Vampifans Views 119 - Monthly Musings 89

This piece of art to the left of her was painted by Bill Sienkiewicz, an American artist who worked on many Marvel Comics titles, especially, Elektra, Moon Knight and the New Mutants. He has a very distinct style and this is the only painting of Vampirella that I have by him.

So what have I been up to this past month? A lot of my attention has been focussed on the Core Space sci-fi skirmish game by Battle Systems. I'm pleased to say that all of the scenery items have been made and had their edges painted. I'm well on the way to finishing painting the first 19 figures which consist of the four crew members of The Black Maria, the four crew members of the Ion Hope, 5 civilians and 6 criminals. Once I finish them I'll move on to the Purge, the enemy of humanity.

I sent away to Mantic Games for a limited edition of Chris the leader of the Hunters in the comic version of The Walking Dead. He came with two resin supply pieces and they are all finished so look out for them real soon.

Gaming wise, I have finally gotten back to continuing my The Ace of Spades Campaign with a scenario that I wrote called Take a Chance on Me. The first three chapters have already been posted on my WOIN blog. Captain Kimberley Wells is participating in a high stakes poker game run over three days at the Casino Triomphe on the pleasure planet Golden 4 (Alhambra). It does have a slow start but soon it will get very messy and blood soaked as some of the rest of the crew (no prizes for guessing bounty hunter Julia Frostorm!) encounter the galaxy wide criminal empire known as The Organisation.

I am fully ready to start my my new Judge Dredd campaign on my WOIN blog using the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook but obviously that won't start until I finish my latest The Ace of Spades Campaign scenario.

I'm having so much fun with my hobby and I hope you are too. Until next time, all the best.

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.

Assorted Androids 01

Let me start this post with a question - what is the difference between an android and a robot? It is the issue of free will. An android is self-aware and has rights - a robot does not. In RPG games such as N.E.W. and Starfinder, androids can be player characters. This is another one of my posts that could have appeared on this blog or on my WOIN blog. I'm posting it here simply because it has crossover potential for other systems and isn't limited to just N.E.W.

These five 28mm scale figures come from a variety of companies. At the far left is a very old figure produced by Grenadier Miniatures for Cyberpunk 2020 and/or Shadowrun. He is a cyborg cop, heavily influenced by Robo-cop from the films of the same name. In the few games where I have used him, I've always referred to him as "Robo-cop". I have no idea if this figure is still available for sale or not. I know a lot of old Grenadier figures are still available but I'm uncertain about this particular one.
Next in line is a figure I bought very recently. She is Maria the female android produced by Reaper Miniatures as part of their Chronoscope range. She looks like a female version of C-3PO from Star Wars. However, her name is a dead giveaway on who she is really based on - Maria the Maschinenmensch (German for machine-person) or robot in Fritz Lang's 1927 film of Metropolis. The figure is a very good likeness of her and the sculpting of her is quite exquisite. You'll find her in the Reaper Chronoscope webstore as 50246: Maria - She-Bot where she is priced at £5.22.

In the centre of this group is Narindan, who is an android produced by Space Vixens From Mars. I have been buying quite a few figures from them this year to use in my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I only recently became aware of this company and I have been very impressed by their friendly and swift service... and reasonable prices. This figure is listed as SV36 and costs a very cheap £2.00.
Finally are two androids produced by Alternative Armies for their Ganesha Games sci-fi range. They bear a slight similarity to the B1 Battledroids seen in some of the Star Wars films but they are different. However, it is fair to say that my colour scheme for them was directly influenced by the B1 Battledroid. They are listed as PSY04 Combots and they cost £2.00 each.
Anyone who is following my The Ace of Spades Campaign on my WOIN blog will know that one of the crew of The Ace of Spades is an android. Celeste is the most mysterious of all of my player characters and could well be the most powerful if she really is a Forerunner survivor. That should tell you that I like androids. My main use for these figures will be for N.E.W. but don't be too surprised if some of them appear in my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign.

Alternative Armies Sci-Fi Figures 02

Following on from my last post here are some more of the Ganesha Games 28mm scale sci-fi figures produced by Alternative Armies. These four figures come from set PSY01 Psi Paladins. I guess the most obvious association with figures looking like these is with the Jedi Knights from Star Wars, and there is no reason why you couldn't use them in a Star Wars game. But for me, the reason why I bought them was to use them as Star Knights in the N.E.W. role-playing game.

In N.E.W. Star Knights are an elite order of warriors who are respected throughout the galaxy. They rarely use ranged weapons, preferring to engage their enemies with their laser swords. They also possess psionic powers, which makes them very similar to the Jedi Knights, albeit more openly accepted by society. Once again, I have taken the optional rules from N.E.W. to denote the types of laser swords they wield, with the colours being highly significant.

At the far left is a novice warrior who wields a blue laser sword. Blue is the standard laser sword colour and is the one described in the N.E.W. rulebook (see p.92). Technically, laser swords are not lasers; they are made of plasma contained in a magnetic field.
The female armed with twin green laser swords is slightly more proficient. If blue laser swords are classed as basic rank 1 weapons, then green laser swords are slightly better and are classed as rank 2. They represent peace and defence and are often used for deflecting energy blasts.
Moving up the ranks, yellow laser swords are classed as rank 3 and they are focused on melee defence, used by guardians throughout the centuries. The size of this figure's head suggests he is an android, which certainly could be possible, despite the fact that androids are non-psionic. Playing a non-psionic star knight would be an interesting challenge. Or conversely, perhaps he does possess psionic powers, making him unique amongst androids.
Finally, at the far right is the ultimate star knight, armed with a rare rank 5 purple laser sword. This weapon is a potent mix of offence and defence. His oriental look makes me think of him as a futuristic samurai. Certainly, he is a character to be respected.
Red laser swords, which I mentioned in my last post are classed as rank 4. The rarest of all laser swords are the black ones (rank 6), mainly (although not exclusively) used by those who have succumbed to the dark side of the Force. They cause damage which cannot be healed except by psionic (or magical) means.
There was an excellent article about laser swords published in EONS, the online magazine for WOIN a while back. I'd post a link to it but you have to be a subscriber to read it. Most of the info I have presented here came from that article.
These figures are all very beautifully sculpted with exquisite detailing. The hands holding the laser swords are separate castings and have to be glued in place. They cost £3.00 each and are available from here - https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/ganesha-games-scifi/products/psy01-psi-paladins
I have yet to name any of these characters or work out their stats. I have already created one star knight character for my The Ace of Spades Campaign and she is a female Venetian. I'll show her in a later post. 

Alternative Armies Sci-Fi Figures 01

I recently discovered a range of figures produced by Alternative Armies for their Ganesha Games 28mm scale sci-fi range. I was instantly attracted to them and ordered the complete range. I want to start my reviews of them with a look at the following four figures shown below.

At the far left is Graul Granite, a rock-like alien and a bodyguard of Lord Phalag. He does look a lot like Ben Grimm aka the Thing from Marvel Comic's The Fantastic Four. I have yet to decide what race he is. He could be a Boromite from Warlord Games Beyond the Gates of Antares game but seeing as I have no interest in that game at present, I doubt if I'll go down that path. Most likely I'll come up with my own stats for him. The figure is a two piece casting - upper body and lower body.
The figure that most intrigued me from this set is the one second from the left. He is Lord Phalag and most likely a human. He looks every inch the cruel despot, powerful crime-lord or planetary governor. I plan to use him as a crime-lord in my The Ace of Spades Campaign for my N.E.W. RPG that I'm running on my other blog. I also think he would be a great rival of Lord Valatrix in the Death Match game by Wargames Terrain Workshop. The figure is made of resin with the four lower panels of the hover chair and the familiar sitting on his shoulder being made of metal. The alien familiar very much reminds me of Salacious Crumb, Jabba the Hutt's familiar in the Star Wars films. Note that he is not supplied with a flying base. Fortunately, I have loads of spare ones. I attached him to the base with a piece of copper tubing.

The light turquoise skinned female second from the right is another member of Lord Phalag's retinue. She is called Skarra and is described as a mutant mindblaster, so that means she is a psyker. To me, she looks like a Yazirian, an ape-like race with wings who appeared in TSR's Star Frontiers sci-fi RPG. Or she could be a totally different species.
Sticking with the Death Match theme, the final figure is Lord Phalag's champion gladiator - Silas the Strong. He is clad in tight-fitting silver armour and he wields a laser sword. Note that in the N.E.W. game, the colour of a laser sword denotes its core properties. Red laser swords symbolise aggression and anger. They do more damage than other laser swords. That seemed highly appropriate for him. I'm in two minds about whether to add a shield to him. The way he's holding his left arm means it would easily fit on.
These figures are all currently available from the Alternative Armies web-store, see here - https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/ganesha-games-scifi
Prices are £8.00 for Graul Granite, £5.00 for Lord Phalag, £2.00 for Skarra or £15.00 for all three. Silas costs £2.00 and is also available as part of the Techno-Barbarian pack of three figures. I am very impressed with this range of figures, especially as I can get double use out of them in Death Match and in my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I realise that I could just as easily have posted this review on my WOIN blog, but by posting it here, ensures it gets seen by a wider audience.