Figure Painting Total - March 2021

 When I had ordered the Dracula’s America Hired Gun pack, it came with the Stitch Doctor, and 2 Carpathian Guards instead of a Stitch Doctor, a Carpathian Guard, and a Native Arcanist.  I mentioned it to the company and instead of just sending me the missing figure, they sent me another entire pack. 

The Mera and Elseworlds Superman I had bought last year had been missing pieces and Knight Models had sent me replacements.  They took so long to get here that when I asked about their status, they sent me another pair.  The second Superman is fine but the Mera was broken at the wrists – which may be too fine to fix.

With Harley finally being painted from my Suicide Squad starter, I can now technically play the Batman Miniatures Game as I have completed both sides of that starter.

Bought         

BM – Why So Serious? – 5 (Joker, 4 Henchmen)

BM – Objective Game Markers Set 1 – 5

BM – Objective Game Markers Set 2 – 5

Dracula’s America – Hired Guns – 3

DCU – Supergirl – 1

DCU – Superman (Elseworlds) – 1

 

Painted

BM/DCU – Enchantress – 1

BM/DCU – Harley Quinn (from Suicide Squad Starter) – 1

BM/DCU – Rick Flag – 1

Dracula’s America – Dark Confederate Posse – 10

Dracula’s America – Hired Guns – 1 Stitch Doctor

Reaper – Hell Hound – 1

Reaper – War Dog – 1

 

March total – figures bought 20 figures painted 16

Running total 2021 – figures bought 112, figures painted 48

Figure Painting Total - April 2020

I had a week off before I started working from home. I finally finished the bases on some figures I had been working on. I finished them with a gloss coat, and then a matte coat on most of them.

Bought
Unmatched - Battle of Legends - 4

Painted
Unmatched - Robin Hood
Unmatched - Bigfoot
Unmatched - Bruce Lee
BM/DC Universe - Black Orchid
Marvel Universe - Emma Frost
Marvel Universe - Doctor Doom
Marvel Universe - Magneto
BM/DC Universe - Manta
BM/DC Universe - Huntress
BM/DC Universe - Deadshot
Spider-Man/Marvel Universe - Daredevil
Marvel Universe - Black Widow
Spider-Man/Marvel Universe - Punisher
Marvel Universe - Cyclops
Marvel Universe - Nova
Marvel Universe - Hulk (replacement)
Red Hulk (replacement as alternate for Marvel Universe)

April total - figures bought 4, figures painted 17
Running total 2020 – figures bought 15, figures painted 17

Birds of Prey

I also took some of the money that I was saving for Burning of Prospero and made another miniature order. I picked up some more Batman Miniatures/DC Universe figures. I bought the Birds of Prey and the Enchantress.

The Birds of Prey were a repacking of the older metal figures for Black Canary, Hawkgirl, and the Huntress. These came with DC Universe cards on one side and Batman Miniature Game cards on the other. The first two had cards in the rulebook but this is the first time for the Huntress for DC Universe.

The Enchantress is one of the new resin figures. Since I already had the Suicide Squad set, I figured that I should probably pick her up to complete it. Plus she is one of the magic users for the new magic rules of the second edition.

The figures were complete, which is often a worry with Knight Models (although I haven’t had too much trouble). They are lovely figures but the sculpts are tiny and the joins are very small and fiddly.

Light the Batsignal

I had already picked up a Bat-Signal at Chapters already, but I ended up getting the official one from Knight Models from FunAgain when they were on sale.

The one from Chapters is already made in a grey plastic. It looks okay out of the box. A simple wash would make it look better but you would have to be careful of the electronics. It has a working light, and is slightly bigger than official one.

The one from Knight Models has to be built and painted. Like most of their kits, it goes together pretty well without trouble. You could add a light to it, but it does not come with one. It costs about $10.

There are also two Heroclix Batsignals. The larger one was an object from the Streets of Gotham set. It is a bit bigger than the others. There was also a small one with the Commissioner Gordon. It is the smallest one but also probably closer to actual scale. Both are already assembled and prepainted. Lighting either would be a major alteration. They go for about $12 and $2 right now respectively.

The cost for them is all within the same range so it really depends on which one would be easier for you to buy. If you can’t buy one locally, shipping would skew the cost significantly. Unless you want to make one from scratch.
Which one is better for you? If you only play with friends it really doesn’t matter. But if you are playing in official events, you should get the official one.

Batman Miniatures Game second edition

The Second Edition rules are up on the Knight Models site. They have already been updated. Part of this is due to correcting the translation from Spanish. They do not have a new book yet but they say that the Flash and Arrow book and the Arkham Campaign book are still compatible.

With this update, a lot of the figures have been moved to the Legends category. They are still usable, but are no longer being made in quantities. They have changed some of the gangs, and released a few new sets in resin.
Of the 30 figures I currently have, 20 of them are still current if you count the Suicide Squad box. Otherwise only 6 of them are current.

There have been some changes in the gangs. The Joker, Bane, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Riddler, Court of Owls, and the new Amazons of Themyscira are all still there and basically unchanged. The Poison Ivy gang has been renamed the Gotham Sirens, the League of Shadows has been renamed the League of Assassins, and the Scarecrow gang is now called Militia. They have created a new gang called the Central City Villains and moved Grodd into it. The Watchmen were already gone prior to this update.

The bigger changes in the gangs is the combining of Batman, Law Forces, and Arrow into the new Brave and Bold. The Organized Crime now includes Black Mask, Lexcorp, and parts of the Wonderland Gang. They are starting with 5 resin starter sets to add to the Grodd and Shaman sets. They are Batman, Joker and Clowns, Bane and Mercenaries, Gotham Sirens, and Blackgate Prisioners. They are a bit cheaper than the metal figures and they look great. We’ll have to see how easy they are to work with.

FunAgain again

I’m ‘saving up’ to get more of the Games Workshop big game boxes, like Deathwatch: Overkill, The Horus Heresy: Burning of Prospero, Gangs of Commorragh, and the new Blood Bowl. However, FunAgain had another sale, so I picked up a few more figures for the Batman Miniature Game. I didn’t get too many – there is the pending second edition coming, and they have been grouping older figures into sets.

I ended up ordering two of the larger figures, Solomon Grundy and Clayface, and two regular figures, Deathstroke and Harley Quinn. On sale, the larger figures were hard to pass up. All four are figures that already have cards for the DC Universe game as well so that gives me a fair amount of villains to use.

The Court of Owls set and the Gotham Butcher are also on sale and are tempting in that they are a pretty small crew. I’ll probably pass for now and see what becomes of the Court of Owls crew with the new edition.

Batman Miniature Game second edition announced

Knight Models has announced a second edition of the Batman Miniature game to be released in September. As well, they have announced that they will be moving to colored resin figures. The older metal figures are still supposed to be compatible, as would the Flash/Arrow expansion and Arkham Knights campaign books.

A lot of the metal figures have been moved into their Legends area, which means that they don’t make them as often and will become harder to get.

Since I haven’t gotten too deep into getting the gangs, I’m okay with this. I was waiting to get the Arkham Knights Campaign book to see if there was any figures/affiliations to focus on first. I will get the figures that work for both the BMG and DCU. Now that they have made convenient sets to collect them. A lot of the gangs did not appeal to me.

With the new edition, they are changing some of the affiliations of the crewss that are in the system. They have joined the Batman/Green Arrow/Law Forces into the Brave and the Bold. They have done away with the Wonderland Gang affiliation – which only had 4 figures anyways. They have changed the Poison Ivy crew to Gotham Sirens. I already had Suicide Squad and Joker squads, thanks to the boxed set, and the entire Watchmen set. I was interested in getting more figures to round out the Batman/Green Arrow before. I was interested in the Law Forces and the Bane crew, and was thinking about the Poison Ivy, and Organized Crime crews. Because they were smaller sets, I was also thinking about the Court of Owls, Wonderland Gang, and even the League of Shadows.

Since the resin is supposed to be cheaper than the metals, even though I prefer working with metals, I’m cautiously okay with this as well. It really depends on the quality of the resins. Unfortunately, they are not quite a big enough company yet to be able to afford plastic figures, which I like best.

They are also changing from Metric to Imperial measurements. This doesn’t affect me either way. I still find myself thinking in inches by default, but metric is so much easier to do calculations.

They are changing the design of the cards again. But they had already done this a few times. The Watchmen cards don't match the current style and the new format is different again. But they have been really good about having the updated stat cards on their website.

GenCon or GenCan't?

I was at GenCon in 1992 for the GenCon/Origins and the 25th anniversary. Back then, it was in Milwaukee, at MECCA. I was there the next year in 1993 when Magic was released. We were there when Wizards of the Coast bought TSR in 1997 and after Hasbro bought WOTC. We were there in 1998 when they left MECCA (we saved a brick from the demolition site) and when the new WOTC castle replaced the old TSR castle (we saved a piece of the old castle too). We were there when Cardhalla first debuted in 1999 as a sometime people did with the discarded Magic cards left lying around before it became a big thing.
I went almost every year in that period, except the year my sister scheduled her wedding on GenCon Saturday.

When GenCon made the move to Indianapolis in 2003, we did not go and we have not been since. A logistical combination of a second child, a poor exchange on the dollar, the extra distance, and not having the knowledge of the downtown in the new city all factored in against us.


This year is the 50th anniversary of GenCon. It has been sold out for a while. One of the friends that we had gone with is making the trip this year with his son. We are still not going.

Shan and I talked about it, but the logistics still work against us. While our kids are old enough to leave behind and our dollar is doing better, the travel, new city, and having to book time off for it in advance work against us. Plus, the uncertainty of hotels, and even how quickly the memberships sold out would have made this one tricky.

It might be sour grapes, but I’m not even sure how much I would enjoy it anymore. I would still try to get in a Diplomacy game, and check in with the Highlander CCG crowd. I would spend a lot of time in the Dealers Room, looking at the new products, trying to find a few old items (like Jean Grey), and looking for some familiar faces – like GW/AoG Dave Frank, and TSR Brian Mitchel. I believe I would find the crowds overwhelming. Plus, not knowing the area, not likely to get a hotel near the convention, and the travel would all be challenging.
Most of the designers can now be reached online. A lot of the new games I can wait and buy locally or online. A lot of the older items I ‘could’ buy online, if I was willing to pay those rates. Even the promos aren’t as big a draw anymore. I’ve done without so many of the Heroclix promos now that I have passed beyond filling them. A lot of the other promos, I would still have the ability to buy online albeit at an inflated price.

That said, I do have my friend looking for a Bat-Mite promo for me this year, if he gets a chance.
I’m sure I would enjoy it if I was there. I really can’t see us making it down though, unless finances change significantly, like lottery-scale.

DC Universe - new collections for old BMG figs

Knight Models has started repackaging some of their older BMG figures with the Universe cards as well. Luckily, I hadn’t bought them yet so I will be able to take advantage of this. They had created a bunch of cards for the figures that you were able to print off yourself in the PDF of the rules.

The first two they released were the Justice League and the Secret Society of Supervillains. The Justice League contains Flash, Green Arrow, and Hawkman. The Secret Society contains Black Manta, Killer Frost, and Professor Zoom. In putting together the new sets they updated a few of the cards.

They just released the remaining three sets that they had preorders for - Birds of Prey, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. We had speculated which figures that they would contain. We were right about the Teen Titans in guessing that it would contain Cyborg, Kid Flash, and Starfire.

We thought that the Birds of Prey would contain Batgirl, Black Canary, and Hawkgirl but they substituted Huntress for Batgirl even though Huntress did not yet have a card.

The Suicide Squad was a bit of a mix. We thought it could have Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and the Joker. Alternatively, it could have contained Deadshot, Deathstroke, and Joker, leaving Harley to add to Ivy and a Catwoman for a Gotham Sirens. These were based on the figures that already had cards listed. I had hoped that it could possibly include the comic sculpt of Boomerang (which did not have a card yet, but I really prefer this figure to the one from the movie).
In the end, they only used the Deadshot figure which had previously had a card, and added the comic figures of Katanna and Captain Boomerang, both of which did not have cards.

This is great as I don’t have any of those figures yet. I had only started filling in these figures with Ravager, and Lobo. It would also save me the trouble of printing the cards.

From the cards, that would leave Batgirl, Ravager, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Joker, Lobo, Poison Ivy, and Ra’s Al Ghul as the last regular-sized figures and Bane, Clayface, Solomon Grundy, and Swamp Thing as larger figures. A League of Assassins set could still be made from Ravager, Deathstroke, and Ra’s Al Ghul. Gothem Sirens could also be made with Batgirl, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy.

BMG - more figures.

I was going to stop buying miniatures for the Batman Miniature Game and save up for some of the Games Workshop boxed sets. But then Fun Again Games had a summer sale so I ordered a few more.

I ordered the Modern Batman as it comes with a Robin. I already have the Ben Affleck Batman, and now the Armored Batman from the DC Universe Trinity set. This one goes with the World’s Finest card in the DC Universe and is supposed to be the best Batman for the points in the Batman Miniature game.

I also got a Ravager, who is a Free Agent, so she can work with any team. She also used to be one of the best figures in the DC Universe game. In addition, as a Justice League Grey, she will work with either team.

I also picked up a Lobo, another Free Agent who can also be used in DC Universe. I don’t know if he is good, and I wasn’t a huge fan of him in the day, but I’m looking forward to painting him.


I am pretty sure this will be the game that gets me to start painting again.

Marvel Universe buyer issues and buying short list

One of the sellers that I had bought the Emma and Jean figures from flaked on me so I still need to get those two to complete my key figures for the Marvel Universe miniature game. I need others as well, but the rest are much more pricey.

Knight Models also seems to no longer be producing their Watchmen figures for the Batman Miniature Game so I picked up some of those as well. I got the Comedian, Rorschach, and Silk Spectre figures. The first two are the main ones I had wanted from the Watchmen and the third will be harder to get later. I’ll probably try to get Nite Owl and Ozymandias to complete the set if I don’t have to chase them down.

On the top of my list right now is the Kill Team set from Warhammer 40K, and the last three codices I need in hardcover. I’m particularly looking for Imperial Agents in hardcover, but also need the revised Tau, and Dark Angels to complete my set and might settle for those in sofcover.

Marvel Universe Miniature Game

I’m late to the party with this one. I had been looking at it but hadn’t bought any when it was cancelled. Since then, there has been a mad flurry on the figures and I have been able to order a bunch of the figures I wanted but there are still about half of the figures from the line that I haven’t been able to get.

It doesn’t help that the figures are about $25-$30 each with the exchange. Since I play Games Workshop games though, the price doesn’t shock me as much as it should. For that price, it would be cheaper to get action figures and upscale the game to fit. The scale wouldn’t be too outrageous as it’s supposed to fit on a 3 foot by 3 foot board so a 9’ by 9’ or 10’ by 10’ area would work. It could probably be a tighter game on an 8’ by 8’ board. Not too bad for a convention but a much too big for my game room.

I had been looking at trying the system by getting the DC Universe Trinity set but the news of the cancellation changed my timeline on that. With a flurry of purchases from four different online stores, I was able to get all 5 of the Marvel Universe starter sets and a bunch of the individual figures I wanted.
I am still missing 3 key figures, 5 figures that I’m interested in, and 9 figures that I don’t care as much about but would finish the sets. There would also be 3 sets of Marvel Legends – which would be the Superior Spider-Man, Goblin Cult, and Spider Robots gangs for use with the Batman Miniature Game rules. I am not overly looking to get those but would pick them up if found cheaply.

So, after spending about $500, I have 28 of the 53 figures total ordered – but that total includes 12 from the Legends starters that I’m not really interested in. I also have ordered all three token sets but have not been able to get the spray template. There are also some unreleased figures that have cards but not miniatures. For those, and the ones I cannot find, I can always use Heroclix figures.

Figure painting total - February 2017

I bought the Suicide Squad Starter for Batman Miniature Game. In addition to the Joker team and Suicide Squad team it came with the extra Ben Affleck Batman figure.


BM Suicide Squad Starter – 13
BM Affleck Batman – 1


Feb figures bought - 14, figures painted – 0

Running total 2017 – figures bought 33, figures painted 0

Knight Models update - Batman Miniatures, Marvel/DC Universe, Suicide Squad

I did pick up the Flash and Arrow expansion on sale from Miniature Market in January. It has the rules for speedsters, new teams, and vehicles. It only give I got the Black Flash model as a bonus and also purchased a Heath Ledger Joker. The other Jokers look too skinny and I’m not a big fan of the Jared Leto Joker.

I was going to wait to get the Suicide Squad box but Knight Models posted that purchases from them or retailers until Feb 15 would also include a Ben Affleck Batman figure as well as a Bombshell Harley Quinn figure. So I ordered one from a MeepleMart at the end of January. The shipping was super fast – it came within a week but it did not have the extra Harley. There was a bunch of finger pointing between both companies. Knight Models said that MeepleMart should have received a box of the extra figures to send and MeepleMart said that they did not get them and that I should check with Knight Models.
So as a result, even though I bought the set they said during the time they said, Knight Models isn't honoring what they said it would include. I'm disappointed in their customer service in this regard.
Aside from that, the set is great. In contains thirteen figures – enough for two teams – Joker and Task Force X. It also includes a streamlined rulebook, counters, dice, and two stand-up buildings that can be combined into one taller building.

Knight Models also just announced that they are stopping their Marvel Universe line. They are still keeping the DC Universe line which has the same rules. It allows you to use a lot of the major figures from the Batman Miniature game in an easier skirmish game. The Marvel version was on my list to get some teams and try but now it is going to be harder to get so I may have to rethink that. The nice thing was that if I was building scenery for the Batman Miniatures game anyways, I could also use it for the Universe games.
I was going to get the DC Universe Starter for the rules (which are also available online from their site). I put that aside to get the Suicide Squad set first due to the promos. I might still get some starters of the Marvel set, and a few of the figures if they are still available in a few months.

Figure painting total - 2016

I ended up not getting any more figures to paint in the last few months of 2016.

The final total for 2016 is:

Batman Miniatures Containers – 2
Police Call Box – 1
Mexican Bandits – 16
The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth – 38
40K – Ork Burnas/Lootas – 5

Running total 2016 – figures bought 62, figures painted 0


This means 2016 squeeked in as my second lightest year for buying figures in the last seven years.
I have already ordered some figures for the Batman Miniatures game, so those are on the way. Also, I'm very likely to get some Games Workshop games this year - likely the new Blood Bowl at least. So 2017 will probably be a miniature heavy year. With help from the family in reorganizing the storage locker, it's a bit easier for me to finish sorting the boxes at home to open up my workspace. Could 2017 be the year I finally put numbers in my figures painted column?

I certainly hope so.

Batman Miniatures - Suicide Squad

It’s been a while since I talked about BMG. I’m still excited by the game but still haven’t been able to play. I have a bunch of Heroclix figures to use as proxies but haven’t been able to build any buildings or scenery yet to give it a go. Plus, there is so much choice over which gangs to buy, it is hard to decide without trying it.

I did hear about the new Flash and Arrow expansion with rules to cover the Flash characters as well as rules for vehicles. Or, at least, rules for a vehicle – the Batmobile. I should be able to extrapolate rules for regular vehicles from that – including the police van that they offer. I haven’t picked it up yet but I was aware of it and was going to pick it up after the holidays.

I didn’t even hear about the Suicide Squad box set until last week. It has the Task Force X as well as a Joker crew, plus a slim rulebook, scenarios, and two double-sided buildings. The value seems high on this one. I’m not a huge fan of either team, but it’s such a good deal that I will probably pick this one up as well early in 2017.

January figure painting total

I had ordered a package of laser cut containers for the Batman Miniatures game last year when I ordered the van and they finally came in last month. They looks pretty simple to assemble so I should be able to get them done - eventually.

Batman Miniatures Terrain - Containers – 2

Jan figures bought – 2, figures painted – 0
Running total 2016 – figures bought 2, figures painted 0

Batman - parking lot

Between Walmart, and Value Village, I have picked up about a dozen vehicles that are a good scale for Batman. Most are 1/43. I also found some school buses at Dollartree for $1.25 each. These are a shade small but should still work. Walmart also had a nice set of vehicles for the Fast and the Furious in the 1/43 scale but at $21 each they were out of my price range. Keep in mind that there are currently no rules to use vehicles in the game. They are mainly there to provide cover, and to help fill out the scenery.


I had been thinking of doing a warehouse table for the Batman Miniature Game – possibly on the docks but similar to what the old Heroclix map used to be. I was recently inspired by this video though and am now thinking about maybe a more urban setting.

While at Chapters, I picked up this Batsignal for $10.99. Knight models has a lasercut one for $8.55 Euros but this one already has the light built in to it. At Dollartree I picked up some police badges to use for a police station like in the video above.

I’m still looking for some letters out of thin wood or foam – so far I haven’t found anything useful at Dollarama or Walmart. I may have to try Michaels.

Figure Painting Total - November

I was finally able to get some Light Armored Troopers for Starship Troopers. The game normally uses power suit CAP troopers as featured in the book but the Light Troopers are the ones from the movie (and also used in Firefly). They are usually very hard to find. I have been watching for ones at a decent price for the last three years.
I had ordered some of the scenery/accessories from the Batman Miniature Game as well but the only one that came in so far was the lasercut wooden van. I did also pick up a few more 1/43 scale vehicles to use with the Batman Miniature Game but they don’t really need painting.
I also got another wagon and horses for use with the RWNN. It looks okay but a simple touch would make it better.

Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry Light Armored Troopers – 20
Batman Miniatures GCPD van – 1
Wagon and horses - 3

November figures bought – 24
November figures painted – 0

Chicks dig the car, right?

Batman miniatures – cars. Scale . 1/43 1/50 I still have a bit of work to clean up my desk in order to make it usable for new projects – one of which is the Batman Miniature Game. Having read the rules, they seem interesting enough to try out. I will need scenery and figures. I can use Heroclix figures for proxies to see if the rules hold up enough to buy some of the stunning figures from Knight Models. I plan on getting a few of the scenery packs to get the scale and work from there.
I did pick up some of the Eaglemoss Batmobiles recently to use for the game. They make over 60 vehicles in this line – from batcycles, to the various standard models, to copters, boats, and villain vehicles. One of the dealers at C4 comicon had some on sale for $12 each or 3 for $30. I checked online to confirm the scale and picked out which ones would work for me.

The listed scale for the Knight Models figures is 35mm or 1:50. The Eaglemoss vehicles are listed as 1:43. 1:43 is a smaller scale than 1:50 so the cars will be a bit bigger than the figures. That should be fine - the slightly larger size should be absorbed by the bases on the figures. They also make a series of vehicles in the same scale for James Bond to fill up some of the streets.

For me, there are only about a dozen vehicles that would match what I think of as the Batmobile and would work for the miniature game.

1 - Batman movie - the first Keaton one. It's not my favorite Batmobile but it does resonate with a lot of people.
2 - Batman Classic TV Movie - the Barris one. It's ingrained in my psyche but I find the red markings a bit too showy.
3 - Batman Begins movie - the tumbler. I'm still not the biggest supporter but a lot of people are familiar with this one.
34 - Arkham Asylum video game - a street rod version. This also has familiarity for many.
40 - The Dark Knight Rises - the Bane tumbler. Same as 3 above but could be repainted black if can get cheaper that that model.
41 - Batman the Return - a beefy model - kind of a similar to the Arkham Asylum model. It has engine pipes, and 6 wheels.
61 - Batman: Noel - a bit more blocky and angular like a step towards the tumbler

There were also some that would also work but are not quite as good a match as the ones above.
8 - The animated series - I like the long sleek line on this one but it is a bit blank.
10 ~ Batman 311 - similar to a sportier Barris one but in blue.
19 ~ Detective Comics 371 - similar to the Barris one but a pale blue.
27 ~ Legends of the Dark Knight 156 - has 2 fins, the face, and red window.
29 ~ Detective comics 362 - It's similar to the TV series one but is all black and has a face on the front.


I ended up picking up three models – 29, 41, and 20 (which hadn't been on my list). 20 is from Batman 652 - it has 3 fins, the face in front, and is all black. I wasn't a fan of it online but it seems a good old version in person. I really would have like to pick up 34 - from the Arkham game or even a Tumbler but they did not have one.