Wednesday 16 September 2015

"Of Course You Know My Voice, Creature."

"Surrender unto me, and you shall live to see the new dawn of this world."
This 28mm plastic “Wizkids” model of Grigori Efimovich Rasputin is miniature number 82 from the Indy “Heroclix” range. Based upon the real life Russian mystic with the same name, this comic book supervillain was created by Mike Mignola and John Bryne for the “Dark Horse Comics” title “Hellboy”, and made his first appearance in the 1994 mini-series “Seed Of Destruction.”

This model was a very generous gift from Roger over on “Rantings From Under The WargamesTable” and has genuinely made me appreciate how difficult it must be to quickly batch-paint a load of miniatures for distribution. For initially I felt this figure’s pre-paint could not be worse. But having then tried to paint the Summoner’s armbands and bangles myself I quickly came to realize just how tough the sculpt made them to access with a paintbrush.
Hellboy WIP - Lots of tidying up yet to do but at least now his trademark trenchcoat is finished 
I have seen this model re-painted with some quite lovely flowing red robes. But as I wanted to simply mirror the “Wizkids” colour scheme, and that of the comic books, I went with an initial undercoat of “Citadel” Abaddon Black. I then simply ‘picked out’ the mad monk’s chest pentagram with “Vallejo” Heavy Blue and his phoenix emblem with Gold. These areas were then washed with “Citadel” Asurmen Blue and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade respectively. Rasputin’s (curved) sword and armbands were painted with a combination of “Citadel” Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil. I also considered painting the black magician’s eyes red, as per the “Heroclix” pre-paint. But again decided upon following the character’s look in the comics.

Having been in a “Hellboy” mood, I have also started to re-work my “Horroclix” Amung Un Rama. This plastic figure still has a long way to go. But I’ve actually re-done the demon’s coat so it’s a lighter brown than before and thus better represents the colour used in his publications. In addition it means I’m free to use a darker brown for his heavily-pouched belt without these areas all merging into one on the miniature.
Red Hulk WIP - This large sculpt is seriously muscular and may need dry-brushing to bring out the detail
In addition I have finished dry-brushing my Silver Surfer with “Citadel” Ironbreaker, and now just need to give Galactus’ former herald a final layer of shiny silver. Frustratingly I’ve also fitted the miniature to his “Mongoose Publishing” flight stand and found that I had to drill right through the galactic traveller’s surfboard in order for it to fit. As the base is transparent plastic I may simply leave it as is or touch the model up once finished.

Finally I’ve undercoated one of my favourite “Heroclix” miniatures, having based him ages ago. This Red Hulk sculpt is huge and full of dynamic energy. It was also another model I had to search out for across the Pond as it seems to be rather rare in the United Kingdom. 

20 comments:

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    1. Cheers Gordon. Another supervillian done... another hundred or so to go :-)

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  2. Rasputin has turned out great and looks suitably evil. Job's a good 'un!

    I was looking on the Mongoose Publishing web-store to see if they still sell those flying bases separately but I couldn't find them listed. I have a few already and I do like them. I'd like to get hold of some more.

    I'm not familiar with the different variants of Hulk (green, grey, red or whatever) but I can see that your figure is very well sculpted and I'm not surprised you're glad to have him in your collection.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I presume "Mongoose Publishing" stopped selling those stands when they stopped doing their "Star Trek" battle game - a wonderful idea which sadly was let down by some of the most atrocious resin casting I've seen - rivalling "Finecast" imho. I still have a load of Federation and Klingon ships. But will probably never paint them up now...

      Huge fan of all the Hulks, and they'll be a few of these showing up now I've opened that particular box, including a few of the big Green Fella :-)

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  3. Well, I've learned something new today. Red Hulk and The Hulk are not the same! I googled red hulk and ended up on a wiki page.
    I don't know how you can keep up with all these different characters.

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    1. I read a lot of comics Roy :-) Glad you've found something of interest today. Though just to confuse you Thunderbolt Ross, the Red Hulk, is actually none other than The Thing in the current 'Marvel universe' on "Battleworld". Confused yet!?!

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    2. Nope. 'Cos I've no idea who The Thing is! :)

      Oh, hang on. He's the earthy looking fellow out of the Fantastic Four, I think.
      2000AD was more my thing. Judge Dredd and Slaine.

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    3. You need to read more comics Roy :-) I've just had some more "Judge Dredd stuff arrive from my Kickstarter so there should be some more "2000A.D." related stuff posted soon... I hope ;-)

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  4. Some nice work there Simon, glad you like Rasputin you were more than welcome.

    As you know the Hulk, isn't my favourite Marvel character (I don't like any one bigger that "Unca' Benjy"). But looking down your blog roll "big mean an' green" seems rather in vogue at the moment, so what do I know.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Many thanks to you, Roger. Great model :-) There does seem to be a lot of people painting The Hulk at present. But mine is a little way off yet. Tonnes of "Battlestar Galactica" coming and some more minis for my 'Gotham High-Rise' project.

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  5. Always been a fan of Hellboy -one of the few original characters who managed to make it to the big screen relatively unchanged. Must really get some 'clix of him and his cast.
    Green Hulk, Red Hulk, Gray Hulk and Blue Hulk (A-Bomb). Have you enough hulks to do the whole of the spectrum? If DC can have Lanterns of all hues, could we not have yellow, orange and indigo Hulks? Although I'm not entirely sure how well they'd work...
    Having had a brief perusal of Troll and Toad's site, looks like they have several figures that I was after, so depending on shipping costs they may very well be getting an order. Cheers for the tip.

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    1. Cheers Jez. Glad "Troll And Toad" look good enough to try. "Blue Rat games" is a very good UK dealer. But he tends to struggle stocking some of the older/rarer sculpts... and then they are rather expensive compared to US prices.

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  6. You never fail to amaze me with the variety of miniatures you turn up, must of which are new to me. Looking great, but my favourite has to be Hellboy.

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    1. Thanks Michael. I try to have a variety of minis on the go ;-) Hellboy is a great sculpt, though a little smaller than I'd have thought. Should be finished soon - I hope...

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  7. Excellent work Simon. Got to just love Hellboy and friends.

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    1. Cheers Simon. Nice to get one of my few "Indyclix" finished... Hopefully Hellboy won't be too far behind.

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  8. Very nice Bk! Hellboy and the gang look great. Rasputin really looks evil.

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    1. Thanks Bob. The Hellboy model is a very nice sculpt indeed and Rasputin has turned out better than the pre-paint :-)

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  9. Rasputin is a cool sculpt and your painting thus far seems spot on for the comics version.

    My son has that Red Hulk somewhere. Never was a big fan of the character though - seemed to me a rather poorly thought out backstory.

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    1. Cheers Dai. I always like to stick with the comic book version for my minis when I can. I'm not a big fan of "Thunderbolt" Ross in his Red Hulk guise either. But the miniature is an absolute corker imho.

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