Tuesday 8 January 2019

"Not Daredevil, Clown -- But The Black Widow!"

"Now, all I need to do is wait -- Wait for my prey!"
This 28mm tall plastic “Wizkids” model of the Black Widow is miniature number 057 from the Clobberin Marvel "Heroclix" range, and depicts Natalia Alianovna Romanova "during her romantic involvement with Matt Murdock in San Francisco", when she was operating "as an independent superhero" alongside Daredevil. An "Expert tactician, hand-to-hand combatant and secret agent", the Avenger was created by Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck for the April 1964 issue of "Marvel Comics" "Tales of Suspense".

Having been removed from her 'clicky-base' and super-glued on to a 25mm circular stand, the former Russian spy was primed using two coats of "Citadel" Abaddon Black and heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal so I could make out the sculpt's details. I then considered whether to follow the pre-painted miniature's palette of her wearing a dark blue costume (as depicted in the Seventies comic books) or stick with her more modern-day all-black attire.
"Star Wars: Legion" WIPs - General Veers' AT-AT Commander's chest plate has undergone a re-paint
After applying a "Citadel" Nuln Oil wash over 'Natasha', I settled with the darker colour scheme, and layered both the super-heroine's chain belt and wrist shooters with "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna" before applying a combination of Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to them. As a final step I painted the Black Widow's famous red hair using "Vallejo" Heavy Red, shaded it with a splash of "Citadel" Nuln Oil" and later dry-brushed it with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red.

With my latest "Heroclix" figure finished, I have once again turned my attention upon my collection of partially-painted "Star Wars" miniatures by "Fantasy Flight Games", and continued pigmenting the Minnesota-based manufacturer's "Star Wars: Legion" model of General Veers. I thought this Commander Expansion would provide the perfect Imperial leader for a Scout Trooper unit with which to bitterly oppose my current Wookie Warriors.
"Star Wars: Legion" WIPs - The three Wookie Warriors are slowly getting all their details 'picked out'
Unfortunately, I wasn't that happy with how his initial all-grey look turned out, especially the AT-AT Commander's disconcertingly dark grey chest plate. Luckily, having done some research on the Galactic Empire's Imperial Army human officer I spotted several costume photographs, as well as completed models, which depicted the armour as being a somewhat striking green. So I have decided to try and imitate that colour scheme instead.

Lastly, I have been slowly picking out a plethora of pouches, pockets, ammunition belts, braid bands, buckles, shoulder-pads, hand-blasters, leather straps and bladed weapons on my remaining Kashyyyk killers. Slightly frustratingly, the furry wookies continue to 'produce' details which I haven't actually spotted until after I've started shading in all their fiddly pieces of equipment. But hopefully shouldn't take took much longer to complete before being submitted into the Ninth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

20 comments:

  1. Nice job on Black Widow. General Veers and the Wookies are all making good porgress :D

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    1. Thanks very much Simon. All are actually finished now, as I'm a bit behind with my postings due to the AHPC. Hoping to have Punchline up soon though ;-)

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  2. I also own that figure of Black Widow. It's such an old figure that I thought you'd have one of the newer versions of her. Either way, it was nice to see you showcasing her.
    Good work on your Star Wars figures - they're coming along nicely.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I must prefer the older sculpts and this one is quite a bit larger than the more slender modern-day figures. The pre-paint is of course a bit slopped on but not so thick that I thought the mini was unsalvageable. All the "Star Wars" stuff is now finished, and should be posted up soon :-)

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  3. Great looking Black Widow Simon, good progress on the Star Wars mini's, I've seen a few different colour chest plates on Veers and several different reference colours due to contrast on the pictures, so as long as your happy that's what counts

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    1. Thanks Dave. I’m really happy with the finished Veers tbh, as the green really breaks up his otherwise monotonous all-grey colour scheme. I have seen some all-green ones though, and am pleased I didn’t entirely go down that line. Hopefully I can find a space to post the finished Veers up over the next couple of weeks :-)

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  4. Good progress on the Star Wars stuff. Having looked up Veers his colour scheme is quite varied so you must go with what looks best for the mini. I think green will turn out nicely, can't wait to see the finished result. Nice take on Black Widow too.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I’m getting through quite a few minis presently, so have already completed all those shown here. My big problem now is finding the time to post them. LOL!!!

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  5. Great to see more Legion stuff underway, it is helping to keep me motivated.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Motivation is one of the main reasons behind this blog - both for me, and whenever possible, others too!! I’d blame Dave Stone’s blog postings for the “Star Wars” interest though - he’s completely side-tracked my “LoTR” stuff for this month!! LOL!!! :-)

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    2. I've got broad shoulders, I can take it ! ROFL Now what can I find in my pile to throw a real curve ball into the mix ! LOL

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    3. Don't you dare, Dave. I was soooo close to opening up a box of "Warlord Games" Brit-Cit judges earlier this week because of your masterclass in all the different judges across the world!! LOL :-)

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    4. Would like to get some more Brit Cit judges at some point, and bikes for them would be awesome ! as would bikes for all the different judges, oh and Pan African Judges would be awesome, that's my wish list over, back to the pile ! LOL

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    5. Yep. I was really pleased with the Brit-Cit boxed set, as it comes with a Detective too. I think such boxed sets would really sell well and am surprised "Warlord Games" don't produce such boxes now tbh. I suppose it wouldn't be too distracting to quickly base them up and give them a lick of paint... ;-)

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    6. Resist Simon, more distractions will happen across all the blogs you follow ! LOL

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    7. That is definitely my problem, Dave LOL!! :-)

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  6. Her beckgrond is lost on me (of course), but you've done a great job painting her, black being one of the most difficult colours to pull off.

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    1. Cheers Joe, much appreciated. Having seen her pre-paint job, I'm really pleased with how the Black Widow has turned out.

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