Monday 14 October 2019

"Wings Away -- !"

"Never thought my Beast Boy talents would earn me a leading role..."
This 28mm scale figure of a Hawk is one of the eleven multi-part resin miniatures which can be found inside the Teen Titans Bat-Box for the "Batman Miniatures Game" by "Knight Models", and represents the superhero Garfield Logan in his bird of prey form. "A shapeshifter who possesses the ability to metamorph into any animal he chooses, Beast Boy first appearing in the November 1965 issue of "The Doom Patrol" by "DC Comics", but was then later re-invented by Marv Wolfman and artist George PĂ©rez into the Changeling for the October 1980 issue of "DC Comics Presents".

The large bird came in two pieces, yet still proved something of a problem to prepare for priming, courtesy of the resin resisting all efforts to super-glue itself together. In the end I was therefore frustratingly forced to pin the model's tail feathers to the 'puff of cloud' created by Logan's transformation. Disconcertingly, I also had a bit of a nightmare attaching the miniature to its correct cobble stone street base too.
Teen Titans WIPs - Dove, Beast Boy and Raven
As the Bat-Box "contains a complete Teen Titans team" I foolishly assumed that despite the sculpt's impressive wing-span that it would sit upon one of the numerous 30mm bases supplied in the 350 reputation points starter set. However, after green-stuffing the "able hunter" onto just such a sized stand, I built a few more of the box's contents and quickly discovered that none of the much larger human heroes, including a couple which surprisingly stood upon significant pieces of rooftop, were supposed to use the (spare) 40mm lipped base I had mistakenly set aside for one of them...

Fortunately, once Beast Boy's Hawk Form had been re-based, the bird was a straightforward pleasure to paint. It was undercoated using a double-layer of "Vallejo" Heavy Green, drowned with "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green, and heavily dry-brushed with some (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Green. Lastly, I applied a couple of dots of "Citadel" Abaddon Black for the creature's eyes.
"Black Tree Design" WIPs - The Monoids just need some shading and their cyclopean eyes 'spotted' 
Over the past few years whenever I have found myself planning a foray into the wargaming world of "Doctor Who", it has been courtesy of the "Warlord Games" miniatures range. But over the past ten months the Nottingham-based company has been disappointingly quiet with their releases for the "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" rule-set. Most recently they have sadly announced on their "Facebook" Group" that "the Doctor Who releases have been placed on the back burner for the time being" due to their staff focusing on such projects as "the launch of our Dredd range."

This demoralising situation has inevitably lead to me turning my attention back to my quite embarrassingly large "Black Tree Design" backlog, and the arrival of a (perhaps final) order made in July has caused me to start slowly making my way through some of their more simple-to-pigment figures. This pair of predominantly green Monoids is a good case in point, as the cyclopean duo are already almost finished having just been primed, shaded and dry-brushed...

14 comments:

  1. I do like the look of Dove and Raven. But the others - meh! I'm actually glad that Warlord Games are holding back on their Doctor Who range to concentrate on Judge Dredd. Note the Strontium Dogs range has slowed down to a full stop. Coincidence? I think not. By adopting this strategy, collectors of all three ranges, like myself, will be able to spread the cost of their purchases instead of being inundated with too many figures at once. Your mileage may differ. :-)

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    1. I'd actually be surprised if there are any more new "Strontium Dog" releases tbh, Bryan, as I thought their roster was pretty well-covered. Albeit I do hope I'm wrong as I'd love to redo "The Killing" on the tabletop.

      As for "Doctor Who", I don't think I'd have minded too much if they hadn't been teasing me with UNIT and Yeti pictures for the past six months.

      I entirely agree about being inundated though, so in that sense it is a good thing. It'll be interesting to see just how large the "Judge Dredd" first wave releases are, and what it is on the horizon for its second wave.

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  2. Those superhero poses look awesome Simon.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Its not the minis' poses which bother me so much, but rather their thinness and ultra-lightweight material.

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  3. Great work on the hawk Simon, the other titans are progressing nicely, and shouldn't take you long on the monoids

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    1. Cheers Dave. I really like the Monoids, sad I know, so they've raced right up my painting queue as a result.

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  4. I don't think I'm a fan of beast-boy and the sculpt of him doesn;t inspire (unlike Dove and Raven), but his "Hawk" incarnation is an excellent model.
    The "Monoids" just make me lauigh - typical Dr. Who critter - but none the worse for that.
    You shoul dbe please imo that despite the Warlord Dr. Who range being 'shekved' there is still a lot out there of interest and your lead pile could benefit.

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    1. They are, aren't they? Classic Who aliens that are obviously cobbled together by a no-budget props department. But loveable anyway :D

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    2. Thanks Joe. I think the Hawk Form of Beast Boy is a little softly-detailed myself, but its far better than his human form, imho.

      I'm afraid that there's little chance of me not finding something out there to interest me in our current hobby world - there's so many awesome minis/ranges available, LOL!!!

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    3. If I could draw your attention to the culminating Monoid Civil War scene at the end of "The Ark", Allison, you'll hopefully both see why the Monoids are one of my favourite First Doctor villains - awesome stuff!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfkSAwR6KIs&t=66s

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  5. I like the green bird, looks good and fits well with the ape you did previously. I must admit to really liking Knight Models sculpts and think all 3 of those you show look ace. Just to throw my two penneth into the Dr Who minis debate, my thoughts are if you don't have regular releases people lose interest and move on.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I'm slowly making my way through the Teen Titans. I entirely agree about the "Doctor Who" minis, which is why I think I've returned to "Black Tree Design" so as to 'plug some gaps' in my collection. Of course, poor service verses non-regular releases is a frustrating conundrum in its own right ;-)

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  6. Nice work on his bird version. The other titans will look great when done.

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    1. Thanks Simon. Simple stuff on the Hawk... the other "Knight Models" will be much harder to paint. LOL!!

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