Tuesday 29 September 2015

"Wh-What Do You Think I Am? Crazy?"

"What are you really scared of Bats? Not being able to save Commissioner Gordon in time?"
This 28mm plastic “Wizkids” model of the Joker is miniature number 97 from the DC Comics “Heroclix” Hypertime range. Apparently created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, this archenemy of Batman made his first comic book appearance in the 1940 opening issue of “Batman” by “DC Comics”.

The model was initially given an undercoat of “Vallejo” Heavy Violet in order to cover-up its pre-paint, before I applied some Heavy Red to the super-villain’s shoes. Both the Clown Prince of Crime’s jacket, trousers and footwear were then washed with “Citadel” Druchi Violet. Once dry I then painted the maniacal mastermind’s waistcoat with “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and “Citadel” Thrakka Green, his bow tie with “Vallejo” Heavy Blue and “Citadel” Asurmen Blue and his flower with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and the “Citadel” glaze Bloodletter. The colourful character’s Jokerfish were simply given a coat of “Vallejo” Heavy Orange and then washed with “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade.
Rage WIP - The Medieval footballer's bloody waist-cloth, white shirt and flesh areas have been finished
 Finally the Joker’s face was initially using “Vallejo” White and treated to a layer of the transparent acrylic “Vallejo” Pale Grey. Unfortunately this technique simply confirmed my fear that the sculpting of the model’s head, whether as a result of an overly thick pre-paint or simply poor casting, was quite hard to discern detail on. For example I couldn’t determine where the figure’s ears actually were, so when I initially painted the psychopath’s famous green hair with “Vallejo” Heavy Grey and “Citadel” Thrakka Green, I had to then paint in a pair of white ears or else he’d have simply had a mop of hair running straight down the sides of his face. The insane killer’s smile was brushed on using a combination of “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.
Re-basing The Undead - Having damaged two of these models' legs I've been busy repainting them as well
 In addition to finishing the “goofy prankster” I have also made some considerable headway with my model of Rage by “Steamforged Games Ltd”. This “Guild Ball” miniature has proved something of a challenge in order to paint his arms and hands as a result of my lazily supergluing his limbs to each side as opposed to spending the time and pinning them.

Finally I’ve rebased, and significantly repainted a few more of my old “Copplestone Castings” zombies; all of which come Code FW4 Plague Zombies, which is part of the company’s Future Wars Range.

24 comments:

  1. Nice stuff as always Simon, That Guildball player is really coming together now and that is a super paintjob on him. You are the king of re-paints and the Joker is another good example of the improvements you can make to heroklikers'

    I do also like your Zom's are you getting in the mood for next month? I think I like Neil from the young ones on the right the best.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. You;re very kind. The Joker was a real pain to paint as there were so many different colours to work out on him, and his face... I can;t tell you how many times I painted that face in order for there to actually be some suggestion of detail on it. Rage is now finished I'm delighted to say, and should be posted next week. Definitely up for Zomtober as I'm just prepping my plant-zombies for Sunday's first posting. I should have at least one finished by then :-) 'Neil' is a cracker with his white y-fronts isn't he?Fortunately he was the one whose paint job didn't come away from the model was I removed them from their original two pence piece bases.

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  2. No smiles on your Joker-fish, Simon? That was always one of my favourite covers, which I think was Brian Bolland, if memory serves me right...
    And if that's Neil to the left, surely that's Mike on the far right? ;-)
    And where's your Devil Dinosaur? I've finished mine and I had to sculpt clothes on mine...
    Joking aside (pun intended) lovely work, as usual.
    Regards Jez

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    1. Cheers Jez. I did consider doing smiles on the Joker fish. But frankly I had such a tough time with the Joker's face that I'd really had enough by then. besides I like the fact your eye is drawn straight to his face :-) Yes it was the Bolland cover to "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told".

      Devil Dinosaur is one the table I assure you. but so are a load of plant-zombies I want to get posted by Sunday for my first Zomtober submission. Yours looks absolutely corking and I'll be sure to post up a link to it, just as soon as mine is done :-)

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  3. Great stuff! Really love your Bill the Butcher!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. 'Bill' is so great a sculpt that he won't just be used for "Guildball" I assure you ;-)

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  4. Much to admire here, Simon. The Joker has turned out so good. He sure does look deranged. I bet you'll be delighted to see Rage leave your painting table. It looks like your perseverance has paid off. My favourites (obviously) are of course, your trio of Copplestone Castings' zombies. Roger's right - that is Neil from the Young Ones! Good call!

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    1. Cheers Bryan. Much appreciated. I was very keen to get the Joker finished so I could use him for 'Gotham City High-Rise' and thanks to you I have some clown henchmen to now paint in order to accompany their clown prince of crime :-) Rage is a solid model and has regenerated some of my enthusiasm for this range after the Blackheart saga. Thought you'd like the zombies, and there's plenty more zedness (with leaves) coming over the next month :-)

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  5. The Joker is done! I'm glad I decided to pop in this week to do some blog reading so I could see it. You do a bang up job with these re-paints.

    The skin tones and especially the whites on Rage are fantastic. I'm lousy at white and still don't have a proper method for being consistent with it.

    I'm not going to be posting for a while yet, but I wanted to take time to visit with people. I may not have time to read blogs for another two weeks so I will miss some of your posts.

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    1. Many thanks indeed Anne. Joker was a bit of a chore at the end tbh. But I'm happy with the way he's turned out. I must confess the "Vallejo" Pale Grey wash really helps with white, as those areas simply need highlighting with more white once its dry, so Rage was pretty easy in some ways. I appreciate life gets in the way of this hobby, so I hope the next fortnight goes well :-)

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  6. More nice stuff, especially the progress on the GB player. :)

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    1. Cheers PulpCitizen. I must confess to being rather re-enthused with my "Guild Ball" miniatures now I've almost finished Rage.

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  7. Ah, the Joker - a true psychotic monster, if ever there was one! I'll be rooting for whoever is on the other side :-) ...

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    1. Thanks C6. I'm hoping to feature the Joker in a BatRep real soon :-)

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  8. Great selection of figures; for some reason the Joker reminds me of the puppet thing in the film "Saw".

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    1. Cheers Zabadak. Much appreciated. I guess the Joker and Billy the Puppet do look alike what with their white faces and red lips.

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  9. Nice Joker Bk! Your Butcher figure is progressing beautifully. You just know that the zombies are going to be my favourite, they really are very nice. Great job all round dude.

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    1. Many thanks Bob. I knew the Zeds would be a favourite of yours :-) Joker has come out well and I must say, having now flocked my butcher, he's turned out very nicely too. I'm really pleased with the zeds though as two of them needed some serious repaints and I no longer own any of the paints I originally used on them, so had to find alternative colours which matched.

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  10. Joker is a classic! Fish for guns...

    Guildball fellow is really coming along nicely. Love the stained sash - nice touch.

    It is Zeds season. I need to paint some up as well.

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    1. Cheers Dai. It'll be good to get the Joker on the tabletop after almost a year languishing on my painting table, and a similar story for Rage - though he's only been a few months tbh. It is indeed Zed Season, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of your Zombie-related goodness over the next few weeks :-)

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  11. Nice work. The fish really suit the quirky Joker. I always thought he had something of a 'cod' complex.

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    1. Thanks Natholeon :-) As I say he was actually a bit frustrating to paint on account of the soft-sculpt, so just as soon as his face was finished he was varnished and done.

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  12. Nice work Simon. I really like the guild ball figure if I was still doing EotD he'd make a good villainous character. Nice work with the rebasing I know what a chore it can be like sometimes.

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    1. Cheers Simon. I've still a huge box of EoTD to paint at some point. But there's just so much else out there at the moment. This round of re-basing has certainly been challenging my friend, as I somehow managed to strip away a lot of paint from their feet and legs when I was removing them from their 2p bases - both needed some time-consuming re-paints as a result.

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