or pushed to the limit. Foundry named her Cully, another name that I don't like.
The fifth figure in this set is Taffy, holding his shotgun at the ready in a two-handed grip. He is a rather unremarkable figure. He's not badly sculpted but he doesn't really stand out from the crowd.
The sixth figure in line is the bonus figure that I was sent. Sadly, it would seem that he's no longer available, which is a shame, as I like the pose he's in. He's the only figure in this set who looks like he's about to fire his shotgun.
This set complements the original set extremely well. I don't mind that all of these figures are conversions of the ones found in the original set. By giving them shotguns instead of pistols their profiles have changed enough to make them seem like original figures. They are well-sculpted and not too big. On the whole, they will work okay if you add them to cop figures from other companies. For example, Hasslefree's Ken, with his choice of pistol or shotgun, would make for a great companion to either or both of the two Foundry street cop sets.
As with most Foundry Street Violence sets, this set of five figures costs £10.00 from Foundry's webstore. C'mon, cops with shotguns - what's not to like?

Foundry U.S. Street Cops 01

2012-01-25T13:41:00.000Z

Here's a blast from the past as I review set SV031 Street Cops from the Foundry Street Violence range of figures. I've had these figures for years now but it's taking me time to show off my complete collection of this range. Bear with me and I will get round to reviewing every figure in the range. Yes, I do own them all, and yes, they are all painted!

I usually paint my U.S. street cops in the colour scheme of the NYPD but these are painted up as LAPD cops. Is there a difference? Oh, yes.

Starting at the far left of my two photos shown above is Sergeant Storm. I'm going to use the names provided for the figures by the guys at Foundry. It has been noted by quite few people that some of these figures bear more than a passing resemblence to a few of the cast from the Police Academy films. That being the case, then Storm is a dead ringer for Sergeant Debbie Callahan. Her pose and stern demeanour on her face suggests that she is a tough, no-nonsense cop.
Next up, is my all-time favourite cop figure, Coronary Bob. Kudos to Foundry for giving him such a great nickname! He is nonchantly walking along, having just popped into a KFC restaurant for a takeaway meal. He has his large drink in his right hand and his bag of food in the other. To be honest, he could have been to any fast food restaurant or food store but I painted the KFC logo on his bag and cup, simply because it's my favourite fast food establishment. This figure just oozes character and I love him!
We return to the Police Academy theme with the extremely tall and aptly named Moses Hightower, although Foundry have christened him J.J. A lot of the Foundry Street Violence sets feature one over-sized figure and for this set this is him. Moses is the very definition of the term "a gentle giant." He may have immense strength but he is mild-mannered and soft-spoken.
Fourth in line is Betty. Now if I'd painted her with brown flesh she could have been the timid Laverne Hooks from Police Academy, but there is a much better version of Hooks in the shotgun armed street cops set. You'll notice that three of these cops have their pistols pointed skywards, but are still ready for action. I guess Betty is just assessing the situation to see if an armed response is necessary.
The fifth figure in this group is the mustaschioed Willy. I couldn't find an equivalent for him in the Police Academy films but I haven't seen all of them. I stopped watching them after Police Academy 3. He also carries his pistol pointing to the heavens but he holds it in a two-handed grip. He's a good generic cop.
Now that should have been the end of this review as those are the five figures shown on the Foundry website for this set. However, when I received my blister pack, I found an extra figure included. This was about fifteen years ago, so I have no idea if Foundry still offer this bonus figure. Anyway, he does look very similar to Steve Guttenberg's character, Carey Mahoney, the star of the Police Academy series. He is also holding his pistol in a two-handed grip but this time, he's pointing it at the ground.
Okay, I know I've made numerous references to Police Academy, but seriously, these are a great bunch of bog-standard street cops. If you team these up with their shotgun-toting colleagues, which I'll be reviewing next time, you'll have a nice force of cops to use in your games. This set of five figures (or maybe six) costs £10.00 from Foundry's webstore. With the exception of J.J. they are not over-sized and will fit in well with cops from other ranges, like Hasslefree or West Wind. I have to say that this set is worth buying for the Coronary Bob figure alone. He is an absolute gem!

Underworld: Awakening 3D

2012-01-22T12:41:00.001Z

I'm a very happy bunny! My favourite on-screen vampire, Selene the Death Dealer, has returned in the fourth film in the Underworld series. I saw this just two days ago, when it first screened at the cinema without reading any reviews of it. To be honest, I would have still gone to see it even if every film critic slated it because I am a Selene fanboy. As it happens a lot of the film critics did slam the film, but as I always say, the only critic who counts is yourself. Once again, Kate Beckinsale, who plays Selene, dons her iconic black leather skintight costume (how cool does she look in that film poster to the left?) and does what she does best, blows away anyone who stands in her way... only this time in glorious 3D!
THE PLOT. Six months after the events of Underworld: Evolution, Selene and her lover, Michael Corvin, are captured by human troops during a puge of all vampires and Lycans (werewolves) when humanity finally learns of their existance. Selene and Michael are special as they share the blood of Corvinus, the first vampire. Selene the vampire and Michael the Lycan both gain additional powers that make them unique, so naturally they become test specimens to be experimented on. For twelve years, Selene is kept in a cryogenic coma at the Antigen facility, a government sponsored research facility run by Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea). Another captive at the facility, known as Subject Two, helps Selene to escape. At first Selene thinks that Subject Two is Michael, because she can see events through his eyes. But when another vampire, David (Theo James) comes to Selene's aid, they discover that Subject Two is a young girl called Eve (India Easley). They head off in a van for David's lair but are attacked by a trio of Lycans on the way. Eve is bitten by one of the Lycans and retaliates by ripping its head in half. Selene and David kill the Lycan trio and arrive at David's underground lair. David is the son of an elder vampire, Thomas (Charles Dance) who doesn't take too kindly to their arrival. Selene uses her blood to help heal Eve and she learns that the young vampire hybrid is actually her daughter. Hmm, now there's a turn up for the books!

India Easley as Eve, the hybrid vampire daughter of Selene.

Things take a turn for the worse when the vampires' lair is discovered and infiltrated by a pack of Lycans. This is odd as all Lycans were supposedly eradicated during "The Purge." Looks like someone has been telling lies. The Lycans are only after one thing, Eve. Selene promises to protect her but fails in her duty when she is beaten by the largest Lycan ever seen (Kris Holden-Ried). This beast is about twelve feet tall and a real bad ass! David is killed in the fight and Selene knocked out but she makes amends to Thomas by bringing David back to unlife with her unique blood.

She leaves the coven and enlists the help of an FBI detective, Sebastian (Michael Ealy) to gain access to the Antigen facility, where Eve has been returned. Dr. Lane is revealed as a Lycan and he has been using Selene's DNA to create a race of super Lycans who are immune to silver. That huge bad ass Lycan I mentioned earlier is Quint, Dr. Lane's son. The film climaxes in a bloody fight to the death with no prizes awarded for guessing who emerges victorious.

THE FILM. This time the film had two directors, Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, both from Sweden. The series creator and original director, Len Wiseman, (husband of Kate Beckinsale) wrote the screenplay and was one of the film's producers. With a running time of just 90 minutes this packed in a lot of fight scenes, which were very gory. The 3D aspect was supposed to help kickstart the franchise but to be honest didn't add a lot to the film.

Kate Beckinsale as Selene in action. Do not mess with this lady!

THE VERDICT. For one and a half hours I just switched my brain off and was immersed in a fast-paced, action-packed bloodfest and I came out of the cinema with a huge smile on my face. I was entertained and the sight of Kate in her skintight costume kicking butt was enough for me to give this film a huge thumbs up. There are holes you can pick in the plot and no one is going to win any acting awards for this film, but that kind of misses the point. It's an action and adventure film, pure and simple with no pretensions of being high art. Sometimes we need our fix of mindless mayhem and bloody violence as an escape mechanism from the rigours of real life. Believe me, I've seen a lot worse than this offering. As a result I'll happily award this an 8 out of 10 rating. I'd have rated it higher if we'd seen more of Michael and Selene together, but Scott Speedman, who played Michael in the first two Underworld films did not want to appear in part four, which was a shame. Since I've seen the film, I've read numerous reviews of it and it certainly has not gone down well with the film critics. So is it a one to avoid? I guess a lot depends on what you thought of the previous films in the series. These are my favourite vampire films of all time, so it was pretty much a given that I'd enjoy Underworld: Awakening. If you don't think much of the previous offerings or haven't seen them you may want to avoid this one. I'm now looking forward to the DVD release and if there is an Underworld 5, I'll go and see it and no doubt enjoy it.

Recreational Conflict Civilians and Survivors

2012-01-18T11:58:00.000Z

Recreational Conflict have two sets of eight 28mm scale figures in their Lead Bones horror range called Civics Class or if you want all 16 figures there is a set called Gearing Up. I said in my last post that these were the best figures made by Recreational Conflict and I'd go even further to say that these are amongst the best civilian and survivor figures available anywhere. What I particular like about them is that each figure comes with a choice of arms, allowing you to make an unarmed civilian version of the figure and an armed survivor type. What a fantastic concept! The range is made up of four pairs of males and four pairs of females and covers a wide range of ethnic types, which is another reason why I like these so much.

Set 1 contains the four African-American figures shown in the two photos directly above and below. I got to use a lot of my Foundry flesh paints on these figures. For the two figures on the left I used African Flesh 126 and for the two on the right I used North African Flesh 124, which isn't as dark. The civilian at the far left is a basket ball player and as befits his profession, he is quite a tall figure. Note how taller is than the other male alongside him. Be aware that these figures vary in height, with the females being a few millimetres shorter than the males. This is not a bad thing and quite frankly, reflects real life very well. As well as the basketball, which he's holding under his right arm, he also carries a bottle of some kind of energy drink. His armed version totes an Ingram MAC-10 Sub-Machine Gun.

The civilian on the right is another sporty type but he has taken up skateboarding rather than basketball. Incidentally, the logo on his skateboard reads "Flip." I did a Google search of skateboards and skateboarders to get an accurate representation for the colour scheme for his board and for his clothing. The survivor version of him is armed with a double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun.

The females in set 1 are made up of a shopper and a businesswoman. The shopper could be described as a Chav if she was a U.K. resident, but I'm going with the sports mum look for her, because she's a U.S. citizen and I think that label is more appropriate. The civilian version of this figure is carrying a pair of shopping bags, so she's probably only just started her shopping spree. The survivor type has swapped her shopping bags for a pair of pistols. I wonder if she's ambidextrous? I used the standard Foundry Flesh 5 for her skin tones.

The businesswoman was clearly an oriental, so her flesh tones were painted using Foundry Oriental Flesh 122. She is speaking on her mobile phone and in her left hand she holds another small electronic device, perhaps a pager. The survivor version of this figure carries a pump-action shotgun.

The males in set 2 are made up of a cameraman and a businessman. I wanted the cameraman to look like he spent a lot of time outdoors, because of his clothing. So I decided to give him tanned flesh, and for this I used Native American Flesh 120. I really love the Foundry Flesh paints! I guess that spending so much time looking through a lens, it was a logical choice for the survivor version to be armed with a sniper rifle, in this case the awesome Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle.

The business man, seen talking on his mobile phone and carrying a small briefcase in his other hand is obviously another African American. This time I painted his flesh tones using Dusky Flesh 6. The survivor version sees him armed with a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun and a baseball bat. He must be skilled enough in the use of his SMG to be able to fire it single-handed.

The two pairs of females in set 2 consist of a tourist and a waitress. The tourist, seen reading a guide book, could be of any etnicity but I decided to paint her as a Hispanic lady and so used Tan 14 for her flesh tones. I also decided to make her a more mature woman and so painted her with grey hair. I do like that she is overweight. With so many people being overweight, fat or obese it's nice to see this being reflected in at least one of these minis. The survivor version carries a bolt-action sniper's rifle.

The final figure combo in the set are the waitress ladies. She had to be a Caucasian female and therefore I painted her flesh bits with the standard Flesh 5 paint. Only she and the shopper were painted with identical flesh colours. I must admit that I'm not happy about how I painted the civilian's face. She looks very stern and harsh. The civilian carries an empty tray and has a cloth draped over her right arm. The survivor has ditched them for a Big Ass Magnum Revolver.
I could have painted all 16 figures differently and I did think about that as that would have given me 16 unique figures. But I was put off by having to come up with an extra 8 colour schemes and I thought it would make more sense to tie the two versions together by painting them both identically.
Let me list the reasons why I rate these figures so highly.
1. The concept of combining civilians and survivors is one that I wish other companies would copy. I love this idea of a before and after character.
2. There is a wide range of ethnic types amongst these figures. Full marks to sculptor Brian Cooke for not making them all Caucasian.
3. The heights of the figures vary, as they would in real life. The basketball player is the tallest in the range, and so he should be. The females are smaller than the males, and again, so they should be. If they were all the same height it would look unrealistic.
4. There is a lot of character in these figures. Each one looks as if he or she could tell a story. I like to see that in my figures.
5. They have been beautifully sculpted in 28mm scale. The proportions of the figures look right and they'll fit in very well with most other ranges of 28mm scale figures, despite their slight variations in height.
I do have one minor criticism of them and that is that I had to refer to the pictures of them on the Recreational Conflict website to ensure that the right combination of arms went with the right figures. Once that was sorted I must admit that the arms attached to the bodies very well.
There is one thing that I think could make this range even better and that is to release a second set of them showing them as zombies and corpses. Civilian, survivor, zombie and corpse - what a winning combination that would be! I mentioned this to RC's head honcho, Richard Brooks but sadly from the response I got back I don't think it'll happen but a man can dream, can't he?
Set 1 and 2 cost $18.00 each or you can buy both sets together for $36.00. Each figure is available to purchase for the price of $2.50. I've had these figures for quite a few months but have only just gotten round to painting them. My bad, as I had a lot of fun painting them. These figures would make the basis of a great starting group of characters thrown together when the zombie apocalypse kicks off. I'd be quite happy to use any and all of them in my own ATZ campaign.

Recreational Conflict Civilians 01

2012-01-15T12:49:00.000Z

For my second review of civilian figures I'm taking a look at the Recreational Conflict 28mm scale Clerks set. When I first saw the greens for this set of figures last year, I couldn't believe my eyes. Here were three of the four figures instantly recognisable as the main characters from the classic English comedy series, Open All Hours, being made by an American figure company. I find the fact that an American firm has made figures from a series so quintessentially English quite amazing. I'm guessing Richard Brooks must be a big fan of the show.

At the far left of my two photos is the irascible miser, Albert Arkwright, as played by the great Ronnie Barker. Sculptor Brian Cooke has achieved a perfect likeness of the wily old, stammering storekeeper. He has a broad smile on his face as he stands with his hands in his coat pockets, no doubt thinking of his latest scam to fleece his customers of their cash. Recreational Conflict have named him Mr. Wainwright, which is a good alternative name that helps get round any copyright problems.

Forever by his side, and often under his feet, is the much put upon Granville, as played by a very young-looking Sir David Jason. Granville is the errand boy whose ambition for something more out of life, like a steady girlfriend, is inevitably thwarted by Arkwright. Poor lad! He's called Trevor in the Recreational Conflict catalogue.

Next up is Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, as played by Lynda Baron, she of the ample bosom and the only person who can wrap the lovelorn Arkwright around her little finger. Nurse Gladys is a typical northern woman, who is not to be messed with, especially by any male with salacious thoughts and wandering hands. She has been given the name of Mavis (same name as my mum) by Recreational Conflict.

The fourth figure in this set, is not based upon any of the characters from Open All Hours but is, I believe, Richard's father. He is depicted as a chemist. I think that it's a marvellous gesture of Richard to have his father immortalised in white metal. Much respect, sir! He's called Joseph on the Recreational Conflict website.

This was a set that I had to buy as soon as it was released, as I am a big fan of Open All Hours. Civilians are like zombies - you can never have too many of them. Whether I'll use these in my ATZ campaign remains to be seen. I'm sure that if was to avoid calling them by their TV character names I'd be able to find a place for them in Mayhem City. For anyone who is setting a game in the U.K. then these are an essential buy. I'll be honest, I never envisaged the day that I'd own a set of 28mm scale Open All Hours figures, and even more so if they were sculpted by a non-Brit. And yet, here I am with them.

This set retails for $10.00, a fair price in my opinion. If you wish, you can buy each figure individually for $2.50.

Next time I'm going to review some more Recreational Conflict figures and they are, in my opinion, the best figures they've made. Pure awesomeness abounds next Wednesday!

Allison Hewitt is Trapped by Madeleine Roux

2012-01-11T12:56:00.001Z

I read this novel last month and was so impressed with it that I mentioned in my last Monthly Musings post that it warranted a full post to itself. Allison Hewitt is Trapped is the debut novel by Madeleine Roux. I hadn't heard of this novel until I noticed it well down the list of recommendations for me on my Amazon website home page. It's another zombie apocalypse story, although the title intrigued me as it sounded like something written for a teenage audience. I read the online reviews of the book and was convinced I had to buy it. I was very glad I did, as I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Allison Hewitt. who works in the Brooks and Peabody book store in an American city centre, is a young female who is a keen blogger. The novel is made up of a collection of her blog posts from the day the zombie apocalypse begins up until the point where she finds sanctuary far away from the city. At this point, some of you may be drawing parallels with Georgia Mason, the heroine of the Newsflesh series of books. Sure, Allison and Georgia are female bloggers but the similarity ends there.
The story begins with Allison trapped in the cellar of the book store along with five other co-workers. The fire-axe shown on the front cover of the novel plays a prominent role in the story. It is one of two weapons the group possesses. The second is a baseball bat, which the manager kept under his desk. Allison takes charge of the fire-axe and uses it to great effect throughout the novel.
The first part of the novel deals with the group's claustrophobic existence whilst trapped downstairs in the break room of the bookstore. It has a secure metal door and more importantly, security TVs, so they can monitor where the zombies are in the rest of the building. Even the mundane chores of a food run and toilet waste disposal are covered, adding gritty realism to a desperate situation. As time goes on, they realise that no one is going to come and rescue them. They're on their own and they can't possibly stay downstairs for ever. So, they venture out and find refuge in a nearby apartment. Another survivor, a young male joins them, claiming to know the dead couple whose apartment they have acquired as their new home. All goes well for a while until one of their group dies in a most unlikely fashion. I won't spoil it for you, but for me, this was the weakest point of the book and a situation that I found silly.
The newcomer uses this distraction to reveal his true colours. Again, I won't spoil it for you by saying what happens next but if you weren't rooting for Allison before you will be now.
Afterwards, Allison and her friend, Ted, decide to find sanctuary at the local university, where a refugee camp has been set up. Life there is good to start with but becomes increasingly intolerable as more and more survivors claim sanctuary and stretch the camp's resources to the limit. Without giving too much away, things eventually reach breaking point. Allison finds love in the refuge camp but cruelly, has that snatched away.
This is a story that concentrates a lot on character development and the relationships in the small groups at the book store and later at the refuge camp and beyond. But above all, it is a story about Allison's tenacity and sheer determination to survive in a world that has literally gone to Hell. Allison is a wonderful heroine who struggles through great adversity with courage and bravery. As a fellow blogger, I'd be proud to call her my friend.
I imagine that most of you will never have heard of this novel. It was purely by chance that I came across it, but I'm glad I did. Madeleine has published a second zombie novel, Sadie Walker is Stranded, which I am waiting to be released in paperback format. Allison Hewitt is Trapped retails for £7.99 but is currently on sale for £6.96 from Amazon.co.uk. It is a worthy addition to any zombie fan's library and the blog entry story telling makes for an interesting twist and one that I could certainly empathise with.

Foundry Zombies and Corpses

2012-01-08T12:46:00.000Z

I have a sneaking suspicion that a good many of you won't know about these Foundry 28mm scale zombies that I'm goung to review. They are part of their Undead range of fantasy figures. Technically speaking they aren't really zombies, seeing as they are listed as UND028 Emaciated Plague Victims. Well, that may be true but just take one look at these poor souls and tell me they aren't zombies. I bought three packs of them - one to use as zombies, one to convert into corpses and one to give to my friend, Roger, who was in need of cheering up as he was about to move house. Always a stressful time. Anyway, let's take a look at my zombies first and then I'll show you how I converted them into corpses.

You get five figures in the pack and they are the five you see standing in the photo above. I'll talk about the zombie crawler later. When Foundry describes these as being emaciated, they aren't kidding. These are amongst the most skeletal looking zombies I've seen and so I wanted to do something different with the paint scheme of them. So I decided to paint them as African zombies, with inspiration coming from the excellent film The Dead, which is set in Africa.

The zombie at the far left of the photo is the village elder, recognisable by his straggly grey hair. He's holding onto half a leg, which he has been feasting on. All of these figures have non-existant stomachs, as if they have shrunk away to nothing, or as I decided in a few cases, like this figure, to show with a lick of paint that his stomach has been picked clean by other flesh-eating zombies when he was still alive.
Next to him is a zombie with an outstretched bloody hand as if preparing to grab hold of a victim. He too, got the same chewed up stomach treatment as the village elder. I also made his sunken left cheek look like a chunk of flesh had been bitten from it by painting it with Tamiya Clear Red (TCR), the best paint on the market for painting gore effects.
The third figure in line has a mane of long hair and I did think about converting him into a female by adding breasts to him but in the end I left him untouched. Quite by accident, I got a piece of sand stuck to the inside of his lower left leg when I was basing him. I didn't notice it until after I'd primed him. I thought about scraping it off but then decided it looked good as a flap of skin hanging from a zombie bite. Sometimes a little accident can bring about a rewarding result! I also painted on bite wounds to his left shoulder and upper right leg.
The fourth figure in line is another of the three bald-headed zombies in this pack. He has his head raised skywards, as if he's emitting a loud moan to alert other zombies of the presence of fresh prey nearby. I gave him a bite wound on his right arm and also where his stomach should have been.
The final figure in this set has been left unbloodied. He is in a walking pose as he slowly advances. Incidentally, if you are wondering what colour I painted these figures in, I used Foundry Bay Brown 42 on them. I have now switched from Citadel paints to the much better Foundry paint system. Two of the things that particularly attracted me to these paints were their selection of flesh tones and secondly was the three tones of each colour - shade, base colour and highlight, which blend together so well. I plan on running a full review of the Foundry paints soon as I am so impressed with them.

Now, I'll take a look at the corpses and the zombie crawler. These figures come with integral metal bases, so the first thing I had to do was remove the figures from their bases, I did this using a good set of model cutters that I'd bought from Heresy Miniatures. They sell some of the best modelling tools. I quickly discovered that these figures were made of a much softer metal than say for example, the Foundry Street Violence range. This made converting them an absolute doddle as it was so easy to bend and reshape arms, legs and necks into new poses. All of them have had a very small amount of Milliput added to the small of their backs to help them lie flat and to strengthen what is a weak part of the figures.
Moving from left to right in the photo above, the village elder has had his right arm reposed to lie flat. His feet were bent at the ankles to lie flat on the ground. His head was tilted much further back, as was his body at the waist. as with the standing figure I made his stomach a gaping hole.
The zombie with the outstretched arm had it repositioned by gently bending it upwards. I also turned his head through 90 degrees so that it faced to one side. His legs were slightly reposed and his feet were bent forward. This was a simple conversion that just involved the bending of certain body parts. Always take your time when bending limbs and be careful not to bend them too far, otherwise they'll snap off. Actually, for a corpse this might not be a bad thing! Even so, I'd still advise caution when reposing body parts.
The third figure in line was the one that had the most conversion work done to her. This time, I did change the sex of the figure and I added a pair of breasts to her chest, which I painted on a black bra. I filled in part of her stomach cavity but left a big, bloody hole on the right side of her abdomen. Her upper torso had to be bent back to help her lie flat. Just as a change from the others, I decided to paint her as a Caucasian corpse. I think the sex change on her has worked well and it's nice to add a female to the set.
The fourth figure in line was another simple conversion achieved purely by bending limbs so that they lay flat and by twisting his head to one side and by straightening his back. I twisted his feet so that they were pointing inwards. I drilled a small hole on either side of his head between his eyes and ears to show that he'd been killed by a head shot.
When I received these figures, I immediately noticed that one of them had been snapped in two at the waist. Normally, this would have resulted in me sending them back to be replaced but in this instance I decided to make good use of the mishap. So I ended up with two figures out of one. The legs were ever so slightly reshaped and I remodelled the loin cloth into a short skirt with Milliput modelling putty. This very simple conversion gave me my second female and again I painted her as a Caucasian. I wanted her to have a nice flowery and summery dress as a stark contrast to the violence of her death.
For the zombie crawler, I had to slightly reposition his hands so that they gripped the rim of the slottabase. I added some bloody entrails to his lower torso trailing behind him. Again, this was a really simple conversion, but it's worked very well. He too, was painted as a Caucasian zombie.
Set UND028 Emaciated Plague Victims costs £10.00 for the set of five figures. However, you can buy three sets for £27.00, giving you a saving of £1.00 per set. Alternatively, wait until Foundry hold one of their frequent sales and you'll be able to get them even cheaper! I like this set a lot. Even though they were designed with a fantasy army in mind there is nothing about them that precludes their use in a contemporary setting. Plus, as I've shown, they're great for converting into corpses. If you're looking for something slightly different for your zombie horde than I highly recommend buying this set.

The Walking Dead Chronicles by Paul Ruditis

2012-01-04T15:17:00.001Z

Let me start this review with a question: how do you feel about the special features on a DVD? Are they something you look forward to? Or do you ignore them? Or do you fall somewhere in between: you'll watch them if they're there but you won't be too bothered if they're missing? The question is pertinent, because how you feel about them will influence your decision on what you make of this book - The Walking Dead Chronicles by Paul Ruditis. Essentially, this book is the literary equivalent to the special features found on a DVD. In this case, the subject in question is series 1 of the TV series The Walking Dead.
I should point out my own opinion on the matter. I absolutely love special features. I like to know how a film/TV show is made. I like watching interviews with the cast and crew. I like listening to the commentary if one is provided. Given the choice between a single disc DVD with no extras or only minimal extras and a 2-disc DVD with a boatload of extras, I'll always opt for the 2-disc version. For me, the more special features on a DVD the better.
This book fills that need for me. Yes, I do have the DVD boxed set of series 1 of The Walking Dead and I loved all the extras provided, but this book goes into a lot more depth and covers a lot more ground.
It begins with a look at the inception of the comic series, upon which the TV series is based. This is followed by chapters on how the comic was developed for television, how the zombies look the way they do, the casting process, the visual style of the show, location reports and numerous articles on how certain scenes were made. In addition, each chapter includes an overview of one episode of the show. Bear in mind, series 1 only ran for six episodes.
A big selling point for this book is that it is lavishly illustrated throughout with photos from the series, behind the scenes shots and excerpts from the comics. Many of the photos have never been seen before. In short, it is a visual feast for the eyes. Most of the photos are in full colour, although any excerpts from the comic are, obviously, just in black and white. I said "obviously" but if you haven't seen one of The Walking Dead comics you might not know that it is printed in black and white.
The prose by Paul Ruditis, is well written. The guy has form on this type of book, having written similar styled books for three of my favourite TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Bones. There is a foreword by director Frank Darabont and an introduction by Robert Kirkman, the creator of the comic series.
I was very impressed with this book, although I do have one criticism to make. The book is littered throughout with short chapters on a particular aspect of the show, be it a synopsis of the plot of an episode or how a particular special effect was achieved. These break up the main text at random but at the end of a page break there is no mention of where the main text continues. For example, this first happens on page 16. There is a three-page break and then the main text continues on page 20. A simple caption at the bottom of page 16 saying "continued on page 20" would have been nice.
This is no cheap rip-off trying to cash in on the success of the TV series but a very well written and well researched journal that is worth buying if you're a fan of the show. Whether you should buy it or not goes back to my question that I posed at the start of this review - how much do you like the special features of a DVD? If you like them as much as I do then this book is a must have. Otherwise, the decision to buy or not buy then depends upon how much of a fan of the TV series you are. It is a nicely produced and illustrated book but is it an essential purchase? That's up to you to decide. The book retails for £12.99 in the UK and $19.99 in America. If you were to shop on-line at somewhere like Amazon, as I did, you'll find it a lot cheaper.

Vampifan's Views 18 My Monthly Musings part 5

2011-12-31T13:04:00.004Z

A Vampirella sketch by Joe Jusko, my favourite Vampi artist

It's New Year's Eve and that means it's time for my Monthly Musings, which this time, will also take in a look back at 2011 and look forward to 2012. For me, 2011 will be indelibly etched into my brain as the year my father died. R.I.P. dad. He was one my most ardent supporters of my blog and his praise and encouragement for what I do meant a lot to me.
On the hobby front, this has been a very good year for me. Robert/Cherno's incredibly generous gift to me (reviewed in my previous post) was the outstanding moment of 2011 for me.
A special mention must also go to one of my other followers, Joe, aka Zabadak, who contacted me in July to praise me for my blog. Since then we have become very close fiends and I really treasure Joe's friendship and enthusiasm for all things zombie. We're in contact with one another via e-mail almost every day. It's great to have someone like that to bounce ideas off. Hopefully, 2012 will see Joe starting his own gaming blog. I wish him all the best.
My figure buying has slowed down as I came to the realisation that I must paint more figures per month than what I buy in a month. Otherwise, my pile (mountain?) of unpainted figures is just going to grow and grow and grow. Fortunately, I have been able to maintain that balance and hope to keep it up in 2012. I won't stop buying figures - that would just be impossible to do, but I'll try to be more selective about what I buy. Incidentally, my horde of 28mm scale zombies currently stands at 611 painted figures and 111 unpainted figures. That gives me a horde of 722 zombies! 100 of the unpainted ones are from the Victory Force Mega Horde that I bought last year. I really must get them painted as soon as possible. That'll make a huge dent in my pile of unpainted figures. Two questions I'm often asked are "do you aim to collect 1,000 zombies?" and "if so, will you stop at 1,000?" The answers are, yes, I would love to collect 1,000 zombies. I plan on collecting them just as long as the figure companies make them. So, no, I wouldn't stop collecting when I reach 1,000. Be afraid, my friends, be very afraid!
I have recently painted 12 Recreational Conlict 28mm scale civilians and 8 Recreational Conflict survivors. Photos to follow soon. Currently on my desk are 12 Black Cat Bases 28mm scale African American Gangers (5 males, 5 females and 2 dogs); 4 more Recreational Conflict 28mm scale survivors and 2 Battle Bunker 28mm scale zombies.
Work on my WWG Mayhem City Police Station is progressing well. I recently finished furnishing another two rooms (the evidence locker room and a set of public toilets). I also added a ladder to the exterior to allow access to the rooftop helipad. I only have six rooms to furnish and four of them (the detectives' offices) are identical. I plan on furnishing those four offices next. The end is getting closer, I'm happy to say. I can't wait to get it finished now. It has been such a long drawn out project.
2011 will be noted for me purchasing lots of 28mm scale card buildings from companies other than WWG or Mel Ebbles (who has now shut up his shop to work for WWG). Dave's Models, Fat Dragon Games, Finger and Toe Models and Microtactix all produce some very nice contemporary models and hopefully, I'll be able to show you some of my new stuff next year as and when I make it. I haven't gone off WWG. Indeed, just before Christmas I bought all of their new Swift Scenics models. It's nice to have such a large library of models to chose from and to mix and match elements from the assorted companies. My enthusiasm for card modelling remains high. My number one priority for 2012 is to finish making my police station.
I'm still going to be limited to the number of ATZ scenarios I can play next year but when I do get the dining room to myself, I will be able to play on a larger board than in previous years. A full sized 6' by 4' gaming board is now a possibilty but I'll need to have a very special scenario planned before I go that big. I have two 4' by 3' wooden boards that I can lay on top of the table but I think that most times, I'll just use the one board. I have plans in my head for a new base for Team Vampifan. Making it is going to be the big sticking point for when they can move.
December has been a good month for reading zombie related books. I read two novels - Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry and Allison Hewitt is Trapped by Madeleine Roux. I'm a big fan of Jonathan and I've enjoyed all of his books that I've read so far, but Dead of Night did not impress me at all. The back story to how the zombie virus came about and its effect on its victims left me underwhelmed. It was no more than average, in my opinion. However, Allison Hewitt is Trapped was so good that it warrants a post of its own. Look out for a full review early in 2012. Two non-fiction zombie books that I read this month were The Walking Dead Chronicles by Paul Ruditis and Zombie Science 1Z by Dr. Austin. The Walking Dead Chronicles takes a very detailed look at series one of the TV series and I found it a fascinating book. It's another book that warrants a full review and it'll probably be my first post of 2012. Zombie Science 1Z is a semi-humourous and semi-serious look at the science of zombies; how they are created, what they can do and how to deal with them. I'd have enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn't been so poorly proofread. The author should really know that "rogue" is not spelt "rouge." On one page that word is mis-spelt three times! I've mentioned before that I once studied proofreading and bad spelling and grammar stands out like a sore thumb to me whenever I see it in a book. It's bad enough in a novel but in a book that purports to be a serious study of zombieism it's unforgivable.
I have just started reading Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, the final part of the Twilight series. At 700 pages long, it is a real door-stopper of a book. I'll let you know what I think of it at the end of January in my next Monthly Musings post. I haven't seen the new Breaking Dawn film and I'm not too bothered that I haven't, even though I've seen the other three films in the series. How I view the novel will determine whether I buy it on DVD or not.
On the blogging front, expect things to remain pretty much the same, i.e. more figure reviews, more book reviews and possibly film reviews, and of course, the one thing you seem to enjoy the most, more ATZ batreps. The next one should appear in March.
Well that's a wrap. I'd just like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year. Take care, folks!
PS. If you're interested in zombies and you haven't done so already, join the Board of the Living Dead forum, where you're guaranteed a warm welcome and some interesting discussions about everything to do with zombies. You can find it here http://boardofthelivinglead.proboards.com/index.cgi
Tell them Vampifan sent you!

Vampifan's Views 17 Best Gift Ever?

2011-12-24T10:12:00.001Z

Although the story I'm about to tell you happened in mid-November of this year, I feel that now is the best time to tell it., as it such a heart-warming story and perfectly captures the spirit of Christmas.
On Monday 14th of November I received an unexpected e-mail message from one of my followers. It was Robert from Germany, aka Cherno (or Chernoskill as he's known on the WWG forum) and he had an offer for me that, quite frankly, just blew me away! He wanted me to have his complete collection of WWG Mayhem City models, free of charge, with the stipulation that I paid the postage and packing costs, which turned out to be roughly £25.00. The reason why he wanted to get rid of them is one that I'm sure many of us are familiar with - a lack of storage space at home. The reason he contacted me was that he knew I'd give them a good home. Remember, he is a follower of my blog, so he knew that I was a huge fan of WWG and their range of card models. Plus, I'd also commented on how much I liked his work when he showed off his builds on the WWG forum. What could I say, but yes, I accept your offer?

A few days later, these two boxes arrived via parcel post. The larger box measures 18" by 18" and is 14" deep. The smaller box measures 10" by 8" and is 6" deep. The smaller box contained various props, whilst the big box contained everything else. And, my God, what a lot Robert had packed into it! Alas, a few days after the parcels arrived my father died and I was unable to give the parcels anything more than a cursory glance at their contents. My father's funeral arrangements and the aftermath left me with little spare time for the next three weeks. So it was with great anticipation that I finally revealed just exactly what was in the two boxes a couple of weeks ago.

Robert suggested that when I did open the big box and remove its contents that I photograph them. So, I cleared my dining room table, figuring that would give me enough room to lay eveything out. It worked, but you'll notice I still had to keep some stuff in their plastic bags or smaller boxes.

Robert also included some extra items, which you can see to the left of the above photo. There is a pack of plastic piping, three packs of magnets (more of which later) and, rather hard to see given that they are white against a pale pink table cloth, a sprue of 1/48 scale plastic civilians. The items in the blue and white box and in the plastic bags are walls for a TLX apartment block. The floors for the same TLX apartment block are in the plastic bag to the immediate left of the blue and white box.

Moving on, we have a collection of ground tiles, road tiles, and floor tiles, all mounted on foamboard.

This photo shows lots of wall pieces, some roof tiles and a few of the larger props for the Mayhem Petrol Station (propane tank, kiosk and petrol pumps). There's also a set of stairs from the Mayhem Armoury.

This final photo of the box contents shows the smaller of the two boxes I received, which you can see at the top of the photo. This contains lots of props like a foot bridge, street lamps, walls, a billboard and sundry pieces of street furniture. The second box, shown at the bottom of the photo, contains Robert's collection of card vehicles. I noticed that he'd made a couple of tractors and trailers, and some police cars, all stuff that I've yet to get round to making.

You have to admit, that's an impressive amount of gear. But, I'm sure you're wondering what it looks like when it's made up. Sadly, I haven't had the time to make any of these models but have no fear, because I've copied some of Robert's photos of his models from the WWG forum. Here we see the TLX (Terrainlinx) Mayhem Apartments, five storeys high.

This is the only TLX model that Robert made. Its footprint measures 12" by 15" and as you can see from this back view it isn't strictly rectangular in shape. It's more of a square with an extra bit added to it.

The floors come apart to reveal their interior detail. There is no furniture in any of the rooms but I'm not complaining about that. I must tell you about Robert's method of constructing his buildings and ground tiles. He does not use any glue at all. Everything is joined together by magnets. It's a clever method of construction and not something that I would have thought of. It also explains why he was able to take his models apart so easily and flat pack them in the way he has. If you'd like to see more pictures of the apartment block and Robert's notes on its construction then click on the following link http://www.worldworksgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9293

Now we come to the meat of the package - Robert's Mayhem City project. Once again, I have copied these pictures of Robert's from the WWG forum. Everything you see in the picture above and the following two photos were made up from the stuff you saw on my table top. Absolutely remarkable!

Once again, Robert has made all of his buildings with magnets holding them together. The street props, like the streetlamps are fixed in place with magnets. Only his vehicles and the railings surrounded two of the upper floor patios have been glued.

Awesome! Robert posted lots of photos of this project on the WWG forum, from its inception up until the finished product you see in the three photos I've shown above. Be warned this link is very picture heavy but is well worth a look. Go here http://www.worldworksgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10340 to read about Robert's creative process and view lots of his models as his version of Mayhem City grows.

I have often commented on my blog about the kindness of others in regards to gifts I have received since I started blogging. When I clicked on to the two links that Robert provided to see just exactly what it was that he was offering me I had to double check that this was not an April Fool's Day prank. But, of course, the offer was genuine. I am extremely grateful to Robert for contacting me and even now, I am staggered by his generosity. I did pay him more than the £25.00 he wanted for postage, but I still feel I ended up with the best part of the deal. I really am a very happy bunny and I look forward to constructing Robert's models for my own use.

Stories like this are few and far between, which is why I wanted to post this tale. As I said at the beginning, this seems like such an appropriate time to share this with you. Peace and goodwill to you all and I hope you have a very happy Christmas.

Studio Miniatures Zombies 12

2011-12-21T12:15:00.000Z

Here we have yet more zombie goodness from those fine chaps at Studio Miniatures as I take a look at their most recent offering of 28mm scale figures - Halloween Horrors.

This set consists of four figures wearing fancy dress costumes prior to being zombified. When I first saw the guy dressed up as Superman, my first thought was, do I really want to paint him as Superman? The answer was, no. He's not Superman - he's Superzombie! Painting the "Z" on his costume was far easier than painting the "S" I can tell you! Superzombie has had his right hand bitten off and has a light wound to his stomach. He was a lot of fun to paint!
Next to him is Bumble-Beeboy or Waspboy. His costume is rather bulky, suggesting he is based on the bee, but it does have a very pronounced stinger on his tail, so he could be based on a wasp. He has been savagely attacked in the stomach, where his internal organs are threatening to spill out.
Moving on, we come to the Harry Potter lookalike, probably the only one in the group most appropriately dressed for Halloween. I think he's a fantastically well sculpted figure. Yes, he is a very young looking Harry but a lot of Harry Potter fans are of that age so it does make sense. His coat has been holed in a few places but overall, he appears not to have suffered any obvious wound.
Last of all, is my favourite figure out of the group - the Playboy Bunnygirl. She might be a zombie, but she's a damned sexy-looking zombie! Playboy bunnies, mmmm! She has suffered a bite to her upper right thigh. I have coated her mouth, chin and neck in fresh blood to show that she has recently fed.
Speaking of painting, these figures and the wedding party zombie that I posted last time were the first figures that I have painted using the Wargame Foundry acrylic paints. I have switched over to them after becoming increasingly pissed off with Games Workshop's paints. I'll talk at length about this in another post, possibly my end of the month musings but for now I'd just like to say that I've become a huge fan of the Foundry paints.
These are another excellent set of zombies and all of them are perfectly sculpted. My only criticism of them is this - why are they called Halloween Horrors? I don't associate any of their costumes with Halloween, although the Harry Potter lookalike might get away with it. But the others? No way! They're just dressed in fancy dress, so why not call them Fancy Dress Freaks or something similar? For a Halloween set, I'd have expected to see them dressed as vampires, skeletons, werewolves, mummies, ghosts, witches and even zombies. That one would be quite a challenge to pull off - a zombie in a zombie costume!
This set costs £12.95, which is the same price as the Till Death Us Do Part set I reviewed last time, making it not so good value for money. Despite that, I had no hesitation in buying this set, simply because of the quality of the sculpting.
My next post would fall on Sunday, which is Christmas Day, so I'll probably post it on Christmas Eve instead. See you then.

Studio Miniatures Zombies 11

2011-12-18T12:14:00.000Z

As a special Christmas treat to you my next two posts are going to concentrate on reviews of the latest Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombie sets. I know that many of you agree with me that Studio Minis make the best sculpted zombies on the market. These five figures that I'm reviewing here come from their Till Death Us Do Part set.

As the name of the set indicates, what we have here is a zombified wedding party. How tragic! At the far left is the priest or minister who was supposed to marry the happy couple. I painted him as an elderly chap with grey hair. He looks to be fairly intact although I did paint on a small bite wound to his right cheek. The blood splatters on his frock are probably from other victims.

Next in line is the bride. She has a row of scratch marks on her left lower arm, a cut to her right upper arm and a deep cut to her left lower leg. She wears a silver tiara, which keeps her veil in place. There is something very sad looking about her face, but is that really surprising? What should have been the happiest day of her life has turned into her worst nightmare.

The groom has fared far worse. His left eye has been gouged out, leaving him with a bloody eye socket. That's going to spoil his looks for the wedding photographs! Whenever I paint my Studio Miniatures figures I generally copy the colour schemes that they provide on the packaging and their website. For this figure, however, I painted his clothing much darker.

For the pageboy, I totally changed his colour scheme. I painted his trousers in the same light brown as the groom's waistcoat and his shirt in the same lemon as the bridesmaid's dress, just to unify them better. The pageboy doesn't look to be wounded at all, although his head is leaning slightly to one side. I have smeared his mouth, chin and neck with blood to indicate that he has recently fed.

Finally, we come to the young bridesmaid, and again, she doesn't appear to be wounded either. I used the same technique on her as the pageboy by smearing the area around her mouth and neck with blood from one of her victims. She also has blood covering the fingers of her left hand.

This is an unusual subject to chose for a set of zombies but as you'd expect, Studio Minis have pulled it off with aplomb. My favourite figure out of the group is the bride, but to be fair, they have all been beautifully and expertly sculpted. It is always a joy to receive a new set of Studio Minis zombies because I know they are going to be a real treat to paint. So it was with this set.

My only criticism of this set is that I'd have liked to have seen even more figures included in the set; specifically, the best man, the father of the bride, the wedding photographer and maybe more family and guests. bridesmaids and pageboys.There's enough choice there to make at least two more sets.

The Till Death Us Do Part set costs £12.99 and is now only available in white metal. It looks like Studio Minis have stopped making resin versions of their zombies. What can I say about this set other than highly recommended? Next time, I'll review the Halloween Horrors by Studio Minis.

Foundry Backstreet Militia

2011-12-14T12:11:00.000Z

I was quite surprised to see that I had not done a review of these five figures when I featured them in one of my first batreps for my blog. Now that one of them has joined Team Vampifan it is time to rectify that oversight and do a full review of Foundry's Street Violence set SV054 Backstreet Militia.

I'll stick with the names that I gave these characters in my ATZ scenarios, some of which are based on the names provided by Foundry. At the far left of my two photos above is Corporal Perry Kroeger. He is armed with a 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Carbine, a pistol in a holster on his left hip and a Flash Bang Grenade. He is one of four figures out of this group to wear a pair of sunglasses. As he advances, he is keeping a lookout for any signs of danger.
To his left is Corporal Steven "Shuggy" McGraw, armed with a 5.56mm Heckler and Koch 33E Assault Rifle with scopesight. He doesn't have a back-up pistol but he does have a Flash Bang Grenade. He is standing in an "on guard" position.
In the centre of the group is Team Vampifan's latest recruit, Lieutenant Ulysses Catweazle. His primary weapon is an ATK-Heckler and Koch XM29 Objective Individual Combat Weapon, (OICW) with an underslung grenade launcher. He is also armed with a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 Machine Pistol and Flash Bang Grenades. Catweazle is the only one of the squad not to wear sunglasses. He is much taller than the other figures in this group and has a commanding presence about him, which is why I chose him as the team leader.
Sergeant Angela Ziskin is the first of the two females in the group. She is the team's sniper and is armed with a 7.62mm Sniper's Rifle, whose make I cannot identify. Sorry! She has no other weapons. Note that apart from Lieutenant Catweazle, they are all wearing gloves.
Finally, is Private Carrie Bryce, the rookie of the group. She has a Sniper Rifle, identical to that used by Ziskin slung over her right shoulder. Having two snipers in such a small group is very unusual. In her left hand she is wielding a 9mm Heckler and Kock MP5KA5 Machine Pistol. Note how she has reversed her cap to wear it back to front.
When I used this group in my two ATZ scenarios a few years ago I used them as a U.S. National Guard team. How you use them is entirely up to you but they make for a nice squad of military figures. If I have one minor criticism to make of them it is that I think it would be more logical for them to be armed identically with perhaps one deviation from the norm. Perhaps being a militia group they can get away with the diversity of weapons, but as I said, it's only a minor quibble. I certainly have no complaints against the quality of the sculpting or with their poses.
This set of five figures costs £10.00 on the Foundry website but if you act quickly you can get them for just £8.00 whilst the current Foundry sale lasts.

Cold War Minis Corpses

2011-12-11T12:08:00.000Z

A couple of months ago I mentioned in one of my Monthly Musing editorials that I'd painted two extremely rare Cold War Miniatures' 28mm scale corpses that were sculpted for their The Dead Will Walk range but never got put into production. The two I have are of the redneck in baseball cap, holding a metal club and the priest brandishing a cross.

The photo above shows the two figures that the corpses were based on. Both of the standing figures are available from set 14 - Survivors.

This photo gives you a much clearer view of what the corpses look like. You can see that these are human corpses not zombie corpses, as the brain is intact on both figures. The red-neck has been bitten in the stomach, whilst the reverend has been chewed on in his legs. I like how even in death, he retains his hold upon his cross.
Now, I should stress that these two figures are not available for sale, so don't go looking on the CWM website for them. I mentioned the story of how I got hold of them previously, but it's worth repeating again. One of my oldest followers and close friend, Roger, aka Rogzombie, wrote to CWM on my behalf. How he knew about these ultra rare figures I do not know but knowing how much I'd like them he put in a request to Richard of CWM to ask if he could let me have a set if there were any still available. Obviously, Richard did still have a set going spare and he promptly sent them off to me. He mentioned in his covering letter that he was going to make corpse figures of his five survivors but the plan fell through as he was unhappy with the quality of his sculpts. It is a shame as I think it's a great idea, given that there are far too few corpse figures available. Despite that, these two figures did have a very limited production run and that's how I ended up with them. Once again, I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to Roger and Richard for ensuring I could add these amazing figures to my collection.

Here's a photo from my last batrep that shows both corpses in situ. Oddly enough, it was the corpse that I placed in the red hatchback that attracted the most comments. I'm managing to build up a fair-sized collection of corpse figures and it is something I will continue to add to. Even if the corpses have no effect in a game, you have to admit that they make for great "set dressing" on the gaming board.

Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater

2011-12-07T11:30:00.000Z

Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater is the second book in her As the World Dies trilogy and it's just as good as book one, The First Days. In this action-packed sequel, the survivors of the small fortified town of Ashley Oaks decide to expand their walled compound by clearing out the town's large hotel. This is a mission fraught with danger, as they all know that the hotel is populated by numerous zombies. The four main heroes of the story, Jenni, Katie, Juan and Travis, are part of the teams assigned to clear out the hotel. What follows is an unbearably tense piece of story-telling as the clearance teams search the hotel room by room and floor by floor. Not everyone makes it through alive.
Afterwards, Katie declares her love for Travis. She had been in a lesbian relationship, but when her former wife was killed by zombies on day one of the outbreak she thought she'd never love again, especially with a man. But it turns out she was actually bisexual and in a world with so much death and horror all around her, she came to the realisation that she needed Travis as much as he needed her. Ah, sweet!
Jenni and Juan had already hooked up in book one and their relationship continues to blossom in book two. What I particularly like about this series is just how well rounded the characters are. You can see character development in all of the cast, not just the four leads. When one of the supporting cast is killed it does have an emotional impact on you because these are people you care about.
The latter half of the book is taken up with dealing with the threat from bandit raiders, who strike at some of the smaller enclaves of survivors nearby to kill the menfolk and capture the females for sexual gratification and to loot the places for essential supplies. When the bandits turn their attention to Ashley Oaks, the defenders decide to fight fire with fire.
There are a couple of sub-plots worthy of mention. The town's mayor is forced to resign on the grounds of ill health and Travis is one of the two nominations put forward for the vacant post. He doesn't want the job but many feel he is the right man to become the new mayor. A second sub-plot, which remains unresolved, involves an unknown vigilante in the town who kills anyone deemed undesirable to the town's population - drug dealers and rapists, for example, get their comeuppance at his (or is it her?) hands. No doubt we'll learn his or her identity in book three. I have my own suspicion of who the vigilante is but I'll keep it to myself for now.
I mentioned in my review of The First Days the old lady called Nerit, who used to be a sniper with the Israeli Army. She really makes her presence felt in this novel as she is promoted to the town's defence chief. Her tactics for dealing with the bandit raiders are brutal but devastatingly effective. Don't mess with this old lady!
Those of you who have read book one will surely need no urging to buy this book. If you haven't read either, I can highly recommend this series to you. The story moves along at a rapid pace. It is tense, exciting, funny, harrowing and an absolute joy to read. The book retails for $14.99 or for £9.59. I bought my copy from Amazon for £8.74. it's where I buy nearly all of my books nowadays. Book three, Siege, is due for release in April 2012. I can't wait!

Foundry Thugs and Misfits

2011-12-04T11:38:00.000Z

To make up for my lack of posts this past week or so I've decided to do a review of Wargame Foundry's largest set of 28mm scale Street Violence figures - BSSV001 Thugs and Misfits. This boxed set contains no fewer than 18 figures. Let's get the show on the road and have a look at them.

The soldier at the far left of the two photos above is called Ander, according to the Foundry website. Foundry have very helpfully named all of these figures, and whilst I don't like some of the names they've chosen I will use them for now for the purposes of this review. Ander is armed with a 5.56mm Colt Commando Assault Rifle. He is very well equipped with plenty of pouches, a backpack, gasmask and grenades. He is clearly a military type but the question is, is he a regular soldier or National Guard or a mercenary? Also, given the title of this set of figures, could he be a deserter?
His colleague in the centre is called Rissien. He is virtually identical to Ander apart from his choice of primary weapon. Rissien has chosen a 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Carbine, distinguishable from the Rifle by its much shorter barrel.
The last two figures in line, form part of a vignette - a sniper and her gimp slave. The sniper is called Bellatrix, whilst the gimp at her feet is called Gat. They come as a one-piece casting. They look like they ought to belong to one of the Foundry Street Girl gangs. Bellatrix is armed with the powerful .50 calibre Barrett Model 500 Sniper's Rifle. Gat is making himself useful by holding her bipod to steady the rifle. I painted Ballatrix's panties in a camo pattern, which is barely noticable as there wasn't much material to work with! Continuing the military theme, she's managed to acquire a helmet for some head protection. Gat was painted with normal acrylics but given a gloss varnish coating to achieve that shiny leather or rubber look.

This next batch of figures are the smartly dressed guys. Starting at the far left is Catigern (unusual name!), a low level thug in a black suit and red tie. He carries a 9mm pistol in his right hand and I find him a rather non-descript character.
Touko, who is standing next to him, is much more interesting. To me, he appears to have been modelled on the guy who did the water torturing to Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) in the first Lethal Weapon film. He was also one of Hans Gruber's gang in the first Die Hard film, not to mention countless other films, and almost always as a bad guy. I like the fact that he has shunned a tie to wear with his suit. A man after my own heart as I hate wearing ties! He is armed with a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun.
In the centre of this group of five is Miikka, a thug with a silenced 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5SD3 Sub-Machine Gun. He is dressed casually in a polo-neck sweater and a long coat. He is leaning forward in a pose that suggests he is trying to control the recoil of his SMG as he fires it on full automatic setting.
The oriental guy to his left is called Qu and he could be a member of the Yakuza or a Triad gang. He too, has chosen the ever-popular 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 SMG as his weapon of choice. I'm sure the red rose in his buttonhole has some significance; I'm just not sure what!
Pattin is the name of the last figure in this group. He is firing a 5.56mm Colt Commando Assault Rifle from the shoulder. Like Qu, he is dressed in a long black coat. His red shirt (or is it a waistcoat?) makes for a nice contrast.

This next batch of figures look to be lower ranking thugs, although the guy at the far left, Ludwik, would make a very good survivor type. Yet again, we see the 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 SMG in evidence. It sure is a popular weapon. The interesting thing about Ludwik is the flight bag he carries over his shoulder. It could contain alls sorts of useful items and not just weapons.
To his left is Hadad, a dude in a sheepskin coat and a cowboy hat. He is the first figure out of this group to be armed with a pump-action shotgun. He is leaning forward as if advancing. Actually, my figure was leaning too far forward but I was able to correct that when I stuck him on a slottabase.
The thug armed with the knife and meat cleaver goes by the name of Gamba. He's using an unusual combination of weapons, and he might be quite useful in melee combat. His greying hair shows that he's been around for a while.
Next to him is Drake, who could be Gamba's son or younger brother. He also carries a meat cleaver but also has a small pistol to give him some ranged firepower. The white vests and faded denim jeans helps to tie them together.

The last group of figures on show are all female. At the far left of the two photos above is Cammi, who looks a typical "trailer trash" girl. Rather unusual for a figure, the sculptor has made her left-handed. You don't see that very often. The pump-action shotgun she is wielding does look massive in her tiny hands and the recoil could send her flying on her ass when she fires it. But then again, maybe she's stronger than she looks.
The punk girl with the 7.62mm AK47 Assault Rifle is called Keela. After painting the flesh of her legs I gave them a Citadel Ogryn Flesh ink wash. When that was dry I drew on the fishnet pattern of her tights with a very fine nibbed Rotring technical drawing pen. Then I painted on the big holes in her tights.
I used the same technique on Isis, the lady in the centre of this group. She also has a punk vibe to her. Note her Mohican haircut. I decided to make her pump action shotgun silver-plated as a change to my usual metallic black. The metal suitcase she is carrying is worthy of note. Just what is inside it?
Taryn, who wears the blue beret, is either making a call on her mobile phone or having a draw on a cigarette. I opted for the mobile phone choice. Her 9mm Benelli M2 Sub-Machine Gun is fitted with an underslung torch. Note that she has a long knife in a sheath on her left thigh.
Finally, the last figure from this set is Louise, and she's dressed for winter in a thick padded and hooded coat. I'm not too sure what her rifle is but I'm going with a 5.56mm SIG Sauer SG540 Assault Rifle. She has a bandolier of ammo pouches slung over her left shoulder.
I am a huge fan of the Foundry Street Violence range and I was delighted to see this set released. I know that some will criticise Foundry for including so few original sculpts in this set. The majority of the figures are conversions of figures from previous sets. This does not bother me in the least but I mention it as it may influence some of you in whether they are worth buying or not.
Obviously such a large group of figures comes with a large price tag. These 18 figures would normally cost you £30. However, they are currently on sale for just £24 as part of Foundry's Christmas sale. I bought my set earlier in the year during one of Foundry's many sales. At less than £2 per week (whether bought in the sale or not) I still think they are good value for money. Although the majority of these figures will work best as Gangers, some will still work well as Survivors and Military types. With Christmas rapidly approaching I think they'd make a nice Christmas present.

Vampifan's Views 16 My Monthly Musings part 4

2011-11-30T10:48:00.003Z

Vampirella by Joe Jusko. How perfect is that lion's head?

Monday the 28th of November was the day of my dad's funeral and he couldn't have asked for a better send off. Everything went so smoothly on the day and everyone was so kind. His funeral service was attended by over 200 people, a sure indication of just how well-liked and respected he was. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who left me messages of sympathy and support.
There is never a good time for anyone to die, but what made the timing of my dad's death particularly poignant is that he died on the day of his brother's birthday (sadly long dead) and it was also my birthday less than a week after he died. So this was a memorable birthday for me, but alas, for all the wrong reasons. Still, I have no complaints about the presents I received. My mum just gave me money for my birthday, so that I could buy what I wanted. I've already spent it on a big order to Miniature Heroes for a bunch of Reaper 28mm scale Chronoscape figures (9 civilians, 9 zombies and 2 killer clowns). My brother bought me the Bones series 6 DVD set. I'm a big fan of the show and of the novels by Kathy Reichs. I'd ordered a few zombie-related items for myself and they arrived shortly before my birthday. They consisted of two books and a DVD. The books were The Walking Dead Chronicles by Paul Ruditis and The Official Zombie Handbook (UK) by Sean T. Page. The DVD was of my all-time favourite zombie film - Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero. Yes, I did already own a copy of this film, but when I was browsing on Amazon, I saw what has to be the ultimate version of this film - a four disc boxed set, containing the theatrical version of the film, the director's cut and the Dario Argento cut (all varying in length, with the director's cut being the most complete version). In addition, there are over 11 hours of extras on the discs (awesome!), including some very long documentaries about the film. There is also a poster and booklet included. In short, it is a fanboy's must have item and I certainly had to have it.
Obviously, a lot of my hobby work ground to a halt during the latter part of this month, but I still got a fair bit done prior to my dad's death. On the figure painting front, I finished painting 9 Studio Miniatures 28mm scale zombies from their Wedding Party and Halloween boxed sets, and 11 Foundry 28mm scale zombies, 5 of which I converted to corpses. Expect reviews of them soon. At the moment I am painting 20 Recreational Conflict 28mm scale contemporary figures - 12 civilians and 8 survivors.
I am busy working on furnishing the evidence room room for my WWG 28mm scale Mayhem City Police Station. I hope to get that room finished very soon. Next in line will be the toilets for the police station.
For the second month running I failed to get to the cinema. Ho-hum! Still, I have plenty of DVDs to watch.
I finished reading a couple of zombie novels this month. First up was Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. This was a tie-in to The Walking Dead comic series. If you've only seen the TV show, this will make little sense to you as the Governor has yet to appear. I'm thinking he'll probably appear in series 3. It was a fairly good novel right up until the last page, when the rug is pulled from under your feet. I won't spoil how it ended but it left me feeling somewhat bewildered, knowing what I do about the Governor. He is an evil and sadistic son of a bitch, with a quick temper and an unhealthy relationship with his daughter. This is primarily a book for fans of the comic.
The second book that I read was Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater and it was excellent. This was part two of her As the World Dies trilogy and I'll do a full review of it very soon.
I am currently reading Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry, one of my favourite authors. It's a zombie novel but it is not part of the Joe Ledger series.
Earlier this month I bought and downloaded about 20 Microtactix 28mm scale card buildings from their Twilight Streets sets. Yet more buildings to add to my Mayhem City project. When will I find the time to make them all? I also received a fantastic offer from Robert, one of my followers from Germany, which I'd like to talk about at some length in a future post. I've mentioned the kindness of others before but this offer may just be the most amazing yet. Robert, if you're reading this, thanks very much. I still can't get over what you sent me!
On that happy but somewhat cryptic note, I'll wrap up. It is great to get back to blogging again but I know you'll understand why I had to take an enforced break.

Vampifan's Views 15 End of an Era

2011-11-19T16:16:00.001Z

No, I'm not early for my end of the month musings. This is a special and rather poignant posting to let you know that my father died yesterday. He was 81 and had not been in good health this last year. I was with him in hospital when he died and I have honestly, never seen a more peaceful death. He was sleeping when my mum and I visited him for the last time. The hospital minister joined us soon after and shortly after the minister led us in prayer dad just stopped breathing. it was as if he knew it was his time. I have heard that your hearing is the last sense to go, so maybe he hung on until our prayers were over.
Obviously, I'm sorry he has gone, but because of his condition his death was not unexpected. I am feeling quite calm and serene but I have a load of things to do and people to call so forgive me if my blog takes a back seat until after the funeral is over.
I am blessed with the best friends and neighbours any one could wish for, so I will pull through this but my mum is going to take a lot longer to recover. Fortunately, she has me to look after her and I will be strong. I just need some time away from the computer to do what has to be done. I'll try to resume normal service as soon as possible. In the meantime, thanks for listening.

My ATZ Campaign - Day 59 - Meeting the Media Part 2

2011-11-16T10:22:00.001Z

I left Part 1 of this batrep just as a group of zombies entered the general store that Team Vampifan were about to leave. Show time!

TURN 11. Activation - Vampifan = 5, Zombies = 1

The appearance of the zombies forced Team Vampifan to take an In Sight Test. Vampifan and Lieutenant Catweazle passed 2d6 and could open fire as normal. Gap and Simon McQuarrie, the cameraman, only passed 1d6, so if they fired it would be classed as a snapfire. They decided not to. The other three team members were hidden behind one of the shelves and couldn't see the zombies. So Vampifan and the lieutenant fired three round bursts at the horde with their Assault Rifles. They hit and killed two apiece.

I rolled 6d6 for zombie reinforcements because of the gunfire from Vampifan and Catweazle. Only one zombie turned up, at the back of the house closest to the general store.

TURN 12. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 4
The last two zombies out of the group of six charged at Vampifan and Catweazle. Both men passed 2d6 on the Being Charged Test and were able to fire before the zombies reached them. A single shot from each of them was enough to hit and kill the zombie pair.

The remaining zombie moved round the back corner of the house, attracted by the sound of gunfire.
I rolled 2d6 for zombie reinforcements but none appeared.

TURN 13. Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 4
Vampifan stepped outside and immediately spotted the zombie lurking in the alley between the house and the store. He fired once and blew a huge hole in the back of the zombie's head. Instant kill!

The rest of Team Vampifan moved along to the front door of the nearest house.

I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements and one appeared across the road by the lamp post.

TURN 14. Activation - Vampifan = 3, Zombies = 4
The zombie shuffled halfway across the road, emitting a loud moan.

"I'll get him!" Jamie exclaimed, before anyone else could react. She raised her.44 Magnum and fired twice. One bullet went too wide but her second shot was bang on target and burst through the zombie's wide open mouth out the back of his skull in a spray of blood and pieces of bone and brain matter.
"Good shooting!" Vampifan complimented her.

Lieutenant Catweazle led the way into the first house, whose front door was unlocked. The Risks and Rewards card revealed that it was occupied by two zombies but that no Resources were available.

The zombies moved to attack Catweazle and Big Sil. Sadly for the zombies, they lost the Surprise Test, which allowed Catweazle and Big Sil to open fire before the zombies reached them. Catweazle killed his opponent with a single shot. However, Big Sil could only manage a Knock Down result with his shot. Still, it was enough to prevent the zombie from attacking this turn.
I rolled 4d6 for zombie reinforcements and one arrived on board just next to the red Peugeot 206 parked further up the street. For some inexplicable reason I forgot to take a photo of its arrival. Sorry, my bad!

TURN 15. Activation = Vampifan = 4, Zombies = 1
Team Vampifan finished exploring downstairs and began to climb the staircase to the next floor. Big Sil used his rifle butt to stave in the skull of the zombie he'd knocked down.

Here is the zombie reinforcement from last turn. He moved away from the Peugeot towards the house currently occupied by Team Vampifan, drawn by the sound of gunfire from within.

TURN 16. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 6
The zombie could not activate this turn. The upstairs of the house was devoid of humans or zombies, but, as can be seen by the Risks and Rewards card, a Shotgun Recource was there to be found and this time it was Vampifan who found the Resource.

TURN 17. Activation - Vampifan = 1, Zombies = 4
The lone zombie shuffled closer to the house with the wide open front door.

Team Vampifan moved back downstairs with Gap leading the way.

TURN 18. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 3
The zombie took one step inside the house, prompting an In Sight Test from Gap. He passed 2d6 and fired once at the intruder, hitting him and scoring an Obviously Dead result.

Gap led the way outside the house and began to move to the house next door.
I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements but none appeared this turn.

TURN 19. Activation - Vampifan = 5, Zombies = 5
Normally when rolling doubles for Activation you have to reroll the dice. However, this time I kept the scores because there were no zombies on the board so for the most part the dice rolls were irrelevant. A double six or double one would have been a different matter. Big Sil overtook Gap to check the front door of the second house and found it unlocked.

TURN 20. Activation - Vampifan = 4, Zombies = 2
Big Sil took point duty in the house and found it occupied by a solitary male zombie lurking in the kitchen. The Risks and Rewards card revealed that there was a Fuel Resource waiting to be found. Gap found it hidden underneath the dinner table.

Big Sil beat the obese zombie for Surprise and fired a single round into his chest, which only succeeded in the zombie being Knocked Down.

The zombie used his turn to stand back up.
I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements but none turned up.

TURN 21. Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 4
Big Sil drew his combat knife and charged at the zombie, easily passing 2d6 on the Wanting to Charge Test. The combat was short and brutal and very one-sided as the hairy biker decapitated the zombie with a swift cut to the neck.
"Now stay dead!" he grumbled, as he wiped the blood from his blade on a kitchen towel.

Catweazle led Jamie and the news crew upstairs. Vampifan and Gap remained downstairs with Big Sil.

TURN 22. Activation - Vampifan = 1, Zombies = 3
The Risks and Rewards card showed that there was nothing to be found on the upper level of the house.
"It's all clear here," Catweazle said in his deep voice for the benefit of the three survivors downstairs.

This seemed like a good point to draw a close to the scenario. There were no more zombies left on the board and Vampifan did not want to push his luck by exploring the last two houses. The team moved outside of the house via the kitchen door. At this point, Simon and Jenny, the news team, headed off in the opposite direction to Team Vampifan. Both groups wished each other good luck and hoped they'd meet up again sometime soon.
Incidentally, you can find full rules for using a media team in your games on pages 28 and 29 of the ATZ supplement "Haven." If the couple had remained with Team Vampifan I would have used the rules to assess if they were eligible for a Rep increase.
Speaking of Rep increases, Vampifan, Big Sil, Gap and Jamie were all eligible for a Rep increase. They'd all killed at least one zombie apiece, none of them had Hunkered Down or gone Out Of the Fight and they'd all found one Resource - a Shotgun for Vampifan, Medical Supplies for Big Sil, Fuel for Gap and Food for Jamie. Sadly, I did not roll high enough for any of them to gain a new Rep level. Ho-hum!
Acquiring Lieutenant Catweazle as a new team member was ample enough reward for them. Originally, he was a Rep:5 Star, who after his second scenario, adavanced to Rep:6. I have considered keeping his Star status but definitely not his higher Rep. A lot could have happened to him in the month since I first introduced him. Perhaps the loss of his colleagues accounted for his Rep decrease. Having two Stars in Team Vampifan may seem like overkill but they are a growing group and this ensures that I will always have a Star to lead the group if one of them stays behind to guard their base.
In all likelihood, this will be my last campaign batrep of 2011, so all I can say is, roll on 2012!

My ATZ Campaign - Day 59 - Meeting the Media Part 1

2011-11-13T11:01:00.001Z

This was Team Vampifan's first foray away from home since the death of Angie just over a week ago. Hannah decided to stay behind to look after her son, Billy, who was still recovering from being shot on his last outing. As the rules stand at present, Billy could return to action as soon as he made his recovery roll, which he did. However, I'm using a bit of common sense here, and it will take him time to fully recover from a bullet wound to the stomach. This left just four members able to go out on the mission. Here they are with their stats -
Vampifan; Rep:6 Star with Nerves of Steel and Slow attributes; armed with Assault Rifle, BA Pistol, Combat Knife and Body Armour.
Big Sil; Rep:5 Grunt with Knife Fighter attribute; armed with Assault Rifle, Combat Knife and Body Armour.
Gap; Rep:4 Grunt with Phobia of Clowns; armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt with Brawler attribute; armed with BA Pistol and Medical Supplies.

The game was played on a 3' by 3' board divided into nine 1' square sectors with sector 1 being in the top left hand corner of the photo above where the small wood is and sector 9 being in the bottom right hand corner where the general store is.

The only new item on the board that I haven't featured before is the stretch limo that has crashed into the wood. I bought it at a local toy shop in a sale for about £3 or £4 instead of £10.

Team Vampifan began the game in sector 7 next to the front entrance to the deli store. I rolled to see if any of them had suffered from a lack of sleep prior to setting out but all made their checks without any problems.

I then rolled for the placement and Reps of the three starting PEFs. PEF:1 was Rep:5 and was placed in sector 6 at the front of the alley between the two houses.

Pef:2 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 1 in the small wood.

PEF:3 was Rep:1 and was placed in sector 5 at the back of the limousine.
HOUSE RULES. There was recently a discussion on the Board of the Living Dead forum http://boardofthelivinglead.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=atz&action=display&thread=118 about whether external doors should be locked or unlocked. The default rule in Better Dead Than Zed is that all doors are unlocked. The argument is that is this realistic? Well, no, but it does speed up gameplay. Anyway, I have decided to adapt Joe's (aka Zabadak) rule that all doors are unlocked on the roll of 1-5 on 1d6. Only if I roll a 6 will a door be locked. Locked doors can be smashed open but doing so creates noise, equivalent to one gunshot for the purpose of attracting zombies and possibly alerting any occupants inside the building. I have also made the decision that I want no Ragers or Smart Zombies during the first six months of my campaign (i.e. up to day 183).

Day 59 - Meeting the Media Part 1
This would be a standard Discovery scenario set in the suburbs of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. Note that any reference to the Better Dead Than Zed rulebook will be abbreviated to BDTZ and any reference to the I, Zombie supplement will be abbreviated to IZ.

TURN 1. Activation - Vampifan = 4, PEFs = 3
Vampifan was going to enter the deli store but he found the door to be locked. Inside, the shop looked deserted so he moved along to the dry cleaning store, with the rest of the team following faithfully behind him.

PEF:1 passed 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved alongside PEF:3 in sector 5.

TURN 2. Activation - Vampifan = 1, PEFs = 5
PEF:1 again passed 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved into sector 7 at the corner of the dry cleaning store. However, when I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table, it turned out to be a false alarm. Much relief!

This time the door was unlocked and Team Vampifan entered the dry cleaning store. I turned over the top card of my Risks and Rewards deck to reveal no humans, no zombies and no resources.

TURN 3. Activation - Vampifan = 5, PEFs = 6
With the PEFs unable to activate, Team Vampifan left the dry cleaners and headed across the road. This brought them in sight of PEF:3, so I rolled to see what it was and got a result of NPC Interaction. I determined that the NPCs were a news team made up of a Rep:4 cameraman and a Rep:3 reporter.

TURN 4. Activation - Vampifan = 3, News Team = 4, PEF = 5
The PEF was unable to activate so the news team moved towards Team Vampifan.

Team Vampifan approached the news team and introductions were made. The cameraman was called Simon McQuarrie and his young colleague was called Jenny Tyrell. I rolled on the NPC Interaction Table (see p.117 of IZ) with both sides rolling d6 equal to their leader's Rep. This meant 6d6 for Vampifan and 4d6 for McQuarrie. No other modifiers applied to the rolls. After a couple of rounds of rolling Vampifan won 2-0. This gave him a +2 bonus when he rolled 1d6 on the NPC Positive Reaction Table (see p.117 of IZ). I rolled a 4 for Vampifan, which with the +2 bonus, gave him a score of 6. This meant that the news team would hang out with Team Vampifan for the rest of this scenario. I'd rather they joined them on a permanent basis but for that to have happened I'd have had to roll a 6 on the 1d6.

TURN 5. Activation - Vampifan = 2, PEF = 1

The six humans moved further across the street towards the general store.

PEF:2 passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved into sector 5, taking cover behind the stretch limo. This brought it in sight of Team Vampifan, so I rolled to see what it was on the PEF Resolution Table.

I got a result of Hostile NPCs, or more specifically, zombies. There were six of them but at the moment they were too far away from Team Vampifan to be considered a threat, so no one fired at them.

TURN 6. Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 3
Team Vampifan reached the front door of the general store, which was unlocked.

The zombies shuffled along the road towards the clearly visible group of humans.

TURN 7. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 5
With the zombies unable to activate this turn, Vampifan led his followers inside the general store. The Risks and Rewards card once again, revealed no humans or zombies inside but there was a Food resource, which Jamie found amongst the mostly empty, looted shelves.

TURN 8. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 4
The six zombies ambled slowly down the road, getting ever closer to the general store.

Vampifan led the way up the stairs at the back of the store.

TURN 9. Activation - Vampifan = 3, Zombies = 1
As Vampifan entered the living room upstairs, he was confronted by a very tall man with a handlebar moustache and dressed in the uniform of a National Guard Officer. He was a Rep:5 Star, armed with an Assault Rifle and he possessed the Brawler and Nerves of Steel attributes. I rolled on the Meet and Greet Table, rolling 11d6 for Vampifan (6d6 for his Rep and 5d6 for outnumbering the officer by five) and 5d6 for the officer (his Rep). Not surprisingly, Vampifan won by more than two and so the officer would join Team Vampifan permanently. As the Risks and Rewards card revealed, there was a Medical Supplies Resource to be found and Big Sil snaffled it.

The six zombies were now less than six inches away from the general store entrance.

TURN 10. Actibation - Vampifan = (4) 2, Zombies = (4) 5
After tying for Activation I rolled again and this time the zombies rolled too high to activate. So, Team Vampifan spent this turn getting acquainted with the National Guard officer. He identified himself as Lieutenant Ulysses Catweazle, the only survivor out of his platoon.
Note that Lieutenant Catweazle has appeared in two games of ATZ prior to this encounter, although they were not part of my official campaign when I played them way back in 2009. You can read about his exploits here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/10/atzbdtz-battle-report-01.html and here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/10/atzbdtz-battle-report-02.html
Now that Lieutenant Catweazle has joined Team Vampifan, his two previous scenarios are now canon and they will form part of my ongoing campaign.

TURN 11. Activation - Vampifan = 5, Zombies = 1
Vampifan lead his rapidly expanding team back downstairs, as he continued to chat to Lieutenant Catweazle.

Two of the six zombies entered the general store, with the other four close on their heels.

TO BE CONTINUED

Eureka Toxic Zombies in Barrels

2011-11-09T12:31:00.000Z

Earlier this year I was gifted a set of four Eureka 28mm scale Toxic Zombies emerging from barrels by my good friend Fran, aka The Angry Lurker. Once again, many thanks, Fran. There are six figures in this range and I already had one of them. Fortunately for me, the one I had was not amongst the ones sent to me by Fran. That was a nice stroke of luck! Having just painted them, I thought you'd like to see these very unusual zombies.

I'd guess that the inspiration for these figures came from the "Tar Zombie" who features in The Return of the Living Dead film. He is so called because he emerges from a barrel that should have been left closed and is covered in a dark, slimy liquid gunk. I toyed with the idea of painting these in a similar fashion and tried out what I hoped was a similar looking colour scheme but the results were not very pleasing. So I went back to plan A and painted them as I paint all of my toxic zombies, which is with a greenish tint to their flesh (Citadel Rotting Flesh, appropriately enough). The one thing I did add to these figures was a couple of thick coats of Citadel Water Effects to give them that glossy wet look. You can see this much better if you left click on the photos to blow them up to full screen size.

I won't describe each one individually like I normally do, because they are all very similar. The first zombie in line, moving from left to right, is the one that I already had. The other four are the ones I received from Fran. Some of them have flesh sloughing off their bodies (one and four especially). Two of them (four and five) have got one leg out of the barrel. A nice touch on number five is his shoe, which has a sole that is coming apart at the seams to reveal his toes. Incidentally, the figure that I'm missing from this set is in a very similar pose to zombie number two but his head is in a different position.

The sculpting on these figures is very good. None of them look like fresh corpses. They all look very cadaverous, almost skeletal like. Most are bald but zombie number five has a patchy head of hair.

These are not the kind of zombies you're going to find wandering the streets. They should be assigned to a specific location, like a warehouse, a research laboratory, a storeroom in a military or corporate building or in the trailer of an articulated lorry. You could designate them as Smart Zombies or Ragers if you're playing ATZ. I'd be tempted to make them Ragers if I ever use them in a scenario.

They cost £1.90 each from the Eureka website but be warned they are supplied randomly. However, it has been my experience with the good folks at Eureka that if you specifically ask for no swaps, or as few swaps as possible if ordering more than one of each, they will comply. Each figure comes in two parts - the bottom two thirds of the barrel and the top third of the barrel with the zombie. They are not supplied with bases and will stand up very well without a base. I stuck mine to circular plastic slottabases purely to make them compatible with the rest of my 28mm scale figure collection.

Black Cat Bases Biker Gang

2011-11-06T12:13:00.000Z

Black Cat Bases, a U.K.-based company, sell a nice range of 28mm scale Gangers, made by Obelisk Miniatures but sold by BCB under licence. I purchased all of the Ganger sets earlier this year and as they get painted I'll review them on my blog. First up are the Screaming Nighthawks biker gang.

One of the things that I particularly like about these gang sets is that each gang comes with its own canine mascot. It's a nice touch that I didn't expect to see. The Screaming Nighthawks have chosen an Alsatian or German Shepherd as their mascot and they have named him "Jaws Rowlf." Oddly enough, the dog is the only figure to be given a name on the BCB website. As befits a dog with such a fearsome reputation (unjustified, some would say) it is snarling aggressively.
Moving on to the humans, I have nicknamed the guy with the chain and huge revoler, "Nighthawk." I have also made him the leader of this biker gang. He wears leather cowboy "chaps" over his denim trousers, a denim waistcoat and a bandana. His grey hair, beard and moustache suggests that he's been around awhile. The handgun is most probably some kind of Magnum revolver but I'd class it as a BA Pistol in ATZ.
Next to him is "Belcher," a biker who's celebrating with a can of beer, which he holds aloft in his left hand. In his right hand he holds a BA Pistol, most likely a Desert Eagle. Note the beergut and bald patch on his head. He's another aging biker. He wears a leather waistcoat over his denim jacket. He has tied his scraggly hair back in a ponytail, never a good look for men, in my opinion.
Another biker with a ponytail is "Two Gun Tony," so named because he's armed with two guns - a Colt .45 pistol and a 9mm Mini Uzi machine pistol. He wears a pair of mirrorshade sunglasses, a T-shirt with the name and picture of some obscure rock band emblazoned on his chest, a denim waistcoat and jeans. Although he has very muscular arms, he does have the beginnings of a beergut as well.
The dude with the sawn-off pump-action shotgun is nicknamed "Slick." His hair and moustache is a silvery-grey colour, indicating another biker getting on in his years. Of course, this suggests that these guys have been around for a very long time, so it would be unwise to dismiss them as "old timers." "Slick" wears an AC/DC T-shirt, so he really is an old rocker.
Finally, we come to "Scuzz," who is also armed with a pump-action shotgun, although not sawn-off like "Slick's." I love the way he has been sculpted having an appreciative draw on his cigarette. Ah, get that nicotine down ya, man! He is dressed in leather trousers, a white vest, a denim waistcoat and a black bandana. He also totes a pair of mirrorshade sunglasses.
What I particularly like about this set is the way each figure has been sculpted. They are so full of character. I also like the fact that these are not teenage bikers but far older. I suppose you could paint them up as looking much younger than I have but with so many young biker types already available I say, why not give these guys an older appearance?
I should make a comment about their size. They are described as being 28mm scale, and this is certainly true... if you measure them from the sole of the feet to the top of the head. They will look rather small if placed alongside certain "heroically" scaled 28mm scale figures.
You can buy each figure separately at a cost of £3.00 each for the humans and £2.00 for the dog. Alternatively, you can buy all six figures for just £12.00, giving you a saving of £5.00.

Reaper Civilian Geeks

2011-11-02T14:44:00.000Z

Amongst the humans featured in THW's All Things Zombie game I've reviewed figures from the Survivors, Gangers, Cops and Military categories, but never any Civilians. If you're prepared to look around there a lot of figures of civilians out there... and just like zombies, you can never have too many of them! Today I'm going to start off my reviews of civilians by featuring these three from Reaper Miniatures - set 50231 Townsfolk: Geeks.

To some, the word "Geek" is an insult, to others it's a badge of honour. I'm a geek myself and I have no problem in being called such. These three figures, sculpted by Gene Van Horne, represent three types of geek. First up is the pretty one. I've painted her as an Asian student. She is carrying a book in one hand and a laptop computer in the other. Her denim jeans are very tight-fitting and low-slung. The squiggly white writing on her T-shirt is meant to say Mayhem City University but at that size is totally illegible. Hey, I'm a good painter but I'm not that good! She's cute and pretty and probably more interested in her academic studies than dating boys.

Next up is the fat geek. There's always one, isn't there? He also carries a book but in his other hand he holds a bottle of fruit juice/energy drink/magic potion. The goatee beard and ponytail marks him down as such an obvious object of ridicule. Have you seen the excellent movie Shoot 'Em Up? Clive Owen's character, Mr. Smith, echoes my own opinion on men wearing ponytails - "I fucking hate ponytails!" he says as he shoots the offending piece of hair off an unnamed mook. How I wish I could do that! This thoroughly irritating character will undoubtedly be majoring in useless trivia.

Finally, we come to the nerdy geek. This guy is destined to be the next Bill Gates and become a multi-millionaire when he leaves university. However, at present he's still a rabid bookworm. Yes, he too is carrying a book. Just like his other two colleagues in this set, he'll be a virgin, lacking in social skills that allow him to interact with members of the opposite sex. All three geeks will have phenomenally high IQs but this guy will probably match that of Reed Richards. (Note comic book reference to denote my own geekdom!)

These are three excellent figures that perfectly capture their geekdom. Seeing as I'm reviewing them in conjunction with the ATZ game, the question has to be asked, how would they survive a zombie apocalypse? I'd guess, not very well, unless they can team up with a bunch of kick-ass Survivors, although to be honest, they have victim written all over them.

I am indebted to my good friend, Roger (aka Rogzombie) for gifting me these figures. The Reaper website has them listed as costing $9.99.

Vampifan's Views 14 My Monthly Musings part 3

2011-10-30T11:19:00.002Z

Vampirella by Enrich (aka Enrique Torres)

I was hoping my blog would attract 200+ followers by the end of the year and now it has. Yippee! The Hit Counter is well over 100,000, so in the words of my dad, I must be doing something right! It's very heartening to know that my blog has such a devoted following. My thanks to you all!

Well, my figure buying sabbatical came to an end as I sent away to Eureka Minis in Australia for some clowns with meat cleavers riding unicycles and a group of 7 Mangaesque schoolgirls armed with firearms. It would seem that my interest in clowns has been reawakened following the unprecedented support for the evil leader of the Killer Klowns, Sunny, in my last batrep, "Who's Laughing Now?" If anyone hasn't got the message by now, Sunny will return. I still have some painted clowns that I haven't shown you but I will also be adding some new figures to the gang.

This month I finished painting 18 Foundry 28mm scale misfits and outcasts from their Street Violence range. Currently getting painted are 20 zombie figures - 9 from Studio Miniatures' wedding party and Halloween sets and 11 from Wargames Foundry's Undead range.

On the card modelling front I managed to build the Finger and Toe Models' Quonset Hut, which you'll have seen in my last batrep and more recently, in a dedicated review. Work has restarted on completing my WWG Mayhem Police Station, so don't worry, I haven't forgotten about it. I'm busy working on furnishing the station's evidence room.

After reading the hugely enjoyable Rise Again by Ben Tripp I moved away from undead literature to something more mainstream - Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs. I'm a big fan of her forensic crime novels and of the TV series tie-in Bones. I finished reading Spider Bones last night and I have to admit it is not one of her better Temperance Brennan novels. Next up, I plan to read Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman. This is a tie-in novel to his comic series The Walking Dead. Fans of the comics will know exactly who the Governor is and what an evil piece of work he is!

October has been a barren month for cinema going as I didn't see any films at my local flea pit this month.

The picture of Vampirella that I've used to illustrate this post is the same one that I'm using as the background to my blog-site. I thought you'd like a better look at it. There aren't that many good illustrations that feature Vampirella with zombies but this one by Enrich is a cracker!

I'd just like to close by wishing you a very Happy Halloween. Have fun!

Foundry Vampires

2011-10-26T12:13:00.001+01:00

With the amount of coverage I give to zombies, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they are my favourite type of undead. But they're not. Vampires are. Vampires are so much cooler than zombies and having played Vampire:The Masquerade role-playing game (both the White Wolf and GURPS versions) I have quite an affinity with them. Plus, of course, Vampirella (all praise her name!) is a vampire. What this long-winded intro means is that I have some new vampire figures to review. These four 28mm scale figures come from Wargames Foundry's Undead set UND034 Vampires.

Dante the Cruel is the name of the vampire at the far left of the the two photos above. That's the name given to him by the chaps at Foundry and I have no reason to change it. He is dressed as a high class Victorian gentleman, which doesn't preclude being able to use him in a contemporary setting. Having attended a few vampire Halloween weekends at Whitby I can attest that quite a few Goth Guys (and Girls) like to dress up in Victorian clothing. Dante carries a skull-topped cane. His cloak is a separate casting and I painted it and the rest of the figure before gluing it in place, because otherwise, it would have been very fiddly trying to paint the spiral patterns on the inside of the cloak. He is very well sculpted and the sculptor has captured his haughty arrogance and potential cruelty very well.

Next to him is Cynthia Black and I just can't get over how closely she resembles Angelina Jolie. There is the mere hint of pointed fangs in her mouth. She is dressed very seductively in a basque and long dress split down the middle to reveal her panties and thigh-length boots. She also wears very long gloves. If she looks tall, then that is because she is. Although Foundry advertise these figures as being 28mm scale they are closer to 35mm scale. Cynthia is 35mm tall from sole of feet to top of head. Dante is not far behind at 34mm tall.

Next in line is Ophelia von Hagen, another sexy female vampire. She is dressed in a figure-hugging long crimson dress that flares outwards at her feet. She is armed with a long knife with a curved blade. I painted her eyes bright red to indicate she is not human and also that she is about to attack. She is much shorter than Cynthia and Dante, being 31mm tall but still taller than 28mm. I see this figure as being on the verge of uncontrolled blood lust. Very dangerous for whoever she's facing!

The final figure of the group is called Nosferatu. Oh dear, I'm sorry, Foundry, but Nosferatu is not a vampire name but a type of vampire. Players of Vampire: The Masquerade will know that the Nosferatu were one of the seven clans who made up the Camarilla. I have named my figure, Graf Orlok, after the vampire played by Max Shreck in F.W. Murnau's silent film, Nosferatu. Orlok is the least human looking vampire out of the group. In V:TM the Nosferatu were noted for their ugliness. This figure has a hunchback, long bat-like ears and a very ugly face. In other words, a perfect Nosferatu vampire.

I was very pleased to see Foundry release this set and I had no hesitation to buy them. All four are very well sculpted although I have no doubt that some of you will be put off by the size of them. To me, their size is not a problem as they should be larger than life. I do not see any of this group as being fledgling vampires. They look like they've been around for a century or two (or longer) so I'd imagine they'd be formidable opponents in any game. I'd also have no qualms in using them in a contemporary setting. Too many companies make vampires that are designed to fit in a fantasy setting and not nearly enough make contemporary based vampires. These are designed in such a way that you can use them with a fantasy army or in the modern day. Top marks, Foundry!

This set of four figures retails for £10.00 from the Wargames foundry website. Incidentally, I have loads of painted vampires that I'd like to review, even though many of them are long out of production. I amassed quite a large collection of vampires during the 1990's when V:TM was at its peak. Rest assured, I will get round to reviewing them sometime.

Finger and Toe Models Quonset Hut

2011-10-23T12:49:00.003+01:00

My latest card building, the Quonset Hut, appeared in my last batrep "Who's Laughing Now?" and I thought you'd like to see a much closer look at it. I've only just recently discovered Finger and Toe Models, who make this model and although they only have a few contemporary 28mm scale models, I like what they do, especially as they offer building interiors with their models. Mind you, the Quonset Hut comes without an interior, but that wasn't going to stop me from adding one!

According to the blurb given with the instructions, Quonset Huts were intended as temporary structures to create bases quickly. Although actually invented in the First World War (as Nissen Huts), Quonset Huts didn't achieve their widespread distribution until redesigned and mass-produced for the U.S. Navy in the Second World War.

This model represents a 20' by 40' version with corrugated steel ends, instead of the plywood found on the original versions. Quonset Huts can be any type of structure you like, from an airport terminal, base operations to barracks and offices, even a research station plunked down in the Antarctic. The structure is so simple, some version will likely continue to be used for many decades to come. I decided to use my model as a small barracks, configured for four residents.

This photo shows the front of the Hut, with the door still open from Team Vampifan's visit. I cut the windows out and replaced the "glass" with an offcut of transparency paper.

The front and back walls were easy to make. I just glued the printout of the interior and exterior to a piece of mounting card. With the walls and roof being a curved structure I did wonder if reinforcing them with mounting card would work. I was considering using thin card to reinforce my printouts but in the end I was able to use thick mounting card.

If you look closely at the front and back walls, you can see that the curve is made up of 12 angled straight edges.

This made making the walls and roof much easier as I was able to score the mounting card about halfway through, so it could fold and match the shape of the front and back walls. The roof is reinforced and kept in shape by two inserts glued at either end that match the shape of the upper part of the front and back walls. There is a thick black line that runs a third of the way up along both sides of the roof/walls, which would have made a good place to separate the roof from the walls. The only problem was that it gave a lot less room to get your fingers inside to move stuff about. So, I made the side walls three sections high and the roof consists of six sections. The join between the two is more visible than if I'd used the cut where the thick black lines are but against that, I can reach inside far more easily. It's a compromise between aesthetics and playability

This photo shows an overhead view of the interior of the Hut. All of the furniture and props inside come from the Ebbles Ambient Elements set, specifically the Barracks, Storeroom and Workshop sets. I know that these sets are now no longer for sale but Chris Roe (aka Mel Ebbles) is reintroducing his back catalogue of models to the WWG webstore, so hopefully they will be available for sale soon. For the interior walls I simply printed out a second set of the external walls and used them. The only thing I had to change was the position of the door knob. For the interior doors I painted it out and repainted one on the opposite side of the door.

Here is a side view of the interior that you never got to see in my last ATZ batrep. As well as a bunk bed in each corner, there are two locker cupboards and a stack of four foot lockers, where the occupants can keep their clothes and whatever gear they need. The cupboards and foot lockers came from the Ebbles Storeroom set. The two cupboards had to be cut down in height and have their sides reshaped so that they would fit flush to the walls. Fiddly work that required some precise measurements to get the cupboard walls the correct shape.

This is the interior view that appeared the most in my last ATZ batrep. There is a bunk bed in each corner again. The table in the middle had to have its support base trimmed so that I could fit the chairs under the table at the two short ends. The support base originally ran the length of the table. I cut it in half. I added an Ebbles laptop computer and a sheet of notepaper on the table for some decoration. The table came from the Ebbles Workshop set and the chairs and bunks from the Barracks set

This is a view from the back of the barracks, showing the cramped conditions inside. You can see that on the front and back windows I painted a cross on them to indicate the window frames, rather than just leave them blank. It's the little details like this that add to the overall feel of the model.

I haven't commented on the window shutters on the side walls. They certainly help break up the drabness of the walls and roof but the way they're angled I do wonder how much light they would allow inside. The shutters do not come with interior detail, so I was able to counteract that when I printed out my second set of walls.

The Quonset Hut was not an easy model to make because of the curved roof and walls but I'm very happy with the final outcome. Mind you, if you were to build it as per the instructions, without any interior detail, then I'd describe it as an easy model to build. It fits in very well the Ebbles Folding Unit Structures. As I mentioned earlier, it is the kind of building you could find anywhere from World War One up to the near future. You could just imagine a load of these being used in the early stages of the zombie apocalypse to house refugees fleeing from the zombie menace.

I should mention that if you do purchase this model, it comes with a 15mm scale version as well, which will be of use to some of you who prefer gaming in a much smaller scale.

My ATZ Campaign - Day 50 - Who's Laughing Now? Part 2

2011-10-19T10:13:00.001+01:00

Last time, I left you with a dramatic cliff-hanging ending as Mr. Punch just beat Hannah to the draw and fired his Pistol at her and Billy. Yikes!

TURN 2. Activation - Vampifan = 4, Clowns = 3, Zombies = 1, PEF = 6

If you were hoping Punch would miss, sorry! He hit Hannah and Billy and scored two Knock Down results. Hannah passed 2d6 on the Recover From Knock Down Test and was just Stunned. However, Billy only passed 1d6 and was placed Out Of the Fight (OOF). This forced the other members of Team Vampifan to take the Leader Lost Test. All passed 2d6. They could Carry On with Big Sil taking over the leadership mantle until Hannah recovered.

As per the "Walk the Walk" rules (see p.46 of BDTZ) both sides had to make an Activation Roll to see who, out of those left standing, reacted first. It is unclear if this happens on this turn or on the next. I went with it happening this turn to keep the momentum going. I rolled a 3 for Team Vampifan and a 4 for the Killer Klowns. Those darned clowns had won by one again! Judy fired her Pistol at Gap and Jamie. She hit Gap but missed Jamie. Judy scored a Knock Down result on Gap. Gap only passed 1d6 on the Recover From Knock Down Test but because he was wearing Body Armour he was Stunned instead of going OOF. This caused Big Sil, Angie and Jamie to take the Man Down Test. Big Sil and Angie passed 2d6 and would Carry On. Jamie passed 1d6 but because she had friends within 4" who were Carrying On she would also Carry On.

Big Sil fired a three round burst at Punch. He hit once and blew the back of Punch's head off in a spray of blood and brain matter.
Angie fired a three round burst at Judy. She also hit once but could only manage an OOF result.
However, Jamie stepped up to Judy and repeatedly stomped on her head until the only female member of the Killer Klowns was dead. Young Jamie had a lot of pent-up aggression to get rid off and by the time she'd finished, tears were streaming down her face

Now it was the clowns' turn to activate. The two who were hunkered down at the back of the Quonset Hut would remain there until they were rallied. That just left Sunny, the Rep:5 Star and leader of the Killer Klowns. Last turn he got Stunned by Hannah. Furious at the loss of so many of his friends he regained his feet. The look on his face could only be described as evil. Someone would suffer for this carnage!

The 12 zombies on the board moved closer to the Quonset Hut, scene of much gunfire this turn.

I rolled 10d6 for zombie reinforcements and four turned up. Two of them arrived in the picnic park at the back of the Quonset Hut...

... and the other two arrived in the same place as Team Vampifan had when they entered the board at the start of the game.

TURN 3. Activation - Vampifan = 3, Clowns = 5, Zombies = 6, PEF = 1
Sunny could see Angie with her back to him through the front door of the Quonset Hut.
"Your pretty red head will make a fine trophy!" he thought as he charged at her. Being a Star he automatically passed 2d6 on the Wanting to Charge Test. Angie took the Being Charged Test, but alas, only passed 1d6. She could melee, but would suffer a -2d6 penalty for being attacked in the rear. In addition, she suffered a further -1d6 penalty for having the Runt Attribute. This meant she'd be rolling 2d6 (5d6 for her Rep minus 3d6), whilst Sunny would be rolling 6d6 (5d6 for his Rep and an extra 1d6 for having the Knife Fighter Attribute if he fought with a knife). This did not look good for poor Angie. She scored 0 successes in the first round of melee combat, whilst Sunny scored 3 successes. Sunny grabbed hold of Angie's hair with his left hand, whilst his right hand swung his large knife through Angie's neck with well-practiced ease. As Angie's body fell to the floor with blood fountaining from her neck stump, Sunny held her head aloft and screamed, "laugh that one off, you bitch!"

"Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!" Big Sil cried out in horror and despair. He passed 2d6 on the Man Down Test and was able to Carry On. Jamie also passed 2d6. Tears filled her eyes but she too, would Carry On.
"You utter bastard!" Big Sil swore as he raised his 5.56mm M16 Assault Rifle at Sunny. He fired three times and two of the bullets slammed into the evil clown's body, sending him crashing to the ground, severely wounded and Out Of the Fight.
Hannah and Gap recovered from being Stunned and stood back up. Jamie dropped to her knees to stem the flow of blood oozing from the left side of Billy's chest. "Don't die, Billy," she sobbed.

PEF:1 passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved diagonally forward into sector 6, which placed it at the back of the Quonset Hut. Gap had a line of sight to it through one of the rear windows, so I rolled 1d6 to resolve what the PEF was. I rolled a 5 for result D - false alarm. It was just a trick of the light that momentarily fooled Gap.
I rolled 3d6 for zombie reinforcements but this time none turned up.

TURN 4. Activation - Vampifan = 4, Clowns = 2, Zombies = 1
Big Sil stepped outside and bent down beside Sunny to slit his throat from ear to ear. He then dragged the Killer Klown's body a few yards to the middle of the road, where he left it for the approaching zombies to devour.
"Gap!" he called out, "bring Angie's body with you. We're not leaving her here. She'll get a proper burial back home."
Gap did as he was told. He slung his empty Assault Rifle over his shoulder and carried Angie outside, pausing only to retrieve her head from the ground where Sunny had dropped it.

Back inside the Quonset Hut, Hannah took in the scene of carnage in an instant. "Jamie, leave Billy alone and get back home as fast as you can," she commanded. "I'll deal with Billy."
"Okay, mum," Jamie sniffled. She took off at a very rapid pace and reached the edge of the board with a single Fast Move.
Hannah lifted Billy up and clung on to him with one arm as she stepped outside. In her other hand was her .44 Magnum revolver. She pointed it at the two zombies shuffling towards her and fired twice. One shot missed but the other blew the brains out of the back of the head of the chav zombie wearing the navy blue tracksuit.

The two clowns hunkered down at the back of the Quonset Hut couldn't move so it was time for the zombies to activate. Four of them reached the fresh corpse of Sunny and began to feed on him. Their feasting would last for three turns.
"I hope you rot in Hell for all eternity," Big Sil growled.

The two zombies at the side of the Quonset Hut reached the OOF Killer Klowns lying in their path. They each chose a clown to feed upon. Their feasts would last for 1 and 4 turns as indicated by my red dice.

The two zombies in the picnic park almost made contact with the two hunkered down clowns but just failed to reach them.

The second chav zombie charged at Hannah. She passed 2d6 on the Being Charged test and was able to shoot at him before he reached her. She fired twice and hit once, scoring an OOF result which was upgraded to an Obviously Dead result because her target was a zombie. Zombies can never go OOF. They are either Knocked Down or killed.

I rolled 4d6 for zombie reinforcements and two showed up near the entrance to the skateboard park.

TURN 5. Activation - Vampifan = 3, Clowns = 6, Zombies = 2
The two hunkered down clowns couldn't activate. They were effectively out of the game now. Team Vampifan was able to leave the board, thus ending this scenario. Their mission was a complete failure.

AFTERMATH. Once back home I rolled to see if Billy would recover from his wound. Hannah used one of the team's medi-packs to help aid his recovery. It worked, as it allowed Billy to roll 3d6 on the Recovery After The Encounter Test (see p.23 of BDTZ) and he passed 2d6, meaning he made a full recovery at his normal Rep.
Next, I rolled 1d6 five times to see if any of the team lost a level from their Rep for failing the mission (see p.61 of BDTZ). On a roll of 1 on the d6 a character would decrease their Rep score by one. Only one person rolled a one and that was Gap. He is now Rep:4. Now, I'm not a big fan of the Phobias and Quirks rules in the I, Zombie supplement but I felt that in this instance Gap's Rep loss warranted him picking up a phobia. I know you're meant to dice for a character's phobia but when I saw that one of the phobias was Clowns, I just knew that Gap had to have it. (see p.8 of IZ). So now Gap has a morbid fear of clowns. Being knocked down and stunned by Judy must have triggered this phobia.
Angie Johansson was buried alongside Rhiannon Marlow (the young Goth Girl who, for a brief time, was a member of Team Vampifan).
There was no doubt that this was a bad day for Team Vampifan, and yet despite the death of Angie it could have gone a lot worse. Hannah, Billy and Gap could all have suffered worse injuries or death if Punch and Judy had rolled better (or worse depending on your point of view) to wound them. Thankfully, they were only armed with Pistols, making death a far less likely option when rolling to wound. Imagine the devastation they could have caused if either of them picked up the Squad Automatic Weapon that was the Resource hiding in the Quonset Hut! Did you notice that no one picked up the S.A.W? An oversight, although not as big an oversight for failing to notice that Sunny was only stunned.
There is a reason why I wanted Jamie and Billy to fail to spot that Sunny was just stunned and it has everything to do with telling the story. The kids are not combat veterans and so why should they think that Sunny was still a threat when he was lying flat on his back on the ground? In future they'll act differently but only because they learnt a harsh lesson. That's what life is all about. We learn from our mistakes. I did not want to lose Angie but the dice were stacked against her once Sunny initiated melee combat.
Inevitably, there were repercussions for Team Vampifan. Big Sil has lost his confident swagger and has turned to alcohol to drown his sorrows. He'll need close watching in future. Gap, as has been mentioned, has developed a phobia of clowns. Hannah will develop into a stronger leader and will, by default, become Vampifan's second in command. She will also take to wearing Body Armour when she goes out on a mission. Jamie will mature. She wants to study medicine and become a nurse. Seeing Billy lying bleeding and being unable to help him has brought this change of attitude in her. She will never leave home without medical supplies in her bag. Plus, she wants to upgrade her Pistol to a BA Pistol. Billy remains unchanged. He has no memory of being shot. He's still a little boy who isn't as grown up as he thinks he is. Vampifan is wracked by guilt for not being with his team. Would it have made a difference if he'd been there? Who knows?
Despite the outcome, this was one of the most enjoyable games of ATZ I have ever played. It was so dramatic, intense and action packed. I only have one slight regret about the game and that is I never got to use the skateboard park. It just ended up being background scenery. Ah well, I suppose there's always another time. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did playing it.

My ATZ Campaign - Day 50 - Who's Laughing Now? Part 1

2011-10-16T11:38:00.000+01:00

Hannah's two children, Jamie and Billy were bored. They wanted to go somewhere they could play and have fun. Big Sil mentioned that there was a skateboard park not too far away. That was it - the kids wanted to go there and for a full day they pestered their mum to take them to the park. Hannah wasn't too sure. Venturing outside was incredibly dangerous what with roving gangs and hordes of zombies to contend with. However, the rest of Team Vampifan thought it would be a good idea, especially if the adults all accompanied the kids. So it was decided - they would make the journey to the skateboard park.
Unfortunately, the day they chose to go was the day that Vampifan was on guard duty to watch over their home at the abandoned warehouse. Each of the adults took it in turn to do a six hour shift keeping an eye out for anyone or anything hostile approaching the warehouse. When the rest of the team set off on that fateful day, Vampifan was stuck back at home. His presence would be sorely missed but at the time they didn't realise how much. Perhaps the team got overconfident after their last mission out into the suburbs of Mayhem City had been such a cakewalk and they thought they could do without him.
Because this mission was on behalf of the children, Vampifan put Hannah in charge of the team. It was up to her how long they'd stay at the park. No one had any objections to taking orders from Hannah. She'd proved herself to be a capable fighter. Here, then are the stats of those taking part -
Hannah Vaughn; Rep:5 Grunt, Stone Cold, armed with BA Pistol and Knife.
Big Sil; Rep: 5 Grunt, Knife Fighter armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Angie Johansson; Rep:5 Grunt, Runt, armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Gap; Rep:5 Grunt, No Attribute, armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt, Brawler, armed with Pistol.
Billy Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Wuss, armed with Catapult.
SCENARIO: The kids, Jamie and Billy, had to spend 8 + 2d6 turns playing in the skateboard park without any interruption or interference. The adults' mission was to protect the kids and to make sure they had a good time. The best way to accomplish the mission was to clear the board of all threats, then let the kids loose on the park. No Ragers or Smarties would be generated during this scenario.

The game was played on a 3' by 3' board divided into nine one foot square sectors with sector 1 being in the top left hand corner of the photo above where the trees are. Sector 9 is in the bottom right hand corner where Team Vampifan is situated.

There are two new buildings on this board that I have never shown before. First, is the Quonset Hut, which is made by Finger and Toe Models. You'll see a lot more of it as the scenario progresses. The other "new" building is my ruined barn, which I've had for years. It's a one-piece hard styrene casting that may have been made by Ziterdes, but I'm not sure as it was a very long time since I bought it. I painted the wood bits and the muddy ground. The stone bits were inked in when I bought it. Sadly, you won't be seeing any more of it in this game. The skateboard park is from the WWG Urban Grind set.

Here is Team Vampifan, starting the game in sector 9 and crossing the road to check out the Quonset Hut to see if it was occupied. Their mood was jaunty and confident, apart from Hannah who couldn't shake a sense of deep foreboding.

I rolled for the placement and Rep of the three PEFs.
PEF:1 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 2 at the side of the big ramp.
PEF:2 was also Rep:2 and was placed in sector 6 at the back of the Quonset Hut.

PEF:3 was Rep:4 and was placed in sector 5 at the side of the stands by the entrance to the skateboard park.
None of the PEFs were in sight of Team Vampifan so all that remained to do before rolling for activation for Turn 1 was to test for lack of sleep. Fortunately, everyone passed the test and so were unaffected.

Day 50 - Who's Laughing Now? Part 1
This special scenario took place in the suburbs of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. Note that any references to the basic rulebook, Better Dead Than Zed, will use the abbreviation BDTZ, whilst references to the supplement I, Zombie will use the abbreviation IZ.

TURN 1. Activation - Vampifan = 1, PEFs = 2
All of the PEFs were eligible to move this turn but because PEF:3 had the highest Rep it got to roll first on the PEF Movement Table (see p.57 of IZ). It passed 2d6 and moved into sector 9, in sight of Team Vampifan but behind cover if possible. The fast food van was handily placed to provide it with cover. I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table (see p. 58 of IZ) to determine what it was. I rolled a 1 on the d6 for a result of A - Encounter. To decide what the encounter was I used the Random Road Encounter Table (see p.56 of BDTZ) and scored a 7 on 2d6 for a result of Gangers. There were five of them and I decided to make them Killer Klowns. I'd had a request to show them when I reviewed the WWG fast food vans. I rolled to see what their Reps were but not their weapons, as I wanted them to be armed as the figures were. So, the leader was Bozo, Rep:5 and armed with a shotgun and a custard pie. The others were all Rep:4 and were armed as they appear in the photo above with a machete, a sickle, a spiked club plus Flash Bang Grenade, and a BA Pistol.

Next, I rolled on the Encounter Awareness Table (see p.115 of IZ). Team Vampifan rolled 5d6 for Hannah's Rep but the clowns only rolled 4d6 (5d6 for Bozo's Rep but -1d6 because they were active). Team Vampifan won the roll off by 1 die and so were allowed to take an In Sight Test using 2d6. Hannah, Big Sil, Angie and Jamie passed 2d6 and could open fire normally. Gap and Billy only passed 1d6, so any shooting from them would be classed as snapfiring.

Hannah fired first but the two shots from her BA Pistol missed her target, the clown armed with a BA Pistol.

Gap fired next at the same target. One of his three round burst from his Assault Rifle hit the grinning clown between the eyes, blowing a big hole in the back of his head.

Jamie and Billy fired at the clown with the spiked club and Flash Bang Grenade but they both missed.

Angie fired a three round burst from her Assault Rifle at Bozo. She hit once but only scored a knockdown. Bozo passed 2d6 on the Recover From Knock Down Test and was only stunned.

Big Sil fired three shots at the orange-haired clown with the machete. He missed with every one.

Because the clowns' leader was down, even though he was only stunned, the other clowns had to take the Leader Lost Test. They all passed 2d6 and so halted and would chose a new leader when they were next active.

Now it was time to see if the other two PEFs moved. PEF:1 passed 0d6 on the PEF Movement table and so stayed put in sector 2. However, PEF:2 passed 1d6 and so moved into the sector with the closest PEF - PEF 3 in sector 9. As there was no available cover for it, I placed it in front of the Quonset Hut. Rolling on the PEF Resolution Table I scored a 4 for result C - Hostile Encounter. I rolled 1d6 to see if they were human (1-3) or zombie (4-6). They turned out to be human, so I thought it would be perfectly logical for them to be part of the same gang encountered earlier this turn. Yep, more Killer Klowns - nine of them, in fact. I rolled for the Reps of the newcomers and two were Rep:5, one of whom was also a Star. I decided to make Sunny, the clown with the severed heads and knife the Star. I also gave him the Knife Fighter attribute, which seemed appropriate. Yama, the other Rep:5 was the clown balanced on the big brown ball and he was armed with a Flash Bang Grenade. The clown in the back and white costume carrying the knife and black balloons was only Rep:3. The rest of the clowns were Rep:4 and all were armed with one-handed melee weapons.

I rolled on the Encounter Awareness Table and once again Team Vampifan rolled 5d6, whilst the clowns rolled 4d6. This time, Team Vampifan won by two successes and were allowed to take the In Sight Test using 3d6. Everyone passed 2d6 and were allowed to fire normally.

Hannah fired first. Her target was Sunny, the leader of the Killer Klowns. One of her two shots hit but just scored a knock down. Sunny passed 2d6 on the Recover From Knock Down Test and was merely stunned.

Gap fired next. Only one of his three shots hit the clown wearing the green shirt, but it was good hit, killing him in an instant.

Angie fired a three round round burst at Yama, the second Rep:5 clown. Again, just one bullet hit. It put Yama Out Of the Fight (OOF).

Big Sil's three round burst was more accurate, hitting two clowns and placing them both OOF. He hit the clown riding the unicycle and the clown wearing the brown dungarees, both of whom were directly behind Sunny and Yama.

Jamie fired her Pistol just once and scored an OOF result on the clown in the red suit and pointed hat.

Last to fire was young Billy. His catapult shot knocked yet another clown OOF, this time the one wearing the bowler hat.

The two remaining Killer Klowns passed 0d6 on the Leader Lost Test and retired to the back of the Quonset Hut, where they would remain hunkered down until rallied.

Now it was time for Team Vampifan to activate. Hannah walked up to the front door of the Quonset Hut and turned to face the Killer Klown holding the studded club and Flash Bang Grenade. She fired her Magnum Revolver twice at him. Unable to claim cover, the clown was hit twice. One shot just knocked him down but the other put him OOF.

Gap moved to the corner of the skateboard park to get a clearer view of the clown armed with a sickle. He fired a three round burst and rolled 5, 1 and 1, indicating a hit then a loss of ammo. His hit was a good one and he killed the clown. Gap's shooting was proving to be uncannily lethal. This was his third kill of the day.

Jamie and Billy advanced far enough to reach their mum. They had failed to notice that Sunny was only stunned and so ignored him. This could prove to be a fatal oversight.

Angie moved to just past the front of the fast food van to get a clear shot at the orange-haired clown armed with the machete. Of her three shots, two hit and one killed him outright.

Big Sil sauntered alongside his girlfriend to "pop the weasel" on Bozo, the Rep:5 clown, who was only stunned. A single shot to the side of the head put an end to the Killer Klown's evil life.

Wow, what an incredibly action-packed first turn! All that remained to do was to dice to see how many zombies had been attracted by the sound of so much gunfire. I had to roll 32d6 and zombies would appear on the roll of 5 or 6 because this was taking place in the suburbs of Mayhem City. My dice rolling resulted in 12 zombies appearing. You can see ten of them in the photo above. Don't include my counter for PEF:1.

The other two zombies appeared at the side of the Quonset Hut. It was only when I was clearing everything away that I noticed I had Litko tokens for Hunkered Down, which I should have placed next to those two scared clowns. D'oh! I totally forgot I had them. I won't make that mistake again!

TURN 2. Activation - Vampifan = 4, Clowns = 3, Zombies = 1, PEF = 6

Hannah ordered the team to move inside the Quonset Hut, as she led the way. I shuffled my deck of ATZ Risks and Rewards cards and turned over the top card to see who and/or what was inside. The card revealed that there were two Gangers present, one of whom was Rep:4 armed with a Pistol, and that the resource to be found was a Squad Automatic Weapon (S.A.W.). I had to turn over a second card to reveal the stats and weapon of the second Ganger. This one was Rep:5 and was also armed with a Pistol. I had just the two figures to use - Punch and Judy, both members of the Killer Klowns. Punch was Rep:5, naturally, and Judy Rep:4.
It would have been totally illogical to roll on the Talk the Talk Table to see if Punch and Judy would join Team Vampifan given the carnage our noble heroes had already inflicted on the Killer Klowns, so I went straight to the Walk the Walk Test (see p.46 of BDTZ). The leaders of each side had to roll 1d6 each and add their Rep scores to the result. Whoever rolled highest got to shoot first. Both leaders were Rep:5, so it was all down to the dice rolls. I rolled a 2 for Hannah and a 3 for Punch. Bummer! Punch quickly raised his Pistol and fired twice, once at Hannah and once at Billy.

TO BE CONTINUED

Rise Again by Ben Tripp

2011-10-12T15:21:00.000+01:00

This is a review of yet another zombie novel recommended to me by one of my followers. Colin Nash who runs the "Down Among the Lead Men" blog site ran an excellent review of Rise Again by Ben Tripp on his original zombie blog, which sadly no longer exists. It is unfortunate that his review is lost in the ether as I'd happily post a link to it. Clearly his review worked, because it made me want to go out and buy the novel.
The story starts in a small town of Forest Peak in the mountains of California on the Fourth of July. Sheriff Danielle (known to everyone as Danny) Adelman is the town's sheriff. She is an ex-Iraq war veteran with a drink problem and an inability to communicate meaningfully with her younger sister, Kelley, who lives with her. Earlier that day, Kelley ran away from home, leaving Danny angry and frustrated because she couldn't chase after her. Danny was going to be presented with the keys to the town at an award ceremony at midday. Things took a turn for the worse shortly after the ceremony. Hordes of refugees fleeing some unspecified disaster in Los Angeles threatened to swamp the little town. But, inexplicably, the horde fell to the ground and seemed to have died en masse. On the following day, the corpses returned to life and to use a well worn cliche, all hell broke lose! Danny and a small group of survivors who hadn't been affected had no choice but to leave the town in a motor convoy in the hope of finding answers to the strange disease that had affected so many. Los Angeles and all the other major cities and towns were no-go zones, overrun by vast hordes of the undead. Danny and her co-survivors were forced to take refuge at an abandoned airfield in the California desert. At first they thought they'd found sanctuary but their troubles were about to get a lot worse.
This is the debut novel by Ben Tripp and I have to say, it's an absolute cracker. Danny Adelman is a very flawed individual. She becomes obsessed with finding her missing kid sister, a quest that doesn't end until the last pages of the novel. Because she has so many flaws, she is a more believable individual. After all, none of us are perfect. We all have our faults. But amongst the faults are strengths and Danny's greatest strength is a determination never to give up. It takes her quite a while and a good deal of pain before she realises her friends can be an asset to her and that she doesn't have to do everything on her own. It's a message we should all heed.
The way the zombies are created is one of the most original I've read even though I wasn't convinced about the concept. Still at least Ben was prepared to offer something different. For the most part, his zombies are of the slow-moving variety that I like but as the story moves on, some zombies evolve, becoming faster and far more cunning.
The story is fast-paced and exciting and a worthy addition to any zombie fan's collection. One of the things that I particularly liked about Colin's review was that he stated in no uncertain terms that you should not read the last page ahead of time. He did, and regretted it, because knowing what the sting in the tail was, and believe me, the last five words of the novel are a HUGE sting in the tail, diluted his enjoyment. Now, I never skip ahead to read the last page anyway, but some folk do. Please, if you are at all tempted, resist! I should also mention that it was Colin's mention of the ending that drew me to this novel more than anything else. I was curious to know how it ended. Was the ending worth waiting for? Oh, yes! It most certainly was. It also begs the question, will there be a sequel? I honestly don't know. Hopefully, my review will pique your curiosity as much as mine.

Eolith Zombies 2 and Heresy Zombies 2

2011-10-09T11:57:00.002+01:00

The three zombies I'm going to review today are from the second half of the Eolith range of 28mm scale fantasy zombies sculpted by Steve Buddle. Even though Steve's zombies are designed primarily with the fantasy gamer in mind, these work just as well in a contemporary setting, as I shall show you. Shortly after I bought these, Steve closed down the Eolith website as he was going off to sculpt figures for the evil empire known as Games Workshop. Fortunately he had the good grace to sell most of his 28mm scale moulds to Andy Foster at Heresy Miniatures. So now Heresy are making these figures and that ought to explain why I have titled this post the way I have. Enough waffle, let's look at the figures.

There is something about grossly fat and obese zombies that I like. I just can't get enough of them. So hats off to Steve for sculpting this magnificent specimen at the far left of my two photos. His trousers were meant to be tied up by a piece of cord, but I've painted the two ends of the cord that hang down as a small piece of chain and painted the rest of the cord as a black leather belt. A simple paint job was all it took to transform him from a fantasy zombie into a contemporary zombie. Also, by painting his trousers denim blue was another way of "modernising" him. He has a mass of wounds all over his bloated body, the biggest of which is to the left side of his face and neck.
In the centre of the group is a very dainty sculpt of a small girl zombie. This cute little critter still keeps a tight hold of her dolly. I painted her with her throat ripped open and so blood has soaked down the front of her dress. From behind she looks just like any other normal human little girl. From the front she's the stuff of nightmares.
Finally, we come to my hoodie zombie. Once again, it is the paintwork that has transformed him into a contemporary zombie. He only has one shoe but I have painted it as a trainer, even though it looks like his foot is bandaged from the front. I should have taken a sideways photo to better show it off. I deliberately chose drab grey colours for his clothing to reinforce the drab existance of his prior human life. His life as a zombie is probably not much different to his life as a human. He'll still hang around on street corners with his undead mates offering nothing positive or productive to human society. Yet another waste of skin!
I am a big fan of Steve's work and I'm sorry he's no longer working on his own but I understand that bills have to be paid and even though I'm no fan of GW, he'll certainly earn more with them than if he'd carried on with Eolith. I wish him well for the future. He will be missed.
As for these figures, I think they are delightful. There is a lot of fine craftsmanship in the sculpts of them and they will grace anyone's zombie horde. You can now purchase them from Heresy's website for the very reasonable price of £5.00 for the set of three. At less than £2.00 per figure that is a good price to pay.

Foundry Vampire Hunters

2011-10-05T14:53:00.000+01:00

Vampire slayers must have the lowest life expectancy of any profession. But despite this obvious drawback, there are still brave and hardy folk willing to step up to the mark to rid the world of evil bloodsuckers everywhere. Wargames Foundry make a range of four 28mm scale vampire slayers and I'm going to review them here.

At the far left of the group is VIN061 Father Eamon McSweeney. He looks like a grizzled veteran who has been in many a fight. Note how the right sleeve of his long coat has been ripped off. This guy is just armed to the teeth. His primary weapon is a 5.56mm Minimi Squad Automatic Weapon held in his right hand. In his left hand is a 9mm Machine Pistol with fitted silencer and scopesight. As back-up he has a small pistol in a holster on his right hip, a dagger in a boot sheath on his right leg, a bottle of holy water on his belt, numerous silver stakes and loads of ammo pouches strewn across his chest. His crucifix is prominently displayed hanging around his neck. To further show off his veteran status, I gave him greying hair with a while streak. He's probably only in his early forties. This is a figure that just screams out "player character" or "Star."
Standing by his side is VIN62 Elizabeth Anne McSweeney, whom I'm assuming is Eamon's daughter. With a blonde hair paint job, she'd make a very passable Buffy the Vampire Slayer. By the way, did you know that Buffy's middle name was Anne? That always amused me because if she dropped the name Buffy she'd be called Anne Summers, which prompts thoughts of the well known lingerie stores of the same name. Anyway, Elizabeth Anne is armed with a wakizashi (Japanese shortsword) and a wooden stake. I think she's a beautifully sculpted figure and like her father, just oozes character.
Next in line is VIN025 Sister Wendy. I wish Foundry had chosen a better name for her than that, because whenever I hear the words "Sister Wendy" I think of the old nun who is an art expert on various TV programmes. She appears to be some kind of elite killer working for the Vatican or some secret religious order. Her most obvious weapon is her 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 machine pistol with fitted silencer and scopesight. Her back-up weapons are very similar to Eamon's - pistol, dagger, wooden stake, bottle of holy water and a grenade. I very much doubt it's the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, Monty Python fans! Her left hand is adjusting a microphone from a headset hidden by her hood. At first I thought she was pulling the pin out of a grenade with her teeth but closer inspection revealed that was not the case. Shame!
Finally is the vampire slayer who is best equipped to deal with any undead menace - VIN022 Hot Wax the Flamebabe. I have renamed my figure Marie Saint-Juste because I didn't like Hot Wax as a name or a nickname. Her flamethrower is perfect for incinerating vampires, zombies or any other kind of threat. The question is, is she fast enough to use it? Her back-up is minimal - nothing more than a small flask of holy water, which she is brandishing in her right hand.
Collectively, they make a great team of vampire slayers. They would also work extremely well as zombie hunters. You could just as easily split them up as the figures are sold separately. Knowing how tough most vampires are, I'd recommend keeping them together. I'd like to see how they fare when THW releases its After The Horsemen supplement, due out soon. Rules for vampires will be included in the supplement.
The figures are sold for £3.50 each. But buy them now and you'll get 20% of the RRP whilst Foundry's current sale lasts.

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

2011-10-02T12:37:00.000+01:00

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater is book one of her As The World Dies trilogy. According to Rhiannon the world dies "not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with the rending and tearing of flesh." Once again, we are in Zombie apocalypse territory but this novel differs from many other similarly themed novels by having two female protaganists taking centre stage. It makes a refreshing change to view the start of the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of a female.
The blurb on the back cover describes the story thus "it begins on a peaceful, beautiful morning. Katie, a prosecutor, is driving to work when a dead man jumps into her car and tries to eat her. Elsewhere in the city, Jenni, a housewife, opens a bedroom door to find her husband devouring their infant son.
Fate puts Katie outside Jenni's door when the younger woman flees her zombified family. Fate - and Katie's quick reflexes behinf the wheel - see them safely out of the city while most of the living are chased down by the undead.
The two women begin a cross-Texas odyssey to rescue Jenni's eldest son and hopefully find safety... somewhere... Jenni discovers the great joy of watching a zombie's head explode when she shoots its brains out. Katie learns that her analytical mind is perfect at planning the best attacks and escape routes.
A small, isolated fortified town is their only hope. Fewer than one hundred people have gathered there, clinging to civilization and to hope. They all know the zombies will come for them. But until that day, they will live, and love, and maybe even laugh."
In brief, that's the story. It is very well written with well rounded and developed characters (not just Jenni and Katie) whom you care about and hope will survive. One of my favourite supporting cast was the old lady, Nerit Toombs, who along with her husband runs a gunstore in a tiny village. What I love about Nerit is the fact that she used to be a sniper with the Israeli Army in her younger days. How cool is that? She's just the sort of person you want as back up in a zombie apocalypse because she has lost none of her shooting skills.
Jenni and Katie make a great double act and complement each other very well. Katie tries to avoid combat whenever she can but Jenni relishes in it, especially shooting zombies. Every time she shoots a zombie she sees her husband's face. Theirs was not a happy marriage as he was a drunken monster who'd lash out at her or their children at the slightest provocation. Katie excels in her cerebral skills and is good at making command decisions. Both women suffer great emotional loss. Jenni saw her husband kill her two young children in their home. Katie lost her female spouse to the zombies. Yes, Katie is a lesbian, but not exclusively so as she also finds some males attractive. Both women are fans of George Romero's zombie movies and often comment on them. Most of what Romero depicted in his zombie films was spot on in this apocalypse, although in one detail he was well off mark. The zombies in this novel are of the fast-moving variety. This is probably my one and only quibble with the book as I am not a fan of zombie sprinters. I like my zombies to be of the slow-moving, shambling variety.
That apart, I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish and I can't wait to read book two. That's the big problem with trilogies if you buy them as soon as each part is released you have to wait months for the next part. Part two, called Fighting to Survive is due to be released next month. Book three, called Siege, is slated for an early 2012 release. The First Days is published by Tor and it cost me £8.73 from Amazon instead of the RRP of £9.77. Fans of Mira Grant's Newsflash trilogy and Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comics ought to lap this novel up. Indeed any fans of zombie literature who appreciate good story telling along with intelligent, well developed characters, should add this to their collection if they haven't already. For those who like fast-paced gorefests, Rhiannon doesn't disappoint in that department either.

Vampifan's Views 13 My Monthly Musings part 2

2011-09-28T12:36:00.000+01:00

Vampirella and the evil Lilith by Joe Jusko

As we approach the end of another month it's time for my second monthly musing. On the figure painting front, I finished the 20 assorted figures I mentioned last time and I have another 20 on the go - 18 Wargames Foundry 28mm scale Street Violence Misfits and Outcasts and two extremely rare Cold War Miniatures' 28mm scale corpses that were sculpted for their The Dead Will Walk range but never got put into production. The idea was to make corpse figures of their five survivors. The two I have are of the priest and the redneck in baseball cap, holding a metal club. How I got hold of them is down to two people. My very good friend Roger, aka Rogzombie, wrote to CWM on my behalf. He knew about these ultra rare figures and knowing how much I'd like them, plus as a thank you for the good work I do with my blog, put in a request to Richard of CWM that he let me have a set if there were any still available. I am truly indebted to both Roger and Richard for their kind gesture. I was deeply moved when the parcel arrived containing the two minis. I've mentioned the kindness of bloggers before and here's another example of that.
Another piece of good news, well at least on a personal note, is that I have bought no miniature figures this month. This has given me a great opportunity to make a dent in my mountain of unpainted metal and plastic figures. As long as I paint more figures than I buy I will eventually get on top of it. It'll never happen but I can dream!
I may not have spent anything on miniature figures this past month but the same most certainly does not apply to card models. I've ordered and downloaded quite a few from the Interweb. From WWG I bought three of their new TLX sets - Mayhem Services (I mainly wanted the ground tiles from it - they are excellent!), Shellendrak Manor West Wing and Shellendrak Props. I don't like the West Wing set as much as the original set, although the main staircase is better designed. I already have most of the props and I just bought the new set because I'm such a completist. My loyalty to WWG will never die but it has been severely tested this month as I have discovered some cracking good sets from other sources.
First up is a company called Fat Dragon Games, who mainly produce fantasy models. They have two contemporary sets - Capital City and McDoom's Restaurant. Capital City is a collection of five assorted buildings along with various outdoor props. McDoom's is a single storey fast food restaurant. What I like about both sets is that they come with assorted layers for their textures that you can choose from. This gives you a lot of freedom to texture the building how you want it to look - brand new, or grubby and dirty. The major negative point of both sets is that they lack interior detail and furniture. This isn't a major obstacle for an experienced modeller like me but it may put some folks off.
Next, I discovered a company called Finger and Toe Models (because card modelling need not cost an arm and a leg - groan!). They produce a lot of fantasy and sci-fi models with just a smattering of contemporary models. Four of the five contemporary models I bought - factory, small warehouse, multi-level warehouse and Slum City do come with interior detail but no furnishing. The fifth set that I bought was the Quonset Hut, which I'm currently making and mine will have interior detailing and furnishing. These models, like WWG's, do not come with layered textures. Even so, they are nicely textured and will add variety to my Mayhem City layout.
Finally, quite by accident, I stumbled across another card building website - Dave's Games run by Dave Graffam. His catalogue of models is filled almost exclusively with fantasy buildings, which don't interest me. However, he also makes numerous ruined buildings, which are ideal for most genres and time periods. Even better was the fact that a bundle set of all 17 ruined buildings was on sale for roughly £25.00. That's one heck of a bargain. More so, when you see that most models come with multiple texture layers, giving you oodles of choice in how the buildings will look. You could make millions of these and have no two look alike, such are the number of combinations possible. I was absolutely delighted with this particular purchase. These buildings do come with interior detail and in some cases, with furniture and props.
I was thinking, how likely is it that ruined buildings will appear in a zombie apocalypse and I think they will be inevitable in any large population centre. Gas explosions and fires will be the cause of many. If the military react with extreme firepower against the zombie hordes that will create a lot more carnage. I've already included a few ruined buildings in some of my batreps. You can be sure that more will follow. Now, I just need the time to get all of this new stuff built.
For those of you who told me to get my WWG Mayhem Police Station completed, have no fear, I am working on it. In this past month I got three more rooms furnished, leaving me with just eight more before its finished. To prevent burnout, I've taken a short break to make my Quonset Hut. This is what I'll continue to do - make a few rooms then switch to another simple project. The work in progress photo that I took with my new Black Hawk helicopter model ought to give you some idea of how big the police station will be. It certainly has the largest footprint of any building I have made so far for Mayhem City.
I managed to catch three films at the cinema this month, all on the same day. What a great day out that was! I've already reviewed the excellent remake of Fright Night. The other two films I saw were The Inbetweeners Movie, which was very rude and very funny and Columbiana, a highly enjoyable and fast paced action movie with Zoe Saldano being most impressive as a hitwoman seeking revenge for the death of her parents.
On the reading front, I completed The First Days by Rhiannon Frater. It was excellent and you can expect a review very soon. I am currently reading Rise Again by Ben Tripp, yet another zombie novel that was recommended to me by one of my followers. Thanks, Colin, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
Well, I have wittered on for far longer than I intended so I'll sign off now. Thanks for reading. Oh, note the new background picture for my blog - Vampirella, of course!

WWG Fast Food Vans

2011-09-25T13:07:00.000+01:00

When I reviewed the Microtactix Horseman's Deli and Dry cleaning store I mentioned that I'd make a couple of card vehicles next. Well, here they are - a pair of WWG 28mm scale fast food vans that come from their TLX Mayhem Under Construction set.

Here's a general view of them and you can immediately see that whilst both vans are identical in design, it's only the livery that has changed on them. This particular vehicle is very easy to make, being little more than a box on wheels. The simplicity of its construction was why I chose to make them, as it has been such a long time since I last made any WWG card vehicles and I wanted something easy to build.

Rather off-puttingly, one is called Filthy Fred's Snack Mobile, whilst the other belongs to the Whacky Snax franchise. You can also see that they sell a variety of fast food items, namely hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, fries and pop. I was disappointed to see that bacon sandwiches weren't on the menu! These Americans have no taste!

This side view of them shows the serving hatch and menu. Both vans share the same menu and their prices are identical. I love the fact that the menus are readable. The menu in full from top to bottom reads - hamburger, hot dog, ice cream, pop, fries, soup, pizza (by the slice) and tacos.

I was pleased to see that the two vans have different licence plates. The one for Whacky Snax reads W7 RSP, whilst Filthy Fred's reads W5 OXR.

Looking at the clown face on the Whacky Snax van made me think that this would be an ideal mode of transport for a group of my killer clowns. Ever since reading about the Bozos gang of killer clowns in the original Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game I've been fascinated by evil clowns. There is something downright creepy about clowns. I have a very large collection of circus figures, with probably half of them being clowns. I must review them sometime. Prior to collecting zombies once I learnt about ATZ, I spent a year collecting as many circus figures as I could. This was at the time that the Horrorclix Freakshow expansion set was on sale, and they really kick-started my collection.

The back views of the vans show off their witty slogans. For Whacky Snax we have " Food that's good enough to eat!" and for Filthy Fred's the slogan reads, "Cram it in your face hole!"

These are great additions to the rapidly expanding range of WWG vehicles. Fast food vans of all descriptions are a common site in any town or city, but more especially in places that have a captive audience, like a sporting arena. Mine will be appearing in my ATZ campaign and one of them will definitely appear in my next scenario (coming up soon, you'll be pleased to hear). If you find one early on your campaign they could be a good source for food supplies. Later on and they've either been stripped clean or their food has gone bad.

They were fun to make and just what I needed to get my card building mojo back into gear. I'm working on my Mayhem police station at present but I have so many projects that I want to complete. Whilst my miniature figure buying has thankfully come to a stand still (none bought at all this month) the same cannot be said about my purchasing of card models. I'll tell you more about that in my next editorial.

Reaper Zombie Strippers

2011-09-21T15:16:00.000+01:00

It constantly amazes how figure sculptors keep on bringing out zombie figures that you wouldn't expect to see. These three figures from the Reaper 28mm scale set 50213 Zombie Strippers surely fall into that category. Without any further ado, let's have a look at them.

I haven't named these figures but I think I ought to. For now, however, I'll identify them by their hair colour. At the far left of my two photos above is the Miss Brunette. She is, in my opinion, the prettiest of the three and the one who could most pass for being human. The mottled dead flesh and wound to her left side is a dead giveaway (pun intended) that she is a zombie. I'm rather pleased with how her stockings have come out. I painted them in zombie flesh, the same as the rest of her flesh but gave her legs a couple of coats of Citadel Gryphonne Sepia ink wash. Note the wad of dollar bills tucked into the stocking top of her right leg.

In the centre of the group is Miss Blonde and from the absence of black roots in her hair, she seems to be a natural blonde. She has silver nipple tassels, which to me, denotes that she is a regular stripper. Miss Brunette had bronze nipple tassels, making her a rookie stripper. Hey, there's logic in my madness here! She has ripped a guy's arm off whilst the dead hand still clutches a bunch of dollar bills. Class act, Miss Blonde! More dollar notes have been tucked into the left side of her panties. Her wounds are far more extensive and noticable, particularly on her legs. She has also been bitten in the side of her face.

Finally, is Miss Redhead, the veteran stripper and star of the show, as denoted by her gold nipple tassels. Only the best stripper in the show gets to wear the coveted gold nipple tassels! I love the way how the top of her right boot has curled down to give her legs a lopsided look. Like Miss Blonde, she has stuffed her cash gifts down the side of her panties. From the front, she could almost pass for human, especially in a darkened strip club. But from behind, you can see that a large portion of her back has been chewed away, revealing she is clearly no longer human.

All of the girls come with nipple tassels, of which I'm in two minds about. On the one hand I'd love to see bare boobies and nipples. Hey, I'm a boob man, what can I say? I'm sure if Kevin White had sculpted them for Hasslefree he would not have added the nipple tassels. On the other hand I accept that when it comes to nudity, Americans are more uptight about it than us Brits, and that naked breasts may well affect sales. Whether Reaper would sell more or less is open to debate! Also, I know from empirical research that some strippers do use nipple tassels in their acts, so their appearance can be justified in that sense. I did think about filing the tassels off one girl to give her bare breasts but then decided not to alter her. If I want more raunchy strippers I could always buy a second set to convert.

I have a very high opinion of these figures, even though I am aware that they won't be to everyone's taste. Mind you, considering the subject matter, these have been tastefully sculpted. The sculpting of all three really is of the highest quality. They were a total joy for me to paint and they give me another reason to build my Mayhem City Stripclub/Brothel. They retail for $9.99 from the Reaper website. For a second opinion on these fine figures check out Lord Siwoc/Johnny's review here http://lordsiwoc.blogspot.com/2011/05/warning-adult-content.html

Whilst on the subject of zombie strippers I suppose it would be remiss of me not to mention two films closely related to the subject - Zombie Strippers and Zombies, Zombies, Zombies, aka Strippers vs Zombies. Be warned, both are utter pants! However, I can recommend Zombie Strippers for its humour (Robert Englund, who plays the owner of the stripclub gets all the best lines and is hilarious throughout) and it has fairly decent and gory special effects. The strippers are just okay, apart from the star of the show, Jenna Jameson, whom I found to be a complete turn off. Big plastic boobies - urgh!!! Jenna, put them away! Please!

As for Zombies, Zombies, Zombies, I can find very little to recommend it, other than a rather amusing performance from the black pimp (Anthony Headen). The story, the acting, the girls, the special effects, the dialogue were just too amateurish for my liking. I know its meant to be a tongue in cheek movie but so was Zombie Strippers and that made a much better job of things, even if it wasn't exactly fault free. Buy either film at your peril or if you're easily pleased. I'd rate Zombie Strippers 5 out of 10 and Zombies, Zombies, Zombies 2 out of 10, simply because I have seen worse and the pimp made me smile a few times.

Fright Night 3D

2011-09-18T10:20:00.000+01:00

Here we are half way through September and this is my first film review of 2011. This has not been a good year at the cinema for horror films but, thankfully, that changes with the release of Fright Night 3D - a remake of the 1985 film, Fright Night. Generally speaking, I am not a fan of remakes or reimaginings but I'll make an exception for this film as it beats the original in every department.
THE PLOT. Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is a teenager who lives at home with his mum (Toni Collette) on a suburban estate on the outskirts of Las Vegas. His mum introduces him to their newly arrived next-door neighbour, Jerry (Colin Farrell), an attractive hunk and construction worker. One of Charley's school friends, Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), asks him to help discover why so many of their friends and neighbours have gone missing. Ed suspects it is because Jerry is a vampire. Charley dismisses his theory as pure fantasy but next day when Ed fails to turn up at school he sneaks into Jerry's house and discovers that Ed was right all along - Jerry IS a vampire. Jerry is holding a female victim hostage and Charley tries to rescue her. I won't say how that turns out but it provides one of the biggest scares of the movie!
Charley tries to keep his new found knowledge from his mum and girlfiend, Amy (Imogen Poots), but when Jerry comes a calling that night he begs his mum not to invite him in. I liked the fact that his mum actually believes him rather than dismissing him as being delusional. Jerry takes this very badly and blows up their house. The three humans escape in mum's car but naturally, Jerry pursues them. They survive again but mum is left hospitalised. This forces Charley to seek outside help from a TV magician called Peter Vincent (David Tennant). Peter, who is overly fond of alcohol dismisses Charley, but later in a moment of lucidity realises the teenager is indeed facing a real life vampire, and so offers his help. Jerry and his minion, Ed, attack Charley, Amy and Peter in Peter's luxury apartment. Jerry ends up capturing and biting Amy. He takes her back to his lair, where the climactic battle between good and evil takes place with Charley and Peter determined to wipe out Jerry and his minions once and for all... or die trying!
THE FILM. The film was directed by Craig Gillespie and was based on the Tom Holland film of the same name made in 1985. The screenplay for the remake was written by Marti Noxon, a name that will be familiar to any fans of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as she was one of the show's regular writers. Not surprisingly, she has a good feel for this genre and the script was well written and witty.
THE VERDICT. This is the first vampire movie I have reviewed since Twilight: Eclipse over a year ago. There was much that I liked about this film. Charley is a likable teen, as is his girlfriend, Amy, who's very good-looking. Colin Farrell plays Jerry extremely well. He oozes sex appeal and menace in equal quantities. I liked it when Charley commented on what a ridiculous name Jerry is for a vampire, but if he wants to blend in with society, why not be called Jerry? David Tennant was well cast as Peter Vincent, the very reluctant vampire slayer. We learn that his parents were killed by vampires but he is trying to blot out the memory of their deaths by drowning himself in his work but more especially, alcohol. My only real quibble with the film was the use of the 3D effects. They were sparsely used and to be honest, didn't add much to my viewing pleasure. Even so, I was thoroughly entertained by this offering with its thrills and laughs that took me back to the good old days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, both of which I adored. I can highly recommend Fright Night 3D and I'd rate it 8 out of 10.

Hasslefree Scooby Gang

2011-09-14T11:46:00.001+01:00

Here is a set of figures that I've been dying to review for ages now - Hasslefree Miniatures' version of Scooby Doo and the Scooby Gang - Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy. I've held off reviewing them until I got a decent figure of Scooby. Fortunately, Kevin White, HF's resident sculptor, sculpted an excellent version of Scooby earlier this year. I've only just got round to buying him but he got painted in double quick time.

At the far left of my two photos above is HFN005 Barney, whom we all know as Fred Jones, the handsome leader of the Scooby Gang. For copyright reasons, none of this range are called by the names we normally associate with them. It's no big deal as they are instantly recognisable. Kev has sculpted Fred musing over a problem as he strokes his jaw.Fred's interests include martial arts, wrestling, weight lifting and an obsession with traps. He is hopeless at foreign languages. He likes flirting with attractive women but seems oblivious to Daphne's attraction to him.

Next up is the hot totty of the group, HFN003 Felicity, aka Daphne Blake. Daphne hails from a wealthy family and is noted for her fashion sense and uncanny ability to fall into danger, hence her nickname, "Danger Prone Daphne." Whenever the group has to split up, Daphne always accompanies Fred, sometimes with Velma and sometimes without. Kev's sculpt just oozes sex appeal.

In the centre of my photos is the brains of the group, HFN002 Louise, or rather, Velma Dinkley. Velma has a great love for science and obscure subjects that help solve whatever mystery she's working on. She is extremely near-sighted and frequently loses her glasses at the worst possible moment. Velma is supposed to be a "plain Jane" but am I the only one to think that when Linda Cardellini portrayed her in the two live action movies, she was hotter than Daphne? Kev has sculpted Velma holding a large reference book, a typical pose for her.

The fourth and final human of the group is HFN004 Wolsey, whose real name in the TV series and films is Norville Rogers, whom we all know as "Shaggy." Shaggy is the owner of Scooby Doo and is renowned for his cowardice and love of eating. Once again, Kevin's sculpt, showing Shaggy in a typical slacker pose, scratching his head, whilst looking bemused is perfect.

Finally, we come to the hero of the show, Scooby Doo himself. HF have named him HFL405 Hamlet, after another Great Dane (groan!). When I first saw the figure of Scooby/Hamlet I thought it was too big. But looking at pictures of Scooby and other Great Dane dogs, he's not at all. They really are a tall breed of dogs. Scooby is as big a coward as Shaggy, despite his impressive size. he loves all the food that shaggy likes, but is especially fond of "Scooby Snacks," a biscuit-like dog treat.

These are a great range of figures and are exceptionally well sculpted by Kevin. You could use them as generic students using the names provided by Hasslefree, but who'd want to? They what they are - Scooby Doo and friends. The four humans cost £3.50 each and Hamlet/Scooby costs £4.00.
For those wondering how they'd fare in a zombie apocalypse I present this stunning piece of artwork I found on the Internet. Velma has stepped up to the mark as a zombie killer. Scooby has "manned up" and now rips zombies to pieces. But alas, it's R.I.P. Shaggy, Fred and Daphne.

Forces of Valor UH-60L Black Hawk Helicopter

2011-09-11T11:50:00.001+01:00

I mentioned in my last editorial that I had ordered a Forces of Valor 1/48th scale U.S. UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter from Amazon.co.uk. Well, it arrived soon afterwards and I'm mightily impressed with it. Now this is not a blog-site for modern military hardware but I bought this model for a very specific need and that is to use it in my ATZ campaign. So because of that connection, I figure it warrants a review here.

Here we see it on its clear plastic flight stand in all of its glory. This is a die-cast metal model with hard plastic fittings. The four main rotor blades and tail rotor were separate plastic components. As were the stub wings (called the External Stores Support System) and the ordnance you can fit on them. The model comes with optional external fuel pods, which I haven't used. You also have the option of omitting the E.S.S.S. altogether for an unarmed version. That's something I'll probably do when I get my second model.

This photo shows it from above and behind. Note that the passenger door slides open and shut. I've shown it open here to give you a look at the seats inside. The interior detail is just as impressive as the exterior detail. In the previous photo you can clearly see one of the two machine gunners operating a 7.62mm M240H machine gun from just behind the cockpit.

This photo above shows the right side of the helicopter with the passenger door fully closed. The markings on the helicopter are for the Baghdad 2003 campaign. I like the way it tilts forward on its stand. The stand is detachable, by the way.

This is a view of the Black Hawk that very few enemies would want to see. Eight Hellfire missiles and eight Hydra rockets pointing at you is something to give you good cause to raise the white flag.

This photo shows the left side of the Sikorsky Black Hawk. The rotor blades and tail rotor move, as does the two front wheels but oddly, the back wheel does not move. According to Wikipedia, each UH60L Black Hawk costs $5.9 million dollars. My model that I have here cost me £42.99.

Here I show the rear of the helicopter. As I mentioned in my intro, I bought my model from good old Amazon because they offered the cheapest version of this model that I could find on the Internet. There are much cheaper versions if you fancy a plastic kit model. I thought about that option but rejected it because of the time it would have taken me to make and paint it. Plus, a die-cast model is far more durable and because I want this model for gaming purposes rather than a display model, paying the extra for the die-cast model seemed like a sensible decision. I'll admit it is pricey but I could afford it and I really wanted one. I'm very glad I did buy it and now I can't wait to use it in action.

I'd normally end my review here but I figured I'd give you a bonus picture of the Black Hawk in action. It has just landed on my only WWG building with a helipad - my unfinished police station. This is the first time I have ever shown a work in progress card model, so I hope you appreciate it. So many of you made requests to see the police station that I had to show you it. I need to fit a ladder up to the helipad, along with a radar dish and a couple of searchlights to complete the exterior. Inside, I need to make a lot more furniture. You'll be pleased to know that I am currently working on it and this time I will finish it! The figures shown above are from my range of Black Scorpion 28mm scale U.S. Army soldiers to show how well the Black Hawk lines up against them. I think that the Black Hawk is a perfect fit for my 28mm scale figures.

My ATZ Campaign - Day 43 - SWAT Gets Spooked part 2

2011-09-07T10:28:00.000+01:00

Last time we left Team Vampifan just as they were about to enter the Horseman's Deli. What delights await them inside?
TURN 6. Activation - Vampifan = 5, Zombies = 4

Billy moved adjacent to the knocked down zombie girl and administered the coup de grace. Hannah was the first to enter the deli and found it to be empty. Jamie, Gap and Vampifan followed her inside. I've made a slight boob with the positioning of my Risks and Rewards card in that I've hidden the Resource notice. I assure you, it did say Nothing.

The zombie who had been feasting on the second ganger had finished her meal and moved next to the first ganger to see what juicy morsels she could take from him.

The nude zombie crossing the road moved closer to Billy, who seemed unaware of her. There were no zombie reinforcements rolls to be made this turn.

TURN 7. Activation - Vampifan = (2) 4, Zombies = (2) 6
A tie off in the Activation roll meant a re-roll and the zombies unable to activate. The nude zombie crossing the road attracted the attention of Gap. He ignored Vampifan's cruel jibe that she was the first nude female he'd seen in the flesh and put her down with a single bullet to the head.

Vampifan and Hannah climbed up the step-ladders to the store-room on the roof. Although it was unoccupied it did contain another Food Resource, which was found by Hannah. I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements. None turned up.

TURN 8. Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 4
Vampifan and Hannah climbed back downstairs to rejoin their colleagues.
The two female zombies continued to feed on the Poor Little Rich Kid.

TURN 9. Activation - Vampifan = 4, Zombies = 2
Team Vampifan walked along to the entrance of the large Folding Unit Structure (FUS).
The two female zombies finally finished devouring the ganger. Yum, yum!

TURN 10. Activation - Vampifan = (5) 6, Zombies = (5) 5
Another roll of doubles for Activation and again, Team Vampifan came out best. They entered the large FUS and found it occupied by two Military types. I decided to make them SWAT Troopers because they react as Military not Police... plus they were closer to hand! Both were Rep:5 and they were armed with a BA Pistol (Trooper Barker) and an Assault Rifle (Sergeant Richardson). Barker is a Foundry figure and Richardson is a Heroclix figure. In addition, there was a Grenade Resource. Note that the second Risks and Rewards card is used solely to determine the Rep and weaponry of the second SWAT guy.
It was time to roll on the Meet and Greet table (see p.45 of BDTZ). Vampifan initially rolled 9d6 (6d6 for his Rep plus 3d6 for outnumbering the opposition by 3). Sergeant Richardson just rolled 5d6 for his Rep. After four roll offs Vampifan won 1-0. This meant that the SWAT team would join Team Vampifan, but only for the remainder of this scenario. Then they would leave peacefully. Billy found the grenade, which he promptly handed over to Vampifan for safe keeping.

TURN 11. Activation - Vampifan = 1, Zombies = 3
The two female zombies moved to the junction of the road.

Team Vampifan emerged from the large FUS, with the two SWAT Troopers bringing up the rear.

TURN 12. Activation - Vampifan (6) 5, Zombies = (6) 1

Woot! Double sixes for activation! That meant rolling on the Random Events Table (see p.52 of BDTZ). I rolled an 8 on 2d6 for a result of "a random character opens fire at the nearest building at "shadows"." The spooked person turned out to be Trooper Barker, who fired his BA Pistol twice at something he thought he saw but wasn't there. Sergeant Richardson exchanged a few harsh words with him. He was not well pleased at his colleague's lack of professionalism. Barker's face turned red with embarrassment.

I rerolled the Activation dice and this time Team Vampifan went first. They moved into the medium FUS. Inside were two zombies but no Resources.

The zombies lost the Surprise roll and were gunned down and killed by Vampifan and Gap.

The two female zombies moved further across the road junction, attracted by the sound of gunfire. Note the bullet marker, indicating Trooper Barker's speculative shots. I rolled 4d6 for zombie reinforcements and scored two successes. Both arrived close to the overturned green camper van.

TURN 13. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 3

The four zombies moved closer to the two SWAT Troopers, who were standing guard outside of the medium FUS.

This triggered an In Sight Test for the SWAT duo. They both passed 2d6 and could fire at any zombies within 6". They fired one shot each at the two female zombies and killed them both.

Vampifan led his friends back outside and walked down the street towards the small FUS. The SWAT troopers followed but held their fire against the remaining two zombies. At this distance they were no threat.

I rolled 2d6 for zombie reinforcements and scored one success. He appeared at the back of the medium FUS.

TURN 14. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies =6

Vampifan was the first to enter the small Folding Unit Structure, which was the last unexplored building on the board. Inside were one zombie and a set of Keys Resource. Vampifan and the zombie rolled to see which of them won Surprise. Vampifan rolled a 5, giving him a total of 11, a result that the zombie couldn't come close to no matter what he rolled. The best the zombie could achieve would have been a 7.

So, Vampifan blew the back of the zombie's head off with a single 5.56mm shot. By now only Vampifan and Gap were eligible to find the Resource. Gap got lucky and he pocketed the keys to the yellow hatchback parked just outside. I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements but none decided to show.

TURN 15. Activation - Vampifan = 4, Zombies = 3

Team Vampifan exited the small building and proceeded off the board. Before leaving, Gap handed over the car keys to Sergeant Richardson and told him he could take the car. Both groups bade farewell to one another and departed. With no humans left on the board the remaining three zombies just shuffled about aimlessly.
So, game over and all that remained to do was roll for Rep increases or decreases. Vampifan actually performed the worst out of the group despite killing more zombies (and humans) than anyone else. By not finding a Resource this mission was classed as a failure for him. If I rolled a 1 on 1d6 he'd drop down to Rep:5. Ironically, I rolled a 6 for him, so if he had found a Resource he'd have advanced to Rep:7! I think it is probably best he didn't as that would have made him uber-powerful! Still, I was pleased he remained at Rep:6.
Gap found the Keys but he failed his Rep Increase roll and remained Rep:5
Hannah found a Food Resource and she succeeded in her roll to increase her Rep. She is now Rep:5
Jamie also found a Food Resource and she too, succeeded in her roll. She is now Rep:4.
Billy found a Grenade Resource but he failed to increase his Rep. He remained at Rep:3.
This was a curious game to play. At no point in the scenario did I feel that Team Vampifan were in any real danger. The PEFs were dealt with very easily. The zombie numbers were thankfully light, no doubt due to there being not much gunfire. Plus, being in the suburbs is much safer than being in the city centre. To me, this was a walk in the park for Team Vampifan. Please don't think I'm complaining because I'm not. It's great when the Dice Gods are this kind. Games never pan out how I think they might and it is for this reason that I love ATZ so much. You just never know what's going to happen because of the randomness of the dice rolls you have to make. Despite Vampifan's failure to find a Resource, this was a very successful mission for the team and having both Hannah and Jamie increase their Reps was a nice bonus. If all goes well, I plan on playing two more scenarios in October and another in November.

My ATZ Campaign - Day 43 - SWAT Gets Spooked part 1

2011-09-04T11:14:00.001+01:00

Just over a week had passed since Team Vampifan's encounter with the Wild Hogs' biker gang and the Team Hale survivors. Vampifan led a team of four companions out on a new Discovery mission, with Food Resources topping their list of priorities. These are the stats of those who took part in this mission -
Vampifan; Rep:6 Star, Nerves of Steel and Slow, armed with an Assault Rifle, BA Pistol, Knife and Body Armour.
Gap; Rep:5 Grunt, No Attribute and armed with an Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Hannah Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt, Stone Cold, armed with a BA Pistol and Knife.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Brawler armed with a Pistol.
Billy Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Wuss armed with a Catapult.
Big Sil and Angie stayed behind to guard their base and took no part in this mission.
HOUSE RULE I am still using Oliver/Whiteface's house rule on when Ragers, Smarties and Psykers may appear. Very basically, at the start of each scenario you roll 1d6. On a roll of 6 Ragers appear as per the rules of the I, Zombie supplement. Otherwise, play on as normal. Smarties and Psykers can only appear after the arrival of Ragers. The full rules can be found on Oliver's blog site here http://obviouslyzed.blogspot.com/2011/05/house-rule-lazarus-timeline.html I rolled a 4 on the d6 so no Ragers would appear in this scenario.

The game was played on a 3' by 3' board divided into nine equally sized sectors, with sector 1 being at the top left of the photo with the single clump of trees in it. Sector 9 was at the bottom right of the board and contained my newly made deli and dry cleaner's building.

Team Vampifan started the game in sector 7, just next to the bus shelter. They were headed to the deli and dry cleaner's and to be fair, I could have placed them outside it quite legitimately. However, I decided to dice which of the three sectors (7, 8 or 9) they'd start in and it turned out to be sector 7.

I rolled for the placement of the three PEFs, along with their Reps.
PEF:1 was Rep:1 and was placed in sector 6, behind the large Folding Structure Unit (FSU).

PEF:2 was Rep:3 and was placed in the centre of Sector 4, in the open and in sight of Team Vampifan.

PEF:3 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 2 to the side of the red van.

As PEF: 2 was in sight of Team Vampifan it had to be resolved before play could begin properly. However, before that I had to determine if any of Team Vampifan were affected by Lack of Sleep. Fortunately, none of them were. They'd all slept well prior to setting out on this mission. So, I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table to see what this PEF was. I got a result of Encounter. I rolled 2d6 on the Random Road Encounter table found on p.56 of the Better Dead Than Zed rulebook and scored a 7, indicating hostile Gangers. There were four of them, three were Rep:4 and armed with BA Pistols. The other one was just Rep:3 and he carried a Pistol. If you don't recognise the figures they are my Poor Little Rich Kids sculpted by me and based on a design by Monolith figures. Monolith make them in 40mm scale.

Vampifan won the Encounter Awareness test by one and his team could take an Insight Test, using 2d6. Vampifan and Gap passed 2d6 and could fire normally at the threat. The Vaughn family only passed 1d6 and if they fired they'd have to snapfire. It wasn't necessary, as Vampifan fired a three round burst at the gangers. He hit two and put them Out Of the Fight (OOF). A good start! The other two Gangers took the Leader Lost test and passed 0d6. Oops! They had to retire but seeing as they'd lost half their gang and were heavily outgunned I decided that their best bet was to leg it off the board whilst they could.

Day 43 - SWAT Gets Spooked part 1
This Discovery mission took place in the suburbs of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. Note that any reference to the basic rulebook will use the abbreviation BDTZ, whilst references to the I, Zombie supplement will use the abbreviation IZ.

TURN 1. Activation - Vampifan = 5, PEFs = 2
Vampifan decided to leave the two wounded gangers where they were. They no longer posed a threat. He led his team at a cautious walk across the road toward the dry cleaning store. He planned on searching all five buildings in turn as he moved northwards up the main street, starting with the dry cleaner's and ending with the small FSU.
I rolled 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table for the remaining two PEFs. PEF:3 passed 0d6 and remained in place. However, PEF:1 passed 1d6 and moved into sector 5, in cover behind the overturned green camper van, but in sight of Team Vampifan.

The dice rolls indicated this was a Hostile encounter, consisting of six zombies. Seeing as zombies can never claim cover bonuses, I placed them in the open. Vampifan easily won the Encounter Awareness Test and he and his team were allowed to take the In Sight test using 3d6 instead of the normal 2d6. All five of them passed 2d6, which turned out to be unfortunate as they had to hold their fire if the zombies were more than 6" away. They were about 8" to 9" away.

All that was left to do this turn was to roll 3d6 for zombie reinforcements for the three shots Vampifan had fired at the gangers prior to the turn starting. I scored one success and a female zombie moved onto the board close by the two wounded gangers, obviously attracted by the smell of their blood spilling out of them.

TURN 2. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 3, PEF = 6

The female zombie who had arrived at the end of last turn moved next to one of the OOF gangers and greedily began to feast on his warm flesh. This would keep her occupied for five turns.

The other six zombies advanced on Team Vampifan but with a movement rate of 6" they obviously could not reach them this turn.

This time Team Vampifan were allowed to fire when they activated and they gave the zombies hell! Vampifan opened the score with a three round burst that hit two zeds and killed them easily. With the Easy to Hit rule if Vampifan hits a zombie he is guaranteed a kill because by rolling 1d6 against his Rep of 6 he can never fail. Gap did equally well, hitting twice out of his three shots and scoring two more kills. Hannah fired her .44 Magnum twice. She hit once and blew the head off zombie number five. Finally Jamie fired her Pistol once. She rolled a 6 to hit followed by a 1 to wound - the perfect kill! All six zombies were wiped out.

The last PEF failed to activate this turn so I rolled 9d6 for zombie reinforcements. I scored three successes. One, a little girl, emerged from the front door of the large FSU, another female zombie appeared close to the OOF gangers and the third, a nude female, arrived via the wood in sector 7. Note in the photo above that I have forgotten to remove Vampifan's three-shot bullet counter from next to the bus shelter. Ooops! It should have gone at the end of Turn 1.

TURN 3. Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 1, PEF = 4

PEF:3 still couldn't activate. Team Vampifan moved closer to the entrance of the Magic Clean! Dry Cleaning store.

The second female zombie who had turned up close to the second OOF ganger made a beeline for him and began to rip the flesh from his prone body. Her feasting would last for two turns. The other two zombies shuffled ever closer to Team Vampifan but were still too far away to be a threat. There were no zombie reinforcements to roll for this turn.

TURN 4. Activation - Vampifan = 3, Zombies = 5, PEF = 6

The PEF and the zombies could not activate this turn so Team Vampifan entered the dry cleaning store. I shuffled my deck of Risks and Rewards cards and turned over the top card to reveal one zombie and a Food Resource.

Vampifan beat the zombie on the Surprise roll off and placed a single bullet in the forehead of the female teenager zombie. I rolled to see who the lucky person was who found the Food resource and it was young Jamie. I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements but none turned up.

TURN 5. Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 1, PEF = 2

Team Vampifan moved back outside with Billy and Jamie taking point duty. Billy waited until he was just 2" away from the little girl zombie before firing his catapult at her. He managed to score a hit but only knocked her down. As a consequence the last PEF became visible. I rolled to see what it was but it turned out to be a false alarm.

The nude zombie from the woods moved onto the main road. The other two zombies continued to feast on the gangers. There were no zombie reinforcements to roll for because Billy's catapult was a silent weapon.

TO BE CONTINUED

Vampifan's Views 12 Start of my Monthly Editorials

2011-08-31T14:54:00.004+01:00

Vampirella by Joe Jusko

I recently received a very interesting suggestion from Joe (aka Zabadak), one of my followers, who wrote -

"On the subject of your blog could I encourage you to add one more post a month? I’d like to “hear” your thoughts, ideas and viewpoints as well as your reviews on film, figures, books, etc. You’ve done a few like that in the past, and I’m sure many of your other followers appreciate learning how your thought processes are working, what plans you are making or abandoning. From other blogs I’ve read, you do seem to be the Guru of the Undead in many people’s eyes. Your name and site crop up everywhere. So how about it, on the first or last day of the month in addition to the normal blogging schedule, a paragraph (or two) on Vampifan’s thoughts?"

My immediate reaction to this was, what a brilliant idea, closely followed by, how come I haven't thought of doing this? So, every month, I will post an editorial on exactly what Joe has suggested.
I'll kick off with what's currently on my painting table and it's a real eclectic ( I love that word!) mix. I cleared the decks yesterday so this lot are what I have chosen to get painted next - 6 Black Cat Bases 28mm scale Screaming Nighthawks bikers (all on foot and includes their pet Alsatian), 4 Eureka Miniatures 28mm scale zombies in barrels (a present from Fran aka the Angry Lurker), 4 Foundry 28mm scale vampires, 3 Reaper 28mm scale geeks (a present from Roger aka Rogzombie), 2 Hasslefree 28mm scale adventurers (Scooby Doo and Spike the vampire or as HF call them, Hamlet and William) and finally, a RAFM 28mm scale businessman (another present from Fran). I like to paint no more than 20 figures at a time and that's exactly how many I have to paint here. I prefer to base my figures before I paint them and this lot are waiting to get based. Basing for me means adding sand and pieces of Fuller's Earth cat litter to my bases with PVA glue, then coating the base with watered down PVA glue to help seal it. Hopefully, I'll have them finished before my next editorial. A batch like this would normally take me about three weeks to paint.
On the card modelling front I plan on making some vehicles next. As it has been such a while since I last made any vehicles I'm going to start with something easy and make the two fast food vans from the WWG TLX Mayhem Under Construction set. These vans sell hamburgers, ice cream and other snacks and are based on the design for the ambulance, police van and gold bullion van that I've already made. Once I've made them, which shouldn't take more than a day or two, I'll restart my work on my Mayhem Police Station. I have 11 rooms that need furnishing out of a total of 25. If I do them one room at a time and take a break to build something else, like another vehicle, in between each room, I should avoid burning out again. Of course, the closer I get to finishing it, the quicker I'll want to finish it. Building it has been a marathon but hopefully, I'll finish with a sprint. I may do something I've never done with any building before and that's let you see some work in progress photos. Any takers? Yes, I thought as much!

Moving on, I've just made a rather expensive purchase. For years now I have been after a 1/48th scale U.S. Black Hawk helicopter, preferably die-cast instead of a plastic model. Whilst surfing the Internet on Monday I came across one for sale from a UK model store. Alas, it had a price tag of about £52. Yep, very pricey but I really wanted it. Purely on a whim I decided to see if my good friend, Amazon.co. were selling it. Yes, they were. Their price was £42, still expensive but it was £10 cheaper. So, I've ordered it from Amazon. Its made by Forces of Valor, who are a good firm. The main reason that I want it is to use in my ATZ campaign. Sometime in the future you will see it in action. I have a number of plans for it, not least of which is that encounter on P.52 of the Random Events table of Better Dead Than Zed "Black chopper flies overhead and pulls zombies 12" away from any survivor."
Actually, the Black Hawk is just about the only gaming-related item I've bought this month. I bought and downloaded a few new models from WWG (Mayhem Corporate set, Mayhem Props, Mayhem Traffic and the Podtel building). As for figures, I bought 10 new Hasslefree 28mm scale adventurers, including the two now on my painting table. I'm making a real effort to spend less on miniature figures until my lead mountain is reduced considerably. I simply have far too many figures waiting to get painted.
The book I'm currently reading is The First Days by Rhiannon Frater, a zombie novel that interestingly has two females as its main heroines. It's part one of a trilogy, so if I do like it, which I think I will, I'm going to have to wait for parts two and three. Oh, well!
I've noticed that in recent years my trips to the cinema have become less and less frequent. From a high of once a week not too long ago I now average about one trip per month. Am I becoming more selective or are there just too few decent films being made? I dunno. I haven't seen any undead related films this year. I did see two films this month, which was a bonus. First up was Captain America: First Avenger, which was quite good and not as bad as I feared it might be. I'm more interested in Marvel superheroes than those from DC. Next, was a serious contender for my film of the year, The Guard, starring Brendan Gleason. What a powerhouse performance he gives, as he is in practically every scene. He is so funny and incredibly politically incorrect. This low budget Irish film was about a Garda policeman (Gleason) who helps an FBI Agent (Don Cheadle) to hunt down a gang of drug smugglers. An absolute joy and so different from the Hollywood blockbusters that so often fail to deliver. It just goes to show that if you have a good script you don't need megabucks to make a good movie.
As you all know, I've just completed another ATZ scenario and I'll post part one this coming Sunday and part two next Wednesday. It did not pan out as I thought it might but then again, no scenario ever does, thanks to the randomness of dice rolling.
I usually add a zombie picture or photo to my editorials. I was thinking that I don't have a lot of zed photos in My Pictures folders. Should I scour the Interweb for more? At which point, a light bulb flashed on above me. Don't be daft, I thought, use some of your Vampirella pictures. After all, I am Vampifan and I have loads of pictures of my favourite vampire. So, I'm going to illustrate these editorials with pictures of Vampirella, starting off with some of the works of my favourite Vampirella artist, Joe Jusko.
Well, I've waffled on for far too long so I'll close now. Thanks for reading this far and I hope I haven't bored you too much!

Microtactix Deli and Dry Cleaners

2011-08-28T12:02:00.002+01:00

It has been such a long time since I did a review of a card building I've made. Sadly, I suffered burnout making my WWG Police Station. For that, the exterior is 95% complete and the interior about 50% complete. Making furniture for it became such a chore, I came to a complete halt. Now though, I've got my mojo back and I thought I'd share with you a pair of buildings I've just made - the Microtactix 28mm scale Horseman's Deli and Magic Clean Dry Cleaners.

Microtactix offer a building called the Horseman's Deli. However, it comes with signage for an alternative establishment - the Magic Clean Dry Cleaners. Rather than choose which one to build I decided to make them both, side by side.

The dry cleaners is a mirror image of the deli's, although as you can see I have omitted the store room from the roof of it. I'd have prefered the roofs to be gridless but that's just a minor criticism.

This front view nicely shows off the large windows and glass doors. I printed the windows and doors onto transparency paper to give the model that realistic glass look. If you're not into that kind of super detailing, just use the ordinary printed version. For me, the doors were quite a challenge to make. I hinge my doors with masking tape sandwiched in between two thin pieces of card, upon which I glue the image of the door, which I print out on matte photo paper (roughly around 120 -130 gm). The problem with these doors is that I had such a thin strip of card to work with at the side of the door to stick the masking tape to. However, there was enough and the hinge worked fine. These doors do open and close and I'm happy with how they turned out.

This is the boring right hand side of the dry cleaners. When I scanned in the original printouts so that I could flip the images for a mirror versions the colours didn't print out true when I printed them out. It isn't a big difference but it is noticable, more so inside than out.

Here's the back of the buildings and you have to look very closely to see that the colours don't quite match. The dry cleaners has more of a blue tinge to the deli's. The windows were printed onto transparency paper and the doors do open and close. These doors were a doddle to make.

The left side of the deli's has been adorned with three advertising posters that Microtactix provide with this set. They add a bit of colour.

This overhead shot of the interior shows all of the additional work I've done to these models. It must be noted that the Microtactix models come without any interior detail. What you see in the photo above and those below are stuff that I've added myself. The wooden floor came from the record store found in the WWG Mayhem Mega Mall set. It was 9" by 7" so I only had to cut off 1" to make it fit the 9" by 6" footprint of these two buildings.

The interior walls are just the same as the exterior walls but reversed so that they fit in properly. To keep things simple, I was originally going to leave both shops unfurnished, but I soon realised I could furnish the dry cleaners with items from the clothing store found in the WWG Mayhem Mega Mall set. Here you see two clothes racks and a shelf unit stocked with folded clothing.

The only item of furnishing in the deli's is the step ladders, which lead up to a deserted storage room. Until I can find some decent furnishing for my deli it will remain as is. At present the store is either in the process of opening or closing down. The poster on the wall of the dry cleaners was provided by Microtactix and was meant to be stuck in the front window. I decided against that and stuck it behind the cashier's desk.

At the front of the dry cleaners are three more props from the clothes store found in the WWG Mayhem Mega Mall set. They are the cash till, the cash desk (much cut down from the original) and the cashier's stool. There should be more furniture in here like for example, a steam press and sewing machine, but what I have is enough to show that this looks vaguely like a dry cleaners.

And finally, the right side view of the interior. I forgot to mention that the step ladders in the deli are a WWG kitbash, that are still available from the Mayhem City kitbash page of the website. A word of warning, I found making mine an incredibly fiddly experience when I reinforced them with mounting card. WWG provide a new set of step ladders in the TLX Mayhem Under Construction set, but to be honest, I find them a bit naff. They are much smaller and nothing more than a box shape with all the gaps between the steps blacked in.
So, now I have two new buildings to add to Mayhem City and for once, they aren't WWG models. These were easy models to make, despite my super detailing like the opening doors, transparent windows and interior design. From a personal perspective, I've regained my enthusiasm for card modelling. I'm going to make some vehicles next, but after that I'm not sure if I should start a new model building or try and finish my police station. Any thoughts?
I've deliberately kept the best bit about these models to last. They are free. Yep, you can download them for free from http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=29057&it=1 They fit in well with the WWG scenery, even if they don't come with interior detail. All told, it took me roughly two weeks to make these shops. They will make an appearance in my next ATZ batrep, which I'm playing right now. Yes, I have this weekend free to play ATZ. Woot, woot and double woot!

Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne

2011-08-24T13:20:00.001+01:00

Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne is the sequel to his first zombie novel, Day by Day Armageddon, which I reviewed last time. The story follows on exactly where part one left off. At the end of Day by Day Armageddon the cast of survivors had found a safe sanctuary to hole up in and call it home. I won't spoil the story by saying where or what their new home is but it is well chosen for its defensive capabilities. Such a place inevitably attracts attention, be it from a marauding gang of humans, zombies or the military.
The marauding gang is dealt with at the close of book one, thanks to a great deal of good luck. The trouble with the zombie threat is that no matter how many they kill, there is always lots more to take their place. Zombies are just relentless. They keep on coming and never give up. In Beyond Exile the author introduces a new threat - the zombie horde. By horde I mean thousands and thousands of zombies gathered together as one massive group of undead. The faster, more intelligent zombies act as scouts for the horde as they probe ahead of them.
The other group I mentioned was the military. We learn that the military forces of the U.S.A. are still functioning, although in a vastly reduced capacity. Once the zombie apocalypse kicked off, the military forces were hit hard and suffered catastrophic casualties and loss of life. The narrator of these two books, as I mentioned last time, is an officer and pilot with the U.S. Navy, who has gone rogue. His first interaction with the military is to rescue a squad of soldiers who had got into difficulties not far from his base. He successfully rescues them after intercepting a radio message they'd sent. He could have ignored them but his conscience would not have allowed such a decision. Despite blindfolding the soldiers on the way back to his base, they still figure out his location when he releases them (again blindfolded) and soon they return with heavy reinforcements. From then on he is forced to work with the military group but interestingly enough, he outranks all of the soldiers, which puts him in command of them, once he reveals his true identity.
This book concentrates far more on military procedures than book one, and J.L. Bourne's real life status as a naval officer comes to the front as he draws on his own experiences.
The format of the book is identical to Day by Day Armageddon - a daily journal written by the unnamed navy pilot. With the introduction of the military I expected the book to take a different turn to book one but that's not really so. The bulk of the novel deals with the hero going on a reconnaisance mission that goes badly wrong when he is being flown by a helicopter. The helicopter crashes and he is the only survivor. How he gets back to base takes up a good chunk of the novel. We learn of his mood swings, his despair at being alone and injured, constantly being alert enough to stay one step ahead of the zombie threat. No matter where he goes, zombies are never far away. His survival skills are tested to the limit. The longer he remained out there the more I doubted if he'd ever get back home. He really does suffer, both mentally and physically.
All in all, this is a fascinating read. I was glad I was able to read both books back to back because after book one I was desperately keen to know what happens next. I mentioned the zombie horde earlier on and they are truly frightening. The book ends with one such horde (there are more as satellites are able to track their movement) attacking the survivors' base. At this point the survivors can call upon military back up. The firepower unleashed upon the horde is phenomenal (A10 gunships were my personal favourite)... but it hardly makes a difference at all! Such is the mass of zombies gathered together. Now that's scary!
Criticisms? I'm going to ignore the typos and bad grammar again, because I think they are deliberate. There were a few ocassions when I thought the narrator was incredibly lucky but I guess a hero needs a slice or two of luck to survive. To be honest, I enjoyed book two more than book one, which given how much I liked book one is very high praise.
Beyond Exile is published by Permuted Press and retails for £8.99 but as I said last time, shop around and you'll find cheaper copies available. I was not sure if there was going to be a book three in this series but one of my followers mentioned that there would be, although possibly in a different format. I hope it happens as I'd be very keen to read it. If you haven't bought either of this novels, I'd recommend buying them both together and doing what I did, read them back to back.

Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne

2011-08-21T15:12:00.002+01:00

There is no better advertising for any product than word of mouth recommendation.When I posted my last book review (for Deadline by Mira Grant), Brother Joseph, one of my followers mentioned that he'd just finished listening to the audio book of Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne and that he'd thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a book that I had been considering buying for quite some time but I kept putting it on the back burner. Brother Joseph's recommendation was enough of a spur to make me buy the novel. I had to buy the novel as I'm not a big fan of audio books. So, to cut to the chase, I'm mighty glad that I did take the plunge and buy it. It ranks amongst the best zombie novels that I have read.
The novel is written as the journal of one man as he struggles to survive in a world overrun by flesh-eating zombies. The story begins on 1st of January (year not revealed) as the narrator makes a New Year's resolution to chronicle his life in a journal. We never do learn the name of the narrator but we do know that he is an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving as an aircraft pilot. This is worth pointing out right from the start, because the actual author, J.L. Bourne is on active duty as a commissioned U.S. Navy officer. It rather begs the question, is J.L. the actual narrator in his imaginary apocalyptic world? I don't know, but his knowledge of all things military gives the book a greater level of realism when he mentions guns, aircraft and other military hardware. In short, the guy knows what he's talking about, and I respect that.
As the story begins, TV and radio broadcasters make increasingly frequent reports about some disease originating from China that is spreading globally. As the days pass it becomes obvious that this is no normal bug that is being spread. People panic and stockpile food and other supplies. The narrator, with access to military broadcasts realises that things are going downhill far too fast and he too stockpiles his home, as well as making it secure from "looters". Reports of cannibalism and the rising dead are dismissed as rumour at first but as the zombie plague spreads the truth dawns and in no time at all we are plunged into the all too familiar zombie apocalypse setting.
The narrator receives a call to report to his unit based nearby in Houston, Texas. He makes the decision to ignore the order and stay at home - a decision that is later proved to be the most sensible one. He starts out alone but soon acquires the company of a friendly neighbour, John, and his dog, Annabelle. They initially decide to stay in Houston but that plan is abandoned when the First Lady announces on TV that numerous U.S. cities will be targetted for nuclear destruction to stem the rising tide of zombies. Houston is one of the cities on the list. So they leave the city and begin to trek across America, picking up more survivors on their travels.
I'll say no more about what happens but I found this a gripping novel of survivalism and humanity. The narrator is well equipped to survive in this harsh, unrelenting environment. He'd certainly start out as a Rep:5 Military veteran if this was an ATZ campaign. But, unlike the action heroes of Hollywood, he does suffer if he gets injured. Wounds take time to heal. There is no such thing as overnight recovery here. Things like dehydration affects the body adversely and he is aware of this.
Pleasingly, there is plenty of zombie action in here to satisfy any fan. The zombies in this novel are the slow-moving kind we are all too aware of from George A. Romero's films. However, after the bombs are dropped, a new breed appears. These are faster and more intelligent than the normal zeds. Have they become mutated by the radiation of the nukes? The answer is a rather vague, possibly.
I've read a few criticisms of the novel claiming that we don't learn enough about the narrator's past. Sorry, but this is just not true. It's all there in the journal if you read it properly. It's just not all in one convenient chapter. You have to probe and search the text to find out who he is and why he is the way he is, but believe me, the info is there. The only thing we don't learn about the narrator is his name and quite frankly, I can live with that.
Another criticism I've read about is that the novel is full of typos and clumsy grammar but I'm not sure if that really is a valid criticism. After all, this is the journal of a naval officer, not an academic, written at times in very stressful and dangerous situations. How good would your spelling and grammar be if you were writing your journal under the light of the moon whilst surrounded outside by a horde of zombies who want nothing more than to rip you to shreds? If this was an ordinary novel then, fair enough, it has been badly proofread. As someone who has studied proofreading, spelling mistakes do jump out at me. But, as I said, this is not a novel, per se, it's a hand written account, and for that reason, I can accept the typos and bad grammar. Quite frankly, it adds realism.
One thing that fans of the novel will appreciate is that the author signs off with an acknowledgement - there will be a sequel! It's called Beyond Exile and I'll review it next time. Day by Day Armageddon is printed by Permuted Press and retails for £8.99. I recommend looking around on the Internet for much cheaper copies. Try Amazon (£5.57) or The Zombie Shop (£7.99).

Black Orc Games Zombies 03

2011-08-17T15:00:00.006+01:00

In a recent editorial (The Kindness of Bloggers ) I mentioned that I received some free zombie figures from Mikko Merilainen (author of Dawn of the Lead blog-site) that he'd sculpted for Black Orc Games. I recently finished painting them and so I thought I'd share them with you.

Mikko sculpted two new 28mm scale zombie figures but as you can see there are three figures in the photos I've taken. The figure at the far left is called Joe the Jogging Zombie. When I first saw I him I was rather put off by the fact that his left side was flat. Also, despite his lack of genitals, I could tell that he was meant to be a nude zombie. I mentioned this to Mikko and he told me that due to a mix up with Black Orc Games they had added a slottatab to his figure when it was supposed to be lying down, hence the flat left side. Mikko kindly sent me a second copy of this figure so that I could have one standing and one prone. Clearly, standing Joe needed some work doing on him. I bulked out his left side with modelling putty, redefined his backside and added his meat and two veg between his legs. The figure has some spectacular wounds on him. There is a huge hole where his lower stomach once was. In between his man boobs is another big hole. When I resculpted his left arm, I added a massive bite wound to it. The flesh has been stripped from the shin of his left leg, he has a piece of flesh torn from the back of his skull, and finally he's had a bite taken from his right buttock. Awesome set of wounds, I say!

The figure in the centre of the group is Joe as he was meant to be, lying down and struggling to get back to his feet. It's a very original concept and I applaud Mikko for coming up with the idea. I added his cuffs, collar and waistband so that it looked like he was wearing a track suit to help tie in with the name Black Orc Games gave him - Joe the Jogging Zombie. I toned down the gore content on this figure. The chest and stomach wounds are still present, as is the bite to his bum. There is also a bite to his right leg which I've made more prominent on this figure than on upright Joe.

I took this overhead shot to better show off the third figure in my photos - namely Matt the Crawling Zombie. As you can see, there isn't much of Matt left. Part of his intestines and other pieces of his innards trail behind him as he uses his hands to propel himself forward. I like this figure a lot as I can always find a need for zombie crawlers.

To be fair, these are not the best sculpted figures on the market. Joe's anatomy shows a number of faults. I don't want to be hyper-critical of these figures, especially when Mikko let me have them for free, but at the same time I do want to give you an honest review. I like the concept of Joe more than the execution, but he isn't a really bad figure. My conversions were fairly minimal and easily done. Matt, on the hand, is a real gem and I have nothing but praise for him. As with all of Black Orc Games' figures these are ridiculously cheap, retailing at a mere $1.00 each.

Studio Miniatures Survivors 03

2011-08-14T12:22:00.000+01:00

Studio Miniatures latest pack of 28mm scale survivors contains three figures that should be instantly recognisable to most fans of the zombie genre. This is Rich and Family or as we fans of The Walking Dead know them, Rick and Family.

At the far left of my two photos is Sheriff Rick Grimes, the hero of The Walking Dead comics and TV series. The figure of Rick, (sorry but I'm not going to call him Rich - we all know who he really is) comes in two parts. His right hand and shotgun are a separate piece from the rest of the body. I had to drill a hole in his wrist and hand and pin the parts together with a very small piece of wire cut from a paperclip to ensure a good fit. The sculptor has shown Rick with his beard and moustache. I'd have preferred a clean shaven version of him, but that's just me being picky. For most of the time in the comics, Rick is clean shaven. He is firing a large calibre Magnum pistol in his left hand whilst holding his police issue pump action shotgun in his right hand.

In the centre of the group is Rick's wife, Lori. I can't find fault with this sculpt at all. It perfectly captures Lori both in stance and way she's dressed, not to mention, likeness. She is holding a pistol at the ready, alert to any danger to herself and family.

Third in line is Rick's son Carl. Carl has been sculpted with his dad's police stetson on, so let's not hear any complaints that it looks too big on him. It's meant to. Also, for those of you who say he never wore it in the TV series, he does in the comics and in the comics he looks almost identical to the figure. I say almost because the sculptor has got two details wrong. Carl has never used a revolver. Early on in the series, Rick gave Carl a pistol for self-defence. At first Lori wasn't happy about this decision but she soon came round to seeing the sense of it. So the figure of little Carl should be armed with a pistol. It would be an easy enough conversion to swap weapons. I won't because it's not that big a deal. The second inaccuracy is that the stetson should have a police badge on the front of it. Minor points, I know, but I thought I'd mention them.

Of course, there's no reason why you should use them as Rick Grimes and family. They work perfectly well as an ordinary family of survivors. The thing is though, now that Studio have made Rick, Lori and Carl, I've no doubt that fans of The Walking Dead will be clamouring for more. My personal choices are for Michonne, Andrea, Dale and Glenn. I guess we all have our favourites and it certainly would be nice to see an expansion to this set. If you buy the white metal version of this set, it will cost £11.99, however, the resin version will knock you back £14.99.

Incredible as it seems I've barely mentioned The Walking Dead on my blog. I couldn't review the TV series when it first aired as I don't have access to satellite TV. I finally got to see it when the DVD boxed set was released earlier this year, by which time I'm sure most of you will have already seen it. For what it's worth I think the comics are without doubt the finest zombie series in print. The TV series more than lived up to my expectations, even though it did deviate from the comics. That's perfectly understandable. It does and more importantly, will, follow the main story arc of the comics but it will add a great deal more. That certainly excites me and I look forward with eager anticipation to series two, although the loss of director Frank Darabont does fill me with concern. Series one set such a high standard. I hope series two can maintain that standard. Sadly, for me, I'll have to wait for the release of the DVD boxed set in 2012 to find out.

Studio Miniatures Zombies 10

2011-08-10T12:55:00.003+01:00

As promised, here is my review of Studio Miniatures' 28mm scale Zombie Mob 008, along with the freebie figure you get if you order this set and Zombie Mob 007 together.

I'm not sure if the zombie in the yellow polo-neck sweater at the far left of the two photos above should still be standing. From the front it looks like he's just been shot in the chest. But from the back you can see he's had the top of his head sliced off - surely a killing blow if ever there was one. When I first saw this figure I was reminded of the zombie in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead film who walks into the spinning rotor blades of a helicopter and loses the top of his head. Instant death! Maybe this guy still has enough brain matter to function. Notice the massive exit wound in his back - it's not hard to miss!
The zombie female in the orange dress is quite tall. The rows of bricks behind her give you a good indication of her size as they are spaced 5mm apart. Her once pretty looks have been marred by a chunk of flesh that has been bitten off her right check. She has also suffered a big bite wound to her left arm and there are claw marks on her right thigh.
The zombie female in the blue top and jeans has not been so badly injured. Her right hand is held over a bite wound on her right thigh. Her jumper and jeans have been holed in a few places but, on the whole, she is a relatively intact zombie.
The one thing that I like most about the fourth zombie in line is that she is still holding onto her handbag, even though the shoulder strap has snapped. You can almost hear her brain thinking, "you can kill me but you aren't getting my handbag. It's mine!" She has a small hole in the left knee of her pants and I have smeared blood over her chin and neck, which has got lost in the shadows of my photo. Sorry about that. She is another zombie who looks virtually intact.

The balding male at the far left of the next two photos above has suffered a small wound to the chest and forehead and a large bite to his left arm. He is leaning over to one side as if unsteady on his feet. From afar you might mistake him for a drunk but not close up.

Standing next to him, you couldn't mistake this gentlemen in the dishevelled suit for anything but a zombie. His mouth is open wide in an angry snarl. Blood from a bite to his right cheek and from victims he has bitten is pooled around his neck and upper chest. A bite has been taken out of his lower right leg, which explains why his gait is so unnatural.

The zombie in the centre of this group is a bloody mess. His most notable wound is on his right arm, where the flesh has been picked to the bone between his wrist and elbow. He also has bite wounds to his right lower leg (major) and left lower leg (minor). The left side of his his face has had a lot of flesh removed. It's fair to say that he must have suffered before turning into a zombie.

The zombie to his left has also suffered badly. His stomach has been ripped open to reveal his innards, which are spilling out. He has a deep wound to the back of his left thigh. His right hand is covered in blood, most likely his own as he tried to stem the blood from his stomach wound.

Finally, I come to the freebie figure, available only if you buy this set and Zombie Mob 007 together. When Studio Miniatures released Zombie Mobs 003 and 004, the free figure was Bub, the intelligent zombie from Romero's Day of the Dead. I made a plea that the next freebie be Big Daddy, the intelligent zombie from Romero's Land of the Dead film but sadly it was just some jerk from Scrubs. (No, I'm not a fan of Scrubs at all!) Fortunately, this time round, Studio have listened to me and here we have Big Daddy in his garage overalls, with a 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Rifle slung over his back. And yes, he does know how to use it. In ATZ, that would make him a Smart Zombie. I just can't fault this figure at all. It is a superb sculpt that perfectly captures Eugene Clark's zombie character. If you are using Smart Zombies in your own games, you just have to get hold of this figure.

This is another set of zombies from SM that shows just why they are at the top of their game. If you want top quality, realistic looking zombies then look no further. Zombie Mob 008 costs £16.99 but do yourself a favour and buy it with the previous mob set, just to get your hands on the sublime Big Daddy figure.

Studio Miniatures Zombies 09

2011-08-07T16:27:00.007+01:00

I was checking my blog archives and I found it hard to believe that I haven't reviewed any Studio Miniatures zombies and survivors this year. That changes now as I review Zombie Mob 007.

As with all of the Studio Mob sets, you get five male zombies and three female zombies. The two photos above show four of the male zombies, starting at the far left with a crouching zombie who has been shot in the chest by a high calibre bullet. The exit wound in his back is massive. His left knee and shin are all bloody. From a fashion point of view I'm not a fan of his trousers!
Next to him is possibly a former office worker in his shirt and tie. He wears a big chunky, gold watch, which would be a handy item to loot from him. I couldn't find a single wound on him, so perhaps he died of a heart attack.
Moving on, is an overweight zombie dressed in casual clothing and a parka coat with the hood down. When I was painting his hair, I accidentally painted over his left ear. Rather than correct my error, I daubed blood over his ear, which has dribbled down his neck onto his upper chest. That's the beauty of painting zombies - any mistake can be covered up by a spot of gore. He also has two small bullet wounds in his chest and stomach and his right hand is covered in blood.
The fourth zombie in line is a conversion of Studio's "not-Arnie" figure, Dutch. The head has been remodelled and his lower right arm has been bitten off. He has also lost all of the fingers and thunb from his left hand, leaving him with a bloody stump. He makes a fine biker zombie, possibly a Wild Hog. Those of you who remember my last batrep will get that reference!

The next pair of photos show the four remaining figures, starting at far left with the last of the males. He has certainly been in the wars. His left wrist and forehead were bandaged prior to him becoming an active member of the undead. His lower right arm has been chewed to the bone and his right hand is missing completely. Nasty! Blood still flows from his two bandaged wounds, indicating they reopened prior to his first death.
Second in line is one of my favourite zombie figures ever. She is just superb and something very different from Studio's normal zombies (if you can call any of them normal). She is a fat chav zombie, very reminiscent of the obnoxious Vicky Pollard character from the UK comedy series Little Britain. She is just grotesque, which for a zombie is definitely a good thing. Half of her face has been ripped off to reveal a grinning skull beneath. Her left eye has been torn from its socket. Her pendulous breasts are almost spilling out of her tracksuit top and if you look closely, her right nipple is exposed from behind a tear in the cloth. The right arm of her tracksuit has been ripped off to reveal a few bite marks. Her upper back has been scratched and clawed and her left knee is all bloody. Finally, to add insult to injury, a bite has been taken out of her bum! What an amazing figure!
Third in line is a one armed zombie, leaning over to her left. Her left arm from the elbow has been torn off. I have smeared blood around her mouth, chin and right hand. She is such a delicately sculpted figure, the complete opposite to the previous female walking corpse.
The final figure in this set is a conversion of the previous figure. If you compare their lower bodies you can tell that this is the case. Still, it is a clever conversion because the upper bodies look very different. She has had her throat torn out. The left sleeve of her coat has been ripped off but her left arm shows no signs of a wound.
I've said all along that my favourite 28mm scale zombie figures are made by Studio Miniatures and this set does nothing but cement their reputation as the best. The female chav zombie in this set is worth the asking price alone. The quality of the sculpting is as good as it gets and I can tell you that painting them was an absolute joy.
The price of Zombie Mob 007 is £16.99 for the white metal version. When I checked the SM website this morning I couldn't find any price for the resin versions. Either it was an oversight or else Studio have stopped making resin versions. Next time I'll be revieweing Zombie Mob 008 along with a free bonus figure you get if you order both sets together.

Copplestone Bikini Babes

2011-08-03T16:46:00.001+01:00

I bring my trilogy of reviews of bikini babes to a close with a look at Copplestone Castings' set of 28mm scale Future Wars figures from set FW45 Bodyguards in Bikinis. There are five figures in this set but my photos show six figures. Don't worry, all will be explained later.

Unlike the Foundry bikini babes, Copplestone does not give their figures names and I haven't got round to naming them yet. So, for identification we'll just call them Babes 1 to 6. Babe 1 at far left of my two photos is an oriental girl, dressed in a light blue bikini and dark blue high heels. She is armed with a deadly katana, which makes a very welcome change from all the firearms these girls have acquired. Note the big dangly ear-ring on her left ear.
Babe 2, with the platinum blonde hair, crimson bikini with white polka dots and red high heeled shoes holds a BA Pistol in her right hand. It looks like an IMI Desert Eagle and could be either .44 or .50 calibre. Either way, it packs a solid punch.
Babe 3 stands out from the rest in that she is the only girl wearing boots. I had the crazy idea that I'd like her to have a rainbow coloured bikini. It's crazy because there is so little material to play with. Still, I eventually came up with a colour scheme that I was happy with. She is armed identically to Babe 2.
Babe 4, in the white bikini and white shoes is armed with a Sub-Machine Gun that closely resembles the 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5. Copplestone makes generic weapons that look similar to certain contemporary weapons without being a direct copy, which is why I say it looks similar to the MP5.
Babe 5 has gone all girly with her costume - dark pink bikini matched with light pink shoes. She is the third babe to be armed with a BA Pistol.
That should have been the end of this review as those are the five figures that you get with this set. However, for some unknown reason, I get two figures of Babe 5 when I ordered them. Lucky me, huh? So, for Babe 6, I clipped off her BA Pistol and remodelled her left hand so that it held an ice cream cone. I also repositioned her lower right arm and hand. A different paintjob (white bikini with pink roses, red shoes and brown hair) makes her look just different enough from Babe 5. She is a unique figure, unless someone else copies my conversion!
These figures seem like they were made to go together with the Foundry Bikini Babes as they complement each other perfectly. I actually like them better than the Foundry Bikini Babes but it is a close call. I particularly like the Babe with katana. Another reason why these score higher than the two Foundry sets is that they are a lot cheaper. This set of five costs, just £8.50, making them £1.50 cheaper than Foundry.

Foundry Bikini Babes 02

2011-07-31T14:39:00.000+01:00

Following directly on from my last figure review I present Wargames Foundry's second set of bikini babes - set SV066 Gun Girls from the 28mm scale Street Violence range.

The girl who appears at the far left of the two photos above is Matty. I have decided to make her the leader of these girls and my previous set of Foundry Bikini Babes because she looks very different to the other figures in both sets. It's almost as if she was sculpted by a different person. Maybe she was. Her pose is far more dynamic than any of the others as she crouches down whilst advancing. Her weapon is a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 Machine Pistol with a long silencer attached. To denote she was the boss, I gave her a gold bikini. Note that a) she is not a natural blonde, black roots are a dead giveaway, and b) she is the only lass to go bare-footed. I think if she wasn't crouching down so much, she'd tower over the other girls.
To her left is Lydi, a dark-skinned beauty in a yellow bikini and white strappy shoes. She is nonchalantly holding a 7.62mm Heckler and Koch G3 Assault Rifle in her left hand. I do like how the sculptor has made about half these girls left-handed. It's a good call.
The group's heavy weapon expert stands in the centre of the group. Effie has armed herself with a Hawk 40mm MM1 Grenade Launcher with a 12 round ammo drum. She wears a white bikini with red polka dots and white shoes. I simply had to paint someone with a polka dot bikini!
The girl in the purple bikini and pink shoes is Lulu. Her face looks Asian to me, so I painted her in bronzed flesh skin tones. Sadly Games Workshop have dropped Bronzed Flesh from their paint range. They have a bloody annoying habit of getting rid of useful colours! Lulu is armed with a 7.62mm AK47 Assault Rifle.
Finally, is Dodo, who is more civilian than ganger. She is armed with nothing more dangerous than a beach ball. With a name like Dodo, she'd soon be extinct if she got into a firefight! I've got nothing against the sculpting of this figure but I do question her inclusion. If she was part of a pack of unarmed civilian babes in bikinis that would be fine. But not part of a gang of well-armed women with military grade firearms.
It's an obvious thing to say but I'm going to say it anyway, if you liked the first set of Bikini Babes then you're bound to like the second set. If you're playing a scenario set on a beach these could prove useful. But, as Doug pointed out last time, you'll probably get far more use out of then if you use them as dancers for a strip club or a pole-dancing joint. This set costs £10.00 and is certainly not a must buy purchase unless you're collecting the complete Foundry Street Violence range, or if you have a specific need for the girls.

Foundry Bikini Babes 01

2011-07-27T14:38:00.000+01:00

It's summer, or at least what passes for summer here in the UK. As I type this the weather is dull, cold and overcast with grey clouds threatening a downpour anytime. Anyway, it must be bright and sunny somewhere in the world, so with that in mind here is the first of three articles to celebrate summer. This figure review looks at the Wargames Foundry set SV052 Ballistic Beach Babes from the 28mm scale Street Violence range.

These five beauties dressed in bikinis and high-heeled shoes make up the first of two sets of Foundry babes with guns. Starting at the far left of the two photos is Babs. I painted her with platinum blonde hair, a pink bikini and white shoes. She holds a 5.56mm Colt M16 Assault Rifle in her right hand.
To her left is the much paler-skinned Val. Redheads tend to be pale-skinned so I didn't want her to have a bronzed flesh body. She was mainly painted using Citadel Elf Flesh, with a mix of Citadel Skull White for the highlights. Besides, giving the girls diffent skin tones provides contrast for the group. Her bikini is lime green and her shoes black. She is armed with a 7.62mm Kalashnikov AK47 Assault Rifle and she is the only one of the five girls to hold her rifle two-handed, ready to fire. Note that she is left-handed.
In the centre of the group is Twinkle. I didn't choose these names - they're the names given to them by the folk at Foundry. Twinkle's white bikini and shoes contrast well with her bronzed flesh and brown hair. She is also armed with an AK47 Assault Rifle.
Standing to her left is Latino babe Jo. Jo's dusky skin tone was achieved by painting her with Citadel Bestial Brown and highlighting with Citadel Snakebite Leather. Her pale blue bikini and shoes, once again, provide a nice contrast. She, too, is a fan of Mr. Kalashnikov, arming herself with the ubiquitous AK47 Assault Rifle.
Last in line is Carron, looking over her left shoulder. She wears a red bikini and black strappy shoes. She has chosen a different rifle to her colleagues - a 7.62mm Heckler and Koch G3 Assault Rifle. It is unusual for Foundry to produce a set of figures with no variety in the weapon types. All carry Assault Rifles, only the manufacturer differs, which makes no difference whatsoever in a game like ATZ.
Although I like these figures a lot, I just can't see much use for them. They are very well sculpted and what red-blooded male wouldn't want to be surrounded by a bevy of armed beach babes? I can accept the notion of streetwalkers arming themselves to form a gang but not a bunch of beach babes. They'd probably work in a one-off scenario like the Marsden Beach Massacre but I couldn't see them surviving in a campaign. Mind you, if you stray away from the world of horror, they'd be ideal as a group of bodyguards to an evil mastermind in a James Bond or Austin Powers type scenario! If you think you can find a use for them, they cost £10.00 for all five figures.

Foundry Street Girls 02

2011-07-24T16:53:00.001+01:00

Moving on with my review of Wargame Foundry's 28mm scale Street Girls from their popular Street Violence range are two more sets - SV038 Mistress Medusa's Dominatrix Coven and SV053 Mistress Olivia's Street Girls.

I'll begin with Mistress Medusa's Dominatrix Coven, shown above in the first two photos. Mistress Medusa Rowntree is the first African/American street girl we've encountered in these two reviews. She has a leather fetish, as she is dressed in a red leather cat suit with thigh length red boots, a red spiky leather backpack and a long black leather duster. She is armed with a 5.56mm M16 Assault Rifle. With her huge afro, which I'm sure I made larger with modelling putty. You have to think of 1970's "Blaxploitation" movies when you see her.
Her chief lieutenant, Pandora Jones, really stands out in her yellow lingerie, boots and gloves, which contrasts well with her brown skin. Equally striking is her blonde hair, which certainly isn't natural. She is armed with a more compact Assault Rifle than Medusa - a 5.56mm Colt Commando.
In the centre of the group is the third African/American Street Girl - Peach Sunday. With a name like that, I had to give her peach coloured hair, which she wears in two very striking ponytails. She is also armed with a 5.56mm Colt M16 Assault Rifle. In addition, she has a pistol in a holster on her right hip. Note her black mask worn around her eyes.
Fourth in line is the very cheeky Molly Mojo. She wears a blue rubber dress (with golden yellow admiral's cuffs and epaulettes), which has been styled to show off maximum cleavage, of which hers is most impressive. What really makes you sit up and notice her is when she turns round. Two panels have been cut out to reveal her back and her bum. Very nice, I say! Her choice of weapon is unusual - a 9mm M2 Benelli Machine Pistol.
Finally, is the group's submissive girl - Justine Markowitz. If you have dominatrices then you need someone for them to dominate. This is where the submissives come in. It is often said that it is really the subs who are in control. Justine wears nothing but a pair of rubber panties, with a zip at the front. She has been manacled at the wrists and ankles and a gag has been attached to her mouth. A chain hangs between her breasts from nipple to nipple. Her only use in a game of ATZ would be as bait, which would be a callous tactic but may be enough to distract a horde of zeds long enough to escape from them.

The fourth group of Foundry Street Girls (or second in this review) are Mistress Olivia's Street Girls. At the far left of the next two photos above is Mistress Olivia Tate, who to me, bears more than a passing resemblance to singer Beyonce, or as I call her, Bouncey! Mistress Olivia is dressed in a long, brown overcoat, a fishnet bodysuit, black lingerie, black boots and black gloves, topped off by sunglasses and a black peaked cap. She has a pair of pistols in holsters strapped to her thighs.
Standing to her left is Martha "Red" Berry, who wears identical clothing to Mistress Medusa, although her coat has a fur collar. She has a big shoulder bag slung over her left shoulder. In her right hand she carries a 7.65mm Model 61 Skorpion Machine Pistol.
In the centre of the group is the most heavily armed of all the Street Girls (including the ones reviewed last time). This is Pam Lebenzon, who wears fishnet lingerie and black leather boots, gloves, cap and choker. the most noticable aspect about her is her 5.56mm Colt M16A1 Assault Rifle with underslung M230 Grenade Launcher. "Say hello to my leetle friend!" as Al Pacino so memorably said in the film, Scarface. As a back up weapon she has chosen the 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun. She has plenty of ammo pouches on her belt. This girl means serious business!
Next up is a Sarah Jane Reeves, a figure that has been remodelled from Molly Mojo. Sadly her sexy rear cutouts have been replaced. Maintaining the nautical theme I painted her dress white and kept the golden yellow cuffs and epaulettes. A backpack has been added to her and she is now armed with a 7.62mm Kalashnikov AK47 Assault Rifle.
Fifth in line and the final figure from these sets is Denise "Cop Girl" Cooper. She is a conversion of Rollergirl and Honey Wilde, whom I reviewed last time. Her Cop Girl outfit of rollerskates, hotpants, cropped shirt and peaked cap would appear to have been designed by a porn film director. Still I admire her choice of weapon - the 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 SMG with scopesight.
If you combine these two sets with the previous two that I reviewed last time you'll have a company of 20 well armed and sexy fighting females... well 19 to be exact. Justine the submissive is hardly a fighter. Perhaps she's the club mascot!
My three favourite figures from all four sets are Fifi Lamour the French maid from the first set (a French maid with a Steyr AUG Assault Rifle - awesome combo), Molly Mojo (purely for her blatantly sexy costume) and Pam Lebanzon (an incredibly sexy woman with a fantastic pair of weapons (insert own joke here!)).
If you liked the first two sets it goes without saying that you like these two sets as well. Personally, I'm a big fan of all four sets and I'd like to feature them in my ATZ campaign. I seem to remember a good while ago that Doug suggested I have Team Vampifan helping a madame and her girls to defend their brothel or strip club against a horde of zombies. Well, I've got the heroes, I've got the street girls, I've got the zombies. All I need is to build a brothel or a strip club. Sigh, I'll put it on my list of things to do!
The price for sets SV038 and SV053 are £10.00 each.

Foundry Street Girls 01

2011-07-20T15:27:00.000+01:00

Wargames Foundry makes more sets of SWAT Troopers in their 28mm scale Street Violence range with five sets so far. (I've yet to review them but they will get covered soon.) Following close on their heels, with four sets are the Street Girls and it is them that I'll be reviewing today and next time.

The two photos above show set SV015 Mistress Trude's Street Girls. At the far left of the photos is Mistress Trude Lovemore, dressed in long leather coat with the sleeves rolled up, thigh length leather boots, micro-mini skirt, tight T-shirt showing her nipples, leather gloves and an SS Officer's cap. I'm going to assume she is a natural blonde of pure Aryan stock. Her weapon is unusual in that it is a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 Machine Pistol with a silencer fitted.
Her stable of girls include Clare Faulkner dressed in red lingerie and white leather boots and white gloves. her hair has been tied in a ponytail. Her weapon is the same as Mistress Trude's but without the silencer. Note that she holds it in a two-handed grip to better control recoil.
Next up is black PVC leather-clad Cherry Goodnite. She has dyed her long hair a bright red and it hangs down to her backside. Her weapon of choice is also made by Heckler and Koch. It is the 9mm MP5 Sub-Machine Gun fitted with a large scopesight and a silencer, which greatly adds to its length. Check out her platform soled boots.
To her left is Fifi Lamour, an obvious alias, dressed in a French maid's costume. She's styled her hair in twin ponytails. She is the only person out of this group not to be armed with a Heckler and Koch weapon. Instead, she has chosen the 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Rifle. Nice choice!
Last in line is Rollergirl, whose real name remains a mystery. She has emphasised her considerable cleavage by wrapping her boobies in a tightly tied, short-sleeved cut-down shirt. Clearly she believes if you've got it, flaunt it. Her mini-skirt leaves little to the imagination either. Her ensemble is completed with grey sweatbands on her wrists, grey socks and a pair of roller skates. She is armed with a pair of MP5KA5 Machine Pistols, both of which are fitted with silencers. You must admit these girls like silenced weapons.

The next set, shown above, is set SV022 Fast Lucy's Street Girls. Fast Lucy Speed, the leader, can be found at the far left of the two photos above. She is dressed in a red jumpsuit and she has added two blonde streaks to her red hair. We're back to Heckler and Koch for her weaponry. In her right hand is a 9mm MP5 SMG, fitted with a scopesight and underslung torch. In her left hand is the 9mm MP5KA5 Machine Pistol with a silencer attached.
Dressed in a pink and black PVC leather costume, Penny Blanchart looks like she shops at the same place as Cherry Goodnite from above. Her black hair has been tied into two ponytails. She must be the group's sniper as she is armed with a 7.62mm Model 85 Parker-Hale Sniper Rifle.
Standing in the centre of the group is Tammi Gunn, dressed in redleather jacket and boots, as well as black mini-skirt, T-shirt and gloves. Like Mistress Trude, she's either feeling the cold (it's nippy outside!) or she's smuggling raisins. Yet again, we see a street girl armed with the MP5KA5 Machine Pistol and silencer. Did these girls capture a case of them?
Nikki Payne also wears a Nazi officer's cap. her rather saucy costume, consists of black basque trimmed with red, black panties, a red suspender belt and stockings trimmed with red at the top. She is the best armed girl out of these ten figures. As well as the 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Rifle with long barrel and bipod, she carries a whip in her left hand plus a holstered pistol on her left hip.
Finally, is Honey Wilde, another street girl who likes to rollerskate. She has swapped the mini-skirt, as worn by Rollergirl, for a pair of hot pants. She is armed with a standard 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 SMG.
There is no doubt that these girls will add a great deal of sex appeal to your gaming table. I like them a lot. What's not to like about a group of sexy females with guns? Their weapons aren't too over the top, unlike the skinhead gangs I reviewed last time. One thing that might irk some of you is that the five girls in the second set are clearly alternate versions of those in the first set. I'm not bothered by that as I think the remakes are sufficiently different to warrant buying them.
In a world gone mad like a zombie apocalypse, I can see the sense of gangs sticking together for defence. I see no reason why a group of streetwalkers wouldn't do the same thing. Their pimps probably ran away at the first sign of trouble. Better still, maybe the girls fed their pimps to the zombies!
As usual these sets cost £10.00 each from Wargames Foundry's webstore. Next time, more of the same.

Foundry Skinheads 01

2011-07-17T15:31:00.000+01:00

This post looks at the two sets of Skinhead Gangers made by Wargames Foundry from their 28mm scale Street Violence range - SV018 Yossa's Bonehead Skins and SV026 Gazza's Boot Boys.

First up are Yossa's Bonehead Skins, led by the man himself, Sid "Yossa" Hughes in his sheepskin coat. For many years I wondered what weapon he was armed with. All became clear when I bought GURPS High Tech, which showed the weapon and described it in some detail. It is the ATK-Heckler and Koch XM29 Objective Individual Combat Weapon, (OICW) a combination assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher. This joint American/German project was cancelled in 2008 due to weight, effectiveness and budget problems. James Bond used one at the start of the film Die Another Day. What on earth Yossa is doing with one is anyone's guess!
The blonde, overwight skinhead to the left of Yossa is Kenny Price. He is armed with a holstered pistol on his left hip and a Hawk MM1 grenade launcher with plentiful ammo slung over his back. He and Yossa can lay down a lot of explosive firepower between them.
Standing in the centre of this group is Jammy McGill. With a name like that, I'm guessing he's Scottish. He is armed with a 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Carbine. Note the reduced length of the barrel. I must admit that I really like the look of the Steyr AUG.
Next in line is Connie Harris, the first of two females from this group. She carries a pair of 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5KA5 Machine Pistols. Note her hairstyle, shaven over the skull but with a fringe at the front and back. I've mentioned this a few times, but for the sake of newcomers, I drew the fishnet pattern on her tights with a fine-nibbed Rotring pen. The ink dries slightly glossy so I gave her legs a coat of matt varnish. Her fishnets are dark blue.
Her colleague, Rachel Gascoigne, appears to be saying, "Does my bum look big in this?" It's a lovely pose she's in as she flaunts her sex appeal.She is armed with a standard 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun. I gave her the surname Gascoigne to show that she is married to Gazza, leader of the next group of figures. Note that her fishnets are black.

The next two photos, shown above, show Gazza's Boot Boys and Gazza can be seen at the far left. Ed "Gazza" Gascoigne is armed with a 5.56mm Minimi Squad Automatic Weapon, showing he's not someone you should take lightly. Like, Yossa, he is extremely tall and muscular.
The Ganger in the green jacket to the left of Gazza is known only as Spog. Perhaps he's the gang's own version of The Stig! He comes armed with a 9mm Heckler and Kock MP5SD3, fitted with a scope sight. The MP5SD series come with integral sound suppressor but even a silenced firearm still makes some noise.
The third figure in line, striding purposefully forward is Shane Crombie. He also carries a variant of the 5.56mm Steyr AUG Assault Rifle, this time fitted with a much longer barrel and bipod. The scopesight has been replaced with a more powerful version.
Moving on, we come to the female contingent of this set. Nancy Jones is armed with the Steyr Aug Assault Carbine, shown earlier in the hands of Jammy McGill. Her pose is similar to Rachel's but not so blatantly sexy.
Finally, is Karen Metcalfe, whose blonde hair is showing its black roots. She stands at the ready with her 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 Sub-Machine Gun. Note that all ten figures are wearing Doc Martin boots, which became synonomous with skinhead gangs in the 1970's and were often known as "bovver boots" back then.
I have no doubt that some of you will disapprove of the way these skinheads are so heavily armed and whilst this wouldn't normally bother me, this time I'd have to agree with you. These aren't a gang of thugs, they are a small army! I can't say that these are representative of skinhead gangs from the 1970's when the skinhead cult was at it's height. Nowadays, you never hear of skinheads. They have gone the way of Mods and Rockers from the 1960's. What do I think they should be armed with? Flick-knives, knuckle-dusters, billiard cues, baseball bats, a length of chain, tyre-irons, etc. and for the leaders, maybe, a sawn-off shotgun, either double-barrelled or pump action.
There is no denying that these are finely sculpted figures and they will probably work well in some alternative world to ours but I can't help feeling that their weapons are way over the top and inappropriate. Your Mileage May Vary. The two sets retail for £10.00 each from the Wargames Foundry webstore.