"You're Fish."

"Fish come out of the water and they die."

This 35mm scale metal miniature of the Black Manta is produced by "Knight Models" for their "Batman Miniature Game", and can be purchased as either part of the DC Universe/Batman Miniature Game: Secret Society of Super-villains set, along with Killer Frost and Professor Zoom, or as a single blistered figure. Sculpted to depict the "ruthless and murderous underwater-based mercenary" wearing his infamous "nigh-invulnerable battle-suit", the archenemy of Aquaman was created by Bob Haney and artist Nick Cardy, and made his first appearance in the September 1967 issue of "Aquaman" by "DC Comics".

"Currently in the New Suicide Squad under the command of Amanda Waller" this four-piece model was carefully assembled and primed using a double layer of "Citadel" Abaddon Black. The "expert in mechanical engineering and military tactics" was then enthusiastically dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal before being drenched in "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

"Heroclix" WIPs - Zzzax is slowly being dry-brushed with increasingly lighter shades of yellow

I 'picked out' Black Manta's advanced technological suit, his jet pack propulsion system, wrist-mounted speargun, diving helmet and hand-weapon with a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil. Later I dry-brushed both the helmet, jet pack and Death Ray with (more) "Citadel" Ironbreaker. As a final touch I layered his eye lenses with Vallejo" Heavy Red, and shaded them in "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

Sticking with the theme of super-villains, I have continued to labour away at my 60mm tall plastic "Heroclix" miniature of Zzzax. This electrical foe of the incredible Hulk has patiently had all his detail dry-brushed with numerous, ever-increasingly light tones of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre to the point of almost pure White, and is now ready for me to experiment upon using my recently purchased bottle of the "Vallejo" Model Color, Yellow Fluorescent...

"Wizkids" WIPs - A Dire Wraith, a U-Man and the Abomination

In addition, I have been pottering about on a number of other models manufactured by "Wizids", including another of Bruce Banner's arch-nemesis, namely Emil Blonsky's alter-ego, the Abomination. This old figure is one of my all-time favourites produced by the New Jersey-based company, as it depicts the former KGB agent in his original mutated guise, and has proved an absolute pleasure to prime, shade and dry-brush.

I've also found some time to 'crack on' with the four remaining U-Men I want to complete so as to provide the nefarious Nazi, Major Maxim, with a suitably-sized retinue of sinister frogmen. Plus, having taken a ‘deep-dive’ into my “Heroclix” backlog, I have located, re-based and undercoated another eight-figure strong sisterhood of Dire Wraiths with which to potentially threaten the “Marvel Wordwide” universe with...