"Those Blasted Rays Made Him Stronger Than Me!”

"He tossed me like I was nuthin'!!"

These two 28mm scale plastic “Wizkids” models of Mikhlo the gorilla and Peotr the orangutan are miniatures number 020 and 021 from the "Marvel" Supernova "Heroclix" range, and represent two of the Red Ghost’s three trained primates created by Stan Lee and Jack “King” Kirby for the April 1963 issue of “Fantastic Four”. However, the actual figures were mistakenly attached to the wrong bases when first released, and are disappointingly, significantly under-sized considering that they were both heavily exposed to the self-same cosmic rays which gave Reed Richards’ team their super-powers.

Indeed, Mikhlo’s superhuman strength supposedly “makes him roughly the equal of the Thing”, and this “has continued to increase over the years, such that he can probably now lift (press) roughly eighty-five tons." Whilst Peotr “possesses the ability to project magnetic forces, enabling him to attract or repel objects containing iron or steel”, and can assist in both “lab work and in operating spaceships.”

"You dare think you can stop the communist march of conquest!?!!"

Having removed the duo from their erroneous ‘clicky-bases’ and super-glued them onto 25mm circular stands, I primed Peotr with “Citadel” Doombull Brown and Mikhlo with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna. At one stage I did consider re-painting the lowland gorilla black so it was closer to the stereotypical image of a silverback I picture in my mind’s eye, but having looked at the original character’s early comic book palette I decided to leave well enough alone.

Both models were then thoroughly drenched in “The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, before being roughly dry-brushed with (more) “Citadel Doombull Brown” and “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna respectively. As a final touch touch I dabbed a little “Citadel” Abaddon Black into the eye sockets of the two villains, and subsequently tidied these areas up with a line or two of their appropriate base colours.

"Wizkids" WIPs - The Red Hulk, Metallo and the Crimson Dynamo

Sticking with "Wizkids" I have dusted down a few more long-forgotten "Heroclix" figures in an effort to clear my painting queue of some of its larger models. All three of these miniatures rest upon 40mm circular bases and represent foes taken from the comic book pages of both "Marvel Worldwide" and "DC Comics".

My somewhat costly sculpt of General Thunderbolt Ross's alter-ego, the Red Hulk, predominantly just needs his dark red flesh to be shaded before being finished, whilst Superman's arch-foe, Metallo, requires his metallic areas to be tidied up following my 'picking out' of all his cable ligaments with "Citadel" Abaddon Black. Once completed I should then be able to continue progressing an alternative armoured version of the Russian agent, the Crimson Dynamo...