"So Let’s Get Nuts!”

"A squirrel with the proportional speed and strength of a squirrel!"

These two 28mm scale metal squirrels are produced by “Black Cat Bases” and are available to purchase from their Small Animals range. Sold as a pack of four medium-sized rodents, I potentially plan to use the diminutive sculpts as status markers for my partially-painted “Wizkids” figure of the “Marvel Comics” super heroine, Squirrel Girl.

Having carefully snipped the duo from their rather formidably thick metal sprue, the two bushy-tailed animals were super-glued upon a circular 25mm base and undercoated with two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna. I then shaded them using some “The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, before roughly dry-brushing the two miniatures with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna.

"Is that all your pitiful will can accomplish?"

I was actually tempted to call the tiny models done at this stage, but upon reflection decided to ‘pick out’ their eyes and noses with some “Citadel” Abaddon Black, as well as add some “Vallejo” Dead White to their underbellies. As I didn’t want to simply paint their stomachs with a finely pointed tip, I instead found an old, badly-battered brush and dabbed at the animals instead. This seemed to produce a far less precisely defined, somewhat mottled area of paler fur.

Alongside the completion of my Squirrels, I have also completed a fourth hard light construct from “Wizkids” War of Light DC "Heroclix" range to use as a Green Lantern themed objective marker. This Violet Lantern Wall is miniature number R106.04 and was super-glued onto one of the thin 40mm circular bases I use for the vast majority of my scenario markers.

"Warcry" WIPs - The final three Iron Golems have had all their brass-work base layered

As I wanted to use this model for my Green Lantern Corps, it was treated to a triple-thick layer of "Vallejo" Dark Green so as to ensure its translucent pink plastic was completely masked in paint. I then thoroughly washed it with some "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green Shade, before heavily dry-brushing it using some (more) "Vallejo" Dark Green.

Stepping over to three infinitely more highly-detailed (and significantly more time-consuming to paint) models, I have been slogging my way through the last of my hard plastic Iron Golem warriors for "Warcry" by "Games Workshop". These incredibly characterful miniatures have now had all of their brass-work brusquely bass-layered with "Vallejo" Brass, and I'm now slowly working my way up each Chaos fighter picking out their flesh, chain-link bindings and over-the-top hand-weapons...

"The Demon's Fist Belongs To The Shadows"

"No, Trigon -- They might not fight you, but I will."

This 28mm scale figure of Raven 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 depicts the Cambion wearing a costume which is similar to that worn when she reformed "the Teen Titans as the New Teen Titans [so as] to fight her father." A "powerful empath who can sense emotions and control her soul-self" Rachel Roth's alter-ego was created by Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, and made her first appearance in the October 1980 issue of "DC Comics Presents".

Despite the "daughter of a demon father" coming in just two pieces, the model still proved something of a problem to prepare for priming, courtesy of the delicate cloaked head and separate main torso resisting all efforts to remain super-glued together. However, after a lengthy wait I was finally able to prime the figure with two coats of the old 'out-of-production' "Citadel" Foundation colour Necron Abyss.

"Star Trek" WIPs - These Borg drones have been base-layered prior to being washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil

Perhaps understandably, this paint took a fair bit of stirring in the pot before it provided an even pigmentation, but it eventually gave Raven a nice disconcertingly blue undercoat, which I could then later shade with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. The miniature was subsequently dry-brushed using (more) "Citadel" Necron Abyss, and this process took a fair amount of time as I was very aware of just how fragile the connection was between the magic user's petite feet and her circular slotta base. 

With the vast majority of Trigon's daughter now complete, I 'picked out' her flesh using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone and "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. These areas, especially her face were later highlighted with a touch more "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone. I also used this opportunity to angle the dark shadows masking the woman's eyes, and dabbed a spot of "Vallejo" Heavy Violet and "Citadel" Druchii Violet over her lips.

"Black Cast Bases" WIPs - These tiny squirrels just need a bit of a tidy up before being finished

Finally, I applied a layer of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna across the empath's belt, covered this with some Gold, and later washed it in "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. To be honest, there are a number of extra details on the official "Knight Models" paint-job which I would dearly loved to have followed with this figure, but for sanity's sake simply could not tackle, or, in some cases, even see on the physical model. These were most notably some of Raven's fingers poking out through her fingerless gloves, her hood's throat clasp and her all-white eyes.

Every now and then I stumble upon a range of miniatures which makes me scratch my head in wonder, and then purchase a few to test my painting skills. One such genre are these 28mm scale Squirrels by "Black Cat Bases", which can be found as part of the Hampshire-based company's Small Animals collection. I've bought a few as I hope to use them as potential 'wound' makers for my "Heroclix" Squirrel Girl once I've finished her re-paint...