Thinking Outside the Box

Lately I finished a lot of models. Some of them were started and finished over a few days, but this batch has been languishing for anywhere from 6 months to 2 years in some state between primed and partially finished. As usual it's more comic-themed stuff from me. First up are some of the classic metal  SuperFigs . I know they're rather dated now compared to some of the new stuff coming out, but I still love this line and pick them up whenever I find a few I don't have somewhere. If memory serves, Artemis is a hero with GUARD and the other two characters are villains. (At one point I had created an arrow for her bow, but it got lost in one of the two moves I made in 2017.) Steel Razor reminded me of  Vera the cyborg from Superman III  and got some glossy white armour. The paint job on Serpent is not my most inspired, but it's serviceable. Artemis, Steel Razor, Serpent The next few are from Reaper Miniatures . The Black Mist is from the first Bones Kickstarte...

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...

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...

I have a few more repainted-n-rebased Heroclix figures for use in SuperSystem and possibly Batman Miniature Game . Black Mask This one was pretty quick and some of the work isn't really visible, but I know it's been done so... - dry brushed the suit and head w/ dark grey - painted neck to match skin on wrist - painted the gun and briefcase - went back in with pure black on shoes, gloves, pockets and lapels - black wash on everything - added traffic lines after a quick dry brush on the base to give a bit of 'pop' Once he was finished it occurred to me that if I were to print out his card for BMG, I could actually field a Black Mask crew with Branden, some crooked cops and whichever generic henchmen I wanted. I've not used Branden and a few SWAT figures in a game yet so it could be worth a go. Lex Luthor I already have a Lex in a prison jumpsuit that was used in one of our games of Supersytem 4th edition. I've had the scientist outfit fig...

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...

We've had a few games of SuperSystem 4th Edition  over the past few weeks. The first of the two was a three-player custom scenario. I had created a fun board layout to play a scenario around my converted repainted Lex Luthor Heroclix  figure wearing a prison jumpsuit. The basic intro for the players was simple. Lex Luthor was being transferred to a maximum security underground facility in a remote location. Just as the agents transporting him arrived at the surface entry gate with their prisoner, they were set upon by teams either trying to rescue Lex, or stop him from being set free. Brad was playing X-Men: Sunfire, Wolverine and Rogue. Seb was using Mister Sinister, Dr. Doom and Domino (no idea why these three were working together...), and I was using the Larcenous Legion: Kriegshunde, Elasti-Woman and The Wisp. I had converted the profiles for my characters from the official 3rd edition profiles to 75 points and I think they worked out very nicely. As with any new...

I spent a quiet Remembrance Day at home and observed a few moments of silence being thankful for the freedoms I enjoy, not to mention that I wouldn't exist if my grandparents hadn't been brave, brave folks. The freedom I enjoyed on my day off was a relaxing breakfast with my girl and then a day of hobby time and conversation with a friend. I didn't get anything painted but it was a highly productive day in my opinion. First up was a large batch of cultists from Pulp Figures  for more games of Strange Aeons . These guys have been languishing in a box for a long while, and I figured it was high time they got some attention. I did some quick hand swaps and have four more dudes to add to my serpent man cult that I showed off years back . There were another eleven cultists from the same order and decided to put those all together as well. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to do with these, but I'll keep that to myself for now. There is a Black Sun operative...

October was a fair bit lighter in the realms of completed work, but not an entire wash. Hobby: - Cleaned, based and primed six new SuperFigs . This batch included the very first model from the line that came in multiple pieces. My copy of SuperSystem 4th Edition also arrived so I'll try my hand converting these character profiles over from 3rd Edition. - Built and primed the last two (of three) western-themed buildings from PlastCraft . They are all quite similar in design, but mixed in with the rest of my buildings provide a nice amount of variety. - With all of my western buildings finally finished I was able to lay them all out on the table and decide what each of them was going to be, and what colours I'd likely use. I'm going to aim for having a decent amount of colour, but still look worn and weathered...it'll be an interesting experiment. - Built and primed half of the Infinity N3  models I have from the "Operation: Icestorm" starter b...

September didn't feel like a terribly productive month, but doing these progress reports serves as a nice reminder to me that I haven't been entirely idle. Let's have a quick recap! Modeling / hobby: - Fixed Copperhead broken during a demo of Batman Miniature Game . She also got a little more putty work done to really make sure the joins were looked after. - I prepped and based the Hell Division trio and more police figures for Empire of the Dead . I've also decided to include the "Gentleman Bat" figure (created by some top-notch fellows over on LAF) in this batch. Total of 12 figures ready for paint. - I applied basing materials to my 25mm Jaffa minis in hopes of someday getting my  Stargate  project further along. Total of 22 soldiers and the like. - All of my MDF western buildings from August got a spray coat of black primer. - Finished a bit of customization work to an o-scale train water tower model I bought a while back. - Sculpted custom bases ...

Years back I bought a good number of SuperFigs  from one of my local shops. They're a little bit dated looking, but I have to say that every time I paint one of them I enjoy the experience. The detail on them is nicely exaggerated; they really do evoke a comic book feel. I'll likely be picking up some more soon if I can find them. One downside to working with SuperFigs is that they are all cast with very large integrated metal bases. Every one I've bought has been too big to fit on a standard 30mm base. If base size is important to you, clipping and cleanup will have to be done in order to integrate them into your collection. It's worth the effort in my opinion. My favourite figure from the line is still Krieghunde, which I painted long ago and have used in several games with different rule sets. According to the SuperSystem rules available for the figures, he is a member of a team called the "Larcenous Legion." I picked up a few other figures who are als...

While I wait for the arrival of all my stuff from the  Kickstarter campaign for Pulp City Supreme Edition I decided to give the v1 rules another look. For that I'd need to paint some more figures. Way back when I painted my starter sets, I found that the person I got my figures from had shorted me on several models I'd paid for. One of which was the level 3 hero, Solar. Not being able to play a full battle with both of my starter sets was remedied when I painted Deadeye and his vigilantes. All the rest of the Pulp City figures I received had come in their boxes except Fright Train and Night Fright. If I were going to grow the villain's ranks I realized that I'd need to round out my heroes to match, so I picked the Crimson Oni / Foxxy Blade pack and laid them all out on my painting table. It was fully my intention to paint the villains before doing the heroes. However, once I got a closer look and realized both 'Frights' would need some assembly, the heroes...

Seb dropped by on Saturday for some beer, so we fired up a game of Power Legion  to go along with it. He took the Exiles while I played using some evil guys in grey. Zyklon went after Blink but was promptly pounced upon by Sasquatch. He fought his way back to his feet while Kriegeshunde made his way to help out. Nocturne took up a position atop the nearby containers to protect her teammates from the oncoming soldiers. Morph and Spider-Man split off to avoid being flanked. Morph used his crazy stretching ability to try hitting Zyklon while he was down with little success. (We did note that his stretching die needs to be dropped down to reduce the distance that he can attack from.) My soldiers rolled some awesome activations and surged ahead to cut off Spider-Man and Morph. One of them took aim and scored a lucky shot on Spider-Man, KOing him to the cheers of his comrades. Nocturne responded by dispatching one of the soldiers trying to creep up on the melee Zyklon was embroi...

I have a lot of Heroclix figures. Hundreds I'm sure. I don't actively play any more, but I do pick up extras from the current sets from my friends when I'm able. Most of these figures I'm showing off here are older ones from my collection. William provided me with a couple of newer ones like Sasquatch and Hyperion, so that I could do some conversions for an Exiles team to use with the  SuperSystem  v3 rules. This group has been in the works for a while now. We actually played a game using unmodified 'clix several months ago, which is what gave me the idea to jump in on the conversions. The first figure I painted was Heather Hudson: Sasquatch. You've seen this one before but since she's part of the team, here she is again. The other two Exiles we used were Nocturne and Blink. Both of these clix are actually very nicely sculpted and painted. I rebased them on 30mm rounds, and didn't do any initial paint cleanup on Nocturne. I added some detailing t...

Ok I admit that comics have evolved their use of onomatopoeia well beyond the words in my title these days. They just don't read or flow as well though, which leads me to the above simple representations. Since they serve little purpose other than to get you to read my post however, let's just move on shall we? The first figure here is a Reaper Bones golem figure, painted up as the Hulk. I can't take credit for the paint work on this guy, as it was given to me by Uncle Mike (creator of Strange Aeons ). I touched up a few minor spots on the purple areas, based him to match my other super hero figures and called it done. Thanks Uncle Mike! I have another of these figures, which I am now tempted to paint up as a grey or red Hulk just for fun. It should be pretty easy to do, just a matter of when. Anyone who has read my blog for a while, or even likely in passing, will know that I am quite fond of Alpha Flight . There are quite a few nicely done Heroclix figures avail...

While the Kickstarter campaign for SuperSystem 4th Edition  was still running earlier this week we got together to play a game of 3rd Ed. I stat-ed up some characters to play with and we set up the table. I chose to play the  Legion of Super-Villains : Saturn Queen, Cosmic King and Lightning Lord. William was playing Exiles : Blink, Nocturne and Sasquatch. Starting off the game Lightning Lord grabbed Cosmic King and flew up over a building to keep an eye on the Exiles. Sasquatch moved up and Nocturne ran towards another building and hid in the shadows. Saturn Queen and Cosmic King moved over towards a lower building to avoid Blink's cowardly hit-and-run maneuvers. The following round Saturn Queen lands a mental attack against Sasquatch but isn't able to slow her down. Nocturne stays in the shadows and fires some hex-bolts at Lightning Lord with no success. Cosmic King moves towards the source of the hex-bolts but is unable to determine their exact origin. Sasquatch char...