Thursday 29 June 2017

Vampifan's Views 93 - Monthly Musings 66

This has probably been the busiest month of the year for me so far. More on that later, but first here is a delightful painting of Vampirella done by Mike Mignola, whom comic fans will know as the artist and writer of the Hellboy series of comics. He also wrote the screenplays for the two recent Hellboy films. He has a very distinctive style that makes his work instantly recognisable. I have to say, I am a fan of his. As far as I know, this is the only artwork he has done of Vampirella. To date, Hellboy and Vampirella have not teamed up, but who knows what might happen in the future?

The project that has really dominated my time this month has, of course, been the Forgotten Heroes 2017 Challenge. You can see my final entry in my previous post, as I managed to make and convert all six heroes from The Bug Hunters comic strip. It took a lot of time and effort on my part to accomplish this huge task I had set myself, but I succeeded and from the comments I've received so far, it was more than worth it. It is fair to say, this challenge took up a large chunk of my time but it wasn't the only work I've been doing this month.

I mentioned in my last Monthly Musings that I had bought the Exterminate!, Davros and Missy Bundle from Warlord Games. It worked out cheaper buying all three boxed sets together than individually. I am delighted to say that I have made and painted all of the figures from these three sets - that's Davros and 24 plastic Daleks, Missy, 24 plastic Cybermen and 28 plastic Cybermats. Fortunately for me, these were very easy to make and they didn't take long to paint. I plan on posting a batrep between these two forces soon, although I won't be using all of them and more importantly, I'm not going to be using the rules or cards that come with the Exterminate! game. Instead, I'll be using the rules for the N.E.W. sci-fi RPG. Intriguingly, this game does provide stats for Cybermen and Daleks, but they aren't called as such. The Cybermen are known as Assimilators and the Daleks as Exterminators. I've made a few minor tweaks to their stats to make them even closer to their Doctor Who counterparts. I'm very intrigued to see how the game goes with these rules. Reviews of the figures should be posted soon and the batrep shortly after.

Do you remember that on Tuesday 16th of May, I posted an article celebrating this blog's one million views? I also ran a simple competition at the time, with first prize being £50 and two second prizes of £25 each. Well, it is time to announce the winners. First prize went to Roger Webb, and Clint and Luis bagged the second prizes. Roger and Luis have already received their prizes and interestingly, both turned down the offer of a free Tweak and/or Judge Heston figure made by Dave Stone of Wargames Terrain Workshop. Clint has been notified and I'm just waiting to hear back from him on how he wants the money and whether he wants either or both of the bonus figures. Anyway, thanks to all of you who took part and many congratulations to the three winners. I hope you have fun spending the money.

I don't have much else to report this month. Next month should see lots of sci-fi related posts.

24 comments:

  1. Great musing Bryan. So jealous of the Davros, Dalek and Cybermen miniatures. Reminds me of my childhood.

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    1. Thanks, Tim. I'm hoping to show my Daleks and Cybermen very soon.

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  2. Yipee! Thanks Bryan. Congrats to the other winners and Yippee to me!

    Well done Bryan for sponsoring such an event. I have been thinking long and hard about the prize. And will probably do a blog post about it tomorrow. Still can't believe it but can now speak and have picked my jaw up from the floor.

    I will email you sometime (Probably tonight) with the best way to get it to me. While I do not need a Tweek or a spare judge, if they are free it would be impolite not to have at least 1 winner want them. So I reluctantly accept (not reluctant at all really but I want to at least appear Modest!)

    Expect an email tonight. All the best Clint

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    1. I really am delighted for you, Clint. I look forward to hearing from you. Good on you for taking up the offer of a free Tweak and Judge Heston. I'm glad someone took up the offer! We'll sort out how best to get them to you with Dave.

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  3. Great musings Bryan, look forward to your BatRep using a different set of rules to Simon's BatRep, should be interesting to see how it plays out.
    Congratulations to all three winners

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    1. Thanks, Dave. It would have been so easy to run a Daleks vs Cybermen batrep using the official rules but that has been done many times before so I want to do something different. I, too, am intrigued to see how it goes using the N.E.W. rules.

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    2. "should be interesting to see how it plays out" - As Spock would say, Dave, it'll be "fascinating!". I know nothing about the N.E.W. rules, apart from what Bryan has posted here, so I'm certainly looking forward to it.

      Are you planning on doing one of your excellent comic book AARs, Bryan, or perhaps indulging those unsighted on the rules (like me) with a more detailed BatRep (a bit like your wonderful "Zombicide" ones)?

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    3. Thanks, Simon. I think, because almost no-one knows anything at all about N.E.W. I should do a detailed, rules heavy batrep, although the Comic Life approach does have appeal.

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  4. Congratulations.....
    Bryan, on doing such an excellent job on The Bug Hunters, and
    Roger, Clint and Luis on winning such a marvelous prize!

    You've certainly had a busy month Bryan and I'll be looking forward to seeing your review of the "Assimilators & Exterminators", and of course how they get on under the N.E.W rules.

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    1. Many thanks, Greg. Three worthy winners, I think. I'm sorry there couldn't have been more.

      N.E.W. is a very new RPG and so little has been written about it. I hope to give it a lot more exposure as it surely is a corking system.

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  5. Oh no more Doctor Who postings! I really don't want to get into that game but you lot are just not letting me ignore it are you. Seriously looking forward to your take on the good Doctor (by good I mean any of then before McGann). Who (no pun intended) doesn't love a good Dalek/Cyberman throw down?

    Vampirella and Hellboy, now that has got a Simon Moore batrep written all over it!

    Yes I won!! and first prize too, the money has now been re-directed into the coffers of a wargames company and some little lead soldiers are hopefully winging there way toward me as I type.

    I was tempted to try and buy as many Judge Dredd "Kleggs" as I could find and send them back to Bryan with the instructions to let them loose on "Judge Moore" in his next batrep, but sanity prevailed (just).

    Thank you so much for this Bryan, it really is most appreciated. Congrats to the other winners too, I hope you enjoy your figure too. I feel a bit bad for Dave now, though I'm sure they figures are fantastic (they are in the pic's I've seen), I'd rather they went to someone who will really appreciate them, and I'm sure Bryan will sort that out.

    Here's to the next Million view Bryan, all the best.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Many, many thanks, Roger. You truly were a worthy winner and I'm so glad you have spent your prize money already.

      My Daleks vs Cybermen batrep won't be featuring any of the Doctors or his assistants but don't rule out an appearance from them in the future.

      Ha, ha, yes Vampirella and Hellboy does have Simon Moore written all over it. I'm sure he has a 28mm Hellboy, but I doubt he has a Vampirella figure.

      Ah, Roger, you don't need a horde of Kleggs to take down Judge Moore - there are plenty of other big hitters in MC1 who can do that! Not that we'd pick on him at all! ;-)

      All the best to you and once again, congrats on coming first.

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    2. "Vampirella and Hellboy" - Now that's a thought, Roger/Bryan... ;-)

      Not too sure about the Klegg comment though, as Judge Moore seems to have problems enough not being shot by Judge Webb when he starts waving his lawgiver around like its a wand!! Anyone would think Judge Webb was patrolling Hogwarts not Mega-City One ;-P

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    3. No No No!! don't be mentioning "Harry Bl**dy Potter", just as Bryan has a intense dislike of Adverts, I feel the same way about "Harry potter"!!!!

      Roger.

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    4. I have to admit, Roger, I also have an intense dislike of all things Harry Potter. Bleurgh!!!

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  6. No one wanted an ape dressed as a judge. Why ever not

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  7. Heston and Tweak are fab minis, they don't know what they're missing! Congrats to the winners

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    1. To be fair, neither winner are as interested in Judge Dredd as we are, Andy. Besides which, I must respect their decisions.

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  8. Daleks are good (well, from a hobby point of view), but 24 of the things is a little OTT, isn't it :-) ? On the other hand, 24 cybermen is just about enough to do some proper synchronised stomping!

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    1. You could well be right, Hugh, but for now, I'm keeping an open mind on how many Daleks is too many.

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  9. Terrific post, Bryan, with lots of great articles to look forward too. I'm really looking forward to your N.E.W. rules, and the differences it generates, and certainly don't think you can ever have enough Daleks imho :-)

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    1. Cheers, Simon. N.E.W. has me very excited and has totally captured my imagination.

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