Looking at the cost of buying all I need for Nicodem outright is expensive especially as one of the three people in our playing group has not played the game yet. So I think that I will take your advice on this and pick up Shamus and a copy cat with Bette, then I will add more undead as my collection goes on building Nicodem up as you said. Given that the Nicodem I picked up was only £13 inc postage its not like I have payed much more for the box set than I would do the Punk Zombies blister.
Still looking foward to playing Nicodem though and if we get too play a lot I will fork out for all that is needed too get him running right pretty quickly. I just dont want to end up wasting money on building his crew up if we dont end up playing Malifaux too much.