Warlord Krong

While in the middle of painting up some Orlocks (well, beginning to paint up half of them, anyway), I thought that I'd put up a pic of my take on the great (and massive) Warlord Krong! A great Jack Kirby inspired extraterrestrial conqueror. Just one of the many miniatures that makes the Superfigs line (in my opinion, anyway) one of the most unique and characterful lines of Superhero figures.

I decided to go with a fairly monochromatic color scheme, with cooler, blue-ish tones. I also tried to go for more of a higher contrast look than I normally do, hopefully adding to the impact of the overall figure.

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Superfigs!

The latest Superfig that I've completed painting is none other than Ape Austin! I went for a pretty standard color scheme on this one - easy and effective. A great character, and a great Bob Naismith sculpt! Man - that line has a lot of great and characterful miniatures.

I'm still working on those Wookies (procrastinating on the metal areas), and have started the Orlocks. I'm just really slow, and a lot of times I see a fig that's been sitting half-done on my table for what seems like an eternity (i.e., Ape Austin), and I finally finish the damn thing!

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15mm Super Apes!!!

I used to dabble in sculpting, and a few years ago, I sculpted up a 15mm ape. I showed it to Scott - he liked it, and asked me if I could sculpt up a couple others. I did, and here is the result. I tried to make each one a little different from the other, and gave them each a similar belt to hopefully tie them all together, and make them look more "comic book like," if you will. One also got power gloves (the Orangutan). I finally got around to basing them (they've been patined for quite awhile now). The figures were actually produced as masters, but never made it into production. If only Julius Schwartz was still around...

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Rising like a Phoenix (or a zombie…)

Hey all! No, it's not Scott - it's his buddy Jan (posting as "Skip"), carrying on the hi-jacking of this site (with Scott's approval, of course). I always enjoyed reading Scott's posts, and think that it would be nice to at least keep the spirit of this blog alive. I plan on posting at least once per week, and will focus on miniatures. I've recently begun painting mini's again after about a three-year hiatus (more or less). I've got some cool things in the can already, and lots of projects in the pipeline.

I'll start off with some previously painted Superfigs (my two favorites): Ape Ace! and The Battlin' Belgian!

Hope you like them!

Skip

SuperFigs: Grannok-5

When I was in Chicago a few weeks back I hung out with my buddy, Jan (known as "Skip" in our comments section). Jan showed me his painting area, and I was wowed when I saw his version of Grannok-5, one of my top 5 favorite SuperFigs.

Jan was kind enough to send me a couple of pics of the finished version to share with folks here.





A talented artist across several mediums, Jan possesses a masterful eye for color, as evidenced with this paint job. Makes me want to bust out my own Grannok-5 and run some SuperSystem!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

A Note On The Old SuperFigs Site

Just a quick note to let folks know that I have stopped supporting the old SuperFigs (fourcolorfigs.com) site.

I never did sell product there, and I did not regularly update it or add new content to it. I simply decided that continuing to pay the hosting and domain fees was not in my best interest. All of the images of the SuperFigs from that site, and more, still reside on the Old Glory 25's web site. There's a perpetual link to this in the Shameless Commerce section of this blog in the left corner.

Content and support for the SuperSystem game can always be found at David Lewis' excellent SuperSystem Annex, and on the SuperFigs Yahoo Group. I'll add links for these to the Favorite Links section on the sidebar.

If we do get some new SuperFigs made, I'll announce it here, and interested parties can go there to purchase them.

Thanks!

--Scott

SuperFigs: Chrononaut!

I've got a number of unreleased SuperFigs in the hopper, most of which I've shown off on this blog over the last couple years, but this weekend I painted another one that I had never shown before. He's a very slick conversion from one of our existing alien henchman miniatures, and I call him the Chrononaut!







This guy's name is Gulg, he's Chrononaut 717A, an operative of the 36th Century's Time Agency. Their job? Make sure no one from the past mucks with the flow of time. Using his Chrono-staff and the other gadgets in his power armor, Chrononaut 717A has traveled back to Four-Color Earth to make certain that Mr. Cranium does not complete his latest device: a time-convergence apparatus!

Here's a few comp shots of Chrononaut and a couple of the heroes he'll team up with:



The Golem is no stranger to the passage of time, although as a virtual immortal he's taken the "slow path" from his time as a hero of WWII to the current era.



Lucky Strike's fortune altering powers make him an ideal companion to the super-scientific Chrononaut.

At this point, Chrononaut and the other unreleased SuperFigs only exist in master form and I am uncertain if and when we will ever make production molds for them. If you'll pardon the pun, time will tell.

As always, thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Off The Shelf: SuperFigs!

Man, I have painted a lot of SuperFigs over the years. I though it might be fun to show some more off here on the blog.

Today we have shots of Karthoum and the normal sized version of the Fission, one of our shrinker packs.









Designed by the amazing Thomas Scioli, Karthoum possesses that unmistakable Jack Kirby vibe. He's also larger than the average SuperFig, as you can see in the comp shots above.

The robotic Fission (seen above with Karthoum) was designed by my friend Jan Anarella, and he has a really classic Marvel silver age feel. The idea behind him is that when he shrinks he splits into two smaller versions of himself.

I have never got around to painting the two shrunken versions in this red scheme.

I'll use this feature to show off more SuperFigs in the future!

--Scott

SuperFigs Conversion: Draco!

My Sky has come up with a dynamite conversion on his Steel City Supers blog.

Here's a pic of Draco:



Great use of bits from the entire line!

Thanks, Sky!

--Scott

Steel City Supers Blog Debuts!

My good buddy Sky Hernstrom has debuted his new SuperFig-centric blog today. It's aptly named Steel City Supers!

Here's just a sample of the dynamite paint and conversion work you'll see there:



Sky is a real craftsman when it comes to the hobby, and his sense of color and blending skills are second to none, IMHO. I've added his blog address as a link to the favorites on the side of this site, so you'll know where to go when you want to pay him a visit.

Thanks, Sky! Keep up the great work!

--Scott

The Baron's Blog

I wanted to share some of the great model work and game posts Baronvonj is showing off on his blog.

His series of Basement Cons is tremendous viewing fun--wish I lived in the Baron's neighborhood!

Here's a shot of one of his recent SuperSystem battles:



As you can see, the Baron is not mucking around!

Great and inspiring stuff!

--Scott

Painted SuperFigs Surprise!

Every now and then a SuperFigs customer will send me some pics of his painted stuff. This past week Stephen Scothern sent me a link to some of his first painted SuperFigs, and I had to show them off here. Very nice work!



Here's an awesome close-up of that impressive-looking Megladon paint job:



I love Stephen's basing scheme and his use of paper terrain. We're seeing more and more paper terrain show up in SuperSystem battle reports, and the stuff looks just amazing! Paper modeling is like a hobby unto itself, and I highly recommend the stuff made by Mel Ebbles.

--Scott

SuperFigs: Megladon

I had to share this image of of our SuperFigs Megladon figure. He was expertly painted by ace layout man Karl Perrotton.



Clean and nicely detailed paint job! Good show, Karl!

--Scott

The Robber Band: Snap-Black!

Time to meet another member of the Robber Band! This time it's 1970's throwback Snap-Black!

This figure is based off of the Polymer stretching figure from the SuperFigs line. A while back I had his right arm re-sculpted by my buddy Jan. I wanted it to be more obvious that he did indeed possess stretching powers. Not sure we'll ever release the re-done version, as it's not much of a change, but I really like him a lot!









Snap-Black
Affiliation: The Robber Band
BP: 85
AP: 11
Attributes
Strength 5 Agility 9[2] Mind 2 Resolve 4
Powers/Character Mods
Elasticity
Melee Attack x 2
--Super x 1
Mind Shield x 2
Reflection (Close Combat)
Super-Agility x 2
Super Leap
Vitality: 9

Time traveler from the 1970's Louis Wilkins once possessed the uncanny ability to find and enter small worm holes in the fabric of reality. This ability lead him to the current era. He only intended to stay for a brief visit, but when he arrived he became caught up in a heated super-battle between the Hunter and Daddy Wrong-Legs. Not able to dodge in time, Wilkins was struck by some debris from an attack meant for Hunter. The severe blow to the head not only unhinged Wilkins, but robbed him of his time-traveling powers!

Distraught, angry, and seeking revenge, Wilkins eventually tracked down Daddy Wrong-Legs and Long Connie with the intent to attack them. But Long Connie's silver tongue convinced the now delusional Wilkins that his true enemy was the Hunter, and heroes like him! Then Daddy Wrong-Legs applied the Agent-X resin to Wilkins, and he was transformed into the third member of the Robber Band. In addition to basic super-stretching powers, Wilkins gained the ability to use his elastic form to turn foes' punches and kicks back on them. Because of this, and to honor his 1970's era origins, he took the name Snap-Black!

Both Daddy Wrong-Legs and Long Connie don't know how long the effects of Wilkins' injury, or Connie's conditioning, will last. They watch their comrade closely, but in the meantime they rely on his amazing elusiveness to confound their enemies in battle.


--Scott

The Robber Band: Long-Connie

Here's the second member of the Robber Band, Long-Connie!










Long-Connie
Affiliation: The Robber Band
BP: 85
AP: 12
Attributes
Strength 3 Agility 5 Mind 6[1] Resolve 4
Powers/Character Mods
Armor x 3
--Super x 1
Banter x 3
Elasticity
--Parachute
Flare (Mind-based)
Mental Acuity x 2
Super-Mind x 1
Vitality: 7


Sarah Cohen was a low-level meta-human who used her abilities to befuddle victims and swindle them out of their life's savings. She eventually attempted a few bank jobs where her dazzling voice earned her some quick cash, but her lack of physical gifts made her easy prey for the heroic Tarantula and Mindhawk of the Defenders-5. After her second stint behind bars, she swore she would never engage in super-crime again. Then she met Daddy Wrong-Legs and fell instantly in love.

It didn't take the smooth-talking stretcher long to convince Cohen that his amazing, mutating resin could make her tough and elusive enough to embark on a new life of crime. True to his word, the miraculous resin Agent-S transformed Cohen and she became Long-Connie! Now her hypnotically powerful voice and gift for gab were enhanced by increased resistant to harm super-pliability. She became one of the founding members of the Robber Band, and went on to help Wrong-Legs recruit the rest of the team.

--Scott

Nobody Asked Me, But...

Just some random musings to place a bow on this past week's gaming activity (or inactivity, as the case may be.)

• Put the finishing touches on some Merc painting for a very nice fellow named Nick B. I don't normally paint for people any more, but he wanted a bunch of Orks as a Christmas present for some family members, so I cranked out a nifty little 40K army for him. No pics. They look a lot like my own Orks, but with blue accents instead of red.
  
• Work continues apace on the company-level 15mm sci-fi rules I am working on. Also got to see some pics of the first greens and they look very nice. Can't share them as of yet, but I think many 15mm sci-fi fans will applaud another source of great infantry.
  
• Did I mention we'll be doing some walkers, too? Well now I am mentioning it. I'll have a gander at the first batch of those this coming week. They'll be a mix of resin bodies with metal legs and arm-based weapon mounts. No hands or obvious close combat weapons on these guys, and they should be low-slung affairs, with low centers of gravity. We'll see!
• SuperFigs and SuperSystem maven Charles Hiber (the man who created the Glock-Roach!) is planning an early 2010 SuperSystem 3rd ed. campaign at my local FLGS, Phantom of the Attic, here in Pittsburgh. I think I am going to run a villainous, all stretchy team I'll be calling the Robber Band. The 5 figures I plan to use are: Elasti-Ape, Elasti-Woman, Stretcharm, one of the Plasti-Men, and Reaper's awesome Chronoscope super, Blubbery Rand . I already have a nicely painted "alternate" Elasti-Ape ready to go. The other 4 I will paint anew, with new color schemes and such. Making a team of all stretching characters has long been an idea of mine. I'll post pics as I paint them up!
• My lovely wife, JoAnn, has caught the superhero bug and teamed up with my buddy Rico's wife, Carrie, to make Kiddy Kapes! These awesome, original creations can be seen and purchased online at their Etsy Store. I'm really proud of JoAnn, and she's done an amazing job on these awesome capes! Perfect for holiday gift-giving. Note: Kiddy Kapes do not actually convey the ability of flight.
  

That's all I've got for now. I will try to post some miniature pics this weekend.

--Scott

SuperSystem Layout Update

I've seen most of the pages for the layout of SuperSystem 3rd ed. and I am very excited! Dan the layout man is really doing an excellent job, and I think folks will be quite pleased.

In the meantime, I am churning away the revisions on the official SuperFig characters for the game. As I have said, that will be released as a separate PDF, and soon after David Lewis will have them up on his character generator at the SuperSystem Annex.

It's looking good for a mid-November release!

Also, work has resumed (albeit slowly) on the molds for the new SuperFigs. We may see them by year's end. Not sure yet. I think what will happen in 2010-2011 is that we may move toward releasing a bunch of SuperFigs in 15mm. This could be a mix of 15mm versions of existing figures and entirely 15mm SuperFigs. We'll see. It's early yet and things could fall through.

--Scott

Tom Scioli On-Board for SuperSystem 3rd ed.!

I am very fortunate to live in a city (Pittsburgh) that is home to some great professional comic book artists. One of my favorites is Tom Scioli. Tom did the designs for our Alien Host models a while back when we released Invasion, and he has graciously given me permission to re-use his artwork in the new edition of SuperSystem. Even more exciting, he's agreed to do a new piece for 3rd edition! When he asked me what I wanted, I told him to draw Karthoum knocking one of our other characters out!

Can't wait to see the results!

Scott

SuperSystem Archetypes: "I'll take one from column A, and one from Column B"

Previous editions of SuperSystem have included long lists of our official super teams specifically designed to go with our huge line of SuperFigs models. This time around for 3rd ed. we're going to release the SuperFig write-ups in a separate, and free, PDF. The space we save will be dedicated to other cool stuff, including customizable archetypes of the major super characters encountered in comics. So we'll have the base archetype, and a number of options players can pick to customize it, sort of like ordering from a Chinese menu. We intend to include archetypes for the Blaster, Brawler, Mentalist, Speedster, and of course, the Brick:

BP: 66 + package options
AP: 6
Attributes
Strength 7[2] Agility 4 Mind 2 Resolve 4
Powers
Combat Prowess x 2 (Super x 1)
Iron Will x 1
Knockback Resistance x 3
Super-Strength x 2
Vitality: 11

Core Packages (+14 pts.)
Tough
--+2D Strength
--+1 Level Super-Strength
--+2 Extra Vitality

Big
--Growth x 2
--Massive x 1

Dense
--Density Increase
--Immovable x 2

Miscellaneous Packages (+5 pts.)
The Angry Brick
--add the Berserker power
--add the Rage special effect to Super-Strength

The Bouncing Brick
--add Super Leap
--subtract 1 level of Knockback Resistance

The Clever Brick
--add +2D to Mind
--add Enhanced Senses x 1

The Fast Brick
--add Extra Movement x 5

The Perceptive Brick
--add Enhanced Senses x 5

The Rhino Brick
--add Extra Movement x 10 (Charge only)

The Unkillable Brick
--add Regeneration


So the player gets to make one selection from the Core package and one from the Miscellaneous package.

We're doing some play-testing this weekend, and more in the weeks ahead. I hope to have the game out before the end of the year.

Scott

New SuperFigs Delayed

It pains me to report that we'll have to delay the release of the new SuperFig codes until sometime next year. The harsh realities of the bad economy are limiting our ability to get the final master and production molds made in a timely fashion. If anything changes on this front, I'll let folks know via the blog.

At the risk of sounding desperate, I will say that one of the best ways to insure that we make the new figures a reality is to buy from the existing line. So if you've got some money budgeted for miniature purchases, do consider investing in some SuperFigs. In the meantime, I am working on SuperSystem 3rd ed., and that will hopefully see the light of day by the end of this year.

On a cheerier note, I picked up some of the new AE-Bounty miniatures from Darkson Designs, and they are great! I hope to get them painted soon and show them off here. The game looks to be pretty solid as well, as a friend of mine demoed it at Gen Con.

As always, thanks for reading and following along!

Scott