Usually I don’t make separate posts about in-progress projects, but I’m making an exception in this case because some parts of the project are done, and others are in a sort of limbo state waiting for me to decide what to do with them… so this seems like a good point to pause and post an update.

I still haven’t messed around much with miniature painting; it’s something I want to do, but minis are expensive and I’m leery of how many I’ll screw up before I get the hang of it. I’ve found a cheap starter mini of sorts, though: Heroclix figures. I picked up a few at 50 cents each at a local comic con recently, and the local Born to Game store has a $.50 bin of them as well, so I grabbed some more there. There are several that will be usable in my D&D campaign and a lot that can probably be useful for Mighty Protectors, though for most of them I don’t actually have any specific plans yet and with a few exceptions they don’t directly correspond to any of my existing characters.

Sweep the legs!

Step one was to tear off the clicky bases. They’re too big and bulky for a 1″ grid based game, and re-basing them also seemed like a decent project in itself. The figures are just glued to their bases, so I was able to pop them all off with relative ease by sliding a hobby knife blade under their feet and prying upward, circling around the larger bases this way until they detached.

Even heroes need a bath once in a while

For most of the figures I wanted to strip the paint off completely and re-coat them from the primer on up. The two exceptions to this were a policeman in SWAT type gear, who is already a pretty good stand-in for Lt. Starks, and a flail-and-shield-wielding ape. I’m planning to run a one-shot light-hearted “Wild Sheep Chase” adventure in the not too distant future which happens to feature, among other things, human guards polymorphed into apes.

All the others went one at a time into a plastic cup filled with acetone to strip off the existing paint as best I could. (I did this all outdoors, with gloved hands and safety glasses. Acetone isn’t a beverage.) Over time the acetone will also damage the figures’ underlying plastic, so I was careful to limit soaking time – usually swishing around until I saw some paint color start to blend into the liquid. Then I used a cheap paint brush dipped in the solution to brush loose the more stubborn bits. I couldn’t quite get all the color off all of them, but this ended up being close enough:

The “ghost” figure had a transparent lower body in its original form and now its upper body was translucent as well (though I couldn’t quite get all the white tint off its head). I decided I liked this look for the most part and moved him over with the cop and the ape ready for rebasing. While he doesn’t look much like a black-clothed teenage girl, I’ll likely use him as a stand-in for Invisigoth the next time she appears.

The rest of the remaining bunch were treated to a couple of very light coats of gray Krylon spray primer.

It’s all about those bases

The three figures I decided were “done” to the extent that they were base-ready were hot-glued to some 1″ washers with masking tape applied to cover the holes from underneath and keep the glue from sticking to the surface below. Then I used more hot glue as described in this DM Scotty video. This would level out the bases around their feet and provide something for sand, flocking, and paint to stick to.

Once the hot glue was fully set I painted some white glue around the bases. The two on the left were dipped into fine sand, while the ape’s base was simply dipped into some mixed grass flocking that had recently been shaken off a terrain project nearby. These were left to dry for what ended up being something like 16 hours.

For the sake of variety I decided to have ghost/Invisigoth (Invisighost?) running across some plain earth and Starks standing on a slab of concrete. (Maybe they’re battling each other at a construction site?) Ghost’s base got a coating of dark brown and Starks’ got a light gray, while the ape looked on with amusement.

The little nail pictured is something I used to try to scrape way sand that stuck to their legs. I got a little of the gray on Starks’ legs and had trouble getting it off, so I wrote it off as very well-shined boots reflecting their environment…

Finishing Touches

Though it’s difficult to see in the photos below, I applied a little more paint to the figures. Ghost’s base got a dry-brushing of a light tan and then a dark brown wash to try to bring out a little more texture. I gave the figure itself a bit of black wash to try to hiighlight some of the lines of the costume without sacrificing translucency. Starks’ base got a sandy-colored wash I’d made for a roads-and-sidewalks terrain project.

Finally, figures and bases were sprayed with Krylon clear matte finish for protection and to mute lingering glossiness from the original paint.

I’ll admit there’s a slight temptation to leave the back row as is and create an MP super-team called The Grey Company, whose archer had already been killed (because, really, a bow and arrow as a superpower?). But more likely the archer will become an elven bowman or ranger, and the the spear-shaking bald Hulk guy will turn into a particularly buff ogre or a diminutive hill giant who has to prove his worth in spite of his small size by working out constantly to keep himself strong. The Red Skull, when my MP takes one of its occasional detours into full-blown parody, will become The Crimson Cranium, arch-nemesis of Captain Generica. The big formerly blue Iron Man knock-off might become one of the power-armor troopers from a recent session if I decide to have them appear again.

The rest? Not really sure yet. But I’m keeping an eye out for more cheap Heroclix.

