obsidian3d's Supers Painting Thread

[Hat Guy]

I was actually thinking of JMS' Marvel Max take on the team; Supreme Power. The (too short) series is a postmodern take on the Justice League and the irreconcilable nature of the Silver Age with contemporary thought process.

Yeah, I'm a Literature graduate...

[styx]

Besides the Squadron's early appearances in the 1970's Avengers issues, my favorite story with them might be Defenders 110 - 113, in the early 1980's.

Of course, they were mind controlled.

The 12 issue series from the late, great Mark Gruenwald was also great, but served more as a deconstruction of the team than anything else.

The graphic novel at the end was very interesting when their universe was about to end...I had always hoped they would have turned up in the regular universe or something....or as dimensional hopping team...you did read the graphic novel?

[styx]

I was actually thinking of JMS' Marvel Max take on the team; Supreme Power. The (too short) series is a postmodern take on the Justice League and the irreconcilable nature of the Silver Age with contemporary thought process.

Yeah, I'm a Literature graduate...

After the 80's and the end of the silver era, Marvel and DC both took a huge dump in thier universe and just totally jacked everything over trying to refresh it....instead of keeping the status quo....

What annoys me the most is making Nick Fury black just for Samuel Jackson in the movies....that's nice he has a part in the Avengers and I have no ethinic hates, but Nick was what he was and then just to change his race is insane. That would be like making Falcon and Black Panther of the Avengers white or hispanic....makes no sense. If you want to introduce an ethinic superhero or character then do just that don't remake something. Always a bad plan.

[Hat Guy]

Styx, Nick Fury was black in the Ultimate Marvel Universe from 1999 onwards. He's a Gulf War veteran who gets promoted to the Director of SHIELD (and to General) after the apparent death of General Ross.
In the Ultimate Universe, SHIELD is a branch of the American Government that is tasked to deal with "Super-Terror" after Magneto almost kills the President (he's stopped by Quicksilver and Professor X). Eventually SHIELD uses the Ultimates (Avengers) to make preemptive strikes on "Rogue States", prompting a strike back by America's enemies. In the aftermath, Fury goes underground.
In the Ultimates, Nick Fury demands that Sam Jackson plays him in the movie. 

[styx]

Styx, Nick Fury was black in the Ultimate Marvel Universe from 1999 onwards. He's a Gulf War veteran who gets promoted to the Director of SHIELD (and to General) after the apparent death of General Ross.
In the Ultimate Universe, SHIELD is a branch of the American Government that is tasked to deal with "Super-Terror" after Magneto almost kills the President (he's stopped by Quicksilver and Professor X). Eventually SHIELD uses the Ultimates (Avengers) to make preemptive strikes on "Rogue States", prompting a strike back by America's enemies. In the aftermath, Fury goes underground.
In the Ultimates, Nick Fury demands that Sam Jackson plays him in the movie. 

And that is when I facepalmed myself and decided Marvel had ruined their universe....again makes no sense to rewrite everything....sorta like how Hollywood has to remakea movie instead of making a new one.

[Hat Guy]

I understand your point of view Styx, the Ultimate Universe was just an attempt to entice new readers, however, The Ultimates and Ultimate Spiderman is some of the sharpest and best comic work Marvel has put out in years. It confronted issues in an intelligent, adult manner and used background characters as more than just set dressing. Plot points are left unanswered for long periods rather than resolved at the end of an issue, like Peter Parker's misunderstanding of Fury's intentions to make him an Ultimate when he turns 18.

"You're going to be a hero kid, one of the best."

[Benny]

I got to agree with HatGuy. Although i see your point styx. I myself was upset by what the new people have done to Dr Who so i feel your pain. But i never had an interest in the old Avengers Comics. If Nick Fury is really from WW2 in 2012 he will be too old to do anything. Spider Man should be pushing 65-70. The only supers i can see still going are maybe Cap America (Super Soldier thing made him immune to aging) Wolverine (regeneration stops or slows aging) and maybe superman Kryptionians age differently. Most of the original guys should be so old and decrepit that they are more a hindrance than a hero.
The costumes as well seem dated. Hawkeyes purple and pink tights?? The Vision all green and yellow with a red face?? I felt these ideas needed an update and the ultimate's stuff visually and chronologically brought them into a now era where i felt it made more sense.

My other issue is all the crossover stuff that the classics had, i dont want to have to read 6 different comics every week just to follow one or 2 stories. Things like Marvels Ultimates and DC's All Star stuff tended to keep the main story and characters in the one comic.

[obsidian3d]

Well just to pull things back on topic, I've got two more super-powered figures almost ready to go. These ones are a result of the "what should I paint next" survey I put out last week. I'm hoping the bases will be finished up tonight or tomorrow, and will thus make an appearance on the interwebs some time Friday.

[styx]

Very cool, looking forward to seeing them. Waiting on some bases and better weather to start my primer and painting of supers stuff.

[obsidian3d]

It took me longer than I'd planned to post this up, but there are several pictures of my Hellsmith and Androida figures for Pulp City posted over on my blog at http://obsidian3d.blogspot.ca/2012/09/pulp-city-invades.html Please check them out and drop me a comment somewhere. Thanks!

Here's the article for those of you who are click-weary:


I little while back I stumbled onto a post on LAF; a user there was looking to get rid of his entire collection of Pulp City models for a very good price. I'd had Pulp City on my radar for a while, and eagerly jumped on the offer. We quickly struck a deal and I impatiently awaited the arrival of a huge box of new toys. A big thanks to Nate for hooking me up with all the awesome stuff below. The character cards and some assembled figures are that were also in the box are not shown.


I went through all the boxes and sorted out the cards, which were already sleeved. After going through this massive pile I realized with some disappointment that there were almost a dozen figures missing. However, Nate did a double-check and found them hiding away in a closet. They've been sent in the mail and I'm trying to be patient while I await their arrival as well. Once they get here I think there are less than 10 figures from the entire Pulp City line that I'm missing; some of which are exclusives that I'll probably not bother trying to obtain. I think it will really depend on whether I can get some of this huge pile of metal painted up and then convince some of my friends to try it out.

Nicely enough the figures from the two starter boxes had already been assembled and primed, so I thought I might as well take advantage of that and dive right in. While painting up my 40k Dreadnaught I started working on a model from the villains starter, choosing Hellsmith as my first victim, er...I mean test subject! This one was a tri-fold test to: a) try out my new Army Painter WarPaints, b) test out my home-made wet palette, and c) paint a miniature that was white primed instead of black. Here's what I came up with.



The original skin tone turned out really nicely and is a simple 2:1 mix of Barbarian Flesh and Leather Brown. Although I had intended to try painting this figure entirely with my Army Painter WarPaints starter box I decided against it in the end. The flesh, silver and red are all WarPaints while the gold and brown are from the Citadel range. I also used a little Mithril Silver from GW to add a little final highlighting. I used the Army Painter dark tone ink which is really dark. I was unhappy with how dark it was, and the fact that I ended up with too much pooling and making a mess on his back leg. The flesh was really rough looking after applying the ink, so I ended up doing another dry brush coat of pure barbarian flesh, and then covering that with a wash of Citadel Gryphonne Sepia. It was worth trying the Army Painter ink, and led me to pick up the other two inks which I haven't yet tried, but the results aren't quite what I had hoped. I do wish I'd put a little more thought into his base...and it'll always bother me that he turned out so dark.

After holding my little "What Should I Paint Next?" survey on LAF it turned out that the Pulp City Heroes starter box won the day...so I've started on those as well. I may end up painting the villain and starter box in tandem, so that I can try out the rules as more of the figures get painted up. Here's Androida from the heroes box.




This one was a total experiment in colors. I mixed up a batch of white, blue and silver from the Army Painter starter box to use as a base coat. It took me a few tries before I got something I really liked. I continued adding white and silver into the mix until and did a few successive coats over top. Then I marked out her eyes in green and her lips in Citadel Liche Purple. Following suit with Hellsmith, I once again tried the Dark Tone ink, hoping for a better result this time. It did work out quite a bit better with this figure being mechanical in nature. I did another highlight coat after the ink to pick out some of the upper details and that's it.

For the base I tried to imply some high speed movement with the ground and grass sort of parting around her. I don't think I was entirely successful, but it was worth a shot. And if I had the chance to paint her over again, I'd probably have done the eyes a bright red, and picked out some of the mechanical details with some differing colors.

After painting two of these figures I've got a good idea of what to expect from my new paints, and the kind of details found in the sculpts. They really are great looking figures and I suggest folks check them out, even if you're not interested in the game itself.

[obsidian3d]

The Gentleman should be making an appearance late tonight or early tomorrow. I just have to finish his base.

[styx]

Still jealous at you getting that deal....I was tapped out to consider it....looking forward to seeing more.

[obsidian3d]

Don't be too jealous, I'm eating frozen vegetables and pasta until next payday. And I'm still waiting for the last dozen figures to arrive, they're a little overdue.

[styx]

Don't be too jealous, I'm eating frozen vegetables and pasta until next payday. And I'm still waiting for the last dozen figures to arrive, they're a little overdue.

I've done worse, Ramen noodles for a week for lunch and hot dogs...our meal last night was a wopping $2 with Hunts Pasta Sauce and Noodles.  I feel ya pain...we are trying to trim the budget to build up some cash ourselves. heheheh

I keep hoping another deal like that crops up and I can jump on it for the rules and figures...or at least enough to get started....

[obsidian3d]

It was a great deal and I'm grateful to Nate for offering it up. I do hope that the rest of the figures show up soon, as both Solar models are in that.

On the topic of super-hero gaming, I'm hoping to play another game of SuperSystem tonight with one of my VS players. I also started putting together a map of North America in Google Maps showing where all of the various super heroes live. Places like Pulp City and Super City (for their various characters), locations for Marvel and DC characters, as well as some places for my custom creations when I paint up some Reaper Chronoscope figures and the like.

Come to think of it, I should try making some SuperSystem stats for a few of my Pulp City figures. I doubt it would be that difficult to do...