Wednesday 8 August 2012

Vampifan's Bouncers and Bodyguards

Forgive me for this vanity post but I thought you'd like to see some more of my sculpted figures and for this review I have chosen the theme of bodyguards and bouncers.
The first two figures in line are based upon a pair of 40mm scale figures from Monolith's Dystopia range. They're nice figures that were sculpted by Jim Bowen but at that size were far too big to use with 28mm scale figures. So, I made 28mm scale copies of them, although my sculpts ended up being 32mm tall. Bouncers are often taller than average so I didn't mind them being a bit overscale. They both look rather thuggish and I'm very happy with how their faces have turned out. Their brightly coloured waistcoats make them stand out from the crowd.
The flamboyant-looking gent in the middle is based on a NPC from the GURPS Supporting Cast supplement. This is Tony Zbediak, nicknamed, "The Zee." He may look small but in actuall fact he is true 28mm scale. It's the four other figures who are perhaps too big. Tony has a low IQ but a high strength, ideal qualifications for a nightclub bouncer.
The two figures at the far right of the photos are bodyguards, although they could just as easily double as bouncers. Many years ago I saw a photograph of this pair in the Daily Mirror bodyguarding some huge breasted (patently fake) blonde bimbo. I cut the photo out purely because I liked the look of the bodyguards and I knew I had to sculpt them. They are deliberately overscale because I wanted them to look intimidating and imposing. I designed the guy at the far left as a GURPS NPC and named him Sean Crawshaw. He ended up being a 300 points character, which made him more than a match for most starting characters in GURPS. They tend to be in the 100-200 points range.
I'll leave you with a photo of the Monolith Bouncers and three of my illustrations so that you can compare the figures with the photo and the portraits. By the way, who else thinks that my portrait of Sean Crawshaw looks remarkably similar to my fellow blogger, Fran aka the Angry Lurker?
Monolith 40mm scale Bouncers
Portraits done by me to use on my GURPS Character Record Sheets

29 comments:

  1. They are truly great sculpts Bryan

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    1. Many thanks, Joe. That's kind of you to say.

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  2. Very nicely done Bryan. sculpted and painted. Do you own some of the 40mm bouncers? I had an idea and was wondering if you had some that you could do a scale pic with?

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    1. Thanks, Simon. I'm afraid I don't have the Monolith bouncers. I based my sculpts on the photo I showed above.

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  3. The sculpts are really good, and as they are bouncers/bodyguards I think the slightly larger scales suit them well.
    And yes, there is a nice similarity to Fran in your picture.

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    1. I agree, Adam, that in this case it doesn't matter too much that they are overscale. It actually works in their favour.

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  4. Awesome minis! Love your art work. Do I see glares on the sunglasses?

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    1. Yes, there will be glare on the sunglasses, reflected from my angle-poise lamps because I gloss varnished the lenses.

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  5. I like them all. And as you point out slightly overscale works really well for them. Afterall some of us are over 6 feet and some of us struggle to get to 5 feet tall. We are all different and it's nice to see the same thing on the table top. (Essay over!)

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    1. I totally agree with you, Clint. I like to see some variation in the heights of my figures. As you rightly say, we're not all the same size in real life, so why should every figure be the same size?

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  6. nice sculpted pieces... i wish i had a creative mind for this type of art.

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    1. Without wishing to sound big-headed, I've always been artistic. Drawing, painting and sculpting has always come easily to me.

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  7. Too damn talented for your own good. Lovely sculpts.k

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  8. WoW! They're beauties! If you can call a bouncer a beauty, that is???

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    1. Don't worry, Ray, I know exactly what you mean. And thanks!

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  9. Takes me back to my days on the doors, what great figures and work my friend!

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    1. Whoa, spooky coincidence! You actually worked as a bouncer! That's so fekking cool!

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  10. Great work Vampifan. I love the drawings they're really impressive and the sculpts are spot on, especially the thuggish expressions:D

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    1. Thanks, Phil. I'm rather pleased with the thuggish expressions myself.

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  11. A Bouncer with a mullet, wow ! never seen that before... good work Bryan, maybe one day I will attempt the sculpting thing.... maybe.

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    1. One of the quirks of the Zee (the bouncer with the mullet) is that he thinks he's cool. Operative word being "thinks!"

      There are a lot of tutorials for sculpting on the Internet, so you'll find it far easier than when I started out.

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  12. As everyone has said, they are great sculpts! That's cool that you drew them first (great drawing by the way!). I like the guy in yellow, remindsme of a gangster too :D

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    1. When I sculpted figures, Carl, I liked to have some idea of what the finished product would like look. Illustrations was just one way of achieving that. To be honest, you could use any or all of these figures as gangsters.

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  13. The fellow in the yellow reminds me of Luke Cage hero fo hire, one of my favorites from comics I read in the 70's....
    I have been enjoying your blog, just got back from overseas and have been assembling WWG and Ebbles labs PDF, nice work sir!

    PS..nice to see another Bryan who spells the name correctly! ;)

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    1. Actually, my illustration of Tony Zbediak is based on Luke Cage from the neck down. The head is totally different, so good spot there.

      It's amazing how many times I have had my name misspelt. Heck, I have even been called "Brain!"

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