"The Only Bear On The C.I.A. Death List!"

"Shako! The Eskimo word for Great White Bear. It means simply... Killer!"

This 28mm sized metal Polar Bear is produced by "Copplestone Castings" under Code PolEx011, and comes from their Polar Perils High Adventure range. An impressive 60mm in length, I immediately thought the animal was reminiscent of the 'Ursus maritimus' "who unwisely swallowed a capsule containing a secret government-created germ warfare culture, thinking it was a tin of food, and became a target of the CIA agents based at Ice Station Delta" in the Late Seventies "2000 A.D. comic book strip "Shako".

The hefty animal was initially primed with "Vallejo" Dead White and shaded with some "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. It was then dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Dead White before being sporadically washed with some heavily-watered down Iraqi Sand. Finally, the beast was given a third and final dry-brush of Dead White and had his claws, nose and eyes simply 'picked out' with "Citadel" Abaddon Black.

"Your curiosity will cost you dear, Human."

In addition to Pat Mills' savagely brutal co-creation, who I also plan to utilise as a fearsome addition to my frosty "Gotham" crew for Mister Freeze, I have also completed painting a 31mm tall plastic "Wizkids" Dire Wraith Queen. This green-hued extra-terrestrial can be bought as number 010b from the "Marvel" Guardians Of The Galaxy "Heroclix" range and is destined to lead my previously finished band of sorcerous shape-shifters.

Created by Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom for the December 1979 issue of "Rom", the Skrullian deviant was undercoated with two layers of "Vallejo" Heavy Green and heavily washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. She was then dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Heavy Green before having her eyes 'picked out' with a tiny dollop of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre. As I wanted the super-strong sorcerers' pupils to particularly stand out, I didn't bother shading them, and instead simply tidied their edges up with some additional "Citadel" Abaddon Black.

Putrid Blightking WIPs - The two boil-covered armoured warriors are half-way finished

Lastly I have made some significant progress on my final two "Age Of Sigmar" Putrid Blightkings. This pair are all I need to field a five-strong unit of the "enormous, bloated warriors" for my 1,000 point Nurgle Host, but are proving rather time-consuming on account of each sculpts incredible detail; whether it be simply the amount of pustules and boils littering their bare flesh, or the number of decaying skulls tied about their plate armour.

Fortunately, my enthusiasm for this "Games Workshop" fantasy rule-set is currently riding rather high on account of the Nottingham-based company finally revealing their latest faction for the game, the Idoneth Deepkin. These Sea Elves look tremendous, with "colossal sea beasts", "living tidal waves", and "predatory shoals of fish", as well as "Aelves riding sharks and giant turtles with bolt throwers" too. Marvellous stuff...