Armoured Bat-fleck

I will be moving in a few weeks, so I had to start packing up my hobby desk.  However before I put everything away I wanted to get one last model done.  Fresh on the heels of Wonder Woman I thought I would paint the final member of my DC Trinity box, Armoured Bat-fleck.

I always thought he was the weakest sculpt of the set.  His arms just seem a little small and ill proportioned.  However, because it is a very simple colour scheme (especially compared to WW) he was a blast to paint.

I used to only like painting at home.  I had my chair, a show in the background and my good lamp.  Over the last year I have tried to get out more to my local shop.  Mainly to play games, but if I had no one to play I would do some painting.  I was able to talk to other painters, ask questions and share ideas.

I started to paint Armoured Bat-fleck last Thursday at Lords of War Games.  I was sitting next to Mr Dai Viet.  One of the best painters I know.  We had a good talk about considering lighting sources when working on a model.  I think I tend not to think of light sources and then over highlight.  He gave me some good ideas to consider.  I tried it out on the armour for Bat-fleck, it is not perfect but it is a lot better than I have been doing.  Your local talent can be a great source of knowledge.      

My local hobby store got in some Scale 75 paints (and for some reason I can never remember the name, I usually call it Sector 75 or something).  I had seen what some of the other regulars had done with them and I wanted to give them a try.

They are a lot of fun.  For the most part the paint has a more flat finish when compared to Games Workshop.  However they do mix well with the GW  paints.  I painted Batman's cape with a mix of Graphene Grey (Scale 75) and Abaddon Black (GW).  The two paints gave it a good dark dull grey finish.

I tried painting the light reflected from his Bat-flecks eyes.  This is the first time I tried to paint a reflected light.  I went a little too solid with the colour, I was hoping to have more of the armour shining through, but I am happy with it.

Kevin  

   

Wonder Woman (queue electronic cello solo)

I took a break from my Scarecrow crew to paint up the second member of my DC Trinity box, Wonder Woman.  I had the sudden urge to paint her after watching the new movie.  Part way through the film I realized I was doing what I used to do when watching the Lord of the Rings in the theater;  figure out a colour palette.  "If I use a Mepheston red then mix it with a evil sun red, then give the whole thing a red wash, it should be close to that red" etc.

I really enjoyed the movie.  It had some great messages but they were not beating you over the head with them.  There was some very funny scenes.  It was basically a "fish out of water" story, but they did not make Wonder Woman goofy or silly about it.  Also the fight choreography was amazing.   The only real down side I found was with the villains.  As a whole, super hero villains are usually very campy, but these guys were so two dimensional.  Luckily the hero and the supporting actors where strong enough to make  up for it.

Wonder Woman will be a good addition to my Justice League team for the DCU game.  She is hard to bring down with her high hit points, "Bracelets of Submission" (+3 to physical and energy def) and the "Indestructible Shield" (pass and agility role and cancel a physical or energy attack).  The "lasso of Truth" can also be great to drop the defense of a tough opponent; so Wonder Woman's allies can bring the pain (Super Punch anyone?).  In most games I expect that she will be up front with Superman dealing the damage, while the rest of my team goes for objectives or runs support.

Here is my current 60 levels of Justice League.  Superman and Wonder are the tanks and attackers.  Green Arrow will lay down some range support and go after objectives.  The Flash and Batgirl are my main objective runners.  That leave Batman to support and be a secondary tank where needed.

I will have to play a few games to see if this team will work.

Kevin (queue electronic cello solo)

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself

I finished up the last member of my initial Scarecrow crew, Scarecrow.  He was a different model to paint when compared to the militia members.  While I went with red and light grey for the Henchmen, Scarecrow is wearing worn out dark brown and black.  He will definitely stand out from his minions.  The red liquid in his tubes and syringes will help to tie him into the crews colour palette though.

I had a hard time with the face, my fine detail brush is starting to split and lose bristles.  Time soon to invest in a new one I guess.  I tried to give him fiery eyes to match the pumpkins on the base.

While I have yet to win a game with my Scarecrow crew, I have enjoyed playing with it.  I think I am getting a little better each time.  It plays very different from my Joker or Batman crew that I am used to playing.  I would probably do better with it if I took more low level henchmen and drop Diablo.

While Diablo is a cool looking model and fits into my theme, he has yet to prove his worth.  He is actually more of a liability for me.  In my last game with him, there were several moments early in the game that his spray template attack would have been great.  However I continually passed the willpower check for "Regrets" (start of activation make a Willpower check, if Diablo passes he can not attack, if he fails he can attack as normal).  In fact I did not fail it until the last turn (the game was long lost by that point).

He does have some limited uses when he passes his willpower.  You can put him into base to base with an opponent to give another model the out number bonus (-1 defense).  Alternatively you could just have him run objectives.  However with a Move characteristic of 2 with no movement bonus he is an average speed.  He also cost 50 rep and $200 funding, so he is not cheap.  A few Arkham inmates would do it better.

There is another seedier option to improve his abilities.  You could keep him near Scarecrow (or one of the models Scarecrow can use to release his fear gas).  You purposefully gas Diablo, hoping to fail the willpower check.  If he fails the test by 3-7 points he will gain "Terror 1,2, or 3".  This will lower his willpower by the Terror level.  This would then increase the likelihood of him failing his "Regrets" rule when you activate him, allowing him to attack more reliably.

However, the down side is that when his Willpower drops, so does his action counters.  Less action counters means less effect or options when he activates (hopefully he would still have two to set something on fire).  Also if you fail the "Inspire Fear" test by 8 or more, the model is removed as a casualty...

In the end I "regret" hiring him into my campaign crew.  

I watch the Wonder Woman movie this week, so now I am taking a small break from the militia to paint the Amazonian warrior for my DC Justice League team.

Kevin