*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 10:00:20 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 1686454
  • Total Topics: 118100
  • Online Today: 811
  • Online Ever: 2235
  • (October 29, 2023, 12:32:45 AM)
Users Online

Recent

Author Topic: Mean Streets: The Warriors & More (3rd Batch Buildings Half Done)  (Read 23242 times)

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
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.
: 3
 
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!
« Last Edit: March 27, 2024, 03:48:10 PM by Cat »

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2021, 09:51:22 PM »
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.

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2021, 10:01:50 PM »
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.

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2021, 10:34:23 PM »
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.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2021, 10:36:44 PM by Cat »

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2021, 05:17:22 PM »
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.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2021, 05:29:57 PM by Cat »

Offline mikedemana

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2846
  • Investigating curiosities around the globe...
    • Worldwidemike
Re: Mean Street Gangs (1st 3 Gangs and Furies WIP)
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2021, 10:59:58 PM »
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/

Offline pistolpete

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 836
  • Rent money is for rent - telly savalas
Re: Mean Street Gangs (1st 3 Gangs and Furies WIP)
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2021, 11:25:09 AM »
I can dig it.  One of my favorite movies

Offline robh

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3379
  • Spanish offworld colonies
Re: Mean Street Gangs (1st 3 Gangs and Furies WIP)
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2021, 01:27:22 PM »
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.

Offline Mr. White

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1404
    • Wyrd Stones and Tackle Zones
Re: Mean Street Gangs (1st 3 Gangs and Furies WIP)
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2021, 01:38:41 PM »
These gangs are _great_!
What scale are they?

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs (1st 3 Gangs and Furies WIP)
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2021, 03:25:18 PM »
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.

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs (Funky Skull WIPs)
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2021, 08:55:17 PM »
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.
 
« Last Edit: April 24, 2021, 07:29:53 PM by Cat »

Offline mikedemana

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2846
  • Investigating curiosities around the globe...
    • Worldwidemike
Re: Mean Street Gangs (Funky Skull WIPs)
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2021, 03:10:33 AM »
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/

Offline Cat

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1242
  • All Purpose Neko-Sensei
    • Goblinhall
Re: Mean Street Gangs (Lizzies & other WIPs)
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2021, 07:50:49 PM »
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.

Offline H_E_H

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 29
Re: Mean Street Gangs (Lizzies & other WIPs)
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2021, 11:27:44 PM »
Nice work, Cat. They're looking quite good.

Offline mikedemana

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2846
  • Investigating curiosities around the globe...
    • Worldwidemike
Re: Mean Street Gangs (Lizzies & other WIPs)
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2021, 06:01:50 PM »
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/

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
5 Replies
3229 Views
Last post December 10, 2007, 06:04:59 PM
by Zafarelli
4 Replies
2113 Views
Last post June 30, 2008, 04:34:48 PM
by Malamute
11 Replies
3693 Views
Last post February 03, 2014, 10:28:58 AM
by Too Bo Coo
1 Replies
542 Views
Last post October 13, 2021, 09:27:44 AM
by Westfalia Chris
5 Replies
495 Views
Last post March 14, 2024, 09:36:10 PM
by mikedemana