Sunday 19 January 2014

Vampifan's St. Trinian's Schoolgirls

St. Trinian's seems to be the flavour of the month for me. Having recently purchased the two recent remake films on DVD I also bought the boxed set containing the four original films from the 1950's and 1960's. So I am now well qualified in the subject of St. Trinian's. I thought I'd revisit four figures that I showed on my blog five years ago. Since then they have been repainted and one of them (Froggy) has had a name change. These four girls were sculpted by me about six years ago. They are based on set Girl001 Sorority Twisted Sisters from Graven Images’ Dystopia range of 40mm scale figures. Being 40mm in size these were far too big to use in my collection of figures. So, I resculpted them in 28mm scale, meaning these four figures are totally unique! Once again, I came up with their names and none of them are based on characters from any of the films.
The first girl in this set of four is Sabrina Sykes. She is armed with a 9mm FN Browning High-Powered HP-35 pistol and a flick knife, which is hidden in her skirt pocket. She is an incredibly accurate shooter. She is wearing opaque black tights, which I always regard as passion killers!
Second in line is "Froggy" Fraser. "Froggy" was so named because she looks like a frog! She too, is armed with a 9mm pistol and a flick knife. She is also the group’s medic and she carries medical supplies in her pink backpack. Rather than leave her bare-legged I painted her wearing stockings and a suspender belt, which many of the St. Trinian's sixth formers wear.
Third in line is Rosalie Alexander, a bubblegum-chewing miscreant with a serious attitude problem. At first glance she appears to be unarmed but hidden in her blazer, which she has slung over her back, are six sticks of dynamite, a flick knife and a spray-can of paint. She is the scrounger of the group and has a bad attitude. She is another girl who favours stockings and a suspender belt.
Finally, is Bridget Strong, the psychopathic bully of the group. Although armed with nothing more than a baseball bat, she is more than a match for most fighters. Her particular non-combat skill is breaking and entry. In ATZ-FFO she'll have high Melee and Savvy skills. She is wearing black opaque hold-up stockings. All four of these girls are blondes but none are natural blondes. They all have black roots showing.
I enclose a photo above of the four 40mm Dystopia figures from their website so you can compare my sculpts with the originals. None of these will win any beauty contests, will they?  I'm not sure if these are still available for sale - I suspect not. Those of you with long memories or who have been following my blog since the start may well remember that I ran a scenario using these four girls plus two of my Copplestone Castings schoolgirls in a scenario for a set of zombie rules that I was play-testing. The rules got no further than the play-testing stage but if you want to check it out here is the link to it - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/st-trinians-and-living-dead.html
This concludes my reviews of my St. Trinian's schoolgirl figures... for the time being. Last week I placed an order with Hasslefree Miniatures for four more girls, which I will convert. I also sent off for their pack of five hockey sticks. As soon as I get them converted (which I have already started on as the package arrived yesterday) and painted I'll review them. Look out for them soon. Then I must bow to pressure and run a scenario pitting the girls of St. Trinian's versus a zombie horde. That should be fun! The zombies won't know what's hit them!

22 comments:

  1. Pretty sweet modelling on your part mate! Well done indeed!

    They really look like mean girls. They need no men to save them since it may be the other way around!

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    1. Thanks, Johnny. St. Trinian's schoolgirls certainly don't need any men to look after them. They are more than capable of doing that themselves, and more than a match for any group of men... including the British Army!

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  2. As zombie projects go this was inspired. Is there room for the irrepressable 'Flash Harry'? If you were a master at St Trinians; which subject would you take?

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    1. I'd like to make a Flash Harry figure and some of the teachers, especially the headmistress, Camilla Fritton. Hasslefree's Madge from their Adventurers range would make an ideal Camilla. Flash Harry would have to be the George Cole version. I'm not a fan of Russell Brand and I thought he was the weakest character in the 2007 film. I'm searching for a suitable figure.

      Oh, what an interesting question, Bob. What subject would I teach if I was a master at St. Trinian's? Okay, I'll avoid the obvious answer of sex education and go for something I know a lot about - art and art history. Failing that, supernatural studies, if it was allowed on the curriculum.

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  3. Well sculpted indeed, though I'm not too sure that the first figure could hide a flick knife (or anything else!) in a skirt that's so short. Mind you, I'm a little concerned about this apparent obsession with schoolgirls in suspenders?!

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    1. Just to clarify, Hugh, I'm not obsessed with schoolgirls in stockings and suspenders but women in stockings and suspenders. It's a subtle but important difference.

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    2. Normally, I re-read any of my comments carefully before committing them, just in case they convey the wrong message. In this case, I was distracted (one of the cats was trying to eat my lunch in the other room) and didn't perform this double-check. If I've caused any offence then I apologise wholeheartedly.

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    3. Let me reassure you, Hugh, that no offence was taken. No apology needed, my friend. And let me tell you, having owned two cats of my own, I know only too well how distracting they can be.

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  4. Clever bit of sculpting. I wish I could sculpt as well as that. I plan on trying my hand at sculpting later in the year.

    I will be painting some of my St Searle's Girls in the next week or two. Just pondering the uniform colours as I don't want to copy St Trins. Any Suggestions?

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    1. Sculpting figures is not as easy as it looks, Clint. I had to learn the hard way - through lots of practice. Nowadays, with the Internet and on-line tutorials you'll find things easier. Easier but still hard, especially if you've never sculpted before.

      You can't go wrong with dark colours for school uniforms - black, dark blue or dark green would all work well. I wish you all the best in your painting and sculpting endeavours.

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    2. I fully appreciate sculpting is much harder then converting I have sculpted before but about 30 years ago and much larger (about 16 inches tall). I am daunted by doing something in this scale but as I will not starting on a human I will not need to worry so much about the face and hands. Cheers for the advice though and I am more than happy to take as much advice as I can get.

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    3. I'm more than happy to dish out advice, Clint. When and if I can, of course. Yes, it is much harder to sculpt a figure from scratch than it is to convert a figure. Wow, a 16" tall figure, you say? That's way taller than anything I've ever sculpted. I sculpted a few 54mm scale figures when I was running my Wild West skirmish games many years ago but never anything taller than that.

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  5. Amazingly done Bryan you'll have to do a game a one off game of ATZ with all these gals in.

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  6. Great looking figures, especially as they're home-sculpts. For other figures there is a good Flash-Harry type spiv in the mega-mini range and Artizan make a Mrs Marples type for the Head teacher.
    These do remind me a lot my own schooldays where the girls wore black stockings all the way up to sixth form.
    As for uniforms, there are also many schools that wear tartan skirts and there are some excellent examples on minis painted with them.

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    1. Thanks, Joe. I'll check out Artizan's webstore and I can recall the Mega Minis civilian (a not-Flash Harry) you mentioned but didn't they go out of business last year?

      Having watched all of the St. Trinian's films now I can say that as they progress the school uniforms become less, well, uniform. Yes, some of the St. Trinian's girls do wear tartan and/or checkered skirts.

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  7. Well sculpted Bryan, and I'm really looking forward to a St. Trinian's Vs the Undead HOrde Batrep, great diea!

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    1. Many thanks, Adam. I am very enthusiastic about running this one off scenario. I don't know when it'll happen but it will happen!

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  8. That is talented work but I think they're a little older than the 6th formers they portray but the uniform is the thing!

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    1. You know something, Fran? I think you're right. They do look too old to be teenagers.

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