P-P-Paint Up A Penguin

Still riding high off watching The Penguin (which I, once again, thoroughly recommend), I turned my attention to the titular 'hero' of the show and finishing off the gang members that I had previously not got around to...

...of which there were several.

When I was playing the Batman Miniatures Game, I didn't immediately go for collecting the Penguin Gang as having not played the Arkham City video game, the look of them didn't really speak to me as being right for my vision of the Penguin and his cronies.

If I'm honest, they still don't (I've always viewed Oswald Cobblepot as being more of a monster - a vision the TV show supports).

However, Arkham City, and therefore the Batman Miniatures Game, went for a more uniform, paramilitary look, which I suppose is fitting given that they are a large gang trying to rule an open-air prison by force and it also made them visually distinct from the other gangs.

Therefore, in my original paint job (which I set out to emulated) I went for a blue grealy urban camo effect on the trousers, contrasting with orange elements from the prison issued gear.

I like the overall look but I was struck by how awkward and janky some of these 'premium' metal sculpts seem now.

To be honest, I can see why Knight Models made the switch to resin when I compare them with this unfeasibly large gang lieutenant, unimaginatively named Big A.

He's a model from the third edition of the game, which is where I stepped away, and it is just a much cleaner sculpt, although a bit boring in his stance.

Resin also allowed them to get smaller details (I still carry the trauma of trying to attach separate metal hands in spindly wrists) and so made these armed penguins possible.

They are clearly inspired by the ones that appeared in Batman Returns, but I chickened out of trying to paint stripes on the missiles, opting instead for an easier military look.

Whilst I was working on the gang and trying to match models I painted years ago, I took the opportunity to tidy up the handful of Penguin's goons I'd already painted.

I added a bit of highlighting to brighten them up and give more definition on faces and weapons. The baton had also broken on the armoured guy and so I opted to give him hand swaps ashus were tiny and would have been a nightmare to reattach a weapon to.

And so my Penguin gang is finished and looks suitably large. The only time I ever used them was in a tournament, backed up by my hulk proxy of Solomon Grundy. I believe I did okay with them but I remember Penguin as being one of the better 'swarm' gangs.

The only thing I can imagine I'll ever add to them is a Duck Tank like the one in Batman Returns.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 423

Lead Mountain: 349

Family Business

After really enjoying watching Peacemaker: Season 1, I realised that I still hadn't watch The Penguin either and it would probably be good to keep me in a DC frame of mind as I tried to work through my backlog from the Batman Miniatures Game.

Spoiler alert!

It worked.

I've burned through the eight part series and can highly recommend it as genuinely one of the best series I've watched in some time.

The action focuses on the Penguin scrabbling for position amongst the crime families of Gotham, most notably the Falcone family.

As it happens, a large chunk of the backlog I have to work through are from the Penguin gang and the Organised Crime faction, specifically the Falcone family...how fortuitous.

First up we have the head of the family, Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone, appearing here in the white-haired guise he takes in the seminal comics Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween.

However, it doesn't really matter what medium you encounter Carmine Falcone in. Whether it's in print, TV, game or film, things rarely end well for the Roman.

Along with Falcone, I had three more Knight Models mob goons which came with him. Technically their names are (from left to right) Vipera, the Bull and Troy Sins, but they are generic henchmen who could equally take order from other gangsters like the Ventriloquist or Black Mask.

I must admit, I'm not a great fan of painting men in suits. I'm not great at making single colours look good without plenty of folds to shade. I've done a better job on the grey suit, and I'm trying to not look too closely at the brown one.

This is Carmine's wayward son, Alberto Falcone, aka The Holiday Killer, as he appears in The Long Halloween.

The model is a Heroclix sculpt (and therefore has limitations) which always felt spindly alongside the other chunky models in that range. However, it matches fairly well with the more truescale Knight Models range.

Coincidentally, when Knight Models shifted their production to resin, the four models I have are bundled as a five with the Arkham Origins version of Alberto - meaning that I'd struggle to pick him up individually.

Finally, we have my take on one of the central characters of The Penguin, Carmine's daughter and Alberto's sister, Sofia Falcone/Gigante.

The model is from Crooked Dice, and although a little short let than the others (although this is often less of an issue with female characters), she does have an outfit close enough for me to Sofia's costume from the final episode.

Interestingly, whenever Sofia appears in stories based in Gotham, she almost always ends up as the head of the family once her father and brother have fallen by the wayside.

I'm a big fan of Cristin Milioti's version of the character in The Penguin, but this is very much a departure from the hulking brute that appears in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.

I'm quite pleased with my Falcone gang, although I struggle to see a time when they will all be used in the same game. However, they are also generic enough that they probably have multiple uses.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 415

Lead Mountain: 357

Soldiers of Fortune

I've wittered before about the ad hoc way my brain works when selecting what to paint next, and so it should come as no surprise that finally getting round to watch season 1 of Peacemaker would cause me to return to my backlog for the Batman Miniatures Game.

These are Bane's mercenaries and represent a weird crossover between movies, games and comics.

In appearance they are similar to the hired guns who work for Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, but three of them came with the massive comic version of Bane, who generally works alone. However, the game is built around leaders and gangs, so this odd mash up is what we have.

In terms of painting, I've not done anything too special, instead relying more than usual on contrast paints. However, I have taken to doing a final light dry brush at the end with pale grey or ivory to pick out details, something that was necessary on this largely black armoured model.

The three models that came with Bane are actually resin rather the metal that the rest of my BMG collection are cast in, this is because they are from the third edition of the game, which is where I jumped ship.

I should stress, this decision was not about the switch to resin, as these were significantly easier to work with that some of the metal BMG minis I work with. However, I am concerned with the durability of some of the more spindly bits - specifically this sword.

The tomahawks on this chap are also worrying, although it was actually his foot that snapped when I was assembling him, which is why I used the tyre on this resin base to hide the damage.

Initially, I wasn't keen on this sculpt, but I warmed to it as I painted him, although I'm still perplexed by the tomahawks.

Whereas, ice axes are a much more sensible choice.

This sculpt reminded me of lots of the issues I had with Knight Models sculpts when I was heavily into the game. The metal is quite soft and to the ice axes are quite flimsy (although not as worrying as that sword); the right arm is joined at the shoulder and the junction wasn't clean, so there's a bit of a messy gap; although, if you look closely, the arms are different thicknesses.

Mind you, for all their failings, I am also reminded of what I liked about the range. This sculpt has bags of character with his pose and muttonchops giving real redneck hunter vibes.

The hat being red is entirely coincidental.

Here's the whole gang with Bane. Despite my misgivings about how they work together, I am really pleased with the outcome.

Will I play the game again? That feels unlikely, but these five miniatures are actually quite versatile in terms of modern gaming and so could easily get table time in other setting.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 410

Lead Mountain: 362

It's not about the mummy, mummy

Don't worry about the price tag because these MILPs (Mummies I Like to Paint) were straight out of the bits box.

Why am I painting Mummies?

Well, basically, as I said, I've discovered over time that I quite like painting them. I find it quite relaxing and therapeutic and suitable subject for when I'm in an odd headspace.

I think this was a discovery that evolved out of painting bandages and wraps on models and really took root when I painted the Mummies in my Heroquest set.

Speaking of which...

That is exactly where this chap is from. He's one of the chunk of spare Heroquest miniatures I have in the bits box and so I carefully removed from his base, plonked him on a round base and got to work.

I slightly change my approach to the bandages as I didn't start with a bone colour, but when for a Ghoul Grey (from Colour Forge) undercoat, then hit with a coat of Skeleton Horde followed by Agrax Earthshade and picking out each bandage with Ushabti Bone.

This second sculpt is from a board game called Dark World, which I bought for the miniatures (some of which were truly awful - the Mummy being one of the best). He has more awkwardly thin bandages and more flesh in show... especially in his MASSIVE hands.

For the flesh I went for green rather than my usual blue-grey as the wash I usually use was coming out too blue. Plaguebearer Flesh contrast paint followed by Agrax Earthshade did the job.

There's really not much more to say, other than they are going with my rather miscellaneous collection of pulp miniatures for 7TV. I don't have much that fits with ancient Egypt, but I might be encouraged by this to at least put together enough for an epic desert adventure.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 405

Lead Mountain: 367

Lava, Death and Robots

For reasons I won't go into, I needed a bit of a simple and straightforward palette cleanser this weekend, and so I turned to a recent opportunistic purchase that took me back to the mean streets of Pulp City for the first time in a while.

I recently took advantage of Kitbash Games having a sale (with a significant discount) as they moved their production from resin to something else.

This gave me a chance to pick up some models I've been considering for a while and to tide me over until the Pulp City: Full Effect campaign fulfills.

First up is Magman, Powerhouse for the Shadow Axis team of villains that I painted back in 2020. He is one of only a couple of members of that team that I don't have, and as he was in the sale I decided to grab him.

As you can probably guess, he is basically a great big bruiser made of lava, making him a veritable eruption of destruction on the table top. The downside being that, common to all Powerhouses, he is a drain on activation dice, rather than providing them.

I took a fairly simplistic approach to painting him, inspired by, but not exactly the same as, the method I used for my Balrog.

I undercoated the model in red and then gave him a heavy dry brush in black. After this I picked out all the deepest cracks with white and clgave the whole model a wash of Cassandora Yellow, which settle unevenly and gave the orange/yellow effect.

After this, I again dry brushed in black to tidy things up, followed by a light dusting of grey for highlighting.

The base is scratch built from card and aluminium mesh to fit in with the rest of the gang as I didn't have a suitable 50mm resin base.

The remaining two models are technically Omega Drones from the TechNet faction, which I don't own any other models for. However, I shall be using them as proxies for Sentry Bot minions (the cards for which are available from the Pulp City Limits Facebook group)

I'm using them as Sentry Bots as I struggle to field enough minions as I'm allowed to in my Red Republik and A.R.C. factions. Specifically, robots are a better fit than the ninjas I have for the scientific arm of the Ape Revolutionary Committee.

When I said I was looking for something simple to paint, it was the Omega Drones followed a simplistic pattern I've used on several projects. Spray silver, black wash, pick out feature colour.

I opted for glowing blue on these guys as I felt that red would look a bit too Terminator, whilst green might suggest Necron too much.

Although they were simple to paint, I'm pleased that I been able to get something done this weekend and keep myself occupied.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 403

Lead Mountain: 369