a pursuit of fruitless endeavors and endless refinements

Impromptu Painting

We got lucky this week and had a rare opportunity to get in some mid-week gaming and with the end of the year looming, I pushed to get in another game of Batman in.  From our last game, we weren’t convinced Commissioner Gordon was a good fit for my friend’s Batman crew.  My friend didn’t have time to work up an alternate model so I took advantage of the good weather to work up one of my SWAT henchmen.

I didn’t have a lot of time but luckily I had him mostly put together.  I just needed to fill in the gaps in his base and then he’d be ready to prime.  I got that together in the afternoon and then waited for him to dry.

Later that night, I went in and block painted him.  I did a few light highlights (I really don’t do much to my models anyway as I let the wash knock it down and fill in the shadows) and he was done in less than 90 minutes.

After letting him dry overnight, I applied a wash and then sealed him up.  I’ll still want to get some decals or something for the SWAT lettering but that can happen later. Getting this guy out and complete had me reviewing all my other Batman Miniature Game minis and I decided to burn through the rest of them to get everything prepped.

I finished assembling the rest of my Suicide Squad figures and then filled in their gaps in the base.  I’ve never liked “basing” so I go simple and move on. If these guys were resin, I’d consider going clear bases as well but being metal, that tends to not work out very well.

Katana (model up front) was a bit nasty for a Knight Model with all the extra pieces and the awkward three-point connection of her shoulders and hands.  Trying to fit that katana hold over her head never really worked so I resorted to some greenstuff to help out.  It works for tabletop but if you look close enough, it looks a little off.

After getting everything assembled, I went in and primed everyone so that I’d be able to repeat a quick painting one off night for the next model I need to sub into a crew.

Also, I had been thinking about grabbing some new Dropzone Commander models to try a new build.  Keiron’s comment on my last game pushed me to finally pull the trigger on picking up the Marine Force Recon group and their Raven dropships.

The Ravens assembled very quickly and were easy to prime up.

And I was pleasantly surprised that the MFR troops had almost no flash to deal with.  They went up very quickly.  With this and my Walking Dead, my winter painting queue is all but filled up.

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6 Comments

  1. Russ Spears

    I’m all about priming a batch so when the mood to paint strikes I’m ready – painting a WD Glenn & Andrea right now as a matter of fact.

    Are Walking Dead, Batman Miniatures Game, and Dropzone Commander the paint/scenery games you play Christian?

    • Christian

      That’s great! I need to paint up Glenn and some others for WD.

      You are correct, WD, Dropzone, and Batman are the only minis games I’m currently painting or making terrain for but I did just close out my pledge manager for Song of Ice and Fire so that will get into the queue as well. Not sure how I’ll approach that one since I’m not looking forward to painting 60+ minis of that size just to field a small game. My eyes start to glaze over when I have to paint 20 little 10mm dudes. Luckily I have until around April to worry about that.

      • Russ Spears

        I’ve often said you’ve inspired me to up my game when it comes to painting & scenery. The stuff you post here is just very inspiring. I’ve got a batch of BMG that I’m getting the courage to paint, so reading the latest Batman post will help spur that on too. Keep up the good work, I know I’m enjoying it all!

        • Christian

          Thanks Russ! That is great to hear! What BMG models did you pick up? I know it’s a good time to get in because many retailers are slashing prices on the older metal lines and the new resin sets are pretty tempting too.

          • Russ Spears

            Rebirth Batman (2x, because the 1st is going to be an honest test where I try a few different techniques) was the best deal – $12 at Miniature Market. I’ve been getting minis for a while because I like to think I’m patient but then jump on a good deal. Picked up the Suicide Squad box with Harley & Batfleck on eBay for $75 about a month and a half ago. Everything I’ve got so far is metal, but most of my painting experience is resin/plastic.

            I’m trying to transition my scenery from the rural stuff I’ve got now (lots of trees and houses), that I’ve been using for WD so far, into something more urban. I made my first TTCombat order (coffee shop, gas station, convenience store) to ease into that direction, plus learn some of the fun of working with MDF.

          • Christian

            Smart on grabbing two Batman for testing. I really like the Suicide Squad set as a starting point. Sucks if you don’t like any of the movie characters but that Panda Man. I had to have that dude. I haven’t found a difference in metal vs plastic painting except my hand doesn’t cramp up as much holding plastic models since it is lighter. Good luck with MDF stuff and the TTCombat terrain. I like the images I’ve seen of those stores but I’m not sure I have the space for all those since they likely won’t tear down easily.

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