August (Joker Henchman)

With the painting of first, my Gas Canister Objectives, and now this Henchman, my Joker crew building starts in earnest.

Originally I was going to put them in the orange jump-suits of the Arkham City game, as I did with Knife Clown, but after seeing Dan's Joker crew (here), I changed my mind. I have now settled on a mix of green and purple garments offset with grey vests etc., and probably some denim on the Elites. Knife Clown will probably have to have some kind of repaint eventually to fit in.

August is the first mini finished with the new colour scheme in mind, and was something of a test piece. How I highlight the purple will probably evolve as I paint some more. I have 3 more Henchmen started, although only 2 of those are currently planned for the crew.

The current list is planned as:

• Joker (AC version; I cannot see any reason to use any of the other 3 Jokers over this guy)
• Joker's Daughter (just to make a change from the seemingly ubiquitous AC Harley Quinn)
• Hush (already painted - yay!)
• Borgon - Hammer
• Sniggering - Assault Rifle
• August - Axe
• Contra-Auguste - Bat
• Clown (Tube)

With August now finished, and Hush painted a while ago, that puts me one quarter of the way to achieving this crew. I hope to add at least a couple more during December, and maybe finish the whole crew by January or February 2016.

BMG Painting Summary
BMG characters owned: 173 (added: Joker Elites, Joker Henchmen blister, Two Face Henchmen blister, Scarecrow AK crew box, Militia Brute, Wonderland Gang crew, Talia - comics)
Percentage of owned characters painted: 17.9% (31 models)

Joker Gas Canister Objectives

Okay, I admit I am starting work on a new crew. I hadn't planned to do a Joker crew yet, simply since they seem ubiquitous. However, given Knight Model's concentration on Joker (there seems to be a new option almost every month), I have relented in that stance.

Not sure whether or not they will get much game time; in 3 tournaments where around 40% of crews were Joker, plus some other games against Joker crews, I have only seen 1 crew use them in one tournament of 3 games. That says something to me. They are a mixed offering for Joker as each offers 1 VP per Round which opponent's cannot score from, and because model's Activating within 5 cm risk being damaged, that deters enemy model's contesting the, The downside is that to score, the Joker player has to risk his own model's on a Willpower test, meaning Leaders, Free Agents and Sidekicks offer better odds of surviving when scoring.

I started these Gas Canister Objectives many months ago thinking I would finish them quickly simply to get them done. That didn't happen. Cut to recent weeks when I decided to put together a Joker crew, and it was high time to get them out of the painting queue.

I am going green and purple on all models in some way in the new crew, but using a different tone of each colour to those used on the hard surfaces like these Gas Canisters.

I had planned to do the free hand 'HA!' twice on each of them, but trying to paint at an angle around a curved surface was enough of a pain to make me want to do it once only on each.

So, summing up, they have simple colour schemes, but I am counting them against my painted total for the year since they have a few colours used, some shading and some highlighting (plus I don't count terrain, so these offset that!).

Zombie

My first painted mini in November, and it has taken some time to get done. I started this during Zomtober but as I was focusing on my main theme (Zombie kids) it didn't get completed.

Come November, and a combination of work being very busy, consequent tiredness and finishing the Sovereign Theatre kit put painting minis on the back burner.

In the last week or so I have felt more motivated so a few more models have been concurrently tickled with the hairy sticks, meaning I may finish one, two or hopefully more before the end of the month... hopefully.

The mini itself is interesting to me, not least because Cold War, but I am very uncertain of that.
of the nature of his main injury, although the oversized hands are pretty crude. Not sure of the manufacturer, maybe

Now though, with another Zombie finished, I realise I really do need to do a new 'horde' picture before too long.

Sovereign Theatre (TTCombat)

Another kit I have bought from the TTCombat City Scenics range in order to improve my contemporary city-scape options, I was immediately taken with the Sovereign Theatre when I first saw it.

The kit is the usual great value from TTCombat in my humble opinion (£19.95 GBP shipped to  the UK, ordering via Ebay or the TTCombat site), and was the first larger kit for which I used my new technique for painting MDF kits: basically I paint parts together while still on the sprue where they are grouped with parts to be painted the same colour. The painting is done with 4 inch sponge mini rollers and Vallejo paint. The paint this way seems to work out cheaper than using up potentially multiple cans of spray, and I am happy with the texture, plus touch up colour matching is made easier!

The build time was hard to calculate as it was made over a few sessions, but I would say around two hours, most of which was spent on the ticket office and the overhang on which the theatre sign and movie line-up sits. There was a certain amount of fiddly construction there as parts had to be lined up to a couple of planes while trying to slot everything together.

The kit comes with a number options for movies/productions that are playing; theatre names and sign design; and also 'posters' to be stuck to the sides of the building. There are also seats which can be assembled and included but which I opted against.

The footprint of the base is approximately 12 inches by 8 inches, while the main building is an approximate cube, 8 inches wide, deep and high. The overhang is around 3 3/4 inches high. Pulp City figures and a Hasslefree Zombie are used for scale reference. Wildman (standing on the overhang) is on a 40 mm base, showing the overhang can accommodate 40 mm bases.

All in all a recommended kit, and I think it offers great value. Thus far, I have not been dissatisfied with any TTCombat kit I have picked up.

Scaffolding & Subway Entrances

Some recent terrain acquisitions to Pulp Citizen towers!

The figures used for scale are Gentleman (Pulp City) and a Hasslefree Miniatures Zombie.

Scaffolding
The scaffolding set is produced by TTCombat costing £3.95 including shipping (within the UK), and comes with a wheeled power generator (not pictured). For the price I am very impressed with the kit and thoroughly recommend it.

The build time was a little over an hour, excluding painting. That time included cutting parts from the frame. It is not hard to put together, but the cross-pieces give a few placement options so I tried to leave one of the sides more 'open' to make it easier to get minis in and out of the middle level.

Subway Entrances
These subway entrances come as a pair and are by Polish company Multiverse Gaming. They shipped quickly and I thought the shipping cost was very fair, and so I will be ordering from them again.

The price is €11.95 (around £8.60 at current exchange rate). I think this is great value for the kits.

The subway entrance kits come with card relief detailing which I feel really lifts what could have been very boxy and flat constructs. Build time was around 20 minutes per subway entrance. the most fiddly thing to do is glue the card in place, and beware that the card detailing is quite fragile.


Both of these sets add extra options to my urban terrain and honestly I think both are great buys and well worth the investment.