Sunday 28 December 2014

"There Is Only One Path To Peace... Your Extermination."

These 28mm models of Ultron, Jocasta and three Dreadnought robots are by “Wizkids” and come from their “Heroclix” range of plastic miniatures. All of the models were removed from their ‘clicky-bases’ and superglued to either 25mm or 40mm “Games Workshop” round bases.
Ultron is actually a ‘flying’ miniature from the Marvel Infinity Challenge expansion and is model number 134. The living automaton was first undercoated “Citadel” Abaddon Black and then treated to a layer of Boltgun Metal. I then applied a wash of Nuln Oil before dry-brushing the figure with more Boltgun Metal. Finally the super-villain’s adamantium robotic shell was dry-brushed with Mithril Silver to help bring out its detail. Ultron’s eyes and maw were simply picked out with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and washed with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.
This model of Jocasta is from the Marvel Armor Wars expansion and is miniature 87. I painted her using exactly the same method as I did for her creator, Ultron.

These Dreadnought robots are from the Marvel Critical Mass expansion and are model number 13. They are actually 55mm in height and were undercoated with “Vallejo” Gunmetal Blue in order to try and capture the metallic blue-coloured armour the non-sentient robotic combat instruments are comprised of. Each figure was then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil before being dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Gunmetal Blue.
At this stage I did consider a further ‘highlight’ of “Citadel” Mithril Silver but found that the dry-brushing had actually turned the robots titanium steel alloy more silver than I had wanted anyway. I also considered picking out the leg and arm rivets with Boltgun Metal and Nuln Oil in order to replicate the colour-scheme used for the Dreadnought 2000 model designed by A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics). However many of the detailed rivets were in some very difficult positions to reach with a brush tip, so in the end I stuck with my original plan of simply replacing the ghastly “Wizkids” pre-paint with my “Vallejo” Gunmetal Blue one. Fortunately once the “Citadel” Gloss Varnish had dried the blue within the paint really shone through both the Nuln Oil Shade and the “Vallejo” Model Color highlights.
Finally I decided to base one of the partially destroyed robots from the “Heroclix” X-Men Danger Room Collector’s Pack as a 40mm objective marker. This model actually took the longest to paint of the lot as I wanted to give the model an appearance of being somewhat rusty. As a result once the “Citadel” Boltgun Metal and Nuln Oil wash had dried, I applied some watered-down “Vallejo” Bronze to all the cracks and crevices found on the model. Once dry I then washed these areas with “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade before dry-brushing the entire model with Boltgun Metal. Finally I picked out the robot’s cyclopean eye with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and washed with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.
I'm going to try and stick to this weekly 'super-powered' composition of 5-6 miniatures including an objective base, so have re-based this old "Heroclix" sculpt of the Silver Samurai along with a handful of his Ninja henchmen. I must admit I'm not completely 'sold' on these Hand Ninja figures as they're a bit too large for my liking, and obviously 'bendy' swords aren't terribly pleasing to the eye either. I did though think that this model of Ben Grimm, wearing a mackintosh and hat, whilst leaning up against a 'straining' lamp post, would make a good 'rendezvous' objective, so have placed the rather poorly pre-painted figure on one of the thin-edged 40mm round bases I tend to use these days for goal markers.

12 comments:

  1. Your robot minis have all come out exceptionally well, Simon. I have the figures of Ultron, Jocasta and the damaged Danger Room robot myself, but sadly, no Dreadnaughts.
    Likewise, I have the Silver Samurai and all the ninja variants. I have never ever seen that figure of The Thing before. He is rather cool. isn't he?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Bryan. Knowing of your love for "Heroclix" I always like to know whether you approve or not of the re-paints. The Dreadnoughts are a very old sculpt and as such seem to be a bit tricky to get hold of these days. The Thing is a 10th Anniversary sculpt which was modelled using some sort of CAD and shows imho. It is certainly a cool pose but a little under-sized (as so many of the new sculpts seem to be) and terribly painted. Still should make for a good objective on the table :-)

      Delete
  2. I think this was your best work yet Simon. Very impressive brushwork.

    I was so looking forward to seeing your entry in this weeks Bonus Round and am sorry to hear you didn't get it done in time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks ever so much Anne. The Cold One Rider should certainly be finished by my next posting window (i.e. Saturday) and I'm rather disappointed I didn't get it in on time. Unfortunately I found myself 'fighting' the figure's detail in much the same way as I did with the albino skink champion, and wasn't enjoying myself as a result. As I paint purely for fun I figured it was best to 'bench' the mini and recharge the batteries... and that lead to missing Curt's deadline. Your entry looks absolutely superb and will certainly be getting my vote :-)

      Delete
  3. Great paintjob on all these, but the silver robotic markers are truly outstanding.
    Many years ago for a DnD knick I used a bright silver with a blue ink wash on his pate armour which gave a nice fantasy effect of "magic armour".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Zabadak. That method was actually what I was planning on doing until I stumbled upon my pot of "Vallejo" Gunmetal Blue. The Dreadnoughts are famous (in Marvel Comic circles anyway) for their metallic blue armour. Certainly I wasn't going to apply a blue undercoat and then wash them with silver as per the original pre-paints. They looked awful :-)

      Delete
  4. Great job dude! Really like the Dreadnoughts colour scheme.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks Bob. I'd like to get some more but these older sculpts are rather expensive and the newer versions are somewhat smaller.

      Delete
  5. That is a really great colour on the dreadnoughts, I think I'll hve to go and find that valejo blue myself.

    Interesting Thing figure to, though i can see what you mean about it not being one of the best sculpts of him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Roger. If I had my way I'd paint everything with that Gunmetal Blue. Certainly I have my eye out for some more Dreadnought models as a result. Although I have now based a very nice Mister Freeze model who also wears metallic blue armour. I can see what they were trying to do with Ben Grimm, but it just doesn't work too well. But once I've slapped a few coats on it I'm hoping it'll be worthy of being an objective marker.

      Delete
  6. I agree with Vampifan: the robots are excellent!

    The Silver Samurai seems very bright? I'm not familiar with the character and so I don't know if that's the effect you intended.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks C6. The Silver Samurai is bright because that's the ghastly thick silver pre-paint "Wizkids" cover it with :-) All three of those minis have now been undercoated black and I'm just starting to build-up the silver on Kenuichio Harada now. He should be a similar colour to Ultron etc when finished.

      Delete