Vampifan's Views 76 - Monthly Musings 51

I start with another painting of Vampirella by the extremely talented Joe Jusko. She looks ravishing!

I have a bit of bad news to report. My camera has died. I had a Nikon D40 digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera and after ten years of faithful use it has ceased to function and shed its mortal coil. Photography is such an important part of my hobby and I need a decent camera for my blog. So, I have ordered a new one from Amazon UK. This time I'm going for a Canon EOS 1200D digital SLR camera. I've used cameras by Canon and Nikon before and I wouldn't dream of buying anything else. It has cost me £225, which is a lot of money but that is reduced from £400, which was a hell of a saving. Plus, this model is the #1 best seller for cameras on Amazon. I'm hoping it won't take me too long to get used to it as I have a stack of photos I need to take. I was expecting it to arrive yesterday but it didn't. Hopefully, I'll get it early next week. It's just as well that I'm very patient.

My painting mojo is at a peak at the moment. Here is a list of all of the figures I have painted this month -

1. 3 Ainsty Weird Wild West Heroes
2. 3 Ainsty Weird Wild West Villains (vampire, werewolf and zombie)
3. 4 Assorted contemporary sheriff and deputies (for Scooby Doo)
4. 7 Crooked Dice Games coppers (6 male, 1 female)
5. 5 Crooked Dice Games detectives
6. 2 Crooked Dice Games gang bosses
7. 4 Crooked Dice Games guard dogs
8. 1 Crooked Dice Games 3rd Doctor Who (aka Jon Pertwee)
9. 1 Crooked Dice Games April O'Neil conversion (friend of the TMNT)
10. 1 Mantic Games Splinter (mentor of the TMNT)
11. 4 My Way Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
12. 6 Zombicide: Black Plague Survivors
13. 11 Zombicide: Black Plague Zombies (includes the Necromancer)

Quite a haul, huh? 52 figures in just one month! All of them need photographing so this really was a bad time to lose my camera. Plus, I now have all the figures that I need for my first 7TV2e batrep fully painted. I'm itching to get that game played as soon as possible. I plan on running The Ambush scenario with characters from 7TV2e's very own cop show, The Beat, hence all of the cops and crooks I've been painting. I have also bought a few vehicles to use in this batrep and future ones. I am busy painting two Crooked Dice Games resin cast Ford Transit vans, one as a police van and the other as a generic white van. I'm not bothered if I don't finish painting them in time for my batrep as I have alternative die-cast vehicles I can use. Indeed, I recently placed an order on eBay for the Ashes to Ashes vehicles set, featuring DCI Gene Hunt's red Audi Quattro and a Ford Grenada 2.8 police car. You can buy them from a number of sellers for about £25 instead of £40. Perfect for a UK-based 7TV2e cop show!

"Fire up the Quattro!"

With all of the painting I've been doing there has been less time left for gaming. However I still managed to play a few more games of Ninja All Stars and Zombicide: Black Plague. Gaming is back down to one game per week, despite my hope to play twice weekly, but I'm okay with that. More time spent painting means I'm reducing my unpainted figures mountain. Yay me! Currently on my painting table are 10 EM4 pre-painted Wild West figures (I just need to texture and paint their bases), 7 assorted dogs by various companies and an SDE Chibi figure of Vampirella that I converted, following on from a suggestion by Jez. After that lot I'll either paint some more of my Zombicide: Black Plague zombies or make a start on some of my Rum 'n' Bones pirates.

I do hope I can show some of my newly painted figures next time. If not, I have a few filler posts planned instead. Tune in next Wednesday.