New SuperFig Codes Released in Late August 2009

Here's the list of codes and prices:

ZD 1 Mono-Bots (5 multi-part figures) $12.00
ZD 2 Dark Man $3.95
ZD 3 Robot Agent $3.95
ZD 4 Yeti Agent $3.95
ZD 5 Eel $3.95
ZD 6 Star-Krong $7.95
ZD 7 Major Meteor $3.95
ZD 8 Ape-Ace $3.95
ZD 9 Mazon $3.95
ZD 10 Crossbow $3.95
ZD 11 Blue Monk $3.95
ZD 12 Leo-IX $3.95
ZD 13 The Pride (5 figures) $12.00
ZD 14 Ferax $7.95

I've previewed a few of these in past posts, and we'll show off some more as we get them painted and photographed. Look for them in late August, early September at the latest.

Scott

Tau and Kroot Update

In addition to working on some SuperFigs related stuff this week, I managed to crank out my Tau command battlesuit that I recently got from Forge World. Because of a miscast and packing error, I ended up using the stock Crisis legs for my suit, but the other FW pieces look great and will give my commander a unique look on the tabletop. All weapon and equipment mounts have been magnetized to allow for swap-outs based on the opponent. I used rare earth magnets to do this.








And my mad dalliance with the Kroot continues (slowly). I painted two more carnivores this week and thought I'd snap a few closer pics to give a better idea of my paint scheme:










I'll have a relatively news-worthy SuperFigs announcement in the next few days. Thanks for reading!

Scott

Behold The Pride!

Here's a shot of the pre-production versions of the Pride, our lion men for SuperFigs. They should be arrving for molding this week. I'll try to get pics of some painted ones up soon after. The plan is do a standard 5-model henchmen pack. So we'll repeat the halberd and pistol poses, and make the sword-wielding model unique in the pack. Pack will retail for between $10 - $12. Leo-IX will be sold separately for $3.95. I'll do some SuperSystem write-ups for these guys and Leo-IX.

Scott

Nobody Asked Me, But...

I decided the above will be a title of a post whenever I just want to lump some random stuff together in one go. So here goes:

• The Lion Men (aka the Pride) are done! Bob Naismith sent me final images of the figures, I approved them, and they are winging their way to Old Glory for casting. When I have some masters cast up in two weeks or so, I will post some images. I am leaning toward a late summer 2009 release for the 10-15 codes of SuperFigs I have amassed over the last two years. More previews to come...
• The last two issues of my favorite comic book, Guardians of the Galaxy, have been awesome. Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have taken the cosmic supers deep into the War of Kings storyline, and break-neck action abounds. As a big Imperial Guard fan, it's great to see them in action against the Guardians! After a period of musical fill-in artists, Brad Walker is settling in nicely as the book's new regular penciler. His lines are a bit softer than fan favorite Paul Pelletier's, but the stuff looks great! If Paul and Rick Magyar do not return after the 6-issue War of Kings series, the book is in good hands with Mr. Walker.
• Since I'm mentioning my favorite Marvel space-based supers title, I should also pimp my favorite DC cosmic title, R.E.B.E.L.S. Great stories from Tony Bedard and gorgeous art highlight this "proto-Legion of Super Heroes" in the contemporary DC universe. Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis might have detected my love for rock-based characters, so seeing Strata back in a regular monthly title is awesome!
• The parts fit on GW's Krootox kit is abysmal. I had forgotten just how bad it was. Great model, but really lousy assembly.
• Not a sports blog, but I have to bid a fond farewell from my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates to Nate McClouth. Traded to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects, Nate was my favorite Bucco. On bad Bucs teams Nate was always a tremendous asset, and when he got to play full-time last year he became a sensation. I know he'll perform well for Atlanta, especially with Chipper Jones protecting him in the lineup, but Nate's quote to the media on the trade sums up why this city loved him so dearly: "This was my 10th year in the organization. There were a lot of people I got to know well. And the toughest part, really, is that I wanted to win here. This organization is such a big part of me." Best of luck, Nate! I've never been a Braves fan, but part of me is now.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Scott

The Call of the Kroot

Well, having just "finished" an 1100 pt. Tau force for Warhammer 40K, I now find myself working on another Kroot army. Back in 2003-2004 I built and painted a Kroot Merc force. Now in 5th ed. 40K there are no official rules for this, but there is a nifty fan-made codex that works well enough--as long as you're not fond of winning much!

Below is a shot of my old Kroot force, which I sold a while back to someone in the Pacific Northwest.





I had quite a bit more. My latest Kroot force is in its nascent stages, and will be started with the Carnivores from my Tau army:




Not sure where this will lead me. I may add some Great Gnarlocs from Forge World, or I may just focus on the stuff I can readily get at my FLGS: Kroot Carnivores, Hounds, and Krootox. I may run out of gas on this, but luckily this time I have a co-conspirator, Joe Urban of the Sons of Blight blog. He's agreed to add some Kroot to the pot and combined forces with me. We can lose horribly together!

Scott

WAYWO Returns

Just a quick note to let folks no that my buddy Jeff just released the latest episode of our podcast, What Are You Working On (WAYWO). You can find it here:

http://waywo.podbean.com/

Another note on the contents and one project I was working on as that was recorded. I am no longer working on a Dwarf force (or any force) for GW's War of the Ring. After playing a sample game or two, the rules did not "grab" me. That doesn't mean I think they're bad, but I would rather spend my free gaming time prepping an RPG, working on a WH40K force, or working on SuperFigs/SuperSystem related projects. Who knows, I may circle back to WotR at some point, but not in the near future.

In completely unrelated news, I had a look at the Free RPG Day Rogue Trader: Forsaken Bounty booklet from FFG. It is awesome, and Rogue Trader promises to be every bit as slick and cool as Dark Heresy. The sample characters provided appear to be more powerful than starting characters in DH, with stats about 10% - 15% higher across the board. Starting equipment is also much better. The Rogue Trader himself has a power sword.

Can't wait to snag this book, either when it debuts at Gen Con, or in my FLGS sometime after. Or both!


Scott

40K Role-Play Figures

A while back I promised that I would take some pics of my painted, home-made Wyrd Beastmaster and some of the other 40K role-play figures I have converted over the years. Well, here they are!

This is the Wyrd--super-happy with this guy; hopefully I will one day get to play him as a Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader RPG character:







And here are shots of an Inquisitor I made from the Battle for McCrage boxed set Imperial gene-seed courier:






Next are some shots of Rogue Trader Gol Kraken:





Check out his antique las-locks acquired on Soltis-IV.

Next we have first mate Karras:





He's an ex-Imperial Armsmen, and handy with a lasgun.

Next in line is Mort Larg, the crew's heavy weapon specialist, and an expert at dealing with large, unruly xenoforms:





Then there's Riko, ex-Imperial noble on the run for a number of crimes, real and trumped up:







And then there is science officer Herkin (science is a dangerous business in the 41st millenium):





Finally, we have Chief Engineer Haakon, scion of the Lathe Worlds:







As I get the chance to photograph more of my stuff, I'll include them in future posts. Any questions about the conversions or what parts were used, let me know in the comments section.

Scott

Super-Scenario

SuperFigs fan Adam Souza, a fellow I've corresponded with off and on since I started this whole thing way back in 2001, has created a neat site for SuperSystem, and he's posted a great scenario involving a 4-alarm fire. Check it out here:

4-Color Earth

Thanks, Adam! We'll be watching your site for more cool stuff!

Scott

Wrapping Up the Long Weekend

Well, I did manage to get another Tau Crisis Suit painted, and I played two more games of WH 40K.

Outside the world of gaming I got my tomatoes planted, and the prospect of fresh garden tomatoes come July is an exciting one indeed.

I thought a little over the weekend about attending at least one gaming convention this summer (Origins, Historicon, or Gencon), but I am still up in there about it. Attending with Superfigs as a vendor is just out of the question for me now. I did Origins three years ago and it was a great time. We were well-received, sold a lot of stuff, and got to see and hobnob with our industry fellows, but mainly promoting SuperFigs as one-man show is exhausting. As long as I have a full-time gig with the library, I may have to swear off running a booth at any shows.

That leaves attending a show as a civilian, which is fine by me. I went to GenCon two years ago with my buddies Jan and Kurt as a normal civilian and it was awesome. We did have one dangerous encounter:




I'm the bald guy on the right. Kurt failed his save versus Fear and was nearly captured!

Scott

Pride Teaser

I've just got some early images back from Mr. Naismith on the Pride. This group of three new lion-men for SuperFigs is nearly done. Hopefully we'll see them in the mail next week, and at the caster the following week.

Here's a taste:



Can't wait to fully show them off!

Scott

40K Foray

As I mentioned last week, I am dabbling in a Warhammer 40,000 Tau army. My buddy Joe and I had a few games this weekend, and he made a blog to record the exploits of his Nurgle Marines. Joe's a great artist, and he's also a fair general, defeating me on the field of battle. Here's the link to his blog:

http://sonsofblight.blogspot.com/

I'll get him next time! Well, maybe not...

Scott

"Nazis--I hate those guys..."

SuperFig fan Joseph Puzzo sent along this great pic of Kondor, one of our older SuperFigs, painted up like a classic Nazi super-villain:



Great job, Joseph!

Scott

Random Musings

This weekend I will be running a game of the Dark Heresy RPG from FFG. The first session will mainly be character generation and the beginning of the published adventure, Purge the Unclean, with a short prologue sequence written by me.

I am reading Dan Abnett's Traitor General now. Anybody who reads this blog on a regular basis knows Abnett is one of my favorite sci-fi writers. I had read the first two Gaunt's Ghosts novles years ago, and then bailed out on the series. I really prefer his Eisenhorn and Ravenor stuff. I dig the whole Inquisition angle, and when I read military sci-fi, I prefer small unit actions. While in Barnes & Noble the other day looking for something to read during the morning commutes, I picked up Traitor General and realized it was a Gaunt's Ghosts novel, but focused on small unit actions on a planet held by Chaos. Very cool! And I'm nearly done with it, which is a feat for me since I am a slow reader and normally read only the train or bus.

There is also some movement on a project I finished writing last year for Chaosium, the Call of Cthulhu folks. It's a monograph called Agents of the Crown written for the Basic Role-Playing book. It's essentially a setup for playing Victorian superheroes akin to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The layout is being fixed up right now, and I should be able to turn it into Chaosium in a couple of weeks.

All that and I have spent the last two weeks painting a Tau battleforce boxed set I got for doing some painting for an associate of mine. I went with a very drab, military scheme. It meshed well with my painting style, and I think it works well with the models. I will snap some pics this weekend if I get a chance.

Super-Art!

SuperFigs enthusiast Melvin de Voor sent me some fantastic art work of one of my favorite SuperFigs, Elasti-Ape:






Melvin's got a few other pieces up his sleeve, and I'll show those off in later posts, but suffice to say that we may see more of his fine work in our next publication!

Scott

Dr. Halflife--From Salzburg With Love!

Ace painter and artist (and good friend) Jan A. e-mailed me from Salzburg, Austria. Still living the life of an early 20th century writer (I'm thinking Gatsby or Hemingway here), Jan did find some time to send pics of his latest paint job, Dr. Halflife.

More wonderful work from Jan, and here it is:







Jan's use of blue and the fearless application of white highlights really make this paint job!

Thanks, Jan!

Scott

Lion-Men Update

No pics yet, but Bob Naismith is now working on the three new Lion Men based off of Leo-IX. Can't wait to see the results!

Scott

Particle Pics

My buddy Jan has done a lot of interior artwork for our books, and also his fair share of character designs for SuperFigs. One of the characters he designed was Particle. Jan's currently living the life of a bon vivant in Chicago, so he's had plenty of time to paint SuperFigs. Here's his latest version of the 28mm sized Particle:







Jan's certainly mastered the art of color blends, and his understated work on this mini evokes the 1960's Captain Mar-Vell. Very nice!

Scott

Krieghunde Gets His Due

SuperFigs fan John Price did a nice review of Krieghunde, one of our super-strong SuperFigs.

The full review is here:

http://thescreamingalpha.com/2009/05/01/review-krieghunde-by-four-color-figures/

Funny story about this mini. He was originally intended to be bald, and the concept art reflected that. However, when Battlin' Bob Naismith sent the figure back to us, he had that slick flat-top going. The hair made the character appear years younger, and I kind of liked it, so we went with it, and Kriegshunde became a much younger super-villain than we had originally intended. A happy accident, and when you make as many minis as we have, you'll get those.

Scott

The Beauty of an Unfocused Mind

I had a list of hobby-related things I wanted to accomplish this weekend. Kit-bashing Inquisitorial henchmen/Dark Heresy RPG characters was not on it. But then I read the awesome entry in the Creatures Anathema book on the Verminspeaker (pgs. 69-70). This elite advance allows a starting character to play a Wyrd Beastmaster! Was someone from FFG reading my mind? Ever since I first played Necromunda back in 1997 I have wanted to play a Beastmaster in an RPG setting.


Having been suitably inspired, I pulled out an unpainted Beastmaster from my Necromunda collection, and was just not into painting it. A nice mini, but one that definitely was showing that it had been sculpted in 1995. I decided to make my own Verminspeaker. So I kit-bashed a figure using the following GW kits: Brettonian Men-at-Arms, Chaos Marauders, Catachan Jungle Fighters, Empire Militia, Skaven Plague Monks, and Kroot Warriors.

Here's my finished product:











I just love kit-bashing 40K role-play figures. Once I get him painted I'll take some pics with some of my other conversions in this same vein. Now I have to convince my GM to run a Dark Heresy game with somewhat corrupt Inquisitor as our boss, so I can use my unsanctioned psyker!

Scott

Weekend Projects

I need to start gathering my sci-fi figures to run Dark Heresy in a few weeks. Should be fun! I really like the game, and I intend to run my players through Purge the Unclean (a series of published adventures) this spring and summer.

I actually think we'll be playing some Warhammer 40,000 Saturday night, so my Orks will get a workout against my buddy Bill's Necrons.

I hope to get the casts of a new SuperFig, Major Meteor, back soon, and maybe I can convince ace painter Sky Hernstrom to paint one for me for the blog. More on that soon!

Scott