Vampifan's World of the Undead

It is time for another of my Monthly Musings and I start with another Jim Silke panting of Vampirella. It has been an interesting month for me. Of late I have been doing a lot of painting and modelling but hardly any gaming. That changed this past month. I have played many games of Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter (it's very addictive!), a few games of Wacky Races and even a game of Zombicide:Invader. It felt so satisfying to play so many games.

On the painting and modelling front I have been concentrating on my German Panzer Grenadier army for Bolt Action. I have just about finished painting 30 plastic Warlord Games Panzer Grenadier infantry, a Panzer IV Ausf. H, an Sdkfz 251/10 Hanomag half track with 37mm gun and two Sdkfz 251/1 Hanomag half tracks. All vehicles were produced by Warlord Games. Speaking of them, I made use of their Black Friday sale and bought a King Tiger tank, 3 Tiger 1 tanks and an American M10 Wolverine tank destroyer. The reason for buying so many tanks is that I bought the Tank War supplement for Bolt Action earlier this month. I do plan on buying more Sherman tanks later. I was most impressed with Tank War but my main focus for Bolt Action still remains infantry vs infantry with just a small smattering of vehicles. However, playing Tank War will be an interesting diversion from the norm.

The big news for me is that yesterday I received my Mega package of the Judge Dredd: I Am The Law skirmish game from those fine folk at Warlord Games. A full review of it including the rules and figures will appear on my WOIN blog. Initial impressions are highly favourable. The figures are absolutely first rate although they are rather large at 35mm tall on average. Some may see this as a bad thing and yet another example of scale creep. This does not bother me at all as it means they fit in well with some of my older Judge Dredd miniatures and scale creep has never bothered me that much. As I keep saying, people come in all shapes and sizes so why shouldn't our miniature figures reflect that?

Having played Warlord Games' Strontium Dog sci-fi skirmish game before I am very familiar with the new rules in the Judge Dredd game, which are based on them. By the way, my Judge Dredd WOIN campaign is ready to go and will be played alongside any Judge Dredd: I Am The Law games. I haven't decided yet if they should be connected by running them at the same point in time with the same characters or not. Most likely I will. It would seem to make sense.

There's not much more to report here so I'll sign off and remind you to check out my WOIN blog for all my Judge Dredd news. Cheers, folks!

I have had yet another incredibly prolific month painting and model making. But first, I present another portrait of Vampirella as painted by Jim Silke. It certainly shows her in a playful and naughty mood. It does not offend me as I really like this picture. It does show just how skimpy Vampirella's costume is.

I mentioned above that I have been doing a lot of model making this past month. For Bolt Action I have made my first vehicles - two "Deuce and a Half" trucks for my American forces and Oddball's M4A3 Sherman tank. I have just about finished painting them so expect reviews of them very soon. Once they are finished I plan on making three German Hanomag Sdkfz 251 half tracks. These are plastic models. The two "Deuce and a Half" trucks and Oddball's Sherman were part resin and part metal, so were very quick to assemble. I thoroughly enjoyed making them as I very rarely make vehicles.

I was especially pleased to finish painting the last of my Core Space Trader crews. Expect a Core Space batrep very soon. I am still painting lots of figures for my Bolt Action project. I finished painting two American G.I. squads, one of which was led by Sergeant Rock and features about a dozen named characters, which I'll be showing very soon. I am currently painting some German specialist teams - a medium machine gun team, a medium mortar team, two sniper teams and a high command squad. They should get finished in the next couple of days. I am trying to get as many Bolt Action figures painted during November because of the following.

Warlord Games will be releasing the new Judge Dredd skirmish game in late-November, just in time for my birthday. Because I want everything to do with this game I have pre-ordered the Mega One Launch offer package, which features everything available from the first wave. At £230.00 it is definitely expensive but it is cheaper buying everything in one go than in buying the components individually. My favourite figure out of this launch is Judge Dredd on the Mk.III Lawmaster bike - a quite exceptional sculpt. The timing of this launch is perfect for me as I am very close to starting my Judge Dredd Role Playing Game campaign on my WOIN blog. I am more interested in collecting the figures than in playing the game, which is based on the Strontium Dogs rules. That's not to say I won't play the game but how often will be determined after I read the rulebook.

With me spending so much pre-ordering the Judge Dredd Mega One pledge I was hoping not to spend any more money on gaming items but lo and behold I spot this item to the left here on Blaxkleric's blog and knew I had to have it. This is Zombicide 2nd Edition, which has upgraded the rules for easier play and what I found most exciting, offers the Zombicide Role-Playing Book. That is something I am very keen to play. The new figures are a vast improvement over the ones in the original Zombicide boxed set. I was pleased to see that the original six survivors are still present with stunning new sculpts. In addition, I have also ordered the Washington ZC expansion supplement in which the survivors get the chance to meet the president of the USA. This is a Kickstarter game so won't be released until November 2020 barring any delays. I'm patient, so I don't mind waiting. Once again, I want everything that is available for this game so I have gone for the All Out pledge for £141.00. Given the huge amount of free stretch goals you get this is really good value for money. On the down side I am going to have loads of zombies to paint as well as a large amount of survivors. Ah, well, it'll keep me busy! Also, the figures and tiles from the previous contemporary Zombicide sets can be used with 2nd edition.

Yesterday I received the Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter boardgame by Osprey Games. This is based on  the Helter Skelter story from 2000 AD comics #1250-1261 written by Garth Ennis. Martin Wallace is at the helm once again here, bringing his Wildlands format to the tabletop but with a Judge Dredd spin. This miniatures board game has you playing as unique and iconic characters from the worlds of 2000 AD like Judge Dredd, Slaine, Nikolai Dante and Strontium Dogs as you rush around Mega-City One trying to find aspects of their shattered universe and of course crushing, blowing up, and shooting anyone who gets in their way. The game comes with 20 superbly sculpted 28mm scale plastic figures - five unique characters from each of the four factions. All of them are ink-washed in order to bring out the detail in the figures which means that you don't need to go that extra step to pretty them up if you don't want to! I have played the game once and absolutely loved it. The Strontium Dogs defeated the Judges in a very closely fought fight. I bought it primarily for the figures but the gameplay has really won me over and I want to play it again and again. The production values of this game is excellent and I have no criticisms to make. A review of the figures will appear in my next post. It has a RRP of £60.00. Amazon UK has it for sale at only £39.00, which is an absolute bargain.

This portrait of Vampirella was painted by Jim Silke, who painted a few covers for the Vampirella comics when the licence was held by Harris Comics. It is a mildly gory portrait, which means I like it a lot. It looks like Vampi has just fed. From the amount of blood dripping from her hands I doubt if her victim fared well.

September has been another very productive month for me hobby-wise. Good progress has been made on the last three Trader crews of my Core Space sci-fi skirmish game. I should finish painting them next month.

Mostly, however, I have been concentrating on painting more Warlord Games' Bolt Action WW2 figures, namely American 101st Airborne infantry and German late-war Panzer Grenadiers. For the Americans I have painted a HQ unit consisting of two officers with one assistant each, a medic and a forward observer unit. The infantry squads consist of two 10-man veteran Airborne squads and two 6-man veteran Pathfinder squads. Their support teams are made up of a MMG team and a Sniper team. This is more than enough for a starting game. My Kelly's Heroes squad won't see action until I make Oddball's Sherman tank and probably Oddball's two support Shermans commanded by Whiskey and Moe. Also, Kelly's Heroes are G.I. forces not Airborne forces, but I will be adding a large G.I. company to my American forces.
My German forces are nowhere near as numerous as my US forces, although I am rectifying that problem. My Panzer Grenadier HQ unit matches the US one. I have two 10-man infantry squads. I need more and I am lacking any support units.
I have bought two more units from fiction. First up is this 7-man squad of Sergeant Steiner's Panzer Grenadier Recce squad produced by First Corps Miniatures. These appeared in the 1977 film, Cross of Iron, directed by Sam Peckinpah. It is set on the Eastern Front in 1943. This photo is taken from FCM's website. Steiner is in the centre of the group, holding a Russian PPSH SMG. I plan on the survivors being transferred to the Western Front in 1944 (there weren't many!) so I can use them with my other Panzer Grenadiers. I'll split them up into a 5-man infantry unit, led by Steiner, and armed entirely with SMGs and the two riflemen forming a sniper unit.
My second fictional squad is the men of Easy Company led by the famous Sergeant Rock. I have figures to represent all the men from the illustration above apart from Zack, the one-armed bazooka operator. Instead I have his two replacements, Long Round and Short Round who joined Easy Company after Zack was killed in action. My figures are an eclectic mix from Bolt Action, DC Heroclix and Artizan Design. They are G.I. infantry. As I said, I do plan on adding the G.I.s to accompany my Airborne forces or use on their own.
I admit that I know very little about Sergeant Rock and Easy Company. So I ordered a couple of graphic novels from Amazon.Co.UK to learn a bit more about them. What is interesting about them is their prices. First up was Sgt. Rock's Combat Tales which covered his early adventures. This anthology collected ten short stories from 1958-1960. The stories were okay and the artwork by Joe Kubert was mixed. His figure work was good but his work on any armour (tanks, aircraft and ships) bore no resemblance to any vehicles used in WW2. Amazon didn't have the book in stock but it was available from a number of its affiliate sellers in new or used condition. I went for the cheapest option, which cost me just 4 pence plus £2.50 for post and packing. When it arrived it was in very good condition. So, what a bargain!
The second graphic novel I bought was Sgt. Rock - Between Hell and a Hard Place. Published in 2003, this was a six-part full-length story, beautifully illustrated by Joe Kubert. You can see his artwork has improved a great deal. Now, for example, his Tiger 1 tanks look like Tiger 1 tanks. The price of it was a curious anomaly - £18.00 for the hardback version but £24.00 for the softback version. That makes no sense to me but obviously I ordered the hardback version. The story was top notch - part war story and part murder mystery and featured many of the characters shown in the illustration above, which was most helpful for me.

See you in the trenches next month.

This has been a big month for me, which I'll tell you about shortly. To the left is an unusual portrait of Vampirella by Jim Silke. It is unusual due to the fact that Vampi is wearing normal casual clothing over her iconic costume. Sometimes in the comic books, Vampirella has to appear incognito. More often than not she just wears a trench coat over her costume. I must admit that I do like this costume.

Currently on my painting table are the Galactic Corps Cops and Security Guards from my Core Space set, plus a bunch of WW2 Bolt Action German and American infantry, which brings me round to my newest project - WW2 gaming.

Ever since last November I have had a hankering for getting back into WW2 wargaming. When I first started wargaming way back in the 1970's I started out by playing WW2 games with my big collection of figures and vehicles from 20mm scale Airfix, Matchbox and Japanese companies like Fujimi and Hasegawa. I nearly always played the Germans and my brother played the Allies. We mainly concentrated on the D-Day Landings and the breakout from France. That period still remains my favourite.

So what happened in November? That was when I backed the Reichbusters Kickstarter boardgame with miniatures by Mythic Games. Delivery is expected this November. The miniatures are just gorgeous and from the play-through videos I've seen on YouTube, it looks like a whole load of fun as a small unit of four assorted elite larger than life Allies infiltrate a German mansion and secret base to cause all sorts of havoc. Interestingly enough, the mansion is named Wewelsberg Castle, where the SWD operate from in Secrets of the Third Reich. Coincidence? I don't think so! As more and more stretch goals were released, the more I realised I very much wanted to get back into WW2 and WWW2 gaming. I already had the SOTR rules and a fully painted German infantry army so that should have been my obvious choice. But the fact that West Wind has ignored this game for many years made me question whether it was a viable long-term option. So I spent a while looking for other options but in truth, it wasn't a hard decision.

Bolt Action for its WW2 rules and the Konflict 47 Weird World War 2 rules (both produced by Warlord Games with similar rules) provided me with all I was looking for. That, plus the fact that both games are incredibly well supported as well as being a popular choice amongst many gamers made them "must have" purchases. My first purchases were the Bolt Action hardback book and three army book supplements for the American, British and German armies.
I also bought the Band of Brothers starter boxed set, which was described on the On Table Top
website as the standard by which all starter sets should be judged. You can see all that this set contains in the photo to the left. The forces are 24 American Airborne infantry verses 12 German Panzer Grenadiers and a Hanomag SdKfz. 251/10 with PAK 36 Anti-tank gun. It also contains a ruined farmhouse, Pin markers, HE Template and order counters, 5 order dice for each army, 12 regular d6 dice, an A5 soft-backed version of the basic rules and a handy quick reference sheet. I bought my starter set from Amazon UK for £55, a considerable saving over the £70 price on the Warlord Games website. I've actually found it pays to check out other sources such as eBay, Wayland Games or Element Games to find cheaper priced Warlord Games products. However, not all Bolt Action products can be found cheaper on other sites but it still pays to shop around.
Seeing as most of my games will take place in the late war period in Europe (1944-45) I plan on collecting the following forces. For the Americans, the Airborne troops and the regular infantry troops; for the British I'll be collecting the regular infantry troops, the Airborne troops and possibly some Commandos; for the Germans I plan on fielding Panzer Grenadier troops and Waffen SS troops. That's a lot of figures I need, but this will be a long term project and I'll be adding to my forces slowly. I'm mainly interested in small force (platoon level) infantry battles with a limited amount of vehicles (no more than one tank, self-propelled gun, tank destroyer or armoured car per platoon) which is exactly what the Bolt Action rules cater for. Once I master the Bolt Action rules I'll move onto the Konflict 47 rules for my Weird World War 2 fix. Again, that will be a long term project.
I've already painted an American Airborne HQ section and a German Panzer Grenadier HQ section. Currently on my painting table are a 10 man veteran Panzer Grenadier squad plus the American Kelly's Heroes squad. I had planned on getting the Kelly's Heroes set (called the Oddball's Heroes by Warlord Games) but they were low down on my wish list. However, someone on eBay was selling them for £7.00 and I won the auction. Considering the RRP for them was £20.00 this was a fantastic bargain. Now I'm going to have to get Oddball's Sherman tank. Both the Oddball's Heroes and the elite Panzer Grenadier squad plus the American and German HQ squads are made of metal. The figures in the Band of Brothers plus the Hanomag and ruined farmhouse are made of plastic. However, they do mix together very well.
This is a project that excites me greatly, not least because of the memories it evokes from the 1970's. Of course I am a much better painter and modeller now than I was back then. I'm looking forward to playing my first few games as I slowly build up my forces. Figure reviews and batreps will follow soon.

So here we are halfway through 2019 and I start with a painting of my favourite super-heroine, Vampirella. The artist of this portrait is Jim Silke and I'll be showcasing his work for the rest of this year. He has a very distinctive style that is instantly recognisable. His work has adorned the front covers of a few Vampirella comics.
As always, this has been another busy month for me hobby-wise. I am still painting the figures from Core Space by Battle Systems Ltd. and making good progress with them. On the gaming front, I am thoroughly enjoying playing the latest adventure of my The Ace of Spades Campaign, which you can read about on my WOIN blog. Doing the batreps for this project is very time consuming but just so much fun. The story is building up to quite a dramatic climax as the crew prepare to take on the vast criminal empire known as The Organisation. There will be blood spilled!

I thought I'd do something different and show you my list of painted figures and unpainted figures.
THE HALL OF FAME
7TV2e. All of the figures I own for this alternative TV and films skirmish game have been painted.
A Touch of Evil. This board-game set at the start of the 19th century by Flying Frog plus its two expansion sets has all of its figures painted.
Castle Ravenloft. This AD&D board-game has had all of its figures painted.
Death Match. A sci-fi arena combat game. All of the figures I own for it are finished.
Firefly Adventures. The figures for this sci-fi board-game and its two expansion sets are all finished.
Nemesis. A superb sci-fi board-game with all of its figures painted very quickly.
Rumbleslam. A fantasy wrestling game with all of its figures and arena painted.
Secrets of the Third Reich. Although I only own a force of German infantry, they are all painted.
Strontium Dogs. All of the figures I own for this 2000 AD based game have been painted.
Zombicide Seasons 1 and 2. All of the figures from the original boxed set and first two expansion sets, Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall have been painted.

WORK IN PROGRESS
ABC Warriors. The figures by Wargames Foundry have been painted but those by Warlord Games remain unpainted.
Core Space. I am currently working on it and expect to have all of the figures painted in the next couple of months if not sooner.
Doctor Who - Exterminate! About 90% of the figures I own for this skirmish wargame are finished.
Dracula's America. A Weird Wild West skirmish game with about 60% of the figures finished.
Judge Dredd. Despite painting loads of figures by different companies for this franchise I still have some old boxed sets of figures from Warlord Games yet to paint - Brit City Judges, Sov Judges, Cultists, Muties and Sky Surfers. They probably make up less than 10% of my total collection.
Necromunda. All of the scenery and the two gangs (Eschers and Goliaths) that come with the starter boxed set plus the Ambots and some Forge World individuals are painted. I haven't started on my Cawdor, Delaque, Orlock or Van Saar gangers.
Resident Evil 2. Over 50% of the figures have been painted, enough to play most of the starter scenarios.
Rogue Trooper. My Wargames Foundry figures have been painted but none of my Warlord Games figures have been painted.
Rum and Bones. The heroes of two of the eight factions have been painted. Still loads left to paint.
Shadows of Brimstone. Another Weird Wild West game with loads and loads of expansion sets, most of which have been painted. I probably have 15% of my total collection left to paint.
Super Dungeon Explore. All of the figures for the 1st edition game have been painted. The figures for its expansion set, Forgotten King, remain unpainted.
The Walking Dead. All of the figures from wave 1 (the largest wave by far) have been painted. The figures from waves 2, 3 and 4 are unpainted.
Tombstone. A Wild West skirmish game by Black Scorpion. Over 60% of its figures have been painted.
Zombicide: Black Plague. All of the figures from the starter boxed set have been painted but most of its many expansion sets remain unpainted.
Zombicide: Season 3. I have only painted a few figures from its two big expansion sets, Angry Neighbours and Rue Morgue.

THE HALL OF SHAME 
7TV2e: Apocalypse. No figures painted yet. However, this is a very recent purchase and I am keen to get started on them.
Last Night on Earth. The figures for this zombie game and its expansion sets by Flying Frog Productions remain unpainted.
Mars Attacks! No figures painted from the boxed set or its few expansion sets.
Massive Darkness. No figures painted from this boxed set or its numerous expansion sets.
Zombicide: Green Horde. No figures painted from this boxed set or its numerous expansion sets.

Make of this what you will. I'm glad my Hall of Fame outnumbers my Hall of Shame by two to one. Now that I live on my own I have a lot more time to devote to my hobby and I'm now getting a lot more painting done. With so many unpainted figures in my collection, this is a good thing. Some of my Work in Progress figure sets will get completed by the end of this year -  especially Core Space, Doctor Who: Exterminate! and Resident Evil 2. Others, like Rum and Bones, Super Dungeon Explore, Zombicide: Black Plague and Zombicide: Season 3 are unlikely to see much progress, if any. I'll keep chipping away at my other Work in Progress sets and make a start on my 7TV2e: Apocalypse set. I'm afraid I lack the motivation to do any work on the other four Hall of Shame sets. If you feel inclined, do let me know about your own Halls of Fame and Halls of Shame.

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.

This is another illustration painted by Manuel Sanjulian. Vampirella initially appeared in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazine Vampirella #1 (September 1969), running to issue #112 (March 1983). The title was a sister magazine of Warren's horror anthologies Creepy and Eerie. Like those magazines' respective mascots, Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, Vampirella hosted horror stories, though unlike them, she would also star in her own story, which would headline each issue. This illustration shows Vampirella flanked by Cousin Eerie to her right and Uncle Creepy to her left.

As is usual for me I have had another busy month. On the painting front I have finished painting 24 zombies from the Resident Evil 2 board game and I'll be showing them here very soon. Currently I'm painting 3 Judoon from Warlord Games' range of Doctor Who range. These were amongst the first figures I bought for this game but never get round to painting until now. I recently bought 4 Ambot models from Games Workshop's Necromunda range of figures. Necromunda is the only GW game I'm currently interested in. I have made all four of them and am busy painting them now. I plan on using them as Heavy Metal Kids to use in the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD supplement, The Robot Wars. It is always nice to have figures that can be used in multiple games. Next on my list of figures to paint will be the figures that came with Battle Systems' Core Space sci-fi skirmish game. I have started making the scenery items for this game and I'm busy painting the edges of both the scenery items and the walls. This is something I do with all of my card models and scenery. It is incredibly tedious and time-consuming but the effort is more than worth it as it transforms them from looking like cardboard models with their distracting white edges to much more realistic looking scenery.

I am continuing to lay the groundwork for my upcoming Judge Dredd RPG campaign. Those of you who followed my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign in which my team of Judges were based on some of my blog followers (Med Judge Nash, Street Judges Burnett, Moore, Stone and Webb as well as myself, Street Judge Scott) may be pleased to know that you are all returning to my new campaign and that all of you have been upgraded to experienced Judges (rank:7) or in the case of Judge Stone, a Senior Judge (rank:10). My own Judges, Scott and Nicki Huntsman will start off as rank:5 Judges on their first tour of duty as Street Judges. Psi Judge Justine Devereux returns as a rank:7 Psi Judge. To put these rank numbers into perspective, most starting characters begin at rank:5 with a 5d6 dice pool; rank:6 and7 characters have a 6d6 dice pool and rank:8 to10 characters have a 7d6 dice pool. The bigger your dice pool the greater your chance of succeeding in a task and the higher your chance of scoring a critical success. I have created character record sheets for about 20 Judges and the perps who will appear in the first scenario, State of the Empire which appears in the Judge Dredd and the World of 2000 AD rulebook. The campaign begins in the year 2099 which is when Judge Dredd first appeared in the 2000 AD comic. I have created my own character record sheet for him and at this point he is only a rank:7 Judge.

This campaign will be posted on my WOIN blog. Speaking of which, I made a promise that my The Ace of Spades Campaign would return soon but too much time has passed since I made that promise. I have two more posts to show on my WOIN blog and then chapter 3 of The Ace of Spades Campaign will continue. I really want to post this before I start my Judge Dredd campaign. I am incredibly excited about returning to this campaign. I have missed my ongoing adventures of Kimberley and co.

I start my latest Monthly Musings with another gorgeous painting of Vampirella by Manuel Sanjulian. I really love this portrait as she just exudes sex appeal.

As usual, this past month was been very busy for me. On the painting front I have been painting a bunch of Paranormal Investigators and their vehicle, ECTO-1, all by Crooked Dice Games. These were bought for use with the Ghostbreakers: Spirits of Manhattan supplement for the N.O.W. role-playing game by EN Publishing. See my review here https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.com/2019/03/ghostbreakers-spirits-of-manhattan.html
I'll be reviewing these figures on my WOIN blog soon.

I have also been painting a lot of figures from the Resident Evil 2 board-game by Steam Forged Games. Currently on my painting desk are 24 Zombies from this game. I hope to have these finished in the next week or so.

I am also painting a small bunch of female civilians to use in my Wild West games. These came from Wargames Foundry.

Two weeks ago I received my 7TV:Apocalypse Kickstarter package from Crooked Dice Games. The boxed set contains three rulebooks, including one dedicated to vehicular combat. I also ordered a whole load of figures and a few vehicles as well. This is a game I am very much looking forward to playing. For a long time I have been waiting for a good set of contemporary or post apocalypse vehicle rules that uses 28mm scale vehicles. I'm hoping these will be the rules I've been looking for. The opportunity to recreate some games from the world of Mad Max greatly appeals to me. I strongly suspect I'll be buying a lot more vehicles from CDG in the near future.

I'd like to say that I'll be concentrating on this game in the next few weeks but the truth is my attention is focussed elsewhere. My current passion is preparing for a new Judge Dredd campaign based on the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook by EN Publishing. I have been busy creating a small force of Judges to use in my campaign, many of whom are based on my player characters from my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign. I liked the JDMG rules a lot but they were primarily a set of small scale skirmish rules with very little opportunity for any role-playing. It is for this reason that I much prefer the new Judge Dredd rulebook. Because this rulebook is based on the WOIN rules sets, my campaign will appear on my WOIN blog. My first scenario will most likely be the State of the Empire scenario from the core rulebook as it is very much geared for starting characters.

February has been a very good month for me on the hobby front. I'll get round to that soon, but first I present another portrait of my favourite vampire, Vampirella, as painted by Manuel Sanjulian. It is a very beautiful portrait that I like a lot. Vampirella just oozes sex appeal here.

I have been painting and am continuing to paint a lot of 35mm scale Doctor Who miniatures from Warlord Games. I just recently finished painting the 9th and 11th Doctor and their companions sets. On my painting desk right now are the 4th Doctor and his companions, the five figure Master set and Kahler-Tek the Gunfighter (a free figure if you spend £75 or more, which was so easy to do). With quite a backlog of Doctor Who figures to paint I did not want it grow any bigger, which is why I have been doing my best to reduce it. They are a lot of fun to paint so it certainly isn't a chore.
I also still have loads of 32mm scale Black Scorpion Tombstone figures to paint, so I have also been making inroads into getting more of them finished. Black Scorpion is my favourite manufacturer of Wild West and Weird West figures, so painting them is a real pleasure. I am currently painting a group of skeletons and zombies which I hope to showcase soon.

On the gaming front, I finished playing the basic Resident Evil 2 campaign from the starter set. My heroes survived and completed it successfully. I look forward to trying out some of the expansion sets. I have almost completed the campaign provided with the Here's Negan board-game, which has been a lot of fun. No survivor deaths so far, so fingers crossed I can successfully finish the 12 scenarios that make up the campaign. Also, I completed the first scenario of my St. Trinian's campaign using the N.O.W. rulebook. You can read it on my WOIN blog. It was an incredible amount of fun.

Just last week, I bought a brand new game called Judge Dredd - The Cursed Earth, a card game by Osprey Games. The premise of the game is that a group of three Judges (Dredd, Giant and PSI Judge Anderson) are searching the Cursed Earth for Max Normal who has fled Mega City One. Also on his tail are a group of perps led by Mean Machine Angel. The Judges must find Max before the perps do. Gameplay is very simple and it does not take too long to play a game. You can play as a solo player (always a big plus for me) or as a team either co-operatively or competitively with Judges verses Perps. Playing as the Judges is the default mode. Also, there are three difficulty levels for the game - Cadet (beginners level), Judge (standard level) and Chief Judge (difficult level). Each investigation is split into two day parts beginning at Dawn and Dusk. In each part, six Encounter cards are laid out in a row and must be played in order from left to right. In the Dawn phase, the player chooses three cards from his hand of six to play and the top three cards from the deck to form a row of six cards which are arranged in numerical order from low to high. At Dusk, the player places his remaining three cards from his hand plus the top three cards from the deck but each card placed can be placed to the left or right of the row. Once they have all been resolved the player draws six more Encounter cards to add to his hand. A new day begins at Dawn.

The encounter cards show their numerical value at the bottom left corner. The boxes at the top of the cards are split into three codes - yellow boxes are compulsory and must be played; red boxes are choices (you choose one red box to play and ignore the other red boxes); blue boxes are optional - you can decide whether to play them or not. The symbols in the boxes must be resolved in order from left to right. They can be good, granting you resources or allowing you to progress through the Cursed Earth, or bad by removing your valuable resources, wounding you or allowing the Perps to advance. A symbol in a circle is bad, a symbol not in a circle is good.
Here is an example of the end of a game. The black meeple on the Max Normal card at the right of the row of location cards shows that the Judges have won. The grey meeple on the Great Dust Bowl card in the same row represents the Perps. My thoughts on this game are very favourable. The cards are large tarot card-sized with beautiful and evocative artwork. It is a very difficult game to win, which is not meant as a criticism. I played Cadet level first and won first time, by the skin of my teeth, admittedly. Afterwards, I played eight Judge level games and only won once, again by the skin of my teeth. I have not attempted to play Chief Judge level. My only criticisms are that the tokens are made of thin card; I'd have preferred they be made of much thicker card. Also, I do not like the two meeples used to represent the Judges and the Perps. In my opinion, they cheapen the look of the game. I use a 28mm scale figure of Judge Dredd and Mean Machine Angel to replace them.
If you are a fan of Judge Dredd I can highly recommend this game. It costs £24.99 from the Osprey Games webstore. However, I bought my copy from Amazon UK for just £21.23.

Here is my first Monthly Musings post of 2019. To the left of here is a portrait of Vampirella painted by Manual Sanjulian, whose work I highlighted throughout 2018 and will continue to do so for the near future. I really like this portrait a lot. There appears to be a trio of zombies and a hooded necromancer sneaking up on her but I bet she's fully aware of their presence.

January has been a very good month for me. I have been gaming practically every afternoon. The two games I have been playing were Nemesis and Resident Evil 2, both of which I have found incredibly addictive. The Nemesis game came with a graphic novel campaign that should be played in co-operative mode, which is the mode I usually play. I worked my way through the scenarios and completed them successfully. I gamed with four crew members. In the basic Resident Evil 2 boxed set there is a campaign booklet that contains eight scenarios. I have played five of them and hope to finish them in the next few days. I am using the four survivors that come in the basic set - Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Ada Wong and Robert Kendo and they are still going strong. Once I finish playing this campaign (hopefully, successfully) I plan on running through the twelve scenario campaign in the Here's Negan game.

Painting has been going well. I finished painting the six survivor figures from the Here's Negan board-game. In addition I have painted some more Black Scorpion Tombstone figures and some new Doctor Who figures from Warlord Games. All of these will be shown on my blog in my February posts. Currently on my painting table are more Doctor Who figures and the new crew members for the Firefly: Brigands and Browncoats board-game. I should have these finished in the next week. Once they're done I plan on painting the figures from the Resident Evil 2 game, starting with the heroes.

For those of you who are interested, I am about to start my St. Trinian's campaign on my WOIN blog. I'll be using the N.O.W. rulebook for this campaign. I have just finished posting the last of my cast reviews and should be posting part 1 of the introductory scenario within the next few days. I know that some of you are eagerly awaiting this campaign. It will be story driven like my The Ace of Spades Campaign but I plan on including lots more how the rules work notes in my batreps.

One thing that has pleased me immensely is that I have spent nothing on figures or gaming products this month. I am trying to cut back on what I spend on gaming this year, so I'm off to a good start. All the best from Vampifan.

Welcome to my final Monthly Musings of 2018 and I have a lot to cover. I've just noticed that this will be my 100th post of 2018. Yay me! First up is another illustration of my beloved Vampirella by Spanish artist Sanjulian. It's not a bad portrait but he has done better. The bat behind her is really naff!

2018 seems to have flown over. It started very badly for me with my mother dying in January. She is sorely missed. But life goes on and despite this being the first Christmas I have ever spent on my own I was determined to make the best of it and to enjoy it as much as I could, which I did. In my first post of 2019 I'll show you what my brother bought for me for Christmas present and the items I added to it. It is impressive!

These past couple of weeks have been incredible for me as a gamer. I am a big fan of Kickstarters. I know some people hate them but for the most part I have had very positive experiences with them and I continue to back them. By nature, I am a very patient person, so a one year wait (or however long it takes) to receive my order is not a problem. I understand that games need time to be developed and that the manufacturing process can take quite some time. The reason I mention this is that I received two Kickstarter games I'd backed a good while ago these past two weeks.

First to arrive was the wave 1 delivery of Nemesis, a sci-fi horror game set on a space ship that has become infested with Alien-like creatures. This game grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it being announced. As soon as I received my copy I painted all of the figures that came with it - 6 humans and 20 Intruders. It can be played by 1 to 5 players and I played it for the first time on Christmas Day and I have to say it was one of the most tense gaming experiences of my life. Since then I have played it many more times. This game is just superb and easily one of the best board-games I've ever played! Mind you, it is not an easy game to win but that is a good thing in my opinion - I like a challenge. If you're a fan of the Aliens franchise, as I am, you'll love this game. I plan on showcasing the figures very early in 2019.

On the Saturday before Christmas, I received two big parcels. One was for the Here's Negan board-game, a stand alone supplement to Mantic Games' The Walking Dead games. This was not a Kickstarter, it was my main Christmas present that I bought for myself. Thanks to this year's Zomtober and Zomvember painting challenges I'm really back into The Walking Dead games and this was a perfect complement to what I already own. I primarily wanted this game for the six survivor miniatures, including a new version of Negan, shown in the photo above. The zombie figures are all duplicate poses of ones from the boxed starter set of The Walking Dead: All Out War, which was slightly disappointing but not the end of the world. I was uncertain what the game play would be like but I have played it once and found the game very challenging and a lot of fun. I'm now looking forward to playing the campaign mode of linked scenarios. Thankfully, this is another game that allows for solo players.

The second parcel I received that day was massive and very heavy. It contained all of the items I'd backed for the Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter board-game, and I think I ordered one of everything that was on offer. There were 11 separate boxes in the parcel! That is a heck of a lot of content. As a huge fan of zombie films and games there was no way that I wasn't going to buy this game. Although I am not a computer player and thus have not played any of the Resident Evil computer games, I do own all of the films and novels for this franchise and I'm a big fan of them all. I have only just finished reading the rulebook and I plan on trying it out this afternoon. Initial impressions are highly favourable and the figures look really great, with some of them being truly frightening - Birkin stage 5 and the giant alligator, for example. I can't wait to get them painted.

So, as you can imagine, I have had a great time playing games that I love, which is something I don't do enough of. I seem to spend far more time painting figures than in gaming with them. This Christmas, however, has been the opposite, with gaming taking precedence over painting. This doesn't mean that painting has stopped all together - it has just slowed down. Currently on my painting table are some more Strontium Dog figures by Warlord Games and some new Rumbleslam figures by TT Combat, as well as some really old Citadel sci-fi figures that I'm repainting for my The Ace of Spades Campaign on my WOIN blog.

2019 promises to be a good year for me. What I am most looking forward to the New Year is celebrating Vampirella's 50th anniversary. She first appeared in comics in 1969 and has been going strong ever since. I'm sure there are big plans to celebrate this milestone anniversary. What I would love to see but is unlikely to happen, is a big budget movie or a TV series for her.

I have more Kickstarters that I'm waiting for, the first of which should be the hard-backed rulebook of Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD plus some extras by EN Publishing. That is due sometime in January and will receive a lot of coverage on my WOIN blog. February will hopefully see the release of Core Space, a sci-fi skirmish game with miniatures and awesome scenery by Battle Systems Ltd. This is their first foray into gaming and it all looks to be a smash hit for them. There are at least five others that I'm waiting for but in the short term, these two that I've mentioned are the two I'm most excited about.

I want to do more batreps for both of my blogs. I really enjoy doing them but they are very time consuming to produce. I started 2018 well with the 12 part scenario, Alien Base, for my The Ace of Spades Campaign, which appeared on my WOIN blog, but there were very few further batreps after that. My two Six Gun Sound scenarios that I ran on this blog were a lot of fun and I very much want to post more Wild West and Weird West batreps. In August I ran an introductory scenario for the Strontium Dog skirmish game by Warlord Games. Again, I hope to run more of them in 2019. I can say that I do have plans to run a short St. Trinian's scenario using the N.O.W. rules on my WOIN blog very soon, once I finish showcasing the cast. Hopefully, it'll be the start of a long running campaign. After that I plan on returning to Kimberley and the crew of The Ace of Spades as they visit a pleasure planet and Kimberley enters a high stakes gambling contest. Actually, my WOIN blog should be filled with batreps because once I get the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook I'm going to want to start a new campaign based on it. Honestly, I have so many plans for stuff I want to do, it's just hard to find the time to do them all. Thank God, I'm retired and have so much free time to devote to this wonderful hobby.

I am looking forward to 2019 and I hope it lives up to my expectations. I am content with my life and that is a good thing to be able to say. I'd just like to end by first of all thanking all of you who follow my blog and who take the time out to comment on my posts. Your continued support spurs me on and encourages me to continue blogging for as long as I can. Secondly, I wish every one of you a peaceful and prosperous New Year filled with love and happiness. God bless you all!

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.

Halloween greetings to you all. I start with yet another beautiful Vampirella painting by the talented Sanjulian, whom I've been featuring all of this year. It is unusual to see Vampi wearing robes but I do like her look.

So what have I been up to this past month? For the first time ever I entered the Zomtober challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially, I decided to paint the 38 figures from the top layer of the Mantic Games Kickstarter wave 1 boxed set of The Walking Dead. Having completed that task in just three weeks I then decided to carry on and finish painting all of the figures from wave 1, which included 8 more zombie figures in the above boxed set, booster packs featuring, Rick on horseback, Morgan and his son Duane, more zombies and the 6 figures from the Prelude to Woodbury starter set, which consisted of Brian "The Governor" Blake and 5 more zombies. I know I should be calling the zombies, "walkers" when referring to The Walking Dead but I much prefer to call them zombies. So far, I have shown 34 of the 38 figures I've finished painting so far. The remaining four will be featured in my next post, followed by all the rest of the wave 1 figures. Zomtober morphs into Zomvember! I'm having so much fun painting these figures that I want to carry on. I have all of the wave 2, 3, 4 and 5 figures and I have pre-ordered the Here's Negan stand alone boxed game, which goes on sale on 19th of November. Just to prove that I have painted all of the figures from the top layer of the Kickstarter wave 1 boxed set, here's a photo of them all. Impressive, huh?
In other news, the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Kickstarter came to a close a few days ago and was phenomenally successful. 2,004 backers pledged £148,802 of the £7,500 needed to fund it. Within a few hours of the project closing I had received PDF copies of the rulebook, The Robot Wars supplement, the Games Master's screen and the counter tokens to use in place of miniature figures. Physical copies of these products are due to be shipped in January 2019, which isn't too long to wait. I'll do a full review of them after I receive them. I must admit that after browsing through the PDFs I am extremely impressed by the high quality and production values of these items. I have read the character generation rules for creating Judges and I have just finished designing my own character record sheet to use for the many Judges, Perps and Citizens I'll be creating. This was based on my own designs for my N.E.W. and N.O.W. character record sheets with just a bit of tweaking. I am in the process of transferring the stats of the four pre-generated Judges found at the back of the rulebook to my CRS's. Then I'll start work on creating my own Judge characters to use in the campaign that I'll start playing early next year.
EN Publishing have announced plans for some of the next products that will be appearing from this range next year. These include two supplements for Judge Dredd - Luna-1 and The Cursed Earth. Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dogs will be the next two rulebooks but note that these will only cover the characters, careers, equipment and settings for these stories. For the basic gameplay rules you will need the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD rulebook. Morrus, the head honcho of EN Publishing, has announced that he already has a full manuscript for one more product and is half way through another, both of which should be released in 2019, so exciting times!
Comparing this version of the Judge Dredd role-playing game to others from the past I can definitely say that it beats all others hands down. It is just a brilliant product and I am mega excited about getting back to playing Judge Dredd again.

For my WOIN blog, I have been busy painting more sci-fi figures and I have increased my cast of St. Trinian's staff and schoolgirls. I am still working on creating Character Record Sheets for them all - there are about 40 in total, so it's a big cast and each one is unique. I have also been painting scenery items and furniture to use in my next The Ace of Spades Campaign scenario and my first St. Trinian's Campaign scenario, which will be my first game using the N.O.W. rules.

It's Halloween night tonight and I love Halloween. I'm stocked up on treats for the kids and I'm looking forward to seeing their costumes. Last year I had 15 trick or treaters and they all put a lot of effort into their costumes. I'm hoping this year will be just as good. Happy Halloween everyone.

The trick or treater I most want to meet tonight! It looks like she's trying to smuggle a couple of pumpkins out under her dress!

September has once again been a very productive month for me hobby-wise, more of which later, but first here is a delightful portrait of Vampirella by the talented Spanish artist, Manuel Sanjulian. This would seem to be a perfect pose for a Vampirella statue but it hasn't happened so far. Speaking of Vampirella statues, my collection has now reached double figures and they take centre stage on my china cabinet in my living room.

The big news for me for September was the launch of the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Kickstarter by EN Publishing on the 25th. Amazingly enough, this project was fully funded within 9 minutes! I was never in any doubt that it would get funded but I wasn't expecting it be so speedily funded as that. I backed it for the Chief Judge's Pledge, which gets me the basic rulebook, the Robot Wars supplement, the Games Master's Screen, the card counter set plus free PDF copies of the books. Note that initially, a dice set was offered but they have been replaced by a set of cardstock counters of Judges, perps and civilians. This is because supply of the dice would have delayed the release of the other products and EN Publishing are committed to short delivery times, which is certainly to be applauded. To be honest, I have so many six-sided dice that missing out on these ones is no big deal.

The Kickstarter runs until Friday 26th of October 2018 and the estimated delivery time for the physical products is January 2019. PDFs will be sent out once the Kickstarter closes. Here's the link for it - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/judge-dredd-and-the-worlds-of-2000-ad-roleplaying?ref=email I was absolutely delighted to see that my review of the Kickstarter that I posted on my WOIN blog gets a mention. So too, does Blaxkleric's reviews that he did on the Dawn of Comics website. No doubt Simon will be just as chuffed as I am.

Speaking of WOIN, I am hoping to continue to my The Ace of Spades Campaign very soon. I have the scenario all written out and character record sheets created for the major participants. All that is missing are a few 3D scenery items that my brother has printed out for me. I should receive them later today when Mikie comes over to visit me.
A couple of weeks ago I ran a review of the N.O.W. rulebook on my WOIN blog (see here ) and in it I mentioned a few ideas for campaigns that I'd like to run with those rules. Andy suggested I go for a zombie apocalypse campaign with my PC of Vampifan taking centre stage once again. John, however, expressed a desire for a St. Trinian's campaign. They'll be pleased to know that I plan on running both campaigns later on. The St. Trinian's campaign will kick off first. I am busy creating character record sheets for the staff and students of this infamous girls' school and I have lots of ideas for scenarios. This will be a campaign using cinematic rules with an emphasis on fun and slapstick. Gritty and realistic it won't be! I'm still thinking about what I want to do with Vampifan - make him a loner or give him a family? Make him an ordinary human or perhaps a Chosen One? I am very excited about running both campaigns, plus continuing my N.E.W. campaign with Kimberley and crew. And next year I have big plans for running a brand new Judge Dredd campaign once I get the new rulebook. 2019 should see lots of WOIN gaming. These are exciting times.

Earlier this month I bought this boxed scenery set from Modiphius Games - the Red Rocket Scenery Set. What immediately attracted me to this set is that it is designed by Battle Systems Ltd., whose scenery sets I absolutely adore. Although this set is designed to be used with the Fallout Wasteland Warfare sci-fi skirmish game, I have no desire to start collecting figures for it or playing the game. I'm not a fan of computer games and I know so little about the game and its setting. What I do know is that this set would work perfectly well in any post apocalypse game like All Things Zombie, Judge Dredd or Strontium Dog. The garage itself is a superb model but what really makes this set worthwhile is the 3' square gaming mat that comes with it. Made of mouse-mat material, it is compatible with other Battle Systems Post-Apocalypse gaming mats. I can see me using this mat a lot in my Strontium Dog games. The boxed set costs £60.00 and here's a link to where you can purchase it - https://www.modiphius.net/collections/fallout-wasteland-warfare/products/copy-of-fallout-wasteland-warfare-product-template Expect a full review of this set real soon.

Painting has been going well, as always. Lots more sci-fi and Wild West figures painted this month, all of which will appear on this blog or my WOIN blog soon. A couple of days ago I received all of the Wave 5 figures for Mantic Games' The Walking Dead game and that got me thinking. I have had this game since it was first released ages ago but haven't got round to painting any of the figures for this game yet. It is about time that changed. I understand that October is known as Zomtober to some of you. So this will be my Zomtober challenge but I'm playing to my rules so I'm not an official entrant. I plan on painting all of the figures shown here in the top tray of the Kickstarter Wave 1 boxed set. My deadline is the end of October, and I'll post progress reports throughout the month when a batch of figures gets finished. I have every confidence in my ability to complete the challenge and I look forward to painting this lot. If I finish in good time, I'll move on to more figures from this range or maybe do the scenery pieces.

All the best from Vampifan.

I start this month with this very dramatic painting of Vampirella fighting Count Dracula. As with all of my Vampirella pictures I'm showcasing this year, it was painted by Manuel Sanjulian. These two iconic vampires have been allies and adversaries on many occasions. In this painting they certainly seem at odds with one another.

August was very much Strontium Dog month for me and I was delighted that I got everything released by Warlord Games for the first wave of the game painted - figures, scenery and even the plastic tokens. I have already started painting the figures for the wave two releases and about half of them have been finished. I greatly enjoyed playing my introductory batrep for the game (see my previous two posts) and I hope to play more scenarios in the future. The way characters activate in a turn was new to me but greatly added to the enjoyment and unpredictability to the proceedings. As a few followers commented, the game ebbed and flowed throughout the turn. No IGOUGO in this game.

Sticking with 2000AD I have news of another major character from this, my second favourite comic (Vampirella is, of course,  my favourite comic) and that is Judge Dredd.
EN Publishing who produce the What's Old Is New series of role-playing games, N.E.W., N.O.W. and O.L.D. are going to release the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD RPG rulebook (in two versions), the Robot Wars campaign supplement, a games-masters screen and special six-sided dice as part of a Kickstarter which launches on Tuesday 24th of September 2018. I am immensely excited about this whole project. If you'd like to know more about it please check out my WOIN blog where I have been given exclusive access to some of the contents of the book. Here's the link to it - https://vampifanwoin.blogspot.com/2018/09/judge-dredd-and-worlds-of-2000ad-preview.html

In addition to the new Strontium Dog figures currently getting painted, I'm also working on yet more Wild West figures by Black Scorpion and Knuckleduster Miniatures, Ghosts of Gaia figures by Bad Squiddo Games, as well as an assortment of sci-fi figures I plan on using in my The Ace of Spades Campaign. I am also painting scenery items from Wargames Terrain Workshop along with more Hayland Terrain scenery and furniture items that my brother has printed out for me. I have plenty to keep me going for years to come... and that's just the stuff I share with you. I also work on a number of projects no one but me knows about. They will be revealed when the time is right. Suffice to say, I am very busy.

July has been a very good month for me, more of which later. I start with another illustration of Vampirella by Manuel Sanjulian. There's a lot going on in this picture and I like it a lot.

I received a couple of big parcels this month, both of which pleased me immensely. First up was all of the figures I'd ordered from Bad Squiddo Games (BSG) for their Ghosts of Gaia 2 Kickstarter project. I missed out on the first Ghosts of Gaia Kickstarter but Annie kindly offered the figures from that set as a stretch goal for this later Kickstarter. This Kickstarter was launched last year but delivery was delayed for many months. This did not bother me at all because Annie Norman, who runs BSG, kept her backers well informed about the reasons for the delay, which was much appreciated. Communication is so important and made me much more understanding towards her problems. Illness, moving house and moving business were all reasonable causes for the long delay. I have dealt with BSG before and have always had great service from them and Annie is a true star. The Ghosts of Gaia figures are all females, which is something BSG specialises in. I've already painted a few of them. Reviews of this range of figures will appear on my WOIN blog due to them being sci-fi themed and very apt for inclusion in my The Ace of Spades Campaign.

I ordered all of these except for the set of 4 Tankers

The figures that I ordered from the Ghosts of Gaia 2 range.

The other big parcel I received came from Warlord Games and it was the Strontium Dog Collection 1, which included everything that was produced for this brand new sci-fi skirmish game based on the series of stories from the 2000AD comic, starring Search/Destroy Agent, Johnny Alpha.
I've been collecting 2000AD ever since its first prog and the Strontium Dogs stories have always been a favourite of mine, so therefore this game and range of figures was a must have buy for me. I'll say now that I was not disappointed. The figures are very well sculpted (apart from Wulf Sternhammer who has a very badly sculpted and positioned right arm). The rules are easy to understand and fit in so well with the theme of the game. I won't go through the rule mechanics here but look out for my first Strontium Dog batrep which will appear very soon. I'll explain the rules then. I'm in the fortunate position of owning all of the old Wargames Foundry and Heroclix Indyclix Strontium Dog figures (all painted) and my Battle Systems Shanty Town and Sci-fi Terrain sets are just tailor-made for this game. So using them, I'm able to run a game very soon. My first game will feature Johnny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer and Durham Red going up against five (yes, five!) Stix Brothers. That works out at 50 Notoriety Points per side, which is the recommended total for starter games.
If you fancy dipping your toes into this game you can buy the rulebook, dice, tokens and figures separately. The Good, The Bad & The Mutie is a better option, as it gives you the 112 page rulebook, a 12 page scenario supplement, 8 metal 32mm scale miniatures, 2 sprues of plastic tokens (red and black), 36 game cards, 6 character cards, a laser-cut MDF solar farm, 2 six-sided dice and 8 2000AD dice, all for £50.00, which is pretty good value for money, especially as some of the items like the cards and solar farm, are only available in this set. I went for the all-in option, simply because I wanted everything. So I got extra dice and counters and 12 more miniatures.
Warlord Games already have the second wave of figures previewed for this game up on their website, which you can pre-order now. Delivery is expected in mid-August. I was most pleased to see that Durham Red is included in the second wave as she is my all-time favourite 2000AD character. Judge Dredd comes second. Once again, I'll be ordering everything including two boxes of the Build-a-Mutie sets, so I can make use of all of the components in these sets.
You can probably tell that I'm very excited by this game. I don't do themed months on my blog, unlike some other bloggers (Blaxkleric :-)) but I can say that August will definitely be Strontium Dog month. One thing that struck me when I was reading the rulebook is that it could potentially work for other 2000AD stories. It would certainly work well for small-scale skirmish games of Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors and Bad Company. I know that Warlord Games hold the licence to produce games for all of the 2000AD stories, so it could happen, especially if Strontium Dog is a big success... and I see no reason why it shouldn't be.

Obviously the main focus of my figure painting for August will be getting the Warlord Games Strontium Dog figures completed. The three Stix Brothers are already finished and I'm about half way through the rest of them. I've made and painted five of the seven items for the solar farm - the watch tower (which I've converted) and the four solar panels. Oh, and I'm also painting all of the counters. Work will continue on my Wild West figures and sci-fi figures.  I've made good progress with the painting of my Black Scorpion Tombstone figures and now have their complete set of figures for this range. Yay! Earlier this month, I received the second supplement for Dracula's America, called Forbidden Powers, along with all of the new figures designed specifically for it - three new factions.

Finally, I want to mention something that has made me VERY happy this past month and that is the TV series of The Vampire Diaries. With the excessive and over the top coverage of sporting borefests like the World Cup and Wimbledon I needed something I could watch and enjoy on a daily basis on television. Now I have been interested in buying The Vampire Diaries series ever since it first aired in 2006, but I kept holding back because I wanted to wait until the series ended so I could buy all of the series in one boxed set and watch every episode back to back. In addition, I didn't want to buy the complete series boxed set as soon as it was released because I've found if you wait a year or so the price drops considerably. So once the boring football began I ordered the eight series complete boxed set of Blu-ray DVDs for about £60.00 from Amazon UK. With each series running to 22 episodes (although series 8 is only 16 episodes long), plus loads of extras and special features that is a hell of a lot of viewing. So far, I have seen the first three series and I was hooked after episode 1. Series 1 was very good. Series 2, however, was just amazing and series 3 has maintained the same high standards. This is a series which improves with each successive episode. As you'd expect with a name like Vampifan, I love anything to do with vampires and this series is so addictive, it ranks alongside Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as my favourite vampire shows. Indeed, it could end up being my favourite TV series of all time. I am hooked on it and I couldn't be happier!