Arkham inmates and Zsasz

I have a friend who works in mental health and gets upset about inaccurate portrayals of psychiatric facilities- One flew over the cuckoo's nest, electroconvulsive shocks, strait jackets etc. She'd be livid about Arkham Asylum!

I decided to go for some quick wins with some orange paint. I used Army Painter Fire Lizard and Light Tone over a Daemonic Yellow basecoat.

Zsasz is a recurring bat-villain. He is a psychotic knife-wielding killer, who cuts himself to keep a tally of his victims. I don't usually add blood to weapons, but there are exceptions such as this.

Batman: Cacophony (2008)

Batman Began

So, last year I threw cash at the Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Kickstarter. This week I received boxes of plastic stuff, and it will occupy a fair bit of my painting and blogging time.

I've made a start with the eponymous hero. I'm relieved the belt gives him a splash of colour, because otherwise's he's just boring monochrome, albeit with a dynamic pose. I'm not game to pump up the contrast in the cape much more. I'm adding a new scale tag for the blog- these figures are easily 35mm soles to eyes, and are on 30mm bases.

I have a vague strategy for painting the figures. Some are used more often (basic thugs etc), some use similar colours, some are just cool or will otherwise be fun to paint. There are plenty of bright colours, hidden eyes and faces (thus quick to paint) and dramatic capes. Be prepared for plenty of bat-content on this blog!

Journeys in Middle-Earth: the bad guys

I'm on a bit of a fantasy kick recently, what with Journeys in Middle Earth, SAGA: Age of Magic, and Game of Thrones (no spoilers please!). Here's the baddies from JiME:

Ruffians

Goblin Scouts

Orc Hunters

Orc Marauders

Hungry Wargs

Wights

Hill Troll

I enjoyed batch-painting these figures in their bite-sized quantities. I used Army Painter Oak Brown and Leather Brown with Vallejo 337 Highlight German Black (which is a dark brown) as three brown colours in rotation for their clothing and equipment, then Army Painter Gunmetal to weapons and armour, then Army Painter Strong Tone wash. I did the orcs and goblins with various green/ brown skin tones. I did the wargs following my 'How to paint wolf pelts' guide. I really appreciated the Hill Troll; he's got great muscular anatomy. I added a 40mm base to the wargs and troll.

Journeys in Middle-Earth

Journeys in Middle-Earth: Heroes and comparison to GW

I succumbed to its dark call, and got Journeys in Middle-Earth, a cooperative campaign boardgame. I had a lot of fun painting the miniatures- here they are on my criminally underused Realm of Battle:

Journeys in Middle-Earth heroes

 I really enjoyed painting their cloaks.

Aragorn

Legolas

Gimli

Bilbo

Beravor, female human ranger

Elena, female elf musician

The miniatures quickly grew on me. They're not identical to the wonderful Peter Jackson/ Alan Lee/ John Howe/ Weta Workshop visions, but are certainly similar and recognisable. I had thoughts of using my large-ish collection of gorgeous GW figures, but they are more fragile. And there's a significant size mismatch:

GW and FFG

Next week: the baddies!

Bilbo Baggins

I think I'm quite ready for another adventure. I'm being sucked towards FFG's new Journeys in Middle-Earth game, and realised I can fill most of the figures using GW's old range*. I don't have a painted Bilbo, and so took the opportunity to paint up this little guy.

And he really is little; I'm sure I've got bigger 18mm figures! I need to redo the base rim.

I wasn't alone in being disappointed by The Hobbit film trilogy, but you can't deny Martin Freeman was perfect casting. Here he is, in fine form:

*Except the females- there's only three women in Middle-Earth, and FFG adds two more...