Category Archives: Painting Challenges

Zombtober 2018 Week 2: Felicity meets the zombies!

It’s Zombtober, and I’m getting a late start. I missed the first week. Therefore, I worked twice as hard this week to get my submissions in. I decided to do a bunch of zombies and a survivor to catch up.

These zombies are from Reaper’s Bones line. You get all 5 in a pack for 7 bucks! They’re all pretty good sculpts, I’m particularly fond of the second one from the left and the one all the way on the right. These were the first miniatures I ever underpainted after priming; meaning I gave them all a light drybrush of white over the black primer before adding the colors. It was a technique I was unfamiliar with, but now that I’ve tried it, I can say it works terrific at picking out the detail on models, allowing me to easily see where clothes end and skin begins. It even picked out the wounds and bite marks the zombies have, making painting them easier. I’ll be using it again. My eyes aren’t getting any better with age, so any help is a good thing.

What do you do when you’re outnumbered five to one? Have the right tool for the job. This minigun should be just what the doctor ordered… This is Felicity, from Hasslefree. She’s one of the “not-Mystery Machine crew”; basically she’s Daphne from Scooby-Doo with a minigun. As cool as that is, I decided to paint her differently and not stick to her regular colors.

Here’s a quick shot of Felicity in action.

Next Sunday is my next Zombtober submission. Hopefully I’ll get some other stuff done before then, though, so watch this space!

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 40

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +39

 

Here’s the blogroll  of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Brummie, our Zombtober Host!- Brummie’s Wargaming Blog
Pulp Citizen- Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
Rob Bresnen- Four Colour Super Minis
Kieron-Cheaphammer!!!
Terry Silverthorn- Miniature Mayhem
Ivor Evan- Saturday Mornings
Bryan Scott aka Vampifan- Vampifan’s World of the Undead
Colgar6- Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
Clint- Anything But a One!
Phil Curran- Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera
Dai- The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted
The Wargames Addict- The Wargame Addict
Dick Garrison- Rantings from Under the Wargames table
myincubliss –Dead Lead Project

Saga’tember Coda: The Remaining Heroes!

Between some small projects of my own and my participation in Zombtober this month, I’ve managed to finish up all the miniatures from Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest. (Of course, I still have all the dungeon furniture and doors to do, but those can be done here and there as time permits. The main thing is all the miniatures are officially done!)

There are four heroes in Dungeon Saga: Orlaf, the Barbarian; Madriga, the Elf; Rordin, the Dwarf; and Danor, the Wizard. I painted Rordin already when I painted the undead Dwarf King and his Revenants, so that only left the other three.

Here is Orlaf. I really didn’t like this miniature much until I painted it. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t impressed with the sculpt or the overall character concept. Now he’s grown on me somewhat. I painted him close to the “official” look, with only minor differences.

Next is Danor. I completely scrapped the “official” paint scheme for this model, as I hate the way it looks. This is the only model in the entire set that I primed grey, as I knew early on I was going to paint him predominantly yellow. I based him with Citadel Tau Light Ochre, then highlighted with Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow and finally, Mold (a light yellow from Reaper). I was going for a similar yellow/white color scheme to Merlin, the wizard from the Gauntlet video game of my youth. At the very end I decided to paint his belt purple for some contrast.

Last, we have Madriga. I considered painting her completely different from the classic “elf ranger with a bow” green and brown. I was toying with painting her cloak a deep orange and going for an autumn color scheme, but I said screw it and just painted her as you see here. I wanted this project to be over.

Here’s a shot of all three.

And here’s a shot of the three plus Rordin, the Dwarf.

Onto other things. I need to get my first Zombtober stuff ready to post this weekend, as I’m already a week behind!

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 34

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +33

Saga’Tember’s end: Zombie Trolls and Shaman

It’s the last day of Saga’tember, and I managed to get three more miniatures in just under the wire. This time it’s the undead trolls and the troll shaman, Hoggar.

I must admit I was a bit daunted by the zombie trolls. They’re big miniatures and they will draw a lot of attention on the table, so I didn’t want them to look crappy. I was unsure what color to paint the flesh, but I decided to YouTube it, and I came up with Como Pintar’s method. I ended up deviating from it considerably, but he gave me the basics. His video is in Spanish, but if you don’t habla Espanol, don’t fret. He was nice enough to include English subtitles.

I should say that I followed his instructions, but I got a very different base color than he did. I opted to highlight with Rakarth Flesh before the final highlight of Bone. Also, I discovered a new favorite paint: Citadel’s Nurgle’s Rot. This is a technical paint that simulates greenish putrescence very well; it basically looks like yellow-green snot. It dries shiny, so it looks appropriately gross.  I used it on the flesh around the open wounds on the trolls and Hoggar and I think I’ll use it more often when painting things that are, well…rotting.

Here’s Hoggar, the zombie troll shaman and the last villain in the base set. I don’t know what the hell is up with the picture, but he looks a LOT better in person. I’m actually really happy with how he came out, but looking at this picture, it seems I just slapped some paint all over him and called it a day. I didn’t.

Lastly, a group shot.

That brings an end to Saga’tember. All in all, I did pretty well. I managed to paint 23 out of the 26 miniatures in the box. All I have left are 3 more heroes, and of course all the doors and dungeon scenery. I should easily be able to finish everything long before Christmas, which was my goal. Still, without this month’s challenge project I doubt I would have painted any of them!

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 30

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +29

Saga’tember: (Mostly) Dead Dwarfs!

For my third group of miniatures for Dungeon Saga: the Dwarf King’s Quest, I decided to focus on the dwarfs.

There are two dwarf revenants in the game, basically undead dwarf warriors who serve their undead Dwarf King, for whom the game is named. I decided they would likely be clad in similar raiment, as they are soldiers, after all. I opted for green.

Then there is the eponymous undead Dwarf King himself, Grund (not a very dwarflike name, but whatever). I’m pretty happy with the way he turned out. I really like the miniature, too; much like beards, big blocky hammers just seem to go with dwarfs.

Here’s a shot of the king and his soldiers. Speaking of beards, I think it’s great that dwarfs keep theirs even after death, when the rest of their face is just a skull. It’s also worth noting that only after death would a dwarf EVER tolerate rust on his weapons or armor.

Finally, I completed my first Dungeon Saga hero: Rordin, the Dwarf. I don’t have a problem with the miniature per se, but it’s not that exciting a pose. Also, his hammer head is bent, and even though I tried to straighten it about 6 times, it went right back to the bent position. Annoying, but not really the end of the world, considering how much I’m likely to actually play this game.

Up next: (undead, not Russian) Trolls! I’m hoping to get them done by the end of the month, which will leave only the remaining 3 heroes and the dungeon scenery left to paint. Wish me luck!

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 30

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +29

Saga’tember: Zombies and Necromancer

It’s 2/3 of the way through the month, and I finally have my next batch of Dungeon Saga miniatures to post. At this rate, I’m unlikely to get the whole set finished by month’s end, but I won’t have much more to do and I should be able to finish the base set by the end of the year, in between my other projects.

This time around, I decided to focus on the zombies. There are four regular zombies, and two wearing armor.

I have to say that I’m really not a fan of most of these Dungeon Saga miniatures. Not because they look particularly bad, but because they’re fragile. Many are misshapen, and despite many attempts at reposing them, they tend to stay that way. Thankfully, Mantic seems to be aware of the problem, so only one foot is attached to the base. This allows you some measure of control to reposition the model before gluing the other foot down. This straightens the model’s posture, which is a good thing. But it doesn’t help with bent weapons or arms at all.

In addition to the zombies, I painted another bad guy: Mortibris, the Necromancer. Once again, I ignored the “official” Mantic paint colors in favor of my own classic necromancer color scheme that harkens back to the days of my old-school Warhammer undead army. I like how he came out, but I wish the picture was a bit more in focus.

This week, I didn’t buy any more miniatures, but since I’m keeping a year-to-date total (or at least a running total since I decided to start keeping track), I’ll include my earlier purchase. That miniature will be painted soon, hopefully by the end of the month…he’s just too cool to put off.

Up next, however, I’ve decided to focus on one of my favorite painting subjects and the namesake of this game: Dwarfs!

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 26

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +25

Saga’tember: Skeletons and Spirits!

Well, it’s officially Saga’tember, and I’m the last of the three caballeros (the other two being Dick Garrison and Blax the Kleric) to post my progress in painting Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest by Mantic Games.

I decided to keep things simple for my first outing. I concentrated on the skeletons and the ghosts, two of the easiest groups to paint.

As a lifelong fantasy miniatures painter and a former Warhammer Undead player, I’ve painted many a skeleton in my day. I figured I had this in the bag. But I am far from happy with how these skellies came out.

I love Mantic dwarfs, but Mantic skeletons and elves are really skinny and small, or as my British friends would say, weedy. My eyes aren’t getting better with age, so they were tougher to paint than I thought they would be. Also, I decided to try a different skeleton painting method than is usual for me. Typically, I prime my bonies black, then highlight using Reaper’s bone triad (Bone Shadow, Aged Bone and Polished Bone) before giving it a very light drybrush of white. Works great.

This time, I used GW’s method, which is to prime white, wash with Agrax Earthshade, and highlight up with Ushabti Bone and white. I hated how this turned out, so I ended up using my method after all, which resulted in about 3 unnecessary layers of paint on the models. I mean, they don’t all have to be masterpieces, but it just irks me…

Unlike my comrade Dick Garrison, who is painting his models to match Mantic’s paint jobs (and doing an amazing job of it), I have no such desire to do so. I want to paint as many of these models as I can in September, however; so I decided to go with GW’s quick and easy method of painting ghosts: prime white, coat with Nihilakh Oxide, wash the recesses with Coelia Greenshade, and drybrush with white. I did both ghosts and one of the bosses, Elshara the Banshee, in about 30 minutes.

Also, this is the first time in months I have painted something that isn’t a Gaslands conversion or a Heroclix repaint, so it marks the return of my Painting Progress queue. I have been VERY good, and I haven’t bought any new miniatures in months…until last week, when I had to buy a miniature that was too good to pass up…but I’ll be painting it very soon. Anyway, the updated progress for this year is:

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 19

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +18

 

Up next: “BRAAAAAAAIIINSSSSSS…..”

Saga’tember!

Behold Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest by Mantic Games. It’s a fairly well-reviewed dungeon crawler board game in the vein of Fantasy Flight’s Descent. Like Descent, it comes with a bunch of plastic miniatures that you can paint, or not, as is your wont. I’ve owned the game for a while now, but I’ve never played it; much like Imperial Assault, I wanted to paint all the miniatures before actually playing the game.

Unlike my experience with Imperial Assault, I want to paint the game miniatures in less than two years and play it more than a few times.

A couple of months back, in the midst of Forgotten Heroes, Dick Garrison, Blax the Kleric and I donned our dark robes, intoned our mysterious chants, invoked names any sane person would never speak aloud, and made a solemn pact that we would all three try to paint as much of the game as possible during the month of September, or, as Mr. Garrison has aptly dubbed it: Saga’tember.

Saga’tember is nigh! This coming month will be devoted to painting the Dungeon Saga game, with the ultimate goal (one I share with Dick Garrison), of having the whole thing complete by Christmas. That means I’d best get cracking, because I already have a project lined up for October, and I’m seriously considering hosting Dwarvember again this year. (No promises on that, we’ll have to see.)

Did I mention I have some long-lost friends dropping by in September for some Super Mission Force and/or possibly Gaslands? That’s right: I’m actually going to play a game or two with OTHER people for a change. Looking forward to it, but it means I have to do a little work for those games prior to their visit.

Tonight: I prime!

 

Forgotten Heroes 2018, Submission 1: The Water Wizard!

It’s June, which means it’s time for Forgotten Heroes!

Last year my fellow miniatures enthusiast Carrion Crow invited me to take part in the Forgotten Heroes challenge. I played hard to get at first, but then when I saw how much fun it was going to be, I begged him to let me take part. He graciously agreed. I converted and/or repainted the entire Liberty Legion, along with special guests Spirit of ’76, Patriot, Union Jack and Bucky! This year, I’m hoping to submit three Forgotten Heroes, not a whole team. So, without further ado, here’s the first:

 

The Water Wizard is a really lame Marvel villain with water powers. In fact, it turns out he can control almost any liquid, not just water. You would think this would make him pretty powerful, but Water Wizard is an idiot. In 1977, he made his debut in the Ghost Rider comic book and promptly got his clock cleaned by Ghost Rider, both in his initial appearance and pretty much every time they met after that.

He actually fought some other Marvel good guys, like Captain America, with predictable results (he lost). He was recruited by criminal financier and Hugh Hefner lookalike, Justin Hammer, but ran away when he had to fight Iron Man.

After a while, Water Wizard changed his name to Aqueduct, which is an even dumber name than Water Wizard, and tried to continue his criminal ambitions. Instead he joined the Thunderbolts and that’s about when I lost track of him.

To make this conversion, I used three figures. Because I never throw anything out, I had a headless Quicksilver left over from when I made Jack Frost in my first Forgotten Heroes challenge last year. . He’s been grotesquely hanging around in a corner of my hobby space since then. I thought that the head of the Weather Wizard (similar name, different publisher, equally lame bad guy) would look pretty good on the body. His  hair is already blowing around, so it would match pretty well with the running pose. For added effect, I thought I would use this water spume on the Aquaman figure for something…

An idea took shape. I re-headed and rebased the miniature, and sculpted his fashionable hip waders out of green stuff. (A side note: I suck at sculpting anything. This is problematic, as my next Forgotten Heroes submissions will require much more sculpting. Thus I have sought the aid and advice of a sculptor extraordinaire to guide my efforts henceforth…)

I removed the cumbersome Aquaman model from the water spout and attached it to a base of green stuff sculpted to look like water (I can handle that much). Now it looks like the water is moving with him. Then I painted the model to resemble Water Wizard.

Hi running pose actually looks pretty accurate. I only have to face him away from any hero model since Water Wizard often flees. I don’t have a Daredevil-like sense of touch, so I couldn’t tell if the diagonal slash on Quicksilver’s costume was raised or if it was just a painted on until I painted over it. Turns out it’s actually part of the sculpt, which is unfortunate, as you can still barely see it through my paint. Also, I now have a headless Weather Wizard where my headless Quicksilver used to be.

Forgotten Heroes 2018 submission 1: complete!

 

 

Forgotten Heroes: The Super Mission Force Builds

As I said a few posts back, I first encountered the Liberty Legion in an adventure for TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes RPG that was published in Dragon magazine #104. Although the adventure was pretty good, I was surprised by how low-powered the Legion was by “modern” standards. Even the other “big” WWII-era supers team, the Invaders (watch this space soon!) far outclassed the Liberty Legion in power level. Nonetheless, I sought out all the appearances (up until then, anyway) of the Liberty Legion in Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight and The Invaders, and I became a fan.

Painting and converting the team for Forgotten Heroes has been a blast. As promised, true believers, I present some background and the SMF gaming statistics for the Liberty Legion!

With a couple of minor exceptions, these profiles and builds are based only on what I knew about the Legion as presented in the Dragon adventure. In other words, more “current” versions of these characters probably exist (see Carrion Crow’s explanation as to why Thin Man uses knives nowadays in the comments section of this post), but these are the versions I am familiar with (and would use if I was gaming with the Legion).

First up: Miss America. Madeline Joyce got struck by lightning while visiting a lighthouse. When she woke up, she found out her “powers” had awakened. After the War she and Whizzer got married and had a son, Nuklo. That didn’t turn out so well.

Red Raven’s parents were killed when their plane crashed into a floating city of Inhumans called the Bird People. (Don’t you hate when people just park their floating cities anywhere? You’d think Red’s parents would notice something as big as a city before they crashed into it, but perhaps they were the worst pilots in the world.) The Bird People raised him and gave him a bird costume. Then he joined the Liberty Legion. After the war, he placed himself and the Bird People in suspended animation. He woke up, fought the X-Men, went insane and committed suicide when he discovered the Bird People were all dead due to a malfunction in the life support. Ahhh, happy endings.

Patriot was a reporter for the Daily Bugle who quit his job to put on a costume and root out Nazi agents working in America. He had no super powers other than a good right hook. As his name suggests, he was quite patriotic and made stirring radio broadcasts to bolster the war effort. He was a founding member of the Liberty Legion. After the second Captain America fell in battle, Patriot took up the mantle.

Whizzer got bitten by a cobra when he was a boy. A mongoose killed the cobra (of course). Then, for no sound medical reason,  his scientist father injected Whizzer with some of the mongoose’s blood, which inexplicably gave Whizzer his super speed. Then his father died. He and Miss America joined the All-Winner’s squad and got married after the war.

Under Jack Frost’s background in the TSR adventure, it simply says: “Jack Frost’s personal history at this time is unknown to anyone.” Works for me. Anyway, his powers basically make him a much less cool (pardon the pun) version of Iceman.

Thin Man discovered a lost city in the Himalayas where people can flatten themselves as thin as paper. Why they do this is not really explained, but they gave him a chemical that let him do the same and also made him age so slowly he’s effectively immortal. Somewhere along the line he picked up a special plane that only he can pilot safely (presumably because the controls require flattening and stretching of the appendages in order to operate).

Blue Diamond, along with Pink Heart, Yellow Moon, Orange Star, Green Clover and (later) Purple Horseshoe, formed the ill-fated super team the Lucky Charms. Blue Diamond was the only survivor when a homicidal cannibalistic leprechaun slaughtered and ate the remaining members of his team. Actually, his true origin is almost as stupid as that. He was a normal guy standing next to a huge diamond when it suddenly exploded, embedding millions of diamond shards in his skin. This gave him super strength and durability, rather than shredding him to bits (which is the much more likely outcome when the human body is bombarded with diamond shards).

Like Patriot, Spirit of ’76 has no super powers and got his start fighting Nazi espionage at home. Unlike Patriot, Spirit of ’76 is a complete douchebag in a really stupid costume. Early in the war, he went to England and joined the Crusaders to fight the Nazis. He is an awkward and constant reminder of the American War of Independence (from the British), he has no super powers, and he wears a really stupid costume. How Union Jack didn’t constantly kick his ass is a mystery to me. He eventually becomes the second Captain America when the original Cap disappears (after being frozen in a block of ice).

Bucky needs no introduction. He’s Captain America’s sidekick! At least until he “died in an explosion” only to resurface as the Winter Soldier decades later.

Finally, Union Jack is Lord James Falsworth, a peer of the realm and brother to bloodsucking vampire Lord John Falsworth (Baron Blood). He was active during WWI, then resurfaced in WWII, offering his home to the Invaders to use as a base during the war. His brother threw a giant rock on him, effectively ending his career as Union Jack. Luckily, his son eventually took over. Union Jack is just a badass. He has no super powers, but packs a Webley. And his costume is cool.

Here are my Super Mission Force builds:

Miss America (Wild Card) Minor: Leaping, Super Strength, Enhanced Senses, Iron Will

(I really had to work to make a version of Miss America that (just barely) doesn’t suck. Her ONLY power in the TSR game was that she could levitate for up to 2 hours and she can make “controlled leaps”. She’s not even particularly good at fighting. In other words, Wonder Woman she ain’t. She should probably be a Street-Level archetype, but I pored over her pre-Marvel bio and found some minor, vague mentions of other powers possibly retconned out by the time she joined the Legion. It mentioned super strength, and the ability to “project X-Ray energy.” I guess this could be power blasts or enhanced senses. I chose the latter.)

Red Raven (Wild Card) Minor: Armor, Flight, Power Blasts, Reflection

Red Raven’s powers all come from his suit. He can shoot frikkin’ lasers out of his wings and use them as a shield.

Patriot (Brawler): Major: Scrapper, Minor: Clever, Melee Specialist

Patriot has no powers. He’s just good at hitting things.

Whizzer (Speedster): Major: Speed, Minor: Melee Specialist, Super Agility

Whizzer is really good at using his speed powers to their maximum potential in combat.

Jack Frost (Blaster) Major: Power Blasts, Minor: Armor, Entangle, Flight

Jack is a poor man’s Iceman. He can use his ice powers to travel on slides as a form of Flight.

Thin Man (Super) Major: Metamorph:Elasticity, Minor: Resistance, Savant, Immortal

A “super” archetype only because of game mechanics (i.e. power slots). Thin Man isn’t really that impressive.

Blue Diamond (Brick) Major: Super-Strength, Minor: Armor, Resistance

Blue Diamond is a tank, pure and simple.

Spirit of ’76 (Brawler) Major: Scrapper, Minor: Armor, Melee Specialist

About the only thing good about Spirit of ’76’s costume is that he has a bulletproof cape. This is unfortunate, as it protects him from getting shot.

Bucky (Brawler) Major: Scrapper, Minor: Power Blasts, Grenades

I thought about making Bucky a Wild Card or even a Street Level archetype, but then I remembered he was a soldier who was trained by Captain America.

Union Jack (Brawler) Major: Scrapper, Minor: Power Blasts, Melee Specialist.

Another non-powered ass-kicker, only British this time.

In the comics, the Liberty Legion often faced off against low-powered goons and tons of henchmen. This was ideal, as most members were also low-powered. This works for roleplaying games like the old TSR Marvel game, but in Super Mission Force the heroes can easily dispense with hordes of henchmen. They’re actually more powerful in SMF because the henchmen rules favor the heroes. Also, there are a lot of Brawlers in the Liberty Legion, and Scrapper is one of the best powers in the game (IMO). This means the Legion would probably do fairly well in Super Mission Force combat.

Black Tree Design is having a 50% off sale on WWII miniatures until July 4th and I’m tempted to splurge and buy a bunch or Wehrmacht. The only thing that’s stopping me is that I don’t game WWII, so I would only be buying them as henchmen for this team to face off against. I think some of the mechs and walkers from Dust Tactics and AT-43 might work as opposition, too…guess we’ll see if I take the plunge or not!

 

 

Forgotten Heroes: The Liberty Legion: The Conversions!

Yesterday I posted the repainted members of the Liberty Legion. But of course, they don’t really count as far as Forgotten Heroes is concerned…they’re just an added bonus! The remaining heroes, to my knowledge, have never been released in miniature form, and thus they required the conversions below.

Before we start, a big thanks to Russ Dunaway from Old Glory miniatures for very generously providing me with some 28mm heads wearing three-cornered hats. I thought I might use one in one of my conversions (see below), but it turns out they were a little too small to scale with Heroclix. Still, his kindness is most appreciated, so I say again: thank you, Russ!

Next, a couple of disclaimers. First, I am not a sculptor. I use green stuff to fill gaps, and I am in awe of anyone who can work with that substance without it sticking to their fingers and making a mess. Yes, I know enough to wet my hands and use color shapers, but I still suck at it. Second, I am (and have always been) terrible at painting anything freehand. Give me a design that’s sculpted onto a miniature and I’m good. Make me draw it with a paintbrush and nine times out of ten it’s going to look like complete ass. Please bear all this in mind and don’t judge my efforts too harshly!

First up, the Patriot!

For the Patriot’s body, I chose the Wrecker. He had the gloves I needed and his costume was such that it could easily serve for the Patriot with a quick repaint. Trimming away his crowbar gave him a two-fisted tough guy stance (tough for a guy with no superpowers). For his head I used one off of a Kree Warrior. The Kree helmet has a central fin similar to Patriot’s cowl, so it was a perfect fit!

The end result, though, is a bit disappointing. As I said above, I suck at painting anything freehand, and the chest eagle and little stars proved very difficult. Using the Wrecker’s body may have been a close fit for the costume, but it resulted in Patriot being a lot beefier than he normally is depicted. Someone’s been sneaking shots of the Super Soldier serum!

Patriot’s head is where I had the most problems.  I never strip Heroclix prior to repainting (it’s rarely necessary), but this is one occasion when I wish I had. The Kree Warrior is a first generation Infinity Challenge clix model, and they are notorious for being covered in gloopy paint. By the time I repainted his helmet into Patriot’s cowl, I found it difficult to maintain any level of detail. To me, it just looks like the model has way too many layers of paint. This is by far the conversion I am least happy with.

Next is Jack Frost!

Jack is another basic head swap conversion. I had an old Scorpion miniature laying around that somehow lost his tail, so I decided to use that as the body. I packed some green stuff around the hump on his back and filled in the hole where the tail used to be. I removed Scorpion’s head and used the head off a Quicksilver model, since it seemed a good match for Jack Frost’s wavy hair.

A quick prime of white paint, a wash of some ice-blue ink, a touch-up of white, and Jack Frost was done in about ten minutes, by far the easiest conversion and quickest paint job of all the Legionnaires. I’m not sure why I painted his gloves and boots (Jack is usually barefoot and gloveless), but I guess I could fix that pretty easily. I added some sea glass “ice” to his base and flocked it with snow. Done!

Next, arguably the most powerful member of the Liberty Legion: Blue Diamond!

Blue Diamond began as a DC Heroclix Hawk figure, from the Hypertime set. I trimmed away his tattered cape-thing, sanded him down a bit and rebased him before priming him black.

Once primed, I repainted him as shown. I had a tough time “drawing” the diamond on his chest with a paintbrush (my eyes aren’t what they used to be), but I guess I’ll just live with it. I think Hawk’s modified costume is a good match for Blue Diamond. What do you think?

And last but not least, another special guest star: Spirit of ’76! (Dear Lord, is this guy a tool or what?)

To make him, I used the body and cape of the Adam Warlock clix on top, combined with the legs and forearms of Doc Samson. I sculpted the gloves, buckles, cravat and hat (turns out it’s not really a three-corner hat after all) out of green stuff and rebased him before priming him black. I considered trying to sculpt his domino mask, but decided to quit while I was ahead. I’d just paint it on later.

Here is how he looks repainted. I’m pretty happy with the way he turned out, even though his face could be a lot better. Turns out painting that domino mask on wasn’t much easier, and I didn’t even attempt the little blue stars around his chest (I just painted little dots). He was the most challenging conversion by far. Like I said, I’m no sculptor.

Tomorrow: as promised, I will provide some background on the Liberty Legion members, as well as my Super Mission Force builds for each hero! Now that I’ve painted them, I need to use them in a game!