Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Pulp => Topic started by: Cat on April 08, 2021, 10:46:17 PM
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I've started painting up gangs for Mean Streets, Hollywood style gang wars. First three done with figures I had on hand and are purely fictional. Next on deck is the Baseball Furies from The Warriors. I'll be doing several gangs from The Warriors, plus Sho'Nuff' & crew from The Last Dragon, and probably some more fictional ones too.
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First up is the Huns MC, NYC chapter. I had painted these ages ago for a biker game. They just needed some paint touch-up, improved detailing, and basing.
When I had originally painted these, I had not yet discovered the joys of .005 Micron Art pens. So, the rockers were originally just thin white crescents. I made them wider to have room to write on the patches, and also added the MC patches now that I have the technology for easily writing on figures. The prospects only have the bottom rocker; but watch out for them, they might do some crazy stuff to try to get voted in as full patch members of the club!
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Second gang is the Hidalgos. Modified some of the old biker figures with green stuff berets and some weapon swaps for variety. They sport a Puerto Rican star on the back of the vests and the front of the berets. For the tiny beret patch, I painted a white circle, and then drew in the outer edges of the star with a blue .005 Micron Art pen.
The leader has an alternate figure with pistol that can be swapped in if it's pulled out for desperate measures.
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Third gang is the Dragon Club made from Eureka's Kung-Fu School Girls, plus a few of the Kung-Fu School Girls with Guns. I swapped the guns out on three figures for nunchucks. The leader of the gang as alternate figures, one with nunchucks and one with pistol that can be pulled out for desperate measures.
Technically, they are not an NYC street gang, but a touring martial arts demo team. There's a wild and crazy rumour that they are really hunting for dimensional portals to stop demons from coming through to this world. That might explain why they keep winding up in the bad parts of town where the local gangs keep challenging them to see how tough they really are, and whoa where did those swords come from!
I picked up these figures some years ago knowing that I would want them for something some day, and that day has come.
The taijitu logo on their jackets is drawn with a red .005 Micron Art pen.
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I tried out a new medium for the basing: Blick Artists' Acrylic Modelling Paste and I liked the way it worked. For the Dragon Club, I put in a small amount of light grey powdered RIT dye. For the Hidalgos, I used a heavier amount of the light grey. And the Huns got a mix of light grey and brown. I only stirred the dye in lightly so there would be natural colour variations in each batch. When the past dried, it left small hairline cracks that look great.
Since a lot of conventions and gaming venues have pretty poor lighting, I like to have basing variations that stand out. Especially for opposing gangs wearing the classic blue denim vest, it helps to tell them apart at quick glance.
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Conversion work on The Furies is now done and they are ready for prime time.
The Reviresco minis are a nice soft metal which is easy to work with. This is a good thing as so many of the figures had baseball gloves that needed to be carved down into plain hands. They all had full length trousers, so I scored a line around just under the knee and shave the calves a bit to give them socks. They re-position easily too.
Alas, the pack came with only 1 batter with a bat. Carving a dozen bats out of 1/16" plastic rod was easy enough, just took some time (about 2 B-movies worth). For the batter and base runner figures, I also carved the earpiece of their helmets to make regular hats.
According to The Warriors fandom wiki, the video game includes a boss character who wasn't in the movie, Cobb the Catcher, who wields two black bats taped together. The catcher figure in the pack wasn't in a good fighting pose, but the umpire when lifted from its leaning forward position into upright works great. There was plenty of material on the lower trouser legs to carve on his shin guards.
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Those look great! I may be following in your footsteps on the Baseball Furies, one day. Such an iconic gang from "The Warriors" movie!
Keep the gangs coming... :o
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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I can dig it. One of my favorite movies
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They look good, neat conversion work.
Back in '79, the coloured facepaint and uniforms made the Furies the most frightening and memorable of the gangs even if they did get beaten over pretty easily.
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These gangs are _great_!
What scale are they?
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Thanks folks!
What scale are they?
These are a blend of 25mm-28mm figures toe-to-eye. A few of the shorter characters are even a bit below 25 — I really like having a realistic blend of natural height variances.
I've also got some in the queue from Funky Skull Miniatures that are billed as 28mm, but really 30mm; a few are 28. So those are going on thinner bases to help ameliorate the scale creep. Their 'Braves' gang is spot-on for The Warriors, but at 30mm, I don't want them to look entirely like the Basketball gang!
On the other hand, they also have a beautiful Sho'Nuff figure in their Black Cobras gang, but alas that one was only 30mm tall There's no pleasing some modellers. ;)
Julius Carry was 6'5" and stood a full head taller than everyone else in his gang in The Last Dragon. Details on knee-extensions coming later when I have conversions done for the rest of the Shogunate (those are taking some heavier conversion work with Shadowrun figures).
Yes, the Furies are definitely the stand-out gang from The Warriors. Image searching for painting guides, lots of cosplay photos of them come up from various Comic Cons, etc.
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I picked up 3 of the Funky Skull Miniatures gangs, and have done some minor conversion work on 2 of them. Since these are mostly a bit taller than my other figures, I asked my friendly neighborhood laser cutter, Things From The Basement, to make some custom slotted bases for me.
For the 25mm–28mm gangs, I've been putting them on 3mm thick bases from Litko that I had on hand. I like the square-ish with rounded corners look for gaming in urban terrain. TFTB made the slotted ones for me in the same style, but 2.5mm thick. The thinner base, and the slot figures not having a metal base under their feet help smooth over the height difference.
Overall, the Funky Skull sculpts are great, and I really like that while they are taller, they don't have overly bulked heft. 1970s movie casts are lean fighting machines!
The Black Cobras provide a good core group for the Gramercy Riffs from The Warriors, plus Sho'Nuff the Shogun of Harlem. Most of these figures are 30mm, 2 of them were 28mm–29mm. Also to help with the height difference, I cut about 1mm or so from the waist of 3 of the figures. Sho'Nuff however needed to be 6'5", so he got knee extensions lifting the figure up to 34mm toe-to-eye; which puts him properly at a full head higher than the taller figures I'm using for the rest of his gang. In the final scene of The Warriors, the Riffs show up en masse with hockey sticks to finish of the Rogues; so I took the Cobra figure that had a fighting staff and carved it into a hockey stick. I also bent hockey stick guy's knees a bit to bring his apparent height down a little.
Also joining the Riffs are 3 figures I had on hand with clothing styles that fit in. They are the back row of the photo: a guy from Geezers Shut It (with green stuff added to lengthen his shirt into a Riff style karategi), and 2 Riff Sisters from Shadowrun and Left Hand Miniatures.
The Mollies are 28mm toe-to-eye, they are nicely balanced heights to go with the larger Funky Skull guys. So I didn't do any height modifications on them. The leg poses are generally pretty static though; so I cut one foot free on most of them and moved it back to make them a bit more dynamic. 4 of them come with baseball bats, but they are pretty slender weapons (nicely scaled, but quite thinner than the sturdier gaming weapons of my other gangs). Two of the bats I shortened and carved into straight lengths of pipe. The other two I replaced with tire irons made from a bit of brass rod.
Their clothing style is quite different from what is needed for the Lizzies from The Warriors, so I'll use these for my own fictional gang, the Hell Cats.
The Braves are superb representations of the Warriors. I'll probably do some minor tweaks to adjust some of the poses and maybe some of the heights. I wanted to work on the other two gangs first to get used to working with this metal.
Funky Skull only did the guys of the Warriors, so I did some conversion work on a figure I had on hand to model Mercy to complete the gang.. She's the painted figure in the photo with the Mollies WIP. I used green stuff to lengthen the skirt and add a long denim coat. Will finish her base when all the Warriors are ready for finishing.
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Fantastic stuff! The Mollies was the one gang I was thinking of buying from Funky Skull. I can't wait to see all of your gangs painted up and beating on each other... lol
I have a couple games of Mean Streets scheduled at conventions. So, if anyone is around these cons, feel free to drop in and check out the game:
• Drums at the Rapids, Perrysburg, OH, May 14-15
• Advance the Colors, Springfield, OH, Oct. 1
• Cincycon 2021, Hamilton, OH, Oct. 22
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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Painting is progressing in stages for the Baseball Furies.
Meanwhile, I've been having fun doing conversions to make the whole gang of 12 Lizzies from The Warriors using an assortment of figures from the stash. Lots of carving to roll up dungaree legs and shirt sleeves, some green putty to lengthen some shirt and coat tails and to build up lots of poofy perms. Only half the gang pulls weapons to fight in the ambush at their pad, those characters all get knifes, and the leader gets an optional figure with pistol.
I presume the rest of them are more used to fighting with long weapons which weren't good choices to start swinging when the pistols came out. 2 of the figures got pool cues, and 3 got field hockey sticks (inspired from the umbrellas that a couple were carrying at Union Station). The shortest one who tried to dance with Rembrandt gets a spray can carved from plastic rod and will be their Artist for tagging missions.
There's always a shortage of female figures to work with, so 5 Lizzies got converted from guys. That was a simple matter of carving down to slim the waists and give them busts, round the face, and narrow the shoulders.
The movie credits list 13 Lizzies, but going through their scene at 1/8 speed I could only identify 12. Perhaps the 13th wound up on the cutting room floor, but her name remained in the credits.
Other gangs should have artists too, so I made 2 more figures each for the Hidalgos and Riffs. Each gets 1 with a spray can. A Shadowrun Elf with a beret was perfect for the 12th figure for the Hidalgos, taller than average Puerto Rican with a sword that cut down to a nice machete. Each gang also gets an additional female figure from some pirates that I found in a stash.
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Nice work, Cat. They're looking quite good.
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You are a machine! If I did as much X-acto knife work as you, my hands would be permanently covered in bandages... lol
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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You are a machine! If I did as much X-acto knife work as you, my hands would be permanently covered in bandages... lol
Umm, I do have some pretty good scars on my left hand fingers. Whenever my spouse sees me getting out the bandaids, she asks rhetorically, "Did you just cut yourself again?"
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The Baseball Furies gang is now done and ready to rumble. I had originally modified 12 figures for this gang, including the boss fighter Cobb the Catcher from the video game. But when watching their movie fight scene at 1/8 speed on the DVD to catch all the face paint markings, discovered their were 12 distinct ones in the film. It was easier to just modify one more figure from the leftovers in the Reviresco pack than to decide which warpaint option to not include. So now, they are a gang of 13 — the whole movie cast plus Cobb.
After doing the video research for the painting, I also used green stuff to give them all longer hair than what had been on the original figures.
Their uniform, and sneakers, are made entirely possible by use of .005 Micron Art pens! For the logo on their backs, I used a black pen to draw the outline, hit that with a light spray of Dullcote to set the ink, then after that dried, painted the tangerine patch. The stripes and lettering are pen work. For Cobb's reverse pinstripes, I drew thicker black lines, leaving narrower white strips between them.
Google-fu uncovered a retro-sneakers blog that had an entry on the sneakers of The Warriors! This identified the Furies' footwear as Nike LD 1000 with the yellow painted on. Starting with a white base, I painted the light yellow stripe on the uppers. After that was dry, used a black pen to outline and shape the yellow, then a red pen to add the heel splotch and the Nike swoops on the sides, then back to the black pen to fill in around the red, leaving a thin white stripe on the bottom for the cushioned sole, and thin white padding around the sides of the ankles. This got Dullcoted at the same time as the outline for the back patch, and when dry, I re-did over the red with a brighter red paint. It was easy to re-follow the pen lines and keep it pretty tidy.
Also added 2 more figures to round out the Hidalgos to 12. One of the packs of Shadowrun figures I've been using for conversion fodder had an elf in a beret with a sword that cut down nicely to a machete. Some of the gangs are getting figures for an artist armed with spray paint for tagging missions. The Hidalgos new artist was an easy conversion from a pirate figure found in the stash [Dixon, I think]. The star on the Puerto Rican flag bandana, like the back of the Hidalgos' vests, was done with a WW2 US white star decal.
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LOVE IT! :-* :-*
Converting figures is not necessarily my strength, so I really like what you've done with these. They are probably the most iconic gang from The Warriors, so it's great you have them ready for the tabletop.
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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Thanks Mike! I've enjoyed converting figures from even before I started gaming way back when. The Furies were relatively easy work. They were a soft metal, so it was quick to carve down the gloves into hands, and the arms could be repositioned just by bending with tweezers.
Next fully operational gang is The Lizzies. This was really fun converting — I had never done such a large group of specific characters before. It was a blast recreating the full gang in miniature. This was primarily green stuff work to adjust shirt tail lengths as needed and to build up the big poofy perms.
The trusty Micron Art pens provided the full magic for doing the plaid shirt in style, and the logo monogram.
For the plaid, after the violet base coat had dried, I used a purple .005 pen to draw in the primary gridlines, then painted in the blue and red squares. After that paint had dried, I went over it again with the purple pen to crisp up the outlines of the primary grid and to add the lines down and across the middle of all the squares.
Image google searching for reference pix also revealed that in the video game they get a logo on the back of their jackets that wasn't in the movie. It added a nice splash of colour, so I went with that. Painted the patch in white first, then hot pink, then after the paint had dried, drew in the monogram L with a black pen.
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That's awesome. I never played the video game, so missed out on that as source material... lol
I should pay you to convert another batch of Baseball Furies for me...I could get by with 6-8 figures. :D
I can't wait to see you stage a game with all the different Warriors gangs on the tabletop!
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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That's awesome. I never played the video game, so missed out on that as source material... lol
I've never played the video game either. (Or any other — I paint way too many miniatures to afford another time-sink hobby!) Reviews of it are pretty meh, and the snippets I've seen on YouTube confirm this. It doesn't capture any of the charm of the movie: the colours are very dark, the fights are blood-splattery, and the music is way off. But it does have some handy modelling bits that I'm happy to steal.
Google-fuing for Warriors reference material led me to the fandom wiki which has a bunch of info on the movie, book, and game:
https://thewarriors.fandom.com/wiki/Main_page
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Modelling work finished on the Warriors and Boppers, and reworked the Mollies aka Hell Cats.
The signature Warriors are all height adjusted now. The character sculpts of "The Braves" set by Funky Skull are superb, with the exception that the figures are all fairly uniformly too tall — there's a little variance but they are all in the range of 29mm–31mm toe-to-eye. The movie cast is much more varied, with Rembrandt and especially Cowboy being the shortest of them.
The four characters who are the tallest in the gang, I left at their original figure height. The others I worked on in order of the next tallest then down, starting with Cochise, to make sure I got them all proportionally. Three got shortened by removing a slice of the waist just below the vest, then adding a crotch back into the dungarees with a bit of green putty so they didn't look like weird stick figures. The figure for Rembrandt was a bit short and in a crouching position which helped, but the legs were far too long and looked off; so I took slices out at the knees to bring him down to proper size. The figure for Cowboy was just ridiculously too tall; I started by taking as much out at the knees as I could, and then still had to shorten him at the waist too.
For minor adjustments, the seam lines on the pants were over-exaggerated, so I carved them off. Also removed the top rocker that was cast on the back of the vests, it was too small to attempt putting the "Warriors" on it, so it had to go to give me a writing chance!
**edit** Just spotted that Vermin's knees are riding kind of high after shortening him at the waist. Took a file and knife to drop the thighs down lower so he doesn't look like a mutant. WIP photos often help me spot things that need a little correcting.
Next up are the Boppers, which were a really fun modelling challenge. I wasn't originally planning on them; but as I've been posting bits of the progress on this in the FB group for gaming at the FLGS (The Hobby Bunker, recently moved from Malden to Wakefield Mass) there's been a lot of interest piqued for playing the game because The Warriors. So I've decided to play to the crowd and add more movie.
Rummaging about in the stash, I found some old Western gunfighter figures that would work pretty easily. Had to cut coats down to vests, add neckties, and reduce some of the hats for a more urban look. I also had some figures that would work if I added hats, or more easily found good heads with hats to swap in. Gangster figures in fedoras seemed like a promising avenue, but would get expensive. Then it dawned on me to check Atlantic Wargames new Partisans: French Resistance — bingo, and the aforementioned FLGS had it in stock too!
Not only were there plenty of fedorad heads in the box, the plastic figures convert easily enough into Boppers too; the plastic is much easier to carve into vests than metal cowboy coats. With the fun of working in plastic, I wound up only doing 1 head swap onto a metal figure. This was originally going to be a small gang of just the delegation of nine who went to the great conclave in the movie. But the joy of working with plastic led to expanding up to a large gang of twelve, plus an optional leader swap pair of figures with knife or gun.
The plastic figures worked best for making the alternate leader poses. The leader looking type at the front of the pack in the movie is shorter than the others, so cut this pair of figures down at the waist.
The arms with potato masher grenades worked great; drilled out the grenade ends to turn them into pipe fittings then added a length of brass wire to make nice kopfklopfers.
In the movie, we never see the Boppers fight, so that opened up freedom of weaponry. Starting with the Western base figures gave the idea to arm some of them with bullwhips for a unique gang flavour. I imagine these would provide great percussion for the gang's hip hop performances and a whole Rawhide and Ennio Morricone inspired set.
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If anybody is looking to build a Boppers gang, you could do it just with a box of these Resistance Fighters. The new release of plastic gunfighters by Great Escape Games look like they would provide nice conversion fodder too.
Finally in this batch are the re-worked Mollies figures from Funky Skull. Originally I was going to leave them all at their original heights. But after finishing the Lizzies, this group of figures looked too much like the women's basketball team gang. I thought about running with that idea, but opted instead to vary their height too. Two figures with weapons down along their legs, and the roller skater, got left at original height. Three got shortened by cutting slices out of the legs just below the skirt, and the two in dungarees got shortened at the knees. They are now ready to proceed with painting as my own fictional Hell Cats gang.
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Great work on the furies and looking forward to seeing the warriors done up. Will you also be doing the “orphans”?
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Great work on the furies and looking forward to seeing the warriors done up. Will you also be doing the “orphans”?
Thanks!
I'm not sure on the Orphans. Their outfits are kind of bland, and I haven't even gone hunting to see what I could find for scrawny figures in plain tee shirts. On the plus side, having a gang that can place more figures on the table because they're whimpy fighters would be an interesting game option.
What I am eyeballing is the upcoming Great Escape Games plastic gunfighters sprues that have a number of heads with top hats, and the Ainsty Aggro minis that have a number of figures with suspenders...
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*ponder* *ponder*
Hmm, there are possibilities for the Orphans.
Turnkey Miniatures has the old Mega Miniatures line, and there are a number of useful figures there. However, Turnkey's web cart hasn't been operating. I contacted them mid-March on FB and did get a reply that there had been a recent 'upgrade' form their vendor that caused the glitch and they would have it looked into. But alackaday, radio silence since I last queried in early April. I hope they come available again, as they have a number of useful civilian figures. I'll try pinging again.
With a bit of work, the Reviresco baseball players would provide useful fodder too. They were scrawnier than I would have liked for the Furies, but they are the only baseball players on the market this side of 35mm. With their hats carved off and the figures mounted on 2.5mm thick stands instead of 3mm, they would at least look shorter than the Furies.
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It’s great seeing all these gangs develop 8) 8)
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The Orphans would be a great gang to have on the tabletop, too. In my Mean Streets rules, you could even make them all "Wimps" so they're easy to beat up... lol
Of course, that means you have to field a LOT of them to make it a fair game.
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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A great many Wimps with barely any weapons between them. The leader fearlessly brandishes a bent straight edge, the lieutenant has a short pipe with a very short bit of chain attached. The rest are armed with a grim dedication to Stalin's axiom...
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I have in fact succumbed to working up a large mob of them. Very slightly up-armed. The lieutenant has traded pipe for tire iron, and two others have grabbed tire irons too. It goes to reason that a large gang of wimps would excel at at least two types of missions: Hubcap Raids and Tagging.
Watching this clip, I never noticed before how much Ajax brightens up from his usual sullen demeanor when the Molotov got lit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtMNPb4Loso&ab_channel=VideoClubRandom
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Love it! You always have to have one faction as the "militia" in a multiplayer game...not everyone gets to play the elites! lol
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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Heed the old adage “swarms win”
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Saw a post about "The Warriors" on another more recent thread. Searched for Baseball Furies, and it looks like you already made some! Good work. This'll be a fun game when you run it.
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Work is still progressing slowly on this project. Came in 2nd place for which project to dive into at the start of this year. DBN won because the club has been itching to get that on the table for the last several years too.
DBN prep will also help The Warriors project along too. The need to clear storage space in my office for stacks of boxes filled with newly re-based Napoleonics will also provide the needed storage space that I can start having friends print out STL files for NYC.
Part of the ongoing progress has been continuing painting the Orphans between other projects.
Quantity is a quality all its own!
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So far so good! Looking forward to seeing then done!
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Thanks! Well, these are much better minis to paint while watching a movie than 15mm Napoleonics, so Orphans and other gangs will be in the rotation this season>
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Those are off to a great start! Thanks for posting them. I understand completely to paint what the group is itching to play, but it is always nice to have other project "irons in the fire"... lol
Mike Demana
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Recently got a big package from Crooked Dice — 7TV Dracula pledge with various other goodies added on. The first batch that called out for paint was this group of cultists. Didn't have specific painting plans when I ordered them. But once I had them in hand, immediately knew they would be the Satan Island Coven!
The Coven doesn't usually come over the Verrazano Bridge, and they're not 'in the network', but they can bop with the best of them and aren't afraid to cross any gang's turf. More than one bopper has commented that it's a good thing there is no subway connection over to the forgotten borough.
I shortened the height on a couple of the figures for variety and so they wouldn't be the women's basketball team coven. Two of the clubbers were shortened at the waist. One runner and the summoner/artist were shortened at the ankles.
The artist also got a satchel added for holding cans of spray paint for tagging and/or creating summoning circles.
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Logos were done with WW2 US decals, and then augmented with the trusty .005 Micron Art Pen.
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While I was working on the Coven, I also went poking at the stash of gangs that are in various stages of progress and started getting more paint on several of them.
The Riffs only needed a little bit more work to finish up. Well, at least a small war band of Riffs, I won't be doing the full gang as seen on screen, these few will do to represent!
Most of these are from Funky Skull's Black Cobra gang set, with a number of them shortened down. One figure had a long pole, which clearly needed to be corrected into a hockey stick with a bit of green putty. Put a 1970s style CCM brand logo on the hockey stick A few other random figures from the stash rounded out the group, including the artist with a spray can added.
When putting the finishing touches on these figures, I dry brushed the basing with some Flat Gull Gray. Liking the look of that, I pulled out the earlier gangs brushed them with that too.
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Groooovy! :D
Your gangs are looking good. I almost bought some of the Funky Skull figs way back when they were first released. Still half-thinking about the Mollies...
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0495/1195/6643/products/SWNYC-M03TheMolliesGangv1_1024x1024.jpg?v=1609785324)
Of course, I have my own Mean Streets rules, so no need to buy the profiles or anything. So, I may pick them up one day...
Mike Demana
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Thanks Mike.
The Mollies figures are great! Female gangs are hard to come by. I've got them trimmed and in the painting queue, they'll come along someday. I'm leaning towards giving them the Alley Cats patch from The Warriors, we never see them on screen, and no saying they're not a girl gang.
~ , ~
The Funky Skull gang packs have been marked down for some time from £25 to £20 because the stat cards that come with will be obsolete if they ever finish their 2nd edition of the NYC rules.
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Your Coven and Riffs gangs look great! Well done!
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Thanks Cap'n!
Next gang is ready — well, technically a vigilante safety patrol. This one is actually an historical crew, but it fits in superbly with the colourful gangs of The Warriors.
The Warriors premiered on 9 February 1979, and the Guardian Angels first appeared on the subways of NYC four days later on the 13th. Coincidence?
Minis are a mix of Crooked Dice, Shadowrun, and stuff from the stash (Ainsty and/or Killer B likely). All got head swapped with beret clad separate heads from Crooked Dice and a slightly larger one from West Wind's British Paras for Samson.
I modified the Guardian Angels logo slightly to make it easier to draw with a .005 Micron Art pen. Only two figures have the full tee shirt with the entire logo showing on both sides. The others only have a portion of the logo showing in front. Leather jackets were popular among the Guardian Angels who were unarmed and just bringing karate training to a knife fight.
In related news, I'm started to draft out plans for dedicated gaming terrain primarily using 3D prints from Corvus Terrain. Anchoring one end of the board with a subway station and the other end with an elevated one. Perfect Warriors set-up and natural habitat of the Guardian Angels too.
Finally made my dice roll and remembered I've been meaning to put names on the bases. Went back and added names to all the completed gangs while I was at it, painting a white edge on the back of the bases and lettering with a .05 Micron Art Pen after it dried, then a spray of Dullcote to seal it.
Thought I would have The Warriors done now too, but catching up on naming everybody took a couple of sessions. They're very nearly done, just need to add patch details, base texturing, and then their names. If I letter carefully, Rembrandt will just fit!
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the Guardian Angels is a great idea for Mean Streets! Great job!
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What a great idea! I remember the Guardian Angels. If I remember correctly, they inspired "branch" patrols all across the country. I swear we had one here in Columbus, Ohio, for awhile...
Mike Demana
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Thanks folks!
Yeah the Angels popped up all over the place, even worldwide. We had some here in Boston for a bit. They've had something of a resurgence in recent years; but they don't currently seem to be the full nunchuks, batons, and brass knuckles vigilantes running crack sweeps that they had become by the late 80s in NYC. When they started in '79, they were insisting on no weapons.
They are natural denizens of the subway, and bearing actual enmity to the gangs of The Warriors! For reals. The founder, Curtis Sliwa, had organised a tiny protest in Times Square against the opening of the movie for promoting violence.
Now, they can battle it out on the table top.
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A bunch of stuff varnished today, including Preston — that guy from the conclave with the Union Jack tee shirt. The Warriors fandom wiki informs that he is given the name in the video game.
In the long list of gang names from The Warriors, none of them give any hint of being a British themed gang. That saved me from the temptation of painting a gang of him. The character must be a highly skilled loner, or perhaps just a very brave civilian, or tourist even, who decided to see what was going on that night and just walked in.
My theory is that he was wearing that tee shirt when the production crew was out rounding up extras, and they told him to wear that shirt when he showed up for filming.
We never see his lower half on screen, so I decided he was worthy of fancy sneakers and gave him a period pair of Vans #95 instead of the ubiquitous Converse All Stars.
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Also freshly finished, an [unattested] affiliate gang, The Gramercy Sisters, aka the Sis. Affiliate gangs were acknowledged in The Warriors, but none were called out by name. Parallel to the historical Ghetto Lords and Ghetto Sisters, The Sis are exceedingly likely associates of the Gramercy Riffs.
Led by Tomyris, wife of Cyrus. They run heavy on the artists, with 2 or 3 in this delegation. Rae and Chantal have spray cans, Ruby could be shaking a can, or maybe she's just cracking her knuckles.
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Like The Riffs, they have martial-artsesque robes, but in their own colours of the pan-African green, yellow, and red.
Figures are primarily 25mm Dixon pirates and cowgirls, and assorted other stuff from the stash.
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And at long last, ripped from the marquee, and ready to come out to playyyy, it's The Warriors!
Figures from Funky Skull's 'The Braves,' with a number shortened at the waist or knees to better approximate the varied heights of the movie cast. I didn't want to cut into the vests, so that limited the amount of shortening I could do at the waist. They were all a uniformaly scale creeped 30mm tall to start with.
Mercy was finished some time ago, using a figure from the stash.
I painted the patch areas with a base of white, and after that dried, added the lettering and logo with .005 Micron Art pens.
I had put off finishing this gang up because they required a lot of individual detail: skin tones, clothing accessories, pants colours, and sneaker colours!
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Those are great. I am always surprised no one ever made "Not" warrior figures in the past.
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Those are great -- I love them! I love your research and attention to detail in shortening up miniatures' height, modifying them, etc... :o
Mike Demana
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Thanks folks!
I definitely enjoy the research aspects of any project as much as the modelling and gaming. Currently enjoying Can You Dig It, all sorts of background info on the movie.
And diving into research on the next phase of the project, building up some dedicated terrain. Doing lots of Google Map scouting for modelling inspiration. Like in the movie, the game table doesn't have to be an exact NYC location, but evocative of the movie and 'somewhere in NYC'.
The area around Broadway Junction Station gives a good street layout to tweak for best tabletop use. This station is the film location where the Warriors escaped the Turnbull ACs, and is actually in Brooklyn. I'll just name the model "Broadway Station", it will be good for setting games in Brooklyn, or on that other Broadway that runs the length of most of Manhattan and the Bronx (and beyond, up past Sleepy Hollow!).
The station where they 'escape' the Orphans was filmed at New Utrecht Ave station, also in Brooklyn. Discovered that's on the M line, and umm, only 8 stops away from the Stillwell Avenue terminus at Coney Island....
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A great reference book just arrived, Born to Run, which provides train markings proper and after-market additional artistic styles. The book is laid out in chronological order, so really handy for pinpointing the late 70s image.
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Currently trying to find The Warriors book reasonably priced...
Mike Demana
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Currently trying to find The Warriors book reasonably priced...
I got mine from ABE, they still have some used copies on hand at this typing:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=Can%20You%20Dig%20It%3A%20The%20Phenomenon%20of%20The%20Warriors&sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results
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Thanks! They had a copy for $20. I'll probably pick it up. In the meantime, I am running two games of Mean Streets at the local Origins convention this weekend. So, wish me luck, and I'll post some pics and an AAR of the games once I get back from the convention and have time to decompress. lol
Mike Demana
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Good luck and have fun, Mike!
Looking forward to the AARs and photos as always.
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There's lots of graffiti decals from model railroad sources for defacing um decorating the subway. Really great work especially on all the shorten work; I would never had even thought of that. Looking forward to seeing more.
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Thanks, Pistolpete — adjusting the heights is definitely a fun little process that really helps capture the characters better. I greatly prefer varied heights in skirmish games for a more natural look. In bigger battle games, all those individual snowflakes just become a pile of snow, so I don't tend to get concerned over heights then.
The graffiti will definitely be a job for freehand customisation. Unlike historically, I will be putting up gang names (gangs didn't tag trains), definitely need a big WARRIORS across one car to set the scene, plus others and more movie references.
The model railroad ones wouldn't quite work anyway. They're designed for boxcars, not to fit around the windows of subway cars, and would either be too small (HO scale), or too large (O scale). We'll be printing out the cars ~1/64 (S scale).
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They sure look the part, Cat. Well done!
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I hadn't originally been planning on modelling the Mongols, the gang seen waiting at the Chinatown subway station at the opening of The Warriors. Their costume was funky enough, but the colours bland and sourcing conversion fodder would be tricky.
This gang has long been identified as the Savage Huns, but in the last couple of years a production photograph emerged of a deleted, and lost, scene which is definitely them and the Mongols. Also, photos have emerged of a surviving costume that shows a terrific back patch with a big crouching tiger.
The tiger patch caught my attention, so I went scouting for conversion fodder. Wargames Atlantic plastic Boxers were perfect for the job.
Baggy trousers and leg wrappings were just right. I shortened the height on most of the figures and shaved them all down to make them skinnier. The shirts and hats carved down easily into the proper style. Love working with styrene! (These started out as wicked tall and bulky for Asians, a common problem with sculptors.)
The leader is armed with cleaver, and an optional pistol that can be swapped in.
"You see what you get Warriors! You see what you get when you mess with the Mongols!"
Since I was doing conversions from a box of Boxers, the gang also gets a Tiger Spirit champion in full Tigerman suit (not contra-indicated in the world of The Warriors gang outfits) and a pair of butterfly knives.
"Yes Mr. Crocodile, that is a knoife, but I see you only have one..."
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Painting the tiger patches was quite fun. Did a white base coat. Let that dry, then added the oranges. Let that dry, and then added final details with the .005 Micron Art pen. Fences in the WIP photo courtesy of Mike Demana.
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Good looking bunch. Nice job on the logos too...
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Thanks, Cap'n!
The patches were fun, and large enough that they were easier than expected. I was happy with all of them on first pass and didn't need to go back with any touch-up.
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Agree, agree, great work on those tiger patches. :D
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A few nights ago I was up late and didn't have enough eyeball focus to paint, but I did have enough to do some figure prep. So I pulled out the figures that had been stashed away for the High Hats gang from The Warriors and got started on those. All prepped and primed now.
Started with Ainsty hooligans (and 1 street thug in braces from Killer B), did a little carving to remove scarfs and reduce their bulk a bit, and carve suspenders in where needed. Head swaps or chapeau grafts came from Great Escape Games' plastic Gunfighters (and 1 from the WA Partisans).
Also 4 affiliates, the art squad, informally known as the 'Flat Hats' — figures from the stash with beret heads and holsters for their spray paint from Wargames Atlantic's Partisans. They can also frighten away the unaware by miming getting ready to draw!
Also judging from a lot of their faces, these mimes like to scream silently when fighting. It helps to freak out their opponents.
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The warchief and lieutenants are good at giving hand-signals to the crew:
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Those look great! I can't wait to see them painted up. I hadn't thought about using late 1800s/early 1900s hooligans for that gang. Great idea!
Mike Demana
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Thanks Mike!
But these are the more modern Football Hooligans from the Aintsy's Aggro Range. Most of them start out with braces. Just a little trimming of the brim on the Western Gunslinger hats did the tophat trick.
TVAG's B'Hoys figures were in the running for consideration because of their great hats, but it would have taken more work to give them all suspenders than to give this lot hats.
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Your converts look good so far. Looking forward to seeing them painted!
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Well, the High Hats join the in-progress cliques, we'll see which way the Muse leads from here.
Current status of additional Warriors gangs:
* Orphans (double sized gang of wimps), partially painted and bases textured.
* Boppers partially painted.
* Alley Cats, primed and bases textured.
* High Hats, primed.
The Last Dragon:
* Leroy's Dojo, primed.
* Shogunate of Harlem, partially converted.
Tonight's activity log:
* Re-assembling the last few 1/64 diecast vehicles that were disassembled for weathering and some detail painting. Photos to come this week.
Likely next step:
* A bit more paint on the Boppers, then texturing their bases and the High Hats.
Soonish:
* Cops, need pose conversions. 70s-ish style US cop uniforms are surpisingly hard to come by. I've got a bunch from Crooked Dice, but they're all 30mm giants, grumble, grumble. I may get some Killer B ones from the Geezers Shut It range and adjust their hats. Their cruisers are ready!
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Really good news on the cop front — chatting with Killer B Games on Facebook, they will definitely be expanding their range of 1970s American Cops with NYPD types. Sending brief to the sculptor now!
Last night I was poking at their shop more and discovered they do have American cops in their Invasion X range, but they would take some work to modify for NYPD — need to remove shoulder straps, add batons swap out shotguns (NYPD does not deploy many long arms, although someone might be dispatched with a shotgun if a gang riot is really getting out of hand).
I think I'll grab some of these to get started, but at least I don't have to go crazy on difficult to swap out shotgun poses since there will be baton-swingers coming.
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Your dedication to accuracy is inspiring! :o
Mike Demana
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Well Mike, here's some more details to help set the scene. I'm not exactly a rivet-counter, but I do enjoy the research part of this hobby!
Just finished a bit of detailing work on a small fleet of diecast cars to populate a 4' x 6' board with tactical obstacles, some mission targets, and scenic period dressing. I stuck with cars labelled 1/64. Even that isn't always trustworthy. The ones labelled "True Scale 1/64" are good and also belie the potential hazard of ones merely labelled "1/64. Johnny Lightning schoolbus, I'm looking at you ya wee liar! But overall, these are more reliably close to 1/64 than generic Matchbox/Hotwheels size.
I took them apart for detailing and varnishing, then put the windshields back in and re-assembled. A few of them had screws and were easy to take apart. Most were riveted and had to be drilled.
I put them in the bench vice with a bit of foam to protect the paint and drilled in just enough to break the rivet's bond.
Many of the windshield pieces are also riveted to the roof. I discovered it's not a good idea to drill those. It's easy to slip and drill clean through the roof. Whoops. Readily fixed with a bit of green putty, a lick of paint, and a bit of weathering to blend the colours. After that discovery, I switched to using my trusty #16 XActo blade to cut around the rivet to free the windshield.
During re-assembly, I glued the windshield back in place and added a bit of putty to re-lock the hold around the rivet post. Also learned not to use too much glue which can lead to fogging the windows on the inside. Whoops. Correctable by lightly scraping the fog away. That leaves light scratch marks, and those are corrected by applying a very thin layer of Testor's clear canopy cement. This melts the ridge lines of the scratches and it hardens up with a smoother finish.
For the interior pieces, I added a bit of secondary colour to the steering wheels and/or seat covers, then sprayed the whole piece with Dullcote. This is one of those details that would be more noticeable by its absence. A monochrome glossy plastic insert can jump out and look toy-like. A bit of paint avoids that hazard.
The biggest detailing work was adding license plates. Most diecast cars do not include a front plate. New York, New Jersey, and others in the neighborhood required 2 plates in 1979. So plates got added to the front as needed. Some of the rear plates areas that are modelled in were way oversized, so I glued a plate onto those.
US plates are a standard 6" x 12". The plate areas that are cast in are not consistent sizes. Working from what they do have, I settled on cutting new plates from a strip of 4mm wide .020 plastic and cut 8mm lengths. Cast on plates that were close to that, I left as-is.
A few cars came with plate decals; those got left on and gave a nice smattering of foreign plates from around the country. The bulk of the cars, I gave New York plates. A handful got New Jersey. And I tossed in one each from neighboring Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Mass is an outlier and only required 1 rear plate, so the Bug has a smiley face plate on the front.
Thanks to Wikipedia, they are all in the correct colour combos for 1979. The '64 VW Bug from Massachusetts, and most of the cars from New Jersey have older registrations and sport the older colour plates that had been recently changed.
The lettering isn't particularly legible, but I took care to get a good impressionistic representation of the layout of plate number and state lettering. The ones that got done with white paint are distinctly impressionistic. For the ones I could use Micron Art pen colours, the plate number/letter combos are legit and slightly readable.
And because Wikipedia knows all, the letter part of New York plates are issued by county, and these cars now represent all 5 boroughs (a bit heavier on Brooklyn), plus a few from Westchester county and Nassau county on Long Island. It's rather esoteric, and not particularly visible even, but makes me happy.
The other little detail that was fun to do was painting a little inspection sticker inside the front windshield. And praise be to the internets, the sticker colours and window placement are correct by state for 1979.
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Most of the cars are 1970s; not too many late models, those are targets for very saleable hubcaps and wheels. A goodly number of 1960s ones that survive the city. And even a few 1950s.
That '57 Ford Fairlane with Connecticut plates is probably stolen to start with and a prime target. You shouldn't oughta mess with the beat up '67 Impala with Jersey plates, you easily can fit a couple of bodies into that trunk. The '79 Continental from Jersey might also be risky...
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The two beer trucks are Mack BM models, last produced in '41. Alas, no one makes diecasts of the ED that started production in '42 with the more roundy snout. But good local beers here — Schaefer from Brooklyn and Ballantine's from Newark. Grabbing some cartons of beer off the trucks might be a good plan, unless there are some mob mooks at the bar checking up on payments for delivery... The flatbed had a 555- phone number on it that I changed to 855-, a Brooklyn exchange.
For the civic vehicles, the police cruisers came marked for the 27th Precinct, a fictional precinct used in a number of TV shows. In the precinct numbering sequence though, that would be a Manhattan squad. I changed it to 65th, a fictional Brooklyn number. The real 65th became the 73rd in 1929 re-organising, but the old building still said 65th above the door. The cars of course all came with the same cruiser number, 1247. So I changed one to 1245 and one to 1267. These are also technically the 1982 Plymouth Fury, slightly smaller than the 1977 Fury, but hey it came in NYPD markings for the win.
[edit: the 65th became the 73rd, which serves the Brownsville area, including Broadway Junction, aka Fort Zinderneu, not the 79th Pct. as previously noted.]
They also came with the ski-rack light bar on the roof, not the older bubble-gum machines as seen in The Warriors. So I picked up a trio of 1974 Dallas Police Matadors so I could swap the lights. Scraped the markings off one of the Dallas cars, plugged the holes in the roof, and now it's a civilian car. Had to adjust the spacing on the supports of the bubble-gum machines; fortunately, the holes in the roof made a good jig for gluing them back together.
It's extremely unlikely to see yellow cabs outside of downtown Manhattan or the airport, but hey there are two different 1970s ones available. One has markings from the movie Taxi Driver and one from the TV show Taxi. Sunshine Cab Company has the correct rates on the door for 1977–1979. Taxi Driver's had the older rates, so I had to change that.
The orange cab is modelled on a barn find in Binghamton, but the phone number on the door is also a Manhattan exchange. In NYC, medallion cabs are yellow and can technically pick up fares anywhere; borough cabs are green and can pick up fares in their borough; livery cabs are any colour but yellow and technically cannot pick up fares that hail them from the street (in reality, no one complains if they pick up fares where the yellow cabs will not roam).
The USPS Delivery Jeeps were great finds, both the blue and the white liveries were used throughout the 70s.
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Nice! They look great! I have a buttload of Matchbox/Hot Wheels/Johnny Lightning/Marjorie/etc, that I use for my 20mm/1-72 stuff. And you're right - scale can vary, especially the larger vehicles...
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Nice! They look great! I have a buttload of Matchbox/Hot Wheels/Johnny Lightning/Marjorie/etc, that I use for my 20mm/1-72 stuff. And you're right - scale can vary, especially the larger vehicles...
Thanks!
If you want some buses that would work well with 20mm (but not 25s!), the Johnny Lightning short bus is ~1/78, and I've got a pair of pull-back GM Fishbowl city buses that are ~1/76.
The wheelbase on the the city buses would have been ~1/64 if it was the 35' bus. But with the width and the height of the models, they're definitely the 40' ones, and too small for 25s.
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Damn, you went bananas on your motor pool. Huge respect!
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Thanks, Fram!
One more thing on the varnishing, I didn't want the super high-gloss look, everything gets grungy quick in the smog of a 70s city:
* The interior pieces, wheels/chasses, and the really beat up bodies got sprayed with Testor's Dullcoat.
* Most of the older car bodies got Krylon Matte spray (which is kinda satiny).
* Fancier cars got Rustoleum Satin spray.
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Amazing. :o I am even more impressed now with your project! I mostly use my vehicles as scatter scenery in my games, but you make them part of the cast. Very interesting reading your run-down on the project.
Would you mind if I ported your post on here over to the First Command Wargames Facebook page? Or maybe even the FCW website? I think other folks would be fascinated and inspired by what you've done. I would essentially be copying and pasting your text and photos and giving your credit.
Incredible work!
Mike Demana
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Thanks, Mike!
Yeah, the cars definitely have a lot of personality to add to the story now. That dusty rusty VW Thing with Vermont plates has seen a lot of hard use on dirt road mountain passes, but it seemed like a safe car to use for a trip to the Big Apple.
Yes, you're quite welcome to share!
After a couple of false starts and delays, printing is finally underway for scenery. I just had a couple of spools of filament dropshipped to the friend whose printer is humming away right now.
Starting off with half a dozen subway cars scaled for 1/64 so I can get a start on bringing them to life, and a small section of elevated track. With a bit of the track structure in had, I can finalise plans for adding station platforms and calculating the width need for street and sidewalks that will run underneath it.
With street maths nailed down, then I can do a more accurate board plan and work out what all are needed
for buildings to fill it out.
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Names added for the WIP gangs. Written with a .05 Micron Art pen and sealed with a light spray of Dullcote to make sure it doesn't smudge while I continue painting.
The Warriors fandom wiki lists all the names that are used in the video game, it's always a good starting place.
That provided a great list for the Orphans.
I used some of the names for the High Hats, and filled in others that I preferred, including the affiliate Low-Hat artists in berets and spray paint holsters with Roman mime names and Sabine (I think they have a ménage à quatre going or something).
Decided on all my own names for the Boppers, this crew strikes me as having launched a top Hip Hop group led by DJ Bop.
****edit***
Getting "Path Cannot Be Empty" while trying to post with photo. Could make the post without photo, but get the same message trying to modify post by adding photo.
****edit edit***
IT Has fixed the problem now.
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I started getting that same message the other day. The mods are aware of the issue. It did cause me to finally start using MyGallery here in LAF to embed photos. Works like a champ.
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IT has fixed the photo loading problem now, WIP pic added 2 posts down.
CapnJim, I'm still traumatised and bitter over the whole Photobucket thing.
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I'm still traumatised and bitter over the whole Photobucket thing.
Tell me about it! When I am absolutely bored, I go back to my blog and find where I left off editing my old posts to use uploaded photos rather than the Photobucket linked ones. I just don't have the heart to plow into it and get it all done over a week. Can't I hire a student or someone to do this stuff for me...? Will no one rid me of this meddlesome Photobucket problem...?? lol
Mike Demana
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Heck, I can't even find my Photobucket password... :o
Nice job with the names, by the way...
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Orphans, Mr. Rico, elevens of them!
Elevens, Mr. Spock?
22 to be precise, Captain.
The Orphans' names all came from The Warriors fan wiki which provides the names given to them in the video game, none are identified by name in the movie.
There are 10 specialist types.
Sully, the leader, has his trademark menacing bent razor.
Jesse, the top lieutenant, has traded in his old toilet counterweight for a tire iron. When getting down to the final detail painting, I realised that I needed to do a little re-carving on Jesse to roll up the sleeves of his shirt — Apache Ramos, the actor, has Apache and a Puerto Rican flag tattooed on his arm. Buzz and Mac also got tire irons, this crew specialises in hubcap and tire raids.
[edit: found an old interview where APache Ramos identified the weapon he was holding — no one has ever been able to correctly guess from the screen image.]
Troy, Wally, and Bugs are wearing vests. They got designated as the artists as they can stick the cans of spray paint in their vest pockets while climbing up to tag high places. A crew this size is also good for tagging raids.
Del, Monk, and Scooter are the sprinters for messengers and scouts.
In the movie, Orphans is written across the middle of Sully's back. I moved the lettering up across the shoulders where I would have more room to write with my trusty .005 Micron Art pen and be more visible on the tabletop. It was still a tight squeeze on the scrawnier wimps.
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Nice kids. They just hang out with the wrong element.... :D
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Those look great! And yes, a gang that size could go on a tagging spree that would be tough for another gang to stop... :D
Mike Demana
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Dateline: NYC, June 1979 — Brownsville, Brooklyn, on an odd-numbered day.
At long last terrain work is underway! There are yet more technical difficulties with getting the 3D printing rolling, but someday there will be piles of PLA to paint...
First building is ready, a Greenlight 1/64 Texaco station (the rest will be 3D printed). Out of the box, the model is very pristine and would look right at home in a Texaco ad, but not on any street in NYC.
I needed to fabricate a new roof for the building and the pumps, add armoured window shutters, lots of signs and weathering, and a few interior bits for texture. The model came with 1960s style pumps, I got another Greenlight Texaco station facade that came with better 1970s pumps to swap in, and cut up a 1mm O-ring for the pump hoses.
With this model in hand, it was easy to nail down the time period of the game for June '79, at the peak of the faux oil crisis to add a lot of story telling with a single model. With the US oil companies using the Iranian Revolution as an excuse to choke off supplies and [successfully] leverage Congress to lift price restrictions that had been in place since the OPEC Embargo of '72, New York was one of the hardest hit states.
NY implemented Odd-Even day rationing based on license plate numbers. Special legislation was passed to allow stations to charge by the half-gallon at the pump, as long as there was a big sign stating the per gallon price (pumps at the time couldn't register over 99.9¢). These are actual June Texaco prices from a photo of a station in Manhattan.
It's NYC, so of course there's plenty of litter and graffiti.
The University of the Streets is an archaic lettering style for '79. It's based on a Brooklyn photo from '72. But it's pretty well weathered too, so who knows how long it's been on this wall.
The NYPD Brownsville Precinct styles itself as Fort Zinderneuf, as addressed on the rear wall graffiti (the old station house was yellow brick). The game board is set in the Broadway Junction Station area of Brownsville.
There will be a smaller building going up against the other rear corner. While it's a bit away from their established turf, the Orphans have used that lower roof as a scouting post. Probably while arranging to sell some tires to the station in a cash deal in the back alley.
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Lots to love here in this thread. The Texaco station certainly evokes a sense of nostalgia for this former Upstate New Yorker.
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Thanks, GG!
1st 3D printed building is ready for the tabletop: Broadway — East New York Station on the Fulton Street Line, right next to the Broadway Junction Station on the elevated Jamaica Line.
STL file from the super Urban range by Corvus Games Terrain, printed at 82% size to bring it down to 1/64 scale for 25–28mm figures and the trains will match my fleet of 1/64 die-cast cars.
In June 1979. NYCTA had just announced the big "We're Changing" campaign to update the station signs across the system with the now standard coloured dots for each line. It would take some years to fully implement, and Brownsville Brooklyn would not be at the top of the list for upgrades.
It took a fair amount of google-fu and puzzling things out to make a plausible representation of what may have been on the signs at this station before the change. The Tareyton and WKTU-FM 92 DIsco signs are actual ads from '79. There were 'Hey, New York... This Bud's For You' ads, but I made my own variant featuring the Wonder Wheel and stubby beer bottle that are prominent in The Warriors.
For scenarios where one gang is trying to make from the elevated line to the subway, this station will be closed and they'll have to run further to the next stop.
"I'm sick of waiting for trains."
—Vermin
There's been some technical difficulty when the printers melted down on a hot day. We're waiting for replacement parts now before production can resume.
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There's been some technical difficulty when the printers melted down on a hot day. We're waiting for replacement parts now before production can resume.
Wait... the prints or the printer? Wow, yikes, now that's a new one!
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Wait... the prints or the printer? Wow, yikes, now that's a new one!
PLA melted down and gummed up the nozzles. Friend who is doing the printing has run into this before and says he should have know better than to run them on such a hot day. Hit all 3 printers that were going at once. They've been running pretty constantly for about five years now. Usually this can be cleared up by warming them up a bit a using a brass rod to clean it out. Not this time.
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I dig the gas and subway stations. Well done.
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Glad you could dig it KD47!
With building printing being delayed, I've turned to getting markers ready. Usually I get around to markers in the final few weeks' rush before a convention event...
Did my preferred Shrinky Dinks. After prototyping a few, got the big batch ready for baking in the oven — 350º for 3–4 minutes. Moosh flat with a spatula as soon as they come out just to make sure they aren't warped a bit.
The 1–6s I drew on 40mm squares, and shrunk down to ~17mm. Did a couple of large denomination 7–9s on 2" squares, shrunk to ~21mm.
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Those will look great on the tabletop as wound markers! They look so much like mine...and all I did was buy a pack of clear bases from Litko... lol
Mike Demana
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I admire your dedication to this project. There are so many thoughts that went into it and you seem to be an expert for all things prototypical of that era. The Warriors was a movie that became a major influence to my brother and me when we watched it on VHS tapes back in the eighties. I love all I see in this thread and start to bocome a little envious, I admit... However never too late to start someting new. I'll better start making up my mind! :D
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Oh sure Mike, do it the easy way.
~ , ^
Thanks, Michi. One of my hobbies is spending late nights going down rabbit holes on google while having a wee dram of whisky. Real life as seen in the movies is historical gaming too!
I'm not sure when I first saw the movie. On first run, it didn't play in Vermont where I was going to college. Anyone who likes the movie should at least be tempted to use it as inspiration for a game setting, there's so much fun stuff to work with.
I highly recommend checking out 'Mean Streets' that were directly inspired by the movie. Or any preferred pulp/skirmishy/gang rules will fit the movie. Fanatical modelling is completely optional — Mike runs his games with fictional gangs (which are really fun to create) in someplace he calls 'Cincinnati'.
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http://www.firstcommandwargames.com/mean-streets.html
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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74WCTZCM7GZ2y3T69KEolDKdB6P5evKz7g60MV7THBmhBZmm7H0pnTJo43p5NqJhaN84iWWCg5k731s3iO_XVHLBgP0W5jOYV1rsyE2nYHLO50BAikhu5tWyMJvTEOuK3kqdH7DF7aecEWdUXMunYvzfR45cuwbdJBI6k02dpRsVEyro_s1Eckxlm/w640-h416/OrigGameDay_StreetRumble2.jpg)
Thanks for the kind words, Cat! The movie was indeed my inspiration for the rules.
Mike Demana
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I guess you're gonna have to... come out and play. lol
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Tag markers are now completed for all the completed and in-progress gangs on hand (excepting the Guardian Angels and Leroy's Dojo who aren' the tagging types). While waiting for printing to resume on the buildings, this was a good time to do up all these tags.
Did a baseline of 10 markers per gang, plus more for gangs with more than one designated artist. During games, designated artists can put up a tag with 2 actions, others with 3 or 4 actions (playtesting to follow).
Victory points are earned for each tag. To add a tactical element for tagging, I'll try giving a bonus to the gang with the most tags up, plus an additional bonus if it's more tags than all the other gangs combined. Should add an interesting balance between tagging and just bopping your way towards victory.
Made the bases with Evergreen 1/2" square tiles. I lightly scored all along the grid so the pieces would snap easily to make bases. Then gave a spattered spray of light greys.
Cut and glued on vertical clear pieces, using right-angle braces and square paint bottles to hold the parts for a few minutes while the Plasticweld set.
Then decided the construction would be extra secure with a bit of support along the joint. Did the speckled spray paint on some long strips of styrene. Stuck them down on double sided tape and sprayed at an angle that only covered two surfaces of the strips, leaving the other two clear for gluing. Scraped off a spot on the base to glue them down in the angle of the joint.
Added a tiny bit of flocking and some litter to dress them up.
After painting and then outlining with a .05 Micron Art pen, did a couple of test pieces trying Glosscote and Dullcote for protection. While the Dullcote makes the clear plastic a little foggy, it looks better up against a building wall than the shiny Glosscote or plain clear plastic. So they all got Dullcoted.
In the photos —
7 completed gangs from The Warriors:
Warriors, Lizzies, Riffs, Sis, Furies, Orphans, and Mongols.
5 WIP Warriors gangs:
Boppers, High-Hats, Punks, Turnbull ACS, and Alley Cats.
5 other gangs:
Hidalgos, Satan Island Coven, Huns, Dragon Club, and Shogunate of Harlem (WIP).
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Oh my god, that's genius.
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Very clever indeed! Groovy! 👍
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Thanks folks!
I'm quite happy with the way these turned out. Also glad that the delay in building printing allowed me the time to get all these done at this stage. This is the sort of chrome detail that I usually leave until just before a convention, and then discover how much time they take...
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What convention are you running the game at...? Or are you speaking in general and nothing scheduled yet?
This is going to be an awesome looking game...! :o
Mike Demana
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I don't have any conventions scheduled yet. I've been aiming generally for the 2024 circuit, a lot of cons here in New England from January through May before the summer hotel rates kick in. However the delays in printing buildings keep pushing back my ability to put in game proposals (about five months now of various technical difficultes, new printers have actually been shipped and should be arriving shortly).
At this point, I can rule out Arisia in January and TotalCon in February. Havoc in April and Huzzah in May are still possibilities for launch time.
For earlier big projects, I've left chrome details until the closing month before show time, and then have to cut corners for the first big outing, but catch up later. Very happy that I have the wound and tag markers all done in style at this stage for this one. Will also be adding hubcaps and tires, but those are bonus extra chrome above and beyond the tags.
Last week, before we got word that the printers were actually shipping, I went on an archaeological expedition into the basement and pulled out an ancient stash of Plasticville buildings. With a little modification, these will work fine for throw down terrain for smaller games set in Coney Island. Tonight I've been working on converting a couple of Plasticville Motels into boardwalk concessions. I suspect I'll be able to get a number of these done before my friend Scott gets the printers up and running and I can turn back to the Broadway Junction terrain for the big board.
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It’s all great, but those tags are ingenious. I’m looking forwards to the pictures of the games you eventually put on (and I’m envious of those that get to participate).
Keep up the good work,
Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain
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I like those tag markers. Brilliant!
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I think the Plasticville buildings will work just fine. My stuff tends to be Sarissa Precision MDF, but honestly, we are blessed with a variety of choices nowadays. I'm sure whatever you end up with look stunning on the tabletop. Keep me in the loop on your plans! It would be amazing to see your games in person...
Mike Demana
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So, I started working on the Plasticville buildings for throw down terrain for Coney Island smaller games while we had the down time waiting for new printers to arrive. The summoning spell worked — new printers are here and humming away now.
I'll do a bit more work on the in-progress Plasticvilles before setting them aside to focus on the main board. Very happy with the way these can be Coney-fied with some roll down shutters. Any rumbles on the boardwalk happen after hours, or before hours in the early morning light, when everything is shuttered tight.
The Plasticville Motels make great rows of boardwalk concessions. The Post Office will be a Skee Roll Arcade.
Today's grand acquisition is all the parts for 4' of elevated track with two sets of three cars. Some assembly required... The track structure will be the most labour intensive part of the board. There will also be scratchbuilding of platforms and a control house that slings under the track.
The buildings, currently being printed, are very simple assemblies — trim flash, glue floors and roof together and paint. But there will be a bunch of them for a 4' x 6' Brooklyn board. I delivered 5 more spools of PLA while picking the trains up to keep the printers fed.
All the STL files are from Corvus Games Terrain, printed at 82% to bring the train cars in at 1/64 scale.
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With the El parts now in hand, and buildings rolling off the printers, it's pretty safe to say I'll be running games at Huzzah! in Portland Maine, 17–19 May.
Great people, great venue, right by the Portland International Jetport. Bonus inspiration that this year's theme is Hollywood. Hotel block just opened, I'll be making my reservation tomorrow.
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https://mhwa.info/huzzahcon/
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Wow, SOOOO close to me being able to attend. I'll still be in school, then. Plus, I think that is the weekend of a Toledo convention I go to every year. Good luck!
The elevated train looks like it will be amazing. Can't wait to see that and the Coney Island scenery... :-*
Mike Demana
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I'm really looking forward to that elevated railway.
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Great progress here. Looking forward to more.
And Mike, yeah. I'm pretty sure that's the weekend of Drums...
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Games are officially submitted and accepted for Huzzah! Con, May 17–19 in Portland, Maine. I'll be running session on Saturday morning and afternoon. Great people, great venue, right by the Portland Jet Port if anyone wants to travel to a great con:
https://mhwa.info/huzzahcon/
Now to finish getting through the stacks of cartons of 3D printed terrain...
A friend has been coming over and she's been helping with the prep work, and we'll eventually shift to painting. The pile of track and girders for the elevated are all trimmed but still need a fair amount of analogue modifications. We've started on prepping the first carton of buildings, which trim up much quicker than all the girders. I'm puttying the seam in the train cars now and will soon be able to spray paint
I may or may not have work time to finish the subway extension in time for Huzzah, but all the parts will be in hand soon. I got the first batch of them this week, which allowed me to do a dry fitting and calculate what all would be needed to add an upper mezzanine level Rest of the subway and mezzanine parts will be in the final carton.
For bonus points, the convention theme this year is Hollywood, so this will be one of the themiest games!
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Oh, I'm so envious! :o
There are some awesome terrain bits on your table, although the subway looks rather like London Tube rolling stock than NYC carriages. May I ask from where you got the STLs for those? :-* :-* :-*
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All the STLs are from Corvus Game Terrain's Urban range. It's the only subway set on the market, so at least I'm not doing scale model railroading with this project. I did have the cars (and most everything) printed at 82% of standard file size and that does bring the cars in at 1/64 scale length of NYC trains to match the diecast cars on the street below.
The sides of NYC stock isn't fluted like this, they are a nice smooth canvas for the street artists to work on. But once the gangs deck these trains out in full 1979 NYC livery, they will fit in nicely.
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Designer's in Ireland and just went for a generic train.
https://corvusgamesterrain.com/collections/modern-urban-post-apocalyptic
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All the STLs are from Corvus Game Terrain's Urban range. It's the only subway set on the market, so at least I'm not doing scale model railroading with this project. I did have the cars (and most everything) printed at 82% of standard file size and that does bring the cars in at 1/64 scale length of NYC trains to match the diecast cars on the street below.
Thank you very much! I'm also using 1/64th scale diecast vehicles as road dressing along with 28mm miniatures on my gaming table, therefore a good hint to scale the files down to 82%. Many moons ago, I bough H0 gauge NYC subway carriages to convert them to S scale, but that never happened... lol Now I see an alternative!
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Overall, I love the Corvus designs. There are a few quirks in the train platforms that benefit from remedial work. Mind the gap, and make a dex roll! The gap twixt platform edge and car doors would eat small children and wheelchairs.
I'll be adding a filler strip on the subway platforms. The Elevated platform piece is not designed to be extendable, and so I'm kludging the print scaling of subway platform parts to make a better elevated one. Printing the platform support narrower on the X axis to glue up against the track piece (X at 44.74%), and printing the platform deck wider than that to overhang the killer gap (X at 63.24%), Y & Z at 82%. I'll have to cut a hole in the platform deck for the stairway to come up through since I'm not connecting it at the platform end.
At 82%, the track gauge comes in a little wide, but the car dimensions are perfect for 1/64. And figures on bases look fine next to the doors; folks over 6' tall have to watch their heads on NYC trains!
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Your attention to scale and detail is amazing...this is going to look stupendous when it is done! :o
Mike Demana
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folks over 6' tall have to watch their heads on NYC trains!
I did, but also did in London - so you must have matched the scale perfectly! :D
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Meditating on the car side, I think I'm going to try filling in the fluting with gesso. Try a little experiment area first. If it comes out semi-decently, that will make painting the graffiti a whole lot easier.
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Rattle can and masking tape level of getting the base colours on the first big batch of 10 buildings is done. Brushwork for touch-ups, detailing, and weathering to follow. Prep for the next batch is well underway.
These 10 cover the light industrial area and a start on the restaurants/shops. More of them to follow, and then houses.
Total will be 40 buildings so the board will look like a slice of New York. 2 have already been completed a few months back. Fortunately the 3D prints paint up quick, and 38 of them are printed. (The Texaco was a stock pre-coloured building, and the control house to be slung under the tracks across Broadway Junction Station will be scratchbuilt from styrene.)
My friend who took on the printing did quite the Herculean task. I knew this was going to be a big project. I severely misunderestimated! I'll be picking up the final carton of prints today.
Grand tally is 21.5 spools/kilos of PLA. 2 months of non-stop printing with 4 printers, ~ 1280 printing hours. Totals do include a significant misprint and re-do — Scott mistakenly printed (16) sections of double-track elevated track pieces (~7-1/2 linear feet!) that should have been single-track subway track pieces, whoops. (Michi, if you'll be wanting some track, let me know.)
Whee!
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For some reason I hadn't realised how many models you were preparing. I'm impressed by the the sheer volume of items, and as other have said, that you still manage such a high attention to detail.
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I did the board layout with allowance for pretty wide streets and sidewalks since the game is essentially an open air dungeon brawl. Not as wide as the actual ones though, there needs to be enough buildings to feel like its New York, and even still, these are very tiny blocks by NYC standards. But the visual impact should be good.
The Broadway Junction Station area was the best film location to model because it's a rare spot in NYC where the streets aren't in big giant grids. I took artistic liberty adjusting the angles of the streets to make a good gaming layout with starting points separated, but all converging in the center.
If a gang has to run from the Browadway Junction Station over to the Rockaway Avenue subway entrance, they'll have to zig zag across the board to get there.
Not all the buildings will need high-attention details, but any that can will get them. The primary goal is for the game to provide an immersion experience for the story telling.
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The primary goal is for the game to provide an immersion experience for the story telling.
This is very much my motivation as well: I realised I can build my own theatre sets and tell stories.
My non-solo games are with Eldest Son, and we both have a tendency to make decisions based on what makes the better story, even if it means we don't win.
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I like the layout! Can't wait to see how it turns out... :o
Mike Demana
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I like the layout! Can't wait to see how it turns out... :o
Mike Demana
Amen to that!
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About two weeks ago, finished up the first big batch of buildings. Been kinda busy painting and prepping more, and clearing snow, and hadn't posted these yet. Thought I would have had them done by the end of the year, but didn't get much modelling time in over the holidays from Winter Solstice to New Year's Day.
After applying signs and final weathering, sprayed with Dullcote, then painted the windows with gloss blue and grey (tiny windows with grilles were painted before varnish).
At the time I had finished these, had the 2nd big batch of buildings ready for detialing with all the base colours sprayed. They're actually getting much closer to finished now than when I took the first photos of them. Thought I might have finished them by the end of January, but those snow clearing days sorta kill fine motor control and painting ability for the rest of the day!
Many more buildings trimmed and awaiting spraying. Just a few more to trim. Construction of the elevated track is just beginning.
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Man those buildings look amazing.
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Awesome!
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Wow, a big batch indeed. And very smart too.
I like the slogan on the garage/repair shop.
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Thanks folks!
Knight's and its slogan is an actual shop under the tracks at Broadway Junction Station. Fulton Lumber & Supply is another real business a couple of blocks away.
There is a big cluster of auto businesses in this neighborhood. Most of the ones there now have not been there since 1979, so I made up the others to fit. Evergreens Cemetery is just the other side of the track (and a film location in the movie), hence Evergreen Sales for the muffler shop. Steve O'Boyle of Corvus Games Terrain did a surprise design of a building inspired by the actual Fulton Lumber & Supply after this project was already in progress, but the footprint was too big for me to put on Fulton Street, so I repurposed it as Eastern Parkway Motors; I had an open space for a towing company's lot where it will now sit.
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As a life long New Yorker I'd recommend a lot more graffiti and garbage to make it look more authentic l ;)
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Interestingly, the visual references I've been using for '79 are fairly light on graffiti. The movie itself is my primary reference of course, and outside of the scenes at Coney, there's not a lot of graffiti in the neighborhood shots of the scenes with the Turnbulls, Furies, Lizzies, and Orphans. Photos of a number of the filming locations today have much more graffiti than they did back then. (For a heart-warming touch, there's now a big "W" Warriors tag on the wall beside the roof of the card shop where they first spotted an Orphan scout.)
I've done a lot of google image searching for the time period and locale, which also led to stumbling on a Facebook group collecting lots of old photos for Brownsville, and again all pretty light on graffiti in this area. I've actually been going a little heavier on it in my painting.
Once I get the trains rolling, they will be in full glorious 1979 livery to really set the scene.
The few buildings with more pavement area (gas station and subway control house) have litter glued down, as do the bases of all the gang tag-markers that can be placed during play. If you take a close look at this batch of buildings, you will see bits of trash glued into little nooks where I could glue it to two surfaces and it will be secure in storage and transport.
1979 should definitely be pretty well carpeted with trash for sure. The bulk of that will come when I get to building the physical street boards and have someplace to glue it down. Might also just drop some as loose scatter when I set up the board for the game.
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Painting is progressing nicely on the next pile o' buildings. And construction work begun on the elevated track.
Building the track in three sub-sections for easier storage and transport.
By using the files for subway platform parts and doing non-proportional scaling on the X axis, was able to print out a much better platform than the one that was included with the El parts. Giving the platform top a significant overhang brings it to within 1–2mm of the car doors and a much better looking gap than the original platform had. (Actual gap on the IND line is a mere 2", 0.8mm in 1/64 scale!)
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Yes the subway cars would have been covered from top to bottom in graffiti in 79. Oddly I don't remember homeless being as big a problem back then as it is now. Otherwise I would saw you could throw a few of them in there. A few burnt out cars or cars up on cinderblocks because their tires were stolen would also be a nice touch. Of course the permeating smell of stale urine would make it really feel like NY.
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I've got a great photo reference book: Born to Run: NYC Subway Graffiti on the IND and BMT Lines, covers the 70s and 80s, organised by year which will help get the styling correct for '79. Thumbed through that again today, buildings that happen to be in the background in these 70s photos aren't tagged at all.
Homeless population here in Boston started spiking in the early 90s when a number of the state's mental hospitals were closed and the patients were turned out on the streets. Cost of housing has of course skyrocketed insanely, and now there's a lot of working poor who are homeless.
I'll skip the scratch and sniff back alleys and subways...
~ , ^
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I've peeked from time to time at this thread but since not really my area of interest... However! Your dedication to this project and all the effort being put forth is inspiring and slightly astounding. Was there something seminal about the movie for you that keeps driving you forward? Alas, I've never seen the movie - again, not an area of interest. Perhaps your work will inspire me to see it. Cool work.
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It is a great movie! But really, this project just started growing on its own.
Started by being mostly inspired to play Mike Demana's rules Mean Streets, which were directly inspired by the movie. Dusted off some old painted gang minis, and dove into the stash for other likely suspects. Original plan was a mix of my own fictional gangs and adding in some Warriors gangs if I could scrounge up suitable minis.
After doing the Furies, and then especially the Lizzies, the modelling aspect really hit my sweet spot when I discovered it was feasible to model the actual character likenesses, and each gang was a nice little mini-project that was easy to intersperse around other projects for a change of pace.
Poking about for terrain options, found the Corvus Games Terrain urban range would cover it very nicely, and started laying out concepts for a board set-up.
Was thinking I would have something ready by Huzzah for this May. Then last June or so when they announced the theme for this year was Hollywood, that kicked it into high gear!
My weakness is a wee dram of whisky and late-night historical research rabbit holes on the internets. Fortunately, that hobby intersects very nicely with the gaming hobby and a predilection for fanatical modelling.
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Seeing all that eye candy in progress, I wonder if it would be odd to sneak Snake Plissken on a rescue mission on that gaming table without any changes… ;)
Even though the plot is fictional and plays in a dystopian future, the movies were from the same era and setting is not so different!
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Well, I am sneaking in some cross-over movie bits...
One of the buildings in modelling progress is Daddy Green's Pizza. I've modified the sign to show locations in Harlem and Brownsville. Two gangs in the works for Leroy's Dojo and the Shogunate of Harlem.
The Warriors is technically set "sometime in the future", and the costuming certainly does not contra-indicate the presence of the Shogun.
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Thanks for the reply. I think I saw the movie is online for viewing.
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And construction work begun on the elevated track.
I must admit, I've been looking forward to this, especially having seen your work so far.
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Yes the subway cars would have been covered from top to bottom in graffiti in 79. Oddly I don't remember homeless being as big a problem back then as it is now. Otherwise I would saw you could throw a few of them in there. A few burnt out cars or cars up on cinderblocks because their tires were stolen would also be a nice touch. Of course the permeating smell of stale urine would make it really feel like NY.
I hope you don't work for the tourist board, because you really aren't selling it, just sayin'
I watched a few "Drivers view" videos from the NYC subway and I was genuinely surprised how clean it was and how little graffiti there is there; it's the scourge of German railways.
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I hope you don't work for the tourist board, because you really aren't selling it, just sayin'
Ah, that reminds me, need to add a "Fear City" inspired artwork someplace....
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_City_pamphlets
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I love that sign...ha, ha! And thanks for the shout-out on the rules. Countdown to my next game is 3 weekends away. And I really wanted to get that massive bridge done by then...going to have to get busy!
Mike Demana
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Ah, that reminds me, need to add a "Fear City" inspired artwork someplace....
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_City_pamphlets
I have never seen these pamphlets before. Pretty wild. Thanks for point them out. I'd _love_ to use them as in a project as well.
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There was a Netflix doc about that time period if I remember correctly, although it mostly dealt with the mafia which was very powerful at the time.
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Second batch of buildings is wrapped up. Well very nearly, the Subway entrance is still waiting for its paper signs when I bring the next sheet of signs to Staples to print out.
Cheap stuff these days is a lot cheaper than it used to be. Today we have dollar stores, back in the 70's we had 88¢ stores.
Chock Full O'Nuts at its peak had about a hundred cafés across NYC.
The candy store sign is patterned after the one in The Warriors, but adjusted to fit the size of this model.
The Chow Mein restaurant and Law Office are based on similar businesses in Brooklyn that popped up in google searches.
The other three shops help round out the assortment of businesses. Ty's TV Repair above Morrison Hardware helps set the period. The Bail Bonds office above Stone Pharmacy seems like it will do good business around here. Dee Dee's Pizzeria is inspired by the pizza shop at the Lizzies' pad (and named for Dee Dee Barnet, one of the Lizzy actresses; Wanda Valez also gets her name in graffiti on the side of the pharmacy).
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I honestly can't wait to see that game when you finally set it all up and play it out...! :-*
Mike Demana
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great work 8)
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Still impressed how you maintain speed and quality.
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Thanks folks!
Andy, convention deadlines are a great motivator. Some days, I get a bunch done. I try to get something done each day. I've even managed to get a fair amount of work on other projects too, just for a sanity's sake. Some evenings, I'll do a little on this project, and then something else. Gearing up for Test of Honour and getting more DBA armies ready.
Final batch of buildings is well under way. Everything is spray painted and detail painting has begun.
The small grey building had a Pizza Man logo which was quite fun, but alackaday Pac Man was released worldwide in Decemeber of 1980 and would be out of place on a table set in June 1979. I'll be gluing a new styrene signboard over it for Daddy Green's (The Last Dragon was released in 1985, but Daddy Green had been in business for some years already).
I was a little skeptical of Jodie's Brew & Burgers as a 1970s era business name. But a little google-fu revealed that there was a small Brew Burger chain operating in NYC in the late 70s — so Jodie's is good!
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What are your plans for the free-standing steps? Those are pretty cool...
Mike Demana
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What are your plans for the free-standing steps? Those are pretty cool...
Those are back steps for the apartment houses that have been left separate for spray painting, detailing and weathering. One pair of the houses is turned around and you can see the areas that were masked off during spraying to leave a paint-free gluing surface. The houseward edge of the stairs is also unpainted.
I figured it was easier overall to glue the front steps on before spraying.
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This is a tremendous project, :o :o the film, era and gangs aren't my thing but I'm finding the buildings very inspirational. Especially the domestic ones, something that's been on my radar for a few years now, without any progress being made.
Good luck with finishing on time, I'm looking forward to seeing how you construct your board and set the scene.
Cheers
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The third batch of buildings is the largest batch, and is rolling along. Half are now fully completed, and the final half is well under way.
Well, the little bodega next to the Baskin Robbins still needs a bunch of signs added to the front door when I print out the next sheet of paper signs.
Sunflower Power was the flavor of the month for June '79 — hey, they can't all be the next Pralines 'n Cream...
The little pizza shop originally had a great looking Pizza-Man logo based on Pac-Man; but alackaday, Pac-Man didn't come out til '81. Daddy Green's Pizza had been in operation well before The Last Dragon came out 1985 though — and according to the modification I made on this sign, at some point they tried a second location in Brooklyn.
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For the fancy-shaped pizza sign, I cut out and glued the paper sign to a piece of .030 styrene, and then cut the styrene to shape. The edges of the paper provided a sufficient guide for the XActo knife to cut a nice fit.
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Those are all great additions! I like the attention to detail that you have put into these. Things like checking the dates on when brands rolled out takes these to another level.
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Love the newest buildings! What's the next convention you are going to run at after the May show? I am officially retiring from teaching at the end of May, so would love to come see one...
Mike Demana
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Thanks folks!
I don't have another show lined up yet after Huzzah. The shows I usually attend run January–May. Will see if I throw something else in sometime later. Would be great to see you sometime Mike!
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What a great project! These buildings are perfect.
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I can only echo what everyone else has already said. I'm really looking forward to seeing these models all on a gaming table.
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Absolutely amazing work, love the KOOL advertising on the subway stairs.
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Thanks folks! I'm really looking forward to seeing this all come together on the table too...
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After finishing painting up the windows on the Baskin Robbins & bodega building, I realised Apache's Deli & Grocery door needed to be plastered with signs to have a proper bodega look.
This is named in honour of Apache Ramos, who played the Orphan Lieutenant in The Warriors. Seen here in the lower left, squaring off against one of the Mongols gang members.
Work on the last few buildings is coming right along. The Granada theater just needs gloss enamel paint on the windows now. For the lettering on the marquee, I used 1/4" high vinyl letters, and glued in some strips of styrene to help support them.
These two great movies were playing in the grindhouses in June '79. Master Killer is now more commonly known as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. There was a Granada in Brooklyn that survived through the 70s as a grindhouse and $1 all shows. Steve at Corvus Games kindly made the alternate Granada sign STL on request.
This will sit at the corner of 5 gangs' turf, and they have agreed and marked the theater as neutral ground.
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Lovely stuff, there, my good man. Splendid!
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Looks amazing...! :-* :-*
Mike Demana
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So much to love, great work mate.