Portraits of the Crew of The Ace of Spades 02

I continue my look at portraits of the crew of The Ace of Spades to show them in different ways to how their 28mm scale figures are presented. After all, they won't be dressed or armed as their figures are all the time. Doing these two posts allows me to show them in a variety of clothing, armour and weapon options, where appropriate. Here are the six that I didn't show last time.

Kimberley Jane Wells - Ship's Captain - Age 25
This is the portrait of Kimberley that I use as the background picture for this blog. As soon as I saw it I knew it would make a great background picture. I made a few alterations to her hair digitally, to more closely match Kimberley's hairstyle. Whilst it is a very atmospheric portrait it doesn't show Kimberley's face, which is hidden in shadows. So, obviously, I had to search for more portraits so that I could show Kimberley's face, and here they are.

Once again, fire rages all around Kimberley as she races from danger. Kimberley does not go looking for trouble but more often than not, it comes looking for her. She tries to avoid conflict wherever possible but if she has to fight, she will. And she's very good in a fight, through lots of practice. Although not as good in combat as the likes of Celeste, Julia, Danica or Katja, she is more than capable of defending herself and her friends. This is a terrific portrait of Kimberley in action, armed with a heavy slugger pistol and a laser knife. Her armoured suit looks like it could be a Vector Armour Piercing Resistant Body Armour Mk.2. This Light Armour provides SOAK:6 against all damage including Armour Piercing rounds, which usually reduce the SOAK value. This is something Kimberley would definitely wear. It might be worth purchasing a few of these for the crew!

When I saw this next picture I just went "Wow!" With her shoulder length red hair and figure hugging suit, this had to be Kimberley. Kimberley does have the kind of figure that turns heads and her red hair and confident manner means she always attracts attention. The white suit she is wearing looks like it has been sprayed on her. It is actually a Krayte Industries Armorgel Light Armour, which is made up of  hundreds of gel pads and provides SOAK:3 against most damage but SOAK:7 against Blunt damage. Kimberley is very heavily armed here, with her 12mm Slugger Pistol in a shoulder holster, a short sword slung over her back and a phaser rifle in her right hand, fitted with a scope sight. She clearly means business here. She looks very stern, doesn't she?

This next portrait shows Kimberley in a very seductive mood and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. In the original illustration she had very long flowing hair all the way down her back. But everything else about the portrait looked just like Kimberley. Thankfully, with the picture having a white background it was a simple matter to digitally shorten her hair to shoulder length, matching Kimberley's usual hair length and style. Once I was able to tear my eyes away from her magnificent cleavage I was entranced by the playful look on her face. It is a superb piece of artwork.

There were two things that immediately attracted me to this portrait. First up was her beautiful eyes (so big and so expressive) and second was her vivid red hair. In the original picture there was a small alien pet resting on her right shoulder, which I digitally removed. It was a distraction and it had to go. She looks wistful and stylish in this picture and very, very beautiful.

Kyran Katherine Calaveri - Engineer - Age 26
Kyran, Kimberley and Gwendoline are the three crew members who have spent the most time together and they are very close friends. Kyran is the ship's engineer and she has a passion for driving and repairing cars. When I saw this picture I knew I had found the perfect portrait of Kyran. Yes, Kyran is very busty, as this picture shows. The only alteration I made to this picture was that I removed a logo from her right breast and wrote her name, Kyran, in its place. There is so much I love about this picture. It sums up everything there is to know about Kyran - her playfulness, her sexuality, her studiousness, her love of fast cars and of course, her love of engineering. The light grey jumpsuit she is wearing in this match is very similar to the one worn by her 28mm scale miniature.

I must admit, I was in two minds about whether to include this second picture of Kyran or not. On the one hand, we have a very busty attractive female engineer repairing a robot, with her trousers covered in grease and she is wiping sweat from her brow. So far, so Kyran. On the other hand, she has purple hair! Okay, I suppose Kyran could have dyed it, but I can't imagine why she'd want to do something as drastic as that! Also, there is a slight oriental cast to her eyes. I suspect this illustration was done for a Manga comic or graphic novel. But, if we ignore those drawbacks, this could well be Kyran struggling to repair a robot. One thing that I absolutely love about this picture is the cat sprawled out on the floor, lying on its back, something you don't often see cats do.

Now this third picture shows a generic engineer, wielding a blow torch, wearing sensible work overalls with no cleavage on display and carrying a well stocked tool belt and pouch. I could definitely see Kyran dressed and equipped like this as she affects repairs on The Ace of Spades. It is not quite as good as the first picture of Kyran, but it is certainly a close second and is very befitting for Miss Calaveri.

Lynda Pelligrosso - Research Scientist - Age 26
Finding good pictures to use for Lynda proved to be a lot harder than I'd imagined it would be. Indeed, I could only find one, and it is shown below after these two photographs, of a blonde woman who most definitely bears a close resemblance to the ship's young research scientist. When I was searching through Google Images, I checked out female sci-fi costumes and discovered this and the next photo. I have no idea who she is; she's an unnamed model, but as I said, I was struck by her close resemblance to the figure I use to portray Lynda. The long blonde hair with the black roots showing is 100% Lynda. Ditto, the shapely curvaceous figure. In this costume, she looks like she has stepped straight off the set of Gerry Anderson's UFO TV series. I loved that series and I still do. If anyone brought out a set of figures from that series (especially the Moonbase women) they'd have my undying gratitude.

This is the back view of the costume shown above, worn by the same model. There were a number of photos of this model in this costume but I chose these two to best show off Lynda. The pistol she is carrying looks very dainty but appearances can be deceptive. Lynda is usually armed with a phaser pistol, the weapon of choice of most of the crew of The Ace of Spades. There is no reason why this couldn't be a variant version of the phaser pistol. I'm sure there must be numerous companies who manufacture them.

This third picture of Lynda shown here was the best portrait I could find of her. Once again, the long blonde hair, with the black roots made me immediately think of Lynda. Plus, she is more demurely dressed here than in the two photos above. In this portrait, she is wearing PI3 Arachnofibre Weave Light Armour. Harvested from the silk of Melusian Energy Spiders, this thin weave has a matt black finish which seems to suck in light from around it. It offers SOAK:2 against most attacks. Against Heat attacks it offers SOAK:6. However, it is ineffective against Blunt attacks. She appears to be armed with a dart pistol, which makes sense, as Lynda prefers to avoid combat wherever possible. This is a very beautiful portrait that captures Lynda so well.

Rebecca Faye Ellington - Burglar - Age 23
I was lucky enough to find some great pictures to use for Rebecca. Whilst I was looking at pictures of sci-fi female scouts, I came across this very cool portrait that I thought would work so well for Becky. Officially, Kimberley has Rebecca listed as a scout, but all of the crew know she is a burglar. Becky is usually armed with a knife and a phaser pistol. In this picture she has ditched her phaser pistol but still retains her knife. And what a vicious-looking knife it is. That's a proper combat knife. She is carrying two data-pads and from the concerned look on her face I'm guessing she's checking a security diagram of a building she's in, looking for a way in or a way out, depending on whether she's starting or finishing her mission. She is dressed in casual clothing, but she could be wearing a leather vest or possibly a Kevlar vest for some sort of protection. She normally wears a high quality leather jacket, which gives her SOAK:6.

I really struck lucky when I looked through pictures of sci-fi female thieves on Google Images. This second picture is just so perfect for Becky. Actually, it would work just as well if Becky was a fantasy thief. This shows Becky in the process of stealing a very rare golden mask protected by some kind of force field. Becky is a highly skilled cat burglar, so it is perfectly in keeping to see her hanging from a rope like this. Once again, she has her knife at her side, although this is a different design to the one shown in the previous picture. The ring of old-fashioned keys hanging from her belt were probably stolen from a security guard to her allow her access into this room and/or building. The black leather costume is somewhat revealing but very much in keeping with her character. I do like her filter mask and the fact that she has tied her back into a ponytail. It makes her look quite different to her normal appearance.

This next picture closely matches the previous one in terms of composition. Here, Becky is hanging from the rafters of a high-vaulted room. This time, she has strapped her knife to her back for an over the shoulder draw. The ring of keys still hang from her belt. Her armour is a GE33 Stalker Impact Suit, which is often worn by stealth special forces as it can be worn under loose clothing. It is lightweight, and flexible but hardens on impact, providing SOAK:2 against all damage except Blunt damage. Against Blunt damage it offers SOAK:5.

This fourth illustration of Becky is another one that had me debating whether to include or not. In the end I did, simply because it is such a gorgeous piece of artwork and it would have been a shame not to show it. Becky had a very troubled childhood, growing up as an orphan, running away from her foster parents and surviving on the streets as a member of a street gang. This portrait harkens back to those troubled times. It shows Becky as she is now, but the way she is dressed is that of a street ganger ready to rumble. I could totally see Becky dressing like this in order to infiltrate a street gang in order to gain some insider information. Becky knows how to take care of herself and she certainly looks like someone you wouldn't want to mess with in this illustration. She looks so cool!

Sharuna Randall - Computer Hacker - Age 21
Even before I started this project, I knew that there would be some crew members for whom it would be difficult to find good pictures of to match the look of their figures. Sharuna was one of those. However, I knew that I would be guaranteed to find one perfect portrait of her and it is this one here. You see, her figure was based upon this very same illustration found in the Shadowrun RPG rulebook. This was drawn to show a female netrunner, and the Ral Partha 28mm scale figure I have of her is almost an exact copy of it. The only difference is that on the figure, her left arm is raised. I painted my figure in a different colour scheme shown here. For example, I gave her darker skin, a different T-shirt colour and design, and a different coloured computer deck. I was pleased to add Sharuna to my new crew, because I didn't want all of them to be white females. Just as I didn't want all of the crew to be human, so I wanted a bit of ethnic diversity amongst the human members. This is how Sharuna usually dresses. Note the absence of any weapons on her. Sharuna hates guns and will not use one. She and Judith are the only two crew members who will always be unarmed. However, unlike Judith, Sharuna has learned some martial arts moves purely for her own protection.

It made sense to look for suitable pictures to use for Sharuna under the female netrunner category of Google Images. With the way she has hair shaved off at one side and her being dark-skinned, it was a struggle to find any pictures that even closely resembled her. When I saw this one I was absolutely delighted. Okay, so she has straightened out her normal curly hair, but that's okay. Everything about this portrait is pure Sharuna.  I'm not sure what the crackling energy effects around her hands are about but it does make her look cool and dangerous. She may not be highly skilled in combat, but she can still cause an opponent a lot of damage with her computer hacking skills. In the 26th century, when my campaign is set in, computer hacking is almost unheard of. With the advent of near infinite local storage, ultraquantum encryption and cyber-defence systems, and finally the almost complete decline in the need for massively networked infrastructure, remotely hacking into a system became extraordinarily difficult. But Sharuna is one of a rare breed - a highly efficient hacker.

This third picture that I found for Sharuna has two glaring faults with it but I'm including it anyway. The first problem is obvious - the character shown has cyber arms, which Sharuna most certainly does not have. The second problem is less obvious unless you are aware of Sharuna's attitude towards guns. She will not touch them. Guns scare her. So it is inconceivable that she would be seen firing a pistol. However, the rest of the picture is just perfect for her, and so I have included it.

Storm Galloway - Pilot - Age 27
Finding pictures of sci-fi female pilots was very easy but finding ones to match the looks of Storm was not so easy. I could have copped out by choosing pictures of pilots wearing helmets, but I think they are more appropriate for star-fighter pilots and not pilots of much larger spaceships like The Ace of Spades. This first portrait that I chose for Storm is a close match to her 28mm scale figure with the phaser pistol held in her right hand and the figure hugging jumpsuit. This suit shown here is better armoured than her standard synthetic weave jumpsuit. It is a Moore-Stolypin NUK 52 Nanosuit. It is versatile tactical combat armour with the ability to adapt to different conditions. Normally, the nanosuit provides SOAK:5, but if it absorbs damage from an attack, SOAK verses that damage type subsequently increases to SOAK:10 for one minute. The suit can only adapt to one damage type at a time, so if it takes damage from a different type, the weighted SOAK switches to the new damage type. Such a suit is very expensive, costing 15,000 Credits.

I have to admit that I fell in love with this second portrait of Storm as soon as I saw it. It is a stunningly beautiful piece of artwork and shows Storm with her hair loosened, which does make it unusual, as Storm generally keeps her hair tied back. The armour she is wearing in this picture is the Mk.1 version of the Vector Armour Piercing Resistant Body Armour. Kimberley was shown wearing the Mk.2 version. The Mk.1 version provides SOAK:5 against all damage, including Armour Piercing attacks, and is slightly cheaper at 700 Credits, compared to the 950 Credits for the Mk.2 version. The helmet she is carrying is not part of the suit but just a standard closed helmet, granting her +2 to SOAK, but a -2 penalty to her Defence scores due to her reduced spatial awareness when wearing it.

This third portrait that I chose to represent Storm is a beauty. The hair is longer than Storm normally has but that seemed like a minor point to me. Everything else about this picture was spot on for Storm. The armour she is wearing is Overman Rigid Metallic Clothing. While a little clumsy to wear, this clothing provides excellent protection without resorting to actually socialising in armour. Classed as Light Armour it gives SOAK:4 against all damage types. Her rifle could be one of a number of designs, an assault laser, a slugger rifle or most likely, a phaser rifle. Whatever it is, it has been fitted with a scope sight.