Vampifans Views 111 - Monthly Musings 81

September has once again been a very productive month for me hobby-wise, more of which later, but first here is a delightful portrait of Vampirella by the talented Spanish artist, Manuel Sanjulian. This would seem to be a perfect pose for a Vampirella statue but it hasn't happened so far. Speaking of Vampirella statues, my collection has now reached double figures and they take centre stage on my china cabinet in my living room.

The big news for me for September was the launch of the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Kickstarter by EN Publishing on the 25th. Amazingly enough, this project was fully funded within 9 minutes! I was never in any doubt that it would get funded but I wasn't expecting it be so speedily funded as that. I backed it for the Chief Judge's Pledge, which gets me the basic rulebook, the Robot Wars supplement, the Games Master's Screen, the card counter set plus free PDF copies of the books. Note that initially, a dice set was offered but they have been replaced by a set of cardstock counters of Judges, perps and civilians. This is because supply of the dice would have delayed the release of the other products and EN Publishing are committed to short delivery times, which is certainly to be applauded. To be honest, I have so many six-sided dice that missing out on these ones is no big deal.

The Kickstarter runs until Friday 26th of October 2018 and the estimated delivery time for the physical products is January 2019. PDFs will be sent out once the Kickstarter closes. Here's the link for it - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/judge-dredd-and-the-worlds-of-2000-ad-roleplaying?ref=email I was absolutely delighted to see that my review of the Kickstarter that I posted on my WOIN blog gets a mention. So too, does Blaxkleric's reviews that he did on the Dawn of Comics website. No doubt Simon will be just as chuffed as I am.

Speaking of WOIN, I am hoping to continue to my The Ace of Spades Campaign very soon. I have the scenario all written out and character record sheets created for the major participants. All that is missing are a few 3D scenery items that my brother has printed out for me. I should receive them later today when Mikie comes over to visit me.
A couple of weeks ago I ran a review of the N.O.W. rulebook on my WOIN blog (see here ) and in it I mentioned a few ideas for campaigns that I'd like to run with those rules. Andy suggested I go for a zombie apocalypse campaign with my PC of Vampifan taking centre stage once again. John, however, expressed a desire for a St. Trinian's campaign. They'll be pleased to know that I plan on running both campaigns later on. The St. Trinian's campaign will kick off first. I am busy creating character record sheets for the staff and students of this infamous girls' school and I have lots of ideas for scenarios. This will be a campaign using cinematic rules with an emphasis on fun and slapstick. Gritty and realistic it won't be! I'm still thinking about what I want to do with Vampifan - make him a loner or give him a family? Make him an ordinary human or perhaps a Chosen One? I am very excited about running both campaigns, plus continuing my N.E.W. campaign with Kimberley and crew. And next year I have big plans for running a brand new Judge Dredd campaign once I get the new rulebook. 2019 should see lots of WOIN gaming. These are exciting times.

Earlier this month I bought this boxed scenery set from Modiphius Games - the Red Rocket Scenery Set. What immediately attracted me to this set is that it is designed by Battle Systems Ltd., whose scenery sets I absolutely adore. Although this set is designed to be used with the Fallout Wasteland Warfare sci-fi skirmish game, I have no desire to start collecting figures for it or playing the game. I'm not a fan of computer games and I know so little about the game and its setting. What I do know is that this set would work perfectly well in any post apocalypse game like All Things Zombie, Judge Dredd or Strontium Dog. The garage itself is a superb model but what really makes this set worthwhile is the 3' square gaming mat that comes with it. Made of mouse-mat material, it is compatible with other Battle Systems Post-Apocalypse gaming mats. I can see me using this mat a lot in my Strontium Dog games. The boxed set costs £60.00 and here's a link to where you can purchase it - https://www.modiphius.net/collections/fallout-wasteland-warfare/products/copy-of-fallout-wasteland-warfare-product-template Expect a full review of this set real soon.

Painting has been going well, as always. Lots more sci-fi and Wild West figures painted this month, all of which will appear on this blog or my WOIN blog soon. A couple of days ago I received all of the Wave 5 figures for Mantic Games' The Walking Dead game and that got me thinking. I have had this game since it was first released ages ago but haven't got round to painting any of the figures for this game yet. It is about time that changed. I understand that October is known as Zomtober to some of you. So this will be my Zomtober challenge but I'm playing to my rules so I'm not an official entrant. I plan on painting all of the figures shown here in the top tray of the Kickstarter Wave 1 boxed set. My deadline is the end of October, and I'll post progress reports throughout the month when a batch of figures gets finished. I have every confidence in my ability to complete the challenge and I look forward to painting this lot. If I finish in good time, I'll move on to more figures from this range or maybe do the scenery pieces.

All the best from Vampifan.