Sunday, March 11, 2012

Paranormal Investigators: Camera man

All done. Sure, I had some hobgoblins who were ready to go, but technically, I bought this guy first, so he got painted first. I'm happy with the results. Very little to talk about here (you've already seen how I did the camera; though I have added a couple cassette cases and an extra battery pack to his belt, all cut from cured green stuff.) Here you can see the original figure on the far left (from Reaper Chronoscope pack No. 50090.)












Since this sculpt actually looks like a young guy, I continued with the theme of having interns on my paranormal investigation team. And since my team is based out of my fictional world (of Arcadia, my own Lovecraftian pulp universe,) I've given this guy a letter jacket for my fictional university (Assyria Tech University - Go, Charioteers!)

Only after I finished sculpting the camera and arm did I discover that there is indeed a cameraman figure available (in one of the civilian packs from the Superfigs line.) But I like that I made/converted my own. And I think this sculpt fits my collection better; the Superfigs sculpt is more of a television-type cameraman- I wanted someone who looks like they're from the AV club.


Note on scenario design: Accommodating your audience
I was thinking about my old pulp film crew as I was painting this current camera man, and I remembered why I created that original crew: A friend of mine and his children started coming to our local game store's game night.

Here's the thing: My friends wanted to try a miniature's game, and not only were they looking for a game their children could play, but they're all pacifists (in every way: anti-war, TV/movie/videogame violence etc.) There weren't a lot of options for them in the way of nonviolent minis games. So I "re-skinned" my game of Tusk (prehistoric or Victorian "lost world" dinosaur hunting) by creating this film crew.

It was no longer the goal of the players to shoot the dinosaurs. Now, the goal was to film the dinosaurs. The rules conversion was simple; I used all the same Tusk hunting mechanics, but instead of a gun (or spear or bow), it was a camera. Later I added the sound guy who would try to record dinosaur sounds (he had to get closer to the dinosaurs due to the shorter range of the microphone). The director added bonuses to the attempts at recording the sounds and images of the dinos. If the dinosaurs got to close, the crew was simply allowed to run away (so no one got eaten.) It was a great game that the kids loved; and I got some good experience converting miniatures.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulation ! very nice work !

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  2. Some great looking miniatures! Where did you find the film camera/cameraman figures for your re-skinned Tusk game?

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    1. Those are Copplestone Casting figures from his Gangster and Back of Beyond ranges (and heavily converted.)

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