After staring thoughtfully at the new Boiler Suited Minions that I painted for A Fistful of Kung Fu, I decided that they needed a slightly more imposing leader. Not to say that the grumpy veteran, in the neat uniform, that they came with hasn’t got his own charms. I just needed a figure with a little more… Something… to act as my protagonist. That way the grumpy sergeant can be my teams bruiser (second in command).
As the team is human, and by that I do mean that they are very much ‘year 2000 human’, they needed a human to lead them. An almost human might do, but not too futuristic or alien. Looking through the old bits box for ideas, I came up with little in the way of inspiration. A rummage through the selection of neglected figures that I had collected over the years was no more useful.
So, not wanting to buy a new figure and then having to wait for delivery, I decided upon an alien figure that was: a) not too tall, b) not too futuristic and c) could be painted in a way that hid his alien heritage…
Meet Blaine…
Blaine is a Mantic Games Deadzone Figure that has been discontinued, but a chap that still features in a number of their other games. He seems to be a semi legendary character in the warpath universe.
Their current versions of him include this chap in a similar pose, a jet bike riding option and the oddly proportioned chap below.
He is a tan coloured alien mercenary with a bony forehead, that I have painted up as having a very human skin tone and a metal mask to hide his identity.
Burley and mean looking and a head taller than the sergeant he is imposing enough to fit the bill. Not perfect, but perfect enough for now. I am still on the look out for another alternative but for now he can lead them with head held high and matching cloak colour.
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Nice job! Mantic certainly came up with some interesting characters. I just wish their games and minis had been a bit better.
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Second edition Deadzone is supposedly better than the very clanky 1st edition. haven’t seen the rules changes but might be worth a look. Cant say I have tried ant main game from Mantic (just Deadzone and Dreadball).
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I mainly hopped onto Deadzone because I wanted to try a skirmish game like Necromunda. Now that Necromunda has been re-released, I doubt I would ever try Deadzone again. I’m not really into war-games and am more interested in the gang development rules of Necromunda. If the main rules don’t really appeal to me that much, I’ll probably house rule stuff to make it something more like Blood Bowl where you are building your team over a series of ‘challenges’.
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I know what you mean. Sometimes smaller more involved systems are more satisfying than bigger army style games. The cost of rule sets are sometimes the issue as a rulebook often seems like a big expense/ risk when you don’t even know if it will be to your liking. It’s why we like the osprey games. Cheap and usually smaller figure count rules with some form of campaign system.
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Nice work. Your painting of him puts me rather in mind of Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons from my formative years.
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Very much so… Hadn’t realised that until you said it. Now that you mention it, might have to change his name 🙂
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Hello! I just found A Fistful of Kung Fu and I realized I am about 4 years late! Are you aware of any gaming resources for this one, like a gang sheet, to keep track of extras and protagonist?
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Hi Matt
Never to late to join a good party…
Osprey site has a few resources.
Try: https://ospreypublishing.com/gaming-resources-owg
As for sheets for characters try the files section of the Fistful of Kung Fu Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/a.f.o.k.f/files/
Let me know how you get on and if you need any other pointers.
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