Thursday 22 March 2018

"The Only Bear On The C.I.A. Death List!"

"Shako! The Eskimo word for Great White Bear. It means simply... Killer!"
This 28mm sized metal Polar Bear is produced by "Copplestone Castings" under Code PolEx011, and comes from their Polar Perils High Adventure range. An impressive 60mm in length, I immediately thought the animal was reminiscent of the 'Ursus maritimus' "who unwisely swallowed a capsule containing a secret government-created germ warfare culture, thinking it was a tin of food, and became a target of the CIA agents based at Ice Station Delta" in the Late Seventies "2000 A.D. comic book strip "Shako".

The hefty animal was initially primed with "Vallejo" Dead White and shaded with some "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. It was then dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Dead White before being sporadically washed with some heavily-watered down Iraqi Sand. Finally, the beast was given a third and final dry-brush of Dead White and had his claws, nose and eyes simply 'picked out' with "Citadel" Abaddon Black.
"Your curiosity will cost you dear, Human."
In addition to Pat Mills' savagely brutal co-creation, who I also plan to utilise as a fearsome addition to my frosty "Gotham" crew for Mister Freeze, I have also completed painting a 31mm tall plastic "Wizkids" Dire Wraith Queen. This green-hued extra-terrestrial can be bought as number 010b from the "Marvel" Guardians Of The Galaxy "Heroclix" range and is destined to lead my previously finished band of sorcerous shape-shifters.

Created by Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom for the December 1979 issue of "Rom", the Skrullian deviant was undercoated with two layers of "Vallejo" Heavy Green and heavily washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. She was then dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Heavy Green before having her eyes 'picked out' with a tiny dollop of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre. As I wanted the super-strong sorcerers' pupils to particularly stand out, I didn't bother shading them, and instead simply tidied their edges up with some additional "Citadel" Abaddon Black.
Putrid Blightking WIPs - The two boil-covered armoured warriors are half-way finished
Lastly I have made some significant progress on my final two "Age Of Sigmar" Putrid Blightkings. This pair are all I need to field a five-strong unit of the "enormous, bloated warriors" for my 1,000 point Nurgle Host, but are proving rather time-consuming on account of each sculpts incredible detail; whether it be simply the amount of pustules and boils littering their bare flesh, or the number of decaying skulls tied about their plate armour.

Fortunately, my enthusiasm for this "Games Workshop" fantasy rule-set is currently riding rather high on account of the Nottingham-based company finally revealing their latest faction for the game, the Idoneth Deepkin. These Sea Elves look tremendous, with "colossal sea beasts", "living tidal waves", and "predatory shoals of fish", as well as "Aelves riding sharks and giant turtles with bolt throwers" too. Marvellous stuff...

30 comments:

  1. Great work on Shako which I have fond memories of the comic strip.
    Great work on the dire wraith queen and blightlords are coming along nicely

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    1. Thanks very much, Dave. I'm very pleased with how Shako turned out, and the Dire Wraith Queen. Hoping to get the Blightlords finished this weekend if I can.

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  2. Polar bear is ace. Probably the best thing I have seen you paint (Please take no offence as meant as a compliment)

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    1. No offence taken, Clint. I'm really pleased with how the off-white fur turned out :-)

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  3. Love the bear, Simon. And the Dire Wraith Queen is a cool, if slightly odd, figure. And you've certainly done sterling work on the Blightking.

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    1. Thanks Jez. I'm keen to get the Polar Bear on the tabletop asap, as well as my Dire Wraiths. Need to get the Blightkings finished first though :-)

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  4. I'd forgotten Shako. My Dad always like Bill Savage in Invasion.

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    1. Yep. Big "Invasion" fan too. I think the early years of "2000 A.D." were definitely some of its most innovative.

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  5. Excellent collection of eye candy on display here Simon - every one of 'em a real treat! :-)

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    1. Cheers Greg. I try and give a spread of stuff when I can :-)

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  6. You've done a good job on the bear, I've been wondering how big it was and it's big, the various bears I have are only about 45mm long so a good catch.

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    1. Thanks very much Vagabond. I'll try and get 'Shako' on the tabletop soon and then you'll be able to better see just how immense the bear is :-)

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  7. Wow, the fur on that polar bear is superb. It looks simply brilliant. That is a great paint job, and it goes to show how a simple looking mini can be brought to life. The Dire Wraith looks good too, can't wait to see that up close and the Blight Kings are great. Your plague painting is top notch! Just going to gush about the bear again: awesome! Top ten material definitely!

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I'm rather pleased with the Polar Bear I must admit. I've enough Dire Wraiths now for a game of "M.I.S.S." (so expect one soon) and have finished one of the two Blightkings shown - so just one more to go!!

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  8. Love the bear! Brilliant mini and cool painting too

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    1. Thanks Andy. Shako has turned out alright :-)

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  9. I'll add my praise to that heaped upon your Polar bear, smashing work on the fur! (I was an Inferno, and ABC Warrior/Ro-Busters man myself along with Flesh of course!).

    The Direwraith is extremely cool too as is the Blightking.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. Shako does seem to have gone down rather well. I too thoroughly enjoyed "Flesh". It took me until "Nemesis The Warlock" and Bryan Talbot's artwork before I liked "ABC Warriors" though.

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  10. Now that brings back memories, I might need to dig my 2000AD annual out of the loft as I am sure Shako featured in it? Cracking job Simon.

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    1. Many thanks Michael. It's good to have you (and Roger) back commenting :-) You can get "Shako" as a tpb these days, and what a corking read it is too ;-)

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    2. tpb? Not sure I know what that is Simon.

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    3. Sorry Michael, trade paper back. You can pick up the entire run of "Shako" as a graphic novel. Here's a link to "Amazon": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shako-Pat-Mills/dp/1781080690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521967488&sr=8-1&keywords=shako

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    4. That's just brilliant! Now on order, thank you. :)

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    5. Hah ha... It's about time I caused you to dip into your pocket rather than the other way round, Michael. I don't think you'll regret the purchase either. Great book imho.

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  11. You've sometimes just got to sit back and take time to admire other's work - that bear is great.
    Blightking looking good too btw

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    1. Cheers Joe. Hopefully I'll get him onto the tabletop too, so you can see just how large he really is :-)

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  12. The Polar bear is fab mate. Looking forward to seeing him in the streets of Gotham alongside his master.

    The Dire wraith looks ace as well and suitably slimy. Nice progress with Blight king. I am enjoying seeing your Nurgle force take shape and expand with each addition.

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    1. Thanks ever so much, Simon. Much appreciated :-) I'm hoping to get Mister Freeze and crew into a BatRep soon, as well as the Dire Wraiths. I'm a bit behind with the Nurgle stuff currently, but hoping to make some in-roads over the next few weeks.

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  13. I remember reading Shako as a lad in the 80's. (Am sure it was a re-release though) Thought it was shockingly violent back then! Pooh-bear looks everso much better now he has his nose and eyes picked out - excellent work Simon!

    Blight blokes are super fun. I now find myself with a small platoon of Nurgle stuff of my own to get paint on... Will this mountain ever diminish?

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  14. Cheers Dai. There's so much wonderful Nurgle stuff out there currently, that its hard to keep the mountain down or even manageable imho :-)

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