"I'm A Part Of The New Frightful Four!"

"I'm not taking a back seat to anybody in this group!"

This 50mm tall plastic “Wizkids” model of Hydro Man is miniature number 012 from the Sinister Marvel "Heroclix" range and is based upon the water manipulator who formed part of "the antithesis to the Fantastic Four", the Frightful Four. Transformed into a "man-of-water" when he was accidentally immersed "in a deep ocean dwelling bacteria" and exposed to an unknown radiation, Morris "Morrie" Bench's villainous alter-ego was created by Dennis O'Neil and artist John Romita Junior for the January 1981 issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man".

"Able to bodily transform himself into a watery liquid substance", the former the U.S.S. Bulldog crewman was initially primed with two coats of "Vallejo" Dark Blue so as to 'mask' its transparent, blue-coloured plastic and washed with "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade. The "typical low rent super criminal" machine was then dry-brushed using several more applications of "Vallejo" Dark Blue, with each one having a little more "Vallejo" Dead White added to the mix.

"Heroclix" Solomon Grundy WIPs - The undead criminal is slowly being transformed into a horde of ice zombies

As a last touch to Hydro Man's arms and lower torso, I applied a second, final wash of "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade over the areas and lightly dry-brushed the cusps/ridges of the waves with some extra "Vallejo" Dead White. In addition, I applied two coats of "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the supposed expert street fighter's body and a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to his hair.

Sticking with "Heroclix" I am currently making some slow progress on my test piece for this year's "Forgotten Heroes" challenge, as organised by Dick Garrison and Carrion Crow. Having already done a fair bit of chopping on the five Solomon Grundy "Wizkids" miniatures I aim to 'convert' into some ice zombies for Mister Freeze to use as mindless minions (as per the plot to the February 1979 edition of "Batman" by "DC Comics", I'm now just slowly 'picking out all the "Vallejo" Dead White flesh on the frozen corpses...

"Scarlet Midget" Cosplay Starship Crew WIPs - The four miniatures have simply been primed

Having received a much-anticipated white cardboard package through the post yesterday, I have also added a few more miniatures to my painting queue which will undoubtedly work their way up through my queue in ultra-fast time. Previously produced by "Y.F.T. Design" as part of their "Nexus Miniatures" range, these models from the Perkūnas Mining Corporation "Scarlet Midget" Cosplay Starship Crew are already out of production, but once finished should provide me with some science fiction-based "character-driven comedy" tabletop action.

I've actually managed to 'track down' the entire discontinued range, so expect to see future postings featuring Krissy-K, Rocky, Wildfire, Aunt Petunia, N.O.R.M. and Sputter-bots, as well as an alternative Charley. For now though, I'm working on Barry, Felix, Charley, Kry-10 and a fair few lazookas...