Angel Delight

In a somewhat angelic post, I've been adding to my Doctor Who and Marvel projects with some Weeping Angels and, well, Angel...from the X-Men.

Angel is, curiously, one of my favourite X-Men, despite never really reading the comics he was in and the movie and cartoon versions of the character being somewhat lacklustre.

I think it comes from owning only two sections of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, 'Abomination to Circus of Crime' and 'Galactus to Kang'. Angel was the first big hero entry in the book, and so I probably read his entry more than others.

This lack of completeness in my collection of Handbooks might explain why I only get some of the obscure references in the MCU (like the original Guardians of the Galaxy) and not others (obviously, I can't give an example here, but think of something beginning with R or Q).

The miniature is from Reaper and came in two parts. I painted the wings and did the red on the body before attaching the two parts. This was a wise move as I'm really pleased with the wings and would have been incredibly annoyed if I'd got red on them.

I have to say, I was slightly disappointed with the quality of the cast, as there looked to be some mould slipping on the back of the legs and the left side of the face is a bit deformed. Fortunately, the pose of the model disguises most of the problem.

The pose is actually an interesting one, aiming for the idea of the character lifting off with a massive beat of the wings, rather than the more typical spread-wing flying pose you see.

I don't know if it's the angle I've posed him at, or the miniature itself, but it's not quite right. I think the head possibly needed to be looking upwards more.

However, the amount of white I was dealing with did concern me, but after my recent escapades with Kingpin and Emma Frost, I think I've learned how to tackle this sort of issue to a reasonable standard.

Also from Reaper, this time the Bones range, are these two Weeping Angels. These horrors are probably the best addition to the bad guy canon from all the 'New Who' series, and the episode 'Blink' is brilliant.

I've not done anything clever with them, just a drybrush of light grey over dark grey. Simple but effective. The Weeping Angels don't have any defining feature like glowing red eyes.

I hadn't planned to buy these, but I was placing a Reaper order and they were cheap. I'm normally not a massive fan of the Bones range for smaller miniatures. However, given that these are meant to look like worn stone, the relatively soft detail isn't a massive problem. I shall probably get more at some point.

These three are unlikely to see the table in the same games, but it seemed fitting to paint them at the same time.

Acquired: 34

Painted: 37