Category Archives: Conversions

First Gaslands Build: Coughin’ Joe!

I discovered Gaslands by reading Miniature Wargames magazine a couple of months back. It’s a game of post-apocalyptic vehicular combat put out by Osprey.  It’s designed to be played with standard Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars that you convert into Mad Max-esque death machines, and it looks like a lot of fun.

While my experience with Osprey Games has been hit-or-miss so far, I figured why not give it a shot? After all, the entry cost to a game like this is minimal; you only need the rules and a bunch of toy cars to play. The rules are reasonably priced at under $20, and toy cars are easy enough to come by. They’re pretty cheap even brand new, and better still; there are tons of thrift shops, flea markets and secondhand stores where you can pick up used and banged up toy cars for even less! (If you have kids, you can probably find a bunch laying around your house on inconvenient places, like stairs.) You’re going to convert them anyway, and cosmetic damage is the look you’re going for!

I went by a thrift shop and bought a bag of 6 cars for $3.00. It contained this car, a “Plymouth Hemi Cuda” by Maisto.  I actually know a guy who owns a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. He drove it all through high school and still has it to this day, some 30 years later. It gets about 3 miles to the gallon, but it’s absolutely the coolest car I’ve ever been in, and it hauls balls, to put it mildly.

I decided this is going to be my first Gaslands conversion.

Images abound on the Interweb of Gaslands vehicles; simply Google “Gaslands” and you’ll see for yourself. There are also many Youtube videos to view on the subject. One particular creator, JH Miniatures, does a terrific series entitled Wastelands Workshop. It’s a bit technical, but you don’t need to get as fancy as he does. I highly recommend his videos.

If you’re like me, i.e. an obsessive hoarder of bits from previous kits, then rejoice, for Gaslands is the game for you. I played a lot of Warhammer 40K back in the day, using Space Marines (of course) and Imperial Guard. In other words, I have a lot of old vehicle bits that have been sitting in boxes for a very long time. But you don’t need to have a ton of fancy bits like me, or be as technically savvy as JH Miniatures to get to work on Gaslands conversions. DM Jim over at Game Terrain Engineering does a bunch of Gaslands videos, and this one in particular shows how to use common junk items as weapons and armor. Good stuff!

But back to me…I decided not to go too crazy with my first car. I’ve opted to use some bolters from some old Rhino kits and smoke launchers from a Leman Russ tank as conversion bits. The bolters are machine guns, and the smoke launchers could represent turbo boosters, caltrop or glue droppers, oil dispensers, or…well, smoke launchers, which is what I’m going to use them for. Coughin’ Joe, get it?

For armor, I used some old material I had laying around: these textured craft foam sheets. Each package cost me a dollar, and you get six different texture patterns. Four of these have patterns that are useless (like the one pictured), but there are two that could work.

The orange stuff is the craft foam. It’s easy as pie to cut and glue, and the grid pattern makes it look industrial enough to serve as armor. I also clipped some plastic mesh from a needlepoint sheet (I think that cost a dollar, too), and glued it around the front wheel wells to offer the tires some protection.

The smoke launchers glued easily to the back of the car. The bolters have little mounting pegs on them, so I decided to drill tiny holes to accommodate the pegs. This was surprisingly difficult, even with my Dremel on max rpm. Turns out I needed a cobalt drill bit to get through the car. One quick trip to Home Depot sorted that out, and voila! Front mounted machine guns!

Once assembled (it took less than 20 minutes, not counting my trip to Home Depot), I primed it black.

I used a mixture of Vallejo, Cote D’Arms and GW paints. I based the car in Military Green (V) and highlighted it with Cayman Green (V) before giving it a thorough wash in Nuln Oil (GW). I painted the armor plating Gunmetal Grey (V) and the guns and wheel rims with Gun Metal (CD) and washed all the metallics with Armour Wash (CD). Then I liberally applied some MIG rust pigments to the armor sections and the rims. I used some Stirland Mud (GW) on the wheel wells and the front and rear bumpers. A light drybrush of Dawnstone (GW) on the windows, and that was that.And here he is, in all his grimy glory…Coughin’ Joe!

Rear view. Most people never see this on account of the thick black smoke pouring out of those launchers…

If you see this in your rear-view mirror, you’re about to get shot. A lot.

I read somewhere that it’s easy to get addicted to converting cars for Gaslands, and I am already hooked. I have a bunch of toy cars and bits scattered around my hobby space as we speak. More Gaslands conversions soon!

 

Terror of the Toyman! Part 1

When it comes to superheroes, Superman isn’t one of my personal favorites. Of course, if I could be any superhero, I’d definitely pick Superman for x-ray vision alone (but having super-strength, invulnerability and flight wouldn’t suck either).  Despite this I never really found him all that interesting on his own.

That’s because it seems there are only three main ways to challenge Superman’s obvious superiority. Take away his powers (à la kryptonite), hit him with magic or mental manipulation (à la Mr. Mxyzptlk), or just be tougher and stronger than him (à la Doomsday).

The Toyman doesn’t really fit any of these criteria, and yet, he’s primarily considered a “Superman” villain.

For those not all that familiar with the Toyman, I could write a brief description of the character here. Or, I could just block quote and attribute a perfectly good description that needs no editing or embellishment. So, from DAMN Good Coffee, the blog of  Mr. Charles Skaggs, I present his description of the Toyman:

Created in 1943 by Don Cameron and Ed Dobrotka, The Toyman first appeared in Action Comics (vol.1) #64 as Winslow Percival Schott, a criminal who used various toy-themed devices and gimmicks when committing crimes. After Superman’s continuity was relaunched following the Crisis on Infinite Earths event miniseries and John Byrne’s The Man of Steel miniseries, The Toyman was reimagined in Superman (vol.2) #13 as an unemployed British toymaker who blames Lex Luthor for being fired from a toy company.

Years later, The Toyman became a darker, more sinister character who abducted and murdered Adam Morgan, the son of Cat Grant.  The character was reimagined once again in Action Comics (vol.1) #865 as a toymaker who lived with his wife Mary and agrees to sell his shop after Mary is killed in a car accident.  After learning that the buyer lied to him, Schott proceeds to bomb the business with an explosive teddy bear and Mary is revealed as one of his first robotic creations.

I can add nothing of substance to Mr. Skaggs’s words. That’s pretty much the history of the Toyman.

However, my favorite version of the Toyman is this one from the DC animated universe. This version is the unnamed son of Winslow Schott, and is obsessed with revenge against mob boss Bruno Mannheim, who he blames for his father’s imprisonment and eventual death, and his own miserable foster home upbringing as a result. He wears this creepy doll head and you never see his real face.

Anyway, about a year ago, I got an idea for a Supersystem 3 scenario featuring the Toyman. But, now I play Super Mission Force pretty much exclusively, and SMF being predominantly a game of Supers combat, I was in a quandary as to how to effectively use Toyman against Superman. After all, he has no super powers, and Superman could pretty easily wipe the floor with him in a straight-up fight. Toyman could, of course, have some super-tough toys for Superman to brawl with, but that just seemed kind of boring and not very imaginative.

I decided that Toyman isn’t really a threat to Superman, but he could easily be a threat to normal people. Protecting normal folks is what Superman is all about, so what if, for the purposes of the scenario, Superman had to protect as many civilians as possible? An idea took shape…

But first, if I was going to use the Toyman, I would need some toys. Behold what I found at the local dollar store:

For a grand total of $3.oo, I purchased these cool rock’em, sock’em robot finger puppets and some cars I could cannibalize. Some nippy cutters and superglue later, here is the result:

Instant toy-themed robot menace!

I did a quick search for a Heroclix version of Toyman. Sadly, it seems Wizkids don’t have the rights to the DC animated universe (Knight Models does, I think…) so I couldn’t get a version of the doll-head wearing Toyman that I like. I had to settle for this guy:

Not a bad start, and it naturally got me thinking about Christmas, which would be an ideal time of year for Toyman to start some trouble. With that in mind, I did a quick repaint and scoured my miniatures for other things that could be used as deadly toys.

My repaint is in the center. I purchased some (sadly OOP) Parroom Station clockwork soldiers (in the back) from Matt Beauchamp of Hydra Miniatures, and I took advantage of Armorcast’s 20% off Christmas sale to pick up the Santa bot. I already owned Wyrd’s Teddy from the Malifaux line.  I just needed to paint him, and I did.

Turns out these Hydra War Rocket Galacteer fighters are just the right scale to double as deadly toy planes. So I planned on using them, too.

If Christmas was to be the backdrop for the scenario, I would need some thematic scenery, like piles of presents! I thought a ring box would make a good giant present (from which something deadly could emerge). I bought some wood cubes from an art store and glued them together in random formations. A little red, white and green craft paint and I’d be good to go.

I figure once I’m done with this scenario, I can repaint the blocks to use as crates and boxes for warehouse scatter terrain.

Stay tuned! Scenario to follow next post!

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!

 

 

Forgotten Heroes: The Liberty Legion: The Repaints

Sincere apologies to my fellow participants, but I have been unable to post an update to my Forgotten Heroes contribution until now. First up: the repaints. These are members of the Liberty Legion who already had a released miniature, and who required only a fresh coat of paint and a few minor adjustments to be ready:

Here’s what they looked like before repainting. All I did here was rebase them.

And here’s how they look after my brushwork. From l-r, Miss America, Whizzer, and Thin Man! Miss America has an annoying habit of leaning back, which isn’t something I can seem to correct. I really hate the plastic “effects”, like Whizzer’s speed blur, on some of the newer clix, but this one’s pretty much impossible to remove.

For some reason unknown to me, Thin Man came equipped with a couple of knives and was sporting a handlebar mustache. Not the way I remember him. the Thin Man I remember was clean-shaven, had a different costume (this one is better!) and he didn’t have any knives. (After all, he can become almost completely two-dimensional, so if he had need of a knife, he could just make his hand into one.) Needless to say, I decided to remove the knives. The mustache was trickier and I opted not to remove it; rather I just painted over it in the hopes we could all pretend not to see it, much like Cesar Romero’s Joker ‘stache. (If he looks too shiny, it’s because I took the picture before I had a chance to give him a spray of Dullcote!)

 

Here’s a closeup of Miss America. Note the annoying lean.

Red Raven began as an X-Men Angel miniature. His original yellow costume was ideally suited for Red Raven, and all I needed to do was paint him red! I really like the way he came out.

And finally, some special guest stars: Union Jack and Bucky! Bucky’s gun is bent and there’s no way to fix it short of giving him a new one. I don’t have a spare Thompson, but I may add some grenades or a knife to his belt (remember, Bucky was a soldier!). We’ll see.

Here’s a shot of all the repainted miniatures.

Tomorrow, the real Forgotten Heroes submissions. I mean full-blown conversions of the remaining members of the Liberty Legion: Jack Frost, Blue Diamond, and the Patriot! Plus a very special guest!

Forgotten Heroes: The Liberty Legion!

My British pen pal and fellow supers-enthusiast Carrion Crow graciously invited me to take part in his annual “Forgotten Heroes” challenge. At first I didn’t see a way I could participate this year (too much real life), but the thought of not taking part in a challenge so ideally suited to me kept me up at night. I was too late to the party last year, and I missed out on the fun.

Fun is something that’s in short supply these days, so I begged and pleaded with the Crow to allow me into his challenge, even though I missed the start by some 5 days or so. In response, he asked me to pledge him my loyalty. I didn’t feel that was appropriate, and told him so. He seemed irritated, but he graciously allowed me to join the challenge anyway.

(Perhaps it didn’t happen exactly like that. Perhaps.)

The rules are simple:

  1. The character you create must not yet have had an official or unofficial miniature made for it.
  2. The figure must be in 28mm scale.
  3. The figure must be completed during the month of June.
  4. In your first post, you should provide a bit of detail on the character you’ve chosen and why.

I decided I could do that. But forget one character. Carrion Crow has inspired me to do a whole freakin’ team! From the battlefields of WWII, I bring you THE LIBERTY LEGION!!!!

Clockwise from the top in the picture above, I present: Miss America! The Patriot! Jack Frost! Blue Diamond! Bucky (not an official member)! Red Raven! The Whizzer ( weak bladder, apparently)! and finally, Thin Man!

I first became aware of the Liberty Legion through an (surprisingly good) adventure for TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes, published in Dragon Magazine #104. At the time, I read their statistics and thought, “Man, these guys SUCK!” And they sure do. They are all pretty low-powered, especially by modern standards. I’ll go into their powers and provide my Super Mission Force builds for them later in the month.

I have a fondness for WWII comics, especially ones featuring supers. The Liberty Legion fought the stinkin’ Ratzis alongside the Invaders and other Allied heroes like Union Jack. They were formed by Bucky to rescue the Invaders from the Red Skull. (Side note: I love the Invaders. Keep your eyes open. They’re soon to be shown here, too!).

Now, before all you naysayers inform me that there are Liberty Legion miniatures out there already, let me say “Yes, but not ALL the members have miniatures yet!” Currently, Miss America, Thin Man,  and Whizzer have Heroclix releases. All the rest don’t…which means they will require a conversion  of some kind or a complete repaint of another miniature in order to pass muster. And if you think I would convert and paint up half the team without at least repainting the awful factory jobs on the ones they DID release, well then you, sir (or madam), are clearly visiting Dead Dick’s Tavern for the first time!!!

I would love to adapt the TSR adventure for Super Mission Force, but I’m having some trouble. I doubt Heroclix will release the villains “Master Man and Warrior Woman”.  Master Man is a big, dumb Aryan poster boy with super strength; while Warrior Woman is a crazed Nazi dominatrix, also with super strength (and a whip).  Both have too many swastikas for commercial release. But perhaps I could work something out with the Red Skull and Baron Blood instead…hmmm…

Anyway, watch this space for the end results of my repainting/conversion efforts! Perhaps some special guests not mentioned may make an appearance by the end, too!

Penguins!

I used to hate the Penguin. He’s kind of silly. But now I’ve found a new appreciation for him as an adult. He’s been portrayed pretty well by most everyone who has played him. Burgess Meredith is, of course, the classic; but I love Robin Lord Taylor’s “skinny” Penguin on Gotham. (I wasn’t a big fan of Danny DeVito’s take, although I got where Tim Burton was going with it.)

Above are two Heroclix versions of Mr. Cobblepot, both crying out for repainting and rebasing. The one on the left is the classic version, while the one on the right is the Penguin from the Arkham series of video games. Voiced very well by Nolan North, this version of the Penguin is probably the darkest and most menacing. For instance, he doesn’t wear a monocle; rather the glass around his eye is actually the bottom of a bottle that was jabbed into his eye socket during a bar fight. If he removes it now, he could die. So he just keeps it and scares little kids.

Here they are after I got my talons on them.

Wak! Wak! Wak!

The original had the Penguin standing on bags of money, but I decided to cover them in white paint and sea glass so that they looked like ice and snow. I chose a classic, brighter color palette and added some Copplestone penguins. Now he’s ready to commit some avian-themed larceny!

The Penguin of the Arkham games doesn’t go in for that trick umbrella nonsense. He’s an arms dealer. I figured if he’s going up against Batman, he needs all the help he can get, so I gave him a grenade launcher. I also couldn’t resist adding a penguin to his base too.

I had a bunch of penguins left over, so I based them in little groups. Many thanks to fellow TMPer Frederick, who hooked me up with these Copplestone penguins for FREEEEEEEE!

My Batman rogue’s gallery is growing. Mr. Freeze, the Riddler, and now these two versions of the Penguin. Who’s next?

Savage Land Characters

As anyone who read my Breeder Bombs campaign knows, I decided rather late in the campaign to set the final scenario in the Savage Land and to add some classic characters to the mix. Here’s what I did.

For Sauron, I didn’t do much beyond a rebasing and a new paint job. Above is the factory paint job, which, I think we can all agree, looks like complete shit.

Here is the finished product. I’m not the greatest painter in the world, but it doesn’t take much effort to make the original factory paint job look a hell of a lot better (or at least not like complete shit).

No game set in the Savage land would be complete without Ka-Zar, Shanna and Zabu. I looked up the clix versions of the characters and instantly hated them all. Well, Ka-Zar wasn’t too bad, but I knew I could do a lot better for Shanna and Zabu.

I checked a lot of manufacturers for a Tarzan figure. Tin Man makes a great traditional Tarzan, and Warlord has a very cool “Beastlord”. I settled on Reaper, because I thought Reaper’s version best captured Ka-Zar’s look. (Plus, he comes with a monkey. Who doesn’t need another monkey?) I also went to Reaper for a Sabretooth tiger miniature. Although Reaper makes more than one tiger, I chose this one based entirely on price. One slightly-rushed paint job later, and they were ready to go. I think his dagger looks a bit too “fantasy” for Ka-Zar’s Bowie knife, but I felt like converting it would just be a little more trouble than it was worth, so I left it as-is.

Shanna was a bit more work. I used this Heroclix Tigra miniature as the base model, because she’s practically wearing Shanna’s costume already (how many miniatures have a tooth-belt bikini?). One quick application of the nippy cutters removed her tail and her right arm. For the spear arm I used the arm from a GW skink warrior. It turned out to be the perfect size (although it’s a bit more muscular than Tigra’s other arm).

Another slightly-rushed paint job later and presto! One Shanna the She-Devil, ready to rumble in the jungle!

Although I don’t see myself using these miniatures for further Savage Land adventures, they’re useful for other genres…(Pulp and Congo gaming come to mind).

Now I just need to replace my Tigra miniature since I’ll probably be needing her sooner or later…

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.

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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.

 

 

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.

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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.

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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:

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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.