Tuesday 6 February 2018

"Hear Me, Odin!!"

"The stakes of thy tournament have been raised!"
This 47mm tall plastic “Wizkids” model of the Destroyer is miniature number 041a from the Mighty Thor Marvel "Heroclix" range and is based upon the "suit of Asgardian armor animated by magic" which predominantly acts an opponent of the Thunder God, Thor. Created by Stan Lee and Jack "King" Kirby, the suit was forged "of an unknown metal and enchanted to be more durable than Uru" by Odin. It made its first comic book appearance in the July 1965 issue of "Journey Into Mystery".

"First seen residing in the Temple of Darkness in Asia" the "practically invulnerable" figure was originally undercoated with "Citadel" Ironbreaker and washed with Nuln Oil. The armour was then dry-brushed using some more Ironbreaker (which had a little hint of "Vallejo" Gold added to the mix). Finally some Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter" was dabbed across the suit's visor area in order to suggest the tremendous energy contained inside.
Invisible Girl, Hydro-Man and Black Mask WIPs - The models are in various stages of painting
Sticking with "Heroclix", I have made some more progress on a few other partially-painted "Wizkid" miniatures I own. I was actually hoping to have finished my old model of Invisible Girl and thus completed the Fantastic Four's original quartet. But disconcertingly, I have found that my recipe for the dark blue costume I pigmented her husband, Mister Fantastic, in was not correctly recorded. As a result, I am having to experiment a little with different washes of "Citadel" Nuln Oil and Drakenhof Nightshade in order to find a similar 'fit'.

Finding the right mix of blue for Hydro-Man has not proved so difficult fortunately, as I've been progressively dry-brushing the Frightful Four member with ever lighter shades of "Vallejo" Turquoise, and subsequently blended all the colours together with an application of "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade. One of Spider-Man's arch-villains, the criminal now only needs for his shirt and face to be 'picked out' before being ready for the tabletop. 
Garreck's Reavers WIPs - The two warriors are slowly being painted from their feet up
Ordinarily I don't like to keep my "Heroclix" miniatures on their bases, even when they're rather elaborately made. However, in Black Mask's case I've made an exception, as I both love the look of the rusty metal pier the gangster is standing on and saw it as an excellent opportunity to once again use some "Mig Productions" Extreme Rust Wash on a figure. I'm hoping the silver and orange will quite nicely contrast with the all-black attire of the "DC Comics" kingpin.

Finally, with an eye of establishing an "Age Of Sigmar" Khorne army which could one day rival my Tallyband of Nurgle, I have spent a little time making completing some minor areas on a couple of "Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire" Bloodreavers. These two members of Garrek's Reavers can delightfully be used within both "Games Workshop" rule-sets, and I'm hoping their completion will spur me on to instigate some further battles between the Plague God and Blood God...

26 comments:

  1. Destroyer is a really cool miniature Simon!

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    1. Thanks Andy. Nice straightforward paint-job too. Always a pleasure getting these sorts of guys finished.

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  2. Nice job on the destroyer it's a cool looking villain. I am not to familiar with Thor and only have the movie to go by. Does he fight the Destroyer often?

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    1. Cheers Simon. Yeah, Thor has been battling the Destroyer for over forty years, and may well have even worn the suit at one point - as memory serves.

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  3. "The Gods are fickle!" So probably will not answer. For my 2 peneth though I al looking forward to seeing the 5th figure (with bloody great AXE) as I like the pose.

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    1. Garrek's Reavers make a nice little unit for "Age Of Sigmar" Clint, so I'm hoping to get them finished soon myself, and the axeman should be the first of Garrek's warriors to be finished.

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  4. Nice job on the Destroyer Simon, the other characters from Wizkids are progressing nicely, and nice start on the Reavers

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    1. Thanks Dave. Plenty of minis on the go presently, as I'm starting to develop a bit of a backlog of finished minis to post - always a nice problem to have.

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    1. Cheers Dave. Always pleased to see a fellow historical gamer comment on my blog ;-)

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  6. It is always a pleasure to see more Heroclix figures getting painted. Destroyer has turned out so well.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I've a bit of a glut of "Heroclix" minis to post over the next few weeks, so plenty more to come :-)

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  7. I really like the destroyer figure. I'm not very into Marvel -Lore but the Black Mask looks like the Red Skull.

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    1. Cheers Phil. The Black Mask is one of Batman's Rogue Gallery, so is a "DC Comics" villain, but his similarities to Red Skull are very clear. Spookily, I'm currently reading/reviewing "U.S. Avengers" on my comic book blog, and their arch-foe is called Golden Skull - who looks a lot like Black Mask..?

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    2. Clear as mud..... We need a Zirk figure.

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  8. You're certainly on a roll Simon - and even though the "Marvel" genre goes straight over my head, I can still appreciate the quality of the sculpts and your brushwork :-)
    Good call on keeping the base detail for 'The Black Mask', it should look mighty impressive when you've done!

    Oh, and "Blood For The Blood God!" ;-)

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    1. Thanks Greg, much appreciated. I think the Black Mask will prove quite the stand-out mini on the tabletop when he's finished. And very much "Blood for the Blood God!" :-)

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  9. At 47mm tall "Destroyer" must dwarf most of the other super heroes - he does look great too.

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    1. Cheers Joe. The Destroyer is quite the size. I'm hoping to get some super-hero BatReps up soon which should showcase just how big some of these "Heroclix" minis are :-)

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  10. The Destroyer is certainly an iconic character and was well-utilsed in the movie. Nice work on him (it?) And you're progressing well with your other 'clix figures.

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    1. Thanks Jez. It'd be nice to get some of these paint-jobs on the tabletop in the near future and post some super-hero action :-)

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  11. Nice work on the Destroyer BK. :)

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  12. Good metallic effect on the Destroyer - I remember him from the Thor film! Glad to see Garreck's Reavers on the paint table as they look like cracking models and the added bonus is they are usable in Shadespire and Age of Sigmar. Can't wait to see the whole group done.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. The Destroyer is one of the best "Heroclix" sculpts I've encountered for a while.

      "Can't wait to see the whole group done." - neither can I as there's a lot of painting to be done before that happens!!

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