Saturday 29 February 2020

"We're Your Metal Men!"

"Attention, Metal Men - - to me!"
These three 28mm figures of Iron, Tin and Lead are produced by “Wizkids” and can be bought as miniature numbers 009, 010 and 026 respectively from their World's Finest DC "Heroclix" range. "Advanced artificially intelligent robots" who were created by scientist Dr. William "Will" Magnus, this super-team first appeared in the March/April 1962 edition of "Showcase", and were created by Robert Kanigher amd Ross Andru.

Having previously painted sculpts of these automatons from the "DC Comics" "Heroclix" expansion Crisis, I wanted to do something different with them, and try out a couple of paints I haven't used that much since obtaining them. As a result each model was cut-off from its 'clicky-base', permanently attached to one of the 40mm thin-lipped circular bases I use for all my objective markers and then primed using a colour somewhat similar to that of their comic book colours.
"Atomic Mass Games" WIPs - Venom and Erik Killmonger
I therefore used "Citadel" Leadbelcher on the "slow-witted and loyal" Lead, "Vallejo" Silver on the "self-doubting and insecure" Tin, and "Citadel" Ironbreaker upon the "strongman" Iron. All three figures, whose 'personalities mirror their namesake metals', were subsequently shaded using "Citadel" Nuln Oil, before being simply dry-brushed using their main base colour.

Staying with super-heroes, or at least villains, a recent release update from "Atomic Mass Games" has made me aware as to just how far behind I'm falling painting up my "Marvel Crisis Protocol" miniatures. I'm still really keen on just focusing upon arch-nemesis being pitted against their bitterest rival for now, so have spent a little more time tidying up Killmonger's impressively-detailed stand and applying a base coat of "Vallejo" Russian Uniform World War Two to his trousers.
"Doctor Who" WIPs - Sauvix, an Armoured Sea Devil and an Auton
In addition, I've managed to get some "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey onto Venom's 50mm circular base, and apply a "Citadel" Nuln Oil wash to it as well. Despite not having yet even assembled Eddie Brock's hated foe, Spider-Man, I'm actually hoping to get this 50mm tall monstrosity completed over the next few days, and then properly focus upon finishing N'Jadaka whilst the plastic glue dries on Peter Parker's alter-ego.

Lastly, my enthusiasm for "Doctor Who" has suddenly been rekindled once again. Rather embarrassingly I have had a quartet of undercoated Autons by "Black Tree Design" on my painting desk since I finished my test piece artificial life form way back in September 2019. So along with an Armoured Sea Devil and its commander, Sauvix, I thought I would finally get them ready for my time-traveller's tabletop...

14 comments:

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    1. Absolutely, Phil. I have a fair few of the Armoured Sea Devils from "Black Tree Design".

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  2. They look great mate. Really nice looking sculpts for clix as well.

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    1. Thanks Simon. I entirely agree, these Metal Men are terrific looking "Heroclix" sculpts.

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  3. More amazing characters, great job Simon.

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    1. Cheers Michael. Simple stuff painting wise, but I'm slowly clearing the backlog.

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  4. Great work on the metal men Simon, Venom and Killmonger models look awesome so look forward to seeing these finished. Good to see some more Who models back in the painting queue

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    1. Thanks Dave. Simple stuff on the Metal Men, and still a long way to go on Venom and Killmonger. Really got the "Doctor Who" bug currently, and have even been watching/enjoying some of the latest 'Nu Who' episodes as a result.

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  5. Great stuff Simon! I really like the look of that first iron model 😀

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  6. I like the metal men, but they really could do with something to make them differ from other silver characters imho - maybe sponsored adverts on them (like racibg drivers, footballers' shirts etc.) - just joking btw.

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    1. Thanks Joe' LOL. Spookily, their colours are a bit more contrasting in some of the comic books (e.g. Iron is positively dark blue), and they do wear chest symbols from time to time. But as these are just objective markers, I was happy to leave them as is.

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  7. I love to first three metal men photos :-)

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