“The Professor”

“So you’re telling me that this genius of yours lives in that little blue shed, in the middle of nowhere?”

“I said he was an eccentric genius”.

“I mean he couldn’t even lay down in it for god’s sake!”

“It’s bigger on the inside”.

“Oh right, of course it is! You’re sure he’s the only one who’s eccentric around here?”

“I mean it’s just built over the entrance to an underground cavern”.

“Oh… well, I guess that makes sense”.

Well it’s back to painting figures this week (well figure to be exact), the inspiration for this little ensemble came from a couple of places firstly from Simon Moore and the excellent work he’s been doing on the new Warlord “Dr Who” range of figures that keep cropping up on his blog, but mainly I have to say from “Jez” Winstanley and his exceptional “Blackadder” time machine (There are links to both these brilliant blogs at the bottom of this post). Now back when my “Future Warrior” figures arrived I had picked this little chap out to be a bit of a “hero” and the brains of the bunch simply because he has a bit of an air’ about him of a certain time travelling “Doctor”, and a bit of a re-working on this theme began crawling its way around my brain. So genius Edmond Atkinson was born. One of the original architects of Salvation city he was betrayed when he threatened to reveal the corners that had be cut in his original design which rather than disposing of the toxic waste generated by the city in the environmentally friendly way he had planned, it was in fact being pumped out into the wasteland, contaminating the very people it was his dream to save with the creation of more “Salvation Cities”. Thought dead after his laboratory was burned to the ground by order of General Cowley, the horrifically burned scientist escaped through the sewers into the wasteland to begin a new life as a hermit, hiding his disfigured face and surviving on his technical knowledge, declaring that Dr Atkinson was indeed dead, he became known only as the Professor, vowing to never get involved with the human race again, something that didn’t quite go according to plan…

As for the figure after he was based up on a “Tuppence” and given a coat of matt black, I began by dry-brushing him with some chainmail, even though there was very little that would remain this colour it was easier to get to those bits now, then his belt, baggage, holster, trousers and hat were undercoated with chocolate brown, the first three highlighted with leather, the last two with butternut, I then added the stripes to his pants with some coffee. His jacket was painted in sand, and highlighted with the same only with a little coffee added, I added some pipping and the handle of his brolly in bright red, the rest of this was left black but highlighted in dark grey and while it was out I highlighted his shoes and painted in his rucksack too, this being highlighted in light grey. Flesh next European flesh highlighted with pale flesh covering this, and his ragged shirt was coffee and cream. The bedroll and tie were then added in blue grey with porcelain blue highlights, royal blue stripes were added to the tie. Lastly his gas mask and water bottle were added in deep bronze green, with highlights of stone green and olive respectively. After a coat of “Quickshade mid tone” the base of the figure was painted up by first giving it a coat of chocolate brown then dry-brushes of khaki and coffee went over this, and after patches were picked out in scenic green they had some “Javis” Summer mix static grass glued to them.

His “shed” was built from cardboard, the bottom of which was deliberately cut on an angle to add to the dilapidated feeling, then I added the details in card, coffee stirrers (what would wargamers do without these!), car body repair mesh and corrugated card, The front door I made from greenstuff, and I added some bits and pieces from the bits box around the side. Once based up on an MDF base, it too was given a coat of matt black before being dry-brushed in chainmail, then areas were stippled in rust coloured paint. I then painted in areas with royal blue and these were then highlighted with the same mixed with a little blue grey. Butternut mixed with light grey was then added around the edges of the wooden panels to represent where the paint had worn away. Orange was then stippled over the rusty areas, and I then basically went round the piece adding more of the colours above until I was happy with the overall effect. I added some slogans around the top like “This is not a toilet” and “Polite Box” for interest and finally I added some hanging wires coming out of the back of one of the robot arms in porcelain blue, yellow, red and dayglow green. This too had the obligatory coat of “Quickshade”

Once the “Quickshade was dry I dug out the sheet of “vine wall hanging” I bought last year from our local “florists supplier” and after pulling three “lumps” off of it, these were twisted together before being glued into the hole I’d poked into the filler on the base and glued up around the structure. I decided to paint the leaves olive as they were a little bright, and then added a few more leaves in green paper before these too were repainted olive. The base was then painted up to match the figure and a couple of rubberized moss pieces were added to the base, before both box and figure were given a blow over with matt varnish. I nearly called this week’s post “The madman with a box”, but just couldn’t bring myself to reference “Nu Who”.

Till next time, cheers Roger.

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