28mm Superheroes (part 6)

Along side the Superhero stuff I did last week I’ve also been working on a couple of “Greens” that I’m not sure what to do with, Now I’m afraid I don’t have any work in progress pictures of said greens as I was not really sure whether I should post them here or not for a couple of reasons, but as they are all I’ve been up to this week (got a bit carried away as it were) it’s either them or nothing. But now that they are finished I’ve been looking at them and rather than just painting them up and using them myself I’m now thinking of getting them cast up and adding them to our “Wargames Supply Dump” range.

Now as they are both based on figures from our “Dick Garrison” line I can of course do this as I already hold the licences for these figures, but anyway I’ll get back to my dilemma later, first off I’ll cover how I did them. “Captain Garrison” started out as (surprise surprise!) a Dick garrison figure, now I knew that the only bits of the original figure that weren’t going to covered in greenstuff were the head and boots so the first job was to saw off his arms and then take a needle file liberally to the rest of his entire body thinning down his torso and legs his shoulders were left intact as reference points for his new arms. Once this was done I began building back up his legs, now I didn’t want the “bodybuilder” excessively muscular body of the modern superhero but more the classic “silver age” look early superman had so his legs are pretty plain (perhaps a bit to plain looking at him now but oh well to late now), I covered the join to his boots with roll tops (of course!). When it came to his chest again I wanted muscular but not in a washboard abs way, so though the basic shape is there the muscles aren’t over defined. Next I added a pair of “over pants” making them suitably baggy as a bit of a homage too Adam West’s “Batman”, a wide belt and oversized buckle was then added to give somewhere to paint on an insignia if required (I was going to put this on his chest but to be honest I was so pleased with how his chest came out I didn’t want to cover it up).  Florists wire was inserted into holes drilled into his shoulders to support the greenstuff used for his arms and bent so that he would be standing hands on hips in a suitably heroic pose, his arms actually came out a bit more muscular than I’d planned but I think it works, finally I added thick metal wrist bands and a cape fluttering in the breeze.

But halfway through doing the good “Captain” I realised, what good is a hero without a villain to fight? So another rummage in our stock draws turned up the figure I needed (well actually two as the body is from the “spotter” figure in the “Retrovian heavy weapons team” but the head is from the “Retrovian captain” figure, so once again after his head and arms were removed I filed away some of his body, but as I decided I wanted him a bit taller than “Garrison” I cut him in half at the waist. Now this left me with a bit of a problem as you can’t just add a couple of “mil” to the middle of his torso as the rest of his body will be out of proportion, so starting with his legs I worked out about where his knees would be and where they should meet his hips, this then meant his crotch was too low so it looked like his trousers were falling down, I covered this up by adding a long loin cloth affair with stripes that matched his original boots (I like this as it has a look of the type of costume the great Jack Kirby used to draw on some of his golden age creations). Next came his upper body and again I went muscular rather than bodybuilder, likewise with his arms that again I posed in a classic super villain position, looking at them I might have made them a little long but hey! He is an alien after all. Next I attached his new head and as it was now on a wire post it was easy to tilt it back slightly to match his shouting in frustration stance. Lastly I added another wide belt, buckle and cape this time with a high and wide collar in the best Machiavellian style.

So that’s where I’m up to but what to do with them now? Do I cast them up and if I did do you think anyone would buy them? Suggestions thoughts and comments appreciated.

Excelsior or not?