Friday 1 June 2018

(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Forgotten Heroes" June 2018

"Heroclix" Solomon Grundy WIPs - The undead criminal is to be turned into five ice zombies
This month's randomly themed attempt to try and reduce my sadly 'significantly increasing' collection of metal, plastic and resin miniatures has been put on the back burner as a result of the announcement by Dick Garrison and Carrion Crow that "Forgotten Heroes" is back for another year. Collated on the 'official' "Forgotten Heroes" website, this wonderful challenge specifically encourages bloggers to create/convert "an existing figure into a costumed superhero or villain" of their choice, "from any source (be that Comic’s, TV, Film, Adverts, Toy lines, Novels basically anywhere you can think of)."

Previously, I have rather naively attempted to complete a considerable number of conversions for "Forgotten Heroes", many of which have rather embarrassingly taken several months longer to finish than I had initially anticipated. This time round however, I'm sticking to five relatively straightforward figures, which after a bit of cutting, will rely solely upon their paint-jobs in order to change their appearance rather than heavily rely upon my usual 'spot of kit-bashing'.
Volturnos WIP - The High King Of The Deep has been assembled and primed "Vallejo" Black
With this in mind I have turned to arguably my favourite "DC Comics" publication, the February 1979 edition of "Batman", and hope to create the band of hulking mindless ice zombies Victor Fries mistakenly creates for himself as a result of his failed experiments to make some of Gotham City's richest inhabitants immortal. Currently my "Heroclix" crew for Mister Freeze only consists of a gang of bobble-hat wearing goons, so these brutishly heavy minions will help provide the "former cryogenics expert" with a bit of extra muscle.

Having done a bit of research I've chosen five Solomon Grundy miniatures from "Wizkids" "Arkham Asylum" range for this project, as the lumbering slow-minded revenant is the perfect sculpt to replicate the wealthy suit-wearing cryogenic rejects. Initially, I actually considered leaving the gnarled branch the figure was carrying in one of his hands, and converting it with a sharp modelling knife into a menacing-looking icicle. But in the end I just cut the wooden weapon off, leaving the menacing model with two closed fists instead; besides the frosted fiends didn't use any weapons in their comic book appearance.
Akhelian King WIPs - The multi-part plastic miniature will lead an Idoneth Deepkin host
In addition to "Forgotten Heroes", this month also sees the start of a much longer-term project collecting, building and painting an Idoneth Deepkin force for "Age Of Sigmar". These marvellously marine-based "Games Workshop" miniatures have really captured my imagination with their turtle-riding tanks, shark-riders and tentacled spell-casters, so I plan to construct at least 1,000 points worth of units during the summer.

To begin with, I have patiently assembled the army's leader, their Akhelian King, Volturnos - High King of the Deep and his serpentine mount. This massive, multi-part plastic kit actually costs over a quarter of my host's in-game costs alone, so I'm currently planning on only needing four-five other units, including some mandatory battle-line, before my force is complete...

24 comments:

  1. I love the sound of your Forgotten Heroes entries Simon, ice zombies - now that's a bit different. Best of luck.

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    1. Thanks Michael. I actually planned on doing the ice zombies last year, but soon realised I'd already bitten off more than I could chew. This year they should be perfectly doable though.

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  2. Sounds like you have a winning plan for this years Forgotten Heroes Simon, not trying to take on too much. The high king model has a lot of detail to it and may take a quarter of your time as well as points to paint, look forward to seeing how you progress with it

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    1. Cheers Dave. Painting something simple and complicated simultaneously seems to be a winning combination for me currently, so my fingers are crossed. I'm not planning anything too fancy on the Sea Aelf, so hopefully it won't be too time consuming to paint.

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  3. I look forward to seeing your ice zombies, Simon. Just when I thought I'd seen every kind of zombie imaginable along you come with something different. :-)
    As for your fish elves, I do wonder what they taste like with a big bag of chips and plenty of salt and vinegar!

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    1. LOL Bryan :-) Mister Freeze's ice zombies were awesome in "Batman #308", so hopefully I replicate them in the flesh (as it were). The Sea Aelves do seem to have generated a real Bovril feeling amongst gamers. I love 'em, especially as I plan to use Medusai and perhaps Sylvaneth as their allies as some point.

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  4. Good luck Simon, these look to be fun additions to you collection, I re-posted this to the FH site.

    Cheers Roger (who apparently would prefer to remain anonymous!!)

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    1. LOL Roger. Many thanks indeed, the "Forgotten Heroes" site is looking good :-)

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  5. Well your superb comic book history has come up trumps for the Forgotten Heroes project, very interesting and inspired choice. I guess Mr Freeze has frozen out those Wild West Exodus aliens you teased us with for another time!! You must keep us updated with other ongoing projects too as I am keen to see your Burrows and Badgers force all together as well as a group shot of your Boromites. You have so much on the go you must be exhausted! And then the sea selves appear! Well I adore the models and that chap on his fish unicorn horse thingy looks ace! Can't wait to see him done! I thinks will be an amazing centre piece.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I've had the Solomon Grundy minis ready since last year's "Forgotten Heroes", so have been itching for this month's "Forgotten heroes" Challenge. I have a couple more "Wild West Exodus" minis to assemble, so expect a themed month next time round.

      I've still a few "Burrows & Badgers" postings left to do, so expect them soon, as well as the Boromites, and Monday will see the final "Shadespire" Blood Reaver posted - with a group shot!! As for the Sea Aelves, well here's hoping I find the time to make some progress on the brute at some point this month. Priorities... priorities...

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  6. I share your pain! I have so much stuff to paint it is ridiculous and then companies just keep uping their game with new stuff! GW and the new Age of Sigmar stuff, new Guildball teams, new Antares stuff, Konflikt 47, Wild West Exodus looks awesome and of course the amazing Star Wars Legion!! There's so much good stuff out there.

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    1. Indeed, 2018 genuinely looks like a golden age for "Games Works" releases, and then as you say there are some corking new "Beyond The Gates Of Antares", "Konflikt '47" and "Wild West Exodus" releases. Plus I'm really tempted by a few of those "Star Wars Legion" singles too!!

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  7. Crikey that SeaElf model looks really complicated! Good luck (he says reaching for yet another simple Talisman playing piece!)

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    1. Cheers Andy. The High King took two hours to assemble alone, not counting another couple of hours basing and priming. That's a lot of work as I could easily have painted another "Burrows & Badgers" mini in that time.

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  8. Ah, more minions for Mr. Freeze... an interesting choice and one I'm not familar with (for a change). Should be interesting to see how they turn out.

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    1. Thanks Jez. I'm really looking forward to seeing how your Rom-Space Knight turns out for "Forgotten Heroes"; especially having painted up a few dire wraiths in my time.

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  9. Good idea for your ice zombies, the sea elf looks complicated!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain. I'm hoping to get the ice zombies finished quite quickly, and then focus on the Sea Aelf.

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  10. Ice Zeds is a great idea!

    Thats one of the few sea elf models i actually like in their range. Goodness though, I'm not so sure how you plan to tackle such a complicated looking sculpt?

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    1. Thanks Dai. Hopefully the ice zombies will turn out okay. The Solomon Grundy "Heroclix" sculpts are great imho. As I don't use/own an air-brush, I'll be keeping things very simple on the Sea Aelf, relying upon simple block colours and dry-brushing.

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  11. A lot of interesting stuff to look forward to there and not bunny or burrow in sight!

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    1. Cheers Joe. Don't worry, there's plenty more "Burrows & Badgers" stuff to come yet ;-)

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  12. Some inspired thinking behind your Forgotten Heroes choice Simon, and I'm looking forward to seeing them - the Sea Aelf leader looks a mighty impressive model!

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    1. Thanks Greg. I’m hoping the ice zombies will be fairly straightforward “Forgotten Heroes” now I’ve cut away their hand-weapons and re-based them. The Sea Aelf will take some work... but I’m hoping to get it done with some simple techniques.

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