Red Ones Go Fasta

A while ago I picked up some toy cars that were roughly the right size for the Batman Miniatures Game from a second hand store.  I was really focusing at the time on the buildings I was making for an event so I never got around to repainting the vehicles.  I took a little break from my Joker Crew to paint one up.

I have never painted a car before.  I did not just want to use my regular paint, because I did not want a mate finish.  I wanted to try and paint a candy red colour on my SUV toy.  I started by removing a few screws and breaking the car down into pieces.  I then primed black and then covered the outside of the model in silver.  I had no idea what I was doing but figured I would give it a shot (if I screwed up the model, it cost me about a buck and a half).  I then sprayed 2 coats of Testors Spray Enamel: Custom Red (Leaving about 3 hours between coats).

I spray worked great.  You can still see some brush strokes from the sloppy silver base brush (next time I will probably use a spray silver).  I am very happy with it for the amount of time it took, and it looks so much better then it did.  Also I think the enamel spray is going to be very resilient to wear and tear.  

It might be a little bit to big, but close enough I say.

Kevin

The Clown King of Crime

I finally finished up the leader to my Joker Crew for BMG, Arkham City Joker.  Who does not like a strutting Joker figure?  The Joker is my all time favorite villain. He is such a great contrast to Batman.  The hero wearing all black while his arch-nemesis dresses in bright vibrant colours is a great image.  The portrayal of the two in the Arkham games is great.  Batman is his usual brooding self while the Joker always appears to be enjoying his life (or unlife...spoiler alert?).

There have been many different takes on the Joker character.  However, I have always loved Mark Hamill's voice work for him in the original animated series.  The gravelly voice that can go from hysterically funny in one sentence to bone chilling creepy in the next.  I loved it when they got both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to voice Batman and Joker respectively in the Arkham series (except Origins).  It was amazing to hear the voices I grew up watching with a much more darker adult tone  (it's almost like they grew up with me).
 
In the BMG,  Joker is an amazing leader.  Hands down his greatest ability is Kaos Agent.  This rule has two parts.  First, you take one of your opponents turn counters out of the "Take the Lead" pool.  This lowers the amount of turns in the game by one and increases the odds of Jokers crew taking the lead.  The really incredible part of the Kaos Agent rule though, is that is gives all Henchmen with the Joker affiliate gain the "Trickster" ability.  This allows a model to rearrange his action counters at the start of his activation.  The Joker crew lead by the Clown King of Crime to be highly versatile and able to react more easily to their opponents activation.

The most fun rule Joker has in my opinion is the combination of "Total Vision" (can see anywhere on the board) and his remote controlled Exploding Teeth weapon.  You can play it like Arkham City Batman and his Baterangs, but with an explosion template!

A potentially more deadly combination is his "Luck" ability (1 special counter to re-roll one dice) and his "One Shot Gun" (one use only firearm that auto hits and inflicts 3 blood damage and Crit: Casualty).  Use the "Luck" ability to re-roll the collateral damage dice to increase the chances of a critical hit (which in this case would remove the enemy model from play immediately as a casualty).

Kevin

Can I Axe You a Question?

I was saying that line the whole time while painting this henchman.  I really like painting Joker henchman.  They are clean models with a good amount of details and a lot of character.

The Axe-man was the last of my Joker henchman that I currently have.  I don't know exactly how much I will use him.  He is compatible reputation to Joey Bats (Contra-Auguste).  The bat and the axe are both heavy and handy (re roll to hit and +1 str to wound).  However the axe does two blood to the bats single stun.

Joey Bats does have a slightly better stat line though, with one additional endurance point.  Out of all of their special rules I do like axemans "Tireless" the most (although Joey Bats Hardened (convert first blood counter received each round into a stun counter) is great too).  This allows the model to run by spending only a single special counter (instead of a special and movement counter).  Could be very useful in getting him into position to axe my opponent some questions or grab objectives.

Kevin

Dice Tray, now in 3D!...and Magnetic!

I worked on some none "model" hobby stuff recently.  I made a few new dice/card bags for Batman and the DCU miniature games.  I also made a little dice tray for BMG.

Around Christmas we had picked up some small little stocking suffers for our nephews.  As with all the best Christmas gifts, I forgot were I put them and then forgot about them entirely.  One item was a Batman magnetic dart board.  Once rediscovered, I decided to turn it into a dice roiling tray to save my miniatures from wayward rolled dice.  

Plus, in keeping with hobby trends, it is still magnetic.  What benefit this provides, I do not know.  

Now back to some Joker crew.

The Unlucky Duck

I finished up a piece of terrain yesterday night.  I picked up a bunch of the circus plastic card terrain a while ago.  I decided to add some game booths to fill out the board.

I tried building this one a bit differently. I got the idea for the technique from an old copy of the Malifaux Chronicals.  I built a block frame for my miter box.  I used that to make a set of identical length timbers out of balsa wood.  Those timbers were assembled to make an A-frame.  I then attached the frames together and glued on more planks to make the walls.

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I think I will probably make another 3 soon.

Kevin

Morghast's Revenge

I finished up my second Morghast for my Grand Alliance of Death army.  In my first game, these guys did all my killing.  

I had a great time at the Lords of War Birthday celebration this past weekend.  We played a dramatic Mavel/DC megabattle.  Batman got tossed around like a rag doll between Superman and Groot, but he did emerge victorious in the end.  However that just got me pumped to do some more Batman stuff.

I was talking with Jay and Chris and we would like to build up the Batman/DC/Marvel (we can keep is going) community.  So if there is anyone reading this that would like to throw down with some Batman or Marvel/DCU give me a shout.  Even if you are new and have never played a game.  I would be happy to run you through a game!

I am going to start on the last 3 models I have for my original Joker Crew (Henchmen with axe, Mr Hammer and the Clown King himself).  However, first I decided to try making a piece of terrain to go with my Dark Circus table.  Here is a little preview.  

Kevin

Batgirl

Most recent on my painting block has been Batgirl.  Two challenging colours to paint, red and yellow.  I am comfortable painting red by now (so many Blood Angels), but I still hate yellow!  She is a simple model to paint, but the black/yellow contrast will pop nicely on the table top.

I don't know which sidekick I will use more often, Batgirl or Robin.  I like the thematic team up of Robin and Batman.  However I have never had great successes with Robin in the past.  I have not figured out exactly how to use him effectively.  The upgrade to his card which gave him "combo with BO" was nice. Having said that, with only a single stun damage with each attack, he has a hard time knocking out a simple henchman.  I do like his flash grenades and detective trait.  He did tend to get shot down part way though the game.

Batgirl on the other hand is fairly close to Robin.  They have identical stats with the exception that Batgirl has a higher movement.  She has "Combo with Unarmed" and produces a single stun damage.  They both have a "Batclaw".

There are a few things about Batgirl I like over Robin.  The "Stealth" trait keeps her a little more hidden, which will help avoid being shot up early on.  The "Informer" is nice (one addition pass a turn).  "Martial Artist" and "Sneak Attack" are OK for those times when avoiding hand to hand combat is unavoidable.  The "Batcape" is also good for dropping down onto objectives to reserve action counters.

The big selling point of Batgirl over Robin for me is, she is 9 reputation points cheaper and has a $0 Funding.  That is 3/4 of another foot cop and I can save the funding for upgrades and guns.  Only the table top with tell me which one I can rely on more.  

Kevin

I think I am going to go back to putting a quote as a sign off.  I always enjoyed that,

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten" - Neil Gaiman, Coraline