Sunday 31 March 2013

Vampifan's Views 36 - Monthly Musings 20

Vampirella displaying her bat wings by John Bolton
This past month my blog celebrated two landmarks. First up, it reached its fourth birthday on March 16th and secondly, I passed the 400 posts mark. The ATZ-FFO batrep that I posted was my 400th post. Yay, me!
March has been another busy month for me. Getting to play ATZ-FFO for the first time this year was an obvious highlight, and how cool it was for Vampifan to recruit Hannah Vaughn and her family.
I have managed to glue all of my model trees to circular MDF bases of varying sizes depending upon the height and diameter of the tree. I am now sourcing my trees from Carl at Grekwood Miniatures (GM). I recently ordered some weeping willow trees and some beech trees. The GM webstore is well worth checking out for trees as Carl offers a wide variety of tree types. My MDF bases came from East Riding Miniatures and were very reasonably priced.
I have almost finished painting my first batch of plastic figures from the Zombicide boardgame. I am busy painting the six survivors and 16 of the zombies (10 Walkers, 4 Runners and 2 Fatties). Next up will be another batch of 16 zombies plus the fearsome zombie abomination. I am painting these so that they will be compatible with my current zombie horde and other contemporary figures. What that means is that they will all have textured bases the same as my other figures. I have seen lots of examples of painted Zombicide figures but I have never seen any that have textured bases. When I get the second batch painted I'll run a review of the figures and a review of the game. I have played a few solo games of it already, with the zombies winning most games. Individually, zombies are easy enough to kill but once they gather in numbers and attack in force they are virtually unstoppable. It's great fun!
Today is the last day of the Zombicide Season 2 Kickstarter pledge and it is an understatement to say that it has been a phenomenal success. As I type this, there are still about 12 hours to go and they are $15,000 short of the $2 million mark. I hope they reach it. Seeing as their original goal was for just $25,000 you can see just how popular this project has been. My final pledge amount was a whopping big $400.00. I have ordered both games (Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall), the zombie dogs packs, every survivor they offered, the extra tile sets and some extra tracker tokens. Roll on September when they start shipping.
On the card modelling front I have taken a break from making ground tiles. I have almost completed the Stoelzel's Derelict Building. For most people this would be a very easy model to make, but you ought to know my motto by now - always go the extra mile. What has really slowed me down in making this are the wooden boards over the windows. I am making all of the boards separately to give them a 3D effect and that is very time-consuming. Expect a review some time next month.
Brummie's Burgers - the newest fast food franchise to hit the market.
Carl from Stoelzel's Structures continues to impress me. He recently announced that he was going to design a fast food restaurant and he asked followers of his forum to come up with a name for it. I came up with three options, of which my favourite was "Brummie's Burgers," named in honour of my fellow blogger, Simon aka Brummie. A vote was held to decide which name would be chosen and to my delight, "Brummie's Burgers" came out top. I won a free copy of the model when it was released, but to be honest, having my choice of name chosen was reward enough for me. What is really cool about this model and further proof of just what a hero Carl is, he included a sheet of signs featuring all the names that were suggested in his poll. Thus, everyone who entered was a winner. I thought that was a lovely touch and very generous of Carl. Incidentally, I plan on making this after I finish making the derelict building. What is not shown on the promo photos I've shown above is that the restaurant comes with its own ground tiles that are compatible with those from the Undeveloped Real Estate set. I will be adding them to my restaurant model, although the restaurant will be detachable from the ground tiles to make it easier for storing away.
April is going to be a very exciting month for me. The highlight will be meeting up with fellow blogger Mathyoo who runs his blog here - http://mathyoo28mm.blogspot.co.uk/ He's going to spend a week's holiday with me before he heads down to London for the big Salute convention. As well as showing him around the area, I am hoping to get a few games of ATZ-FFO and Zombicide played with him. It'll be quite strange to have someone else to game with having been a solo gamer for far too many years. But I am looking forward to it immensely. I will, of course, keep you informed of what we get up to, as I'm sure Mathyoo will on his blog.
That's all for this month. Have a very happy Easter!

34 comments:

  1. The burger joint looks excellent.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Look forward to the zombicide review. I'm yet to get it. But lots of people have said how good it is. I'm really chuffed you decided to use my 'nickname' for your entry and even more so that it won! Huzzah!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carl told me that "Brummie's Burgers" was his favourite name as well, so it was even more cool that it came first.

      As for Zombicide it is a very addictive game! Oh, and it's very easy to play but difficult to master.

      Delete
  3. Another busy month in Castle Vampifan. Nice model, I'm looking forward to seeing the completed figures. I had originally offered Mathyoo a place to crsh for a couple of days but SWMBO wouldn't hear of it until the place was redecorated. I mentioned that it woldn'tbe fr long, well the discusson writes itself. Have a good time and enjoy April, you've been busy thi month.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Originally, Mathyoo was going to do a flying tour of England to try and meet as many zombie bloggers as he could. He certainly mentioned the possibility of meeting you, Bob. Much as I admire his enthusiasm, I think he came to realise it was just too much (too expensive?) to do. Still, he has youth on his side and I'm sure he'll return to our shores in the future and hopefully you'll be able to meet up with him then.

      Delete
  4. I will try to meet Mathyoo inside Salute.(Fingers Crossed). It will be good to see your combined Bat reps of ATZ FFO. I'm really looking forward to them.

    Brummies Burgers looks good, Let's hope they taste good.

    Happy Easter Mate have a good one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I originally thought that Brummie's Burgers were made of people who come from Birmingham, But Simon told me that they are made of people who visit Birmingham. You have been warned!

      Delete
    2. I thought that was in the "Meat Curries"!!! I thought the burgers were a mix of Rat and Donkey!

      Delete
    3. Who knows what goes into burgers these days, Clint? But here's the official word from Carl Stoelzel -
      Welcome to Brummie’s Burgers, home of the best burgers this side of Birmingham, and home of the original widow maker burger, the only burger to have, not one, but two full pound patties, sandwiched between three layers of our world famous cheese stuffed fried dough, and dripping from our tangy secret sauce. The widow maker burger will surely leave your loved ones to mourn, but the nitrates and other preservatives are guaranteed to leave your body in a state of near mummification. A steady diet of Brummies Burgers is the best step a prepper could undertake to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, because you will have the nicest looking reanimated corpse around.

      Delete
  5. Brummie's Burgers was a good choice, congrats to both of you! My choice would have needed a billboard!
    The kids and I are waiting for the final tally to Zombicide. I'm looking forward to the doubling of zombies and more modern figures. We had to drop the 1st season game so we could snatch up some of the other goodies. We will try Amazon later this Spring....but as a suprise, I'm going to buy ATZ this fall so the kids and I can have even more zombie smacking fun with the minis!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too, missed out on the Kickstarter deal for Zombicide Season 1, a decision I bitterly regret. I got my copy of Zombicide from Amazon for a very reasonable price (far cheaper than e-Bay). I'm glad to hear that you plan on buying ATZ. Good call, David!

      Delete
  6. Oh, I feel important now :P
    I do not plan to report anything until I get back home, but I surely look forward to playing some games and meeting you all. And Bob, I'll start saving for next years trip as soon as I come back and we can try it again that time! :D

    I have missed the 4th birthday, so happy anniversary! 4 years is what...16 at least in the internet years? ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should feel important, Mathyoo, as you're going to be the centre of attention in April. I really do hope you achieve your goal of meeting as many zombie bloggers as you can.

      16 years, you say? I dunno, but it certainly feels like that, LoL!

      Delete
  7. Nice words this month Vamp, cool about the comp and even cooler that Mathyoo is going to be staying with ya, dont forget to keep us updated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I certainly plan to, TE. I hope I can share some new batreps with you.

      Delete
  8. Wow, that's a lot of stuff going on. Congratulations on the blog's continuing success and I look forward to hearing more about games, models and all the other stuff you write about!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hugh, I like to keep busy and it's wonderful that my mojo is working flat out. I am very enthusiastic about my hobby and that is such a wonderful feeling.

      Delete
  9. I look forward to reading about what shenanigans the pair of you get up to and I'm sure it'll be a great week of gaming! Hope to get to Salute and meet some people myself this year, being as it looks like I live closest to the venue it would be bad form on my part if I didn't make the effort!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shenanigans will be gotten up to, Dave. I wish I could have accompanied Mathyoo to Salute this year, but I simply couldn't afford it.

      Delete
  10. Great monthly recap Bryan! It's shocking to me that the month passed THAT quickly.

    I join you in the love of Zombicide of course! I even got to play it last night (after a 40K tournament, and a game of Evil Baby Orphanage) and everyone who played it loved it. I just wish my local game store could get more in, I could sell the heck out of them for him.

    I see your point about the textured bases. I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it. I don't know what I'll do when I get to the stage where I'm painting the miniatures from the game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Time flies when you're having fun, Jon.

      I've just checked and Season 2 has cracked the $2 million mark! How awesome is that? I think a lot of people will leave the bases of their minis untextured simply because they'll only use them in Zombicide. I want the best of both worlds. I want to use my minis in Zombicide and ATZ-FFO. Wait until I do my review, Jon, before deciding what to do with your own figures. I may just persuade you that texturing is the cool thing to do.

      Delete
    2. I'm incredibly excited about the Season 2 KS. Now I just need to source miniatures for the KS Exclusive Season 1 stuff! That might make an interesting collaboration. A couple of us figuring out what minis to use for the stuff from the original KS might be a lot of fun.

      I'll definitely check out how you handle the bases before I make a decision. I have enough to do in the meantime!

      Delete
    3. Is it September yet?

      I'm up for any collaboration to source minis for the Season 1 exclusives. I have seen some of the actual figures going for silly prices on e-Bay, by which I mean, bloody expensive!

      Delete
    4. I'll start a thread over on the Board of the Living Dead!

      I backed for feels like a hefty sum to me, and am incredibly happy about it. I'm REALLY looking forward to September.

      Delete
    5. Cool, Jon. I'll head on over there very shortly. I too am so looking forward to September.

      Delete
  11. It really was a busy month for Vampi, and it doesn't look to let up anytime soon. Here's hoping Mathyoo and yourself have a fun time (maybe you can coerce him into helping out on the Zombicide re-basing).

    I've read of some people having problems painting their Zombicide minis. Have you run into anything out of the ordinary, either in your prep work or seeing something after the fact? I've been too paranoid to try and paint mine between hearing things that can go wrong and the sheer magnitude of minis in the box.

    There's also one thing I've wanted to ask for years - where does your scenery go when it's not on the table having battle waged upon it?

    And with all of that wordiness, have a Happy Easter :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Russ, the only problem I have encountered with my Zombicide minis was that the base of one of the survivors ((Doug) was slightly warped. I easily rectified this by adding a bit of Milliput underneath his base to straighten it out and now he no longer wobbles. The figures paint up very well, as they are made of a hard plastic that does not bend. Some people have painted all of the zombies in a particular pose the same colour, which does make painting so many a lot easier. This was not for me. I'm painting all 65 of my zombies in individual colour schemes. Yes, I am crazy!

      When not in use, my card scenery resides in my bedroom or one of my spare upstairs bedrooms. Since my dad died over a year ago, I have full access to the upstairs of our house, so I have three bedrooms to store stuff in. This makes storage no problem for me and I have loads of room to expand. This is useful since I want to make as much of Mayhem City as I can!

      Delete
  12. Great stuff Brian, i cant wait to see the zombicide figs painted and based.

    Now i know you are starting to build Brummies Burgers, i will stop my build till i see how you tackled the bending windows and ground tiles lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ho, ho, I like your thinking, Shinto, mate. I only have the stairs left to make on the derelict building, so I should start making the restaurant in the next day or two. The ground tiles won't be a problem as they'll neatly fit on an A1-sized piece of foamboard. Actually, the footprint will be the same size as my large car park from the URE set. The curved window will be a challenge, but I'm up for it!

      Delete
  13. Any chance you'll make the journey as well to Salute? Grat musings my friend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly, no, Fran. I simply can't afford the travel costs from Gateshead to London and back.

      Delete
  14. Happy Easter, Happy Birthday, Congrats to the post-count, but more than that congrats on that particular Vampi pic, very striking image.

    Glad to hear the update on season 2, those guy deserve the success. And I love how season 3 was already alluded two at the bottom of the pledge levels, so we certainly have more to look forward too.

    Obviously looking forward to your April's building updates, particular your renovations to the derelict.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Carl. Yes, Zombicide season 3 certainly has me intrigued.

      I should finish making the derelict building today or tomorrow at the latest. I'll post photos and a review of it as soon as I can. I am very pleased with how it has turned out. All of my hard work has paid off.

      Delete