Saturday, 26 September 2015

"To Me, My Board!"

"A lifetime of endless adventure beckoning before me!"
This 28mm plastic “Wizkids” model of the Silver Surfer is miniature number 76 from the Marvel “Heroclix” Supernova range. This cosmic space-travelling herald of Galactus was created by Jack Kirby for “Marvel Comics” in 1966 and made his first appearance within the pages of Issue Forty-Four of “The Fantastic Four”. This particular uncommon figure of Norrin Radd actually proved impossibly hard to acquire for a reasonable price this side of the Pond, so I ended up purchasing it from “Troll And Toad” in America as part of a bulk order.

I initially painted straight over the miniatures’ silver pre-paint with “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey, before applying a wash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil over the entire model. Once this had dried I then heavily dry-brushed the former astronomer from the planet Zenn-La with more “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey. I next gave the figure a dry-brush of “Citadel” Ironbreaker before finishing with a light dry-brush of Mithril Silver.
Plant-Zombie WIPs - I plan for a number of these 'man-eaters' to stalk the corridors of Chase Manor
Lastly I attached the model to one of the transparent plastic flying stands which used to be sold by “Mongoose Publishing”. Rather frustratingly I found that in order to properly fit the surfboard to the flight base I had to drill right through it as otherwise it would not stay connected.

As Zomtober 2015 is fast-approaching I have started to prepare and base a number of models and some scenery to paint-up during the challenge. My inspiration for this year is “Doctor Who and the Seeds of Doom”; a wonderful 1976 six-parter from the British science fiction television series, which saw the Earth threatened by the alien Krynoids and had a couple of zombie-like plants running around trying to kill people. To this end I plan to attempt to host a game of “Zombicide” based upon this theme at the end of October using a plethora of miniatures by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and some scenery from the “Mars Attacks – The Miniatures Game” by “Mantic Games”.
Chase Manor - The ruins of Chase Manor all undercoated and ready for Zomtober 2015...
 As a result I have started undercoating the first of my Krynoid-influenced plant-zombies and an unfortunate member of "crazed Botanist" Harrison Chase’s security staff, who has already been infected. The two Spawn creatures are wonderfully-detailed single castings. Whereas all my infected will be constructed using the various heads and mutation sprues “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” currently have available.

In addition I have assembled a number of ruined walls, doorways and debris from the “Mars Attacks” Scenery Upgrade Pack. These will be free-standing terrain which will indicate which areas of my "Zombicide" tabletop are actually part of the semi-ruined Chase Manor.  

24 comments:

  1. I always did like the Silver Surfer, and he is one of the best cinematic representations to date (in FF2). Nice figure of him you have there Simon, and a cracking paintjob, silver is not easy to pull off well (you've done it though).

    Nice Zom-tober idea as well "Seeds" is one of my favourite stories (Tom Baker and Liz Sladen, so what's not to love). Looking forward to seeing these excellent min's finished, I do like those mutant Zombie things, and these sorts of things do seem to suit you style of painting so well.

    Cheers Roger.
    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. The figure was well worth tracking down imho. Glad you like the idea of "Seeds" for Zomtober. Sadly my version will be slightly different to the TV version, as you can probably tell, as it won't be featuring Tom (as "Crooked Dice" don't do a mini of him). But I will be painting a Doctor up, and Liz will be there as well :-)

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  2. Silver Surfer is about to soar out of my monitor screen! Well done on him!

    Those plant beasties look great. Think I saw that Dr Who story on VHS in the early 90's. :)

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    1. Cheers Dai. Its a lovely model and a nice stand which as it utilises a cup and ball means I can reposition the Silver Surfer whenever I want. Sadly as I say I needed to drill through the board to attach it. I've six of the "plant beasties" already based and another two to do... For now at least. "Seeds of Doom" is one of my all-time fave stories, ever since I first saw it on a dodgy-looking TV recording.

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  3. This particular surfer seems remarkably well endowed, Simon, compared to my Heroscape one! Nice job. And a 'Seeds of Doom' inspired Zomtober game? Brilliant idea. Tom Baker was (and still is) MY Doctor. The Black Tree Design 4th Doctor is a pretty good likeness and should you need some more human-sized shamblers, CP Models do a couple of nice ones in their Sci-Fi Aliens range.

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    1. Thanks Jez. I have the "Heroscape" one somewhere myself. Great game but I only played it the once as memory serves? Glad you approve of my theme for "Zomtober". I have the "Black Tree Design" Tom, but for this project I want to try and start clearing my "Crooked Dice game Design Studio" minis first and foremost, so Liz is going to be accompanied by one of their Doctors. I've not looked at "C-P Models" before... OMG!! I can see a huge order coming there soon...

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    2. They do have some rather nice (and reasonably priced) models. I think their Batt-Man (from the fantasy Battle all range) would suit your rooftops of Gotham game. I shall be getting some of their Colonial Scouts to use as crew for a Forbidden Planet themed game I have planned. And a couple of Kappa for more Oriental Fantasy, etc, etc lol

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    3. Stop tempting me Jez. I currently have a plan for 'Zomtober' and 'Movember', and really need to stay focused. If pointing that site out to me is your way of getting revenge upon me for "Nexus Miniatures"... Well its working :-)

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  4. Congrats on painting the Silver Surfer so well. The shading brings out his musculature very well. It would have been so easy and so obvious to just paint him in shiny silver.

    I'm loving your plant zombies. I can remember watching that Doctor Who story when it first aired. Heck, I'm so old I can still remember watching some of the original William Hartnell episodes. I can still recall the episode with the Zarbi and Menoptra in. For some reason it has stuck in my mind.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. The Silver Surfer was an easy one tbh, but did take quite a bit of dry-brushing before I was happy with the shading.

      I hoped you'd like my plant-zombies theme for the next month. It'll also give me the incentive to get my "Zombicide" board up and running, so I can use it for both "Seeds of Doom" and "Marvel Universe". Spookily "The Web Planet" is one of my fave William Hartnell stories, and I have quite a few "Black Tree Design" Zarbi waiting in the wings :-)

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  5. I like the Silver Surfer as well. That sculpt has such clean, elegant lines and looks like it was fun to paint.

    I like the idea for using that series of Doctor Who for your Zombtober. Those zombie plants look really cool. This should prove to be a popular series of post for you.

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    1. Many thanks Anne. I did enjoy painting the Silver Surfer. It was nice not to have to worry about getting the wrong colour paint on other parts of the model :-)

      These days I always try and have a theme or project, otherwise I do find myself starting to leap from genre to genre very quickly, and I do have a number of "Crooked Dice" minis to get through in order to clear some space on my painting table. "Doctor Who" always seems to be a popular choice, so hopefully I'll get plenty of encouragement from people's comments.

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  6. Silver Surfer turned out nicely. :)

    And I am looking forward to seeing your Zomtober output! :)

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    1. Cheers Pulpcitizen and many thanks indeed for putting my blog up on your Zomtober 2015 participants posting. Very much appreciated :-)

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  7. This all sounds delightfully weird and wonderful Simon. Themed Zomtober, a genius idea, especially when it is themed around the one try Doctor! ;)

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    1. Thanks Michael. "Weird and wonderful" are always good in my books!!!

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  8. Silver Surfer looks well.

    Aagh! Must pull me finger out and prep those 10mm zombies today... Still, it won't take that long, and it'll be nice to have something finished for once.

    Then November. Don't know if I've many moustached or bearded models to hand. Maybe some Old West figures.

    Don't know if you're already following this blog, but I spotted another version of the joker with fish (model) that I remember seeing on this blog
    http://natholeonsempires.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-man-who-laughs.html

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    1. Cheers Roy. I'm really looking forward to seeing your 10mm Zeds as I thought the others you did were absolutely jaw-droppingly good. Movember will be "Frostgrave" month for me and a few others, as I try and make some headway through my bearded wizards and warriors before the current Nickstarter ends :-)

      Thanks for the heads up on the Joker. That's a nice conversion of swapping out the goldfish for pistols. Mine should be posted up within the next week or so. But don't expect him to have his eyebrows painted like Natholeons!!!

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  9. At last a character I recognise (the Silver Surfer) hough I can't say I was ever a fan of him. Great paint-job on this figure btw and good luck getting your Zomtober game sorted.

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    1. Thanks Zabadak. Simple but hopefully effective :-) Zomtober should be a very busy month and if I can get a third of what I'm prepping done then I'll be delighted :-)

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  10. Lovely Silver Surfer Bk! Your Zombtober idea sounds very interesting and I'm really looking forward to seeing the results.

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    1. Cheers Bob. Fingers crossed for Zomtober, and hopefully I'll be posting a few things of interest for you over the coming few weeks.

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  11. I'm after a particular Hulk figure too and can see your comments about pricing are justified.

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    1. Thanks Phil. I'm not really a fan of the newer sculpts as they seem so much slighter and smaller in scale than the old ones. But I also don't think their poses etc are as good. Unfortunately this tends to mean trying to pick up the older OOP ones (which comes at a price) and for some reason the more popular characters cost a bit more too - even without the mini being released as an uncommon or rare etc. I have paid a fair bit for a couple of pieces of plastic (e.g. Red Hulk) as I've been so unimpressed with the cheaper variants. But as I say when that happens I visit "Troll & Toad" every time.

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