Director Woods

A couple of years ago, I used HeroForge to construct this alternate universe version of myself as a guest character for a Villains & Vigilantes game Jeff, and then Connor, were running. On a whim, I asked Gemini to translate this 3D rendering into a photograph: 

Obviously this image has plenty of flaws, but I'm still impressed by how far this technology has come in just a couple of years. 

Ballerino

 

From 3D HeroForge render to sorta photorealistic Gemini image. 

Bush League

In Villains and Vigilantes, you create characters by assigning a certain number of character points to your primary attributes (strength, endurance, agility, and so on) and by rolling on a series of tables to randomly determine your age, background, species (!), sex, super powers, and weaknesses. Then you're given some flexibility to change the results around a bit to create a hero that fits a certain theme. 

For the next V&V campaign I'll be participating in, I've created Bush League. Fresh out of high school, Preston Spender is a tall, strong, good-hearted kid; he's a natural athlete and enjoys spending time as a volunteer for  local search and rescue services. But then, one day, everything changed...(I don't know how Preston got super-powers; that will be revealed by the game master). 

Preston rolled the following powers and weaknesses: 

Experience levels (gives him an edge in succeeding at certain tasks) 
Heightened endurance
Armor
Willpower: pain resistance (difficult to knock unconscious) 
Physical ability: inertia (can't be knocked backward, so I made him a catcher on his high school team) 
Special weapon: baseball bat
Prejudice (many of his peers think he's a dumb jock)
Poverty 

The combination of my random dice rolls have resulted, I think, in a potentially interesting and capable hero. Maybe he's bush league for now, but he's just getting started; the big leagues might not be far off. 

 

Cliffside Emma Frost

This figure came in white and clear plastic, so I merely added some blue contrast paint to her skin and...telepathic waves, I guess? Emma isn't supposed to be telepathic in diamond form, and the things on her hands look more like force fields or magnetic powers, which she doesn't possess either. So I'm not sure what's going on with this mini. She'll be repurposed a different heroine or villainess for Villains & Vigilantes. 
 

Here's another wrecked sedan for Fallout, Villains and Vigilantes, Twilight: 2000, or any other modern or post-apocalyptic RPG setting. I painted this one black, then added silver to the dents and used weathering pencils to create rust, dirt, and smoke damage. 

Misguided Blonde Biker

In pulp fiction Nazis make excellent villains, and so I have a handful of Nazi figures for use as bad guys in games like Villains & Vigilantes. Even so, painting these guys makes me uncomfortable, partly because there's a danger in trivializing one of the greatest horrors of the 20th century (or perhaps any century), and partly because fascism is on the rise once again right now. On the other hand, popular culture is a powerful force, and casting Nazis as the most despicable characters could possibly be one of the best means to remind people that their ideology is one of the most noxious ever created. 

I don't know. History and politics aside, I like the way the paint job turned out. And as Steve suggested, if this range of figures winds up leaving me too disconcerted to use, I can always recast them as 1970s biker gangs (only slightly less problematic, perhaps). 
 

Lair Status Display

If you build your villainous lair inside a volcano, you run the risk that the volcano will erupt. Looks like that's what's happening here, according to this 3D display. 
 

Scanning Europe

No villain's lair is complete without giant screens displaying the hapless continents they wish to conquer. Painting the teeny-weeny buttons was the most challenging aspect of this project, but my hands are getting steadier with practice. I dry-brushed Europe green, and I like the painterly look of the continent, something I don't think I would have achieved if I were actually trying; instead, the lack of paint on the brush left behind those pleasing black spaces. 
 

The Doomsday Garage

Last night, I finished painting this post-apocalyptic gas station, which will serve as terrain for Villains & Vigilantes, Twilight: 2000, Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, and other games. 

Having finished the job, I'm not sure red and blue was the best colour scheme. But it looks decent enough on the table, and that's what counts; it's playable. 

Naturally there's no gas to be had here, but the building still makes a decent, if spartan, shelter. 

I may repaint the floor; the red is just too overpowering. 

Conveyor Belts

Yes, I painted a pair of old, rusted-out conveyor belts. I have a sinister purpose in mind for these, but I won't reveal that until much later. Besides that sinister purpose, I'll use these for factories found in Fallout, Villains & Vigilantes, and pulp adventures. 
 

Fisk Trailer

Here we have a mobile office of the type commonly seen on construction sites. Since I used to work for ATCO, which produces units like this, I decided to paint this 28mm-scale model in ATCO colours, though of course in the real world the yellow stripe goes on top. 

It took many, many coats of white paint to accomplish even this level of whiteness, which as you can see isn't exactly uniform. It is, however, much better than it was for most of the painting process. 

I haven't quite finished. I'll add a light ink wash and some weathering effects to make this look like it's been soiled by the dust and debris kicked up by construction. 

Relay Station XB-109

I painted a communications tower, or perhaps a radio telescope. Either way, it'll be a nice bit of terrain for Twilight: 2000 or Villains & Vigilantes. 
 

Marvel

Here's another repainted HeroClix figure. This time, I repainted a Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr. figure from his "white period." I kept the gold trim, painted the whites over in black or red, and replaced the familiar Shazam! lightning bolt chest emblem with something more abstract. 

Here's the figure from behind. He'll make a decent hero or villain for V&V someday. 

Wrath of the Ultra-Humanite

Here's the Ultra-Humanite figure I mentioned in yesterday's post. As you can see, both Donkey Kong and the Ultra-Humanite use the same sculpt, but different paint and basing choices give the two giant gorillas distinctly different personalities. 

The Ultra-Humanite is Superman's earliest and possibly his most fiendish villains. He's a mad scientist who uses surgery (and, naturally, accomplices) to move his brain from one body to another when his host body's usefulness runs out, either due to old age, damage, or simply convenience. Aside from his first appearances, in which he resembles a proto-Lex Luthor, the Ultra-Humanite's most famous bodies are those of actress Dolores Winters and a giant albino gorilla, which I have attempted to replicate here.

Mind you, this is not a strictly accurate rendering. While using the albino gorilla body, the Ultra-Humanite wears a red and gold harness. I could attempt to simply paint his harness onto the body, but then you'd see the fur texture beneath the paint. I could try Green Stuff to sculpt the harness and then paint the Green Stuff, but...I'm not ready for that advanced technique yet. 

All Your Bases Are Belong to Me

Here are some of the bases I've painted to support un-based 28mm miniatures. I have a bunch of duplicate HeroClix figures which I've separated from their dials so that I can re-base them on these. Perfect to bolster our supply of characters for Villains & Vigilantes. 

Cursed Panorama

The Price of Victory

Jeff and Earl Noir

Battle at the G8

During tonight's episode of Villains & Vigilantes, Northern Shield, our supergroup, was tasked with rescuing Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin from a group of nefarious mercenaries. We rescued Trump, but the kidnappers got away with Putin. I...don't know how to feel about any part of this outcome. 

Battle on a Field Unknown

For the first time in many moons, I took up the role of Gamemaster. I led a one-off session of Villains & Vigilantes, pitting the characters of Jeff, Connor, and Sean against a maniac with a bow, a sorceress, a shapeshifter, a martial artist, a masked gunslinger, and a gorilla gunslinger. The lads eked out a victory, but the mystery of the battlefield to which they were so unceremoniously teleported remains unsolved...