Wednesday 8 October 2014

Graven Images - Cliffhanger - WIP - Part One

I’ve recently bought a handful of these ‘hefty’ 40mm models to use for some pulp fiction “7TV” action set in the Forties. Sculpted by the late great Jim Bowen, these “Graven Images” models are from the “Cliffhanger” range and extremely nice casts. To begin with I’m going to start with one of my favourite crime fighting vigilantes, The Shadow and arguably “Universal Studios” most recognizable undead creature Frankenstein’s Monster.
 
I must confess to being somewhat apprehensive about painting The Shadow as he wears a particularly fine flowing cape which includes one of my most dreaded subjects to paint… a red lining. However I have a rather nice 28mm model of Jon Pertwee as “Doctor Who” by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” which wears a similar cloak and thus is generating an identical painter’s block for me. So as this “Graven Images” model is significantly larger, I thought it’d make an excellent test piece upon which I can practice my red lining technique.
 
Until very recently I hadn’t realised that other wargaming bloggers were participating in Zomtober; a bit of fun to encourage many painters to slap a coat or two upon their undead miniatures. Having been ignorant of this acrylic gore-fest I’ve already missed the weekend deadline for the first posting but plan to use ‘Frankie’ as the subject for one of my two Zomtober posts this week.

Please follow this link to read up on what Zomtober is all about: http://brummieswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/zomtober-2014.html
 
There’s actually quite a few colour schemes out there for Boris Karloff’s film version of the monster, ranging from green outer clothing and brown shirt, to perhaps the more common-placed black shirt and trousers with grey shirt. In the end I decided I didn’t want to paint two miniatures predominantly black at the same time, especially as I planned for them to be the main antagonists for my first few games of “7TV”. As a result I’m going to go with a brown suit, washed with black ink, and a dark grey shirt with black boots. Obviously the undead creature’s skin has to be Karloff green.
The subject of my second Zomtober submission will be this old “Wizkids” model of Solomon Grundy, a zombie supervillain from the “DC Comics Universe”. It is not one of the best sculpted plastic figures from the “Heroclix” range, but should prove relatively straightforward to paint in a short amount of time. To keep him company, I’m going to also try and progress a couple of other pre-painted supervillains, the Rhino and the Abomination.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds good if its a zombie it counts. Special ones included :)

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  2. Thanks Simon. Just wish I'd seen your Zomtober posting before... thought I was all undeaded out with all the Weird War ones I've painted this year already, but there's always room for more Zeds :-)

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  3. Hi Simon, sorry havent commented for a bit I'm not ignoring you, been a hectic week! great figs those 40mm pulpies' really like the "Shadow". Blake is really coming together as well looking forwad to seeing the finnished articles.

    hadn't heard of "Zomtober" though I've ahad a look and it turns out I don't have any zombies to paint at the momment anyway. I always imagine Sol'Grundy being heavier set than the heroclix fig you show, make a good generic zombie though.

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  4. Roger, No worries. As you'll hopefully see in the next posting the Solomon Grundy model is actually rather nice - just a terrible pre-paint job. He's also quite large and had to be based on one of my bigger bases as a result. The Shadow is taking a wee back seat as I paint up Frankenstein for this weekend. Glad you like Blake. I've repainted and rewashed his sleeves so he's looking much better imho. Loads of minis on the go at the moment so goodness knows when there'll be another B7 posting though :-)

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  5. Interesting. I find flowing capes to be rather easier to paint than either heavily-creased or completely flat cloth. Either way, it'll be good to see how you finish all of these figures.

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    1. I tend to simply dry-brush heavily creased cloaks over a black undercoat, so I actually really like them on models. Its a technique that seemed to work rather well back when I was painting my Fellowship of the Ring models (old Vendel Miniature Adventurer sculpts not the GW ones). Having fun with the Shadow though, just building up the red layers ready for a wash and glaze.

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