Rick Flag

Recently my friend Kevin painted up Knight Models new Enchantress model and it made me a little bit nostalgic.  A few short years ago I was very excited about Knight Models superhero models for both DC and Marvel and was really enjoying their games, but, due to some really disappointing interactions with both the company's customer service and social media outreach I packed all my stuff up over a year ago and just walked away.

Seeing Kevin's Enchantress reminded me that I never did paint my last two Suicide Squad models; Rick Flag and Enchantress.  I decided to go back and paint them up and it led me to another decision.  But first up here's Rick Flag:

I've decided that instead of painting up more Infinity models to play Last Days next month I'm actually going to build my force out of some Knight Models stuff.  In preparation for playing through the Suicide Squad campaign way back when with Kevin (which sadly never happened) I had purchased some additional law-enforcement/military models that I think would work well for Last Days.  I need to dig those guys out but I think there's some more in the pipeline.

Maybe I'm back in, maybe I'm not.  We'll find out soon enough.

-Jay

Black Flash

I've got a rare weekday off today so I'm trying to work my way through 2 larger projects but I had this guy sitting off to the side and decided to get him done during breaks in between waiting for things to dry, etc.

In DC Comics the embodiment of death for characters who have access to the Speed Force is Black Flash.  The basic idea being that Death needs an avatar who can 'catch up' to speedsters when their time comes.

Having the figure is a bonus when playing the Batman Miniature Game as a speedster can inadvertently trigger the arrival of the Black Flash which effectively gives their opponent and extra model in their force.

Hopefully I'll have a Warzone update later tonight and some Mirkwood at some point this weekend.

-Jay

How many Floyd Lawtons are enough?

Back to my Suicide Squad box set!  Today's addition Floyd "Deadshot" Lawton.

This is actually the third Deadshot model I've painted so far.  To put that in context I still haven't painted a single Batman or Joker for the Batman Miniature Game...but 3 Deadshots.  Other than Amanda Waller herself there is probably no character more identified with the Suicide Squad than Deadshot.  Its probably fair to say that he is to the Suicide Squad what Captain America is to the Avengers, he hasn't been part of every line-up but somehow it doesn't feel like the genuine article unless he's there.

Deadshot has the checkered past typically associated with members of the Suicide Squad but he got a ton of additional character development during his time (pre-52) in the Secret Six.  Lawton is arguably the most pragmatic and realistic member of both the Squad and the Six which makes some of his actions seem shocking in the context of comic book stories.

The Suicide Squad box comes with 2 different heads for the model.  I chose his classic masked head but the other one is Will Smith's likeness from the movie.  I think Will Smith is great but I couldn't help shake the feeling that him being unmasked through most of the movie reminded me of Stallone being without his helmet in Judge Dredd.  It feels like once a studio pays for an a-list Hollywood actor they want the audience to see the actor rather than the character once they're up on the screen.  I also would have had a hard time gaming with the model with the Will Smith head without constantly making 'Fresh Prince Of Belle Reve' jokes.

I'll close out by asking; now that I've painted 3 versions of the same character is it bad that I'm waiting on an Arrow-verse version next?

-Jay

Katana

Perhaps its oddly fitting that the one member of the Suicide Squad who isn't really a member is the one I got a defective figure for and then had to substitute with a non-Suicide Squad model.

Katana is a character that has hung around the fringes of Batman comics for years but to be honest I didn't truly become aware of until she showed up on Arrow.  Katana is a classic Batman character in that she isn't a meta-human but is someone who has undergone an unbelievable amount of training and has one additional element (in this case the Sooultaker Katana) that makes her extraordinary.

From a game mechanics point of view Katana is extremely useful for securing objectives as she is a volunteer and not subject to the normal Suicide Squad rules which can result in models suddenly (explosively) being removed from play.  I'm assuming Rick Flag will also have this rule but I'll have to wait until he's released to take advantage of that.

This figure is from the core Batman Miniature Game line as unfortunately the Katana I got in my Suicide Squad box was miscast to the point of not being salvageable.  Having said that I do like this figure and I'm extremely happy with how she turned out.

Well, this is what I got done on my lunch break today so with any luck I can still get Deadshot done after work today.

-Jay

Two more recruits for Task Force X - movie edition

Over the last couple of nights I've gotten my next two members of The Suicide Squad done.

First up is Boomerang (I guess by the time line of the movie he hasn't been promoted to Captain yet).  I've got to say that as much as Boomerang has been a staple of comics and animation for decades he was one of the characters I wasn't confident would translate well to a movie.  The character is fantastic but his comic book costume has always made me think of a 70s era flight attendant.  I really feel like the movie team did a great job updating the character's look and feel without falling into other even worse tropes or stereotypes (although the Fosters was a nice touch).  I also feel like after at least 10 years of Hollywood trying to make Jai Courtney happen this might finally be the breakthrough.

Next on our list is Killer Croc.  This is going to sound really minor but one of the things I like about the inclusion of a character like Killer Croc in the Suicide Squad from a cinematic-world-building point of view is that he feels like he subconsciously forms a bridge between Batman and Superman.  The question/challenge most non-comic fans have had with the idea of Superman and Batman existing in the same universe is their power disparity.  The idea that it's hard to believe both these guys can be considered 'superheroes' in the same shared universe.  Killer Croc is effectively the first non-Kryptonian meta-human we've seen so far in the DC Cinematic Universe, this gives the audience a practical frame of reference to understand that there are beings in this world that are significantly more powerful than Batman who aren't nearly on par with Superman.  To me that starts to fill in some of the grey space and start to make the cinematic world feel more like the comic world.

I'm happy with how both figures turned out but of the two I'm definitely happier with Boomerang.

If everything stays on track I should get Katana and Deadshot done tomorrow night!

-Jay

First 2 members of Task Force X - movie edition

This week I was able to get prep work on a lot of miniatures done but with Black Friday craziness I didn't get much actual painting time in.  I've got a small cluster of fantasy figures I'm hoping to finish when I have time this week but my primary focus will be on two separate sets of superhero figures.

This afternoon I finished the first two members of the Suicide Squad from the Suicide Squad box set for the Batman Miniatures Game (soon to be DC Miniatures Game?).  I decided to start with two of the easier figures to paint which resulted in my painting one of the most interesting and one of the least interesting members of the Suicide Squad.  <spoilers ahead>

First up is Slipknot....poor Slipknot....

There's something of a tradition in new and/or one-off adaptions of Suicide Squad stories that the writers need to establish that the danger is real and unlike most comics the characters lives are in real jeopardy.  To establish this the writers always have to offer up an early death to sell the audience on what they're seeing/reading.  To my recollection the only story to break this rule was the Justice League Unlimited  episode "Task Force X" that due to being a cartoon marketed to kids probably wasn't going to have any neck bombs going off.  In the New 52 launch Voltaic drew the short straw, in Assault On Arkham KGBeast decided to test The Wall, in Arrow the character played  by Sean Maher (who's name I didn't even catch before he got neck bombed) learned the hard way that escape wasn't an option.  When the cast poster came out there were two things that struck me right away:

1.  Slipknot had less of a 'costume' than any of the other Hot Topic models in the movie

2.  Adam Beach is playing Slipknot!  Wow I haven't seen him in a major studio movie since....oh....

If you knew the formula it was pretty obvious that getting emotionally invested in Slipknot was probably not a good idea.  In addition I consider myself a comic-book fan of reasonably extensive knowledge and I don't think I've ever owned a comic with Slipknot in it.  Totally unrelated to DC Comics or this movie I would also like to point out that when my daughter was younger she watched an educational PBS show called Word Girl that had a superhero theme and the one villain that never got taken seriously (even on a show directed at 3-6 year olds) was "Amazing Rope Guy", draw your own conclusions.

The other side of the coin is El Diablo.  I hadn't been reading much DC stuff in the years before the New 52 launch so I'm not sure how prevalent El Diablo was then but when New 52 Suicide Squad title launched there he was and he was one of the characters that work best in stories like this.  He's clearly not a hero and he's done some terrible stuff but he's got a conscience and he's not a one-dimensional psycho.  But once again, unfortunately for El Diablo he has a place to play in fulfilling the Suicide Squad formula and it can't be every version of the story where Rick Flag is either the noble sacrifice or the good man left behind.  Sorry El Diablo you were (ironically) too good for this world.

There you have it (so far).  I've got Deadshot and Killer Croc on my table next as well as some newer Pulp City figures.

-Jay

The most wonderful time of the year!

I've been very scatter shot on my painting for the last couple of weeks (lots of Suicide Squad coming soon though...) but I wanted to show some non-painting I've been doing.

Last year in the late fall I first got into Frostgrave and joined a number of Frostgrave groups on Facebook.  One of the things that really stood out with the Frostgrave groups was how much they re-purposed non-miniature products as scenery.  Everything from birdhouses to aquarium features to Christmas village dioramas got used for Frostgrave.  Some of it wasn't great and it was obvious that the main appeal was that it was cheaper than conventional hobby scenery but some of worked really well.

The other day a friend of mine posted some street lamps that he had gotten and it made me think I should bust out some of the stuff I've acquired the past few months and share what (in my opinion) cool stuff can be had on a budget.

First up the thing that really got me to start considering this a year ago; trees.  There are loads of retailers that carry trees for Christmas village dioramas this time of year and last year I made the mistake of waiting too long to get some and by the time I circled around to it they were sold out everywhere.  This year my wife remembered that I had been trying to get some and one one of her trips to Michaels to get yarn got me a bag of trees.

This bag was $29.99 sticker price but basically went on to the shelf marked at 50% off so it actually cost $15.

Here are all the trees spread out and to give you some idea, those small trees in front are basically 1" tall so this is a lot of trees for the money.  I'm pretty sure that anything short of a full forest on a 3'x3' table can be done with one bag of these trees.

Also given that I play the undead for most fantasy games I figured Halloween clearances might have some options for me and they did not disappoint.  Again Michaels was the big winner with coffins, headstones and a cemetery fence (not shown).  Unfortunately I left the fence (which is really cool) at a friend's house so I don't have it to show off.

These packs were $5.99 at full price but by the time I bought them they were 60% or 75% off (I can't remember) so for some scatter terrain they're pretty good.

The only downside with the Halloween pieces is that they are a little big (only just a little) and they're unique looking enough that buying multiple packs isn't as appealing as for the trees.

Last but not least back to the place I started.  When I saw Tod's street lamps and I had just gotten the Suicide Squad starter for Batman which means I need a pile of street lamps.  Unfortunately by the time I decided to grab some my local Michaels was sold out but my daughter wanted a few things from the Dollarama and they had some lamps that look perfect to me.

These were $2 per pack (so super cheap!) and to be honest the reason I only bought 5 packs is because they only had 5 in-stock.  When I'm on the road over the next week or two I'm going to hit up other Dollaramas in my area and see if I can find more.

Well there you have it.  I think this stuff works great and it was really inexpensive which leaves more money for toy soldiers.

-Jay



  

There's only room for one dandy on this team....

If you understood that title you read the same comics I do.

I finally finished up the Mad Hatter today.  I'm pretty stoked because much like Bane the Hatter can be a member of the Secret Six but he is also the leader of his own gang (The Wonderland Gang).

Mad Hatter is very likely to end up in any version of the Secret Six I play with for the next little while.  Until more Secret Six members become available the Hatter's low recruitment cost should keep him in my warbands.

I'm a bit torn right now.  I've got Captain Boomerang on my desk as well as the Guardians Of The Galaxy and I'm also trying to sculpt a Pip-boy onto an Infinity miniature so it might be back to hobby A.D.D. for me.

-Jay

Bane crew

Progress on the Secret Six and/or Suicide Squad continues.  In the meantime I am also trying to circle back and paint some of the henchmen I have that have been half done or untouched.

When I first tried the Batman game I painted Bane and got 2 of his 3 mercs started (3 colours and based) so I could try the game out.  Yesterday I finished all 3 mercs that came in the Bane starter.

What generally seems to make playing villains with henchmen (as opposed to all named DC villains) more flexible is that a lot of henchmen are available who don't use extra resources.  The biggest challenge I've had figuring out crews so far is what I can "afford" in terms of funding rather than reputation.  If anyone has any suggestions for good crew builds I'd love to hear them in the comments below.

I'd also like to point out that if you ignore the meta-humans this game's henchmen figures would work for a variety of modern/near-future games.

A little bit of hobby A.D.D. is looming on the horizon with figures for 5 different games sitting on my desk waiting to be painted right now.

-Jay

The Fresh Prince Of Belle Reve

(I will literally NEVER get tired of referencing Suicide Squad to Fresh Prince Of Bel Air)

Tonight I got my third Secret Six member and first Suicide Squad member done; Deadshot.

Deadshot is a core member of the Secret Six who has been on every (pre-52) version of the team and is also one of the longest serving, most re-occurring members of the Suicide Squad.  In fact to my recollection his longest absence from the Suicide Squad since the mid 80s was the pre-52 period that he  spent with the Secret Six.

Deadshot has frequently been depicted as more of an amoral anti-hero than a true hero or villain throughout his career.  Typically if Deadshot is coming after you with intent to kill you probably deserve it.

There are currently two version of Deadshot available for the Batman game.  This one I believe is based on  the look of the character in one of the Arkham video games.  I'm not familiar with the series but his costume looks pretty radically different than this in every comic I've ever seen the character in.

I've got to be honest, I'm not 100% happy with how the mask turned out.  It definitely could have used a bit more work on my part but I was struggling with the overall lack of texture on the mask as compared to the rest of the figure.

I've got one more Secret Six model to paint and then I'm going to detour into the world of Marvel comics for a bit.

-Jay

Catman!

Yes!  CATMAN!

In my area there is suddenly a ton of interest in the Marvel Miniatures game by Knight Models so for some reason that has translated into me wanting to paint DC characters for the Batman Miniatures game.

I finally finished Catman (so see, I did paint something brown) who is still one of my favourite DC comics characters.

With the addition of the Flash/Arrow supplement for Batman there is now a ton of support for the two CW network TV shows and the other chunk of content in the book is bringing some more comic teams into the game.  Catman is the leader of the Secret Six which as I have mentioned before was (pre-52) one of my favourite DC comics.  At this time there are only models for four members of the Secret Six; Bane, Catman, Deadshot & Mad Hatter.  The plan is to get Mad Hatter and Deadshot done over the next week or so and then transition to painting some members of the Suicide Squad which will both give me more figs to paint and be useful if I ever get around to running a DC Adventures RPG.

-Jay

Return of the hobby grab bag!

Hobby A.D.D. is back in full effect!

This week I have six different projects on my desk for five different games.  Two of them I MUST finish before the end of the week because they are for games that are looming on the horizon, the other four I really need to get done before I can move on and do some other things.

First up, I have got to finish my Imperial Trenchers for WarZone.

The Beta just got released for Prodos' updated version of WarZone so my buddy Ash and I are going to try to get a game in this month.  To do that I need to finish these ten figures and then get three more done from scratch.

Next in terms of priority is four Brahmin for This Is Not A Test.

There is a caravan scenario I want to play and if you've played the Fallout games the Brahmin is very distinctly Fallout-ish.  The Brahmin miniatures are from Armorcast under their license with Lance & Laser.

After that I need to get started on my Black Squadron security forces for Broken Contract.

Broken Contract is a new sci-fi miniatures game that went through a successful Kickstarter last year and has some really awesome models.  In addition thematically (big corporations vs the little guy) it seems very in the now.

After that will be Johnny Atomic for This Is Not A Test.

Johnny is a wasteland radio DJ and alongside Gas-Mask Girl is one of the semi-official mascots for the game.  It's impossible to tell from this picture (sorry) but he's a fantastically detailed model that is covered in cool post-apocalyptic survivor bits.

My final two projects are definite maybes because I don't need them for any game soon.  So if they're not done by Monday they'll be moving to the back of the line again.

First up on the B-list (actually that's really appropriate in this case) is Catman!

Catman is one of my favourite DC Comics characters and is the alpha if not the actual leader of the Secret Six.  I'm super-stoked about finishing Catman and playing with him at some point but I don't have any Batman games planned so he's not a priority right now.

Next up is Sophia Illmora for Anima Tactics.

I've never actually played Anima Tactics but my plan was to use Sophia as a replacement for my apprentice in Professor Vitale's Frostgrave warband.  I may be changing plans and starting a new warband so I may or may not need her but I'd like to finish painting her eventually.

So that's what this week looks like hobby-wise.  I have a track record of NEVER completing all the things I lay out in these WIP posts so hopefully the fact that there's a couple things in there I don't really need means I can at least get the relevant stuff done.

-Jay

Project Plans For The Next 3 Weeks

Honestly I should probably stop stating my plans because every time I do I end up not entirely following through.  Having said that I have an event coming up that I want to use as a deadline to get some more stuff done so here's my plan for what that looks like.

FROSTGRAVE
I should be able to play Frostgrave one more time before I have to hit the road for work.  For the next scenario from Thaw Of The Lich Lord I will need 4 pillars/columns which will be some cake pillars I'll be painting up and then adding to my scatter terrain as well.  In addition I need 6 Armoured Skeletons which will be represented by Mantic Undead Revenants.   Once I get a few more of those done they will also be joining my Age Of Sigmar Vampire Counts.  That's all I need but I suspect I will try to do a few odds and ends to add to my wandering monsters as well.

Also at the end of the month Lords Of War here in Oakville is hosting a Wizard & Apprentice painting contest.  Speaking honestly I never expect to do that well in painting contests but they are a great way to push yourself to get some stuff done by a fixed date.  The plan is to get the Soothsayer and Apprentice done before the end of the month.

BATMAN
On February 6th my local FLGS will be hosting their 1 year anniversary and is running some mini-games for people to participate in.  For the Batman event each participant is invited to bring in a single character up to 150 points.  I just picked up The Wonderland Gang so even though he's only 75 points I'm going to get the Mad Hatter done up to play with.

MALIFAUX
As part of the same celebration at Lord Of War on February 6th they will also be hosting an Enforcer Brawl.  This is basically a free-for-all where everyone fields a single Enforcer model.  I've got a bunch of Enforcers done but again this is a great push to get something new done.  I'm planning on painting up a Mature Nephilim that I will be needing for a Through The Breach campaign this year.

Well that's the plan.  Will I get it all done (for a change)?  I hope so.

-Jay

Do you feel in charge?

About two months later than I thought I'm finally getting into my figures for Batman: The Miniatures Game.

I'm starting off with the Arkham Origins version of Bane and his crew but the plan is eventually to transition into The Suicide Squad.

First up is the man himself; Bane.

Bane has been one of my favourite Batman characters for a long time.  I've always liked the idea that he looks like the typical comic-book brick stereotype while also being a tactical genius.  The Arkham Origins version of the character straddles the line between his traditional luchador-look and a more paramilitary version.

When I get some of goons done you'll get a real sense of how big he is.  It's hard to tell in a single shot but he's standing on a 40mm base.

More on the way soon.....

-Jay