"It's Clobberin' Time!"

This 28mm plastic "Heroclix" model of Aunt Petunia's favourite nephew, is taken from the Marvel Clobberin' Time range by "Wizkids" and is number 48. Quite a few variants of Benjamin Jacob Grimm have now been produced for the super-hero collectible miniatures game but this is undoubtedly the best pose of one of the Fantastic Four's founding members.

In many ways this miniature should have been very simple (and quick) to paint. But unfortunately, having forgotten why I shelved my "Vallejo" Umber Shade wash last year, I ended up having to repaint Stan Lee's creation a few times before I was happy with it.

 

Unsurprisingly the model was undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Orange, before The Thing's shorts were painted with Heavy Blue and washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. His flexible rock-like hide was then treated to the aforementioned coat of "Vallejo" Umber Shade, and disaster then repeatedly struck.

I chose to use Umber Shade as previously I've found the wash to simply provide a light, almost watery muddy brown shadow to a model, which lets the undercoat still show through; as opposed to "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, which simply stains the model a deep dark brown. In addition, I've found the "Vallejo" shade can itself 'crack' when it pools, and that struck me as a useful side-effect if applied heavily all over the Thing's mutagenic skin.

Unfortunately what the Umber Shade also does is merrily flow everywhere else, all over a model. It simply doesn't seem to have the surface tension I've found inherent with "Citadel" inks, which holds the wash in place in the areas where I've applied it. As a result, every time I built up the shade pools (to create the cracking effect), Ben Grimm's shorts also quickly became contaminated with brown wash and had to be painted blue again; rather annoying.

As a complete aside though I would urge you to visit the "Rantings From Under The Wargames" blog for a totally different take on this "Heroclix" model, following the application of some serious green stuff. The initial posting can be found here: http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/superheroes-february-2014

 I recently bought one of the Iron Brothers Twenty Man Troop Units from "Ramshackle Games" with the intention of painting them up as proxies for the Souther and Nort (using mole-mask heads) far-future soldiers found within the "2000AD" comic universe of "Rogue Trooper". This 28mm resin model has finally been undercoated "Vallejo" Heavy Grey in preparation for use as a test piece.