Three deadly female adventurers from my Conan-esque range. The first is a borderer or thief, while the other two could be pirates, or perhaps thieves.
You can click on the image for a bigger picture. It's not the best photograph (I took it with the old camera), but I hope you can make out the details. These ladies are all by reaper, which is a bit surprising, given the obvious difference in scale. Reaper has a vast range of figure on sale, and many of them were sculpted more than a decade ago. It shoes how tastes and styles have changed over the years. It's not a major problem for me, as I will only use them for my Thursday night role-plating, but I know that 'scale-creep' is a real bone of contention for some collectors.

The Executioner likes to think that he is a fearsome super-villain, but he lacks imagination, and in reality is little more that a hired thug. He's strong and tough, but a little on the short side, and sufferers from a near-pathological 'small-man' inferiority complex. Woe betide anyone who jokes that he uses such a large axe to compensate for his lack of stature.
This is another Reaper mini. The moment I saw him on-line I knew he would make an excellent super-villain, but when I got him in the post I realised he was a bit under-scale. I was disappointed at first, but then I thought it would work if I made his lack of stature part of his back ground. I chose the bright colour scheme to make sure he looked 'four colour' and not like one of my Conan-esque range.

Reports have been circulating that the arch-villain known as Toymaker has returned from his enforced exile, and has been terrorising shoppers in the January sales by planting his minions amongst the other produce in the department stores across the land. These seemingly innocent looking bargains turn out to be anything but when activated, as can bee seen in this image of his scissor wielding 'toy' jack-in-the-box.This mini is one of a pack of 'evil toys' by Reaper. It was my favorite in the pack, but I was dismayed to discover that part of its arm was missing due to a miss-mold. I did what I could to sculpt a new one out of green stuff, and the results are satisfactory, if not a master piece. Given the fact that the mini is only about 25mm tall, I don't think it will be a problem.

Hello and welcome to the post-Christmas stupor. I am fully recovered from too much Polish Vodka and good food, and have completed my course of cold turkey (groan...bad pun). I was very lucky that Santa brought me a nice new digital camera with a Super Macro function, meaning I should get better pictures for my Blog. I haven't read the manual yet but I had a little play with it and it looks very impressive. I will post some pics later of some of the super-stuff I have been working on alongside the Christmas Madness.
I would like to say 'howdy' to my new follower- seven followers is very exciting, and a great complement. I hope you will spread the word, and that you will like what I have got planed to 2010.
Also I would like to welcome Leonmallett to the Blogosphere (I believe that is the technical term, but I am not very up on the jargon), as he has launched his own blog dedicated to Pulp City, a skirmish level super hero game I reviewed earlier. Leon has been a gaming partner of mine for over twenty years. He is responsible for my interests in all manor super hero games, and has always been an advocate for all things Super heroic. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books, writers, miniature designers and so forth- I usually direct any questions about super hero stuff to him. His blog is called Pulp Citizen, and features some very nicely painted and photographed minis from the Pulp City ranges, as well as some very interesting and useful information about web based scenery makers and so forth. Please check him out. Oh yeah- he's also the same Leon who kindly supplies me with his spare lead so that I can bolster my ever growing pile of unpainted minis.

This heroic chap is the Lapland-based adventurer, Claus StNicholas, as he intrepidly explores the frozen depths of Hyperboria. He disappeared without trace in the 1920's while on an expedition to the North Pole- and was believed to have been eaten by yetis. Repeated attempts to find of what really happened to him have failed, but many maintain that he is "out there" somewhere, righting wrongs and having adventures.

This lovely model was free from Artizan Designs, and really kicked off my Christmas Madness. He was free with any order over £10, so I got him when I ordered my next batch of cowboys. He's far too heroic to be an Evil Santa.
Merry Christmas everyone, and I hope that you all have a fantastic time.

"I'm walking in the air. La la la Grrr!"

Evil snowmen have arrived at last, dreadful automatons in the service of the wicked Toy Maker, a Semi-mythical entity said to have been exiled from the Hyperborian homeland for his twisted experiments.

These evil monsters are the work of Mark Coppletone, and were a lot of fun to paint- I will have to find a suitable model for the Toy maker (a kind of Anti-Santa). Perhaps I will use these in a Christmas themed game next year (as its too late this year- were in the middle of a Dark Heresy campaign)

It's just over a year now I have been maintaining this Blog, and I have really enjoyed it. I am delighted to have picked up six followers, and I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed making it. Next year you can expect more of the same: i.e. Superheroes, Villains and henchmen, with the odd smattering of Cowboys, SciFi and Conanesque fantasy, plus I am planning to add a zombie apocalypse range to my Supers range (Leon's current supers campaign for Basic Roleplaying seems to feature a lot of the shambling undead)

Back to the Christmas Madness, I have two more minis for your delight. The first is the snowman I sculpted from green stuff, while the second is a little bit special.

One Christmas Snowman, sculpted by me (sadly a one off, unavailable to buy. Ho Ho). I was wondering if I could find some way to fit this figure into my Supers range, perhaps as a piece of scenery, but now it's painted my son Charlie has 'baggsied' it for in his bedroom.

Behold, Santa the Barbarian!

"...Hither came Santa, the Northpoleian, white-haired, sullen eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to thread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his booted feet."

This mini is a Reaper figure, kindly donated to my Conanesque range by Leon. I wasn't going to use him, as he was a bit over scaled compared to the rest, but when I saw this picture (below) on Deviant Art, I new I had to paint a barbarian Father Christmas. I sculpted on the sack and extended his beard to give him more of a festive look.

I might re-base him in the new year to add him to my Conan range.

I found this image of an ancient ninja master Father Christmas on Deviant Art, and though It deserved a special place in my Christmas Madness. I love the character and concept- genius! I wish someone would sculpt him in 28mm. Sadly, my talents don't extend beyond snowmen. On the subject of snowmen, my own little sculpt is finished- stay frosty, and I'll be posting pictures soon.

A few more of my Conan inspired adventurers, painted a few weeks ago, but freshly based for photography. Please forgive the fact they are not four colour- I have more heroes and Christmas madness in the pipelines (teaser- Evil Snowmen, Wicked Penguins and Heroic Father Christmas Adventurer, to name a few)

Three Shemite (or Iranistanian?) adventurers. The man in the middle is a noble (or perhaps a successful pirate or thief) by Reaper, and his companions are his burly henchmen, by Hell Dorado.

Just because you can't only have good guys, some demonic snakemen, no doubt conjured by some evil sorcerer dabbling in dark-things-man-was-not-meant-to-know. These ones are by Reaper. They could also, conceivably, make it as super villain henchmen.

Here are some pictures of some of the models I have been working on or the last few months- they are a side project for a Conan Role Playing Game campaign I am planning. My plan is to have at least one male and one female model for each character class, but obviously some will be suitable for more than one class.
The Idea was to try to capture some of the classic Conan imagery as portrayed in the wonderful art of Frank Frazetta and in the Dark Horse comics.

A barbarian (or soldier) by Heresy and a thief (or pirate) by Hasslefree. I kind of envisage these guys as brothers.
A Vanir barbarian girl by Reaper, a short, portly scholar by Crusader Miniatures and a Stygian thief (or perhaps a scholar) by Crocodile Games.

Another Vanir Barbarian, by Crusader Miniatures, a beautiful Aquilonian noble (or perhaps a rare female scholar) by Games Workshop, and a Asgard Soldier (no doubt serving as a mercenary in one of the more 'civilised' lands) by Artizan Designs

Rumor has it that Mistress Apocalypse used to be a worker in a nuclear repressing plant when an accident, caused by carelessness and cost cutting, lead to be being exposed by lethal radiation. She did not die, however, and mutated into one of the most dangerous people in the country. She has only nominal control over the raw Atomic energy coursing through her body, and she doesn't care. She can be as lethal to those desperate or foolish enough to work with her as she is to those who try to stop her nefarious plans.

I thought I should to post a four colour mini, as the last few posts have been a bit off-topic. This mini is one of a big batch of Superfigs I bought when the Internet retailer stopped stocking them. The Superfigs range is great, but is now quite hard to get hold of in the UK. The cast wasn't great, as she had some sort of air pocket in her abdomen which I had to fill with green stuff.
I has a stab as directional lighting on this mini, to give the impression she was glowing, but it wasn't very successful. I will try again.

Inspired by the Christmas Madness, I made a snow man, roughly 28mm high (to the top of his hat). I am not sure how I will use him in the game; Perhaps he can be scenery, or else the initial component in making an Evil Snowman? I don't profess to be an expert sculptor, but I think he turned out OK.

This is the first of my Christmas Madness Figures. This is The Very Bad Santa. Be warned kids, be good, for goodness sake!


I was inspired to do this figure by one of the amazing pictures of Deviant Art, shown below. This miniature is by EM4, and is one of the Mark Coppletone sculpts. I have had it in my bits box for a few months now, and when I saw this painting, I immediately knew I had to paint him as a bad-ass biker Santa. At the moment, he's just a bit of fun, but perhaps eventually Very Bad Santa will make it into my Supers campaign, especially when I paint up some Evil Snowmen, from Copplestone Castings- the perfect henchmen for a rogue Father Christmas.

Its December, and so it's CHRISTMAS! Well it is in our household any way; We keep Christmas in a big way. I found this picture by Gilme C on Deviant Art. I love the idea of a spandex-clad muscle-bound four-colour-Santa! You better be good, or he will use his naughtiness detecting powers, then kick your butt. Now we just need someone to sculpted it.



Stay glued for some more cool Santa pics courtesy of the masters at Deviant Art throughout December.

The crew of the Freighter Turtle continues to grow, following the recruiting of Ships Doctor Tomas (seen here second from left). He may be a doctor but he's a pragmatist: he never leaves the ship without his trusty Laz pistol.

All these minis are from Heresy. I know that are not super heroes, but I am pleased with them, so I beg your indulgence. I have just finished another two supers, and will post them as soon as I can find the charger for the camera.

You can click on the image for a bigger picture.

Wanted: Dead or Alive! These pair of Mexican banditos are the leaders of my 'Legends of the Wild West' outlaw posse. Not really super hero related, but I thought it would be fun to post them anyway. Hope you don't mind.

'Tequila' Pete
Juan 'Poncho' Lobo

The minis are by Artizan Designs. I photographed them and then tweaked the photos using Photobucket. I plan to use them as a little avatar on the posse rosta sheet, to make it easier to identify each mini.

Spangle, America's latest (and gayist) superhero, has unveiled himself in San Francisco, where he has been battling the evil minions of the Brotherhood of the Serpent. Spangles successes have been ever shadowed by the media storm surrounding his unusual choice of costume. Embraced warmly by the gay community in the west coast of America, whilst attracting almost universal condemnation by right wing conservatives and patriot groups, Spangle is nothing if not controversial!

This rather unique sculpt is a self-portrait of Kev White, of Hasslefree fame, in the guise of Captain Kev. What ever possessed him to sculpt him with a mankini shall, hopefully, forever remain a mystery.

This wicked individual is Colonel Alberto Lobo, military advisor to the fascist dictator of corrupt South American banana republic Costa Brazico. He is also believed to be very influential in the Brotherhood of the Serpent, a mysterious cult/paramilitary terrorist organisation. He travels the globe widely, co-ordinating the Brotherhoods many nefarious schemes, whist relying on his diplomatic immunity to protect him from repercussions of his actions.

This mini is one of the lovely range from EM4. I bought it because I liked the sculpt (Mark Copplestone, perhaps?) but wasn't really sure what I would do with it. I toyed with the idea of making it a part of my 40K Imperial Guard army, but in the end decided it would look the part in my Supers range.

That crazy Frenchmen Remi Bostal has been at it again, producing some of the best scenery I have ever seen for Heroclix. This guys web site is all in french, we wont hold that against him, but even if your don't read the language you can still admire the man's skill.





Check out these pictures, the follow this link to his website, Remi Bostal (hmm, that's an original name).




The man is a genius.


An evil criminal genius, of course!

Last month my mate Leon and I got together at his 'Evil-Genius-Underwater-Lair' to play a new (well new to us anyway) superhero skirmish game called Pulp City. Belatedly, I have decided to review the game.

I have been aware of Pulp City for some time, but mostly because of the lovely figures they produce. A quick look at their superb looking, if sometimes difficulty to navigate, website will reveal a good sized range of well sculpted 28mm. The figures are well produced and well moulded, but a bit on the expensive side if you ask me. They also have a certain house style that is not always so 'four colour'.

This was the first time we have played the game. The game is available as a PDF from the web site, and is still in a draft, play test form. It is essentially a skirmish level game, where each player controls a small team of three of or supers, battling it out in an urban environment.

Unlike it's main rival, Supersystem, which allows the players to come up with their own supers using a points based system, Pulp City figures each come with a card in their box which includes their unique rules. This helps to ensure game balance, but also restricts players to using heroes and villains form the official Pulp City canon.

The game play itself is fast and simple, even though we were not very familiar with the rules a game lasted about an hour, so we were able to fit a couple in in a day. The rules are better thought out and balanced than Supersyetem, and we both agreed that it was good fun.

Over all, I think that Pulp City is a good game. The figures are fantastic, if pricey, the production qualities are high and game play is fast an furious. I look froward to playing this game some more.

Leon has finnaly got around to photographing some of the minis he has painted. Check out this link to see some pictures of Leon's excillent Pulp City Minis.

The Brotherhood of the Serpent continues to grow in strength as their dark shadow masters expand their insidious web of influence across the nations of the western world. What their true motives are remain a mystery, but they are responsible for some of the most wanton acts of terrorism the world has ever seen!

These are the latest minis to make it into my army of henchmen and paramilitaries. The four at the front are new, and the back row are ones I have previously posted (you can click on the picture for a larger image).

The new guys are from EM4 miniatures, while the ones at the back are from Copplestone Castings. Clearly they are all the work of the master, Mark Copplestone. EM4 work out slightly cheaper than Copplestone Castings, and they have the advantage that you can pick individual minis from their range rather than having to buy blister packs. Although the minis are a bit older, the casting is still good.

The evil entity known in urban mythology as The Rusty Claws has been classified as a murder elemental. Comprising of corporal evil that comes to the surface when particularly brutal killings occur, be they serial killings, murder sprees, acts of terrorism or gang warfare, it manifests and embarks on a brutal rampage, killing indiscriminatly. It's victims are as likely to be the murderers themselves as any innocent people who just happen to stumble into it's path.

This mini is a resin figure produced by Ramshackle Games. I picked it up at a games convention earlier in the year. Ramshackle do an nice range of post-apocalyptic Mad Max style vehicles and characters. This mini is rather tall, coming in at about 40mm, but that just makes him look even scarier!

October (and most of September, for that matter) have slipped past without me posting. During that time I have not been entirely idle, as I have moved house, paint two bedrooms and assembled over 20 pieces of flat-pack Ilea furniture.

I have also finished my Diorama of Doom entry for the Forum of Doom competition. As this isn't a Super powered four-colour piece I'll just give you a quick taste of what I did. Follow the link to see more photos, as well as look at everybody else's entry- Some of them are stunning!


On a more Four-colour related topic, I have finished a murder elemental who goes by the name The Rust Claws, and another four of the serpent cultist paramilitary terrorist (two leaders and two special weapons). I've also added a few more Conanesque adventures to my cabernet. I will post picks soon.

This is Lance Waverly, intrepid photo journalist, and award winning cameraman. He is just back from a term in Afghanistan, embedded with an elite special forces unit, and is ready to embark on his next dangerous assignment, embedded in a superhero team, risking everything to get up close real time footage of their battles.

This is an E4m Miniature, sculpted, I think, by the great Mark Copplestone. I am moving house, and the sight of just how many unpainted minis I have gathering dust made me want to press on and get some more finished. I decided to paint one at speed, just for fun; Lance here took me just 50 minutes, which I think is pretty good. He even has a free hand Channel One logo on his jacket!




Here is a couple of pictures providing size comparisons between E4M and Heresy and Hasslefree, as requested by Ajsalium on the Forum of doom. As you can see the scale is not bad, especially with the heresy mini Incinerator.

Lance interviews Incinerator after the 'Sunnyville Showdown' with his arch-nemesis Blizzard.

Lance tries to get footage of US Marshal Skipper in action, but she doesn't look too happy about it.

This ugly customer is Rockface, small time thug and hired muscle. He is a bit slow witted, and despite his appearances, is not that aggressive. He is, however, easily led, and his gullibility gets him into a lot of trouble if he falls in with the wrong crowd.
This min is part of a Dungeons and Dragons collectible miniatures game (I think). I bought it loose at a games convention for 20p, and rebased it and repainted it- not a great paint job, just dry brush and ink wash really. Simple, but I think effective.

This is Golden Guardian, a brand new superheroes. Actually she is the fourth hero to assume that heroic identity, with the first being Buck Brand, in the 1940's. The current Golden Guardian is Brand's granddaughter, and he personally handed over the Guardian Power Gauntlets along with the mantle of responsibility. Her retro styling cape and buccaneer boots are in tribute to her father, the second Golden Guardian, who was active in the 1970's and who disappeared when she was just a child.

This mini is a superfigs 'Shield Maiden', minus the shield (which I used on another mini). Once more I am indebted to Leon for supplying me this mini form his massive stockpile of unpainted lead. Thanks Leon!

I was hoping to upload a picture of the latest superhero in my collection, but alas I broke my USB cable, and have had to order a new one, but then I realised that I haven't yet posted a picture of the finished super I showed earlier as a WIP.

This bad-boy is Incinerator, part time pyromaniac, part time lunatic and full time Vigilante. In his own mind he is the ultimate superhero, it's just that the media, police and society in general don't see it like that.

This is a slightly converted Heresy figure. Basically I rebuilt his hand and added the flames (the original is holding a coffee cup- oddly). I enjoyed painting this mini, with a very tight pallet of colours and directional lighting form the flames- I am delighted with the results. I will post the new pics as soon as the USB cable arrives.

I haven't painted many super hero figures of late, having been distracted by my Conan range, and the Sci-fi crew, and by my Diorama of Doom entry. Finally I decided that enough was enough, and so I painted this geezer tonight.

This unsavory character is a nameless, vicious underworld criminal- dangerous, brutal and mean- don't cross him, or you may find yourself sleeping with the fishes.
This is a Mark Copplestone miniature, from Copplestone Castings (one of the 'Bad Guys in Suits' pack). We needed some more generic thugs and criminals for our campaign, and after a quick root through the metal mountain I came across this guy. I like him a lot, as he has a portly figure, rather like my self. For some reason I though he had a seventies styling to him, hence the retro green suit.

Hats of to the excellent KR Multicase, who make really useful carrying cases for minis, in all sorts of sizes and shapes.

I am moving house soon, and so I need to pack up my precious minis ready for the journey (about a mile down the road). I have used KR Multicase before, and been pleased with the product, and so I naturally turned to them when I need some more cases.

They have a good deal on at the moment, where bu if you buy one of their carrying cases in a nice bag, they will send you another sturdy card board one, plus foam inserts, free. I ordered a this deal on Sunday night, and was delighted when it arrived Tuesday morning- now that is service!

I went to Games Expo 2009 in Birmingham last week. It was lots of fun, and much bigger than I expected.
Leon and I spent a few hours wandering around the stores and chatting to some of the figure designers. I spend far more than I had budgeted for, but bought some cool things. Some of the minis I bought are destined for the Super Hero range, and will certainly make it onto the Blog at some point, while others are barbarians for my Conan-esque range, and others are Scifi.
We spoke to Mark Copplestone, of Copplestone Castings. His Kiss Kiss Bang Bang range of minis have some very nice evil genius minis that might well be added to my lead mountain at some point. Mark is currently working on a strange idea. He is making poster sized flood-plans for various locations, like an evil genius lair and an nuclear missile silo, primarily to use with his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang range, but which would obviously have a use in games like Superfigs and Pulp City, and may be even Heroclix. The production quality looked very high, so I will look forward to seeing the finished product.
Mark also hinted that he might be tempted to do some generic super figures, perhaps as a one off, and possibly in multiple parts, so they can be assembled in a number of ways.

Go on Mark, you big tease!

I also bought some resin stuff off a company called Ramshackle Games. They were cheep, but very cool.
I bought a BADGER armoured patrol vehicle for one of my Superheroes, and a few bits and bobs. Sadly they had sold out of the 'Boring Machine', because I would have loved one of those- very Evil Genius.

Here is a quick look at some of the minis that have been distracting me form my Super Fig collection. It is a fairly random collection of scifi figures, representing the crew of a beaten up old space freighter. I am not really painting these with any particular game in mind- their just for fun.

Minis by Game Workshop, Hasslefree and Hasslefree
Minis all by Herasy, but middle one has a converted hand.

Minis by Hasslefree and Herasy

Minis by Ikor (I think) and Privateer Press (Iron Kingdoms)

Azure is a deadly freelance assassin, who only works for the wealthiest crime bosses, rogue nation states, terrorist organisations and underhanded corporations (as these are the only clients who can afford her extortionate fees). That said, you get what you pay for- few of her targets have survived an assassination attempt by Azure, and those who have can be counted amongst the most powerful Supers on the planet.

This mini is another Mark Copplestone sculpt, Kindly donated to my lead pile by Leon. I think she makes a lovely Super Assassin.

I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? This is an unnamed street thug (and any resemblance to any characters in any films in purely coincidental).

Yet again this one is by Copplestone Castings, and is one of a handful of thugs I am working on for my Supers to beat up.

Sorry I havn't posted for ages. I have been busy on other projects, but here are some of the things I have been working on.

The Brotherhood of The Serpent

These three rough looking types are highly trained henchmen, belonging to a shadowy organisation known as the Brotherhood of the Serpent. Generally considered to be a terrorist organisation by most of the western world, their true motives remain unclear.
I painted these as part of an organisation for Leon's campaign. he specified the colour scheme, and I interpreted them in my own way. These figures are by Mark Copplestone, and are available from Copplestone Castings. I just bought some more from EM4, also sculpted by Mark, with very similar styling, only a bit cheaper.

Seeker is a mystic warrior form the east, sent out by her sensi master to try to readdress the imbalance in the worlds mystic harmony by battling injustice and restoring peace. She kicks ass and takes names.

This is a Superfigs mini, not a brilliant sculpt, but quite dynamically posed. the base is by Fenris Games again. Painted using Games Workshop foundation paints. The name Seeker is "borrowed" From the old Champions RPG (it's good to recycle).

Wytch is a troubled teenage with phenomenal mystic powers. Sometimes she is a heroine, and other times a villain. It juts depends on what mood she is in. The demons that haunt her at not all in her mind. Oh, and don't call her a goth; She is and EMO!

This is another hasslefree figure. Very nice, but very slim and not that much fun to paint. The base is by Fenris games.