Calendar Man

I finished up the first model for my new Scarecrow crew, Calendar Man.  I will end up using Calendar Man in most of my villain teams (except organised crime), as he is a Free Agent with no know affiliates.  However with this characters gimmick of committing crimes on holidays, I though he would work great with my Arkham Knight Scarecrow (the events of Arkham Knight happen over Halloween).

The Calendar Man has never been an A-list Batman villain.  He has had several very silly concepts over the years (Batman The Brave and the Bold I am looking at you).  However my favorite interpretation of Calendar man is in "The Long Halloween" (Also one of my favorite comics of all time).  In this story, Calendar man is  presented like a Hannibal Lecter type character locked up in Arkham Asylum.  Batman is puzzled by the new serial killer active in Gotham, dubbed "The Holiday Killer".  This unknown murderer is killing different members of the mob each month on a holiday.  Batman approaches Calendar Man to try and gain insight into someone who is obsessed with dates.

The Arkham video games  also takes this role.  When you first see Calendar Man he is locked in a cell in the basement of the court house during the events of Arkham City.  He also has a very tricky play-station trophy connected to him.  To the right of the cell is a year long calendar with 12 different days circled on in.  If you sign into the game on one of those dates (in real life date) Calendar Man will have a unique conversation with Batman.  Once you do this for all 12 dates you get the trophy (or Xbox equivalent).  The short cut to this is to set your play-station to manual date, change the date to one of the listed one, then turn the game on, talk to Calendar man, save and turn the game off, change date and repeat (still a time sink but faster then doing it over a year).

I love one piece models.  This one is sculpted well and has some great character.  I specially liked the right leg with its knee brace and platform shoe.  I was thinking that could make a decent Kingpin from the Netflix Daredevil.  Since he is an Arkham inmate, I painted his jumpsuit like the pants on Joker's Henchmen.  I am using the Field of Scream pumpkin bases for my Scarecrow crew, and a jack-o-lantern seems fitting for the Calendar Man.  I also attempted to paint the tattoo ring around his head.  It is the abbreviated months (as many as I could fit that is).

The Calendar Man has a lot of nice in game perks.  He is good reputation cost at 55 with zero funding.  He has several traits that make is deadly in combat ("Assassin 5", and "Deadly Strike"). He is good at going after objectives ("Handyman" and "Mastermind").  He is also fairly resilient with "Self Discipline", "Adaptable" and an endurance of 7.  However his best rule by far (because it has so much character in and of itself) is "Thirty days has...", which gives him an extra trait depending on the month the game is played.  For example if you play a game during April you gain "Trickster", then if you play again a few weeks later in May you gain "Disarray" instead.

Kevin

Black Flash

While waiting to start my new Scarecrow and his militia crew, I started work on the Black Flash.  The Black Flash was a promotional model, available to people who pre-ordered "The Flash/Arrow" BMG supplement.    The Black Flash is not a model that can be hired to a crew.  He has a chance to appear every time a speedster uses a power that has a paradox.  If you cause a paradox and roll double sixes then the Black Flash appears and joins your opponents team.

Once I read through the book and learned how the speedforce works in the game, I though it was an odd choice for a promo model.  Everyone who fields a speedster should also have a copy of the Black Flash (which would be more sales to the company, no?).  It is just a  little weird to me to release a model that you need to have when using speedsters, but then not sell it.  Why not do a classic Jay Garrick with the WW1 style winged helmet alternative Flash model?  


 I tried using the layering technique that I talked about in my last post with the black costume.  I had to use a two coats of Nulin Oil to bring the grey back down to more of a black.  All in all it was a fun model to paint.

The Black Flash is an interesting character.  He is the speedsters version of the Grim Reaper.  Because the Flash and other speedsters are so fast they can out run Death, so the speedforce has its own embodiment of death to collect the souls of speedsters and return them to the speed force, the Black Flash.

 Kevin

United States M4A3 (late) Sherman

I painted up one of my US M4A3 Shermans that came in the "Tanks" box this weekend.  Part of what I wanted to do this year with the Lords of War Hobby Challenge was to push my self with the level of my painting.  I have not really changed or tried any new techniques in years.

I picked up the Battlefront Miniatures "Colours of War" when it first came out.  It is a very nice book.  So for this tank I wanted to try a different brush skill, layering.  Usually when I paint I do the same procedure; I base coat in a darker shade, add a wash to create some contrast, then 2-3 highlight layers (usually by adding a white or bone colour to the base coat colour).

With the layering technique that is instructed in the "Colours of War", you first paint a base coat.  Then instead of building up your highlights by mixing two paints, you go straight to the brighter colour.  However you add lots of water to it.  Now with the pigment very diluted you apply multiple thin layers, working your way up to the highest part of the model where the light would be hitting it.  The trick is multiple coats, with small brush strokes.

I definitely have to try it more to make it a bit smoother.  I did a final solid grey highlight on the edges after I was finished with the layering.  I found the contrast not as transitional as I wanted in the end, so I applied a thin coat of Agrax Earthshade mixed with Biel-Tan Green wash.

Over all I am happy with the result.  I am looking forward to practicing this technique more.

Here is the US Sherman next to one of my drybrushed/washed Canadian Shermans

Kevin

Rattle Bones

I played my second game of Age of Sigmar (AoS) late last week with my Order of Death army against my buddy Ian's Sig-marines.  It went considerably worse than my first game.  While I was able to hold my objective asteroid, I was unable to break through the enemies lines and contest his objective.  When it came down to victory points, I had failed to completely kill a single unit, while at the same time only have two of my own left on the table.

One of the main problems I am having with Age of Sigmar is my inability to stop playing it like a Warhammer Fantasy game.  I am still playing my army like a block formation marching across the battle field.  AoS is much more fluid than that.  I also highly suspect that I am not playing my Order of Death very well.

If anyone knows any good resources online regarding playing Order of Death or to a lesser extant AoS please let me know.

I finished up the re-basing of another 20 skeletons over the weekend.  The horde grows.  I am thinking Black Knights next.

 Kevin

Tiger is Operational

This week I worked on a new tank for..."Tanks!".  The German Tiger tank is a true beast.  It was the tank that the allies feared the most.  It had very thick armour that was very difficult for the allies' tanks to penetrate.  In addition, it had a cannon that could easily punch through any armour it came across.  It should make a very reliable tank to use in the game.

 We are starting a new Batman escalation league at Lords of War Games and Hobbies next Sunday.  I am very excited to start work on my new crew for it soon, Scarecrow and his Militia.  However, until then I will probably work on re-basing some more skeletons for Age of Sigmar.  Hobby ADD continues.

Kevin