Forgotten Heroes

I don't post a lot of painting and modelling stuff on this blog. This is for two reasons. The first is that this is a blog for wargaming; I'd rather document what I actually do with my toys, as opposed to explaining how I put the toys together in the first place. The second reason is that, on the whole, I don't do a lot of painting and modelling.

However I came across the Forgotten Heroes challenge the other day, and foolishly decided to give it a go.

Here's the blurb from the BLOG set up to run it:

"Whilst there are a vast array of official Marvel and DC superhero and supervillain figures, both in metal and plastic, available AND various unofficial miniatures of both the big two’s characters and other heroes/villains, there will always be that little hole in your collection for a particular favourite or obscure character that they just don’t make. And that’s what Forgotten Heroes is about.

During the month of June, Jez* and I are inviting you to join us in creating/converting an existing figure into a costumed superhero or villain of your choice, from any source (be that Comics, TV, Film, Adverts, Toy lines, Novels; basically anywhere you can think of). The rules, such as they are, are quite simple.

• The character you create must not yet have had an official or unofficial miniature made for it. 
• The figure must be in 28mm scale. 
• The figure must be completed during the month of June. 
• In your first post, you should provide a bit of detail on the character you’ve chosen and why. 

And that’s it basically. It can be as simple as repainting a DC Heroclix Blue Beetle as Marvel’s Goldbug, to as elaborate as converting a GW Imperial Guard Commissar into Marshal Law.

As there are a vast number of costumed heroes and villains out there (the Leopard of Lime Street, the Private Eye, the Savage Dragon, Megamind, Mr Incredible, Thermoman, Green Cross man, the list goes on and on), the only question you have to ask yourself is this – Who will be your Forgotten Hero?

We’re announcing it now, to give you time to gather your thoughts and the necessary figure ripe for conversion. It’s open to all, just let me know if you want to join in and I’ll make sure links to your blogs are posted on here whilst it’s going on.

So it just remains for me to say thanks to Jez, for a) coming up with this idea and b) letting me pinch the above from his blog. So come on why not join the fun, you know you want to.

Cheers Roger."

And one update to the rules from The Miniatures Page:

"There has a been a slight 'rules' update in respect of who you can create, namely you CAN create a hero or villain who has already had an official or unofficial figure made, PROVIDING you don't use this figure to create your own.

This is for those who want a particular hero or villain, but are unhappy with the versions made so far. Don't like version of , now's the chance to make the "definitive" version! It's like an online version of a multi-company crossover event, without having to buy every single issue! And you KNOW you've always wanted a 28mm Hypno-Hustler…"

Now obviously it's possible that I could take a whole month just to get around to doing a simple repaint of a figure, so that may be all I do, But I have made the effort to come up with a few ideas, some, or all, of which I will implement during June, opting for a quantity over quality approach to the challenge. I'll post my initial entries closer to the date, of course.

Obviously I'm posting this here so that you can think about having a go. If I know my loyal reader is attempting the same challenge, I won't feel so bad about submitting my own, paltry, efforts.

One thing I do promise is that I will post at least one game featuring any figures I do produce. I'm making toys for playing games with here, and I intend to play games, not just make ropey eye-candy. although, that said, the only reworked Heroclix in my collection - Captain Britain's arch-foe The Fury - is still waiting for that elusive first game. But then how do you even begin to use The Fury?

June also sees the annual Supanova event in Sydney, and once again my wife and I will be inflicting our ropey, cheapass cosplay on the event. But we trialled it the other week at Wollongong's Comic Gong, going as characters so obscure that even a cosplay website had to look them up.

Here we are:

Catherine is Dr Venus from Gerry Anderson's 'Fireball XL5'. I dug deep into comic history and emerged in 1940 to portray Madam Fatal - seemingly a harmless little old lady, with a penchant for beating up criminals wherever she finds them, but in reality a retired actor in a very convincing, long-term and somewhat dubious (for the time), disguise.

If I can find a suitable base figure in time, perhaps I should produce a Madam Fatal miniature.