“Better Late than Never” (Advent Challenge)

OK so the two figures I’ve got for you this time are more than a little late to the party to be honest as they were my “Advent challenge” figures for June! I realised pretty early on in the year that I wasn’t going to be able to take part in “Forgotten Heroes” this year so thought that the least I could do was paint up one “super hero” type figures and show a little support to those who were taking part, well I failed at even that and these two have been languishing on my desk ever since. Anyway here’s there official names along with the code numbers and the day they popped out of the calendar….

6. Dr Insinn, Evil Mastermind 50093 (Reaper Miniatures)
20. Captain Griffon, Superhero 50027 (Reaper Miniatures)

Now I imagine nearly all of you (except Simon) will not remember a conversion I did way back in 2015 of a “Hasslefree” figure, turning him into an octogenarian Superhero called “The Zimmer”, Well I thought it might be a bit of fun to turn “Captain Griffon” into his WW2 Nazi fighting earlier self (a kind of Prequel, you might say). To this end I first had to replace his belt buckle with one matching my original conversion and of course add the “shield” shaped insignia emblazoned across his chest. Regular readers will not be surprised in the slightest that a little greenstuff was used to this end. Both figures were then re-based onto two pence pieces and given a coat of white primer (I decided due to the light/brightness of their costumes I’d forgo my usual black in favour of this), and on with the painting.

Dr Insinn, like all good evil maniacs has a fluffy cat (wait I have a fluffy cat, does that mean I’m….No, well maybe 😼 🤔) Anyway, I decided to start with him/her so coffee highlighted with cream and then again with white was used here. This now meant I couldn’t really go with white on his top as it would blend too much with his “kitty”, so instead I went with Dungeon stone grey, with more of the same lightened with some white. His flesh I did in my tried and true way of European flesh and after his (and pussy’s) eyes and monocle were added in white and black (along with a little sir coats silver on the lens)I highlighted the flesh with more European flesh this time with a touch of pale flesh to lighten it. Sticking with the grey theme (James Bond villains never seem to be particularly colourful dressers), I undercoated his trousers in a mix of black and dark grey, then highlighted these in the same with the proportion of black reduced. That just left his shoes that I decided to do in chocolate brown with saddle brown highlights.

“The Zimmer” (or Captain Griffon if you prefer) was painted in the same basic way as my original version, therefore after highlighting the coffee basecoat on his cape, trunks, gloves and insignia with cream and then again with white I added red stripes to his trunks, his chest insignia, and added the red star and three red stripes to his cape in dark red highlighted with Italian red (as the bright red I originally used was now in the bin dried up), I also did his boots, and the flashes on his gloves in these colours too. Next I added his under suit, this was undercoated with a mixture of royal blue with a touch of porcelain blue, and highlighted with the same mix of colours but with the ratios reversed. I also added a blue line around the star and the stripes down his cape in the same colours (It was at this point that I lived to regret adding these on the original, trust me I wouldn’t have if I’d thought then that I’d have to match them on another figure some day!! 🙄). His flesh next was undercoated in European flesh tone and this was then mixed with a little pale flesh tone, I was quite pleased that the shape of his face really does have a younger look but similar chin and nose to the older model. His hair would of course have to be a lot darker than the “grey” original, so I went with black for the base layer and chocolate brown darkened with more black for the highlights here. This left his belt to be added in black highlighted with a little dark grey and his belt buckle in copper and shinning gold. The pictures show young “Bernie Baxter” next to the older version.

Their bases were then painted up and flocked in my usual manner and a coat of matt varnish sealed their fate. Believe it or not I am now back up to date with this challenge (I’m not sure I do to be honest!), just two more to get done next month now, but I’ll have a couple of days off before I have to start them 😉.

Till next time, excelsior Roger.