"Muscle! Plenty Of Muscle! I'm Iron!"

"Doc --? Is this the way a robot's supposed to act?"

These three 28mm pre-painted plastic models of Iron, Gold and Mercury are by “Wizkids” and can be bought as numbers 015, 009 and 008 respectively from the toy company's “Heroclix” DC Comics: Crisis range. Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru in March 1962 these characters form part of the superhero group The Metal Men and made their first appearance 'as a last minute filler' in Issue Thirty Seven of "Showcase"; a comic anthology series published by "DC Comics".

Built by Doctor William Magnus, these three "advanced artificially intelligent robots" each have an individual personality which mirrors their namesake metals. As a result Iron is super strong, Gold can stretch his form almost infinitely and acts as field leader. Whilst hot-headed Mercury can "melt and pass through small spaces before reforming."

"What kind of robots are you? Speaking of emotions as if you were real people!"

Understandably each miniature was very straightforward to finish on account of their monotone colour scheme. To begin with the models were undercoated with either "Vallejo" Gunmetal Grey, "Gold" or "Heavy Red". They were then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil, “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade or "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. Before finally being dry-brushed with more of their base colour.

Disappointingly Gold's thick pre-paint job did produce a somewhat unsatisfactory result using this technique on account of the figure's soft detail. Indeed there was a marked difference with the quality of the "Wizkids" sculpt to that of the infinitely superior See-Threepio plastic miniature by "Fantasy Flight" I recently painted in precisely the same manner.

In addition to progressing this enduring "DC Comics" Silver Age super-team I have also been working on some other "Heroclix" forces of justice for my "Cosmic Cube Wars" mass super-hero battles project. The first of these is an incredibly animated Spider-Man model, who will hopefully start leading a unit of Spider-friends known as the Outlaws (such as the Sandman, the Prowler and the Rocket Racer) when I've adapted some "Age Of Sigmar" rules for him.

"Heroclix" WIPs - Spider-Man, Gotham City Police Department officer and Charcoal

I have also based and primed three more Gotham City Police Department officers which I plan to use as standard law enforcement miniatures for my games. I have already previously painted up a few of these, but want to be able to field quite a few of them so they can be lead by the likes of Commissioner Gordon as well as Superman and Daredevil.

Lastly I have been rummaging through my "Wizkids" collection for any appropriate "Marvel Comics Group" villains turned heroes who joined the Thunderbolts; a group of super-powered criminals lead by Hawkeye who have supposedly turned over a new leaf. One such character is the fan-created Charcoal, the Burning Man. Capable of flight in a fiery form or transforming himself into diamond, the former member of the Bruiser Brigade had a short-lived publication life on account of copyright/ownership issues.