Works In Progress!

Merry Christmas Monster Hunters!

I'm desperately trying to get this little goodie built before my wife orders me out of the Dining room.  We're having Christmas Eve Dinner with our kids, who'll be coming home for Christmas, and I doubt they'll want to share space with this.

Please pass the salt, hey is that a Hind?

If you are familiar with the MHI books, you'll probably be able to guess what this will be (and who'll be flying it!)  If not, I think I'll just tease it here to say STAY TUNED!!  It's just such a cool addition to the Hunters arsenal.  It's a MI-24 Hind, the Russian workhorse Helicopter.  It's a 1/48th scale model by Revell (which works pretty nicely with 28mm minis)

I was able to score it seriously cheap off of Ebay (10 bucks!) so, it's well worth the investment in time to stick it all together.   I've not built a proper military model kit in probably 30 years, I forgot how fiddly they can be.  Still, actually kinda fun!

Also got a nice bunch of Hasslefree miniatures from their Halloween sale.

Metal for the Metal God.

I have specific plans for some, and they will represent the missing Characters I have from the MHI world. Others, I just got cuz they were cool, and I have the 'shiny new toy' syndrome that is so rampant in our hobby.  I'm supervike, and I have a problem.

Lots of prep work before they'll see paint, however.

Hopefully, 2017 will be a bit more productive on working on lessening the 'unpainted' pile.  My hobby room has been a shambles for some time (thus, me working on the Dining room table).  I am slowly redoing our Family room, so a lot of the furniture got pushed into the hobby room, making it an unusable mess.

I will definitely be revamping the entire hobby room as well, setting it up to more more productive, and less....tornado damage-ish.  Plus, I need to invest in a bunch of real lights, and get a proper lighting setup for both painting and photography.

Thanks for reading.  I'd love to hear comments, or suggestions!

Chad 'Ironhand' Gardenier, A. Martin Hood, A combat exorcist.

Seasons Greetings!

With Monster Hunter: Memoirs, SINNERS hitting the shelves last week, I decided to work on the main character from the books.

Oliver Chadwick Gardenier, retired Marine, friend of Sasquatches, zombie killer, and victim of an Elf Curse.  He goes by Chad in the books, and has picked up the nickname Ironhand.

Mono Ken takes center stage.

Watch your step!

Spider!!

Honestly, he's kinda an annoying character, but has enough likable traits to make me want to keep reading about him.  I'm only part way into SINNERS, where the action changes from the Seattle area to the Big Easy of New Orleans.  I am liking his character more in this second book.  However, all and all, it's all still incredibly fun because the world of MHI is so enjoyable.

One thing I have learned from the new book is that I'm going to need more werewolf models...or as they call them in Nawleans "Loup Garous".

I used a Hasslefree figure for the basis, and added a katana strapped on his back.  His Katana, known as Mono Ken (Sword Of Mourning) actually plays a big part in the series, and I'm glad I had one floating around the bits box.  The spider was a leftover from an old GW sprue, and works well with the first book of Grunge.  The base was a scrap piece of plastic, also in that bits box that I thought looked like a sewer grate or drain.

Next up is A Martin Hood, the big bad from MHI:Vendetta.  He's such a great bad guy, which has become a real hallmark of all the Corriea written MHI books.  A Martin Hood is a Necromancer as well as some sort of Shadow Elemental/Demon.  If he is in shadow, he can take an ethereal form at will.  That makes him rather hard to hit.  However, if a light is on him, he's as vulnerable as any other human.

Another Hasslefree mini fits the bill!

I don't really like the transitions from light to dark on the side profile..I'll have to rework them.

 So, to represent this ability, I tried to paint him as if he's got a light on him, and he's caught a bit off guard by it.  I also plan on a few other versions of him, one as the complete shadow demon, one as his 'former' self, and one as a decked out cult leader.

Hood commands all kinds of dead and undead things, and only wants to make a deal with the old ones, until that mean MHI team keeps trying to thwart him.  So, I'm going to have to make him a small zombie army as well...

Lastly, is a character that really only gets a mention in Monster Hunter International: Nemesis.  During the finale of that book, there is a big battle with a shedload of demons.  The 'good guys, led by Agent Franks' also employ help from the Vatican's own Swiss Guard, Demon fighters, and Combat Exorcists.
So, taking a cue from the idea of "Combat Exorcists, I slightly converted an Artizan Priest by adding a small machine gun.

I like the dichotomy it sets up.  He's trying his faith first, but has the gun at the ready, just in case.  The Combat Exorcists weren't really described in the story, but my take on it is what makes this project fun for me.  I think a squad of Vatican Monster Hunters will be a must do at some point into this project...

With Christmas coming up, I'll probably have to put my minis aside for a little bit.  I also have some other painting to attend to (painting the family room).  That's not nearly as fun, but at least I can use a big brush for that!

Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear comments or any feedback.

You can also 'like' my facebook page, if you'd want.

https://www.facebook.com/supervike/

I post most all my minis there as well, but I like to give a more detailed rundown here on the old bloggy blog!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!

Earl Harbinger Redo.

Seasons Greetings!

Christmas is quickly moving in on us, but I still found a few spare moments to work on my MHI Project, so I wanted to do a quick update.

From my last post, I had decided to do a reboot of the Earl Harbinger character, using a HeroClix as the basis.  I added a Tommy gun and a cigarette to the mouth.

I think it came out more 'cartoony' than I intended, but it works for me.  I will eventually do a decal for the MHI patch on the back, so for right now it's just a placeholder.

I like this version more than the Hasslefree one I had finished earlier.

And, as I still wait for more Hasslefree minis to show up, I have began to prep and convert some others to represent various characters throughout the series.

In this motely crew is going to be the main character from MHI Memoirs: Grunge, A recurring character (and Earl's favorite gal), a version of the Big Bad from Vendetta, and a couple of side characters from MHI: Nemesis.

I'll share more about these cool characters as I get them worked up.

Thanks for reading, and head over to my 'Super Hero' blog to see some of the other things I've been working on lately.

http://supervikessuperstuff.blogspot.com/

Have a great Holiday season!!