Escape from Blackgate!

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 brighten him up.

The primer coat on my prisoners was really grainy around the feet so some of the details below the knee are sadly obscured, but I painted them up as well as I could nonetheless. I used way more colours that I expected.

Killer Croc colours:

- Testors Gloss Yellow on the eyes
- P3 Skorne Red inside the mouth
- GW Bleached Bone and P3 Morrow White on the teeth
- AP Plate Mail Metal on all the shackles and chains
- drybrush of GW Bleached Bone and P3 Necrotite Green on the skin
- wash of AP Soft Tone over the entire model
- Testors Gloss Black on the claws

Prisoner colours:

- AP Barbarian Flesh and P3 Umbral Umber for the flesh tones
- P3 Bloodtracker Brown for the straps
- P3 Jack Bone and AP Ash Grey for other clothing
- AP Plate Mail Metal for all the chains and metals
- VMC Cork Brown for backpack and big stick
- VMC Ultramarine for the bandana
- P3 Cryx Bane Base and VGC Dark Green for one of the shirts
- Washed all figures with AP Soft Tone
- Highlighted jumpsuits with P3 Greatcoat Grey and the clothing with AP Ash Grey
- Skin Highlighted with GW Elf Flesh
- Tamiya Clear Red for bloody weapons

There were a bunch of other colours used for minor touches or highlights, but I'm tired of listing them. I elected to go with grey as I don't particularly like the orange in the packaging photos, and wanted something that would sort of look at home no matter which villain crew was hiring them. It felt like they took a long time to paint, but overall I think they probably took about 90 minutes each. Recently I've been painting single figures, so doing a batch as large as this did feel time consuming!

And Now For Something Completely...Normal

It's been a pretty crazy spring for me personally, so having some regular things like hobby and gaming time actually take shape has proven very helpful. Today the second round of the Batman Miniature Game league started. It's been fun running that; answering questions, helping people source models, build their crews, understand synergies and best of all play some games!

Today's game was a 200 rep match playing the plunder scenario against Sebastien's League of Shadows crew. He had Nyssa, all three female ninja, plus Seeker and Shadow if memory serves. I had Classic Ivy along with some of my newly painted Blackgate prisoners Turk, Little Spark and High Security Henchman.

It was back and forth all through the game. Turk neglected to defend himself against the katana-wielding ninja and paid for it with his life. Little Spark ran in from an end and zapped the male archer into unconsciousness before killing the kama-ninja. High Security Henchman killed the other female ninja and gained an extra willpower, but I misplayed in round seven and gave up control of an ammo objective due to it. Ivy was a rockstar, using her control pheremones on Nyssa not once but TWICE, as well as scoring a crit poison/paralyze on the other male ninja.

Overall it was tons of fun. I may have been able to edge out a few more victory points if I'd played a little smarter. Seb may have been able to take out another henchman or even Ivy if he'd ganged up with a few of the ninja. I'm looking forward to playing more games this round for sure!

On the weekend I had a few folks over and provided another demo to a prospective player. We ran a few rounds at 150 reputation, using the Lady Shiva starter box against Arsenal and some GCPD officers. Although it wasn't a full game, we got through some examples of melee and ranged combat, planning actions, controlling objectives and some special rules. I think we may have another convert ready to join the ranks!

The weekend before we took a trip down to the annual train hobbyists show "Supertrain!" We'd never been before and it was pretty interesting. Some very skilled modeling on display and it was really busy in there! I picked up a few O-scale Plasticville buildings and some airbrush supplies.

Finally I have spent some time this month painting more figures. The Blackgate prisoners, Killer Croc and Swamp Thing will all be making appearances very soon! I just have to convince them to hold still for some close up shots...

March Progress Report & Batman League Start!

March was a rough month, with all of my hobby progress happening in the first week. The rest of it was spent on real life stuff, as the poor economy here has resulted in my renewed quest for employment. Lots of other folks are in the same boat as I, but I'm looking at it as a chance for something new and interesting. While I have some more free time I'm also looking forward to a short break and some gaming, while I prepare for the next career step.

When I looked at what I did accomplish in March though, it wasn't too shabby for a seven day span:

- Built Killing Joke Joker, Mr. Hammer, Joker's Daughter, Master of Ceremonies, and Frank Miller Batman
- Built two custom Joker clowns for BMG: August for Harley Crew, and a version of "Six"
- Gap filled a ton of KM models and Grimms for Pulp City, 44 in total!
- Based all remaining models (16)

Today we started our first round for the Batman escalation league here. Scheduling conflicts kept our attendance down to only four, but we have almost a dozen folks signed up and I'm very excited to see that! I am playing Poison Ivy crew and faced off against Shiva and the female ninja, and one of our Batman crews played an abbreviated game against Scarecrow and his militia.

I've got a few more lists I want to try at 150 rep, so I'll need to set up some more games!