The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater is book one of her As The World Dies trilogy. According to Rhiannon the world dies "not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with the rending and tearing of flesh." Once again, we are in Zombie apocalypse territory but this novel differs from many other similarly themed novels by having two female protaganists taking centre stage. It makes a refreshing change to view the start of the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of a female.
The blurb on the back cover describes the story thus "it begins on a peaceful, beautiful morning. Katie, a prosecutor, is driving to work when a dead man jumps into her car and tries to eat her. Elsewhere in the city, Jenni, a housewife, opens a bedroom door to find her husband devouring their infant son.
Fate puts Katie outside Jenni's door when the younger woman flees her zombified family. Fate - and Katie's quick reflexes behinf the wheel - see them safely out of the city while most of the living are chased down by the undead.
The two women begin a cross-Texas odyssey to rescue Jenni's eldest son and hopefully find safety... somewhere... Jenni discovers the great joy of watching a zombie's head explode when she shoots its brains out. Katie learns that her analytical mind is perfect at planning the best attacks and escape routes.
A small, isolated fortified town is their only hope. Fewer than one hundred people have gathered there, clinging to civilization and to hope. They all know the zombies will come for them. But until that day, they will live, and love, and maybe even laugh."
In brief, that's the story. It is very well written with well rounded and developed characters (not just Jenni and Katie) whom you care about and hope will survive. One of my favourite supporting cast was the old lady, Nerit Toombs, who along with her husband runs a gunstore in a tiny village. What I love about Nerit is the fact that she used to be a sniper with the Israeli Army in her younger days. How cool is that? She's just the sort of person you want as back up in a zombie apocalypse because she has lost none of her shooting skills.
Jenni and Katie make a great double act and complement each other very well. Katie tries to avoid combat whenever she can but Jenni relishes in it, especially shooting zombies. Every time she shoots a zombie she sees her husband's face. Theirs was not a happy marriage as he was a drunken monster who'd lash out at her or their children at the slightest provocation. Katie excels in her cerebral skills and is good at making command decisions. Both women suffer great emotional loss. Jenni saw her husband kill her two young children in their home. Katie lost her female spouse to the zombies. Yes, Katie is a lesbian, but not exclusively so as she also finds some males attractive. Both women are fans of George Romero's zombie movies and often comment on them. Most of what Romero depicted in his zombie films was spot on in this apocalypse, although in one detail he was well off mark. The zombies in this novel are of the fast-moving variety. This is probably my one and only quibble with the book as I am not a fan of zombie sprinters. I like my zombies to be of the slow-moving, shambling variety.
That apart, I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish and I can't wait to read book two. That's the big problem with trilogies if you buy them as soon as each part is released you have to wait months for the next part. Part two, called Fighting to Survive is due to be released next month. Book three, called Siege, is slated for an early 2012 release. The First Days is published by Tor and it cost me £8.73 from Amazon instead of the RRP of £9.77. Fans of Mira Grant's Newsflash trilogy and Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comics ought to lap this novel up. Indeed any fans of zombie literature who appreciate good story telling along with intelligent, well developed characters, should add this to their collection if they haven't already. For those who like fast-paced gorefests, Rhiannon doesn't disappoint in that department either.

Vampifan's Views 13 My Monthly Musings part 2

Vampirella and the evil Lilith by Joe Jusko

As we approach the end of another month it's time for my second monthly musing. On the figure painting front, I finished the 20 assorted figures I mentioned last time and I have another 20 on the go - 18 Wargames Foundry 28mm scale Street Violence Misfits and Outcasts and two extremely rare Cold War Miniatures' 28mm scale corpses that were sculpted for their The Dead Will Walk range but never got put into production. The idea was to make corpse figures of their five survivors. The two I have are of the priest and the redneck in baseball cap, holding a metal club. How I got hold of them is down to two people. My very good friend Roger, aka Rogzombie, wrote to CWM on my behalf. He knew about these ultra rare figures and knowing how much I'd like them, plus as a thank you for the good work I do with my blog, put in a request to Richard of CWM that he let me have a set if there were any still available. I am truly indebted to both Roger and Richard for their kind gesture. I was deeply moved when the parcel arrived containing the two minis. I've mentioned the kindness of bloggers before and here's another example of that.
Another piece of good news, well at least on a personal note, is that I have bought no miniature figures this month. This has given me a great opportunity to make a dent in my mountain of unpainted metal and plastic figures. As long as I paint more figures than I buy I will eventually get on top of it. It'll never happen but I can dream!
I may not have spent anything on miniature figures this past month but the same most certainly does not apply to card models. I've ordered and downloaded quite a few from the Interweb. From WWG I bought three of their new TLX sets - Mayhem Services (I mainly wanted the ground tiles from it - they are excellent!), Shellendrak Manor West Wing and Shellendrak Props. I don't like the West Wing set as much as the original set, although the main staircase is better designed. I already have most of the props and I just bought the new set because I'm such a completist. My loyalty to WWG will never die but it has been severely tested this month as I have discovered some cracking good sets from other sources.
First up is a company called Fat Dragon Games, who mainly produce fantasy models. They have two contemporary sets - Capital City and McDoom's Restaurant. Capital City is a collection of five assorted buildings along with various outdoor props. McDoom's is a single storey fast food restaurant. What I like about both sets is that they come with assorted layers for their textures that you can choose from. This gives you a lot of freedom to texture the building how you want it to look - brand new, or grubby and dirty. The major negative point of both sets is that they lack interior detail and furniture. This isn't a major obstacle for an experienced modeller like me but it may put some folks off.
Next, I discovered a company called Finger and Toe Models (because card modelling need not cost an arm and a leg - groan!). They produce a lot of fantasy and sci-fi models with just a smattering of contemporary models. Four of the five contemporary models I bought - factory, small warehouse, multi-level warehouse and Slum City do come with interior detail but no furnishing. The fifth set that I bought was the Quonset Hut, which I'm currently making and mine will have interior detailing and furnishing. These models, like WWG's, do not come with layered textures. Even so, they are nicely textured and will add variety to my Mayhem City layout.
Finally, quite by accident, I stumbled across another card building website - Dave's Games run by Dave Graffam. His catalogue of models is filled almost exclusively with fantasy buildings, which don't interest me. However, he also makes numerous ruined buildings, which are ideal for most genres and time periods. Even better was the fact that a bundle set of all 17 ruined buildings was on sale for roughly £25.00. That's one heck of a bargain. More so, when you see that most models come with multiple texture layers, giving you oodles of choice in how the buildings will look. You could make millions of these and have no two look alike, such are the number of combinations possible. I was absolutely delighted with this particular purchase. These buildings do come with interior detail and in some cases, with furniture and props.
I was thinking, how likely is it that ruined buildings will appear in a zombie apocalypse and I think they will be inevitable in any large population centre. Gas explosions and fires will be the cause of many. If the military react with extreme firepower against the zombie hordes that will create a lot more carnage. I've already included a few ruined buildings in some of my batreps. You can be sure that more will follow. Now, I just need the time to get all of this new stuff built.
For those of you who told me to get my WWG Mayhem Police Station completed, have no fear, I am working on it. In this past month I got three more rooms furnished, leaving me with just eight more before its finished. To prevent burnout, I've taken a short break to make my Quonset Hut. This is what I'll continue to do - make a few rooms then switch to another simple project. The work in progress photo that I took with my new Black Hawk helicopter model ought to give you some idea of how big the police station will be. It certainly has the largest footprint of any building I have made so far for Mayhem City.
I managed to catch three films at the cinema this month, all on the same day. What a great day out that was! I've already reviewed the excellent remake of Fright Night. The other two films I saw were The Inbetweeners Movie, which was very rude and very funny and Columbiana, a highly enjoyable and fast paced action movie with Zoe Saldano being most impressive as a hitwoman seeking revenge for the death of her parents.
On the reading front, I completed The First Days by Rhiannon Frater. It was excellent and you can expect a review very soon. I am currently reading Rise Again by Ben Tripp, yet another zombie novel that was recommended to me by one of my followers. Thanks, Colin, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
Well, I have wittered on for far longer than I intended so I'll sign off now. Thanks for reading. Oh, note the new background picture for my blog - Vampirella, of course!

WWG Fast Food Vans

When I reviewed the Microtactix Horseman's Deli and Dry cleaning store I mentioned that I'd make a couple of card vehicles next. Well, here they are - a pair of WWG 28mm scale fast food vans that come from their TLX Mayhem Under Construction set.

Here's a general view of them and you can immediately see that whilst both vans are identical in design, it's only the livery that has changed on them. This particular vehicle is very easy to make, being little more than a box on wheels. The simplicity of its construction was why I chose to make them, as it has been such a long time since I last made any WWG card vehicles and I wanted something easy to build.

Rather off-puttingly, one is called Filthy Fred's Snack Mobile, whilst the other belongs to the Whacky Snax franchise. You can also see that they sell a variety of fast food items, namely hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, fries and pop. I was disappointed to see that bacon sandwiches weren't on the menu! These Americans have no taste!

This side view of them shows the serving hatch and menu. Both vans share the same menu and their prices are identical. I love the fact that the menus are readable. The menu in full from top to bottom reads - hamburger, hot dog, ice cream, pop, fries, soup, pizza (by the slice) and tacos.

I was pleased to see that the two vans have different licence plates. The one for Whacky Snax reads W7 RSP, whilst Filthy Fred's reads W5 OXR.

 Looking at the clown face on the Whacky Snax van made me think that this would be an ideal mode of transport for a group of my killer clowns. Ever since reading about the Bozos gang of killer clowns in the original Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game I've been fascinated by evil clowns. There is something downright creepy about clowns. I have a very large collection of circus figures, with probably half of them being clowns. I must review them sometime. Prior to collecting zombies once I learnt about ATZ, I spent a year collecting as many circus figures as I could. This was at the time that the Horrorclix Freakshow expansion set was on sale, and they really kick-started my collection.

The back views of the vans show off their witty slogans. For Whacky Snax we have " Food that's good enough to eat!" and for Filthy Fred's the slogan reads, "Cram it in your face hole!"

These are great additions to the rapidly expanding range of WWG vehicles. Fast food vans of all descriptions are a common site in any town or city, but more especially in places that have a captive audience, like a sporting arena. Mine will be appearing in my ATZ campaign and one of them will definitely appear in my next scenario (coming up soon, you'll be pleased to hear). If you find one early on your campaign they could be a good source for food supplies. Later on and they've either been stripped clean or their food has gone bad.

They were fun to make and just what I needed to get my card building mojo back into gear. I'm working on my Mayhem police station at present but I have so many projects that I want to complete. Whilst my miniature figure buying has thankfully come to a stand still (none bought at all this month) the same cannot be said about my purchasing of card models. I'll tell you more about that in my next editorial.

Reaper Zombie Strippers

It constantly amazes how figure sculptors keep on bringing out zombie figures that you wouldn't expect to see. These three figures from the Reaper 28mm scale set 50213 Zombie Strippers surely fall into that category. Without any further ado, let's have a look at them.

 

I haven't named these figures but I think I ought to. For now, however, I'll identify them by their hair colour. At the far left of my two photos above is the Miss Brunette. She is, in my opinion, the prettiest of the three and the one who could most pass for being human. The mottled dead flesh and wound to her left side is a dead giveaway (pun intended) that she is a zombie. I'm rather pleased with how her stockings have come out. I painted them in zombie flesh, the same as the rest of her flesh but gave her legs a couple of coats of Citadel Gryphonne Sepia ink wash. Note the wad of dollar bills tucked into the stocking top of her right leg. 

In the centre of the group is Miss Blonde and from the absence of black roots in her hair, she seems to be a natural blonde. She has silver nipple tassels, which to me, denotes that she is a regular stripper. Miss Brunette had bronze nipple tassels, making her a rookie stripper. Hey, there's logic in my madness here!  She has ripped a guy's arm off whilst the dead hand still clutches a bunch of dollar bills. Class act, Miss Blonde! More dollar notes have been tucked into the left side of her panties. Her wounds are far more extensive and noticable, particularly on her legs. She has also been bitten in the side of her face.

Finally, is Miss Redhead, the veteran stripper and star of the show, as denoted by her gold nipple tassels. Only the best stripper in the show gets to wear the coveted gold nipple tassels! I love the way how the top of her right boot has curled down to give her legs a lopsided look. Like Miss Blonde, she has stuffed her cash gifts down the side of her panties. From the front, she could almost pass for human, especially in a darkened strip club. But from behind, you can see that a large portion of her back has been chewed away, revealing she is clearly no longer human.

All of the girls come with nipple tassels, of which I'm in two minds about. On the one hand I'd love to see bare boobies and nipples. Hey, I'm a boob man, what can I say? I'm sure if Kevin White had sculpted them for Hasslefree he would not have added the nipple tassels. On the other hand I accept that when it comes to nudity, Americans are more uptight about it than us Brits, and that naked breasts may well affect sales. Whether Reaper would sell more or less is open to debate! Also, I know from empirical research that some strippers do use nipple tassels in their acts, so their appearance can be justified in that sense. I did think about filing the tassels off one girl to give her bare breasts but then decided not to alter her. If I want more raunchy strippers I could always buy a second set to convert.

I have a very high opinion of these figures, even though I am aware that they won't be to everyone's taste. Mind you, considering the subject matter, these have been tastefully sculpted. The sculpting of all three really is of the highest quality. They were a total joy for me to paint and they give me another reason to build my Mayhem City Stripclub/Brothel. They retail for $9.99 from the Reaper website. For a second opinion on these fine figures check out Lord Siwoc/Johnny's review here http://lordsiwoc.blogspot.com/2011/05/warning-adult-content.html

Whilst on the subject of zombie strippers I suppose it would be remiss of me not to mention two films closely related to the subject - Zombie Strippers and Zombies, Zombies, Zombies, aka Strippers vs Zombies. Be warned, both are utter pants! However, I can recommend Zombie Strippers for its humour (Robert Englund, who plays the owner of the stripclub gets all the best lines and is hilarious throughout) and it has fairly decent and gory special effects. The strippers are just okay, apart from the star of the show, Jenna Jameson, whom I found to be a complete turn off. Big plastic boobies - urgh!!! Jenna, put them away! Please!

As for Zombies, Zombies, Zombies, I can find very little to recommend it, other than a rather amusing performance from the black pimp (Anthony Headen). The story, the acting, the girls, the special effects, the dialogue were just too amateurish for my liking. I know its meant to be a tongue in cheek movie but so was Zombie Strippers and that made a much better job of things, even if it wasn't exactly fault free. Buy either film at your peril or if you're easily pleased. I'd rate Zombie Strippers 5 out of 10 and Zombies, Zombies, Zombies 2 out of 10, simply because I have seen worse and the pimp made me smile a few times.

Fright Night 3D

Here we are half way through September and this is my first film review of 2011. This has not been a good year at the cinema for horror films but, thankfully, that changes with the release of Fright Night 3D  - a remake of the 1985 film, Fright Night. Generally speaking, I am not a fan of remakes or reimaginings but I'll make an exception for this film as it beats the original in every department.
THE PLOT. Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is a teenager who lives at home with his mum (Toni Collette) on a suburban estate on the outskirts of Las Vegas. His mum introduces him to their newly arrived next-door neighbour, Jerry (Colin Farrell), an attractive hunk and construction worker. One of Charley's school friends, Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse),  asks him to help discover why so many of their friends and neighbours have gone missing. Ed suspects it is because Jerry is a vampire. Charley dismisses his theory as pure fantasy but next day when Ed fails to turn up at school he sneaks into Jerry's house and discovers that Ed was right all along - Jerry IS a vampire. Jerry is holding a female victim hostage and Charley tries to rescue her. I won't say how that turns out but it provides one of the biggest scares of the movie!
Charley tries to keep his new found knowledge from his mum and girlfiend, Amy (Imogen Poots), but when Jerry comes a calling that night he begs his mum not to invite him in. I liked the fact that his mum actually believes him rather than dismissing him as being delusional. Jerry takes this very badly and blows up their house. The three humans escape in mum's car but naturally, Jerry pursues them. They survive again but mum is left hospitalised. This forces Charley to seek outside help from a TV magician called Peter Vincent (David Tennant). Peter, who is overly fond of alcohol dismisses Charley, but later in a moment of lucidity realises the teenager is indeed facing a real life vampire, and so offers his help. Jerry and his minion, Ed, attack Charley, Amy and Peter in Peter's luxury apartment. Jerry ends up capturing and biting Amy. He takes her back to his lair, where the climactic battle between good and evil takes place with Charley and Peter determined to wipe out Jerry and his minions once and for all... or die trying!
THE FILM. The film was directed by Craig Gillespie and was based on the Tom Holland film of the same name made in 1985. The screenplay for the remake was written by Marti Noxon, a name that will be familiar to any fans of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as she was one of the show's regular writers. Not surprisingly, she has a good feel for this genre and the script was well written and witty.
THE VERDICT. This is the first vampire movie I have reviewed since Twilight: Eclipse over a year ago. There was much that I liked about this film. Charley is a likable teen, as is his girlfriend, Amy, who's very good-looking. Colin Farrell plays Jerry extremely well. He oozes sex appeal and menace in equal quantities. I liked it when Charley commented on what a ridiculous name Jerry is for a vampire, but if he wants to blend in with society, why not be called Jerry? David Tennant was well cast as Peter Vincent, the very reluctant vampire slayer. We learn that his parents were killed by vampires but he is trying to blot out the memory of their deaths by drowning himself in his work but more especially, alcohol. My only real quibble with the film was the use of the 3D effects. They were sparsely used and to be honest, didn't add much to my viewing pleasure. Even so, I was thoroughly entertained by this offering with its thrills and laughs that took me back to the good old days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, both of which I adored. I can highly recommend Fright Night 3D and I'd rate it 8 out of 10.