“Super Bruisers”

I decided to pull four more figures from my “newish” Heroklix collection to repaint again this week, a couple of villains and a couple of heroes (two keep things nice and even on the good versus evil front). So the first thing to do was to remove the mould lines that run down the edges of the figures, this was done with a combination of a selection of needle files and a craft knife, then I had to crack them off of their original bases (or in two cases their flying stands) before they were attached to my normal two pence piece bases. The three male figures were mounted on two layers of card between their feet and the coin whereas the female figure already had small round “discs” beneath her feet so I only used one layer of card (I do like all my figures to have the same thickness of base, sad I know but that’s me). Then after Tetrioning the bases it was out for a coat of matt black, before the (re)painting could begin. Please note the original Heroklix name is in brackets.

“Leodonis the Dominator” (Blastaar): An early Fantastic Four villain and a bit of classic Jack Kirby, I wanted to give him a brighter look than his rather dull original blue/grey colour scheme. As an alien conqueror so popular in the silver age of Marvel, I wanted to convey his superior distain of the human race with an almost classical Grecian god appearance. So working from his black basecoat I mixed some German field blue with some aquamarine and painted his boots and leotard with this, then highlighted it with just aquamarine. His necklace, wristbands and a couple of detail bits on his costume were then added in copper highlighted with bronze. Next I mixed some aquamarine to some light turquoise and added the central ring of his costume, this was them highlighted in the same but with more of the light turquoise added. His flesh caused a few hours of pondering as to what colour it was going to be. Green, red and blue were all considered and discarded before I finally went for chocolate brown, this was highlighted over his muscles with the same mixed with leather brown and then again with coffee added as well for the final highlights. Subconsciously I seemed to have got a bit of a bit of a “Lion-O” vibe going, so his hair just had to be golden blonde, so I laid down a basecoat of sand before working it up in citrus orange and lemon yellow, originally his beard just framed his face, but after looking at this I decided to work it in across his cheeks and up his chin more, to give him a slightly more alien bestial quality (I think it works but he does keep reminding me of a Capuchin monkey).

“Tug” (Controller): Another Fantastic Four villain, I originally thought that this chap was a little short and “stumpy” hence him being named after the small powerful boats of the same name, but after comparing him to my other “supers” he is actually average height (about 33mm), it is just that the other two figures in the group shot are pretty tall (about 42mm each to be exact). Now I knew I wanted his gloves, boots, and “undies’” (should that be “ovie’s” as he wears them on the outside?) etc… gold, so these were undercoated in bronze before being highlighted in gold, then it was a couple of days of head scratching while I decided on the colour of his “unitard” as I didn’t want a colour I had use before on my super’s. In the end I mixed some dark red with some black to deepen it even further and this was them highlighted with more dark red with a tiny amount of pink burgundy over his muscles, his face was European flesh highlighted with the same and a fifty percent mix of pale flesh. His belt and the soles of his boots were black highlighted with dark grey.

“The Metalmarine” (Robotman): I love the Doom Patrol and so when I found one of their ranks in my “Heroklix” acquisitions he just had to be re-painted and added to my “roster of supers”. Though it would have been easier to just re-paint him in similar colours to his original paint job that wouldn’t have really been within the rules we’ve set up wherein characters can’t be copies (or too close a copy) of existing characters. So rather than just paint him silver and say he’s a golden age “Iron Man” clone I decided to make “Jake Steel” a marine from World War II who after being fatally wounded had his brain transplanted into a huge robot body, however after many years of brave service at the end of the war he was simply turned him off and put into storage. Many years later Dr Maniacus found him and based some of the Hitlerbot technology on his suit, however he made the mistake of turning him back on and after escaping Jake has vowed to continue the fight against evil in the present day (right sorry ramblings over now). Anyway when it came to painting him I began by heavily dry-brushing the entire figure with chainmail, then painted his arms, legs and torso in deep bronze green, this was then highlighted with a mix of the same and scenic green. Then taking chainmail again I weathered around the edges of the “green bits”. Next I picked out a few details of his suit in copper and then I just had to add his eyes and chest detail in light green highlighted with day-glow green.

“Agent Mai Lee” (Troia): Probably one of the lesser known DC characters, (I had to look her up in my DC encyclopedia), this figure arrived without a base, which made her instant repaint fodder. Anyway the stance and costume on this member of the “Titans” made her a great starting point for any number of generic heroines, she would even make a rather nice female spy, and so that’s what she’s going to be for me, as Agent Collinson’s* right hand woman, this martial arts expert, is an agent of Javelin, and ex “Streetfighter” who often arrives like the “cavalry” to save the day (apologies to anyone who doesn’t watch “Agents of Shield” and so has no idea what I’m on about). Anyway as her costume was going to be predominately black I began by touching up any bits missed by the sprayed on undercoat. Then just to add a bit of a lift to her costume rather than just have it all black, I mixed some black into my dark grey paint and painted her trousers and the sleeves of her under shirt with this, then I used the rest of this colour to highlight her boots and waistcoat. I then highlighted her trousers and arms dark grey with a touch of light grey added. Next I added the teeth on her waistcoat zip and her belt buckle in chainmail, and her face, I undercoated in dark flesh tone and highlighted with a mix of European flesh, dark flesh tone and khaki (as I wanted a slightly oriental look to her, don’t think I achieved this though!), finally I highlighted her hair up from the black undercoat with a brush over of chocolate brown again mixed with black to deepen it down.

Once the painting was complete all the figures were given my now customary coat of mid-tone Quickshade, and after their bases were painted and flocked in the usual manner they were given a final coat of matt varnish. All in all I’m pretty pleased with how these four figures turned out, I think the colour schemes of all of them work, and are also significantly different enough from the originals.

Once again I also Quickshaded some more of my WW2 Germans, this time including my “all time” favorite tank, the Jagdpather, this is an old Matchbox kit, the Kubel wagon is an Airfix kit and the figures are mainly Irregular and some SHQ (I think). Right I’m off to bed now, long day ahead tomorrow, but lots of new toys as well (I hope).

Till next week (If I don’t see you before then of course), Cheers Roger.

* https://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/superheroes-part-4/