Vampifan's Views 85 - Monthly Musings 59

As October closes on one of my favourite days of the year - Halloween, I start as usual, with a stunning portrait of Vampirella painted by Joe Jusko. This painting is a particular favourite of mine. I have a small (10" tall) cardboard cut-out of Vampirella based on this particular painting. I bought it years ago and it still stands on one of my bookshelves in my bedroom. This painting shows Vampirella on her home world of Drakulon, where rivers of blood flowed freely. She is reclining in a waterfall of blood, which some may find disturbing... but not me!

I have a lot to say this month, so I'll start by telling you what I have been doing. I have been playing a few practice games of Shadows of Brimstone, as I familiarise myself with the rules before I post my first batrep for the game. I made a few mistakes, which is only to be expected but it is better to catch them early on whilst gaming in private, and I always learn from my mistakes. The games went well, but I quickly discovered you need a lot of table space to play Shadows of Brimstone. This game uses a lot of cards, a lot of counters and the map tiles take up loads of space unless you remove old ones before adding new ones, which is definitely recommended if you are playing on a small or regular sized table. My dining table measures 5' by 3' and it has to be cleared completely for me to play Shadows of Brimstone.

On the painting front, I am continuing to paint figures for my Shadows of Brimstone game and Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, as well as edging furniture and scenery items from my Battle Systems Urban Apocalypse Terrain sets. I have finished painting a lot of figures this month, so progress is good. They will all be featured on my blog in due course.

Speaking of Battle Systems, they have just launched their next Kickstarter campaign, which is Sci-Fi II Terrain. This is a complete overhaul of their original sci-fi terrain sets with the added bonus that it will be fully compatible with the Urban Apocalypse Terrain sets. The guys at Battle Systems learnt a lot from the Urban Apocalypse Terrain project and have vastly improved their very first project, which was the original sci-fi terrain set. I was in on Day One and was fortunate enough to secure an "Early Bird" pledge for two of each of the options. As I write, there are currently two sets you can pledge for. This project was fully funded within 10 minutes, and it is going to be hugely successful.

The Frontier Pledge at £78 per set. This is a gritty, used set, most likely found on fringe worlds, or in my case, Mega City One. This photo shows all that you get from one set, but does not include the many free Add-Ons you'll get for backing the project. Impressive, huh?

The Galactic Pledge, also at £78 per set. This has a much more clean and pristine look to it. I'll be using it for the more well off areas of Mega City One. Once again, the photo shows all that you get for one set. The gaming mat for both sets measures 2 feet square. You can combine both sets if you want or, as I plan on doing, combine them with the Urban Apocalypse sets. The sets can be used to make spaceship interiors or cityscapes. My imagination is working overtime on what I can do with these sets. If you are at all uncertain about backing this project or just want to know more about it click on the following link and be amazed at what is on offer.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1621774283/battle-systemstm-sci-fi-ii-terrain?ref=hero_thanks
There was never any doubt that I'd be backing this project. Primarily, because I was so blown away by their Urban Apocalypse Terrain sets, and second of all, this will really bring my 3D version of Mega City One to life. It is such a shame it won't be released until August 2017. I want it NOW! I know, I must remain patient. Each day I click on the site and see what new stuff has been added, thinking, can it get any better than this? The answer is always YES, IT CAN! As you can tell I am very, very excited about this project.

All of this is great news, but sadly, I also have some bad news as well. Mongoose Games and Warlord Games have lost their current license to sell the 28mm scale figures for the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game. I e-mailed Warlord Games to see what was going on and received the following reply,

Good afternoon Bryan.

Thank you for your message and interest in our models.

As our license on Judge Dredd has almost reached its end, we are currently planning the future for its range and game and re-negotiating our agreements with the brand owners.

Please stay tuned on our website pages and newsletter for imminent news on Judge Dredd developments!

Have a nice weekend! 

The fact that they are re-negotiating gives me some hope that an agreement can be reached and that the line continues. I would hate to see this range go for good. I'm praying for the best but fearing the worst. Warlord Games are currently holding a sale of their JDMG figures with everything half price and with free delivery. But the figures on offer are very limited, with over 95% of their stock apparently being sold out. So what does this mean if you want to buy any 2000AD related figures? Well, the good news is that Wargames Foundry still have their 2000AD range going. Unfortunately, they haven't added to it for years and years and I doubt if they ever will. With Mongoose Games, Warlord Games and the old Indyclix range now defunct, we won't see anything new produced for the game until someone does a deal with Rebellion who hold the licence for 2000AD and its characters. At the moment, eBay would seem to be your best bet to pick up any figures you are missing or would like but sadly, they only have a limited selection to choose from. Personally, I don't mind who picks up the license, just as long as someone does. It would be nice to see the full range available for sale again and even nicer if it develops as new models are added. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
I came very close to collecting the full range of JDMG figures and I'm only missing a few individual figures (Assassinator Droid, the Electro Cordon Pack, Kenny Who, the Mini-Bots set, Oz Judge on Trike, Sabbat and the Zombie Conversion set) and one boxed set (the Judda). I'd have liked to get a few Assassinator Droids and Zombie Conversion sets but I'm not bothered about missing the others. There are plenty of other robots I own that I can use as proxy Assassinator Droids and I can always use Milliput to convert zombie figures with.

The timing of this is bad because I will be devoting most of the next few months to my JDMG campaign, starting with my next post. I have all the figures I need to make it last a good few years and with the Battle Systems Urban Apocalypse Terrain I have and the Battle Systems Sci-Fi II Terrain coming next year, my batreps will look stunning. The reason I say that the timing of no-one currently holding the licence to sell the JDMG figures is bad is that my posts are likely to inspire a few followers to want to start their own JDMG games. It would be such a shame if someone sees something they'd really like to buy on my blog but can't find it for sale. My good friend and fellow blogger, Simon Moore, aka Blaxkleric has been showcasing his Mega City One Zombies this month and he has attracted a lot of positive comments about the figures and the game. The Judge Dredd franchise still remains very popular and I only hope it will grow stronger.
Yesterday I had a mammoth photography session and I took about 60 photos of figures from my Judge Dredd collection - more than enough to showcase for the rest of this year and beyond. I do like to maintain a library of photos I can use on my blog.

2000AD Prog 2000 Competition Winner

In my last Monthly Musings post I celebrated the publication of prog 2000 of the 2000AD comic with a simple competition. Not many people bothered to enter which was good news for those who did as it increased their odds of winning. However, there could only be one winner and I got my mum to draw a name from a list of entrants I placed in my baseball cap. So, many congratulations to -

Andy Nash aka Da Gobbo. 

You win a box full of 2000AD themed 28mm scale figures. I'm sure you will treasure them and hopefully use them in your own games, although probably not in Bushido! I'll get them posted to you as soon as possible, Andy.

Happy Halloween, everyone!