Special Agent Franks, and some Cool Monster Hunter News...

Over at  Monster Hunter Nation, Larry Corriea's blog, I spotted a cool bit of news.

John Ringo and Larry are doing a teamup to bring us the latest book in the MHI series.

Awesome-sauce

Seems like the story will take place in the 1980's as opposed to the present, and features Ray and Susan Shackleford in their heyday as Hunters.  I can't wait!! But seeing how it's not out until August, I guess we're force to!  In the meantime, I'll dust off my 'members only' jacket and start regrowing the old mullet.  I wonder if my parachute pants still fit? (i already know the answer to that)

The second cool bit of of news I got from Monster Hunter Nation came in the form of a post Larry Corriea made.   I had commented on the site, asking any interested folks to check out my blog here, Larry was gracious enough to not only check us out here, but gave me a shout out in his latest post.  That really made my day!

So, if you wandered over here from there, welcome!   If you are unsure of what exactly I'm doing here, I'll try to explain.  I paint and model little toy soldiers, and since there really aren't any commercially available that represent the world of MHI, I'm trying to convert and paint existing miniatures to fit and represent the characters.

The scale of these miniatures is about 28mm.  That just means the 'average' man of 6ft tall or so, is 

represented as 28mm tall.  So, that's a bit over an inch tall for us that never could figure out the metric system (thanks Jimmy Carter).

Normally, these miniatures are used in tabletop games, but I mostly end up just painting them, instead of playing, but maybe someday...

So, enough of me blabbering about what this site is, lets get onto some Special Agent Franks.

Spoilers about Franks will be revealed below!

Special Agent Franks has grown to be one of my favorite characters.  In the first book, you kind of learn to grudgingly respect him, in book Two: Vendetta, you learn he is a serious force to be reckoned with.  He's a nigh unstoppable Agent that has NEVER failed a mission.

Why did Franks cross the Road?
Classified.

 Franks is described as 6'5" and built like an NFL linebacker.  He really shines in Vendetta, especially with his epic fight against the Oni Ogres, (Force and Violence). By the end of the book Franks cemented that 'favorite character' status to me (but not so much favored by the Dread Overlord he help kill)

Finding a model to represent him was a bit of a challenge.  I like the size of this Foundry one (above pic) as he towers over my other MCB Agents, but not ridiculously so.  He is a bit on the ugly side, which worked well.  If you look closely, you'll see I painted one eye blue and the other brown.

I had also found yet another mini I liked in the form of a Heroclix Tombstone mini.

Give me a witness to intimidate

 As you can see, he towers over the MCB dudes, but the pose of this minis just screams 'Franks' to me.  He'd rather punch you in the head than speak to you.  I sculpted the sunglasses on and even attempted to tattoo his knuckles with HATE, but that looked horrible., so I repainted it.

Franks gets his very own story in the fifth book of the series called MHI: Nemesis, and that novel is another blast.  We learn more about his incredible backstory, and find that he is the basis for the Monster of Frankenstein legend.  So, having multiple versions of Franks makes sense, as he can basically change his body shape at need (more or less).

I'll eventually want to do a Agent Franks in his tactical gear, sporting his FN2000, but I'm still on a search to find just the right model.  I may even attempt my own sculpted kitbashed version.

What do you call a group of Franks?
Classified.

Anyhow, Franks is such a great character and I wanted to get him added to my MCB faction.  Soon, he'll have Agent Myers and his latest boss, Doug Stark to join his ranks.

And just a couple of items I've started on:

There just aren't a lot of female werewolf models, but this one I found from Reaper will do quite nicely for a certain Red haired lycanthrope from MHI Alpha.  Also from that book, I've began my own sculpt (admittedly in a VERY rough state) of one of the Diggers, a very bizarre species of creature.   More on these characters as I progress with them.

So far just putty and paperclips..

Please don't hesitate to subscribe and leave any comments or questions you may have.  I'd love to hear from you, especially if you have any suggestions of what minis would work great for anyone in the MHI universe.

  I can also be reached directly at supervike@yahoo.com