Wednesday 29 October 2014

“A Few Days In Space. What's The Worst That Could Happen?”

This rather tall 28mm plastic “Wizkids” model of Mister Fantastic is miniature number 72 from the “Heroclix” Marvel Clobberin’ Time range. Despite the pose being more in line with the cartoonish Plastic Man from “DC Comics” than the serious scientist Reed Richards, I still think this is a great looking model and has been great fun to paint; albeit it the Fantastic Four emblem on his chest took a fair few attempts before I decided that retreat was the better part of valour.

There seem to have been a variety of different shades of blue used as the colour for the costume of the Fantastic Four over the years, so I decided to simply stick with the dark hue “Wizkids” had already pre-painted the figure with. However, whereas their leader of the famous FF had just been given a very heavy drybrush over a black undercoat, I wanted my Mister Fantastic to tie in with the colour scheme I’d used for the shorts of his team-mate Benjamin Grimm, a.k.a the Thing. As a result I gave the model a couple of coats of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue before applying a double wash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

In between these various applications I desperately tried to keep picking out the circle on his ‘4’ chest emblem with “Vallejo” White. But after more attempts than I care to remember I decided there simply wasn’t enough of the circular border to paint with my brush skills, so simply picked out the number in black and have left it at that… for now at least.
Mister Fantastic and The Thing battle the Mole-Man's Moloids
If you’re interested Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four appear in my latest review of the old “Marvel Comics” 2006 series of “The Thing” here: http://thebrownbagaeccb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-thing-4-marvel-comics.html

Or if you’re interested in how I painted Ben Grimm then you can find my posting here: http://fantorical.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/its-clobberin-time.html
This is the first of five miniatures I plan to paint as part of a fun Mo’vember challenge with Dick Garrison from over at the “Rantings From Under The Wargames Table” blog. It’s Dracula from the Late Seventies “Marvel Comics” series “Tomb Of Dracula” and depicts the Lord of Vampires, courtesy of some superb art by Gene Colan, with a fine dastardly moustache. Rather lazily I was originally planning on simply painting in the face and hand and finishing there; as the rest of the model’s clothing should be black. But as this character is well-known, in comic-fan circles anyway, for his billowing cloak and suit’s blue highlights, I’ve picked out his suit and trousers with an appropriate colour.

If you’re interested in taking part in Mo’vember then please either leave a comment and link to your website, or visit Dick Garrison’s excellent blog here: http://rantingsfromunderthewargamestable.wordpress.com

8 comments:

  1. Nice work on mr Fantastic and your Dracula is coming along nicely. Does he have a tache sculpted on or are you planning on just painting it in?

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    1. Hi Simon. Thanks very much. The moustache is painted on. In fact the actual pre-painted model had a goatee as well, but I won't be doing that. Its a really nice model despite its simplistic pose and you can really see that the artist Gene Colan based him on the actor Jack Palance.

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  2. I'm liking both figures, Blax. I have to ask, do you plan on painting the rest of the Fantastic Four, assuming you have them in your figure collection? I have always been a big fan of the FF.

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    1. Thanks Vampifan. I do have the other members of the FF, indeed in several poses. But I must confess that I'm not actually that much of a fan - with the exception of the Jack Kirby and later John Byrne issues. I do have both based ready for painting, just haven't found a reason to give them a lick of paint yet. Although I was thinking about Torch as I'm a big fan of the original and the Invaders.

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  3. Wow, he's quite a size and wonderfully posed - great job all round.

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    1. Cheers Michael. Great model, if not a little difficult to paint in some areas :-)

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  4. Nice job dude! I really like the vamp sculpt too.

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    1. Thanks Bob. It is a nice simple sculpt but rather effective I think. The character in the comics is a rather dynamic action-orientated anti-hero but you can;t beat a vampire wrapping himself up in his cloak :-)

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