Forgotten Heroes

We Could Be Heroes…

/ Carrion Crow / 6 Comments

The August Bank Holiday stretches ahead of me, pregnant with possibility and as I have only a few things planned, paint will come out and figures will be progressed.

However, I have not been idle since my last post, so a quick update is in order… along with some exciting news. But I’ll get to that shortly.

First, let’s take a look at the cast of Blackadder II;

The flesh paint came out and everyone got a more natural complexion. Both Baldrick and Percy have been given a bit more work, although I may need to tone down Percy’s outfit, as it’s a bit too orange.

Melchett, Queenie and Nursie have also been “fleshed,” with Melchett’s fur and Nursie’s dress also painted. I will be darkening Nursie down, as her costume is a darker blue.

Next, a brace of Flashheart’s. Next to each other, there’s a clear difference in height, but as each figure matches the approximate height of their companion figures, I’m not overly bothered.

And on the Action Man/Force front…

Quarrel got some make-up and Action Man himself has been based and undercoated.

As have Baron Ironblood and the Black Major. I did some additional work on both the Cavalier and Victorian Blackadder’s, as well as fleshing the rest of the WWI cast, but nothing of real note, so no pictures.

I have also now received the figures I ordered for Grand Admiral Blackadder of the Dark Segment, his thrall Baldrick and the two figures I intend to convert into modern Baldrick from Blackadder – Back and Forth and Tom Stone, so expect to see them appearing soon.

Now, on to the exciting news.

As 2026 will be the 10th anniversary of Forgotten Heroes, I thought this needed to be marked in some way.

So, I hatched a cunning plan…

I would design an anniversary pin badge, get them made and anyone who takes part next year gets one sent to them in the post, once the challenge has been completed.

The company I contacted not only nailed the design, they were about half the price of the others I approached.

And they arrived today, so I thought I’d show you all what could be yours to proudly display on whatever item of clothing you choose.

And if your first thought on seeing this is not “That is SO fucking awesome!”, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Thirty badges exist, one of which I’ll be keeping for myself, but the remainder should cover everyone who wants to take part next year.

Am I good to you or what?

Hell’s teeth, if I continue like this, I’ll need to get a merch store…

Join me next time for more Blackadder and Action Man fun, the crossover no-one saw coming.

“The Flying Flagellator…”

/ Carrion Crow / 10 Comments

…obsessed by medieval weapons…with a strong need to inflict punishment on the “carrion of crime”… plenty there for a psychiatrist…

As I spent most of last weekend moving house and settling into the new Crow’s Nest, this didn’t give me a lot of spare time.

I had planned on finishing off my version of Carrion Crow from Marshal Law: Super Babylon after work one evening this week, but what with archery, dental appointments and a visit to my Mothers, time seemed to slip through my fingers like grains of sand.

It doesn’t help that my local pub is now a five minute walk from my front door. I didn’t think I’d been in there that often, until they automatically applied a 7% “loyalty discount” to my order…

Hmmm…may have to be a little more strict with myself going forward.

Anyway, back at the beginning of the month I started off with this Heroclix Hawkman;

With the intention of turning it into Carrion Crow, a Golden Age “hero” from the Marshal Law universe and member of the Jesus Society of America.

As I could find no images online, I took these from the copy of Super Babylon from my reduced comic collection.

I set aside some time today to crack on and get him finished, ignoring the siren call of the pub and the dirty looks the rest of the miniatures in the Tray of Shame were giving me.

The results are below;

I decided not to give him the yellow eagle logo on his lower torso and wisely decided not to attempt the tiny white cross that is part of the JSA logo on the “shields” on his boot tops and upper chest, as that way lies both frustration and madness.

I’m pretty happy with how he came out and it’s another unique figure to add to my collection.

Whilst there is still one day left (which means Keith will probably slip one last figure under the wire), I’d just like to thank everyone who took part this year;

Keith aka The Angry Piper over at Dead Dick’s Tavern and Temporary Lodging, who has already completed an awesome Phantom miniature, as well a lovely version of Chemistro and no doubt has something else up his sleeve…

Dave from Wargamesculptorsblog has been secretly beavering away on his B’omarr Monk, but we have yet to see the finished results, as every time we go to his site, there’s space marines… fousands of ’em! They get everywhere. I’m sure the fruits of his labour will be on show shortly.

New entrants this year, Grodds ‘n’ Sods and The Periodic Painting Table have completed the Steve Ditko creation Odd Man and the League of Extraodinary Gentleman’s very own Mina Harker respectively. Both worthy entries, excellent conversions and shows that even those new to this particular challenge can make their mark.

Next year marks the 10th anniversary of this crazy challenge, so let’s make it the biggest and best yet! That means everyone who sat out this year needs to take part and you all need to bring your A game… including me.

Whether I finally get around to creating Big Wheel or go completely rogue, I have no idea yet. I know it needs to be big, it needs to be epic and it needs to be ridiculously obscure…

And as I have a year to plan AND it’s the 10th anniversary, maybe they’ll be a little keepsake for all participants.

As Baldrick would say… I have a cunning plan.

Join me next time where I may possibly be taking part in the Summer of Scenery challenge, if  what I’ve ordered turns up in time.

“The Ornithological Outlaw…”

/ Carrion Crow / 3 Comments

So, nine days into this year’s Forgotten Heroes challenge and all I’ve posted so far is what I intend to do, whereas others have already finished their figure…

Bit of a poor show, no?

However, whilst my time has been spent emptying the Aladdin’s Cave of Crap I call my loft (which is now empty) prior to my actual move to my new flat, I did manage to get some work done on Carrion Crow (no relation).

We started with this:

So, naturally, off his base he came and I began carving. Off came his ears, axe was removed and I carefully trimmed off his mad chicken feet. And this was the initial result.

Next out came the Milliput, as I needed to turn his wrist guards into gloves, he needed buccaneer boot tops and due to over-enthusiastic carving, his head needed restoring to an actual head shape.

The Milliput was initially been a bit recalcitrant, but after a good talking to and threats of being consigned to the bin  it began to behave itself and we ended up with this;

Obviously, I also based him at the same time…

This was left to cure and I finally managed to set aside some time to break out the paints.

This took slightly longer than anticipated, as I made the foolish assumption that I’d remembered his colour schemes and merrily painted his main costume with GW Enchanted Blue.

Taking a coffee break, I went and got the source material, discovering that his main costume is actually grey…

So, after he’s sufficiently dried, I repainted his main costume the correct colour, whilst muttering under my breath about the fact that I caused myself additional work by being a twat.

However, when I reached my self-imposed time limit, this is where I’d got to;

So, almost done, which is quite gratifying.

But as I had to wait for the paint to dry between different parts, I didn’t sit on my laurels, but progressed my Gingerbread Dragon too, so he/she/it now looks like this;

Still a way to go, but at least it’s not just brown anymore.

And yes, the “icing” is deliberately messy, because iced Gingerbread does tend to end up like that.

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself…

And Forgotten Heroes roll call!

Mister C at Periodic Painting is converting a West Wind harlot into Mina Murray from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic book series, not the terrible movie).

Grodds ‘n’ Sods has already completed his the wonderfully obscure DC character Odd Man, who’s costume probably took as long to paint as the actual conversion.

Dave at Wargamesculptorsblog has yet to begin his figure, but has been beavering away on other stuff, even with his health issues, so kudos to him.

As for the Angry Piper at Dead Dick’s Tavern & Temporary Lodging? Nary a peep from him. Probably off fighting Tharks on Barsoom, with nothing to protect his modesty except for a tiny posing pouch and his own natural wit and charm.

Pray for him…

Join me next time for MORE four-color fun and Forgotten Heroes rolls ever onward!

Forgotten Heroes 2025!

/ Carrion Crow / 7 Comments

The first of June is upon us and that can only mean one thing… it’s time for Forgotten Heroes 2025!

Returning for it’s ninth consecutive year (which is a terrifying record, but a record nevertheless), it is once again time to gird your loins, assemble your tools and prepare to Frankenstein those poor little Heroclix figures in something way cooler.

Full rules, can be found in my last post here, but if you’ve taken part or watched from a distance before, you pretty much know what’s going on.

So, whilst Forgotten Heroes evolved from Roger (from Rantings from Under the Wargames Table fame) and my attempts to recreate the cast of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon from the 80’s, my first ever comic book conversion pre-dated the start of both this blog and the one that preceded it.

In fact my first ever conversion was probably completed in around 1990, so we’re talking about 35 years ago. But who was this mystery comic book hero that graced my gaming table and bookshelf? None other than… Marshal Law!

Created by Pat Mills and Kev O’Neill in 1987, Marshal Law first appeared in a 6 issue limited series published by Epic Comics. Set in a ravaged San Francisco of the future, renamed San Futuro after “the Big One” – an earthquake that devastated most of the city, Marshal Law was a sanctioned hero hunter, employed by the U.S. government to deal with those surplus heroes created to fight in a Central American conflict who were then discarded and went a little off the rails. Marshal Law himself was a veteran of this conflict, but his own sense of justice cause him to initially take up arms against these renegade “heroes” as a costumed vigilante dubbed “the Vet” (short for veteran, not veterinarian).

The series had extreme graphic violence, nudity and skewered superhero conventions of the time, as well as US government policy and society. It was also very, very funny – so just the kind of macabre humour that appealed to me.

As Marshal Law had a very distinctive look and carried massively oversized ordnance, it was kind of a no-brainer at the time to use a Games Workshop Imperial Guard officer, complete with peaked cap and greatcoat. I created the cap emblem from scratch and spent a long time wrapping fuse wire around his arm to represent the barbed wire this character characteristically is adorned with.

The finished figure was pretty cool for a first attempt at a conversion and my young eyes were up to the challenge of replicating most of the distinctive logos and text on Marshal Law’s uniform, although where this figure is now I have no idea. I think I may have given it away to one of my friends who was a massive Marshal Law fan…

So, roll on 35 years and we get to Forgotten Heroes 2025, high time to revisit Marshal law’s universe. But are we going to be creating Marshal Law?

Of course not.

Whilst he is a little niche, hasn’t had an official figure produced and I will probably do him and some point, I thought I’d go even more obscure this year, with a character that appeared in only one Marshal law special – Super Babylon, published by Dark Horse in 1992. This tale literally resurrected a whole batch of heroes from the 1940’s (due to toxic waste that turned them into zombies), including the Marshal Law universe’s analogue of DC’s JSA – although in this universe, they are called the Jesus Society of America.

And their analogue of Hawkman is called… Carrion Crow.

So naturally, I HAD to make him.

As he only appeared in a one-shot graphic novel, even my extensive web searches could not find an image of him. Luckily I not only have the original one-shot Super Babylon from 1992, I also have the trade paperback which collected, Kingdom of the Blind, The Hateful Dead and Super Babylon, so was able to take a series of photos of him, so at least you know I’m not just making this shit up.

And which figure am I going to use as the basis for my Carrion Crow?

Another no-brainer there…

So, a relatively easy conversion – removal of head wings and chicken feet on his boots, turn his wrist armlets into gloves, and add some boot tops. Then it will just be a case of painting him in the appropriate colours. I realise that the mask is not 100% accurate, but I think mine will actually look better than how the original character is depicted. We shall see.

Currently, those other bloggers and creative types who have thrown their hat into the ring this year are;

Keith from Dead Dick’s Tavern & Temporary Lodging, who will no doubt pull some obscure DC character or two that I’ve never heard of our of his hat.

Dave at Wargamesculptor, who is adding to his vast collection of hand-crafted Star Wars figures with the addition of a B’omarr Monk, which is essentially a brain in ajar attached to a robotic spider body – which is just as cool as it sounds.

A new addition this year is the creative genius over at Grodds ‘n’ Sods, who is going for an obscure Steve Ditko character from Detective Comics #487 – Odd Man. Never even heard of this guy, so fits the whole Forgotten Heroes thing to a tee.

These are the ones that I definitely know about, but if you would like to take part, just drop a comment on here letting me know and providing a link to where we can marvel at your work.

Now, let’s get to work!

Dragon My Heels

/ Carrion Crow / 9 Comments

So, I had set aside Bank Holiday Monday as the day I would crack on with my gingerbread dragon, with the hopes of having it completed by the end of the week.

And what did I end up doing?

Nothing.

Sometimes, ennui sets in and even with the best will in the world, you end up doing bugger all.

After spending the majority of the day moping about the house, I decided that I needed to do something, just so I didn’t feel like I’d wasted the day. So I watched Batman Returns…

As you can see, no progress has been made since my last post and I get the feeling that it’s silently judging me. If I find the bloody thing perched on my chest when I wake up tomorrow, then I’ll know he ain’t happy…

Anyway, on to more exciting things.

June is almost upon us and that brings my annual painting/converting challenge known far and wide as… Forgotten Heroes!

As there are some who would like to take part who only post on that there Instagram, I will be popping post on there too, so everyone who wants to can get involved.

Whilst long-time readers will know what this is all about, I will reiterate the rules (such as they are) for newcomers (and no, I shall not be using the term “n00bs,” as I have more dignity than that…)

So, during the month of June, all those taking part must create a figure of a character who either has not yet had a figure produced of them or has, but you feel you can do better.

Any scale, any character, but you cannot use an existing figure which was specifically designed to represent that character, so no 3D printed knock-offs purporting to be ‘thunder god’ or whatever.

Could be as simple as repainting an existing figure in a different could scheme (Blue Beetle into Goldbug), adapting an existing figure into a completely different character (Godzilla into Stegron the Dinosaur Man), cobbling together an entirely new figure from parts (like I did with Taskmaster) or sculpting from scratch. Entirely up to you.

Your first post on whatever platform you choose should include a reference picture of the character you’re going to make, so we can see what you’re aiming for.

If you wish to take part, just drop a comment here or on the Instagram post and I will provide links to all those taking part, so you can all see what everyone else is up to.

As for my entry this year, I’ve discovered he’s so obscure that my usual strong Web fu has failed me, as apparently there do not exist any images online of him, so I’ve had to dig out the orginal comic to take photos of.

Intriguing, no?

Forgotten Heroes assemble!

Getting Back into the Groove

/ Carrion Crow / 7 Comments

Yes, the Crow has returned…

As Keith is running Monster (May)hem! this month and I tentatively agreed to take part, mainly to get over my current fucked up personal life, I had to go over to the new flat, as that’s where the majority of my stuff is.

It’s slightly annoying being in limbo regarding where I’m actually living, but that’s estate agents for you – dragging their heels when everyone else is eager to get on with their lives.

Anyway, I rummaged through all my boxes of figures, only to discover that I didn’t really have anything that fit into the category of a ‘monster.’

But that’s because I sometimes overthink things.

Am I not in the throes of my Santa Wars project? Is there not a Gingerbread Dragon that’s only had a base coat? And if a dragon isn’t a monster, what is?

So, out came the Tray of Shame and here’s the beastie before I started:

All he’s had is a white undercoat and the base block colour, which I can’t remember what it’s actually called, so we shall call it ‘cookie dough.’

Now, I knew I wanted to give the whole figure a wash and I knew I wanted it to end up looking like baked gingerbread, but wasn’t entirely sure what colour to use. Obviously, it needed to be a shade of brown, but I needed it to be the right shade of brown, otherwise it would look shit.

As I’d used ‘cookie dough’ to paint the gnomes’ shields, I thought I’d test the initial colour on there first. Whilst the brown worked for the shields, it wasn’t the colour I wanted.

So, this was remixed and the Julebocken (giant Christmas goat) was my next test subject. This also didn’t give me the colour I wanted, but meant the Jolnír’s faction was getting progressed, so extra work was done on these chaps too, so I ended up with that faction looking like this:

Of course, deciding to paint both their tunics and trousers blue means that the Nisse all look like they are now wearing boiler suits…

After throwing various other colours into the mix, I finally got a colour that I thought would work, so watered it down and liberally plastered it all over the dragon, with the hope that once it dried it would look the way I wanted. Whilst waiting, I decided to work on Doc Kringle’s faction, and they are now very close to completion:

GW Bogey Green – my go-to paint for night vision lenses…

As I’d treated myself to some new paints, including a decent yellow and a very pale blue, both Candy Cane and the Snow Queen received a bit of attention, but not enough to warrant showing this time.

However, my third new paint was a pretty decent red, and as the Hogfather’s was currently wearing an outfit the colour of which could only be described as ‘raw sausage,’ he was the first recipient of new red. I also dry-brushed the boars with a dark grey, so the whole ensemble now looks like this:

However, it’s Monster (May)hem, so let’s get back to the main event…

Happy that the wash had given me the right look, I cracked open the white paint and picked out the swirls on it’s wings (which I think are supposed to be those spiral lollipops), it’s antlers and the big old blob on the end of it’s tail. I’m thinking candy cane antlers and a pink Licorice Allsort for the tail, to tie in the colours.

He’s starting to look rather tasty…

So, not a great deal done on the monster, but some progress is better than no progress.

Now, on a completely unrelated note – other than to show what a creative bugger I am, it was my daughter-in-law’s birthday recently and she is a HUGE Lego fan.

I knew that others had bought her standard sets, but me being me, I wanted to do something a little special.

Having discovered that the main Lego website has an option to build your own minifigure out of various available parts (with an interface to show what it will look like), I thought it would be quite cool if I could build both my daughter-in-law, my son AND their dog as a ‘set’ to give her on her birthday.

Turns out I could.

But did I leave it at that?

Of course I bloody didn’t.

Whilst they were away, I snuck round their house and took a photo of it, then using my creative skills, created a box with the contents against this background, yellow side banner, text and Lego logo, so it looked authentic

The standard text on Lego sets is the appropriate age for the set, a five-digit serial number and the set name. The age I put on was how old she was going to be and the serial number is her actual birthday. This is what the finished article looked like:

Understandably, she absolutely frigging  loved it.

Of course, I may have just ordered a minifigure of myself, complete with pint of stout as an accessory, because… well, why the hell not?

But he won’t be arriving alone, as I may have got a bit carried away…

Anyway, that’s all for this post.

Remember that once Monster (May)hem is done at the end of the month, June will see the annual return of Forgotten Heroes!

I’d best source myself some conversion fodder, as Heroclix aren’t as easy to get in the UK as they are in America, otherwise I’ll be a bit stuffed.

Until next time.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

/ Carrion Crow / 2 Comments

Whilst I have been accruing and basing figures for my Santa Wars project, I thought it was about time I started painting the bloody things, so as last weekend was pretty much free of anything I really needed to do AND I had the house to myself, out came the paints.

All Chrimbo figures (and the original Ghostbusters) were given an obligatory undercoat of white, which served to highlight that I’d missed some flash on a couple of the figures, so this needed to be trimmed before the actual painting began.

First up, St. Nicholas, Pere Fouettard, Knecht Ruprecht and Belsnickel.

Having looked at numerous images of each character online, which varied massively, I ended up picking the colours I thought best suited the figure, taking into account that the more dour trio needed to be easily distinguishable from one another.

Next, Jolnír and the Julbocken.

A little extra paint on Jolnír, but as the Julbocken is a cheap Chinese toy, this required trimming of mold lines.

Furthermore, as the head and chest appear to be a separate piece to the main body, there was a noticeable groove between the two pieces, which was filled with Milliput and then hair sculpted. Currently this still requires an undercoat, but once this is done, it shouldn’t be as obvious as it is now.

Still no sign of my Nisse (gnomes), but I think these are cast to order, so might be a while before they turn up.

Next, Doc Kringle and three of the four Airboys.

The one armed with a grapple gun has yet to have the rope attached, so is not yet ready to be painted.

The Airboy’s jackets are too dark, so these will change to a lighter green, with the current shade being used for a wash. I have also not yet decided on trouser colour, so this may change as well.

Big Nick, Kandi, Chestnut and Lil’ Drummer Boy.

The other three human members of the faction arrived and were based up, but this was after the first round of painting.

Still need some muscle for this faction, but not sure what it will be yet. Might have to see I can find some kind of mechanical golem that looks like it was constructed out of motorcycle parts or something…

I also gave the Krampus a first lick of paint.

As most depictions of the hairy-assed version of Krampus show him with very dark brown/black fur, I thought I’d start with a base coat of grey and work from there. Whether he’ll end up as a faction leader or just someone who shows up to annoy everyone, I haven’t decided yet.

And I’ve assembled the Gingerbread Dragon…

The superglue worked, but I ended up with noticeable gaps between the parts, so Milliput was used to fill the gaps. May need to gently file this down for a smoother finish.

And a second picture to give a sense of how big it is.

This was the 75mm tall one  which was £9.60, which I think is big enough to be a threat, but not too big to dominate the table. Smallest you can get is 50mm tall,  and the largest is listed as “Gargantuan” for £50, but the listing doesn’t specify the actual height. However, for about £20 you can get one 114mm tall. I guess it depends on just how much dragon you want.

One thing I didn’t notice in the pics online is that the dragon has two holes in its wings, near the top. I’m assuming that this is so you could hang it from your tree as a decoration, should you so wish, but I’d suggest getting one of the smaller ones for that purpose.

Now, I mentioned  a couple of posts ago about possibly writing up a faction for the Snow Queen and her ice/snow golems. I initially was thinking along the lines of Elsa from Frozen and her Ice Golem, both of which I know where to source figures for. However, I then remembered that I have the below metal Mage Knight Mending Priestess, bought from Ral Partha Europe a while ago;

Not my paint job, I have to state, as this figure is now OOP, so had to hunt for a suitable image online.

I also have at least one figure I can use as a suitable minion for her, which is this;

This is a Chillfire Destroyer, from the D&D plastic figures range which I’ve had since 2015 and has appeared on this blog a couple of times since then. Added bonus is that as it’s pre-painted, all I need to do is ‘snow’ the base.

And as the obscure Marvel character Dr. Tannenbaum is a Christmas-themed villain, I may have a candidate for this year’s Forgotten Heroes.

Like an avalanche, this project started slowly, but is gathering momentum to consume all in its path.

Bring on the eggnog!

“My Moniker’s The Taskmaster…”

/ Carrion Crow / 10 Comments

The end of the month was rapidly approaching and my entry for this year’s Forgotten Heroes was languishing in the Tray of Shame, untouched by brush or paint.

Various things had gotten in the way, so once I’d completed all my weekend jobs, I broke out the paints and began.

To remind everyone what I was hoping to achieve, this particular image of Taskmaster is the one that resonated with me;

I knew that my version wouldn’t be an exact copy, but as long as I ticked most of the boxes, I was hoping that everyone looking at my figure would know who it was.

So, this was the initial build;

Then, after some adjustments and a bit of sculpting, I ended up with this;

Now, I was initially just going to go with a dark blue and white colour scheme, but looking at the above image and my paints, I decided a bit of vibrant orange might give ol’ TM a bit of pop.

I also decided to use a mid-blue for his main body-suit, with a dark blue wash, rather than go dark blue with a black wash for the shadows.

And here is the results:

I like Taskmaster’s shield design so had a go at replicating it, although I decided that the stylised ‘T’ should be above the white ring, rather than bisected it. I also attempted to duplicate this design on his belt buckle, which was a little fiddly, but kinda works.

For his eyes, I initially was going to give him human like eyes (i.e.black on white) but this didn’t work, so went with black eyesockets with orange ‘glowing’ pupils, which I think looks more effective, even if a close look will show that my hand wasn’t entirely steady when I did them…

Anyway, he’s finished before the end of the month  and I’m happy with the end result, so it’s a win.

I’d just like to thank all of those who took part this year – Dave at Wargames Terrain Workshop, who put us all to shame with the sheer volume of Star Wars characters he produced, Roger from Rantings from Under the Wargames Table, who produced a fantastic version of The Shield from an obscure toy line of the 70’s, and Keith over at Dead Dick’s Tavern & Temporary Lodging, who gave us the DC hero Judomaster, Matt Wagner’s Grendel and the incredibly obscure Bee-Man. Go and marvel at their creativity.

And remember, Forgotten Heroes happens every June, so if you were tempted to take part, but it was a bit late notice, you’ve got 12 months to plan for next year – which will be the 9th year running.

Which, of course, means that for the 10th anniversary in 2026, I’m going to have to produce something freaking amazing.

Task… Mastered!

/ Carrion Crow / 10 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted on here, as I have had a couple of weekends where I was unsupervised (i.e. no responsible adult present), which meant rather than progressing my figure, I took advantage of the fact that it was warm and sunny and went in search of places I could drink beer in the rare British sunshine

However, as the end of June looms ever closer, I finally knuckled down and broke out the Greenstuff, dubious as to whether I could get it behave this time.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Whether the age of my strip (this is the same piece that you sent me, Roger, many moons ago) helped, I don’t know. But I found it easy to use and sculpt, although I once again misjudged exactly how much of the stuff I needed.

First order of the day was to file down the back of Taskmaster’s head, as I’d made it too big, so he looked like he had encephalitis. Once his noggin was a more natural size, I flattened a piece of Greenstuff and wrapped it around the back of his head, then slowly smoothed and teased it into shape, until I was happy with result, as below;

And from the rear;

Once this was done, the base received a light coating of PVA/water mix, a sprinkling of sand, then a further coat of my thinned down glue to ensure it stayed on the base.

As long as nothing has fallen off, he should now be ready to paint.

As I still had a reasonable piece of Greenstuff left, I then moved onto the figure I have of the 2nd Doctor, as portrayed by Patrick Troughton.

As previously mentioned, for some reason they decided to sculpt him wearing a tailcoat, which he didn’t actually wear – which just wouldn’t do.

Rolling a couple of thin sausages of Greenstuff, these were applied to the existing edges of the lower front of his coat, then carefully blended in and teased out at the front, so that his coat looked like it should. The result is below;

The remaining blob of Greenstuff was stuck to the head of the figure I am intending on using as MY version of the 13th Doctor.

I’d already decided that THIS Doctor should have flowing locks, to match his rakish pose and costume.

This took some time, as my inexperience with Greenstuff resulted in his hair migrating down his back, due to my heavy-handedness with the sculpting tool. Once I’d realised that’s what the issue was and a more delicate touch was needed, we were back on track.

He now looks like a 17th centrury version of the Joker, but once painted, it should all come together.

So, as I only have a week left, probaly need to crack on with the painting…

And sure to check what everyone who has joined me this year is up to.

Dave at Wargame Sculptor in in the process of scratch-building some Star Wars droids, Keith at Dead Dick’s Tavern & Temporary Lodging has already completed the DC character Judomaster and Roger from Rantings from Under the Wargames Table is currently crafting a character from an obscure toyline that not even I had heard of, which is a first, because as my wife says, I know a lot of crap.

Dismemberment 101

/ Carrion Crow / 10 Comments

So, having gathered together the component parts for my version of Taskmaster, I began.

His legs, torso and arms were sourced from a Void 1.1 Junker hard plastic miniature, so the legs were clipped from the sprue, cleaned up and glued into the 25mm slotta base. The torso was assembled, tidied up and then glued into place.

Looking at the various depictions of Taskmaster, it would appear he is ambidextrous, but the majority show him as primarily right-handed, so a sword (from a bonus miniature supplied when I ordered a sample for Archon Studios) was snipped from the figure and attached to the hand on his right arm.

Looking at the thigh straps and flat parts on his outer thighs, it was obvious that we needed something there. A weapons pouch from a Wargames Atlantic Eisenkern Stormtrooper sprue (or at least some kind of pouch) was glued to his right thigh, in approved 90’s Rob Liefeld fashion, and the flat part of on his left thigh was filed down, leaving this as just the strap, as I had a cunning plan.

The original appearance of Task master showed him with a coiled rope/whip attached to his left hip and I had something of this ilk left on a sprue of Mantic Forge Father Steel Warriors (Dwarves in Spaaaaace!), so this was added.

The front of a Junker head was trimmed down and the front half of a very old GW plastic skeleton head was added, creating the distinctive skull mask of Taskmaster.

Finally, a GW circular shield (from the same Skeleton Horde boxed set) was attached to his left arm, as although ol’ Taskie has used an energy shield, I prefer the metal one that has the stylised ‘T’ on it.

And this is the result:

The idea is to sculpt the hood over the existing head using either Green Stuff or Milliput, add some fine sand to the base and he should be ready to paint. And that belt buckle is just crying out for the Taskmaster symbol.

And here’s a rear view, which gives a better view of his coiled rope/whip/Lasso of Truth…

I may have to file the back of his head down a bit, just so the hood sits better, but due to the shape of the rear portion of his head, I might get away with just creating the front part and blending it in.

NB: The title of this post is from a speech TM made, suggesting that he was going to use Ant-Man and Yellowjacket as visual aides in the above class he was teaching.

For those of you still on the fence, there is till time to join in this creative madness and I will list the participants in the next post.

Until next time…