Vampifan's Police Figures

I have been reviewing all things police for the past couple of months. Well, I have decided to bring this subject to a close with a very special review of some unique figures. All of the figures shown in this post were sculpted by me, and before you ask, I'm sorry but they are not for sale. These are definitely one offs.

I'll start off with my street patrolmen and the one thing they all have in common is that they are all holding nightsticks. I made these because, even now, many years after I made them, you don't see many cop figures wielding nightsticks. At the far left is Sergeant Gus Zimmerman, a veteran NYPD cop who is proud of the fact that in his 30 years as a cop, he has never had to shoot anyone. I designed him for use in some of my GURPS campaigns, although he originally appeared in a role-playing game called Crime Fighter. Congratulations to anyone who can remember that lesser known RPG! I never played it but it had some good ideas in it that I cadged for GURPS. Crime Fighter did not go anywhere near the detail and complexity you get in GURPS, so I had to greatly expand his character. I see him more of a desk jockey and administrator than a front-line cop, hence his rather chubby physique.The cop in the centre of the two photos above is a young patrolman called Tony Lau. He is one of my own unique creations, although I never did get round to creating a GURPS character record sheet for him. His parents were Chinese but he was born in New York, U.S.A.  He is not a rookie but he hasn't been on the streets too long, maybe a couple of years. He still has much to learn.

The third street cop is Leroy Barnes, a straight as an arrow NYPD patrolman with a cynical attitude who divides the world into three types of people - cops, civilians and scumbags. He is based on a character from the GURPS supplement - Supporting Cast - a collection of pre-designed NPCs. I had very little to do to round out his character. Note that on all three figures, their cap peaks, belts, pouches, nightsticks and shoes were painted with gloss black paints, to give that shiny, polished look. Back in those days I still used enamel paints. Nowadays, I'd just gloss varnish those parts.

Next up are my range of detectives. At the far left of these two photos is my only police detective. The rest are all FBI detectives. He is a copy of one of the 20mm scale figures that came with the Games Workshop Dark Future game. I always thought that GW should have made the figures and vehicles for this game in 28mm scale. I actually ended up remaking quite a few of their 20mm scale figures, most of which were Gangers. Anyway, this figure looked a lot like Nico Toscani, as played by Steven Seagal in the film Nico, or as it is known in some countries, Above the Law. It's the ponytail that did it for me. Nico was Seagal's debut movie, and is one of his better films, which isn't saying much, given the amount of dross he's made. I never did get round to creating a GURPS character for him, and I can't ever remember using him in any game I've played.

The first of my four FBI detectives is unimaginatively called John Smith. He's another character from GURPS Supporting Cast, so I'm not responsible for his name. Smith is a man who prides himself on his people skills. He always wears dark glasses when outdoors. I sculpted him in a casual pose, speaking on his mobile phone. He is a Field Agent based in New York.

In the centre of this group of five is Assistant Director in Charge of the New York field office of the FBI, Ryan Scarlett. Scarlett is a tough and hard-nosed professional. He is divorced and has made a vow never to remarry. I saw an illustration of this character in a GURPS supplement, although I forget which one, and I thought he'd make a great FBI boss. The illustration showed him from the waist up and he was not named. He looks like he's giving out orders, which is perfect for a command figure.

Next in line is FBI Agent Robert Danforth in an action pose. He holds his 9mm Glock 17 pistol in one hand and his ID Badge in the other, clearly identifying himself as Federal Agent. I drew his portrait for his GURPS character record sheet and gave him a name, but that was as far as I got to filling it in. It's just another thing to add to my "to do" list!

Finally, we have my only female cop that I sculpted. Marsha Crowe is the East Coast Regional Director of the FBI's Special Affairs Department. S.A.D. is an organisation that investigates supernatural crimes and events, much like Mulder and Scully did in The X-Files TV series, only they have a much bigger budget and more manpower. Marsha is a character from White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game whom I converted into a GURPS character for my own supernatural investigators' campaign. She was the person my players had to report to and who assigned them their missions. Outwardly, she looks like any normal civilian, until you notice her ID badge pinned above her left breast. That one detail makes a world of difference.

These figures are all 28mm scale and fit in well with most true 28mm scale ranges of figures, i.e. they are not heroically scaled. They were all sculpted in the late 1980's and early 1990's. To be honest, if I was to resculpt them today, I don't think I could improve on them very much. I'm very happy with how they turned out. I have a lot of other 28mm scale figures that I have sculpted, particularly Civilians and Gangers, and I will show them to you some time in the future. Back in those days there wasn't the choice of figures available that you can get today. Fortunately, being a fairly decent sculptor, if there was a particular figure that I needed for a game I'd just sculpt him or her if I couldn't find an appropriate figure to use. Things have changed a lot nowadays and there's just no need for me to sculpt anything anymore, although I'm sure some of you would disagree!