Thinking Outside the Box

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 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...

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...

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.

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...

It's been a busy week for Knight Models . First up was the announcement of the upcoming release of their new Marvel Universe Miniature Game . This will use a new system, different to that of the Batman Miniatures Game . Some details about the MUMG can be found on Facebook or over on Ian's blog here . It's interesting that it's a new system, but not entirely surprising. Many fans of the Batman game had discussed whether or not to bring in more powerful characters like Superman, and if in fact they could even be properly represented in the BMG system. With the web-supplement for a Spiderman Miniatures Game made available in December by Knight Models, many of us thought that this was the Marvel game and were happy that it was largely compatible with Batman. I'm a bit conflicted on the announcement about the Marvel game. In one sense, a new system does allow for a better representation of powers and abilities without having to worry about puny humans like beat c...

This is a really tough one. The start of a new year always brings about people making resolutions or at the very least trying to make changes in their lives. I generally try not to make sweeping resolutions because quite simply, I feel that's setting oneself up for failure or disappointment. Large goals or achievements, in my opinion, are the result of small, deliberate steps towards that goal. Last year superhero gaming took the front seat for me: Batman Miniatures Game , Pulp City Supreme Edition and even Supersytem 4th Edition to some extent, all became regular parts of how I spent my hobby and gaming time. The biggest culprit for me was the Batman Miniatures Game . I went in on this in a BIG way in 2015. With the delivery I received yesterday, including objectives and street scenery, I've acquired over 120 figures for the game. Most of these figures are built and primed already, but on the down side I have only painted 14 if you exclude those same objectives and stree...

The new demo team or sidekicks program for the Batman Miniature Game by Knight Models has rolled into its second month. I was happy to get accepted and have been trying to get rolling on some of the activities they have set for us. Each month we are going to receive a checklist of various things we can do. We haven't received the one for December yet, so we might be waiting until January for the next checklist. In November I was able to run a demo for a new player and play a full 350 rep game with a friend, as well as build a TON more figures from my collection. I'm confident that I'll have a Poison Ivy crew with Catwoman tagging along ready for the table top shortly. Our demo game featured Batman and Robin against Titan Bane and some Blackgate prisoners. The game played well and we got through a good number of the basics like movement, running, batclaw, attacking, blocking and shooting. When we were all finished we had a very good conversation about the models he...

I've been working towards getting more of the superhero figures painted from Knight Models range for the Batman Miniatures Game. Yesterday I finished the second of two that will give me two completely different Law Forces crews at 250 rep each Batwoman is a character I don't know much about, but really like the costume of. The red on black is really striking, so I spent a lot of time getting some depth to the wide swathes of red on the cape. Highlighting large areas of black is not something I really enjoy, and I did have a bit of trouble getting her eyes right, but I'm happy with this one for tabletop. Next up is Catwoman. So much BLACK. It's hard to paint, takes a long time and is difficult to get a result I'm happy with, especially when compared with the studio paint jobs. There was a lot of watered down black paint, black washes, varying shades of blue dry brush stages and finally a touch of metallic and white for a top highlighting. Her face e...

I'm going to start this one with something I never thought I'd say...I've recently learned to play Pokemon . My oldest nephew had some cards with him when we all got together for family dinner over Thanksgiving. When I asked if he knew how to play he said "no." Thinking it a bit of a shame to have cards but not use them we downloaded the rules and gave it a go. I had to split the cards up into something resembling decks with almost no knowledge of the game, but we had a good time nonetheless. On Friday Knight Models announced their new "Sons of Batman" program (yep, SOBs) for the Batman Miniatures Game . I've been working towards getting enough models and scenery together to start demoing the game around my area soon anyway, so the timing of this announcement was almost perfect. I just have to take a few photos of my painted crews and submit the paperwork, and hopefully will get accepted into the program. Last weekend Lewis and I attended Fallcon...

If you have read my blog much in 2015 you'll know I've been spending a lot of time and money on the Batman Miniature Game by Knight Models . Over on the official forums there have been several discussions about whether the system would work for the larger DC Universe and accommodate games including characters like Superman and the Flash. Those conversations are usually split by folks who want more powerful characters joining in, and those who don't. Over the past few months' releases from Knight Models, I have a strong feeling that they are indeed working towards scaling up the game. I am actually open to this, and think it could work. However, I don't think the entire DCU will simply get rolled in as characters to play in BMG. The way I see KM introducing a DC Miniatures Game would be as its own rule set, but be entirely compatible with the Batman Miniature Game. Here's how I think that could work: 1. The stats on the DC characters cards will follow ...

I've been on a bit of a roll this week, getting a total of a dozen figures completely painted for the Batman Miniatures Game  by Knight Models.  Fast following the footsteps of my uniformed police I have completed the remaining Law Forces figures. The four SWAT officers and Branden started out with the same P3 Exile Blue as the uniformed officers. A light coat of black covered most of the rest of the figures. It was almost a wash, but perhaps a little thicker. I dry brushed this with GW Fortress Grey and then washed the whole lot with GW Asurmen Blue. After that I went back in and highlighted with Exile Blue and Fortress Grey. The blue got another highlight of a 1:1 mix of Exile Blue and Army Painter Shadow Grey. The detective in the back is essentially the same as the uniformed cops from last week, just with the trouser and shirt colours reversed. He and Branden got a basic five o'clock shadow with some GW Ogryn Flesh wash. The goggles and Gordon's glasses were p...

After I had built and painted all the markers and 'furniture' it was at last time to start applying paint to some actual characters from the Knight Models  range for the Batman Miniatures Game . I had built and primed a lot of the KM figures already and wanted to paint some in a batch, so I chose the four uniformed police and Commissioner Loeb. Batwoman is on the table too but not yet complete. You can read a game recap of my first attempt using this 250 rep crew here. Apologies for the mediocre individual photos. Painting these figures didn't get off to a great start as I waffled around trying to settle on colours. The first blue I chose was too bright. Then I tried an all blue uniform with something a little darker...and didn't like that either. Taking a cue from the package imagery I settled on grey trousers and very light blue shirts under dark blue jackets. Loeb being in his dress uniform simply meant his trousers would match his jacket. Easy! After...