Sunday 9 August 2015

'Gotham City High-Rise' - WIP - Part Two

Two-Face WIP - The former Attorney just needs his face, hair and gun painted before being finished
Continuing my project to create and game some rooftop shenanigans atop Gotham City’s skyline, I’ve not only managed to make a little progress on one of the metropolis’ more notorious criminal bosses, Two-Face. But also re-start painting yet another “Heroclix” model from Batman’s Rogues Galley, Basil Karlo – also known as Clayface.

Indeed the somewhat cartoony looking miniature has actually given me an opportunity to see how well “Vallejo” Heavy Red works as the basic layer for bricks, and as a result of ‘testing’ the colour out on the figure’s debris-laden base I’ve subsequently applied a couple of coats of the opaque water-based acrylic to my “Ainsty Castings” rooftop. Hopefully the resin scenery will only require another couple of layers, over its black undercoat, before I can wash it with some brown ink and get to work picking out the walls’ cream(ish) stone capping.
Mister Freeze WIP - The ice-cold criminal's suit will be a mixture of metallic paints
I have though also rebased and undercoated one of “Wizkids” better sculpts of Mister Freeze. Originally I had hoped to retain the miniature’s clear plastic head dome, which allows you to see Victor Fries’ face inside. Unfortunately though the quality of the pre-paint was atrocious as the bright red used for the supervillain’s goggles had been plastered all over the head. Having considered removing the head and reattaching it having tried to repaint it somehow, I finally decided that, somewhat disappointingly, the easiest and probably best solution, was going to be to simply paint the dome white… then wash it with some grey ink before dry-brushing with more white.

As a result of painting my “Ainsty Castings” rooftop, I’ve taken the opportunity to ‘dig out’ the rest of my resin ‘furniture’ and started to work out some different scenery configurations for my combatants to fight over. The company’s Chimney Stack is a particularly formidable-looking piece, and should certainly help ‘break up’ the semi-large over space of a roof. I’ve also found myself owning a number of pieces of air ducting which I’m not entirely sold on; predominantly because they’re rather delicate and without some serious preparation work look rather easy to snap off of the roof. It make therefore be that I simply superglue a couple of pieces into the odd corner, rather than have them ‘snaking’ around…
Pigeon Loft Roof Shed WIP - The large resin piece of scenery needs a lot of preparation work
Finally I have unboxed my Pigeon Loft Roof Shed. It really is rather large, and although allows for the fight to move inside, seems a little too large for my initial 7” x 9.5” rectangular roof-space. The resin casting also needs a lot of clean-up before it’s ready for painting, so for now I’ll be concentrating on some of the other scenery. Although I have already thought of expanding the game to having two or more rooftops to enable larger skirmishes. Such a layout will require models to leap from building to building (or fly), which will hopefully add an additional risk factor to the game.

18 comments:

  1. Good luck with the roof-top terrain build and paint. :)

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    1. Thanks PulpCitizen. Hopefully it'll be pretty painless, as I usually go for pre-painted stuff or card, so I can concentrate on the minis.

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  2. The beauty of making a rooftop battleground is that there are so many scenic items you can add to break up the flatness. By making some or all of them removable gives you more tactical options. I like the way this project is developing and I'm not surprised that you fancy making a second rooftop. Go for it, Simon.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I'm certainly finding this project is providing me with plenty of encouragement to finally paint up my Rogues Gallery for Batman. A second (larger and two-piece) roof is certainly on the cards. Just as long as you don't tempt me with another range of minis I haven't painted myself ;-)

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    2. Quote, "Just as long as you don't tempt me with another range of minis I haven't painted myself ;-)"
      OOOPS!!!!!!

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    3. Hopefully I won't get too distracted painting whilst "Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons" is playing in the background, Bryan :-)

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  3. Good looking rooftop so far dude! I want that pigeon shed.

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    1. Cheers Bob. Its certainly a nice piece. but perhaps a little too large for the first of my rooftops. Encouragement enough though to already be thinking about a second larger one ;-)

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  4. That's some nice looking scenery you've got there Simon, should look the business once it's finished, I think your in for a treat with Captain Scarlet. I had a bit of a crush on Symphony angel as a lad (I've always liked small women and she was only two foot three!), The CGI revamp was actually pretty good too, much better that the new Thunderbirds.

    Cheers Roger. (Bring back "Four Feather Falls").

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    1. Thanks Roger. Its coming together, and I'm close to completing a fair few of the minis too. I've not seen "FFF" before, though tbh I can see why ;-)

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  5. GReat to see the rooftop battleground moving along, very excited to see how this turns out.

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    1. Thanks Michael. The basic rooftop should be finished by the weekend - I hope...

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  6. Coming along nicely Simon. Have you considered plank bridges between your rooftops? Additional (and dangerous) terrain to fight on, which can be dislodged from either end and can be easily (and cheaply) sourced from the coffee shop of you choice.

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  7. Good stuff on the extra terrain pieces. Love the idea of the rooftop setting including the gaps between buildings - will make chase scenarios exciting!

    I think I prefer Freeze with a misted dome - will make him more sinister.

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    1. Thanks Dai. The scenery is coming along nicely, as are a few of the figures. Hopefully Mister Freeze will work out for the best. I certainly couldn't leave him alone with those red goggles smeared all over his head ;-)

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  8. It's too bad Freeze's clear dome couldn't be salvaged. The non-clear WIP looks great though.

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    1. Cheers Finch. Just one of the problems with pre-paints sadly. But hopefully the misty dome will look alright. Fingers crossed...

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