Bad Company

I watched The Batman recently. I enjoyed it. A lot.

It was, I suppose, inevitable that this would push me back in the direction of painting something from the Batman Miniatures Game.

First up are these three asylum inmates, ready to associate with whatever member of the rogue's gallery is tearing up Gotham.

Long time readers of this blog will know that the Batman Miniatures Game was my major focus for a long time. I was heavily involved in tournament gaming and was actually pretty good at it, winning a few events and regularly placing fairly high.

I got out of the game when they shifted to a new edition. Not only did I not want to invest heavily in a new version of rules that I would have to relearn, but I also didn't want to end up having to re-buy characters I'd already bought and painted as certain sculpts were 'retired' from competitive play.

It also seemed like a good time to step away from a company that I'd become very cynical about. Poor quality control, poor customer service and poor sales practices were hallmarks of my experience of Knight Models at the time.

I have no idea if their reputation has improved, but I became so disenchanted that for the last year of playing the game I avoided buying new as much as possible and instead bought second hand from those getting out of the game in frustration.

Painting these three prisoners has been a reminder of some of the negatives that led to my stepping away from the game.

Hefty mould lines and soft (at times invisible) detail litter the three miniatures. I personally think that they are nowhere near the quality of the earliest sculpts in the range, which I presume was due to Knight Models being in the process of switching production to resin at this time.

Having said all that, I'm happy enough with how they have turned out. They are destined to be used in 7TV when I get round to putting together some Batman profiles.

It's been an odd, melancholy trip down (bad) memory lane, but I'm still in a Batman mood and I have a small backlog to work through.

Thankfully, the miniatures do get better than this, and are somewhat more recognisable.

Acquired: 85

Painted: 86