Thursday 22 March 2012

Batman Chess Set - Catwoman & Penguin


Here's the next two then - and i'm leaving well alone.
Catwoman is pretty much perfect and an excellent sculpt, with her really only needing some lipstick. The lenses of her goggles are the only bit that's the crappy metallic, but it works on them.
Penguin has more of the metallics about him - trousers, umbrella, hat - but he's such an outlandish and garish character that they're kinda in keeping so are staying. Lovely work on the face here too.

Friday 16 March 2012

This Month In... 1971


What a terrific cover by Neal Adams.
A brilliantly nasty baddie in the foreground, very House Of Mystery, and a superb classic Batman beyond that.
Shame he's not so good on the inside:

Art's by Bob Brown and its just not very good.
Neither is the tale - a very silly one featuring a disfigured Jock out for revenge because the artist who painted his portrait made him wait another 5 mins to finish the painting, making him late for a hot date, making him drive badly, making him crash, making his face face so horrible.
Well, it certainly looks horrible on the cover.
But not on the inside and, whew, that's quite a mouthful to spout when you're taking a rubber mask off:

We've got a back-up Batgirl strip here too, which again is kinda daft, with a very non girl-like Barbara:

So, a pretty duff issue, only of note really to me for this ad:

Which i used to pour over and long for back then.
Bat-Rating:
2/10 (and that's mainly for the ad)

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Batman Chess Set - Joker done


Okay, that's him done and here he is with the other two.
Something that's becoming noticble is the variance in sizes - compare Batman's tiny face to Robin and Joker.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Batman Chess Set - Robin done


Here he is then and this is what i did/didn't do:
Hair and face left as is,
mask as is,
all the uniform done,
badge as is, staff as is.
Real pleased how he's come out and he's a truly accurate Frank Quitely version of Robin - even down to the skinny neck:

Saturday 3 March 2012

Batman Chess Set - Joker & Robin - white


Okay, this is my prep stage.
The Joker's shirt and Robin's everything-but-the-dark-bits get a sloppy coat of white.
That's to make the red and yellow i'll be using that much brighter.
I'll be redoing the green of the Joker's hair and the green bits of Robin's outfit but green always goes on nicely - so no need for a white basecoat first.

Friday 2 March 2012

Batman Chess Set - Joker & Robin.


Oh dear, oh dear. Know now why Eaglemoss are labelling the line "metallic resin" - they're gonna everything to make it look like its cast in metal.
A daft, daft idea that makes things end up looking like they're prizes from a fairground stall.
Can understand it with any objects on the figure but...
metallic green for the Joker's hair????
metallic shirt and suit?
A metal cape for Robin?
Bizarre.
Having said that though, the sculpts are excellent (altough Robin is almost adult-sized) and, again, my respect for the poor sods on the production line is hug - just look at the detail on the Joker's cards.
I was gonna prime and start all over again with the Joker, but those cards and the face not being too bad has made me change tack.
So this is what i'll be doing:
Joker:
New hair, leave the eyes as is (they're green mettalic but gleam nicely), new shirt, new suit.
Robin:
the mask is metaalic and therefore not right but i'm leaving it as there's no way i'd be able to do as good a job, all the outfit repainted