Thinking Outside the Box

Back in the spring (which feels  like a long time ago) I picked up a used copy of the Star Wars - Imperial Assault  core set. Over time I've continued to add expansions and figure packs, with the hopes of some day painting it all. I know that's unlikely but at least now I have a start. One of these figures had a broken staff, so I had to get creative trying to find a piece to replace it with. It's noticeable if you know what to look for, although at arms length I think it's a perfectly serviceable repair. Gasp, shock...yes I've actually played the game a few times, and the rules allow you to take different versions of the troopers: regular and elite. The cards for the elite squads are red, so I painted the bases of one pair red to help differentiate them during the game. The depths of red cloaks took a lot of coats to do and I could easily have kept going...but it's red, so who really cares. I do like the focus that the gloss coat gives to the helmets, ...

I recently finished painting my Watchmen figures for the Batman Miniature Game  from Knight Models  and am excited about the results. They have been in progress since sometime in June and have only gotten one game in so far, but let's just talk about the models this time. Rorschach was the first figure I completed. True to the movie, like all the Watchmen figures, he is a top-notch one piece model and was quick to finish. Nite Owl is a really dynamic single piece model who proved very each to paint. He's also my favourite character visually from the movie. The Comedian is where I stalled in my progress. Being largely black, it was a challenge to get enough colour and variation to be happy with. Additionally, I'm not sure if I clipped his cigar off when I was cleaning up the model or if it actually isn't there in the original cast. I wanted him to have one so I did a little experiment with a tiny chunk of paperclip. It ended up a touch on the big size, but...

A few days ago Knight Models posted the rule book for the DC Universe Miniature Game for download. That in itself is exciting news for me, but even better was that it included several profile cards for existing models in their Batman range! Check out  https://www.o2media.ca/blogs/news/marvel-and-dcu-miniature-game-news for all the characters and even some info about the latest FAQ for the Marvel game.

I always seem to have a few work-in-progress models on my table at any given time. Some of them tend to languish there for months (or years), but others will land and get finished right away. I'm not sure why that's the case, but that's how it goes. These two models were in the 'months' range, along with a few others from the "SuperFigs"   line (for SuperSystem ) who've yet to see completion. While I was working on Hawkeye and Deadpool from Knight Models  I did a bit of work on these two as they shared some common colours. First up is the villain Adder. She's a member of one of the villain groups; I believe the League of Supervillains. I've got Blackbird and Saber Skull from the same team in the queue for this month. The next one is Mystick. She's a free agent according to the profiles from 3rd edition. I'll have to sit down and do some conversions of their profiles into 4th edition. I've done a few other conversions in the...

I had some demos for the Marvel Universe Miniature game scheduled in early in October, so I wanted to put together a few teams with the figures I had. Due to the limited number of characters I actually had painted, I needed to finish up a few more to round out the teams. Both of these figures are highly detailed, as I've come to expect from Knight Models. Neither one had much in the way of gap filling required. A bit of filing and cleanup you'd expect with any metal model, some super glue and primer and I was ready for paint. I opted not to deviate from the studio colour schemes almost at all. Deadpool is a versatile character for both heroic Superhuman and Mutant teams. He's effective at range and close combat, so he makes a good utility model to add to your team. Although his "Bodyslide" ability is reactive, I'd suggest keeping Deadpool out of situations where you need to use it that way. One of my personal tactics is using it early to get him int...

When preparing for my demo earlier this month I planned out a little 2x2 table to force the player's characters into combat more quickly. I had originally planned to do some kind of bank heist scenario using loot and the safe boxes, but it seemed too far from the actual way the game is played. It wouldn't help if I made things more complicated just for the sake of a custom scenario. In the end I decided I'd do 200 reputation crews: Arkham City Batman and Robin vs Classic Harley, Joker (Killing Joke) with Turk along for the ride. Since I only had Turk painted I had some work ahead of me and only a few days to do it! Having a deadline is often helpful for me, even if it's a self imposed one. I was able to paint all four characters over a few sessions on Friday and Saturday. Harley's face detailing was just too small, so I wasn't even able to do some white in for her eyes, and may go back now that I'm no longer under pressure. The rest turned out very nicely ...

With play underway for the  Calgary Dreadball League's third season I had a finished season 2 human team, or a season 4 martian team that I could have used, but I didn't really want to play either of those teams in league play. This is the final of my four original season 1 teams to be painted. If you've stopped by and read any of my posts about other teams, you've have seen that many of them are based on characters from Masters of the Universe. The "Berserker Island Beasts" are based Beastman, who is also serving as their offensive coach. Despite looking through lots of reference images, I struggled to find a colour I liked for the fur and ended up using the bright P3 Ember Orange. Selecting uniform colours for the team was also a challenge as Beastman doesn't have much in the way of accessories or colours other than orange, and those he does have vary widely depending on the depiction. The Beastman figure I'll be using is an old Grena...

After I had my original four Avengers figures painted for the Marvel Universe Miniature Game , I knew I wanted to build up the list while I waited for some more cosmic figures to be released. Having already built several other early-release figures I looked through the cards and chose Wolverine, Black Panther and Deadpool to join my team. Deadpool still taunts me from my painting table, but the other two are finished and ready for battle. Wolverine is a nicely done sculpt. Appropriately small of stature and big on the snarls, he was a simple model to build. Only the forearms were separate and fit together easily. I mounted him on a resin base insert I had rattling around. Even based on that, he's still shorter than all the other Avengers, even Black Widow. I did some looking around online to see if I could find inspiration for a costume colour scheme, and ended up with the two-tone blue you see here. I think it fits nicely. His skin is GW Tallarn Flesh, washed with GW Bad...

Nightwing was a spur of the moment paint job a few days ago. While waiting for some washes to dry on another batch of figures I ended up alternating work on him. Although initially not very excited by the pose I'm really quite pleased with how he turned out. He took also took a minimal amount of time to do, clocking in at under 45 minutes start to finish including dry time. After priming him grey I applied two thin coats of black to get nice even coverage on the suit and mask. I followed that with a wash of GW Asurmen Blue, and once dry applied a light dry brush coat on all the black of AP Uniform Grey. It has a slight touch of blue in it and brought out the models details perfectly. The hair was done the same way, followed with two ink washes of black. On the blue detailing I painted a solid coat of P3 Platinum which I followed with two even coats of Tamiya Clear Blue. The face was done with a base coat of GW Flesh and then some highlight of Elf Flesh. In terms of gam...

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www.o2media.ca is open! They've got an excellent selection of figures and scenery from Knight Models for both the excellent Batman Miniature Game , and the new Marvel Universe Miniature Game . Currently service is only available to orders shipping within Canada, but options for service for US customers is being investigated. In the very near future they will also be launching their own line of custom-sculpted resin bases too, so it's well worth checking them out!

It's a good time to be a fan of tabletop, comic-themed gaming. There are a lot of options out there now; Marvel Universe and Batman Miniature Games both from Knight Models , Pulp City by Pulp Monsters , and even a few build-your-own character games like SuperSystem and Power Legion . Batgirl was the earliest free agent model that I purchased, as well as the first one that I started applying paint on. However, I found the level of detail off-putting and didn't get very far at first. When I built the model she required a bit of putty work, and I ended up adding some pouches on her hips to cover up some unsightly join lines. I confess that I like her pose but I dislike the single point of contact with the base as it has a lot of metal to support. I've already dropped her once and every time I pick her up I'm afraid she's just going to fall apart. When painting her I had originally opted to go with the straight black and yellow colour scheme from the ...

Shortly before the Marvel Universe Miniatures Game was released by Knight Models I picked up several single pack figures at a slight discount. The game dropped shortly after, but has so far seemed difficult to acquire in Canada. I'm hoping once I get out an do a few demos it will pick up locally like the Batman game has started to do. This is the original model for Black Widow, which I prefer greatly over the highly sexualized one that comes in the Avengers starter box. Don't get me wrong, she's a sexy character but I think the new sculpt is a little over the top. She was the first Marvel figure I painted. It a pretty easy paint job and I think she turned out well. This figure proved more difficult to paint than I expected. It's a great looking pose, but I wish the details on the shield were a little deeper. I'm not the greatest when it comes to steady detail work, so found doing the stripes on the shield highly frustrating. A wash or two would usually b...

Ok I'll confess right up front that I know next to nothing about the character of Swamp Thing, and am unclear as to why he would align himself with Poison Ivy or Batman at all. However, when I saw the miniature I was really impressed, and when I painted it earlier this month I was truly in love. This figure is superbly sculpted and very well cast. As with any model this size and number of pieces there was some gap filling required, but it was super easy to blend in and I dare anyone to point it out on my painted figure. This figure almost painted itself. I think total it took me less than 3 hours and was a lot of fun experimenting with different shades of greens, browns and yellows.

During my April painting frenzy I finished up a few more of the SuperFigs models that have been sitting around waiting for colours. According to the profiles available for SuperSystem , first two are members of the "Crusaders of Crime"; Dark Templar and Black Claw. After I painted Dark Templar I realized that he's almost a perfect looking figure to use for The Master, to lead my Omega Flight team. I considered repainting him without the gold and adding a little more red, but opted against it. Most people aren't familiar enough with the character to really know the difference, so he'll do just fine as is. Black Claw was going to get a bit of glow effect on his left hand but I messed it up and just went back over it with the previous colours. I like the dark outline on his eyes, which feel like they make him look a little more eeeeevil. Finally I finished up the massive-for-no-reason Stalker. There is nothing in the character profile that would explain h...

With round 2 of our local BMG escalation league fast approaching, I decided I'd better paint up some henchmen for Poison Ivy to take with her. Round 1 was played at 150 rep, and I played several games with AC Catwoman and Classic Poison Ivy. I ended up winning 1, losing 1 and tying 3, so pretty middle of the road all said. I tried one game with Swamp Thing and it was a tough go having only one character on the board. I had already constructed both sets of Blackgate Prisoners and my Killer Croc figure. I decided to batch paint them as I was planning on having them all wearing the same clothes. As a bit of an experiment I tried painting the prisoners' jumpsuits with my under-used airbrush, using Badger  "Minitaire" Charred Stone for the main colour and going over it with a light touch of Badger Fur. Croc got the same treatment, but I also painted his skin starting with Pestilence Flesh, then Rotten Wood on his underbelly and finally some Gremlin Green on his back to b...