New Supers Miniature Line

[BigJackBrass]

A recent posting on the Squadron UK Yahoo! group gave a link for a new range of superhero miniatures, about to go into production. Thought it might be of interest to anyone looking for some different sculpts:

 

http://www.blackhat.co.uk/superhero.asp

[Enforcer84]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

I'll file that under 'interesting'!

 

Thanks for the Link!

[Sketchpad]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Neat

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

These are nice. I would suggest anyone interested in these should also check out

http://www.superfigs.net

[Blue]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Got plenty of superfigs up through a year ago, when my local hobby store stopped carrying them for some reason.

 

Never seen these others before. Not bad; A little simplistic, which is kind of how I prefer them; That way I can add my own touches.

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Superfigs... good concept, bad execution... they can't even get anyone good to paint them. The sculpting is just bad, poor proportions and bad design overall. Occasionally there are good ones, though. The blackhat ones didn't look too stellar, but they were more consistent in their sculpting.

 

If you want to check out my one superfig, http://home.comcast.net/~remjin is the address. Not my best work, by any means, but at least better than the company website's photo

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Who else makes superhero figs? Aren't there some for silver age sentinels? I believe those are better sculpts.

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

There's also lance and laser, which is... umm... okay...

 

lanceandlaser.com for those interested. Everyone has their tastes. Not too bad though. Better than some others. =)

[teh bunneh]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Who else makes superhero figs? Aren't there some for silver age sentinels? I believe those are better sculpts.

 

Yeah, Reaper put out a line of Silver Age Sentinals. They did the 5-6 iconic characters (Queen of Hearts, Sentinal, Kreutzritter, and a few others). They aren't bad sculpts -- Sandra Garity did them, IIRC, but they aren't her best work.

 

Superfigs aren't bad, but many of the figures are very cartoony. I've got a big pile of them.

 

Of course, there's always HeroClix, but those sculpts are not usually the best in the world.

 

Make sure to check out Digital Hero #... um... 12 I think. Maybe 14. I've got a list of companies who make superhero or superhero-like figures, along with links to their websites.

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Yeah' date=' Reaper put out a line of Silver Age Sentinals. They did the 5-6 iconic characters (Queen of Hearts, Sentinal, Kreutzritter, and a few others). They aren't bad sculpts -- Sandra Garity did them, IIRC, but they aren't her best work.[/quote']

 

Yeah, I like Garrity... (s)he(?) does good work. Reaper is a nice line of miniatures as a whole, a nice medium between the too-plain and the overly elaborate and annoying. Price is compelling as well.

 

I'll have to check out those Silver Age miniatures. At the least, they'll make a decent basis for conversion into better models. =) Overall, I find I have to cut and paste my way to the miniatures I want anyway... and a tiny bit of experimentation with putty can go a long way sometimes.

 

Yeah, HeroClix.. ugh... thought about that, but between materials and bad sculpts, its just not worth working with.... plus, you have to just "get lucky" to get the parts you want anyway.

[proditor]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Clix have one huge advantage over pewter (Says the guy who just completed his Superfigs collection...) ease of modification.

 

In the time it takes me to chisel/dremel/file/pin and glue a pewter fig, I can mod 5 or so clix since I only need a hobby knife to make cuts, and Putty to make new shapes.

 

Take a look here: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/proditor/mini/wotw/wotw.htm The top guy started out as Bane and Sabretooth....the bottom guy is just a Riddler fig. Both cleaned up into exactly what I wanted.

 

Also made it easy to make Eurostar: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/proditor/mini/euro/euro.htm

 

The advantage for me, is that I'm only completing these guys to play standard, so I can whip out a team in a fairly short amount of time. Much shorter than if I had to mod them in pewter. That's sort of why I gave up and just started grouping Superfigs together in my "Name my team" threads.

 

Price is also a major factor. I can grab Clix by the fistful for roughly a quarter each. I haven't seen most pewter below say 3 bucks a fig.

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

No insult to what you're doing... but you can tell those are clix because the sculpts still suck. Plastic is easier, yes, which is why I liked Games Workshops plastic kits before they were priced into idiocy... but until clix stop looking like playdough pushed together with popsicle sticks, I'll go with pewter. The idea isn't the ease of it, but the look of it. I'll gladly saw, file, glue, pin, resculpt, etc. if it means I'll have a much better looking fig in the end, which is why I'll probalby be using fantasy/sci-fi miniatures instead of the usual crappy superhero figs out there to make most of my figs. We'll see once I finally get some together. I'm only looking at this now since I finally found a group, I'm figuring on making some miniatures for everyone.

[proditor]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

*Shrug* To each their own, but I wouldn't exactly hold up GW as a banner of proportion...Even their first releases in the late 70's had hands/heads and feet radically out of true, and at 28mm while they called it 25mm. Of course, the Big Hands/Heads/Feet thing is endemic and accepted now. Go look at Ral Partha from the 80's if you want more realistic proportions. Reaper has some figs that actually look like upscaled Partha pieces, but they're the exception, not the rule. They also have so many sculptors, it varies widely.

 

Plus, for me it's volume. I think they look fine, and I do not have unlimited time to whip out figures any more. I'd rather get decent looking figs on the tabletop and not spend months doing it, than have superb looking figs, but not actually play the game as I go through weeks of work per fig. If you can spend that sort of time, hey, kudos and congrats.

[proditor]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Ya know, if you are really disappointed in the current crop of minis, why go through the hassle of undoing some of the existing detail just so you can make new detail?

 

Reaper has "skeletal" blanks you can sculpt over, as does:

 

http://www.bronzeagemin.com/miniatures_html/25MM/GENERICS/genericsmale28mm.htm

 

http://www.bronzeagemin.com/miniatures_html/25MM/GENERICS/genericsfemale28mm.htm

 

That way you can get exactly what you want, you just have to sculpt it. (Which is easier than most would think.)

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Oh, I am by no means holding up Games Workshop as a skill and style marker. I was just talking about their plastic kits. I played their games for awhile (heck, i worked for 'em for awhile) and I'm just saying I enjoyed the plastic. While they have some good miniatures, I'm far from saying theirs are the best.

 

Overall, I find every company has something to offer, its just up to me to pick and choose what I like. I don't use the armatures becuase I don't sculpt that well. I can blend things together, make a few knick-knacks and maybe change a face or a few pieces to suit my tastes better, but I can't just outright sculpt anything. I started trying to head down that path but I don't have the time. Overall, I find converting figures to be not too hard, it just depends. Plastic has its pitfalls, its biggest benefit is that it cuts easy. Pewter's benefit is that its more "stretchable" if the pewter quality is good. Plastic tends to deform more when you try to change its shape (using a little heat) or tear.

 

As a whole, I'm more into the look then the volume. I'm more a hobbyist than a player with miniatures... thus, why an army is never done, and figures were always "in progress." I haven't been into it lately, got tired of it, but when I work on them I have fallen into a much quicker ideology of miniatures... enough time to make them look nice, but not so much that its an arduous process. 10-12 hours on a miniature is plenty, from unwrapping through conversion and painting to finish.

 

Like you said, its all in the tastes of the individual. Some like to get it done, some like to drag it out.

[proditor]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Heh, I can appreciate both sides of that. I spent weeks slowly reposing, filling, filing, and then painting my Eldar Avatar. Once I finished him, I looked at the unpainted troops and just sighed.

 

On the sculpting end though, it's really not as bad as it seems, but like everything else, ya gotta do it...a lot. And if that's not really floating your boat, then there's no need to go nuts doing it of course, the point is doing the bits you like after all.

 

At this point, I'm pretty confident doing hair, clothing and light details. I might try the armatures myself at some point, but since I went in the opposite direction (Make the sheet from the mini, not the other way around) I can cheat that end of it. But, I think I'm better at construction than painting, so I'm more relaxed about working from just some blobs of putty and a toothpick. (Which is kinda strange considering how lazy I just got with my Superfigs.)

 

I do recommend getting Bill's DH articles BTW, they are fantastic guides to finding figures from alternate sources.

 

Oh, and Void has a nice Ripper clone if you are doing standard CU stuff. A Hercules Biomech IIRC. You could probably get away with minimal putty enhancements and then start slapping on the pink!

 

I agree completely on the reposing of plastic with Heat. The only long term solution I've had any luck with involves either armature underlay (basically inserting a LONG pin), or superglue.

 

Have you worked with Resin at all BTW? I've been curious to see how easily adaptable it might be, but all of the special considerations involved (Breathing masks, wet sanding, ventilation) have me a little leery. Conversely, I can think of a few uses for some of the Forge World stuff....

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Heh' date=' I can appreciate both sides of that. I spent weeks slowly reposing, filling, filing, and then painting my Eldar Avatar. Once I finished him, I looked at the unpainted troops and just sighed. [/quote']

Yeah, that part kills me... I once made a conversion for a Brettonian army that involved the wings of a dragon, a griffin, a Green Knight, a mercenary general's weapon (a giant mace), and some putty. The end result was a green knight with a new mace that looked like he was riding a sort of wyvern made of magma. I painted his armor in the same scheme, along with the mace, and did the cloth up in a blue to white blend. It took me... well... a very long time. And I still hadn't even painted my Knights of the Realm, much less the grail knights, or even the hordes of archers. *sigh*

 

On the sculpting end though' date=' it's really not as bad as it seems, but like everything else, ya gotta do it...a lot. [/quote']

Yes, I realize, but try learning to sculpt with a 4 year old in your lap, a 7 year old talking your ear off, and a wife waiting for you. I don't mind doing it, its the time, so I just do as I can, and hope my little tidbits here and there will eventually equate to the ability to sculpt something.

 

I don't really want to purchase digital hero becuase I know I won't read it. I just can't read PDFs that are longer than a few pages at best.

 

I don't know what "IIRC" stands for, so you're confusing me. I am aware of Void, not bad on minis, actually, if not awesome. I like several of their figures and have bought a few. I recently even painted one of the biker sargeants, i think.

 

I agree completely on the reposing of plastic with Heat.

I've stopped doing it much, except with minor use. It just takes forever, so I've taken to just bending the piece, cutting and puttying, or just skipping it and finding another piece.

 

Have you worked with Resin at all BTW?

Yes. Frankly, its a pain in a lot of ways. Most resin comes as a casting mess. Forgeworld stuff I have run through tons of, and frankly, its a mess. Just flashing the stuff is a mess. The cheaper stuff (armorcast and the various other resin makers out there) is just as bad or worse. As a whole, if you want to spend a LOT of time working with the stuff, there is some very neat stuff out there with it. If you want to cut and modify it, its a nightmare mess, and its expensive. I have currently made and modified three pieces of resin stuff, all from Forgeworld, and assembled several from Armorcast and a few other makers.

 

My recommendation is that if you're going to buy a piece, be able to see it first, there is a lot of resin that comes broken, bent, or messed up. It will easily get bent by heat (during transit, storage, or otherwise).

 

Cutting it requires a breathing mask, at least one of those cheapies, better with a professional set, and only slowly as too much cutting could deform it. I used a dremel to cut most of mine, and it held up okay, but I took breaks after a piece started melting on me. It cuts easily enough, but it sprays really fine dust everywhere and its really bad for you. Safety glasses are also a really good idea. It frays, a lot, so follow up filing is also a must, but it cuts clean. Its just the edges that get that way, it cuts clean otherwise... just leaves fraying for whatever reason. Basically, it doesn't seem worth all the money, honestly.

 

I have so far converted one Baneblade (looted for Orks, which, btw, really pisses people off... ) one battlewagon (very cool, btw), and one Hydra Flak Tank (also looted for Orks). All in all, it would have been better to just make something on my own, I think. The flak tank was worth it, the Battlewagon was pretty cool in some ways, but just like the Baneblade... just way too expensive for what you get. Better to take the time to build one yourself out of quality material if you already know how to build stuff. Just copy some of their designs if you need some creative basis. The hardest thing to replicate would have been the tank treads and wheels, and not even that hard if you can be creative with a dremel tool at all.

[proditor]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

IIRC=If I Recall Correctly.

 

On the resin stuff, so far all I've done is use after market cockpits and stuff for models, and I made one or two resin kits. I've never tried to modify it at all. Fenryll (I think?) has some beautiful resin minis (And some god awful ones) and I've looked at a few pondering swaps and such.

 

You're probably right on the "go with what you know" front, I built the Baneblade out of plasticard off of the plans from White Dwarf from like...fifteen years ago? Lord I'm old...

 

It looks cool though.

 

On the DH front, everyone should buy it!

And that's not just because I'm in a few of the recent ones.

 

I think Bill's article(s) may be one of the freebie's from their respective month(s), couldn't hurt to take a quick look-see.

[Remjin]

Re: New Supers Miniature Line

 

Thanks for the info on the "IIRC" =)

 

I'll have to check Fenryll out. If the price is right, I don't see a problem. A lot of the anime style resin kits are more reasonable in price (if you can find a place that sells the characters that aren't all pinup or lewd in content) and I've seen others... but GW has priced them out of most people's hands for the bigger stuff (Squiggoth, Mammoth, etc.).

 

Yeah, the plasticard Baneblade I heard of... and have seen, and it looked cool. Talk about a good deal, y'know?

 

I'm all for trying somethign new and experimenting, but I just don't have the will to do very much anymore. After building and painting probably 100 armies over the course of working for GW, I just got burnt out on it. I hardly ever build or paint models anymore.

 

I'll have to check out the Digital Hero stuff sometime, but it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.... so perhaps later.