Batman Miniature Game Poison Ivy (Comics)

Well I have used my new brush for the first time. I was quite impressed it holds its point nicely and is good for doing both layers and fine detail such as eyes etc. I am quite impressed the real test I suppose is how long it lasts. Have ordered some brush cleaner so that will be the next test of it.

Onto the miniature itself I've finished Poison Ivy this week mainly to go in my Birds of Prey crew as I have no intention of using her as part of her own crew. I was fortunate enough to pick her up as a single miniature as this one comes in a crew box with 3 plant henchmen.

Paint scheme wise I've gone for the new 52 Version colour scheme but sticking to the layout of leaves etc that cover her body as the original pattern of green is a little different but the detail on this sculpt is far to nice to take advantage of it.

Abilities wise this one has slightly less offensive attacks to her Arkham counterpart as she only has a melee attack of toxic nails which are still nice as they do blood/stun and are handy giving re-rolls to hit. Where both Ivy's shine really is in there special traits. Confusion is a nice trait down to weaken and lock down enemies it has a range of 20cm reduces there attack/defense by 1 making them easier to block/hit (they don't lose counters though) but also prevents the target from spending special counters. Stopping them from making special attacks, running flying etc. The other trait is control pheromones which cause the the hypnotise effect. Meaning the target has to pass a willpower roll or become a member of my crew for an activation. Whats useful is you can obviously hijack a target move it about (you can't harm it though) but also allocating its counters for the next round. If you can catch a model after activating though they're yours for the next round making it good against models equipped with firearms using them to shoot there own team members wasting there ammo and or putting counters in less useful positions leaving them wide open to attack.

I gave Ive a run out the other night against the watchmen and she was quite useful dropping the free agents Attack/Defense with Confusion. Control Pheromones was less useful against the higher willpower models. I also borrowed Strix and field Black Canary, Bat girl, Katana along side Ivy and it was a fun game trying out the new characters. Strix is certainly going on the shopping list.

I won Something!

I've been meaning to write this for a while. Before Christmas I entered a Facebook competition on a painters page. Brushstroke is run by James who is a fabulous painter and i've been following him a long time. James paints up mostly Lord of the Rings miniatures with the occasional random figure for palate cleansing but has also done figures for a few charity auctions.

His Facebook page if your interest is called BrushStroke and if you click here should take you to his page and you can have a browse of his work.

To my surprise I was randomly selected and I won! Its a Windsor and Newton Series 7 paint brush. Like most of us I've read about these brushes on many painting articles being used by the professionals. I've always wondered whether these brushes do make a difference however the tight ass in me always gets me to stick to my cheap brushes. I am going to paint my next figure purely with this brush to try it out.

I need to get some brush soap as well to make sure I look after the brush properly.

Batman Miniature Game Clover

The third member of the Bird and Mercs set is Clover. Adding a some short range fire power to the Bane crew and being a lot cheaper than the Assault rifle wielding Dallas and TNT. Clover is intereresting as he isn't your normal pistol toting mook. Clover has the trait Rapid fire meaning if h doesn't move his rate of fire (RoF) goes upto a massive 4 with his automatic gun potentially dishing out 4 blood and 4 stun in a barrage of 9mm bullets. Even if he moves he can still has RoF 2 so can catch people of guard. The synergy with Birds Military Tradition is fab using it when my opponent thinks he has blocked his shooting by moving within 5cm the Military Tradition trait allows you to move 5cm and still keep your RoF as if you hadn't moved.

Perhaps one of the harder minis to photo pose wise I am quite please with him. Next up and the final member of the set is Schoolboy.

Batman Miniature Game Cuchillo

Second model from the Bird and Mercenaries set is Cuchillo he seem is armed with a knife and is on a par rep wise with McGregor the machete armed merc from the Bane starter pack. Where this knife guy truly differs is in his traits. Cuchillo has Stealth so models have to be within 20cm to see him and he also has tireless which means he can perform a run by only using a special counter instead of a special and a movement. Making him very fast. Give him the backpack equipment for carrying loot for free and he is the perfect loot grabber for the Bane crew.

To represent his stealth I kept his colours to blacks and greys.

Batman Miniature Game Bane Sidekick Bird.

Reinforcements have finally arrived for beloved Bane crew. There are several Bane Leaders for the crew but sadly no sidekicks have been available since release to take with him. Back in March/April last year when the Flash and Arrow book came out a sidekick release was hinted at in the equipment list as there was a piece available called Venom Factory for Sidekicks or Free Agents to take .  However its taken until Decembers for one to be released by Knight models. I was expecting one to come as a single miniature but a second crew pack has been released coming with 3 more merc filling in some tactical gaps and of course the sidekick known as Bird.

This version of Bird I understand is from the Arkham game and is not in the traditional style of the 3 sidekicks Bane has in the comics was are Bird, Zombie and Trogg.  In the Crew he fulfills a support role for the Bane crew. Equipped with a combat machete doing single blood/stun damage and a smoke bomb. The only odd item he has is a climbing rope which counts as a batcape meaning he can jump of buildings spend a special counter and doesn't suffer any falling damage. Which is fine if you deploy somewhere high but he doesn't have any other way of getting up high.

Know is support role is pretty cool there are some cool combo's you can pull. He has a Special Trait called Military Tradition which when activated allows him to move henchmen within 20cm and who have the veteran trait 5cm for free. Doesn't sound a lot but it allows you to break combat forcing your opponent to move back in wasting there own movement in doing so. Also your henchmen ROF is not affected for this move either.

The other cool ability he has is 'One of the boys' which lets him use the 'Lets Go' ability counting as a henchmen for this purpose which if successful (you have to roll 4+) means you can activate your models without letting you opponent getting to activate. Being a sidekick your models within 20cm can also reroll lets go rolls if the fail. So you can see there can be a lot of flexibility given.

I had a game the other night using him against the Watchmen and I found Bird quite useful though I kept forgetting to put counters in special for my henchmen to make full use of the lets go trait. I had planned to deploy him on a building use a sewer to get to another building in my opponents deployment zone using his rope to jump off. Only I forgot this plan during deployment.....and deployed him on the ground with all the sewer access points being positioned on top of buildings....whoops lol.

 

The three other henchmen who come in the crew pack are being worked on. Two more are done which i'll get posted up this week and the third is not far from being completed either.

Plans for 2017!

Firstly I'd like to wish a Happy New Year to all my friends and followers on here. 2016 was a crazy year and ended crazy busy for me.  I managed to get to the cinema with some a friend and watch Rogue One in 3D which awesome and I heartily recommend it!

I had a good year painting wise managing to paint 84 miniature which is 2 more than the previous year hoorah! All 28mm/35mm and a fair few being Batman or Superhero related.

Games wise was really good I have lost count but have been to four Batman Tournaments this year as well as many games at mine and Pulp Citizens. Regretfully I've not been able to get over to the new club as yet but I hope to get down there this year.

I didn't attend a single show last year so I hope to rectify that somewhat this year. This was mainly down to not having funds at the time of shows or things I really wanted (Suicide Squad Game box) meaning I couldn't justify the expense of travel to some.

Reading  proper books has been a bit crap this year I seem to start books then drift away half way through losing interest. Comics wise i've read tons from Batwoman to Birds of Prey to Suicide Squad and Hawk and Dove.

Plans for 2017 is to continue painting/wargaming as normal. I've been working on some bits over Christmas here and there so hopefully I'll have something to show this week or next time willing. At the moment most likely more Batman and more Alpha squad are currently on the bench being worked on. Got my first game of the year planned for next week as well so hopefully that will spur me to get some figures finished to be used for it.

Some of my figures from 2016.