Mod #10 Talisman

Daughter mod #2. Shaman was Talisman for a very short time (in a black costume with furry white bits, a staff and an owl) but his daughter had the role before and after he did.

I thought about using Jinx with a headswap but ended up using Blink shaving off all of her equipment and doing a basic re-work of the costume. I used Shaman's impressive blue zappy bits to accentuate her magicky-ness. In retrospect, I unintentionally made her a little too busty (my squatter fig represents her short undocumented 'super size me!' period) but I still think she has a bit of a native North American (it's not native Canadian... is it?) look.





I'm tempted to paint her zappy stuff a pinky/purple (that red, yellow, blue arty primary-colour clash thing got me when I posted the photo - you can see how Mr Byrne cleverly avoids it in the above picture) but I'm gonna need a rainy day.

Mod #9 Siryn

The first of my two daughters of heroes. I like Banshee, I dig the Irish & Siryn's cool after all these years (& with little lasses of me own). The mod is based on Firestar with Ultimate Storm's head and a fair bit of green stuff and paint to get to the finished product.

Starfire's... uh, Firestar's skin-tight suit simply needs the boots shaved down and then she becomes an excellent template for a mod. Ororo's head, with a bit of paint, was perfect and I was happy with the pose. Win win win. The lass and her father share the same powers so the base is a no-brainer. I suppose I am really overpowering her using Vet Banshee (with distinguished secret service, hero & hero-teaching careers behind him) but I wanna see Siryn rock.









Find your target, smile then SCREAM!!!!!

Rain... night... ya gotta love it!

I know Madrox from one story and other clix made from that (New X-Men HC Anthology Vol#2) story are Canonball and the Fantomex-trys-for-asylum team of Jean & the Prof (with Fantomex!). Still, somebody else's gotta be in from the rainy subway jaunt at night with Canonball and Madrox but, as it is, no other X-Corpers (and I don't know who the others really are - bar Banshee's daughter...) featured have been made into Clix. Hmmmm....

Repaint #2 Sam Guthrie

OK... not every great mod (or mod you will be happy with) is going to take a massive amount of effort. Sometimes it is just for a model to fit into a themed team better or because you just hate the result you pull out of the pack. Regardless, a mod's creation is pretty much a personal and whimsical thing.

I hate the Cannonball costume chosen for the REV and LE. HATE. So I simply had to darken it up to get it in line with the more current X-Corps get-ups. Europe, rain... night... ya gotta love it. Jean came up after Madrox was possible to play on table and I was making a 600 points X-men in Paris in the 21st Century team with Fantomex. I wanted Sam but not in purple and retro leathers. Uh-uhh... A bit of deep glossy blue, dirty smokey black tones, silver lenses, highlighted blondness and my (Transporter - Woo hoo!) super-special 21stC Sam Guthrie LE is table ready.

Mod #8 Jean Grey

Ok, Marvel Girl has gone a long way and the Phoenix thing has done the rounds to the point that we all know she really IS a powerhouse. Character-wise she has become the brood-mothery, stand-tall-when-the-firing-starts veteran leader. Clothes-wise she has opted for one of many (and Jean's closet must be roomy) long jackets/coats, with a grey jumper (?- wow, I'm feelin' all fashionista!). She wears a variety of X-motifs on these sometimes yellow piped, sometimes quilted always long black coats from the broad yellow X on her jumper to a broad grey X on the back of her coat to the X-Logo in yellow on her shoulders and/or chest. Yellow X or Metallic X buckles, black pants and boots. She has choices...So with a now classic REV Jean Grey, a Ultimate X-men REV & a new and cool X-Factor Jean and a plethora of Jean/Maddie/Phoenix-related Uniques I wanted one to represent a contemporary post X-men-movies/New X-Men JG. So I used the base of the edgier Ultimate-X-men Vet Marvel Girl and the Jessica Jones sculpt. Other than a flicker of Phoenixy psychic flame, leftover from Shaman and to cover the drink (?), the effect is all through dabs of paint to bring out the nuances of the subtlest of Jean's long-coat ensembles.All Black blends with the new Jean, she can keep her understated hero thing without looking like a girly sidekick which, by now, is so not her role.
She even works with the base as she does not feel like she will break (the JJ archenemy base dillema) when you turn her dial.

Mod #7 Cage

I SO SO SO NEEDED TO MAKE THIS MOD. The original Power Man is a Classic. I was a fairly comic savvy kid (with help from a friend's big-brother's unwanted comic collection) in the 70's so I was hip to the street-smart, chain wearin' brother. But some far far younger Heroclixers dubbed him "Porn-star Man" when he was released. In front of me...
The swashbuckling (sold only to superheroes) boots, open shirt, chain and banded bad-afro just do not call out "tough guy!" in the 21st century (I blame the sculpt). The shame... But Cage is SO a 21st Century guy. He is no longer the soul-brother token black hero. He is hitched to Jessica Jones, is a corner-stone New Avenger and a father wanting to take the hero thing seriously to have something to show his daughter. It's that whole legacy thing in the heroworld. Cage Rocks and, as such, his mod should try to aspire to such. As inspiration I used the image above from the 2nd New Avengers Anthology circa earlier this year.The 2006 Cage is generally 21st Century street-savvy, which is somewhat more subtle than the pimp bashin', thug smashin' Power Man. The trick with the mod was to shave away most of the detailing and use green-stuff to build up the leather (effected by a greasy black train paint), headgear and straight pants and then paint in the comfortable weaved jumper and beanie. Voila - ready to KO some contemporary fool! C'mon over here and call me that...Looks way better in basic black than canary yellow.

Mod #6 (& Repaint #1 - The Beaubiers)

I did these early on - right after I got the pair. Exp (and the Rookie) Northstar were hastily painted to match Aurora ('twas their thing) and then Vet Aurora had to have a hefty remodel to have her yellow suit and rad haircut when she finally broke free and got Walt to cut her off from her old multi-identity-latched-to-my-dominant-twin personality (just before the tripped-out X-Men/Alpha Flight/Loki incident). The paint job is very rough and the model was not polished up in any way beyond the radical (pre-wicked-whirring-craft-tool days) haircut job but I am still happy with her and don't see myself doing more work as she does the job. The unmodified Exp Aurora is there for reference.

Mod #5 Wonder Man

OK, so I buy the fact that a character's suit may change... somewhat and that the current Wonder Man looks (when last seen) a lot like the Vet transparent-blue sculpt but the Rookie and Exp are WAY OFF. The Rookie I can live with (though I am sure a remodel will be attempted at some stage) but the Exp version... well, things must be done!The Inspiration for the mod is the cover art of Avengers #192 Feb'79 Peril In Pittsburgh! The classic red safari suited Wonder Man is, for me, the ONLY Wonder Man, even if he ain't the Vet powerhouse. So the original paint job (at the top, not bad as it is) will be kept for sure but relegated to the Simon Williams LE.The mod was actually quite tricky. I had to whittle (with the hand-held-whirling-tool-of-death) most of his buffed-ness from the waist up (down was fine) and right up to his neck and around his uber-arms to green-stuff up a polo neck, the beloved red safari suit and the mandatory sunnies.

Mod #4 Valkyrie on Aragorn

Gee this was a shoe-in when they released Fantastic Forces but the irony for me was that I put her together on the same night that I saw a spoiler for Sinister and the Sinister Valkyrie sculpt (& more) is SWEET!!! Inspiration is from the cover of New Defenders #126 Dec'83 and the mod is a (uh...) Moonstar repaint with bow cut down, sword added and Big Barda's cloak all blued-up. I have her on the Rookie Black Knight base, though I would want (of course) a Vet. Regardless, she is now totally out-classed by the bang-for-points of Exp and Vet Valkyrie... Thus, I have not finished the tricky fashion details of the red barding on Aragorn or Valk's sandal laces. Oh well...

Mod #2 Storm and #3 Aquaman

Storm, in her original Experienced versions does not fly and her powers are different (gone). She gets a bit of Stealth and a couple clicks each of Leadership and Perplex but she should so have a whopping big white mohawk. Grounded Storm also had a penchant for tight leather looking pants and gloves, the whole sleeveless eighties thing and a tougher attitude (she was the leader of the X-mutant peoples without any powers - talk about minority issues!). It was a look that lasted through the Storm/Forge romance period that went long enough for Forge to re-Storm the girl and then for Storm to ditch the mystic-Amerind X-Mcguyver when she realises he was the toss who made the gun that zapped her powers away in the first place! Sensitive new-age-Forgey? Not in the late eighties...
This was probably my worst mod or repaint. The idea was cool but it was my first time with one of those whirling-death-hand-held craft tools. Man, did I do a number on her head - so from tabletop-view (behind, from a distance) she does the job for me but if you look closer (and I have made that a little tricky here, for my own honour of course) she could be an extra from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Now Aquaman was a much much simpler job - snip, glue & touch up. Again, he was a must do when Icons gave us revised REVs of wave-guy, this time with a wave. The Exp Icons version IS the dude portrayed in the original REV with hook, thus a ranged attack. The melding of the two models was simple and effective. I dig it.

Mod #1 Sentinel/Green Lantern

I did this a while back (when I first answered the question: who would you want to play enough to mod a figure to actually play it?) and I still love the fig - mainly as I like playing it and have an excuse to field Sentinel all-in-one. It also set up my own pattern of modding basically using existing dials and just changing the representative model. In this case I used the Rookie Hal Jordan GL base to represent Sentinel/Green Lantern. He is cheap enough to put Protected, Nanobots and In-Contact on him (and another) and still get in under a V GL or LE GL (though the NEW GL collector set bases are pretty sweet) whose team ability I'd rather not pay for. The 17 Defense w WP and the RS and TK make him one of my all-time favorite bases (I used it again when I went to make a Guy Gardner). The actual mod is built from the forementioned Hal with a cloak made from Dr Fate's with some green stuff for the highlights.

[I apologise for the poor quality of this and any other photos - my wife is a far superior snapper than I. I will note her work if I Blog it.]

SUPERNOVA is looking... like...

UNBERLIEVABLE!!!!!

OK, a new Thor, especially (and REV hopefully) will be SWEET. Ditto with the Surfer. Cult characters like Mantis and (please.. please...) Star Fox is leaning to groovy. Machine Man, yeah! Thanos, Hyperion, Drax are all gonna be hardcore. Nova will be fun and that goes double for me with a Captain Marvel REV!!!!! Alright! Vance Astro/Major Victory/Justice so makes sense with Firesatr and the "period" teams all pretty much out as clix but a NEW She-Hulk (and I just did a repaint of my beloved V She-Hulk who still rocks and helped me actually win a comp only a fortnight ago) and a NEW REV Vision... with the E in white (the break-up period) is just a chance for some key-character catch up (in terms of stats and powers). The aliens will be cool ONLY if the rarity is less Shield/Multiple-Man and more Electro/Mockingbird/Hydroman/Pumkin-dude. Otherwise... ALL TERRIFIC NEWS!

But then the cherry on the pie for BB - Guardian/Vindicator/Weapon Alpha.... woah, cannot be too carried away as it is merely "strongly rumored".. (as I am, seemingly, the only old-school Alpha Flight fan within a few thousand klicks it is BIG news for me, finally finishing off the "team") - BRING IT ON!!!!

From a gamestore's web-group (gotta love the in-the-know):

CONFIRMED CHARACTERS:
Thanos
Thor
Silver Surfer (Defender, Power Cosmic teams?)
Hyperion
Drax the Destroyer
Nova (Richard Rider) (or Nova Corpsman with Richard Rider LE)
Captain Marvel (3)/Photon/Genis-Vell
She-Hulk (new costume)
Machine Man
Vision (Exp = white version)
Mephisto (unique)
Speedball
Mantis
Kree (soldier? lieutenant? captain?) (BelDann? Supreme Intelligence? Colonel Yon-Rogg? Noh-Varr? LE)
Badoon (Brother Royale?)
Skrull (infiltrator? warrior? officer?) (Empress R'Kill? Lyja Lazerfist? Replica? Skymax? LE)
Shi'ar (warrior? infantry? royal guard? )(Majestrix L'ilandra LE?)

STRONGLY RUMORED CHARACTERS:
Vance Astro/Major Victory/Justice
Guardian/Vindicator/Weapon Alpha
Starhawk
Firelord (unique?)
Dr. Spectrum
Power Princess
Star Fox (unique?)