The Walking Dead Chris - Leader of the Hunters

Last month I bought a limited edition boxed set of Chris the Hunter for Mantic Games' The Walking Dead game. Normally only available at gaming conventions he was offered for general sale for a very short time. Mantic Games have offered limited edition figures for a short period in the past and for the most part I've ignored them. But this one really grabbed my attention so I placed an order for this set.

The set contains a hard plastic figure of Chris along with two resin cast supply tokens. The Hunters were a group of human survivors who practised cannibalism. They appeared in volume 11 Fear the Hunters (issues 61-66) of the comics.

In this volume, Rick and company continue their journey to Washington and begin to suspect they are being stalked by someone in the woods. They meet a pastor and join him at his church. Dale is kidnapped from the church during the night by a band of cannibals. Dale is reunited with his friends before he dies. Rick's group, enraged, hunt down the cannibals and torture them to death.

The figure of Chris is up to the usual high standards of this range. What really impressed me from this set were the two supply tokens - a grisly collection of body parts and butcher's tools along with a weapons and ammo cache. Both of these are excellent additions to the range. I admit I was very happy that I bought this set. It cost me £14.95, roughly £5 per figure. Note that this set is no longer available on the Mantic Games' webstore.

Here's Negan Survivors

I present here the five survivor figures plus Negan from the Here's Negan board-game by Mantic Games. This stand-alone supplement from The Walking Dead franchise concentrates on the vicious Negan and five of his followers clearing out a large warehouse to make it safe for Negan to use as a headquarters. Although the survivors are working co-operatively, each one is hoping to impress Negan enough to earn the title, Top Dog. This is measured in Reputation levels, which can go up or down during the course of a game. The game can be played by 1-5 players. Negan and the Zombies are controlled by cards and the game's Artificial Intelligence. Making sure that Negan does not suffer from Rage will help to ensure victory. An enraged Negan can be more of a threat than the zombies.

At the far left is Negan, the brutal, foul-mouthed leader of this group. I was pleased to see a new sculpt of him. He is armed with "Lucille" his baseball bat, a sniper's rifle, a pistol and a knife. Next in line is Dwight, who is armed with a dagger and a crossbow. He is good at running. If a character runs they must roll to see if they make noise. Dwight can re-roll the noise dice. Also, his base move is 4 instead of 3. Third in line is John, the bruiser. He is really good at melee combat and can kill zombies even if he doesn't score a head shot - he just has to roll double or more than the zombie's defence roll. He is armed with a tyre iron, which allows him to automatically open locked doors.

The three females are made up from left to right of Tara, Laura and Sherry. Tara can not use ranged weapons but is very good at melee. She has the best defence dice and if her defence roll is more than twice a zombie's attack roll, she can make a free attack against that zombie. She is armed with a dagger. Laura is ranged combat expert. She is armed with an assault rifle and a dagger. Her special ability is that she can perform the same action twice in a turn. This is very useful as the default rule is that characters must perform two different actions when they activate. Finally, is Laura, who is armed with a pistol and a dagger. Stat-wise, she is the weakest but she does have a very useful ability - she can give up one of her actions to give another character an extra action, which does not affect their activation.
I have started to play the twelve scenarios that make up the campaign and I'm using all five survivors plus Negan. They are a good mix of characters who, so far, are working well together. The rules are similar to those used in The Walking Dead games but are not identical. Here's Negan is very much its own game and I have to say, it is a great deal of fun. I ordered the game shortly before it went on general release and as a bonus I received extra stat cards to use the five survivors in The Walking Dead games, which was something that pleased me immensely. The figures are all beautifully sculpted, very crisply detailed and an absolute joy to paint.

The Walking Dead Corpses

When I placed my last order with Mantic Games for the Here's Negan board-game, I also ordered a set of The Walking Dead Corpses. This set comprises of six figures - 4 zombie corpses, 1 human corpse and a dying human. All are sculpted on 25mm diameter bases and are made of resin. The detail on them is very good.

At the back is the kneeling human. I painted him with his eyes closed. He would make a good hostage. To his left is the dead human. She hasn't turned yet and bears no obvious wounds. I painted her with a very pale flesh for her skin to show she is still human. The four zombies at the bottom of the photo are very obviously undead. They all have multiple wounds and their faces look very gaunt and emaciated. All of the figures have been cleverly sculpted to fit on their bases with their legs bent.
This is not an essential purchase as they serve no purpose in the game. However, for me, in any zombie apocalypse game, corpses are an essential part of the scenery. Like zombies, you can never have too many corpses, in my opinion. This set costs £14.99 from the Mantic Games webstore, so they're not cheap by any means. Although sold as a The Walking Dead accessory set, they could be used in any zombie apocalypse game.

Vampifans Views 114 - Monthly Musings 84

Welcome to my final Monthly Musings of 2018 and I have a lot to cover. I've just noticed that this will be my 100th post of 2018. Yay me! First up is another illustration of my beloved Vampirella by Spanish artist Sanjulian. It's not a bad portrait but he has done better. The bat behind her is really naff!

2018 seems to have flown over. It started very badly for me with my mother dying in January. She is sorely missed. But life goes on and despite this being the first Christmas I have ever spent on my own I was determined to make the best of it and to enjoy it as much as I could, which I did. In my first post of 2019 I'll show you what my brother bought for me for Christmas present and the items I added to it. It is impressive!

These past couple of weeks have been incredible for me as a gamer. I am a big fan of Kickstarters. I know some people hate them but for the most part I have had very positive experiences with them and I continue to back them. By nature, I am a very patient person, so a one year wait (or however long it takes) to receive my order is not a problem. I understand that games need time to be developed and that the manufacturing process can take quite some time. The reason I mention this is that I received two Kickstarter games I'd backed a good while ago these past two weeks.

First to arrive was the wave 1 delivery of Nemesis, a sci-fi horror game set on a space ship that has become infested with Alien-like creatures. This game grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it being announced. As soon as I received my copy I painted all of the figures that came with it - 6 humans and 20 Intruders. It can be played by 1 to 5 players and I played it for the first time on Christmas Day and I have to say it was one of the most tense gaming experiences of my life. Since then I have played it many more times. This game is just superb and easily one of the best board-games I've ever played! Mind you, it is not an easy game to win but that is a good thing in my opinion - I like a challenge. If you're a fan of the Aliens franchise, as I am, you'll love this game. I plan on showcasing the figures very early in 2019.

On the Saturday before Christmas, I received two big parcels. One was for the Here's Negan board-game, a stand alone supplement to Mantic Games' The Walking Dead games. This was not a Kickstarter, it was my main Christmas present that I bought for myself. Thanks to this year's Zomtober and Zomvember painting challenges I'm really back into The Walking Dead games and this was a perfect complement to what I already own. I primarily wanted this game for the six survivor miniatures, including a new version of Negan, shown in the photo above. The zombie figures are all duplicate poses of ones from the boxed starter set of The Walking Dead: All Out War, which was slightly disappointing but not the end of the world. I was uncertain what the game play would be like but I have played it once and found the game very challenging and a lot of fun. I'm now looking forward to playing the campaign mode of linked scenarios. Thankfully, this is another game that allows for solo players.

The second parcel I received that day was massive and very heavy. It contained all of the items I'd backed for the Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter board-game, and I think I ordered one of everything that was on offer. There were 11 separate boxes in the parcel! That is a heck of a lot of content. As a huge fan of zombie films and games there was no way that I wasn't going to buy this game. Although I am not a computer player and thus have not played any of the Resident Evil computer games, I do own all of the films and novels for this franchise and I'm a big fan of them all. I have only just finished reading the rulebook and I plan on trying it out this afternoon. Initial impressions are highly favourable and the figures look really great, with some of them being truly frightening - Birkin stage 5 and the giant alligator, for example. I can't wait to get them painted.

So, as you can imagine, I have had a great time playing games that I love, which is something I don't do enough of. I seem to spend far more time painting figures than in gaming with them. This Christmas, however, has been the opposite, with gaming taking precedence over painting. This doesn't mean that painting has stopped all together - it has just slowed down. Currently on my painting table are some more Strontium Dog figures by Warlord Games and some new Rumbleslam figures by TT Combat, as well as some really old Citadel sci-fi figures that I'm repainting for my The Ace of Spades Campaign on my WOIN blog.

2019 promises to be a good year for me. What I am most looking forward to the New Year is celebrating Vampirella's 50th anniversary. She first appeared in comics in 1969 and has been going strong ever since. I'm sure there are big plans to celebrate this milestone anniversary. What I would love to see but is unlikely to happen, is a big budget movie or a TV series for her.

I have more Kickstarters that I'm waiting for, the first of which should be the hard-backed rulebook of Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD plus some extras by EN Publishing. That is due sometime in January and will receive a lot of coverage on my WOIN blog. February will hopefully see the release of Core Space, a sci-fi skirmish game with miniatures and awesome scenery by Battle Systems Ltd. This is their first foray into gaming and it all looks to be a smash hit for them. There are at least five others that I'm waiting for but in the short term, these two that I've mentioned are the two I'm most excited about.

I want to do more batreps for both of my blogs. I really enjoy doing them but they are very time consuming to produce. I started 2018 well with the 12 part scenario, Alien Base, for my The Ace of Spades Campaign, which appeared on my WOIN blog, but there were very few further batreps after that. My two Six Gun Sound scenarios that I ran on this blog were a lot of fun and I very much want to post more Wild West and Weird West batreps. In August I ran an introductory scenario for the Strontium Dog skirmish game by Warlord Games. Again, I hope to run more of them in 2019. I can say that I do have plans to run a short St. Trinian's scenario using the N.O.W. rules on my WOIN blog very soon, once I finish showcasing the cast. Hopefully, it'll be the start of a long running campaign. After that I plan on returning to Kimberley and the crew of The Ace of Spades as they visit a pleasure planet and Kimberley enters a high stakes gambling contest. Actually, my WOIN blog should be filled with batreps because once I get the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook I'm going to want to start a new campaign based on it. Honestly, I have so many plans for stuff I want to do, it's just hard to find the time to do them all. Thank God, I'm retired and have so much free time to devote to this wonderful hobby.

I am looking forward to 2019 and I hope it lives up to my expectations. I am content with my life and that is a good thing to be able to say. I'd just like to end by first of all thanking all of you who follow my blog and who take the time out to comment on my posts. Your continued support spurs me on and encourages me to continue blogging for as long as I can. Secondly, I wish every one of you a peaceful and prosperous New Year filled with love and happiness. God bless you all!

Mantic Games The Walking Dead Scenery Items 01

Even though the Zomtober and Zomvember challenges are over, I'm still painting stuff from The Walking Dead game by Mantic Games. Having painted all of the wave 1 figures I next turned my attention to the scenery items that are supplied with the boxed starter set. In it you get 3D models of barricades, objective pieces and vehicles to replace the card counters that also come in the set. I have painted all of the barricades and objective tokens and I'll be showing them here. I've yet to start painting the four vehicles but they are high up on my "to do" list.

You get six barricades with two of each design. The front of the barricades are shown to the left of Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes, whom I have included for scale purposes. This barricade is made up of  a wooden wall supported by five wooden crates.

The next barricade is made up of four sheets of metal panels resting against piles of breeze bricks and tyres.

The third type of barricade is made of two metal fences resting against wooden planks and a couple of traffic cones.

This photo above shows the various objective items. There are five basic designs of which you get two of each of them - wooden crates, metal cans, suitcases and backpacks. In addition, is one special objective - the bag of guns that Rick grabs from his old police station. This is used in a couple of scenarios as the main objective that must be found.
Although designed specifically for The Walking Dead, they are all generic enough to be used in any contemporary or near future games. They are very useful items and far better than the card counters they are meant to replace.

Vampifans Views 113 - Monthly Musings 83

Greetings, one and all, to another of my Monthly Musings. As usual, I'm starting with another Sanjulian painting of Vampirella, whose work I have been featuring all year. This is a beautiful piece of artwork that I am most impressed with.

November has been a very good month for me. In my past few posts, I have been reviewing the Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats game. The game is very good and I plan on playing many more games of it. Having bought the two Crew expansions sets, they will improve it immeasurably. Extra Crew and new Jobs greatly add to the re-playability of the game, which is no bad thing.

I have finished my Zomtober and Zomvember challenges for this year. Concentrating on making a start on my collection of The Walking Dead figures certainly revived my enthusiasm for the game. The biggest problem I have with these monthly painting challenges is that they are only meant to last one month and then a new one comes along. For me, as soon as Zomtober ended I wanted to carry on painting more of my The Walking Dead figures, which is what I did. Having completed all of the wave 1 figures, I have now turned my attention to the scenery items. I'm working on the 3D barricades and supplies. I have ordered a few scenery sets from Mantic Games for the game as well as the Here's Negan spin-off game. One of the scenery items I ordered was Hershel's barn, which will fit in very well in Wild West games as well as contemporary games.

Currently on my painting table are a mix of sci-fi figures. I'm painting figures from Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet and UFO TV series (both produced by Crooked Dice Games) as I decided it was long overdue that I plug a few holes in my collections of them. In addition, I am also painting the newest figures from the Strontium Dogs skirmish game by Warlord Games. I have also been painting more 3D scenery items that my brother has printed out for me to use in a variety of games.

For my WOIN games, I have rebased and repainted some more of my old sci-fi figures to use in my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I have also made a start on creating characters from the Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000 AD book. As you may well be aware, I have a huge collection of Judge Dredd themed figures, so I have loads to create character stats for. Fortunately, character creation is something I very much enjoy doing so it is no great hardship - it's just very time-consuming.
Thanks for reading and all the best to you.

Zomvember 2018 part 4 - Zombies

This is my final post for my Zomvember challenge and I'm showcasing the last 8 zombies from the wave 1 releases of The Walking Dead skirmish game by Mantic Games.

These four zombies are to be found in the Prelude to Woodbury Solo Starter Set and are all unique sculpts. The female at the far left appears to have been a corporate suit from her attire. She has been bitten in the neck and her right leg is broken. There is a splinter of bone protruding from the wound in her leg.
The male next to her is dressed in casual clothing and has suffered numerous bites all over his body and limbs.

The female in the ochre top has suffered a massive wound to the centre of her torso as well as bites to her legs.
Finally, is a topless male who is feasting on a someone's intestines, which he holds in both hands. I do like to see feasting zombies but they are very rare.

The female at the far left also came from the Prelude to Woodbury Solo Starter Set. Her lower jaw has been removed so that is going to make it impossible for her to bite a victim. However, she can still make claw attacks with her hands.
The female in the pale blue night dress is the zombie figure you get with the Morgan Booster Set. She has been bitten in her neck.

The male zombie wearing the jeans and white vest is from the Rick on Horse Booster Set. He has suffered numerous cuts and bites.
Last of all is a swap of the zombie crawler from the starter boxed set. I repositioned his left arm and gave him black hair to make him look slightly different to the original figure who had brown hair. His wounds are truly horrific and disgusting.
Once again, these were an absolute pleasure to paint. I haven't played many games of The Walking Dead seeing as I don't really like playing with unpainted figures, but now that I have all of the wave 1 figures painted I can see me playing this game more often. I would like to play all of the campaign scenarios in chronological order. Whether I chronicle them on my blog remains to be seen.

Zomvember 2018 part 3 - Zombies

These 8 zombie figures were part of the Kickstarter boxed set for the wave 1 releases of The Walking Dead game by Mantic Games. Although they did not appear in the top tray of figures that I painted for the Zomtober challenge, they were included in the bottom tray, which also included all the cards and scenery items. Six of them are duplicates of zombies in the top tray and two are unique sculpts.

These four zombies are all duplicates but I have given them different paint jobs and some of them have been converted. The zombie wearing the baseball cap at the far left simply had a different paint job done to him as I painted his clothes in faded denims. He has lost his left arm and his lower torso has been ripped open, so his internal organs are spilling out.
For the female next to him I repositioned her arms by bending them at the elbows by holding her over the flame of a candle for a few seconds to soften the plastic. Once I'd repositioned the arms I dunked her in a glass of cold water to harden the plastic again. Then I painted her in a different colour scheme to the first figure of her. She has had half of her face bitten off.

For the female in the black miniskirt, I took my inspiration for her colour scheme from Clint, when he painted her for his Zomtober challenge. See here - http://clint-anythingbutaone.blogspot.com/2018/10/zombtober-04-18.html
Many thanks, Clint! She has numerous cuts and bites and has lost her right arm.
I cut the left arm of the zombie female at the far right off at the elbow then gave her a new colour scheme. This was a very simple conversion.

For the zombie at the far left, I modelled a gaping hole in his stomach and added the intestines spilling out from thin sausages of Milliput. Once painted it looks very effective and is a really simple conversion to do.
The zombie next to him was also converted. I simply cut his left hand off with a scalpel. Cutting limbs off zombies is the easiest way to convert them. His gaping stomach wound with spilling intestines was a part of the original figure.

Finally, we come to the two non-duplicate figures and they're both females. For the one second from the right, I painted her in a pastel green hospital gown. Note the bandage around her left hand. I reckon she must have been killed whilst in hospital and then reanimated. Her left cheek has been bitten off.
Last up is a zombie lurching forward rather awkwardly. Her face is very emaciated, suggesting she's been dead for quite some time. She has a couple of bullet wounds in her back but no exit wounds in her chest, so they were probably low calibre bullets that hit her.
I really had a lot of fun painting these and I have another eight zombies to show in my next post.

Zomvember 2018 part 2 - The Walking Dead Survivors

Here are the last Survivor figures from the wave 1 of the releases for The Walking Dead skirmish game by Mantic Games. These are all named characters from the comic series and the TV series.

First up is Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes on horseback. He found and used this horse to ride into Atlanta. On his back is a bag full of guns that he grabbed from his former police station. The ride into Atlanta went well but the return journey did not go so well and he lost the horse to a horde of zombies. It is an unusual figure that is of limited use but it is superbly sculpted.
Next up is Morgan Jones, who was the first human that Rick encountered after he woke up from his coma. Morgan is a good man but is haunted by the death of his wife, who returned to his home as a zombie. He helps Rick by explaining the zombie apocalypse that began when Rick was still in a coma but does not go with him to the survivor camp, preferring to stay at home with his son. He is armed with an axe and a rifle.

The figure of the boy is Duane Jones, the son of Morgan. When he first sees Rick, he wrongly assumes he is a zombie and he whacks Rick in the back of his head with his shovel, knocking Rick out. Sadly, Duane later gets attacked and killed by zombies. Morgan finds him and brings him back home and chains him up. He feeds him by shooting passing survivors.
Finally, is Brian Blake aka The Governor, leader of a group of survivors who reside in the ravaged town of Woodbury, Georgia. The Governor is charming and charismatic, but also murderous, violent, sociopathic, power-hungry, completely sadistic, and horrifically ruthless. He sees himself as the community's only hope for survival, and is thus willing to imprison, abuse and/or kill anyone he sees as a threat to his authority; for him, torture and mass murder are a means to an end. The figure of him portrays him before he meets with Rick's group. That first meeting does not go well for either side.
The figure of Rick on horseback can be found in the Rick on Horse booster pack, which also contains one zombie. Morgan and Duane appear in the Morgan booster, which also contains one zombie. Brian Blake appears in the Prelude to Woodbury Solo Starter Set, which is a stand alone supplement that contains figures of Brian, and five zombies, as well as rulebook, cards, counters and dice.

Zomvember 2018 part 1 - The Walking Dead Exclusive Figures

Yes, I know that Zomvember is not an actual thing, but seeing as I enjoyed the Zomtober challenge so much, I'm carrying on painting my wave 1 The Walking Dead figures by Mantic Games. I have another 20 figures that were produced for wave 1 of the game on my painting table right now and they should be finished soon. For this post I'm showcasing the four exclusive figures that were stretch goals for those who bought the starter boxed set from Kickstarter.

At the far left is Michonne, wielding her katana. She is a fan favourite in both the comic and TV series, and I love her. A former defence lawyer, she is introduced as a mysterious stranger towing two armless and jawless zombies behind her (they were her ex-boyfriend and his best friend). She joins the group of survivors led by Rick Grimes and quickly proves to be a valuable asset. She is truly remarkable at killing zombies with her katana.
Next up is Abraham Ford. In both mediums Abraham travelled the country with his girlfriend Rosita Espinosa to escort Dr. Eugene Porter to Washington, D.C. where the supposed cure for the outbreak is located, eventually recruiting Rick Grime's group to accompany them. Though tough, and a skilled shooter, Abraham displays aggressive outbursts and has volatile tendencies towards the other group members, but over time he gains a strong sense of respect for Rick and becomes one of his right-hand men. He is also displayed as being emotionally broken from the pain he endured due to his family being killed by zombies. His figure is armed with an AK47 assault rifle and he rests his left foot on the corpse of a zombie crawler.

Bad guy Negan is the leader of a group of roughly 1,000 survivors in the Sanctuary, called the Saviours, a group that oppresses other survivor communities and forces them to pay tribute to him. He is known for his brutality and foul mouth. His favoured weapon is a baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped around it. He calls it Lucille, the name of his dead wife. His figure is armed with his trusty baseball bat, a knife and three hand grenades.
Finally, is Walker Ronnie. I admit I have no idea who Ronnie is. I don't recall seeing him in any of the comics or the TV series. Still, he's not a bad figure, and he has been shot in the chest and his right leg appears to be broken, given how he is dragging his foot behind him.
These figures are currently available on the Mantic Games webstore as part of their Mantic Points offers. You can get Walker Ronnie for 10 Mantic points and the other three cost 15 Mantic Points each.

Vampifans Views 112 - Monthly Musings 82

Halloween greetings to you all. I start with yet another beautiful Vampirella painting by the talented Sanjulian, whom I've been featuring all of this year. It is unusual to see Vampi wearing robes but I do like her look.

So what have I been up to this past month? For the first time ever I entered the Zomtober challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially, I decided to paint the 38 figures from the top layer of the Mantic Games Kickstarter wave 1 boxed set of The Walking Dead. Having completed that task in just three weeks I then decided to carry on and finish painting all of the figures from wave 1, which included 8 more zombie figures in the above boxed set, booster packs featuring, Rick on horseback, Morgan and his son Duane, more zombies and the 6 figures from the Prelude to Woodbury starter set, which consisted of Brian "The Governor" Blake and 5 more zombies. I know I should be calling the zombies, "walkers" when referring to The Walking Dead but I much prefer to call them zombies. So far, I have shown 34 of the 38 figures I've finished painting so far. The remaining four will be featured in my next post, followed by all the rest of the wave 1 figures. Zomtober morphs into Zomvember! I'm having so much fun painting these figures that I want to carry on. I have all of the wave 2, 3, 4 and 5 figures and I have pre-ordered the Here's Negan stand alone boxed game, which goes on sale on 19th of November. Just to prove that I have painted all of the figures from the top layer of the Kickstarter wave 1 boxed set, here's a photo of them all. Impressive, huh?

In other news, the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Kickstarter came to a close a few days ago and was phenomenally successful. 2,004 backers pledged £148,802 of the £7,500 needed to fund it. Within a few hours of the project closing I had received PDF copies of the rulebook, The Robot Wars supplement, the Games Master's screen and the counter tokens to use in place of miniature figures. Physical copies of these products are due to be shipped in January 2019, which isn't too long to wait. I'll do a full review of them after I receive them. I must admit that after browsing through the PDFs I am extremely impressed by the high quality and production values of these items. I have read the character generation rules for creating Judges and I have just finished designing my own character record sheet to use for the many Judges, Perps and Citizens I'll be creating. This was based on my own designs for my N.E.W. and N.O.W. character record sheets with just a bit of tweaking. I am in the process of transferring the stats of the four pre-generated Judges found at the back of the rulebook to my CRS's. Then I'll start work on creating my own Judge characters to use in the campaign that I'll start playing early next year.
EN Publishing have announced plans for some of the next products that will be appearing from this range next year. These include two supplements for Judge Dredd - Luna-1 and The Cursed Earth. Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dogs will be the next two rulebooks but note that these will only cover the characters, careers, equipment and settings for these stories. For the basic gameplay rules you will need the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD rulebook. Morrus, the head honcho of EN Publishing, has announced that he already has a full manuscript for one more product and is half way through another, both of which should be released in 2019, so exciting times!
Comparing this version of the Judge Dredd role-playing game to others from the past I can definitely say that it beats all others hands down. It is just a brilliant product and I am mega excited about getting back to playing Judge Dredd again.

For my WOIN blog, I have been busy painting more sci-fi figures and I have increased my cast of St. Trinian's staff and schoolgirls. I am still working on creating Character Record Sheets for them all - there are about 40 in total, so it's a big cast and each one is unique. I have also been painting scenery items and furniture to use in my next The Ace of Spades Campaign scenario and my first St. Trinian's Campaign scenario, which will be my first game using the N.O.W. rules.

It's Halloween night tonight and I love Halloween. I'm stocked up on treats for the kids and I'm looking forward to seeing their costumes. Last year I had 15 trick or treaters and they all put a lot of effort into their costumes. I'm hoping this year will be just as good. Happy Halloween everyone.

The trick or treater I most want to meet tonight! It looks like she's trying to smuggle a couple of pumpkins out under her dress!

Zomtober 2018 part 5 - The Walking Dead Survivors

Here are another seven assorted survivors and gangers from the wave 1 boxed set of The Walking Dead skirmish game by Mantic Games. As usual, these are hard plastic 32mm scale figures.

 I start off with the Harrison sisters, Amy and Andrea at the far left. These were part of the group of Atlanta survivors that Lori and Carl Grimes joined when the zombie apocalypse kicked off. Amy, who is unarmed, did not survive long as she got bitten by a zombie that was part of a horde that attacked their camp. Andrea had to kill her once Amy reanimated as a zombie.
Andrea then went on to be a superb sniper and was one of the longest lasting survivors in the comic series. Inexplicably, she was killed off at the end of series 3 of the TV series, a decision that rankled a lot of fans, including me. This pose of Andrea has her firing a 9mm pistol, which she sensibly holds in a two-handed grip. I should mention that Andrea is my favourite character in the comic series.

Two more of the Atlanta group of survivors are Carol Peletier and her daughter, Sophia. In the comic series, Carol becomes increasingly unstable and eventually commits suicide. However, in the TV series, she becomes a hardened survivor and to date, she is still going strong. She is shown here armed with a knife.
As for Sophia, she would appear to have victim written all over her. She becomes close friends with Rick's son, Carl, and in the comic series, when Carol dies, she is looked after by Maggie and Glenn. She is the longest surviving female member of the comic series. In the TV series, Sophia gets separated from the rest of the group in series 2 and is killed by a wandering zombie. Note that Mantic's game is based on the comic series, not the TV series, so the events portrayed within them should be regarded as canon.

Moving on, at the far left is Deputy Sheriff Shane Walsh, who was the partner of Rick Grimes, before Rick was shot and hospitalised. Believing Rick to be dead, Shane and Lori begin a romantic relationship, resulting in Lori becoming pregnant. When Rick showed up, there was much friction between the two cops and when Shane attempted to murder Rick it was Rick who prevailed and he killed the psychotic Shane. The figure of Shane is armed with a 9mm pistol.

Finally are a pair of gangers who are part of the crew led by Derek, whom I showed in a previous post. Mantic Games have called them Craig and Reggie respectively, but I added their surnames. Craig Gehring is a thug armed with a knife, not the best weapon to use when fighting zombies but better than nothing.
Reggie Sobel is much better armed, carrying a pump-action shotgun, making him, by far, the most dangerous member of Derek's gang.

Zomtober 2018 part 4 - The Walking Dead Zombies

Here are another eight 32mm scale zombie figures from the wave 1 boxed starter set of The Walking Dead by Mantic Games that I painted up for the Zomtober 2018 challenge.

First up is the zombie crawler that Rick Grimes encountered in episode #1 of series #1 of the TV series. This zombie has been ripped in half and has lost the flesh from the left half of his body.
Next in line is the zombie version of Deputy Sheriff Shane Walsh, the former partner of Rick Grimes. The two had a major falling out which resulted in Rick killing Shane by stabbing him in the stomach. When Shane came back to life as a zombie, Carl Grimes shot him in the head, finally laying him to rest. Shane was a major arsehole and deserved to die.

The third zombie in line closely resembles Reggie, one of the gangers from Atlanta. I don't know if this was intentional or not by Mantic Games, but I painted him in the same colour scheme as Reggie, whom I'll show in my next post. Zombie Reggie has a massive stomach wound from which his intestines are spilling out.
Last in line is a female zombie who has fed recently as her hands and chin are coated in fresh blood. Tamiya Clear Red is the perfect paint for fresh blood.

At the far left of this next group is a former business woman wearing a two-piece suit and shirt. She has suffered numerous cuts and bullet wounds.
The guy standing next to her has long dreadlocks, so I painted his skin tones darker to suggest he was from Jamaica, where Rastafarianism is popular. I didn't want him to have a plain coloured T-shirt, so I painted the Smiley face on it, which I copied from a photo I'd seen. His left arm has been torn off and his right foot is only just attached to his leg by a few slivers of flesh and muscle.

The male zombie, second from the right has been shot in the right side of his chest and the bullet has left a huge exit wound in the centre of his back.
Finally is an elderly gentleman who has been shot repeatedly in the body and legs.
I had so much fun painting these and I'm pleased to announce that I completed my mission to paint all of the figures from the top tray of the starter boxed set of The Walking Dead. That's 38 figures painted in just over three weeks! I'm very pleased with that result. I'll show the rest of the figures in my next few posts.

Zomtober 2018 part 3 - The Grimes Family

For week 3 of the Zomtober 2018 challenge I present the heroes of The Walking Dead stories in both the comics and the TV series - the Grimes family. Here are three more 32mm scale survivor figures from The Walking Dead skirmish game wave 1 starter boxed set, produced by Mantic Games.

At the far left is Rick Grimes, a deputy sheriff who, at the start of the story, is shot whilst attempting to arrest a fleeing criminal. He wakes up from a coma to find a world very different to what he remembered. The zombie apocalypse has begun and nothing will ever be the same again. He seeks out his wife and son and finds them with a group  of other survivors on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. His figure is armed with a hand axe and a police issue 9mm pistol. He can be used as either a Marksman or a Tactician in the game and he is the leader of any group he is in.

In the centre of the group is Rick's wife, Lori, who was forced to flee when the zombie outbreak began, believing her husband to be lost or dead. Lori is not armed and is classed as a Support member of any group she is in.
At the far right is Rick and Lori's son, Carl. Although his figure is shown armed with a 9mm pistol, he is also classed as a Support member of his group.
As the story progressed new figures for Rick, Lori and Carl were introduced but these are the three figures starting players of the game will use the most, especially Rick. As with all of this range, they are superbly well sculpted, full of detail and an absolute joy to paint.

Zomtober 2018 part 2 - The Walking Dead Survivors

In the Zomtober challenge you must paint at least one zombie or survivor figure per week. I have already shown eight zombies in my first post. Now I turn my attention to the survivors. These figures are all from the wave 1 boxed set of The Walking Dead skirmish game by Mantic Games. There are two very different groups here. First up are four of the Atlanta survivors who Rick Grimes teams up with when he goes searching for his wife and son. The second group are a gang of miscreants who are opposed to them. Most of these are only known by their first names in the comics and game but I have given all of them full names for use in my own games.

First up at the far left is Allen Lomax, who is a bruiser. His figure is armed with a bolt-action rifle.
Dale Horvath is the lookout and marksman of the Atlanta group. He is armed with a sniper rifle with fitted scope-sight.

Second from the right is Donna Bell, an unarmed support member of the group.
Finally, is Jim Rothenburg, another support member and a mechanic. He is armed with a 9mm pistol.

Leader of the gangers is Derek Prescott, who is classed as a tactician and a heartless mercenary. This brutal skinhead is armed with a 9mm pistol.
Next in line is Patrick Singleton, a bruiser armed with a baseball bat.

The weak link of the gang is Liam White, who is an unarmed support member.
Last of all is Sandra Vega, who is the gang's runner and she is armed with a knife.
These hard plastic figures are incredibly well sculpted, full of character and an absolute joy to paint. By the way, this weekend is the 15th anniversary of the launch of The Walking Dead comic, and to mark the occasion, Mantic Games have a 15% discount offer on all of their The Walking Dead products. I made use of it by placing an order for the Greene family farm scenery set and the prone bodies set. The barn, fences and hay bales that come with the farm set will also work well for my Wild West games and dead bodies are always useful.

Zomtober 2018 part 1 - The Walking Dead Zombies

This post is a bit late but that's only to be expected when I'm painting two batches of 20 figures this month for the annual Zomtober challenge. I've just finished painting the first batch and am about to start the second, so I'm way ahead of schedule. I am working on getting all of the figures completed from the Kickstarter wave 1 box of Mantic Games' The Walking Dead skirmish game. What better a way to start than with a bunch of zombies? It has been such a long time since I have painted any contemporary zombie figures, so it was nice to return to them as I always enjoy painting them.

At the far left is a severely wounded old man. His chest bears a pair of large cuts forming a cross and his stomach has been ripped open.
Next to him is a young punk with a Mohican haircut. He sports numerous cuts and wounds.

Second from the right is a young female whose left arm has been bitten off or ripped off.
At the far left is a police patrol-woman who has been shot, stabbed and bitten. The blood on her hands is still fresh, so most likely came from a victim she has recently fed upon.

In this next batch is a young man in a baseball cap who has lost his left arm just above the elbow. There is also a gaping hole in his stomach. The zombies fed well on him!
The guy in the yellow T-shirt appears to have died from a single gunshot to the heart. The entry wound is in his back and the exit wound in his chest. A nice clean kill... for a human!

The skinny-looking female second from the right has had half of her face bitten off.
The female at the far right appears to have been a shop assistant, judging by her clothing. She has been shot just below her right breast and there is a massive exit wound in her back. Also, her left arm has been broken and hangs at an odd angle, with bone showing through.
These were an absolute joy to paint. They were the first figures I've painted from this range and I like that they are made of hard plastic and that they are superbly detailed. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get round to painting them but I'm glad I've made a start on them. Lots more to follow!

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.