Vampifan's World of the Undead

Finally I present my first ever Wild West batrep. This has been a long time in the coming but is something I have been dying to do ever since I started blogging. It has taken me a long time to build up my collection of Wild West buildings, figures and scenery in 28-32mm scale. Now my collection is of such a size that this batrep is possible. I am using the Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory rulebook with a few changes and additions from the upgraded, simpler and faster to play sequel. I much prefer the original version because it is so much more detailed.
This is my town set up, primarily using buildings from 4Ground. Now I know they are expensive, but to me the price is worth it because they are incredibly detailed and best of all, they come pre-painted. This is a huge time saver, however, I do paint the edges to blend in with the appropriate colour and to hide the dark wood. This is a tip I learnt from making my card buildings - always paint your edges.
The town of Stillwater, New Mexico is close to the border with Mexico. It has a main street running from south at the bottom of this photo to north at the top. A side street runs east and west.
As I said, most of my buildings are from 4Ground, but the one exception is the sheriff's office and jail, which I purchased from TT Combat. It came unpainted. Painting it wasn't too hard but it was time consuming. It did help me in that I used coloured card on the interior walls and I stuck black, fine-grade sandpaper on the roof.
This view of the crossroads shows from left to right at the top of the photo, a two-storey building under construction, the undertakers and across the street, the hardware store. A chuck wagon stands outside the store. This was a plastic construction kit in 1/48th scale that I bought many years ago. I don't know which company made it, but I do recall it was a Japanese company. Sadly, it did not come with horses.
At the western side of the main street is the only two-storey house in the town, with its family of four standing outside. Next to it is the land office and at the corner of the crossroads is Miss Kitty's Hotel, run by Kitty Trent. The name hotel is a bit misleading as the establishment is actually a brothel.
At the other side of the crossroads is Rogan's Bar, run by the strong-willed and tough miss Cathie Rogan. The upper floor is a bunkhouse for travellers looking for a cheap place to stay overnight. Next to the bar is a single-storey building under construction. The town is expanding northwards.
Here is a view up the side street. The two buildings at the bottom of the picture are single-storey houses for some of the town's residents. Some residents live and sleep in their own establishments.
In the north-east corner of the town is a small lake, from which the town got its name of Stillwater. This wonderful terrain piece came from Wargames Terrain Workshop, and its owner, Dave Stone, kindly painted it for me. I did ask him to and I was thrilled with the result. Dave added a rattlesnake to it, which is such a cool touch! It is only just visible at the top of the lake and directly below the topmost cactus. Note that my glasses are visible to the left of the house. I never noticed that they were there until after I'd posted this picture. Silly me!
The outdoor toilets are card models. The smaller one to the left was produced by World Works Games as part of their TLX Deadfall range. The larger one behind the sheriff's office was produced by Stoelzel's Structures as part of their Fatal Frontier set. I built two of each for my town.
And so we come to the scenario itself. I played a simple Gunfight encounter (p.35 of Blaze of Glory) and this was GF-2 where one side is outnumbered by the other. Obviously the encounter took place in town. The two female bandidas are after the four man outlaw gang after they shot and killed a good friend of theirs.
In this encounter the characters face off at the shortest effective range of all the characters involved. That was 8" for two of the outlaws. Although technically this is outlaws verses outlaws I called it outlaws verses bandidas, because the two females are Mexican outlaws known as bandidas. Note that males are known as bandidos.
The two females are from left to right Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez and both are Rep:5 Gunman Bandida Stars. Yes, I know this goes against the rules that a gang can only have one Star leader but I'm using a house rule that allows me two Stars as leaders. Sara has the Attributes Marksman, Lucky and Knife Fighter and she is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and four Throwing Knives. Maria has the Attributes  Marksman, Lucky and Resilient and is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols. These figures are from my Shadows of Brimstone collection. Maria is appropriately enough, a Mexican Bandida and Sara is actually a Bounty Hunter figure.
The four outlaws whom Maria and Sara are after are a mixed bunch. From left to right are Benito Zedilla, a Rep:4 Gunman Bandido Grunt, Andrew Calder, a Rep:4 Gunman Bounty Hunter Grunt, Thomas McKay, a Rep:4 Gunman Gunslinger Star and leader of this gang, and "Wild Willy" Wilkes, a Rep:4 Cowboy Mountain Man Grunt. Zedilla is armed with a 12 Gauge Scattergun and has the Attributes Marksman and Dumbass. Calder is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and has the Attributes Marksman and Initiative. McKay is armed with a Colt .45 Pistol and a .44 Derringer Pistol and has the Attributes Marksman, Nerves of Steel and Tough. Wilkes is armed with a Springfield .58 Rifle and a Bowie Knife and has the Attributes Brawler and Marksman. All four figures were produced by EM4 Miniatures.
Before the combat begins both sides must roll 2d6 verses their Sand scores for the Flinch test. Stars can choose their results, so Maria, Sara and McKay automatically passed 2d6 and could draw as normal. Zedilla and Calder also passed 2d6 but Wilkes only passed 1d6 and Flinched, giving him a -1d6 penalty on the Draw table.
Next, everyone rolled a number of d6 equal to their Rep for the Draw and applied appropriate modifiers. All Gunmen (that's everyone except Wilkes) got a +1d6 bonus and counted passes on 1 to 4 instead of 1 to 3 (this rule appears in the new version of Six Gun Sound and I liked it so much that I used it. Cowboys pass on rolls of 1 to 3 and Townsfolk on rolls of 1 to 2.). Zedilla suffered a -1d6 penalty for drawing a weapon that wasn't a pistol, derringer, knife or tomahawk. The same rule applied to Wilkes who decided to use his Rifle instead of his Knife. Finally, Wilkes suffered another -1d6 penalty for Flinching. Wilkes would only count passes on a 1 to 3 because he was a Cowboy, not a Gunman. So the results were as follows from highest to lowest -
Maria rolled 6d6 and passed 5.
Sara rolled 6d6 and passed 4.
Calder rolled rolled 5d6 and passed 3.
McKay rolled 5d6 and passed 2.
Wilkes rolled 2d6, and passed 2.
Zedilla rolled 3d6 and passed 1.
Shooting was carried out from highest result to lowest with ties being resolved simultaneously. When a character fires, it targets an opponent. That opponent must return fire. Each character must be targetted once before another character can be targetted twice. Maria went first and using her Marksman Attribute which allowed her to roll twice on the Ranged Combat table, counting the best result, but only for single shots. She fired once at Calder rolling a 5 and a 2. The 5 gave her a score of 10 because you add the dice roll to the character's Rep score. A 10 counted as a hit. Rolling on the Shooting Damage table, she rolled a 9, which was a hit in the gut. If hit by a Pistol, Carbine, Scattergun at 3", Shotgun at 6", Rifle, Buffalo Gun or Tomahawk the character was Out Of Fight, otherwise, the character rolled on the I'm Hit table. So Calder measured his length on the ground and took no further part in the fight.
Next up Sara fired once at McKay and like Maria, she used her Marksman Attribute. She rolled a 6 and a 3. The 6 gave her a score of 11 - a hit and she got to choose the result on the Shooting Damage table for rolling so high. She chose result 5 - hit in the head and Obviously Dead. With McKay being a Star I rolled for his Star Power Advantage to reduce the damage he'd taken. He rolled 4d6 for his Rep score and needed results of 1 to 3. Unfortunately for him I rolled high with rolls of 6, 6, 5 and 4 - all misses and the two 6s reduced his Star Power Rep to 2. I could have used his Cheating Death Advantage, which would have allowed him to be removed from the table to a place of safety, but that would have reduced his Rep by one level to Rep:3. I decided not to bother because for narrative purposes it made sense that he got killed.
Next to fire was Wilkes. He fired his Rifle, which could only target one character per turn. He shot at Sara and using his Marksman Attribute rolled a 3 and a 3, giving him scores of 7 and 7 - both a miss.
Zedilla fired his Scattergun at Maria and it could hit three targets but Zedilla concentrated all three shots on Maria. He rolled 5,4 and 1, giving him results of 9, 8 and 5. The 9 was a hit, the 8 misses because it was the second or higher target, and the 5 was an obvious miss. When firing a Scattergun you roll twice on the Shooting Damage table and count both results. He rolled a 4 and a 7 on the Shooting Damage table scoring a hit in the leg and a hit in the gun arm (if this had been at range 3" or less, Maria would have been Out Of Fight but the range was 8") and forcing Maria to roll twice on the I'm Hit table to see what the extent of her injuries are. She rolled 2d6 verses her Toughness of 5 and passed 2d6 twice, scoring a just a scratch result. She remained standing but must take the Being Shot At test.
At this point with everyone still standing and having fired, Reaction Tests had to be taken. I used the Reaction Test tables from the second edition rules. Stars can choose their result so Maria and Sara therefore chose to pass 2d6 verses their Rep and could Return Fire. Zedilla and Wilkes had to roll for Being Shot At and Man Down. They only rolled once but applied the worst result of the two tables. They both passed 2d6 giving them a Return Fire result on the Being Shot At table and a Carry On result on the Man Down table. Therefore they took the Carry On result, which allowed them to act as normal. And yes, this would allow them to Return Fire if they wanted to and more importantly, if they were able to, because Maria and Sara were about to Return Fire.
Maria shot first and once again used her Marksman Attribute to fire once at Zedilla. I should point out that Marksman is a Class Ability that all Gunmen characters receive. She rolled a 5 and a 2, giving her scores of 10 and 7. Obviously, she took the 10, which was a hit. Rolling on the Shooting Damage table she scored a 9. Zedilla was hit in the gut and was Out Of Fight.
Next it was Sara's turn to shoot. She used her Marksman Attribute to fire once at Wilkes with her Colt .45 Pistol. She rolled a 6 and a 1, giving her scores of 11 and 6. The 11 was an excellent result as it allowed her to choose the result on the Damage table without having to roll for it. She chose result 12 - hit in the chest and Obviously Dead.
And so the Gunfight at Stillwater came to a bloody end with the four outlaws lying dead and dying in the dirt. Maria and Sara had avenged their friend and they left town for further adventures. Neither increased in Reputation.
Conclusion
I played this game on a 4' by 3' table and I didn't think the buildings I had would fill the table. Individually they don't have big footprints but when put together, I was surprised at how much space they took up. I may have to get a 6' by 4' battle mat for future games as there are still a lot more buildings I want to buy, some of which have much bigger footprints, such as the 4Ground livery stable and corral or the 4Ground bank or the 4Ground Sassy Gal saloon. Playing this certainly gave me food for thought. I also want more scatter terrain, fences and saddled horses with and without riders.
As for the rules, I'm fortunate in being very familiar with the Two Hour Games rule systems. However, Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory is different to many other THW games in that it is incredibly detailed. For example, it has rules for hitting various body parts on humans and horses and more detailed rules for cover, horses and wagons. I love this extra level of detail and so I'm a huge fan of this game.
To be honest the game went pretty much the way I thought it would. Maria and Sara had the advantage of higher Reps but the outlaws had the advantage of numbers. Unfortunately for them, they didn't make it count. When Calder and McKay went down, Zedilla and Wilkes could have turned the tide but Wilkes missed and although Zedilla scored a hit on Maria, she shrugged it off. Bad news for them!
I know that this batrep was very rules heavy and that was deliberate. After all, this was my first Six Gun Sound batrep, and I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with the rules. I would hope that future batreps would be more narrative driven with fewer references to the rules. Now that I have played my first Wild West batrep, you can expect a lot more.

Now then, in my last post I asked you to name the film in which Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz played Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez respectively? The answer is Bandidas, a 2006 French/Mexican/American comedy/action Western film directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg and produced and written by Luc Besson. It tells the tale of two very different women in late 19th century Mexico who become a bank robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorising their town. It is very much a popcorn movie, not to be taken seriously but it is a lot of fun and Salma and Penelope are so lovable and so beautiful you can't help but like them. Here's some photos of them.

Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez played by Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz.

Maria teaches Sara how to shoot. She is not so good with a pistol but an expert at knife throwing.

Maria the feisty, poor peasant girl with her twin Colt .45 revolvers.

Sara, pampered daughter of a rich landowner, takes aim with her Colt.45 revolver.

A scene near the end of the film taken after a running battle on a train.

Maria and Sara looking so cute and adorable. Who couldn't fall in love with them?

Here I present another small group of Citi-Defence soldiers. These come from the James Caan block in Sector 13 of Mega City One, where my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign is set. All five figures were pre-painted 28mm scale sci-fi troopers produced by EM4 Miniatures. Sadly, this set is out of production now, so these are very rare figures. I won't go into any background info for the Citi-Defence squads as I'd only be repeating what I wrote here - JDMG MC1 Citi-Def Soldiers 01
The only painting I added to these figures was on their bases.
At the far left is the squad's officer, Byron Hazlett, a Level:3 Infantry Hero. He is armed with a Spit Gun Rifle and he wears a Shell Jacket. His four Talents are Agile, Quick Dodge, Rallying Cry and True Leader. He costs 165 Credits.
His second in command is a Citi-Def Soldier and Level:2 Infantry Hero called Joe Markowitz. He is armed a Spit Gun Rifle and Hand Bombs and he wears a Shell Jacket. His three Talents are Aim, Frag Out and Suppressing Fire. He also has the Special Rule, Trigger Happy. He costs 205 Credits, making him the most expensive recruit in this squad.
In the centre of the group is Nick Lewis, another Soldier, but this time, a Level:1 Infantry Hero. He is armed with a Spit Gun Rifle and is protected by a Shell Jacket. He has two Talents - Aim and Suppressing Fire and the Special Rule, Trigger Happy. He costs 150 Credits.
Second from the right is another Level:1 Soldier and Infantry Hero, Russ Kokin. He is identical in every respect to Nick Lewis.
Bringing up the rear is the squad's Medtech, Semel Javan, a Level:1 Infantry Hero. He is armed with a Spit Pistol and is less well protected, wearing Pad Armour. He has the Talents of First Aid and Medic and the Special Rule of Lifesaver. He is worth 105 Credits.
They are not a great force by any means but on the plus side, they are made up entirely of Heroes, making them more resistant to arrest attempts by the Judges. I am planning on featuring this squad in the next episode of my JDMG campaign, which should appear next month.

This month's Vampirella illustration was drawn by comics artist, Jae Lee, and shows Vampirella with Dracula and two of his concubines. Vampirella is not actually present in the room - that is just an image of her that Dracula has conjured, which is why her head is slightly translucent.

Well, once again, I have had an incredibly busy month. I have finished painting the heroes from the first two factions for my Rum and Bones game - the undead Bone Devils and the English pirates, the Wellsport Brotherhood. I hope to review them soon. They were a lot of fun to paint and very different from what I normally paint.

I've been buying some more figures for Shadows of Brimstone - heroes and monsters and I have a bunch of them on my painting desk right now. With me concentrating so heavily on my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign, Shadows of Brimstone has taken a back seat for the moment but it is not totally forgotten about.

Speaking of JDMG, I have finally managed to buy all of the figures for this range that Warlord Games had on general sale. eBay has been a huge help, and I certainly haven't paid over the odds for any of the figures I have bought from there. Indeed, many of them were cheaper than Warlord Games' recommended retail prices. The last set that completed my collection was the boxed set of 5 Judda, which I got for under £20, making it much cheaper than the RRP. It feels really amazing to have such a complete collection. Coupled with my already existing huge collection of sci-fi figures, the sky is the limit for what I can do in my JDMG campaign. A new batrep is in the offing, which will see the introduction of a new member to Judge Scott's team - PSI Judge Justine Devereux. I have had a few requests to add a female PSI Judge to the team, so I hope she'll prove a worthy asset. Judge Scott will be assessing her performance.

One game in particular has really captured my imagination this past month and that is N.E.W. the sci-fi role-playing game by EN Publishing that uses the What's Old Is New rules. I bought it mainly to check out the rules prior to the launch of the Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Tabletop Adventure Game. But I became so enamoured with N.E.W. that I have decided to start a new sci-fi campaign using many of the player characters from my old and very long-running Space Opera campaign. I have converted the stats for the all female crew of the scout-ship The Ace of Spades and also created some new ones. I have charted out the star system the game will start off in - it's centred around our planet Earth. What I particularly love about this game is that it shares the complexity of GURPS but the rules are much more simplified. It very much focuses on character development, giving each PC a living story that makes them jump off the page. These heroes are far more than a set of numbers and stats. They live, they breathe and they have backstories. I love it! Indeed, I can foresee WOIN becoming my all time favourite role playing game and my "go to" set of rules for any RPG campaign I run in the future.

The game has also had me doing two things I never thought would happen to me. First up, I have actually sculpted some new 28mm scale figures this month. Unbelievable! I thought my sculpting days were long gone, but sometimes you need a certain figure that no-one else sells. Sure, I still do lots of converting, but that is not the same as sculpting a figure from scratch. The figures are finished but not yet painted. I'll review them later.
Secondly, I have started collecting miniature starships to use in small scale ship to ship combats. I have started with the excellent, and very cheap, set of 12 plastic starships sold by EM4 Miniatures. Twelve ships for just £2.55 seemed like a great place to start, and best of all, they're all different. That's them to the right, and I've circled the ship I'm using for The Ace of Spades in red.
For those of you wondering (Simon, I'm particularly thinking of you!) I do not plan on collecting any Star Trek ships, or any Star Wars ships, or rules sets for either franchise. The ship to ship combat rules in N.E.W. are simple enough for my needs and what I especially like about them is that most PCs on a ship has a role to play in the combat.

However, I did succumb to a new Kickstarter that opened earlier this month - Stars Reach pewter starship miniatures by Twilight Game Designs. Here's the link to it -  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twilightgamedesigns/stars-reach-space-ship-miniatures/description The ships in all three factions, but in particular, the Human Commonwealth ships, greatly appeal to me and fit in well with my plans for my N.E.W. campaign. Check out the pictures below if you don't want to click on the link.


An unexpected bonus for backing this Kickstarter is that Ed, from Two Hours Wargames, is offering a free PDF of the 5150: Star Navy rules to anyone who makes a pledge for all three factions. I did and Ed has already honoured his promise. THW is one of four companies actively supporting this project, although the factions will be renamed for use in 5150. I will actually be renaming the factions for my own upcoming campaign.
I have never played any starship combat games before, so this is something I am very much looking forward to but I suspect in my N.E.W. campaign The Ace of Spades will do more running and hiding than actual fighting. That said, for its size, it is well armed, well armoured and has a cloaking device fitted, which will prove extremely useful in keeping it hidden.
I suspect that May is going to be an even busier month for me. I hope so because I'm feeling incredibly well right now. If I could bottle my mojo I'd make a fortune! Thanks for reading and take care.

I have another Mega City One street gang to show you that is mainly based on 28mm scale Citadel figures from the old Games Workshop sci-fi skirmish game, Confrontation, the forerunner for Necromunda. The Scabies street gang hide in the shadows and hang out in the slums and the Undercity. Essentially, they are scavengers, preying on the weak and unwary.
At the far left of the photos directly above and below is the leader of the Scabies gang, Scab Scabie. He was originally produced by Grenadier Miniatures but is now being sold by EM4 as part of their Future Skirmish Scavengers range. He and all of the Scabies wear Respirators. He is also equipped with Leather Armour, a Double-Barrelled Stump Gun Rifle and a Sword. The Scabies gang favour Stump Guns but Scab excels in close combat and is deadly with his sword, which is slung across his back. He is a Level:2 Punk Infantry Hero with three Talents - Luck of Grud (gives him one free re-roll per game), Voice of Command (all allies within 12" of him gain +1 to all Will rolls) and Skilled and Deadly (he can re-roll one of his Melee Dice in close combat). His straw hat makes him instantly identifiable.
The gang's heavy weapons specialist, Squama, is next in line. Squama also wears Leather Armour. He is armed with a Grenade Launcher. JDMG does not have stats for a Grenade Launcher so I used the stats for a Hand Bomb but doubled the range to 20" and doubled the price to 60 credits. He is a Level:1 Punk Infantry Hero with two Talents taken from the Blood on the Streets supplement - On Their Knees (every Infantry model hit by his Grenade Launcher must pass a Will test or suffer Knockdown) and Maximum Firepower (Add 1" to the Explosive distance, i.e. Grenades now have Explosive:3). His Grenade Launcher came from the Wargames Foundry Street Violence range. For him and the following five gang members, I sculpted their arms out of Milliput.
Moving on, are Scurf and Scatty. Each one is armed with two Sawed-Off Stump Guns and both are unarmoured. I made them both Level:1 Punk Infantry Heroes with identical Talents, namely, Brave (allows them to re-roll any failed Will to Fight test) and appropriately enough, Dual Shooter (they add +1 to damage when firing both guns, but no critical hits are allowed and they only roll for 1 gun). Their Sawed-Off Stump Guns came from the weapon sprues you got with the Confrontation figures.
The last three Scabies are from left to right, Flaky, Crusty and Branny. All three are armed with Stump Gun Rifles and are unarmoured. They are all Level:0 Punk Infantry Minions. They are nothing more than cannon fodder but they help bolster the gang's numbers. Their Stump Guns were made by Hero Miniatures who went out of business many years ago.
The Scabies gang has a Credits rating of 700, making them quite a powerful gang. In my JDMG campaign I'll be pitting Street Judges Crowe, Moore and Webb along with Med Judge Nash against them for their debut adventure. They have a combined Credits rating of 600. Look out for this batrep in early 2017.

Anyone starting out on collecting 28mm scale figures for Wild West gaming faces a wide choice of suitable figures from assorted manufacturers they can buy from. One company that may not be immediately apparent is UK-based EM4 Miniatures. What I particularly like about their two Wild West boxed sets is that their figures come pre-painted to a very high standard, making them ideal starter figures. I bought both sets just last month, despite the fact that I've been after them for a very long time.
OWH1 Old West Heroes Set 1 contains the following five figures shown from left to right in the two photos directly above and below - a dapper sheriff armed with a pistol, a no-nonsense gambler armed with a holstered pistol, a poncho-wearing gun-slinger armed with twin holstered pistols, an overweight Mexican bandit armed with a double-barrelled scatter-gun and a plains Indian warrior armed with a rifle and tomahawk.
All I did to them was add sand and gravel to their bases and then paint the bases. Nothing more needed doing to them. What a lovely, refreshing change! By the way, the slottabases provided with both sets were hexagonal-shaped, I replaced them with 25mm diameter circular bases.
OWH2 Old West Heroes 2 contains the following five figures shown from left to right in the two photos directly above and below - a "soiled dove" saloon girl armed with a pistol, a grizzly mountain man armed with a knife and buffalo gun, a simple farmer armed with a rifle, a deputy sheriff armed with a pistol and a Negro buffalo soldier armed with a pistol.
I repainted the trousers of the buffalo soldier as I felt they were too dark and I also painted the turn-ups of the jeans worn by the deputy. Once again, I textured then painted the bases.
These two sets contain a nice cross section of character types and in my opinion, there isn't a bad one amongst them. I particularly like the Mexican bandit and the mountain man. The fact that they are all pre-painted is a huge plus and a great time saver, even for someone like me. That they are so well painted is just the icing on the cake. I doubt if I could have done such a good paint job on them or chosen these colour schemes, not that I'm criticising the colour schemes (apart from the buffalo soldier's trousers, which I didn't like).
Set OWH1 costs £12.25 for all five figures. £2.45 per figure is not bad value for such well painted figures. However, I do have a complaint to make about set OWH2. It costs £15.30. The reason it costs a lot more is that it was "supposed" to include a CD of simple skirmish rules and floor plans for a Wild West town for you to print out. My set did not contain this extra CD. I resented paying extra for something that wasn't there. That said, the rules are very basic (just 4 pages long) and not that good and I certainly would not have used them or the floor plans either. I have seen both on-line and was far from impressed by them. So, I don't really miss them. It's just the principle of paying for something that should have been included but wasn't that rankles me. Incidentally, both sets also come with five different coloured d20 dice, with skull symbols replacing the number 1's.

This is the floor plan that should have been included with set OWH2.

EM4 used to sell a lot of pre-painted boxed figure sets but I have noticed over the past years that their ranges are dwindling and are not being restocked. The moral of this story would seem to be, buy them whilst they are available, because if you wait too long they may well be gone for good. It is such a shame that these sets are not being restocked. I'm only too glad I bought so many of them when I did.

And so I come to the last of my three reviews of my collection of Men in Black figures. These five figures are all produced by EM4 Miniatures and if you think they look very similar to my five Copplestone Castings Men in Black that I reviewed last time you'd be right because Mark Copplestone also sculpted these. He made these way back in time when he worked for Grenadier Miniatures. However, when Grenadier went belly up, EM4 acquired their moulds and production rights. When Mark set up Copplestone Castings he  remade a lot of his old Grenadier figures but in slightly modified form so whilst they looked similar, they weren't exact copies. A clever move, in my opinion, as it allows us collectors to own two sets of lovely Copplestone goodness.
First in line is an agent firing his 9mm pistol. I like this pose as he looks very aggressive. Note the headphones and microphone he's wearing.
Next to him is another agent armed with a 9mm pistol. He is taking a cautious approach. Note that neither of the pistol armed agents are wearing sunglasses.
The next three figures are all armed with 9mm sub-machine guns. The figure in the centre of the group appears to be the leader from his pose. He is also equipped with a radio headset.
To his left is a very muscular looking African/American agent. With his bald head and surly expression, he looks to be one tough dude.
The last agent in line holds his sub-machine gun in a two-handed grip as he makes a threat assessment. He's on the alert for any danger.
As with the five Copplestone Castings Men in Black that I reviewed last time, these are a very nice group of figures, not excessively armed, and all nicely posed and sculpted. You can find these figures on the EM4 website under the Unpainted Metal Future Skirmish Suits range.They are listed as Ref 054 to 058 and they cost £1.50 each.

I recently had to place an order with EM4 miniatures for some dice for my friend Mathyoo and for some counters for myself. It didn't amount to much so I thought I'd have a look at the figures they sell. Whilst checking out their pre-painted figures boxed sets I discovered amongst their Elfsera 28mm scale fantasy figures this set - set 5, the Undead. I don't know how I hadn't spotted them before. Most probably because I'm not that interested in fantasy figures. I already own some of their pre-painted figure sets and was very impressed with them. Given that I run a blog called "Vampifan's World of the Undead" I simply had to buy this set.
At the far left is a liche. As I said, these are all pre-painted figures and I have done very little work on them. They came with 25mm square slotta-bases but I have glued them to 25mm diameter slotta-bases, to which I have added sand and gravel. The only paintwork I have done on this figure was to add black lines around the bracelet on his right arm to help better define it. Liches are primarily found in fantasy settings so it's unlikely that I'll get much use out of this figure.
The mummy was just perfect so I haven't altered his paintwork at all. All I had to do was paint his base. He's my third favourite figure of this set and he may get used or he may not.
The vampire is almost certain to appear in one of my scenarios. I repainted his teeth and mouth as they didn't have much of a contrast. Other than that, he was fine. I should point out that these figures are made of pewter and not lead. As such, they feel a lot heavier than most metal figures.
Moving on, we come to my least favourite figure in the set - the wraith. I have nothing against the figure per se. He is very well sculpted and painted. It's just that I have even less use for him than the liche, who could always double up as an animated skeleton. Being by far the tallest figure in the set he is also the heaviest.
Finally we come to my favourite figure out of the set and the one whom I shall use the most. Yes, of course, he is the zombie. I repainted his eyes, which were originally red. All of my zombies have white eyes with no pupils showing. I also added some Tamiya Clear Red to his wounds to give them a wet look. When it comes to painting blood and gore on zombies (or most any figure) you simply can't beat TCR. His clothing is more fantasy based than contemporary but I don't think that'll matter if he's just part of a big horde. Who'd notice anyway? Don't answer that, Joe!
In addition to the five figures, the boxed set also included five d20 dice, with skull symbols replacing the number one. Elfsera set 5 - the Undead costs a mere £11.25, which in my opinion, is excellent value for money. They are well sculpted, well painted and you get five free exclusive dice. What's not to like?

The media have a tough time reporting the news at the best of times, but in a zombie apocalypse their job becomes a whole lot harder. I thought I'd showcase my media figures in this post. In ATZ, there are three media types that you can meet - the Anchor, the Reporter and the Cameraman. All three are reperesented below.
The woman at the far left of my photo above and below has appeared twice before on my blog. The first time was when I reviewed my Frothers UK set of zombie hunters way back in February 2010. The second time was when Team Vampifan met her in an ATZ scenario called, appropriately enough, Meeting the Media. She was called Jenny Tyrell and she was a Rep:3 Reporter. I really like this figure but sadly, she is no longer available for sale. You can tell from her size when compared with the other figures in the line up just how small she is. That's not a bad thing in my opinion, as females tend to be shorter than males.
The rest of the figures shown above could also be Reporters but I think they work better as Anchors, given how smartly dressed they are. The woman in the grey dress and jacket is from EM4 Miniatures. She was originally a Grenadier figure sculpted by Mark Copplestone, but when Grenadier folded, EM4 acquired a lot of Mark's sculpts. Her beautifully coiffeured hair is outstanding.
Mark rescupted a lot of his old Grenadier figures for his Copplestone Castings' Future Wars range and you can see many similarities between the third figure in line and the second. The heads are the obvious differences. To accentuate the difference even further, I decided to paint her as an African/American. Both figures are much bigger than 28mm.
The fourth figure in line was a Ral Partha Shadowrun adventurer. I say was, because she is now long out of production. Originally, she was holding a flashlight in her left hand but I cut the head off it and with a piece of modelling putty, I converted it into a microphone. Now I use her as Lucille Carter, anchor woman for Channel 5 News.
At the far right of the group is a unique figure. Yes, she is one of my sculpts. She is based on a reporter found in the Cyber Rogues supplement of the Cyber Space RPG. I never played Cyber Space, but I did use it to cadge ideas from for my Cyberpunk 2020 campaign that I ran in the early 1990s. I liked Tanith, but a few of my players positively hated her, due to her cropping up at the most inappropriate of moments - usually at the end of a gunfight that my players had been involved in! Tanith is definitely a Reporter. In my Cyberpunk 2020 campaign she was fitted with state of the art recording implants in her eyes and ears. Nowadays, she'd just be a gutsy woman relying on her wits and street smarts. What I like most about my sculpt are her hair and her smile. What I least like about her is she is too wide. She should be slimmer.
Moving on, we come to the Cameramen and women. Once again, we start of with an OOP Frothers cameraman. He appeared alongside Jenny Tyrell in my Meeting the Media scenario for my ATZ campaign and he was a Rep:4 Cameraman called Simon McQuarrie. It is such a shame that no one has picked up the moulds for Simon and Jenny as they truly deserve to be appreciated by a wider audience.
Next to Simon is an EM4 Miniatures' Handycam Operator. He is another ex-Grenadier figure sculpted by Mark Copplestone. The logo on his back shows that he works for Channel 54.
Looking very similar to him is a Copplestone Castings' News Team member. It is basically the same figure but with a different head. Note his spectacular quiff! He works for WNS - World News Service.
The female, fourth from the left, is a RAFM figure - Paige Fox, reporter of note. Although she holds a compact camera in her hands, RAFM have got it right, she is a reporter not a camera-woman. She is the tallest figure in this group and makes a mockery of RAFM's claim that she is a 28mm scale miniature. Even so, she is nicely sculpted and I quite like her.
To the left of Paige is a figure that I converted from a Horrorclix Runaway from the basic set. I cut off her right arm holding a severed head, the knife in her left hand and her beanie hat. I resculpted her right arm and added a camera, which is slung around her neck. I also resculpted her hair. She is called Sarah Barstow and she is based on an NPC from the GURPS Illuminati supplement. She is a freelance camera-woman.
Last in line is another unique Vampifan sculpt. Meet Andy Halloran, an NPC who appeared in the GURPS Autoduel Characters supplement. He is just one of many characters that I made from that supplement. He is also a freelancer. I think he should be slightly slimmer, but other than that, I'm happy with how he's turned out, especially his video camera.
I should point out that anyone who wants to use a media team in ATZ should check out the ATZ Supplement, Haven on pages 28 and 29 for full rules on how to play them. You can even play them as part of your team, although their conditions for advancing their Rep differs from the main rules. For them, getting interviews and video footage is more important than killing zombies.
It is rather sad that out of these 11 figures only 5 are currently available for sale. You'll find the Copplestone Castings Anchor woman and Camera-man in the Future Wars set FW3 News Team and Minders, which contains five figures in total for £8.50. The EM4 pair, 0036 Female Reporter and 0037 Handycam Operator, are available separately for just £1.50 each. Finally, RAF02819 Paige Fox costs $4.95 from the RAFM webstore.

Here is part two of my review of Biohazard Troopers by assorted figure companies. This time it is the turn of EM4 to take the spotlight as I look at their range of 28mm scale Future Skirmish Troopers who are described on their website as NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) Troopers. If you are thinking that these guys look very similar to the Copplestone Castings Biochem Squad that I reviewed last time, you'd be right. That is because these were also sculpted by Mark Copplestone when he was working for Grenadier. When Grenadier bought the farm and went belly up, Mark set up his own company and remodelled them. The original moulds were acquired by EM4, hence the similarity.
At the far left of my two photos is 0019 NBC Leader with MAR (Military Assault Rifle). What distinguishes these troopers from the Copplestone Castings Biochem Squad is the fact that these guys are all wearing helmets. Although I have painted their suits yellow, to distinguish them from the Copplestone figures, I thought that white was a good colour to use for their helmets. You can see that both leaders are in identical poses, pointing at something, whilst holding their rifles at the ready.
Next up is 0020 NBC Trooper with Light Laser. This guy replaces the Copplestone Castings trooper with flame thrower. To be honest, I'd have prefered another flame thrower trooper. Laser weapons are just too high tech for my tastes. If I used him in an ATZ scenario, I'd probably say that his laser was a flame thrower.
The next three figures are 0021, 0022 and 0023 NBC Trooper with MAR. They are very similarly posed with all three holding their rifles at at mid height. Once again, I have painted the underslung barrel of their rifles as a torch, rather than a grenade launcher. This time, there is no trooper with a shotgun, as there was with the Copplestone Castings figures. There is one other difference between this range and the CC figures - these troopers are all armed with a pistol in a holster at their right side.
In terms of sculpting there is very little difference between the two ranges, although of the two, I prefer the more recent sculpts in the Copplestone Castings range. However, where this range scores over their rivals is in the price. These figures cost £1.28 each, giving a total of £6.40 for all five. That is more than £2.00 cheaper than the Copplestone Castings range, which cost £8.50 for all five. If you are unsure in which range to choose, the price could be a deciding factor. Of course, you could buy both sets, as I have, and use them alongside each other as they are so similar.
Next time, I'll be reviewing the Hasslefree Hazmat Squad, and they are well worth looking at.