Saturday 13 December 2014

From SimonM - "Heroclix" Black Manta & The U-Men (30 Points)



This 28mm model of Black Manta is by “Wizkids” and comes from their “Heroclix” DC Hypertime range of plastic miniatures. The “DC Comics” supervillain debuted in the September 1967 edition of “Aquaman” and is my favourite archenemy of the King of Atlantis. However having removed the figure from its ‘clicky-base’ some six-seven years ago, I have disappointingly just let it sit on one of my shelves waiting to be painted… until now.

The miniature was reasonably simply to paint following a “Citadel” Abaddon Black” undercoat, as at first I just had to pick out its trident in Boltgun Metal. The three-pronged spear is rather bent and I did consider cutting it away from Black manta’s leg. But the villain has a nice ribbed pattern running down the sides of his rubber-suit and I just didn’t fancy trying to replicate this with green stuff. In addition, unless I completely cut away the trident’s shaft and replaced it I couldn’t see how I was going to straighten it; additional work I wasn’t prepared to contemplate.

However I did think the model looked rather boring all-black and decided to update the colour-scheme a little bit by painting the bug-eyed helmet, breathing tubes and oxygen tank Boltgun Metal as well. This is far more in line with the ‘modern’ version of the Black Manta. All the metallic areas were then treated to a wash of Nuln Oil before being lightly drybrushed with more Boltgun Metal. His eyes were painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red” and the “Citadel” Shade Carroburg Crimson.



These five 28mm U-Men models are also by “Wizkids” but this time come from their “Heroclix” Marvel Mutant Mayhem range. In the “Marvel Comics” world these villains believe in using mutant body parts to augment their bodies and live in specially designed environment suits to protect them from “an imperfect world.” For my purposes however their scuba-gear makes them the perfect henchmen to accompany Black Manta, or any other aquatic character.

As with Black Manta, their painting scheme was simple as I used just “Citadel” Abaddon Black and Boltgun metal (with a Nuln Oil wash). These miniatures did prove a little trickier to paint than I envisaged however, as it was quite difficult getting the tip of a brush in between all their breathing pipes. I did consider doing something ‘special’ with their bases and creating some starfish and shells from green stuff to populate them with. Finch on his superb blog really does excel at this sort of thing of thing: http://minisbyfinch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/tanked.html

But as I want to use my U-Men for a variety of roles, including German saboteurs, I’ve gone with my usual land-based “Citadel” grass flock.

From Curt:Very cool submission Simon! I really like the 'oily' black you've chosen for these figures - it gives them that wonderful 1960's evil robot look about them. No worries on the bent trident. In fact, the shaft looks sorta like what we see here on the newly designed snow shovels. Perhaps Black Manta's trident was specially crafted so he wouldn't throw out his back in pitchforking those particularly heavy heroes. :)
Well done! 

From SteH - Uruk Hai Scouts - A starter for ten! (30 Points)


It looks like the Challenge has had a roaring start with many people surging out of the starters gate liked the proverbial greyhounds after the tatty pretend rabbit. Me, I'm more like the scruffy old scotty dog with myopic eyes and a nervous twitch, struggling to chase the spider that sneaked out from the skirting board. But I digress!



My first entry to my first challenge are some of Games Workshops Uruk Hai scouts from their Lord of the Rings range. These are the metal versions that have been lingering about for ages on my painting table and, since I moved to NZ and have finally found both my painting mojo and an opponent who plays GW's LoTR game for fun rather than to win I thought it wise to use the challenge to get some focus into my painting activity. Therefore expect to see more LoTR models to come (with a little WW2 chucked in for good measure).


And it's only good and proper that those pesky scouts have a leader who can not only fill them with cuddly warm thoughts on doing their (evil) duty but also provide lunch - Ugluk!



So that's a piddly 30pts methinks for six 28mm figures. Not exactly the points bomb that others seem capable of but as Tamsin said recently, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon people so I'm happy with that to get me off the blocks!




From Curt:
Is there something going on I don't know about? What's with all the LotR submissions this year? It's completely weird as when I kicked off the Challenge with Boromir I thought, 'Well, this will be a bit out of left field...' Not that I'm complaining, mind you, as the entries have all been wonderful but I do find it kinda wild. Maybe it's the impending last movie for The Hobbit that is making us nostalgic for the first three movies?  
 
Anyway, I digress. Great work here, Ste. I really like the Uruk captain brandishing the goblin head. It just makes you want to yell out the classic line,  'Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!'