Bolt Action US GI Easy Company

Easy Company of the American World War 2 General Infantry was the unit that Sergeant Franklin John Rock served in and in this post I'm going to highlight him and his squads of men. Sergeant Rock is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Sgt. Rock first appeared in Our Army at War #83 (June 1959), and was created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. The character is a World War 2 veteran who served as an infantry non-commissioned officer. During World War 2, Sgt. Rock fought in the infantry branch of the U.S. Army in the Italian and European Theatres and eventually rose to authority within his unit, Easy Company. The unit was a collection of disparate individuals who managed to participate in every major action in the European war. Rock's dog-tag number was 409966, which had been, it was claimed, Robert Kanigher's own military serial number.

At the far left is the Warlord Games figure of Sgt. Rock. Being ambidextrous, he is shown holding a .45 Thompson Sub-Machine Gun in both hands. Naturally his uniform is torn because he is always in the thick of any action. There were a number of figures I could have used for Sgt. Rock but this is the one I liked best of all.
Next to him is Corporal Horace "Bulldozer" Nicholls, Rock's second-in-command. Big as an ox with a heart to match, he's had the closest relationship with the Sarge and calls the shots whenever Rock is out of action. His figure is a Heroclix version of Sgt. Rock but because of his size and physique he is a perfect version of "Bulldozer".

Ex-heavyweight champion Jackie Johnson is a private in Easy Company's roster. He was a Heroclix unnamed G.I. who I thought was a good match for Private Johnson.
Last in line is the fourth figure to be armed with a Thompson SMG, Worry Wart, who is convinced that every enemy bullet has his name on it. He is an unconverted Artizan Designs American infantryman with SMG.

Moving on, at the far left is Harold Shapiro, a mild-mannered history teacher who becomes "Wildman" when pushed too far. He was a Heroclix G.I. Medic whom I converted by adding his distinctive red beard and moustache and losing his medic markings.
"Four Eyes" is so nicknamed because he wears glasses. His figure was another Heroclix version of Sgt. Rock, which, in my opinion, was too static for an a iconic action hero but perfect for "Four Eyes". I added his glasses, backpack and assorted pouches.

Third in line is Private Terry O'Riley who hated the heat but became the perfect "Ice Cream Soldier" when the weather was freezing. A native of the hard-scrabble New York City streets, he's the company's wise guy. He is an unconverted Artizan Designs American Infantryman with Rifle.
Kneeling down is "Farmer Boy" who refused to let the war stop him from doing what he was born to do - grow crops. He is a Warlord Games plastic US Infantryman depicted growing a flower in his helmet, which he has adapted to be a flower pot.

These next four figures are all produced by Artizan Designs from their WW2 American Infantry range. At the far left is "Sunny" so called because of his ever cheerful disposition. He is the spotter for the team's sniper, "Little Sure Shot".
"Little Sure Shot" is a full-blooded Apache Indian tracker and is regularly Easy Company's point man. He is an expert marksman and what he lacks in size he makes up for with stealth, speed, accuracy and cold blooded efficiency. I added his trademark feathers to his helmet out of Milliput.

The bazooka team is made up of Short Round the loader and Long Round the bazooka firer. They replaced Zack, the one-armed bazooka operator who was killed in action.
Sadly, there are no rules for using Easy Company in Bolt Action. However, I would definitely class them all as veterans and I would give them the Stubborn and Tough Fighters special rules.

JDMG MC1 Boingers

There are many crazes in Mega City One. One of the more popular crazes is Boinging. Boing is a spray-on rubber coating that solidifies into a giant ball around the user, turning them into a human pinball. Safely encased within the Boing ball, the occupant can still breathe naturally but is impervious to outside forces, allowing them to bounce great distances. Due to the great destruction that can be caused by citizens hurtling themselves off city blocks and then bouncing for miles, Boing may only be used in special Palais-de-Boing leisure domes. I have had a hankering for adding Boing users to to my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game for quite some time but seeing as no one sells them I had to come up with a way to make them myself. I think I succeeded admirably.

I picked out four spare Heroclix figures I had whom I thought were in suitable poses (I was looking for figures who had one or two hands outstretched) and removed them from their bases. All four figures were repainted as MC1 citizens. The idea for the Boing ball came quite by accident when I was browsing on Amazon UK. I came across a product to be used as a Christmas tree decoration made of clear plastic. It came in half and could be filled with sweets or a very small presents. They looked perfect for my needs. These clear plastic baubles come in various sizes ranging from 30mm in diameter to 180mm in diameter. I chose the 40mm diameter balls, which worked perfectly for me. I used superglue to glue the figures into one half of the baubles. The two halves were snapped shut and because they are such a tight fit, I did not glue them together. The tabs for attaching the baubles to something to hang on the Christmas tree were clipped off, leaving my Boing balls perfectly round. It was a simple but very successful conversion, that I am very pleased with. Note that I had to use small blobs of Blu-tac to fix my Boingers in place when I took my photos of them. They will roll all over the place if you just breathe on them!

Although there are no rules for using Boingers in the JDMG main rulebook, they do appear as one of the Random Events results (Boing Attack!) in the Blood on the Streets supplement (see page 131). There it states, "A Boing user bounces straight into the battle and then, just as quick, bounces back out again. Both players select one their own models and roll a die. If either rolls a 1, their model has been struck by the Boing user (if both roll a 1, both models have been hit - the Boing user has brought a friend). If neither rolls a 1, both players select another model in each of their forces and rolls again. This continues until at least one 1 has been rolled, or all models have been rolled against. If a model is hit by a Boing attack, it must pass an Agility test (a roll of 6+ on 1D10). If it fails, roll one die and lose that many Hits. Armour does not protect against Boing!"

This led me to thinking, what if you could use a Boinger as a mercenary to be hired by your force? So, I came up with these stats for a Boing user. Type: Infantry Minion. Move 2D10", Agility +1, Shoot +0, Melee +0, Melee Dice 2D, Will +0, Armour Special, Hits 1. Cost 60 Credits (includes 40 Credits for the cost of the Boing suit). To move, a Boing user must pass an Agility check to determine the direction of the bounce. A failure results in him bouncing in a random direction. I suggest rolling 1D12 to determine the direction, with 12 being the direction you wanted to travel in but you can use whatever method works best for you. Distance moved is determined by rolling two dice and adding their results together. If this causes the model to exit a table edge, they are removed from the game. For a Boing user to attack another model, make a Melee strike as normal. If the Boing user succeeds, the target takes 1d5 Hits of damage with no Armour save allowed. This is deliberately less than that of the Boing Attack random event because they are not bouncing from such a great height. Boing is impervious to any attack except Laser weapons or those that cause Fire. For these attacks Boing has AP+0. A Boing user may not use any weapons whilst encased in Boing. The following may hire a Boing user as a mercenary - Ape Gang, Futsie, Mobsters or Street Gang.

If you'd like to make your own Boingers, here's the link to where I bought my clear plastic baubles from - https://www.amazon.co.uk/OurWarm-Transparent-Fillable-Christmas-Decoration/dp/B01JG89A8Y/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=24S8NBEX8S3DMJP35EMG
Please do be aware, these come from China and I had to wait four weeks for mine to arrive. They were well packaged and arrived safely. You can buy them in packs of 10, 20, 50 or 100. Prices are very reasonable - £3.69 for ten 40mm diameter baubles with free post and packing to the UK.

JDMG MC1 Fatties 02

When I posted my first review of my Mega City One Fatties, I mentioned that I was splitting them into three categories - lightweights, medium-weights and heavyweights. Having shown you my lightweights first it is now time to move onto the big boys and the massive boys.

My four middleweight Fatties are from various sources. At the far left is another one of the Citadel Fatties that were made for the old Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game produced by Games Workshop. I reviewed these figures earlier. See here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/jdmg-mc1-fatties-01.html  I bulked his body out with a lot with Milliput modelling putty. His shoulder pads came from an old plastic Citadel Space Ork boxed set and fitted the figure very well.
The two Fatties in the centre were sculpted by me. For both of them I used a Subutteo plastic football for their bodies and added Milliput to it. The one with the slogan reading "Drokk art, let's bounce" was based on one of the cardboard cut-out characters that came with the Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game starter boxed set. The one in the green suit is an original design of mine. Their heads are a bit on the large size but I'm reasonably happy with them.

The Fattie at the far right is simply a DC Heroclix figure of Bouncing Boy with the addition of a belly wheel that I sculpted out of Milliput. This was a very simple conversion. I even kept his colour scheme untouched and I only painted extra detail to his hands and face. Funnily enough, his body most closely resembles a giant football, more so than my two conversions.

Now I move on to the true heavyweight Fatties, with each one weighing (in real life) well over one ton and possibly as much as two tons! Who remembers the Judge Dredd story featuring champion Fattie, Two Ton Tony Tubbs? All three were made by Warlord Games for the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game. The two at either end were recent purchases and they came in seven parts not including their bases. Their bodies were a one-piece casting made of resin. Their arms, legs, head and belly wheel were made of metal. The bodies, legs and belly wheels are identical but their arms and heads are different. They came with 40mm square plastic slottabases, which I replaced with 40mm diameter MDF bases. They are about 42mm tall, which some of you may feel is simply too tall. Their height does not bother me at all. I think they are fantastic sculpts.

The Fattie in the centre of the group was purchased almost as soon as he was released and he differs from the other two in a few ways. The most notable difference is that he is made entirely out of metal. His body came in two halves and was hollowed out to cut down on weight and on metal. His upper body is a very different design to the other two. By the way, the LF logo on his top stands for League of Fatties. The slogan on his placard, "Make pies, not war" is a pun on the phrase, "Make peace, not war".
In the JDMG, Fatties have three special rules, First is Belly Wheel, which I covered in part 01 of my Fatties reviews. Second is Fat! A Fattie may be purchased armour but double all costs. A Fattie may never use a Jetpack, Bat Glider, Power Board, Sucker Gun or Chameleon Suit. They are just too big! A Fattie can ride in a vehicle and will count as a single Crew or Passenger if the vehicle model has been suitably modified/converted. Otherwise, a Fattie may not ride in a vehicle unless there is a suitable place on the model for them to sit (such as the flatbed of a Sloth Cargo Hauler - and no, they cannot sit on the roof!). Fatties cannot use ladders at all, and may only use elevators and grav chutes that are physically large enough for the model. Finally, Fatties are immune to knock-downs. Thirdly, they have my personal favourite, Bacon Butty! If a Fattie has at least 3 Hits remaining and performs two Special actions in a turn it will stuff its face with as much food as it can. The Fattie will then regain 1 Hit. This may not be used to increase its Hits beyond its starting score.

Heroclix Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I must admit that I had not planned on buying the Heroclix Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set as I was more than happy with the My Way Miniatures 28mm scale versions I had of them. See here for a link to them. What persuaded me to get them was an enthusiastic e-mail from my good friend and  co-editor, Steve. He was going to order the set but because the seller was based in Spain and wouldn't ship to Ireland, he asked if he could have them sent to me so that I could forward them to him? We have had this arrangement in place for a while now so I was only too happy to help him out. As I looked more closely at what the boxed set contained (plus watching a few videos of it on YouTube) I became convinced that not only did I want it but I needed it as well! Yes, it was that good and I'm delighted I did end up ordering a set for myself as well. Obviously, you got the four Turtle heroes as Heroclix figures in the set, but you also got a huge double-sided map (the biggest Heroclix map I've ever seen) as well as separate room and corridor tiles to extend the playing area even further. Be warned, you would need a very large table to fit everything on! A full colour rulebook and loads of counters of allies, enemies and terrain items rounded out the set. Let's take a closer look at the figures.

Here they all are arranged in alphabetical order from left to right - Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. The sculpting of these figures is superb and I love their poses. The paintwork is perfectly acceptable to me so I won't be repainting them. For their Heroclix stats they each have six clicks of powers before they become KO'd. Their powers change after 3 clicks and most of them have two powers for each stat. All four Turtles have the Swim ability, so they can freely move through water terrain squares.

Donatello has Range 2. For his Speed he has Leap/Climb 6 followed by Sidestep 6. For his Attack he has Quake 10 followed by no power 9. For his Defence he has Willpower 17 followed by Energy Shield/Deflection 17. His Damage is Outwit 1 followed by Support 2.
Leonardo has Range 0. For his Speed he has Charge 6 followed by Sidestep 6. For his Attack he has Precision Strike 10 followed by Blades/Claws/Fangs 10. For his Defence he has Combat reflexes 16 followed by Willpower 17. His Damage is Leadership 2 followed by Empower 1.
Michelangelo has Range 0. For his Speed he has Sidestep 6 followed by Charge 6. For his Attack he has Incapacitate 10 followed by no power 9. For his Defence he has Willpower 17 followed by Super Senses 16, His Damage is no power 2 followed by Perplex 1.
Raphael has Range 4. For his Speed he has Flurry 6 followed by Running Shot 6. For his Attack he has no power 9 followed by Penetrating/Psychic Blast 10. For his Defence he has Combat Reflexes 16 followed by Willpower 17. His Damage is Shape Change 2 followed by Exploit Weakness 1.
They are a well rounded and balanced group of Superheroes.

I am certain someone would have asked me to show a size comparison shot to show how they compare with the My Way Miniatures figures. As you can see here with Donatello and Leonardo the Heroclix figures are much taller than my resin cast figures. But note just how thick the new style Heroclix bases are. I am not a fan of these "Oreo" bases and I may well ditch them. The two Donatello figures are very similarly posed. The My Way Miniatures Leonardo is more animated than his Heroclix counterpart and I like him slightly more than his bigger version.

Once again, the size difference is very evident, even allowing for the thickness of the bases. I am undecided which figure of Michelangelo I like best. Both are very good. However, for Raphael, I much prefer the Heroclix version.
Amazon UK still have a couple of the boxed starters sets for sale for £29.99. Here's a link if you're interested - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019NCZZ8W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They are really nice figures. I had planned on buying a load of Greebo Games not-TMNT enemies, especially the Mousers, but they are an Italian based company and now that the UK has left the EU I am very wary of ordering anything from abroad given how poorly the pound  has dropped in value. Let us hope things pick up but I'm not holding my breath.

Vampifan's Superheroes and Supervillains 07

Here is my second batch of superheroes to show you. All three were converted by me and all three appeared in my GURPS Supers campaign. Let's take a closer look at them.

At the far left is Flamin' Jane, the poster girl of the GURPS Supers second edition rulebook. There are more illustrations of her in this supplement than any other hero or villain. She even appeared on the front cover of the book (see below). Sarah Jane Dailey's superpowers kicked in when she reached puberty. Fortunately, her nanny counselled her wisely. She kept them hidden and vowed only to use them to help others. She excelled at high school and went to Harvard University where she graduated with a double major in economics and finance. She was immediately hired by a prestigious New York brokerage firm and made a name for herself in no time. Her future secured, she felt it was time to use her abilities to help others. Using her middle name, she adopted a second identity, that of Flamin' Jane. Her super-powered exploits have earned her a favourable reputation with the general public. Her super powers include Body of Fire level:10, Damage Resistance +10, Fireball level:8, Flame Jet level:10, Flight, Neutralise Fire, Smoke level:10 and Super Flight level:2. She cost 850 points. These were her stats for GURPS 3e. I upgraded her stats for GURPS 4e and she ended up costing 1,000 points. To date, she is the only superhero I have upgraded to GURPS 4e. Her figure is a conversion of a Grenadier superhero. I added her cloak and lengthened her hair with Milliput. I really like her, both as a figure and as a character.
Next up is Rising Sun. This superhero made a brief appearance in the Villains & Vigilantes scenario, Search for the Sensei. Jin Ikeuchi is a corporate Vice President at Ikeuchi Scientific, a cutting edge research and development company. Aged 22, he has only recently entered the world of superheroes and meta-villains. He created two gadgets - a jet pack and a pair of laser gauntlets to implement his one and only natural superpower - invulnerability to all crushing damage (bullets, feet, fists, maces, falling pianos, etc.). So his powers for GURPS Supers were easy to create - Invulnerability to Crushing Damage, Gadget - Jet Pack with Flight and Super Flight, and Gadget - Laser gauntlets with Laser level:12. He cost 600 points. His figure is also a conversion of a Grenadier superhero. I added his Laser Gauntlets and Jet Pack.

At the far right is Nightshade, who appeared in the GURPS Warriors supplement as one of the Archer characters. Dwayne Wilson's gym teacher got him interested in archery at an early age. He was a natural and soon began winning tournaments. His little brother, Wade, was frail and was often picked on and bullied at school. Dwayne did his best to protect him but in doing so became the victim of a drive-by shooting. As fate would have it, the bullets missed Dwayne and hit Wade, crippling him. Life went on and Dwayne graduated at the top of his class with an honours degree in engineering. Neither brother forgot the drive-by shooting or the crime that plagued their inner-city community. Working together, they created a high tech compound bow with speciality arrows and a special suit of black armour. Dwayne now tries to stem the rising tide of crime in Los Angeles as Nightshade. He has no super powers or mutant abilities. All of his super powers come from the suit of body armour he wears and from the specially crafted arrows he fires from his bow. There is one interesting trivia fact I want to share with you about Nightshade. In one scenario he witnessed Gothique (see last post) in action and immediately fell in love with her. Unbeknownst to Gothique, she has a secret admirer. He cost 600 points. His figure is a conversion of the Marvel Heroclix Avengers hero, Hawkeye.
The three portraits below were drawn and coloured by me. I drew them to specifically match the poses of their miniatures and I'm especially pleased with the results.

Flamin' Jane, Nightshade and Rising Sun

Flamin' Jane in action on the front cover of the GURPS Supers rulebook.

Vampifan's Superheroes and Supervillains 06

Up to now, in this series of posts I have concentrated on various supervillains I made and converted for my GURPS Supers and Villains & Vigilantes campaigns. Now it is time to redress the balance and show you some of my superhero figures. I start with the trio of superheroes who formed the player character team in my GURPS Supers campaign which I ran in 2003 and 2004. My good friend, Dave, was almost as big a fan of Marvel Comics' Wolverine as I was of Vampirella. He wanted to play the X-Men mutant and together we worked out his stats for my campaign. Rob, whom I've known since the early 1980's, came up with a character called Gothique, who originally appeared in the Warmachine steampunk war-game produced by Privateer Press. I also took part as a player in my campaign as well as being games master. I simply had to play Vampirella. I left most of the decision making to Dave and Rob and mainly just helped out in combat situations. It is interesting that all three superheroes probably work best as loners but in my campaign they bonded well and made a very effective team. Let's take a closer look at them.

Aeryn Gothique was born in the kingdom of Cygnar, one of four major warring states that made up the Iron Kingdoms. As a Dark Elf, she was trained in the art of war from an early age. She excelled at combat and quickly rose to a rank of major prominence within her clan. Her world was a mixture of science and magic containing high tech battle-gear that became rarer as the long wars dragged on for centuries. It was whilst on a solo mission on the remote island fortress of Dragon Lord Toruk, leader of the Kingdom of Cryx that she met her match. A powerful necromancer whom she was supposed to assassinate, defeated her by opening a portal to another dimension and banishing her there. That dimension was Earth in the year 2003. She knew enough to elude capture from the authorities and was able to study this new world and its inhabitants from deep cover. She was intrigued to learn that super-powered individuals like her existed, although very few were friendly. She made a vow to continue her crusade against the Forces of Darkness and hopefully find a way back to her home dimension. She possesses very few super powers (Extra Fatigue +7, Extra Hit Points +7, Higher Technology +2 (i.e. TL:10), Increased Speed +4 and Magical Aptitude level:1) but she does have a wide range of combat advantages and skills. She also knows 30 magic spells. She cost 1,400 points. Her figure is a conversion of the DC Heroclix figure of Huntress. I replaced her twin mini crossbows with a compound crossbow and a long sword. Both weapons came from a boxed set of Games Workshop plastic Dark Elf Warriors. The figure is a good match to her illustration.
Vampirella is no ordinary vampire. She is the daughter of Lilith, the first vampire to roam the earth. She thought she was born on the planet of Drakulon, but later learned that Drakulon was a realm of Hell. In her quest to discover her true origins, Vampirella discovered that she was the first of a new breed of vampire, evolved for the new millennium. After many adventures Vampirella was killed by Mistress Nyx but Lilith resurrected her. Vampirella knew that she had to rid the world of all other vampires and demons to win some redemption for her mother and possibly for herself. She is without any of the traditional weaknesses of vampires - immune to garlic, sunlight, religious items or even holy water. She does possess supernatural strength, speed and ferocity but her greatest power lies in her iconic beauty and irresistible sensuality. For GURPS Supers I gave her Bite and Claws, Enhanced Strength 50, Extra Hit Points +10, Flight and Super Flight, Increased Speed +8, Regeneration, Regrowth and Vampiric Immortality and Invulnerability. She cost 2,000 points. For my figure of Vampirella I chose this sculpt of her by Blood Moon Miniatures. Sadly, this figure is now out of production. It is my favourite miniature of my favourite superheroine. She just oozes sex appeal.

Wolverine is one of Marvel Comics most iconic and popular superheroes and his background is well documented. Little is known of his past save that he was born James Howlett in Alberta, Canada in the 19th century. He left home after killing his father's murdered and took the name, Logan. He fought in both World Wars and spent much time in China and Japan where he learnt many martial arts. After WW2, he was recruited by the CIA as part of their Project X operation. It was here that his skeleton was bonded with an indestructible material called Adamantium. He rebelled and slaughtered almost everyone in the secret complex before escaping. Soon after he was recruited by Professor Xavier into the X-Men. Between his mutant powers, Weapon X modifications and his years of experience, Wolverine is one of the deadliest warriors the world has ever seen. On each hand, Wolverine has a set of three retractable Adamantium claws, able to slice through almost anything. His accelerated healing factor lets him survive damage that would kill most others, although it doesn't prevent him from feeling pain. He is not indestructible. If the injuries are extensive enough, especially if they result in the loss of vital organs, large amounts of blood, oxygen deprivation and/or loss of physical form, he can die. Dave and I came up with the following super powers for him - Alertness +11, Bionic Reconstruction, Breath Holding level:4, Claws (Retractable), Discriminatory Sense of Smell, Extra Hit Points +5, Increased Speed +3, Metabolism Control level:3, Passive Defence 4, Psionic Resistance level:6, Regeneration, Regrowth and Silence level:5. He cost 2,000 points, the same as Vampirella. His figure is based on a Marvel Heroclix figure of Wolverine. I repainted him as Dave wanted him in this ochre and dark brown costume.
The picture below shows the portraits I used on my GURPS Supers character record sheets. The portrait of Gothique was given to me by Rob. He had photocopied it from either the Warmachine rulebook or one of its supplements. I digitally coloured it. It would have been helpful if he also supplied me with her background and biography but Rob was always an apathetic bugger and so he left me to create her background. Lazy sod! My portrait of Vampirella is based on a photo of a 6" action figure by Moore Collectibles of her that I own. Dave had a 10" tall statue of Wolverine and his portrait is taken from the box art of that statue. 

Gothique, Vampirella and Wolverine

Vampifan's Superheroes and Supervillains 05

This team of five supervillains that I want to show are known as the Fraternity. They originally appeared in the Supervisor's Kit supplement for the old Golden Heroes role-playing game from the 1980's. My figures of them are all conversions of DC and Marvel Heroclix figures. I also converted their stats so that I could use them in my GURPS Supers campaign. What I particularly like about this team is that they all wear the same uniform. This is something you rarely see nowadays. The X-Men used to wear identical costumes when they first appeared in Marvel comics when their line-up consisted of Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Marvel Girl. The Fantastic Four have always worn the same costumes, but I'm struggling to think of any other supergroup who wear identical looking costumes.

I start off at the far left with Fanatic. John Lamb aka Fanatic, is a member of the Fraternity, a group of scientists who have decided to use their knowledge and specially developed abilities to amass power and wealth. Lamb developed a drug which enhanced his body's natural strength to its maximum. However it was not without side effects. The most obvious being he grew in size to 8.5 feet. He also suffers from a berserk rage and bloodlust when in combat. I gave him the following super powers in GURPS Supers - Damage Resistance 20, Enhanced Strength 400, Extra Hit Points +32, Increased Speed level:4, Passive Defence 4 and Regeneration. He cost 1,500 points and was considerably more powerful then his Golden Heroes version. To be honest, all of these supervillains were underpowered in Golden Heroes. I boosted their stats a lot. I wish I could remember what figure I used to convert into Fanatic but my mind is drawing a blank. I know he is a conversion because I recognise that I sculpted his head. The rest of him is too professional to have been fully sculpted by me.
Next up is Firebrand, the leader of the Fraternity. Arthur Firne led a very mundane childhood. He scraped through high school, lived in one of the slum areas of Los Angeles, and eked out a meagre living doing dead end jobs. His life changed forever on his 20th birthday. Some mutant gene kicked in and turned him into a fire-wielding meta-human with genius level intellect. As his powers grew, so did his ego. He believed he was destined for greatness and so sought out partners to share his plans for world domination. He only wanted the very brainiest, so he frequented the bars and lecture halls of UCLA hoping to find a group of followers worthy of his ideals. Four disenchanted students met his requirements and were only too glad to partner him. And thus, the Fraternity was born. Firebrand's super powers for GURPS are Body of Fire, Control Fire, Enhanced Strength 25, Extra Hit Points +4, Fireball level:12. Flame Jet level:12, High Technology +2 (i.e. TL:10), Increased Speed +3 and Neutralise Fire. His IQ score is 19, compared to 18 for Freebird and 17 for the other Fraternity members. 10 is the human average. He cost 1,800 points. His figure is a conversion of the Marvel Heroclix supervillain, Pyro. Please don't tell me that I painted his flames wrong. I now know that flames should go from light to dark. I didn't back then when I painted him.
Third in line is Fistfighter. Alan Hampshire is a brilliant electronics engineer, a skilled athlete and a lethal fighter, specialising in the martial arts discipline of Mu Tau. He is a keep-fit fanatic and is interested in all sports. But, he is callous, greedy, holds grudges and despises all smokers. As his name suggests, he prefers punching his opponents to kicking them. For my GURPS Supers  campaign I gave him the super powers of Damage Resistance 9, Enhanced Strength 80, Extra Hit Points +20, Increased Speed +3, Passive Defence 3 and Regeneration. He cost 1,200 points. His figure is a conversion of the DC Heroclix supervillain, Bane.

Second from right is Fleetfoot. William James studied medicine at UCLA. When he joined the Fraternity, he collaborated with John Lamb (Fanatic) to produce the enhancement drug which granted Fanatic his powers. Seeing the effect that the drug had on fanatic, he carried out further research and perfected a version which would increase the speed at which his body could operate without causing mental side effects. Fleetfoot revels in his powers. He is obnoxious in battle, delighting in his foe's pain and taunting unceasingly. I gave him the GURPS Supers powers of Increased Speed +12, Passive Defence 2, Super Jumping level:3 and Super Running level:4. He cost 1,100 points. For his miniature I converted a Marvel Heroclix superhero of Quicksilver.
Finally, is Freebird, who is in love with Arthur Firne (Firebrand). Jean Walsh worked closely with the other Fraternity members to develop her own super powers. She is a skilled mechanic and her role in the Fraternity is to provide reconnaissance and extra manoeuvrability. She dislikes combat, despite having a black belt in Shorinji Kempo, and believes that the Fraternity's goals can be achieved without violence. If she is struck, however, she will spare no effort to humiliate her attackers. Her super powers include Flight, Increased Speed +4, Passive Defence 2, Super Flight level:3 and Telepathy level:10. She cost 1,000 points, making her the weakest member of the Fraternity but still double the points cost of a starting superhero. Her figure is a conversion of the DC Heroclix superhero, Saturn Girl.
When I started my GURPS Supers campaign in the early 2000's, the Fraternity were the first group of supervillains my hero team went up against. I've shown a fair few of my supervillains in these past posts but next time I will turn my attention to my superheroes, starting with my own team from my GURPS Supers campaign controlled by myself and my two regular gamers. Two of the superheroes will be familiar to you but one won't be.
The illustrations shown below were scanned in to my computer from their Golden Heroes stat cards and then digitally coloured by me.

Fanatic, Firebrand and Fistfighter

Fleetfoot and Freebird

Vampifan's Superheroes and Supervillains 03

Here are three more supervillains that I made and converted many years ago. These are all loners but any one of them would be an ideal recruit for the Yamaguchi Yakuza clan that I reviewed last time. When I converted the Villains and Vigilantes scenario, Search for the Sensei, to GURPS Supers I added all three to the Yamaguchi Yakuza to give my player characters a greater challenge. Despite the extra manpower the villains were still defeated!

At the far left of this group is Mount Fuji, a supervillain from the GURPS Supers 3rd edition supplement. Tashiro Yamato is a disgraced Sumo wrestler who has become a ronin, a renegade samurai serving no master. He is a Robin Hood type - to some a hero, to others a villain. He is wanted by the police and a mid-level Japanese Yakuza gang (not the Yamaguchi Yakuza, who are much more high-powered and are quite willing to recruit meta-humans). His super powers in GURPS Supers are Enhanced Strength:190, Damage Resistance:50 and Increased Density level:8. He cost 600 points. He weighs 1,100lbs and yet one of his Quirks is that he thinks he is too thin! I sculpted Mount Fuji out of Milliput. If I was making him today, I'd probably convert him from the Marvel Heroclix figure of the Blob. He is meant to be rather squat looking, hence his lack of height.
Standing next to him is Predator, one of the supervillains featured in the GURPS Super Scum supplement. During the 1920's Archer Hayes led a band of mercenaries on raids along the northern coast of Japan. On his last raid he entered a village temple and found an unusual golden opal. A priest warned him the stone was cursed, the curse being everlasting life. Archer took it anyway and when the temple suddenly exploded he was surprised to find he had not only survived but that his body had changed, leaving him stronger and more agile. A group of ninjas, the Nimba Cult, heard of him and recruited him. He learnt faster than any other recruit and was sent on a mission to assassinate the British ambassador's daughter. But when it came to the actual kill he found he could not stomach such a senseless death. He fled to America and found work as a stuntman in Hollywood. He survived numerous assassination attempts by the Nimba Cult and was forced to move constantly. As the years passed he grew bored. Life held no excitement for him. He never aged and he soon realised that eternal life was a curse. Now he will accept any challenge if it has the possibility of being fatal. In GURPS Super Scum the characters can be one of three power levels - low, medium or high. I chose the high 1000 point option for my Predator. His super powers are Clinging, Damage Resistance:20, Enhanced Strength:60, Full Co-ordination level:2, Infravision, Regeneration and Unaging. Once again, I sculpted the figure myself. His katana and wakizashi came from Dixon's Miniatures who sell samurai weapons separately. The wakizashi is just a katana I bought with its blade shortened. I cut it down to an appropriate length. I think he is one of my better sculpts.

At the far right is Python, the first figure whom I converted from the Golden Heroes role-playing game. I never played Golden Heroes, but I did find it a handy sourcebook for converting some of its characters to GURPS Supers. Mai Lee Noh paid a scientist to develop a serum to bestow upon her the abilities of a python to help her become a Grand Master of the Bando style of Kung Fu. It was partially successful, granting her great strength, fast reactions and a scaly skin, but she was still defeated by the current Bando Grand Master and was forced to flee China in disgrace. She has since made a small fortune hiring her skills to the highest bidder and has built up a good reputation in her work and will do anything to keep her reputation intact. She is a cold, calculating crook, who only gives up if the defeat can somehow be turned into a moral victory. For GURPS Supers I gave her the following super powers - Enhanced Strength:30, Increased Speed level:3 and Passive Defence:2. She also has very high Skill levels in Judo and Karate, specialising in the Bando style of Kung Fu. She cost 800 points. Her figure is a conversion of the Marvel Heroclix Psylocke from the X-Men. I made her in 2003, a year after the launch of Heroclix.
I leave you with illustrations of these three supervillains. They were all scanned into my computer from their respective sourcebooks but I digitally coloured them.

Mount Fuji

Predator and Python

Blog News. I would heartily recommend you check out the Gamers Cupboard blog if you want to see what a Chibi version of Vampifan looks like! Even if you don't like Chibis it's still worth a view. Here's the link - http://thegamerscupbard.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/chibi-vampifan-and-chibi-vampirella.html

Vampifan's Views 79 - Monthly Musings 54

Haven't I seen her before?

Another month and another Joe Jusko painting of Vampirella to start my Monthly Musings post. Those of you with good memories may recognise this painting. This is the image used on my life-sized cardboard cut-out of Vampirella that I showed last year. See here.
Of course, with this painting you get to see the complete picture. This is one of my favourite Joe Jusko paintings. It also appears on my 2016 Vampirella calendar that I have hanging next to my computer.

In my hobby news I have got back into Heroclix and Horrorclix in a big way. I played these games a hell of a lot in the early 2000's when they first came out and I collected hundreds of figures for them. When my gaming group broke up, I put them all back on the shelves and pretty much forgot about them. Earlier this month, Steve and Hil, my fellow editors of the All Things Dungeon Crawl blog asked if I had any spare Heroclix or Horrorclix figures lying around as they fancied getting back into both games - Steve with Heroclix and Hil with Horrorclix? Imagine their surprise when I told them that I had loads of figures spare and they could have them all. Hell, they were no good to me; they were just gathering dust. They wanted them, so they got them and now they have a very impressive collection of clix figures for both games. As a result of their enthusiasm I have rediscovered my own love of both games, Now I'm playing solo games and actively looking for new figures. I bought a few new starter sets this month - Captain America: Civil War, Fantastic Four and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, partly for the new figures but also for the rules, as I wanted to know how much the 2016 rules had changed from the original 2002 rules that I was so familiar with. The answer to my surprise, was surprisingly little. A few tweaks here and a few additions there but essentially, they were exactly the same. This was good. The game was just as I remembered, so I had no problem in getting back into it.

When it comes to collecting Heroclix figures or any other kind of clix figures there are basically two schools of thought - keep the figures intact on their bases or remove the figures from their bases to rebase and use in other games. What kind of collector am I? The answer is both. I do cut figures from their clix bases but only if the figure is a swap. Any clix figure that I only have one of, remains a clix figure. This means that I have very few rare, unique and limited edition figures that are rebased because they are much harder to come by. As far as the clix games go I have a massive collection of Marvel, DC and Indy superheroes and villains and almost as many figures for Horrorclix and its three expansion sets. I may do some figure reviews of figures from my collection in the future but I'll leave any other Heroclix/Horrorclix articles or batreps to Steve and Hil to publish on the ATDC blog. You can see the first of their Heroclix/Horrorclix posts here - http://thegamerscupbard.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/by-hilary-gilbert-may-2016-thefirst.html
Note the new address!

Other than those three Heroclix sets I mentioned I haven't bought anything else hobby-related this month. On my painting table at the moment are a batch of Zombicide: Black Plague zombies. I only have a few left to paint to finish them all. I am hoping I can get them all finished before I receive my huge parcel of Black Plague expansion sets, which are due very soon. You can expect a lot of Black Plague posts appearing on my blog over the next few months.

My other hobby news is that I am just starting work on Jez/Carrion Crow's Forgotten Heroes project, which is due to launch in June. I'll have a few figures to show for that, so keep an eye open for my entries next month. As for what's coming next on the Vampifan blog, fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should rejoice. I have my TMNT allies and villains to review.

Heroclix SWAT Troopers

I was going to review some West Wind SWAT troopers today but I've decided to keep them for a later date (although not too late) and instead have a look at my Heroclix 35mm scale SWAT troopers. Way back in the past when Heroclix was in its infancy their sets contained superheroes, supervillains and non-super types, like cops, criminals, ninjas, etc. The figures I'm reviewing today come from the first couple of Heroclix sets that were released.

Only one of these figures is not a conversion, and he's the trooper at the far left of my two photos above. He is dramatically posed, leaning back as he fires his 5.56mm Colt M16A2 Assault Rifle from the shoulder. This rifle is standard issue with the Washington DC Emergency Response Team (ERT). In addition to normal SWAT operations, the ERT assists U.S. Secret Service with presidential and VIP functions and transportation, including crowd control. Assuming he is an ERT operative, his pistol would be a 9mm SIG-Sauer P226.

Trooper 2 has had a leg and body swap with trooper 5. In every other respect he is identical to Trooper 1, although I have painted him as an African-American.

Trooper 3 was originally armed with a Big Ass Pistol in his left hand. I decided to cut it off and give him a large entry shield, which are much bigger and more robust than riot shields. I remodelled his left arm with Milliput modelling putty. His entry shield is a spare one that I got from Foundry Figures. Foundry always include spare small items with their Street Violence blister packs, like guns, shields, traffic cones, chainsaws, etc. With the amount of Street Violence packs that I bought, I soon amassed a nice collection of parts for my bits box. Every modeller needs at least one bits box! The grenade that this trooper is about to throw could be a Flash-Bang Grenade, Smoke Grenade or a Tear Gas Grenade. It most definitely won't be a High Explosive Grenade!

Trooper 4 utilises the legs from Trooper 1 and the body from Trooper 5. The sculptor had given him a riot shield, which I did not like, so I replaced it with one of my Foundry entry shields. This means that all of my shield carrying SWAT Troopers are identically equipped.  He is wielding his baton aggressively over his head. I also painted him as an African-American to further distinguish him from Trooper 5. Note that because of the leg swap, I was unable to save his sniper's rifle, slung across his back, so that got cut off.

The only conversion that I made to Trooper 5 was to replace his riot shield with a Foundry entry shield. His sniper's rifle is the 7.62mm Remington 700 and you can see it slung across his back, out of the way, as he wades in with baton and shield.

These are quite dramatically posed. They certainly are heroically scaled, (they stand about 33mm tall measuring from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads) which will put some of you off them. However, scale-wise, they do fit in well with the RAFM SWAT Team and with the Foundry SWAT Teams. I like tham a lot and I do like the idea of having enough troopers to form a four man team of shield carrying troopers. The fourth person in this team appears in the Foundry SWAT Team Suppression set (Trooper Harris). 

Sadly, these figures are now long out of production but they may crop on the likes of e-Bay or other online auction sites. Good luck on hunting them down if you really want them.