“The Winged Warrior & The Ocean Warlord”

Week two of my “Forgotten Heroes” project didn’t get started till Sunday. Indeed hobby time has been very limited all week, still once I got chance to have a bit of a bash at these two miscreants I was able to move them along and get some of the “bits” done I was nervous of doing one of which was Mer-man’s face and the other was Stratos’ face plate. I began this by adding two blob’s of putty over his eyes then shaped these into a sort of butterfly shape before adding two eye lenses in the same way as I did the detail on his belt buckle, a bit more “faffing” about and I was happy, I then added Mer-man’s greaves, these were just two blobs of putty slapped onto the front of his shins then smoothed out around his calves and shaped with one of my colour shapers to the right shape. I added the “double top” details to them next by pushing a ridge around the top of the front, and then smoothing this to shape.

Tuesday, and it was time to bite the bullet and start adding Mer-man’s face, so taking two small “cones” of putty, I placed one either side of his face, on the “lugs” I’d already added, then after smoothing these down towards where his cheeks would be I pushed in the “fins” with my pointed colour shaper, defining these more with my pointed probe. I then pushed the curves into the outer edges of these to complete the “fin” effect, not exactly like either the cartoon or action figure, but a little like both, so I was happy. I then took two tiny balls of putty and set then into the fins as his eyes, adding the centres as I did with Stratos’ and using the tip of my small knife to push the details in around them. Then turning to Stratos’ himself, I added his “hairy” lower legs (the action figure uses the same legs as Beastman, you see), now whether these are supposed to represent feathers I don’t know, but I decided to add them anyway, and indeed made the hairs longer than on the original to strengthen the ankle where it meets the floor and to hide some of the foot on the raised leg, these were just blobs of putty pushed round his shins and then the fur was tapped in like I did with their pants.

Thursday, and it was straight to work on Mer-man’s face again, I started by running some putty over the top of his head, and down the back of it, then smoothed this to a thin layer. Next I made a small cone of putty and placed it on the lower centre of his facial area, and blended this into the upper part just applied, I then pushed his mouth in with the end of a cocktail stick, finally here I ran a small sausage of putty across the top of the fins and eye area, and smoothed this into a sort of eyebrow. Turning to Stratos’ I rolled out two tubes and applied them on either side of his rocket pack harness, then taking the cocktail stick again pushed it up the bottoms of the tubes to form the rocket vents. The feathers on the shoulder straps of his harness were next, there are six of these (three on each side), these were just small ovals of putty, pushed into place, then flattened, and the feather details were then tapped in with the blade of my small knife (you can’t really see them in this photo, but I’m sure they will be in view once I take one from round the front again).

Friday, set to work on the armour that runs up Mer-man’s chest today, firstly I ran several mall sausages of putty across his chest, from the top of his belt up to the top of his “pec’s” and these were then detailed by pushing ridges vertically into them. I then ran a “rope” of putty around his neck in a wide loop, and set his shoulder pads off of this, these were just teardrop shapes of putty, put over his shoulders, and then the “fin” style details were pushed into these (in the same way as his head fins) using my pointed colour shaper. Then turning to Stratos I added the first three of the feathers on each of his arms (he needs six on each) these were done in exactly the same way as the ones on his shoulders.

The end of the sculpting though not exactly “in sight”, is definitely a few “stations” nearer now, though I starting late again this week as I went to Phalanx wargames show yesterday (mainly to sell on the “bring and buy”, but I did buy a couple of packs of figures, my first for nearly two years!) hence this late post. Oh well better crack on as they say.

Till next week, Excelsior Roger.

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“Off the hook, but up in the air”

Well it’s the end of the first week of “Forgotten heroes”, and what a week it’s been, the majority of people seem to off to a good start though we do have a couple of chaps who are yet to take the plunge! I too have been beavering away (when I’ve got the chance) and I’ve made reasonable progress this week..

But how have I been progressing you ask? What you don’t? Well tough because I’m going to tell you anyway, Saturday was spent looking over the figures and seeing if I was going to change their stances in anyway, starting with Mer-man, his pose was actually not a million miles away from the classic toy pose (though his legs are less bent than the toy). Now he is often depicted with a sword, and indeed the toy version came with one (a silly yellow one made of what appears to be coral of some sort), however I decided that any self-respecting sea-monster would rather be armed with a trident, and it just so happens that there are some pictures of him along with a later version of the figure that does show him with one, so to this end I bent up his right arm in readiness to accept one that I will make later on in the build. I also took the opportunity to file his face away ready for me to add his “fish-face” later too. That was about all I needed to do to him so he was glued to a tuppence and he was sorted. Stratos on the other hand needed a bit more work, first off he was another of those “legs akimbo” figures that’s bases are too wide to fit onto my copper coin, base of choice, so first job was to get out the junior hacksaw and cut his base in half and take a bit out of the middle, but after doing this I decided that I’d straighten his arms out a bit, remove all the base from under his right foot, bend his leg, and pose him as if he was leaping up into the air. I used a little greenstuff to tilt the remaining bit of base to add to this effect (I’ll hide it under the filler when I complete his base at the end). He looks a little bit like Rudolph Nureyev doing “Swan Lake” at the moment, but hopefully once I get all his “bits” on he’ll look alright.

Sunday, and I could start getting some putty onto them. So starting as I usually do I slapped a bit of greenstuff about their “nether” regions and after shaping them into underpants, tapped in some fur with the blade of my small knife. You have to ask yourself though whether “fur” is really the best material to have your “undies” made of if you live underwater, but hey’, who am I to judge.

Monday was a “no show” figure wise so it was Tuesday before the old tools came out again, I began by adding Statos’ belt, this was just a thin sausage of putty run around his waist and flattened to shape, then using the same technique I added the straps that run over his shoulders and the plate that sits on his back, because yes folks I can reveal that Stratos is a FRAUD!, because despite all those feathers he actually has rockets on his back to help him fly!! (I’ll add these later), after this I just had to add his belt buckle, this was just a blob of putty, shaped into a square, then I pushed a circle into the middle of this with the end of a “glue tube” spout, and then flattened the top and bottom of the square making it a rectangle, and the circle became an oval!. Taking the tiny bit of putty I had left, I added Mer-man’s belt in the same way only I made it wider and left it plain as he has a fancy “fin” design on his that I’ll add after his armour is in place.

Wednesday, was another, no hobby time day so it was Thursday before the tools came out to play again, and it was mostly Stratos who saw the fruits of my labor’s today, as I set about adding his helmet, this was a blob of putty plonked onto the top of his head and then pulled down around the sides and back of his head, then taking one of my colour shapers I smoothed out the surface, this is a very tedious task as you have to keep turning the figure to make sure the helmet is equal and symmetrical. Then once I was happy with it I “pushed” four indentations into the top, as this gave me the three ridges that run across the crown of his helmet front to back, more smoothing and shaping ensued until the shape looked about right. With the little bit of putty I had left I added a couple of “lugs” on either side of Mer-man’s head, these will support the fin like appendages that sprout out there and added his three toed “frog feet”.

Friday was a “bust” too as they say, and so dear reader that brings us too today, all in all I’m reasonable happy with the progress I’ve made, I’ll leave you with this little fun fact, apparently during the initial planning stages of these figures Mer-man was going to be called Sea-man! Luckily that idea didn’t “cum” to fruition!

Till next week, Excelsior Roger.

“Forgotten heroes 2018, wings and fins”

Well June is busting out all over (I told her that onesie was to small for her!), and as we all know that can mean only one thing “Forgotten heroes” is back and as per the rules (yes there are rules, flexible as they are!), I present to you my introductory piece outlining what figures I hope to produce and a little background on who they are and why I’ve picked them. At the end of this piece I’ll add a list of who else will be joining in this year and of course a link to the “Forgotten heroes” site where you can (hopefully) keep up with all the latest postings and the development of the other participants figures.

Anyway back to what I’m up to this month, well without wishing to sound like a “whining Winnie”, as I was aware that things were going to be a bit manic at work (real bill paying work this is, BOO HISS!!), along with doing the admin side of this event, I decided that I would just do a couple of figures that I hope I should be able to complete within the next four weeks. To this end I have played it fairly safe and gone for two more characters from the “Masters of the Universe” toy franchise in the form of “Mer-man and Stratos”, interestingly enough once these two are complete (if they get completed), it will mean I will then have all of the figures from the original release back in 1982 except for “Zodac” who was in fact the only toy figure I actually ever owned. Now I’ve wanted to do these two figures for quite a while now, I mean you have to have Mer-man don’t you, and there’s always been something a little odd about Stratos’ appearance, with that strange” Amish style beard that has intrigued me for years, so yes a couple of must haves for my collection. Both figures have their challenges, I’m not looking forward to doing Mer-man’s face at all (though I think I’ll be copying the cartoon version rather than the toy, here as I prefer it), and Stratos…well feathers!! (Enough said). I do of course need two “willing” volunteers for these surgical procedures and once again they have been recruited from my “Bronze age miniatures” dollies, now these are the last two of these I have, and as they no longer appear to have them on their web-site I’m not sure what I’m going to do when and if I do any more of the MOTU characters, still I’ll cross that bridge as and when. That’s enough of what I plan on doing I guess I’d better “put up and shut up” and get on with them now!

But before I go, here is a list of the other participants in this years “Forgotten heroes”, there is of course still time if you want to join in too, just let me know either in the comments section here or on the FH site, and I’ll sort it out….

Jez https://carrioncrowsbuffet.wordpress.com/

Simon http://fantorical.blogspot.com/

Alan http://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/

Dave http://thegamerscupbard.blogspot.com/

Bryan https://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/

Keith http://angrypiper.com/

Raymond S.T.  (taking part by E-mail)

Harry https://warthroughtheages.wordpress.com/

Mike https://www.flickr.com/photos/boyntonartstudio/albums

The very best of luck to you all, please follow the links above to their various blogs or Flicker pages, or you can of course keep abreast of all the posts via the “Forgotten heroes” site at….

https://forgottenheroessite.wordpress.com/

Excelsior Roger.

“Of Swords and Snakes” (week 46)

With this being my last post before “Forgotten Heroes” starts in earnest I thought I do something fairly quick and easy (this was also because I had another little side project that I needed to finish as well, but more of that later). So it was out with the old “Random painting generator sheets”. Now it’s been a while since I did one of these, so for those not “in the know” I basically toss a coin to determine which sheet of unpainted miniatures I pick from and then roll a D30 to determine which miniatures I paint from that list, so this is what I did, and the result was…

Lancelot’s list (they have silly names, sorry forgot to mention that), and the roll gave me a two, so that equated too…

Box 2 – (4x Lancashire Games Snakemen)

Lord alone knows when I bought these figures (or indeed if, they might have been samples), but I have three of one type and one (the leader?) of another, so after being based up on two pence pieces, it was out for a coat of matt black before the guns were dry-brushed with some chainmail. Next I painted all of the bodies with deep bronze green and the back of their “cobra” like “ruffs” in dark earth. Next I mixed some more deep bronze green with some stone green and used the resultant lighter green to highlight the bodies, then taking my leather brown I stippled “dots” over the earth brown at the back of their ruffs. Looking at them again I decided that they were a bit on the dull side, so taking some light green I re-painted the lower “inside” parts of their “ruffs” along with the prominent scales that ran from the front of their necks down their bellies to the tips of their tails, this was then highlighted with some mustard paint, I honestly don’t know why I did this as it was a right “pain in the bum” to do and I was supposed to be keeping this week’s painting simple! Anyway after this I added their eyes in sand with a black “line” pupil and the mouths on the ones where they were open I painted with dark red highlighted with bright red, and fangs in coffee and cream. The leader figure has a satchel slung across his body and as usual I added this in chocolate brown with leather highlights. Finally I added a couple of copper highlights to the guns to add a little interest there, and after a final touch-up, they were ready for their coat of Quickshade “strongtone”. Basing was of course done in my own inimitable style (ha ha!) and a coat of matt varnish sealed the deal as it were.

The other thing I have been up to this week, was doing a little work on another part of Dennis’s “Game of Thrones” costume, now you may remember from a few weeks back that we had all attended “Liverpool Comic Con” (see link at the bottom of the page), well at that show Dennis had bought a foam “LARP” version of the sword “Long fang?” from the TV series, on the proviso that I could take it’s rather basic and frankly “ropey” finish, and make it look more like the “steel” replica they had hanging beside it, “Oh yes! No problem” I replied, and there I was with more work to do! Anyway, long story short it had been languishing atop our bedroom wardrobe the last few weeks (apart that is when I sneakily got it down to swing about when no one was looking), so I thought I’d better get it done, this was a pretty simple job to be honest, we had decided beforehand that the cross guard would be painted to match the dire wolf on his armour so, after the blade was masked up (this wasn’t getting painted) the hilt was sprayed matt black, then a coat of bronze was painted over the guard, and a dry-brush of copper went over this. the wolfs head was to stay white, but not as bright as the foam original, so starting again from the black spray coat a heavy dry-brush of coffee was applied and then another slightly lighter one of cream went over this, his eyes were then added in pink burgundy before being painted metallic red. I decided these looked a little large so, I lined them in black to reduce their size, both areas were then given a coat of light tone Quickshade, and then were sprayed with satin varnish. I actually think it looks better than the metal replica now, Dennis is going to wrap the grip in leather strapping to finish it off (but that’s his job not mine!).

So that’s it, time to strap myself in for what is the mad month we call “Forgotten heroes”, so till then, Cheers Roger.

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