Category Archives: Miniatures

Riddle me this…

A few weeks back I decided to repaint and rebase a Heroclix Mr. Freeze for Supersystem 3, and the Batman bug has bitten me again. This time I decided to put a little extra effort into one of Batman’s “Big Four”: The Riddler!

Here’s what Riddler looks like on the dial. This is one of the original ‘clix from the first DC Hypertime set. Riddle me this…when does a Heroclix miniature look like it was painted with craft paint? Answer: far too often.

Clearly, this would not stand.

Much like the smoke on my Mr. Freeze conversion, I took the pedestal with the question mark from another Heroclix model: The Question. As soon as I saw this figure I knew I was using the question mark for something else. Anyone familiar with the Batman: Arkham series of video games will recognize that this looks exactly like one of the Riddler trophies video game completists like me spend hours trying to collect. I could have painted it green to be more in-line with the game, and I still might. But for now I’m fine with the red.

Here’s a WIP shot. I knew I wanted to include a riddle on the base, so I planned out how much space I would need. Turns out a 60mm base did the trick. This conversion was becoming more and more like a diorama! I used a Dremel engraving tip to sculpt the flagstone pattern before painting the riddle in white. I picked a fairly easy riddle that everyone should know the answer to…or do they? One can never tell with the King of Conundrums!

I painted the riddle bright green and cleaned up some of the mess I made trying to freehand it. The base was looking a bit empty, so I decided to add some moneybags from the Bank of Gotham. I sculpted them out of green stuff, which was surprisingly easy as there’s very little detail to sculpt on a sack. I considered giving Riddler a pistol, but in the end I left him as is.

I was originally going to just paint the stereotypical dollar signs on the bags, but it looked crappy. I decided to label them with the bank name instead. It looks slightly less crappy.

I’ve never been a stickler for base size, but 60mm is pretty big. I may have to do another version of the Riddler if I find his base is getting in the way of terrain and such. But for now I’m happy with him. Since I love Batman’s villains, I think I’ll put extra effort into every member of Batman’s rogue’s gallery to really make them stand out.

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

My next big Supersystem 3 game is going to be based on The Breeder Bombs, the classic (if not-so-great) TSR Marvel Superheroes adventure from the mid-80’s. Last time, I rebased and repainted the Uncanny X-Men team of my youth. Now, I bring you…The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!!!

From left-right: Blob, Toad, Magneto, and his wayward offspring Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. All have been repainted and rebased from their original dials. I decided since Magneto is such a badass, he should have a unique base. I used this large junk base from Taban miniatures. He has a pretty solid bottom which was easy to drill and pin, making it look (IMO) better than a Heroclix flight dial. Quicksilver was extensively repainted in his original “evil” green costume and rebased on an Armorcast urban base. The Scarlet Witch is rebased on a Micro Arts Studio tech base.

The Breeder Bombs features robot doubles of the Brotherhood rather than the actual mutants themselves, which I find really dumb. It takes nothing away from the plot of the module to simply use the Brotherhood rather than robots (and it makes more sense). You might think that aside from Magneto, these guys are a bunch of second-stringers, and you could be right. But remember: “NOTHING-NUH-NUH-NOTHING-NUH-NOTHING MOO-MOVES THE BL-BLO-BLOB!!!!” (Kudos to anyone who gets that referential joke.)

A view from the back. And now, in the immortal words of Magneto: “X-MEN…WELCOME…TO DIE!!!!!”

The Uncanny X-Men

I’m gearing up to run the next Supersystem 3 game based on the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG by TSR. Up next is MSH-1, The Breeder Bombs, so I’ve been busy repainting and rebasing the X-Men. This time I remembered to take a picture of the heroclix before and after my efforts.

Above, L-R, Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), Wolverine, Colossus, Professor X, Cyclops and Storm. These are the X-Men of my youth (early to mid-eighties), so in selecting my clix I went for authenticity and made sure I had a mohawk-sporting Storm. Kitty Pryde was known as Ariel back then, and she wore a completely different costume. So did Wolverine.

So here are the repaints, sandwiched between Nightcrawler and Rogue, who round out the post-Dark Phoenix Saga/ Secret Wars era team. I couldn’t find a Heroclix Nightcrawler that I liked (and many are expensive), and I couldn’t find a Rogue miniature that was time-specific, so I had to use these old TSR metal miniatures from the Marvel Super Heroes RPG line. They scale pretty well with the clix.

As you can see, Wolverine is resplendent in his Autumn ensemble (i.e. brown costume). I don’t remember Cyclops ever beings so light blue, so it was easy enough to darken his costume up. Rogue’s costume has changed about a dozen times over the years, and unfortunately the TSR model shows her in her “orange tunic/legwarmers” look. Although I can’t imagine using Professor X much in Supersystem 3 (he’s way too powerful), I decided to include him for completeness. I changed his suit color and wheelchair and gave him a nice plaid blanket to keep his legs warm. I did the least with Storm, who only really needed some minor highlighting and rebasing to fit right in.

I had to change Wolverine and Ariel’s costumes completely from the original Heroclix models. I’m pretty happy with the results (although Ariel’s face could be better.) Kitty’s costume isn’t 100% accurate (she had a bigger collar and no shoulder pads), but I like it. No Lockheed the Dragon, sadly.

Here are the closeups of the TSR models. Nightcrawler isn’t too bad, but the Rogue miniature is really not all that great. Her pose is mystifying and like most of these TSR models, the facial sculpt is awful. I did what I could with her. I don’t know what kind of alloy TSR used in their miniatures line, but it really doesn’t hold paint well, even when primed. Paint rubs off easily, even just handling them during the painting process.

Now I just need to paint a certain Master of Magnetism and his cronies and we can play!

Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze has long been one of my favorite bat-villains, due in large part to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s brilliant, iconic performance in the 1997 film Batman & Robin.

OK, maybe not.

But I really do love Mr. Freeze. Especially any episode of the Batman Animated Series in which he is featured (voiced by the late, great Michael Ansara). He is also really cool (pardon the pun) in the Batman: Arkham City video game, as well as the Arkham Origins downloadable content “Cold, Cold Heart.”

I’ve been rebasing and repainting a lot of Heroclix lately, but they’ve mostly been Marvel clix. I’ve been sadly neglecting the DC line. I decided to have some fun with this one and make a really nice conversion I can base a scenario or two around.

Anyway, here’s what a Heroclix Mr. Freeze looks like out of the box. That’s a stock photo, not the actual model I used. I really need to remember to photograph these clix before I repaint them, but this kind of happened as a side project.

The Mr. Freeze model has a removable helmet and shoulder piece, which is good since the helmet is so opaque it obscures the face almost entirely.

From Wikipedia: Mr. Freeze (Victor Fries) is a scientist who must wear a cryogenic suit in order to survive, and bases his crimes around a “cold” or “ice” theme, complete with a “freeze gun” that freezes its targets solid. In the most common variation of his origin story, he is a former cryogenics expert who suffered an industrial accident while attempting to cure his terminally ill wife Nora Fries.

I like him because he’s actually a bad guy you can feel sorry for. Freeze does some bad. bad things, but it’s all for love of his wife.

Here are a couple of better shots that show him without the helmet. I considered adding a bit of snow to his gun barrel and the tanks on his back to simulate frost, but decided against it. The smoke is from a this Marvel Ultron clix model:

I also used the Ultron model for Mr. Freeze’s wife, Nora. I painted her a frosty blue and based her on a dime, which, coincidentally, is exactly the right diameter to use if you want to place her in this spiffy bio-tank, made by RAFM.

The other miscellaneous sci-fi machinery was made by TMP’s Russell95403, I think it goes well as lab decor. For the ice piles, I used Chris Palmer’s method described here, using sea glass. I think they look great and I’ll be making more ice soon.

So now I have Mr. and Mrs. Freeze ready to go for a nice Supersystem 3 scenario.

And that-dare I say it?- is pretty damn cool.

Imperial Assault Finally Finished! (Sort of…)

I started painting Fantasy Flight Games’ Imperial Assault last year in May. One would think I would have finished this project long ago, but my PADD (Painting Attention Deficit Disorder) constantly worked against me and I found myself juggling many projects at once, none of which were (or are) close to complete. Well, after my last post a couple months back, I decided to buckle down and finish Imperial Assault before doing anything else. My friends were exasperated with me for insisting on playing with painted miniatures, but at long last, the core set and several expansions are done.

Before we dive in, I would like to plug Sorastro’s Painting, a Youtube Channel that details the painting of most of these figures below. For the most part, I followed Sorastro’s method with only minor departures. In addition to Imperial Assault, Sorastro also has tutorials for Zombicide and Descent miniatures. He’s a very good painter with a lot of helpful tips, and the production standards of his tutorial videos are really amazing. Check him out!

First up, the rest of the Imperial Faction. Above are the Nexu, some kind of nasty beastie that I think only appeared in Attack of the Clones. I seem to remember one of them from the arena scene even though I only saw that abysmal movie once. They’re pretty cool sculpts and to be honest, without Sorastro as a guide, my Nexu would have likely looked like crap. I like them now, though.

Up next are the Trandoshan Hunters. Sorastro wanted one of the veterans to be Bossk, and I liked that idea too. (Of course, now there’s a special Bossk expansion figure in the Bespin expansion, but whatever). I chose basic solid colors for the fatigues as I didn’t want to paint camouflage. All in all, I found these guys to be the least fun figures to paint in the core set, but YMMV.

The AT-ST was one of the easiest miniatures to paint, and once again, Sorastro gets the nod as he used a very effective method of washing and wiping to achieve the end colors. He also introduced me to my new favorite paint, GW’s “Typhus Corrosion”. I probably wouldn’t have bought this on my own, but I love the grimy effects it creates. The AT-ST was the only core miniature that I decided to base decoratively, because I thought it would look crappy on a plain gray base.

Our first Expansion Pack, General Weiss. Painted pretty much the same as the AT-ST above. General Weiss is a guy who likes his guns, obviously. Probably that’s because he’s got a bit of a Napoleon complex due to his unfortunate size. His body is so out of scale with the other humanoid figures that I considered building the modified AT-ST and leaving him off it, but in the end I decided to include him. Once again, I put some effort into the base because of the model’s size.

The next Expansion Pack is the bounty hunter, IG-88. Although he’s a popular character, I would have thought Fantasy Flight would have released Boba Fett in the first wave of expansions rather than IG-88. Still, he’s cool and fun and easy to paint, and he looks a lot cooler than using the cardboard token included in the core game.

Finally, the Dark Lord himself. Vader is technically another “Expansion Pack”, but he comes in the core set along with Luke Skywalker. FF probably does this to tempt you into replacing those tokens with actual miniatures (it works.) When painting this miniature, I departed from Sorastro’s tutorial significantly. Not because I didn’t like his result, but because it was too time consuming for me and also a bit daunting. Sorastro highlighted his Vader to death and added some cool lighting effects from the lightsaber, neither of which I wanted to do in order to save time. ( I had already taken enough time to paint this game!!!) His results are much better than mine, but I’m perfectly content with my Darth Vader.

Finally, the Rebel Scum!! From top to bottom, L-R: Mas Esh’karey, Gideon Argus, Jyn Odan, Ghaarkan, Fenn Signis, and Diala Passil. I found Fenn Signis to be the most fun to paint, and Diala the least. Once again, I departed from Sorastro on the lightsaber effects (i.e. I chose not to include them).

Some familiar faces: Luke Skywalker (included in the core game), Chewbacca and Han Solo. Chewbacca was a blast to paint and all three of these miniatures are terrific representations of these iconic characters.

Lastly, some generic Rebel Troopers. These were the last miniatures I painted and they took very little time. Sorastro hasn’t posted a tutorial for them yet, but they were easy to paint based on source material (i.e. Google).

The only wave one miniatures expansions I haven’t bought or painted yet are the Rebel Saboteurs and the Emperor’s Guard Champion, but they can wait. I’ve decided I probably won’t be buying any of the game expansions (like Hoth or Bespin), but I may buy some of the miniatures expansions (like Boba Fett and R2 and 3PO) just to paint them, or perhaps to use in skirmish play.

Now I can finally play the game!

Day of the Octopus!!!!

Back in the day, I was a big fan of the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG from TSR (still am, in fact). I thought some of their adventures might make fun scenarios for Supersytem 3, and it turns out I was right! First up is the introductory adventure included with the basic set: MSH0: Day of the Octopus!

A brief synopsis: That tentacled creep Dr. Octopus is at it again! This time his scheme is to become “Supreme Ruler of New York City” (yes, really). To that end, he has created a 30-foot tall robot duplicate of himself that will destroy Manhattan unless the heroes can stop it! (Because, you know, that’s the best plan an insane, genius nuclear physicist could come up with.)

FYI ALL of the published adventures, as well as the rulebooks for TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes are available at Classic Marvel Forever in PDF format, and they’re FREEEEEEEE! Many of them are delightfully terrible, with questionable storylines, lame villains, and encounters that make you scratch your head and ask WTF??? But all of them seem easily adaptable to SS3, and 99% of the heroes and villains used in all of them are available as Heroclix models!

Without further ado, the dramatis personae:

The heroes (L-R): Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Captain America, and the ever-lovin, blue-eyed Thing!

The main villains (L-R): Beetle, Scorpion, Dr. Octopus, Radioactive Man and the Fixer! (Fixer looked different back in the day, but this newer version is the only Clix model of the Fixer, so I’m stuck with it.) And of course, looming menacingly in the back: The Octodroid!!!!!

As is usual with most starting adventures, the heroes far outclass the villains. I assumed the bad guys would need some help, so I added Constrictor and these killer robots as reinforcements. The robots are repainted and rebased Horrorclix Carnage Bots.

If you’re wondering about the Octodroid, he’s this old Toy Biz Marvel figure, spray-painted silver. I picked him up on eBay for 8 bucks including shipping. Not bad, eh? Onto the game!

An otherwise quiet day in Manhattan. Ben Grimm, Peter Parker and Steve Rogers are all spending some personal time in the park. Thing is buying a hot dog and feeling sorry for himself. Peter is having a picnic with Aunt May. Steve is on a date with his girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal. Captain Marvel is on duty at Avengers Mansion (remember, this adventure was from 1984!)

All the heroes notice two well-known goons, Turk and Grotto, entering a building across from the park. They are up to no good! All the heroes in the park start to make their excuses and head over to the building, just as a huge explosion blows out the front wall! Who emerges but Grotto, accompanied by Turk, in full Mandroid armor!

(If you’re asking WTF??? allow me to explain: A suit of Mandroid armor was on display in the lobby of the building. You might think there would be extra security, or that the suit of Mandroid armor would be somehow neutralized for display purposes, like a cannon at a park, but you’d be wrong. It’s just sitting there in a glass case in the lobby, along with the plans for a new power source made by Tony Stark. Or it was. Until Turk stole it.)

Alerted by the explosion and able to fly at lightspeed,Captain Marvel arrives on the scene instantly. The Thing wastes no time rushing across the street and ruining Grotto’s day before closing with Turk! And at that moment, the super-villains arrive!!!

What are they doing here? What could they want? The heroes have no time for speculation, because combat erupts!

Thing beats up on Turk, but fails to KO him. Meanwhile, Spider-Man webs Turk to the ground. Turk is entangled!

Captain Marvel and Beetle exchange energy blasts! Captain Marvel is wounded!

After firing off a blast of radiation at Thing, Radioactive Man gets slammed by Cap’s shield and gets KO’ed instantly! (Cap rolled a ton of goals to hit, and it carried over to damage. Radioactive Man rolled poorly, and that’s all, folks!)

Scorpion shoots at Spider-Man, but fails to hit. In the next round, he bounds atop the building closest to the web-slinger, but before he can close, Spidey webs him to the roof! Meanwhile, Thing takes out Turk once and for all.

On the other side of the park, Captain Marvel gets the worst of it in her fight with Beetle and is KO’ed! Cap takes out the Beetle with a shield toss, and Thing rips up a lamp post and cancels Christmas on the Fixer! With three villains KO’ed, the bad guys bug out and flee the table! But not before a sinister-looking steel tentacle snakes up from a nearby grate and steals the plans for a new power source…the villains’ goal all along! This was but a diversion! Mu-hu-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

In the original TSR RPG adventure, the heroes had to search for clues to find Dock Ock’s hideout. But we jumped right into it! The heroes track Doc Ock to his lair in an abandoned warehouse, where he awaits them with Scorpion and Constrictor!

“It’s Clobberin’ Time!” Doctor Octopus barely has time to activate his security robots before the Thing is in his grill. He decks Doc in two rounds, which made for a very quick end to this scenario. Meanwhile, Captain America shield-bashes Constrictor into submission! All in all, not a good round for the villains. But as he lapses into rocky-fisted-induced unconsciousness, Doc Ock manages to activate his most villainous automaton:The Octodroid!

BEHOLD! THE OCTODROID MARCHES!!!

The Octodroid begins its path of destruction, shattering buildings to the left and right. The heroes move quickly to intercept! Spidey tries to web its legs together, but the Octodroid will not be bound! Captain Marvel fires a blast of energy, inflicting damage. In response, the Octodroid pauses its attack on New York to fire at the heroes with the plasma cannons contained in its tentacles, but fails to hit any of them.

Then after a few more exchanges, Captain America once again saves the day. He hurls his shield with uncanny precision, striking the Octodroid in its eyes! Something shorts out and the Octodroid comes to an abrupt halt, toppling over a few seconds later. New York is saved! (Once again, Captain America rolled a shit-ton of goals that failed to be resisted by the Ocotdroid. Even I was surprised by how quickly the robot fell!)

This was a lot of fun and I plan on adapting more of the published TSR adventures to SS3 soon. Up next: MSH-1: The Breeder Bombs, featuring the X-Men!

WizarDecember Week Four

The end of the year signals the end of WizarDecember as well. I would like to thank everyone who participated, whether by submitting miniatures or just by dropping by and viewing the work of some very talented hobbyists! A reminder to all to check the sidebar for some interesting blogs, some you may know, some maybe not. I plan on being a regular visitor to all of them!

Without further ado, the final wizards of 2015!

First up is TMP’s CBPill with another Wargods of Aegyptus miniature, an “Asar Mistress of Worlds”. While I don’t play the game, CBPill’s submissions for Dwarvember and WizarDecember have piqued my curiosity as the game seems to have some pretty nice miniatures associated with it.

Next up is a Scibor Tech Priest proxy for CBPill’s (not) Adeptus Mechanicus army! I love Scibor’s miniatures (especially the Dwarfs), and this one looks like another fine sculpt. I’d be wary of playing with him though, as the resin might not hold up to constant handling. But YMMV!!!

And finally, CBPill ends WizarDecember with “Stanley whose RPG character is a Wizard named ‘Palmyricus the Perfidious’ (thought that would be a silly change of pace.)” We probably all know a Stanley. Technically not a wizard himself, but don’t tell him that! “Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!”

Thanks for all the great submissions, CBPill!!

Next up is Punkrabbitt Returns’s submission, which has to be one of the strangest and coolest wizards I’ve ever seen! This is Ooleekoo, “a Morokanth shaman, essentially a sentient tapir native to Glorantha specializing in spellcasting.” Punkrabbitt has Frostgrave fever, and this looks to be a new wizard for yet another Frostgrave warband! You can see how he converted the original model and hear all about Ooleekoo over at his blog, Tumbahelada de Punkrabbitt, over in the sidebar! He used a plastic Toob figure! How frickin’ cool is that??? Awesome and inspirational job, Punkrabbitt!

Another awesome paint job on another awesome base by TMP’s 144artist! This is another Hasslefree Kev White sculpt. The scenic base really adds a lot to the miniature and the freehand work on the cape is terrific! I generally suck at freehanding anything, but after seeing 144atrist’s work and what a difference it makes, I’m going to have to try it more often!

Here’s a closeup of the detail work on the rear of the cape. Thanks for participating in both recent painting challenges, 144artist!

Finally, here is my submission. I originally planned a big blowout to WizarDecember, but then I got a PS4 and Star Wars: Battlefront, so…it didn’t happen. However, here is a lizard-wizard for your perusal! This is a Reaper Lizardman Shaman. I’m happy I got to pose him amongst my recently created swampy terrain, even though the pictures aren’t spectacular.

In other news, amongst my Christmas loot this year I received a Barnes and Noble gift card, which was promptly put to use purchasing Frostgrave and Thaw of the Lich Lord. To my newfound friends who submitted wizards this month, I can no longer resist the pull of this highly reviewed game. I credit Punkrabbitt in particular for all his warband submissions in November and December. So hopefully, I will play some Frostgrave in the near future and write some AAR’s about it! (Although I don’t think a Lizardman warband would work so well. Being cold-blooded in the frozen city? Might result in at least an initiative penalty or two. 🙂

I’m taking a break from hosting painting challenges for a while, in part because I can’t find a word to work into “January”, but mainly because I need some time to focus on projects I’ve let go (like Imperial Assault) in favor of Dwarfs and Wizards for the past two months. I’m more than willing to participate in someone else’s challenges, if the subject is right. So someone pick up the glove!

Thanks again to all! Happy New Year!

WizarDecember Week Three

This week was my birthday, and between that and the general holiday madness it was a challenge to be able to submit anything this time around. But WizarDecember stops for no one until the 31st! So, without further ado, here are the wizards!

First up is Punkrabbitt’s Week TWO submissions, here a little late but welcome nonetheless. You can read all about his Frostgrave warbands over on his blog, Tumbahelada de Punkrabbitt, accessible through the sidebar if so inclined. Up top is the old Citadel wood elf Queen Alarielle, circa late 90’s. Below that is an old Citadel wood elf mage. Together they’re a wizard and apprentice for Frostgrave, respectively.

Punkrabbitt’s week three submission is a conversion of a Reaper Bones miniature. Using an Iron Wind Metals rabbit head, Punkrabbitt converted this wererat to be a bunny-headed wizard for yet another (bunny or Chaost-themed) Frostgrave warband! Awesome!

TMP’s 144artist submitted this Hasslefree female wizard, again for use in…you guessed it…Frostgrave! (I gotta get into this game.) 144artist combined some terrific brushwork with a Micro Arts Studio base and here is the result! I particularly like the blending on the crystal ball and the designs on the hem and back of her robe. Thanks again, 144artist!

These two are from TMP’s CBPill. Up top is an old Celtos Kev White Sculpt that is a new version of CBPill’s Necromancer from an old WarGods of Aegyptus world campaign. (His words, not mine.) And on the bottom is a “wizard-type from the Dark Fable line of Ancient Egyptian minis.” Both look great. I’m considering an Egyptian-themed pulp game in the future, and that guy on the bottom would fit right in. Thanks again, CBPill!!!

Lastly, here is my submission for the week: this RAFM Wizard with Wagon. I’ve always loved the opening scene in the Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf rides into Hobbiton in a wagon loaded with fireworks. So I guess it’s no surprise that I went for a Gandalf look when I painted him.

I now wish I painted the goat more of a whitish color. I painted him first, then decided on the Gandalf look, so by the time I painted the wizard it was too late to change the goat around and make my deadline. Although I used different colors, they look a little too similar for my liking. Also, it seems I need to rub off some of the static grass on the side of the base. Ooops.

This is one of those miniatures with a lot of character. I’m not sure what this fellow poking his head out the back is supposed to be, so I just went with a standard “red demon” look.

WizarDecember concludes next week, the day after Christmas! Happy Painting!

WizarDecember Week Two

Back for its second week is WizarDecember! We’re a little light on submissions this week, but I’ll be taking any new ones all throughout the weekend.

First up is TMP’s 144artist with this awesome Hasslefree witch, complete with a base by MicroArts Studio. 144artist plans on using her in a classic Dungeon Crawl. Great job! Very impressive shading on the abdomen!

I guess I should have specified it was NSFW, but if your work really gives you a hard time about this, you need a new job. Thanks for participating again, 144artist!

TMP’s CBPill submitted this odd-looking fellow from Reaper. In his words, he’s “some kind of Alien Cosmic Wizard, probably evil.” I like this miniature and I’ve never seen it before today, so I looked him up on the site to see if he’s part of a series. Sadly, I think he’s the only one of his kind so far. Reaper has him listed as the “Andromedan Vizier”, so maybe some more are on the way. I love the palette you chose for him. Bright colors on an evil guy aren’t the norm…but then again, he’s alien, right? Thanks CBPill!

My submissions for this week are a bit eclectic.

First up is this holdover from Dwarvember, a Reaper female dwarf wizard. One more reason I love dwarfs: even the wizards have hammers! For some reason I can’t explain, this miniature looks much better than the picture shows. I’m happy with the miniature, but not so much with the pictures. Hmm.

My second and third (!) submissions for this week are two versions of a classic Marvel hero: Dr. Strange!

By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth! It’s a Heroclix repaint! The miniature on the left shows more or less how he looked when painted by underpaid Chinese factory workers. On the right is my repaint. I also rebased him on an old RAFM base of skulls from one of their weird death angel miniatures. I think the flight stand kinda takes away from the miniature a little, but it’s the best way to hold him “aloft”.

This last one is an old TSR Marvel Superheroes version of the Doc. Looks like he’s in the midst of firing off his legendary eldritch bolts of bedevilment! Either that or he’s walking like an Egyptian. You decide. While painting this miniature, I was reminded how bad the sculpts on the TSR miniatures were. Also, I’m no metallurgist, but these miniatures never seemed to hold paint very well, even after priming. Perhaps something in the composition of the metal itself?

Week Three on the 19th! Happy Painting!

WizarDecember Week One

WizarDecember officially gets underway this weekend with some impressive submissions! And here they are!

First up is TMP’s 144artist with this Reaper Pathfinder gnome summoner! I really like the “iconic” Pathfinder series of miniatures, and with 144artist’s paint job, it’s not hard to see why. Thanks for the submission!

TMP’s Skrapwelder sent in this Reaper wood elf mage. Awesome work. I’ve always found yellow to be a tough color to work with, especially shading it well. I also really love the face in this miniature: perfect shadowing! Thanks, Skrapwelder!

Just under the wire, TMP’s CBPill submitted this interesting fellow. CBPill explains: “This is a figure from the Colony87 Kickstarter. He’s supposed to be a space merchant, but he really looks kind of wizardly to me, so that’s how I painted him and put the green magic swirl in his left hand.”

Works for me! I also like him as a space merchant!

Punkrabbitt returns returns for WizarDecember as well with this GW goblin shaman from Battle for Skull Pass. Punkrabbitt says it’s for yet another Frostgrave warband. I’ve managed to resist the pull of Frostgrave so far, but it’s getting harder everyday with all the great reviews, and miniatures like this just highlight the possibilities… Thanks, Punkrabbitt!

Lastly this week is my submission: this Reaper “death priest”. I posed him with some skeletons from Mississinewa Miniatures (sadly gone, now) and some Armorcast mausoleums, just for effect.

That about does it for this week! See you on the 12th, and Happy Painting!

Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging

The Angry Piper's miniatures and gaming blog.