PARAGONS - Heroes and Villains of Patriot City

[Commissar Molotov]

Just about everything else hobby-related that I do is over in my other thread, but this is so different that it deserves to be in another thread.

Recently, in no small part due to my friend Barret, I've been considering a 28mm superheroes game. I spent a night hastily writing a radical mish-mash of Inquisitor, Necromunda and Mordheim into something... super.

Realising that my efforts were a little lacking, I've done some looking online and have found a couple of rules-sets that have caught my eye. Rules-sets that'll get bought soon! At the moment I'm looking at the second edition of SuperSystem by Four Color, and I'll gve my review on that as-and-when I receive it.

Until then, I've been biding my time writing fluff. In the past weekend I have assembled a cast of probably thirty characters, a number of which could be villains or heroes. I'll make it clear here that in some instances I've stolen wholesale from other, existing characters by Marvel, DC and others. In part that's because I like this being a little cheesy. it's also because Marvel, DC and others have neatly sewn up the market!

I've decided that in order to lure my friends into this venture of mine, I need to create a couple of decent characters. I've decided on a setting - the New York-esque metropolis of Patriot City. The main characters will be the Paragons, an Avengers-esque group of heroes. At times they might do their own thing, follow their own storylines, but otherwise they'll join together to fight for Truth, Justice and soforth.

My first character is Thunderbolt:



Obvious conversion thus far. I've taken off nearly all the gems and stones and I've filed the feet to be slightly less pointy.

Thunderbolt is intended to be one of the central characters of my narrative. An Iron Man-esque character, he's a wealthy industrialist fighting crime but also having a good time with the ladies (which'll form a key plot-point that I'll tell you guys about later!) I don't want to spoil his storyline too much, so I'll leave him there for now.

I always thought Geordi LaForge before when I saw that particular scout head. Now I'll always think of Cyclops!

I imagine him in blue and gold, or blue and silver. Blue's likely going to be a key colour through many of the Paragons.

This is my next character, X-Ray:




At this point you're allowed to scratch your head and wonder if you've stepped into a Fantasy painting log! X-Ray is intended to be the "geek" of the team, physically frail but mentally powerful. He's a renowned scientist who was called in by the Government to examine a crashed space vessel. In the process of the examination he tripped some sort of mechanism, flooding his body with radiation and turning him into (to use his words) "a shadow at Hiroshima." The pole he's leaning on will be some alien staff - I need something decent to top it.

X-Ray is based a little on Beast from the X-Men, and a little on Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen - as a result I'm considering painting his skeleton entirely blue! His flesh has been completely stripped away, but replaced with some sort of alien substance.

I'm considering sculpting a labcoat/sunglasses, though I'm a bit wary that it might not look up to scratch, and the "walking skeleton" effect might be lost a little!

There's going to be a LOT of progress in this thread, though it'll likely be a bit sporadic. I have mini-orders from Reaper and Hasslefree due, so hopefully I'll be able to show you some more of my ideas as they form. I'm really looking forward to this thread as it's something different from the typical GRIMDARK in which I'm usually submerged.

Hope you guys find it interesting, too!

- Mol.

[Barret]

For X-Ray, what about a shorter coat, like a bomber jacket, instead of the full trench/lab coat? That might obscure the skeleton-ness less...

[Commissar Molotov]

Awesome to have you around, spurring me on to these heights of insanity! I'm not sure about a bomber jacket, just because it might look a bit odd (I say that as though a skeleton in a labcoat is normal!) on its own without trousers, shoes, etc. By contrast, a labcoat on its own is almost acceptable, in an eccentric superbeing sort of way. At least, the mind questions it less... I think?

[El-Diablo]

You Molotov, are bonkers mate.

Stark raving bonkers.

Nice little idea though, your not the only one looking into other games recently, im jumping on the post-apoc bandwagon myself.

Anyway, onto the figures - I think Thunderbolt needs something on the lower half - the parts themselves suit a superhero perfectly, but the addition of the larger scout head I think makes the Eldar frame a little top heavy.

As for X-ray, glasses are a must to show off the 'geekyness', possibly even a bag to keep generic sci-fi equipment in?

[MrInsomniac]

This. Is. Epic. I'll be following this for sure!

[Commissar Molotov]

Originally Posted by El-Diablo

You Molotov, are bonkers mate.

Stark raving bonkers.

Nice little idea though, your not the only one looking into other games recently, im jumping on the post-apoc bandwagon myself.

Anyway, onto the figures - I think Thunderbolt needs something on the lower half - the parts themselves suit a superhero perfectly, but the addition of the larger scout head I think makes the Eldar frame a little top heavy.

As for X-ray, glasses are a must to show off the 'geekyness', possibly even a bag to keep generic sci-fi equipment in?

Hah, I was hoping you'd find this before I had to PM you! It gives me something (else) to do, when I'm not fiddling around with albino Orks and waiting for IA: Sword Bearers to drop into my inbox sometime before the next ice-age and our sun going supernova...

If you lived a little closer I'd join you in the post-apoc. Hasslefree have some wonderful zombie-hunting miniatures and a game like that would be a blast to play. Now that would be something that could be very easily be kitbashed out of Necromunda rules!

Mmmm... possibilites... (I mean brains! Brains!)

Thunderbolt is a bit top-heavy, I admit. But to me the skewey proportions are a lot more okay in the exaggerated world of superheroes! I'll have to think about something to put on the bottom half - suggestions are welcome. I looked at putting pouches at his waist but that seemed to make him a little low-tech considering he's effectively an Iron Man parody.

He does need a bit of converting on the back because I'm not using the Eldar "vanes" - I'm going to be using some Space Marine parts... more on that later.

(Actually, I do need to PM you something quite juicy I got off my brother... check your B+C inbox when you read this.)

Originally Posted by MrInsomniac

This. Is. Epic. I'll be following this for sure!

Yay! It's always nice when someone who isn't one-of-my-friends-that-I-bully-into-replying likes these things! I'll try to keep on top of this, though university and the postal service might conspire to get in my way! At the very least I have a LOT of fluff and a LOT of storylines planned. Patriot City will be a busy place!

[Wolf Scout Ewan]

Cool idea!

I play City Of Heroes and so the superhero mini idea appeals to me! Will be watching!

[Bregalad]

The superhero stuff I know of:
1.) HeroClix and everything by Wizkids of course, with established rules.
2.) Pulp City http://www.fantization.com/index.asp...S&Category=416 (more coming)
3.) Reaper Chronoscope http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/chronoscope/ (more coming)
4.) Superfigs http://www.fourcolorfigs.com/ (w. rules, 28mm, more here http://www.agisn.de/html/superheroes.html ) rules https://www.wargamersheadquarters.co...d-edition.html
5.) Lance and Laser http://lanceandlaser.com/Merchant2/m...Store_Code=LAL (25mm)
6.) The Marvel Heroes board game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14808 and Monopoly.
7.) Marvel Heroscape http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-game...fm?page=Marvel
... and one miniature range of several generic super hero fractions that I can't find at the moment.

Even GW made some a long time ago: http://www.solegends.com/citadel/citsuperheroes.htm , here a collection of more old and current stuff http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/super-heroes.html .
Even more info here: http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero...miniatures.htm

[Cpt_Tiberius]

Ha ha! I love it. So far I am digging what you have going on. Here are some suggestions:

Thunderbolt. What about mounting the top of a tau shield drone to his back to create an "electron collider"? also he could use a belt I think. the tau range is your best bet for accoutrements for the "tech" guy I think.

As for X-Ray. I agree the lab coat might be a bit much, a shoulder bag of science gear could be nice. also a cyber monocle might give him that "professor" feeling.

So far so good. makes me want to kit bash a super hero myself...

-T.

[Commissar Molotov]

Originally Posted by Wolf Scout Ewan

Cool idea!

I play City Of Heroes and so the superhero mini idea appeals to me! Will be watching!

Thanks for the post! I played City of Heroes on a free thirty-day trial and I really enjoyed it. Not perfect - obviously not enticing enough for me to pay money for it - but I did enjoy it. I liked their character creator.

I just checked, and City of Heroes is set in Paragon City, isn't it? I actually considered Paragon City as the name for this setting - my other option was New Edison City. In the end I've gone for Patriot City, which is actually the setting for the Freedom Force games.

Wonderful thing with comics - I can just say the Paragon universe is just part of the multiverse!

Originally Posted by Bregalad

The superhero stuff I know of:
1.) HeroClix and everything by Wizkids of course, with established rules.
2.) Pulp City http://www.fantization.com/index.asp...S&Category=416 (more coming)
3.) Reaper Chronoscope http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/chronoscope/ (more coming)
4.) Superfigs http://www.fourcolorfigs.com/ (w. rules, 28mm, more here http://www.agisn.de/html/superheroes.html ) rules https://www.wargamersheadquarters.co...d-edition.html
5.) Lance and Laser http://lanceandlaser.com/Merchant2/m...Store_Code=LAL (25mm)
6.) The Marvel Heroes board game: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14808 and Monopoly.
7.) Marvel Heroscape http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-game...fm?page=Marvel
... and one miniature range of several generic super hero fractions that I can't find at the moment.

Even GW made some a long time ago: http://www.solegends.com/citadel/citsuperheroes.htm , here a collection of more old and current stuff http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/super-heroes.html .
Even more info here: http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero...miniatures.htm

Bregalad - thank you very much for these posts. Heroclix interests me but I don't know about the scale. My Google results have been a bit sketchy. How would a Heroclix model stand next to a 40k model, or the Hasslefree stuff I'll be getting?

I've bought a few of the Chronoscope models - two of the Captain Griffon, one of the Firefox (she'll become notorious jewel-thief "Amethyst" - heavily inspired by Catwoman!) and one of the Crosswire... I also got that wrestler with the fold-up chair.

Superfigs perplexes me. Some of the models are really good, and I'd like to get my hands on them. From what I read, it's almost certainly the rules-set I'll be using, too. But the Superfigs website itself, from what I saw, hasn't been updated since 2007. Is the Company still going? Are the models easily available?

My friend actually has the Marvel Heroes board-game. We tried it out and it wasn't that good, sadly. I don't think he'd enjoy me converting the models, though!

If anyone can find decent generic superheroes I'd be over-the-moon! Too many models have guns and it's so difficult to justify a city where every superhero has guns! They can't ALL be like the Punisher.

Finally, thank you for the link to Agis Neugebauer's site. I'm really very, very impressed!

Originally Posted by Cpt_Tiberius

Ha ha! I love it. So far I am digging what you have going on. Here are some suggestions:

Thunderbolt. What about mounting the top of a tau shield drone to his back to create an "electron collider"? also he could use a belt I think. the tau range is your best bet for accoutrements for the "tech" guy I think.

As for X-Ray. I agree the lab coat might be a bit much, a shoulder bag of science gear could be nice. also a cyber monocle might give him that "professor" feeling.

So far so good. makes me want to kit bash a super hero myself...

-T.

With regards to Thunderbolt I've already made up a jetpack for him... because I'm not using those Eldar "vanes" I've cut up some intakes from Space Marine backpacks. It looks pretty good, actually - and I reckon it'll look better when it's painted. A utility belt might be a good way of helping to bulk him out a bit, too.

As for X-Ray... next you'll be suggesting I give him one of those head-mirror things to make him more Doctor-ly...



Anyway, here's a few pics.

These first three show my 'jetpack' for Thunderbolt. Four Space Marine backpack intakes cut up and rearranged. It just needs a tiny bit of green-stuff.




Apologies for the hideously blurry last pic, but it's one of the best pictures at showing the layout of the intakes - helps show that it's not too bad.

[Commissar Molotov]

Next, a couple of pics (because Tiberius has gone to bed.)

He sent me this over MSN to explain his ideas regarding Thunderbolt:



I quite like the belt design, though I'm open to opinions from others - I'll be giving it a go tomorrow unless anyone posts a better suggestion. The Thunderbolt symbol... eh. I dunno.

Funnily enough, we then both sent eachother a picture over MSN at almost the same time.

This was mine:



This was his:



So obviously we're thinking along the same lines... opinions on the coat are definitely welcome!

[Barret]

T-bolt's jetpack looks good, like it's an integral part of the suit.

For X-Ray, I think I prefer Tiberius' version of the coat, as it still gets the point across while hiding less of the skeleton.


Also, giving him one of those head-mirror things would be awesome.

[Geckilian]

Finally. FINALLY. A log about superheroes and supervillains. Not long ago I started playing SuperSystem with my friends, and it really is an incredible system. It's et a lot of versitility, and it's easy to change around if everyone agrees that something doesn't flow quite smoothly. I personally have a team of mad scientist supervillains and their various creations (called Cultured Clash), so I'll be watching this log closely!

Thunderbolt s certainly shaping up well. He does look a tad top heavy, but then quite a few superheroes do. Some form of belt will alance it nicely, as shown in that edited picture above. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing some of your supervillains.

[Bregalad]

1.) Heroclix, Indyclix etc are all exactly the right scale. They are realistically portioned, so it depends on your "malformed" GW miniature sculpts (big hands etc) whether they fit.
2.) Superfigs are still sold, e.g. here http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/categories.asp?cat=47 . Don't know of the company status though.
3.) Black Hat sells these http://blackhat.co.uk/catalog/index....th=121_122_141
4.) World Works has some paper terrain for them http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/
5.) Gale Force 9 makes Heroclix material like effect markers and IIRC a table mat.

[Taarnak]

SuperSystem is still alive and well.

Here is the Yahoo Group and the website from one of the creators of 2nd Edition: The Annex

Both of these sites have lots of action on them. I know for sure that you can get vendor recommendations on the Yahoo Group if you ask.

I cannot recommend the SuperSystem rules highly enough. Excellent system for Supers (and honestly just about anything else). Points build system and campaign rules built-in. Great stuff.

For whatever reason, the official site is not updated very often anymore. I assume it has to do with the split of Old Glory and Westwind, but I do not know for certain.

Hope that helps some.

~Eric

[Commissar Molotov]

Originally Posted by Barret

T-bolt's jetpack looks good, like it's an integral part of the suit.

For X-Ray, I think I prefer Tiberius' version of the coat, as it still gets the point across while hiding less of the skeleton.


Also, giving him one of those head-mirror things would be awesome.

I'm very seriously considering one of those head-mirrors now... I blame Tiberius!

Originally Posted by Geckilian

Finally. FINALLY. A log about superheroes and supervillains. Not long ago I started playing SuperSystem with my friends, and it really is an incredible system. It's et a lot of versitility, and it's easy to change around if everyone agrees that something doesn't flow quite smoothly. I personally have a team of mad scientist supervillains and their various creations (called Cultured Clash), so I'll be watching this log closely!

Thunderbolt s certainly shaping up well. He does look a tad top heavy, but then quite a few superheroes do. Some form of belt will alance it nicely, as shown in that edited picture above. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing some of your supervillains.

I remember your Penitent Spectres from the B+C! It's good to see you here. I'm also glad to receive opinions from another superhero player!

I do have a few supervillains in the works. Actually, a number of my characters currently could be heroes or villains. And in an odd way that works - I like the idea that many villains are simply villains through some crazy random happenstance or a quirk of fate. Of course, some are irredeemably evil and must be severely bonked on the head!

Plus, there'll come times when the heroes clash, or when they have to team up with villain A to defeat villain B. Such is superherodom!

Thanks for the comment, I hope the thread is worth your attention!

Originally Posted by Bregalad

1.) Heroclix, Indyclix etc are all exactly the right scale. They are realistically portioned, so it depends on your "malformed" GW miniature sculpts (big hands etc) whether they fit.
2.) Superfigs are still sold, e.g. here http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/categories.asp?cat=47 . Don't know of the company status though.
3.) Black Hat sells these http://blackhat.co.uk/catalog/index....th=121_122_141
4.) World Works has some paper terrain for them http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/
5.) Gale Force 9 makes Heroclix material like effect markers and IIRC a table mat.

I spent today looking around my city for Heroclix models. Alas, no joy! I seem to remember a time when they were everywhere. Now I have no idea where to look. I tried Toys-R-Us, Asda, WH Smiths... I might try Forbidden Planet but I'm unsure if I'll have any luck.

I saw those Black Cat models but I'm a bit disappointed with the sculpting and size of them. Golden Oldie is a wonderful concept but if only it were executed just a touch better - then I'd do a minutemen-style super-team in Patriot City's past and the legacy of those heroes.

Originally Posted by Taarnak

SuperSystem is still alive and well.

Here is the Yahoo Group and the website from one of the creators of 2nd Edition: The Annex

Both of these sites have lots of action on them. I know for sure that you can get vendor recommendations on the Yahoo Group if you ask.

I cannot recommend the SuperSystem rules highly enough. Excellent system for Supers (and honestly just about anything else). Points build system and campaign rules built-in. Great stuff.

For whatever reason, the official site is not updated very often anymore. I assume it has to do with the split of Old Glory and Westwind, but I do not know for certain.

Hope that helps some.

~Eric

Thanks for the post. The lack of updates on the Superfigs site actually really put me off initially - it just seems like they're not bothering to try! I'm keen to get my hands on the models though (I wish I didn't have to rely on the internet) so I'll give it a look. Thanks for letting me know.


I've started green-stuffing a utility belt on Thunderbolt, pictures probably tomorrow.

[Bregalad]

(Marvel, DC and Indy) Heroclix are best bought as individual miniatures on ebay. There are close to 1600 items sold currently, so something should be there for you. I suggest looking through http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/ to get an idea of what you want and then search for the ebay store who sells most of what you want. Be aware that most Heroclix miniatures are sold with blue, yellow and red base rim (different stat wheels) with same sculpt but different prices (rarely different paint jobs). The blue="rookie" ones are dirt cheap and best buy if you just want the minature, often much less than a dollar, so "buy now" stores are convenient.

[Easy E]

You can find the old Marvel Super Heroes rules online for free here: http://www.classicmarvel.com/

I find the powers book particularly useful, but I think this game is fun and could easily be adapted into miniature combat.

[Illuminator]

Very good idea Mol, the name Paragons is very fitting as well. I think you've started another trend.

I think that Thunderbolt looks appropriate as the Superhero team's leader, though as others stated he looks a little too top heavy. I blame it on the head! I think the addition of the high tech belt will balance it out slightly. I think that new boots could look good too actually. Would you be opposed to trying out a different set of feet. If you are in fact trying to push the comic look, I think it would actually help the model if you went with moderately oversized feet.

As for X-Ray, I definitely dig the shorter coat since you can see more of his skeletal frame.

Do you have anymore ideas for the Paragons besides Amethyst? I'm eager to see how this log progresses and I'll be watching closely.

[Geckilian]

I'm glad you remember those Penitent Spectres! The little critters are doing incredibly well at the local GW.

At any rate, if you're in the US this place may be useful for you - StrikeZoneOnline. Though it doesn't have every single Heroclix figure made, it does have a wide range at very low prices. I've seen some nice ones at rookie level for 25 cents....

You know, I'll have to update my general log with my supervillains now, curses.