Trotting to the End of the World

I appreciate that I’ve not posted for a while, but I did have my son’s wedding o attend and I may have been distracted by building a 5,000 piece craft brewery out of Lego-adjacent blocks.

However, I have not been idle on the My Little Ponies of the Apocalypse project…

Having decided which of my ponies would represent each of the four Horseman – namely Conquest, War, Famine and Death and knowing the basic coat colours (based on the descriptions from the Book of Revelations), it was just a case of deciding what colour each pony’s mane and tail would be.

First up was Conquest, which is described as a white horse. I decided to go for a deep gloss red, as I thought this would make a good contrast.

War pony was next, as this was described a red horse, it seemed obvious to go with bronze for mane and tail. Not at all influenced by Khorne, naturally…

Famine pony is black, so sticking with the shiny/glossy manes, I decided that silver would be the best colour. The day on which I took this picture was exceptionally sunny, so it kind of bleached out the colour a bit.

And Death pony, which as explained before is a pale green (although Revell call this colour ‘Beige Green’ for some reason). I was undecided on the mane and tail colour at the time, so this is why in this picture it remains white.

These were the initial layers, to get a feel if the colours were working. Even though each pony had been undercoated in white, it took a couple more layers on each to get a depth of colour and coverage I was happy with.

As I was unsure regarding Death pony’s mane and tail colour, I reached out to my MLP expert and told her the two colours I was considering and asked her option. She went with metallic purple, which was the way I was leaning anyway. She also suggested than rather than the standard ‘wide’ eyes associated with MLP, it might be more suitable to give them ‘mean’ eyes, and sent me some suitable images for reference.

This was the next stage and the one I was most worried about, as if I mucked this up, it could ruin them. Thankfully, I was in both the right frame of mind and had the necessary time to enable me to do them justice. I have also finalised the appropriate names for each pony.

So, this is Conquestria, My Little Pony of Conquest.

Mares, My Little Pony of War.

Diette, My Little Pony of Famine,

And Death Nell, My Little Pony of Death.

The final thing to do will be to add each pony’s ‘cutie mark’ and tidy up a few areas where the paint has bled into the wrong area.

I have to admit, as another one of my daft, whimsical ideas, I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to be able to pull this off, but looking at them last night, arrayed across my workspace, I could feel myself grinning. Not only because I’d managed it, but also because they look so damn cute and so fucking cool!

A final push and I will have what no-one else has – a entire set of My Little Ponies of the Apocalypse!

My Little Ponies… of the Apocalypse

So, having completed my Frightening Felines, I decided that my next project would be equally as whimsical, as I’ve always joked about making My Little Ponies of the Apocalypse, so it was about time I actually did it.

My quest began by scouring every possible location that might conceivably harbour some MLP’s and whilst I did find a pack of them in my local Smyths toy store, I balked at the price.

I did find a knock-off MLP in The Works, which was a meagre £3.00 and bought one as a ‘tester.’ However, once freed from its packaging, I realised that it did not meet my criteria, as this had nylon hair and I could think of no practical way to colour this.

After checking online, I eventually went onto one of those Chinese shop apps and ordered a six-pack of the main characters from the ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ TV show. Six ponies, just under £14.00, which I thought was fairly reasonable and works out about £2.34 per pony.

So, they turned up the other day and I was surprised that they were as big as they were, as each pony is approximately 3 1/2 inches tall. They’re made from solid vinyl, as opposed to hollow, so I knew that I wouldn’t need to fill any holes once I started removing extraneous extras.

The six characters below are, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity from left to right in the front row, and Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in the back row, left to right.

Having examined each of the ponies in turn, I chose the four that I felt would be the easiest to convert, based on their attributes. The first two chosen were Pinkie Pie and Applejack, as both of these are straight ponies, with no wings or horns.

The next two chosen were Rainbow Dash and Rarity, as RD had small wings that should be easy to remove and Rarity only had a horn, which should also be easy to cut off.

Twilight Sparkle had both large wings AND a horn, which looked bloody difficult to get at. Plus she looked like the pony equivalent of Dwayne Dibley with that haircut. Flutteshy has a gigantic flowing mane and, to be honest, was fair too cute to be messed about with, so she’s now sitting on my bookshelf.

My ‘spray booth’ (i.e. big cardboard box kept for this kind of thing) was retrieved and PP and AJ received an undercoat of matt white spray paint. As each pony has a movable head, I had to turn these to ensure that I got maximum coverage of each side, and that the pony wouldn’t fall over. This resulted in a few patches where the paint didn’t reach, but as this just a base coat, this is fine.

I then took a craft knife to RD and Rarity, removing RD’s wings and Rarity’s horn, then filing down these areas to get as smooth a finish as possible. These were then sprayed in the same way as the other two, giving me four white ponies, ready to have their initial base coats applied.

Now, having done some research, the actual Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are NOT Death, War, Famine and Pestilence, but in order of appearance, Conquest, War, Famine and Death.

Conquest rides a white horse and carries a bow and wears a crown, War rides a red horse and carries a sword, Famine rides a black horse and carries a set of scales and Death rides a ‘pale’ horse and is the only rider actually named. Interestingly, ‘pale’ is not white, but from the Latin pàllidus and Greel khlōrós, which can mean either green/greenish-yellow or pale/pallid in both languages. As we already have a white, red and black horse, I decided that a pale green would be a suitable colour, as I have seen MLP’s this colour.

Each MLP has a unique symbol on their flank, which can appear one or both sides, which in recent years have been referred to as ‘cutie marks’. As each of the Horsemen bar Death are associated with a specific item, I will be using these as the ‘cutie marks’ on the flanks of my ponies. A bow or crown for Conquest, a sword for War, a set of scales for Famine and either a skull or a scythe for Death.

I may also need to come up with slightly cuter names for each pony, so that they sound more like MLP’s.

Is is whimsical? Yes. Is it a bit mad? Yes. Will is be a lot of fun? Definitely.

At some point, I will start painting 28mm figures again, but for now, the Apocalypse waits for no man…

Frightening Felines

Whilst I have not been as active on my blog over the last month or so, this doesn’t mean that I haven’t been active elsewhere online AND also doing creative type stuff, as I shall explain.

As my Instagram account automatically posts anything I put on there to the Threads app, I decided to see what this app actually was. It’s fairly similar to what Twitter was before everyone decided to us it as a platform to push their political views and before everyone’s favourite ‘techbro’ decided to take it over and rename it X.

Still not entirely sure why he decided to do this and as I disagree with it, I now refuse to use what I still refer to as my Twitter account.

Anyway, it’s a wonderfully unhinged environment and the algorithm takes notice of what sort of posts you interact with and adjusts your feed, so you only end up with stuff you’re interested in. I have some random but satisfying conversations with people on there (including discussing whether the original Peter Pan novella should be considered a horror story) and ended up chatting to a lady in York who makes ‘Frightening Felines’.

These are small plaster ‘ghost’ cats, which the lady in question then paints and sells. As they’re both whimsical and slightly macabre, I knew I had to order one, so I did.

One blood-spattered ghost cat, ready to haunt my bookshelves. Having taken a look at the others she had available on her Etsy shop I knew I wanted some more, but the current ones featured did not ‘speak to me’ as the original one had.

Then I had an idea.

I contacted Mattie directly and asked if she sold them unpainted as I quite fancied customisng some myself. She did, so I ordered three ‘naked’ cats, which arrived shortly after.

I’d already had a vague idea of what I wanted to do with two of them, so the third was a back-up in case everything went horribly wrong.

As I already had a ‘ghost’ cat, I felt I needed a ‘mummy’ cat too. My initial idea was to paint the bandages on, but then I had a brainwave. Rummaging through my medical kit, I found an unopened REAL bandage, which a strip was cut off, then cut into further thinner strips. I then filled a shallow bowl with a mixture of PVA and water, then dumped the strips in there. This took a while to get the consistency right, and was quite messy, but after much teasing of these strips, my first feline was suitably wrapped.

For the second one, a small blob of Greenstuff was rolled up, then affixed to the front of the cat, shaped into an oval and then smoothed down.

Stage one results below;

Once both were cured and/or fully dried, I applied the first coat of paint to each cat – a mid-tan for the mummy cat and matt back for the other one, as below;

Having painted plaster before, I was concerned that it might ‘drink’ the paint, resulting in multiple coats needed, but as Mattie uses a mix which is more akin to dental plaster than plaster of Paris, this is less porous and more hard-wearing. As the mummy cat had pretty much been slathered in PVA, I didn’t think that this would need multiple coats, but was worried about the other one. Whilst it did need two coats, that was down to my cheapass black paint, rather than the material it’s made from.

The next stage was to provide the mummy cat with a dark brown wash to bring out the details/texture more and paint the other cat’s chest shield in yellow.

I showed the above picture to a female friend of mine, who initially thought that I was trying to do a feline version of the penguin from Wallace and Gromit. However, anyone who knows me well enough should gather from both the outline and colouring that this was going to be… BatCat.

The final push was to paint in the mummy cat’s eye sockets in dark brown, then give the whole thing a drybrush of linen/cream, to bring out the raised parts of the bandages and she was complete. This one has been named Lil’ Bastet.

BatCat received a cost of gloss black enamel, as I was trying to replicate the batsuit worn by Michael Keaton in his three outings as Batman. The chest emblem was given a further coat of yellow, then I meticulously painted the bat symbol on this, rejecting the first two brushes picked as too thick. Mithril sliver and white were then mixed up to provide the glowing eyes seen on both the Snyderverse and Lego versions of Batman.

The third cat, as it was not needed for a back-up, I decided I was going to have wearing a patterned bedsheet, choosing a jaguar print, as this just required a base undercoats of a light tan, blobs of mid tan, then each blob roughly outlined in dark brown, with a few dots in the centre of selected blobs to represent the rosette pattern of the jaguar’s coat. Eye sockets painted in dark brown and thus was finished Tezcat, short for Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec jaguar god.

Three Frightening Felines to grace my shelves, two of which have joined the original Ghost Cat (who I haven’t named yet). BatCat is currently sitting on top of my fridge, guarding my kitchen from the possible depredations of villainous cheese thieves and refuses to come down. I think he may be brooding…

This project was a lot of fun and, whilst simpler than what I usually do, did take some thought and ingenuity on my part to get the results I wanted.

Should you browse Mattie’s shop on Etsy (which is unfortunately taking a short break until the end of the school holidays, as the demand for her Frightening Felines has risen significantly) and think to yourself “I know someone who would love one of these,” even if it’s just yourself, then bookmark the site and order yourself one or more. You’ll be supporting an independent and talented creator and you’ll end up with a small piece of joy in the palm of your hand.

That’s all for now, but as I have just taken delivery of a Count Binface figure and also have a small parcel winging it’s way to me for next whimsical project, we shall see what the next post brings. It may be Binface or it may be…

My Little Ponies of the Apocalyse.

Forgotten Heroes 2026 – A 10 Year Retrospective

As it now the final day of June, this does mean that the annual Forgotten Heroes challenge is now over.

Everyone who follows this blog will know that we’ve been doing this a while – exactly 10 years to be exact, as the first ever Forgotten Heroes was waaaaay back in 2016.

Initially conceived by Roger and myself as a way to get a few more people on the band-wagon of creating their own unique figures, as we’d previously just been concentrating on making our own versions of MOTU characters, so the precursor of FH was what we either dubbed “He-Month” or “Masters of The June-iverse.”

I came up with the overall idea, but it was Roger who came up with the name, for which I am eternally thankful.

Over the years, we’ve had folk from all over the world participate, some regularly, others dropping in and out when time and RL commitments permitted. Whilst the majority of the featured characters have been pulled from our favourite comic books, this was not always the case, with entrants from whole spectrum of pop culture.

The rules were never meant to be onerous – just produce a character who hasn’t had an official or knock-off figure made of them yet, during the month of June. Any scale, any topic, any way you want.

But what of my output over the years? Let’s take a look at each year…

FH 2016

A strong start, with three figures produced. Bananaman from the Beano, Super Soldier from the DC/Marvel crossover event published under the Amalgam Comics label and Stegron the Dinosaur Man from Marvel. Donor figures were a Heroclix Bizarro, Captain Atom and a Godzilla collectible figure. Bananaman has had one his ‘horns’ knocked off, so will require some remedial care.

FH 2017

Mystery Incorporated, also known as the Quantum Quartet – consisting of Kid Dynamo, Neon Queen, Crystal Man and the Planet – from Image Comics 1963 mini-series. All Heroclix conversions, donor figures being the Living Lightning, Dust, Prism and Blood Brother. I’m still jot 100% happy with the Planet’s head, as It’s supposed to be spherical, rather than jelly bean shaped.

FH 2018

Branching into characters licenced but not owned by Marvel, this was my interpretation of Rom, Spaceknight, a toy we all craved as children, but now realise was a bit crap. Original figure was a Heroclix character called Aleph.

FH 2019

For 2019, I tried something a little different, as that year I threw the gauntlet wider, making the rule that your entry did not need to be a Forgotten hero, but did need to be a hero representing a nation. My entry was originally going to be called Captain Mexico and be wearing a sombrero, but rather than lean into parody, I decided to create El Aguila, Mexico’s greatest hero. Mainly because the donor Heroclix figure Stonewall already looked liked a luchadore.

FH 2020

2020 brought us many things, including the Covid pandemic and being under national lockdown. What better year to do my iteration of the 8th Doctor from Doctor Who? Converted from Artisan Designs Captain Withnail.

FH 2021

You may have already heard this one mentioned, as it has gained a certain fame of its own. Starting with the head of a broken Hulk action figure, I crafted M.O.D.O.K. from Marvel Comics. Still stands up as one of my best creations and received the praise it was due.

FH 2022

A duplicate Heroscape Silver Surfer figure provided me with a generic male figure as a base this year and it was just a case of choosing what it would become. I was also running behind in 2022, so needed something with a pretty straightforward colour scheme. Marvel’s the Spot came to mind, white body suit, black spots, done. Of course, I then had to go and make it more complicated by deciding that a separate marker to show the Spot’s powers in use would be cool. Took slightly longer, but I was right, it does look cool.

FH 2023

For 2023, I wanted to go so obscure and forgotten that no-one would have heard of him. I succeeded with The Tornado, from the British Oh Boy! Comic published in 1948 and created by, of all people, Bob Monkhouse. Donor figure was a Heroclix Signalman with replacement arms from a Void 1.1 Junker Legionnaire.

FH 2024

2024 saw me venturing back into more familiar territory, with a pretty much scratch-built Taskmaster from Marvel Comics. A character I’d always liked and one I wanted to do justice to, as the MCU couldn’t.

FH 2025

2025 saw me realise that I’d been doing this for almost 10 years, so it was about time I created a figure of my namesake, Carrion Crow from the Marshal Law comic  ‘Super Babylon.’ I’d bid for a job-lot DC Heroclix figures on eBay, specifically to get a Hawkman figure so I could do this one.

FH 2026

Which brings us up to this year, with both Captain Carter and the Crimson Bolt being finished well before the end of the challenge.

The whole purpose of Forgotten Heroes is to have a bit of fun, the end result being a unique figure that no-one else has got and something you’ve secretly been craving all along.

Whilst this is the end of this year’s challenge, it’s not the end of Forgotten Heroes and I will continue to host it until you prise my paintbrushes out of my cold, dead hands.

Even then I hope that someone else is willing to take up the torch, because I think it really inspires creativity and makes you realise that, yes, you CAN actually do that.

Badges will be dispensed to those who have supplied their addresses and I will chase those who haven’t – because a deal’s a deal.

Before I sign off, however, there is my FIRST  comic book conversion, but one that doesn’t count as a Forgotten Hero, as he was created before the official launch.

The version of Devil Dinosaur that appeared in Marvel’s Next Wave title, complete with smoking jacket, cravat and pistol. Because… well, I think you can see why.

Until next time…

Forgotten Heroes… Done

Normally, Monday nights I go out, but due to the fact that my bank balance was looking a little light and I don’t get paid until tomorrow, I decided to stay in… and hopefully finish off my Forgotten Heroes.

I started with the Crimson Bolt, carefully (ish) painting the yellow sunburst he has on his chest. Revell model yellow gives good coverage on ANY base coat, so it only took two coats to have a solid block of yellow. Once this had dried, I even more carefully painted the inverted U shape that is supposed to represent his mask. Once that had dried, I painstakingly dotted in the eyes of his mask emblem.

Happy with the results, I moved onto his actual eyes. This was a mistake.

I always try to paint in the eyes of my figures and it always goes wrong, because, frankly, I suck at painting eyes.

Other stuff seems to a doddle, but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.

It’s a bit like those people who can roll their own cigarettes. I can’t do that either. Every time I’ve tried it, it ends up looking like a camel with no legs. Or an anaconda that’s eaten a pig.

Anyway, realising my error, I quickly mixed up some flesh, and subsequent darker wash, then declared him finished.

This is what we were going for:

And this is what we’ve got;

I’d say that’s a pretty good conversion, so I’m happy with this one.

Captain Carter received some attention next. Red inner circle was painted on her shield, then her bodysuit received a wash of Marine Dark Blue. Her belt was painted in with two coats of Burnt Umber ( not Ochre, as I mistakenly said in my last post), then it was onto her chest…

(Pauses momentarily, to contemplate Hayley Atwell’s chest.)

As the abdominal area was predominantly white, I painted this first, then added the two crosses, the standard and saltire, also in white. As my white paint was quite thin, this took three coats until I was happy with the coverage. I then painted an interior red cross running vertically from belt to neck and horizontally across the upper portion of her chest. Diagonal red stripes were carefully added to existing diagonal white stripes. Thankfully, this went well. Whilst I had the red open, I added the red accents to the upper thighs and upper arms, which also went well. I then painted her belt buckle in straight Chainmail and declared that part done.

Now was the part I’d been dreading – the central emblem of her shield, a tiny Union Jack. This started with an initial inner circle of white, followed by a standard red cross and four diagonal red lines for the other red parts. Looking at it, I realised I may have made the central red cross too big, as I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit the blue bits in. Blue triangles were added in the relevant places, then exterior edges were outlined in white, with touching up with red afterwards. I’m still not 100% happy with it, but I knew if I continued it would get worse, not better, so brushes were put down.

I did consider trying to do something additional with her face, but the cross-eyed look from the Crimson Bolt earlier was enough to prevent more fiddling.

So, this was the aim;

And this is my version;

I think I could potentially try a darker wash on her face, just to add some shadows and depth, but I’m pretty damn proud of her uniform, even if the shield design isn’t as good as I hoped.

However, as I started this anniversary year with a BIG idea that turned out to not work, the fact that I’ve completed both figures within the timescale AND managed some pretty intricate brush work on Captain Carter to boot makes me happy.

Be sure to check everyone else’s entries, (links in this post) and join me next time, when I’ll look back at the previous nine year’s worth of figures I created and see if my technique has improved. Plus there will be a special guest, who wasn’t a pre-cursor to the challenge, but does deserve another chance in the spotlight.

“Who Needs a Plan? I Have a Shield.”

As everyone else seems to be progressing faster than me, I decided I really ought to crack on with my figures.

The Crimson Bolt, being predominantly red, seemed the logical place to start, so his face and eye holes were given a base coat of flesh, then a wash of Dwarf Flesh. I then mixed some Chainmail with Revell Red to create a metallic red, which I applied to his wrench. Then his entire outfit was given a wash of Revell dark red (all of the Revell paints only have numbers on them, so I have no idea what it’s official name is).

He will need his chest emblem adding, eyes done and base finished off, but he’s pretty much there. I’m not 100% happy with the wrench, but it’s close enough that I won’t lose sleep over it.

Next, I moved on to Captain Carter. Her boots and gloves received a wash of Burnt Ochre, toning down the initial yellow-y colour I’d painted them and looking more like what they should. Her face was given a basecoat of Flesh, then a wash of Dwarf Flesh. Her voluminous hair was given a basecoat of Chocolate Brown, followed by a wash of Burnt Ochre. Then I had to repaint her face, because I’d managed to overpaint half of it brown without noticing.

Her bodysuit got another coat of Revell blue, as I’d been a bit overenthusiastic with some of the other paint.

I then decided I’d better start on the shield. Checking the reference pictures, it has a dark blue outer rim, followed by a second white ring, third red ring and Union Jack in the centre. So, the simplest way to do this would be to paint increasing smaller circles on the shield, with each layer contributing to the rings. So, Marine Dark Blue on the entire shield, followed by a circle of White mixed with a hint of Chainmail, to give a sort of metallic white. This worked fine, until I went to add the red circle and found that the metallic white had not sufficiently dried, so I now had a metallic pink circle.

Bad words were said…

Carefully cleaning that off, I waited until the surface was completely dry before remixing the metallic white and redoing the circle.

Having had a few issues, I decided that rather than push on, I’d let everything dry and come back to it on another day.

At present, I’m happy with how each figure is coming along and am determined to get these finished before the end of the month.

I thought I’d also remind you what everyone who is taking part this year will be receiving.

‘Tis a thing of beauty and a very suitable memento for the 10th anniversary of this slightly unhinged but ridiculously fun community art project we call Forgotten Heroes.

And to give you some context of the size of your prize…

Bigger than you thought, right?

Right, unless you lot have moved since I last sent you something, I have Roger and and Keith’s addresses. Dave, I think I still have your old address written down, so may need to check this. Simon, I seem to have mislaid yours, so please send it over.

And those who have joined us this year, please drop me a message on Instagram or email me at Jeremy@allmain.co.uk with your details, so your shiny badge (and it IS very shiny) can be sent to you at the end of the challenge.

No arguments regarding this – you take part, you get a badge, wherever you are in the World. Don’t make me channel my inner Liam Neeson from Taken…

Until next time…

“Shut Up Crime!”

So, after my disastrous attempts to build a giant robot, I managed to butcher some of my Heroclix figures into a pretty good outline of Captain Carter.

However, there was a figure in the pile that caught my eye. I’d bought a job lot of DC Heroclix and one of the figures was this one;

DC’s Hawk from the Hypertime set. However, his cape/wings/whatever-the-Hell-that’s’supposed-to-be was damaged, so I removed it, which left a tick-shaped slot in his chest, like he was a superhero sponsored by Nike.

But the slightly awkward pose and open mouth reminded me of someone, so a quick online search confirmed my theory.

Yes, the Crimson Bolt from the 2010 James Gunn superhero movie Super. Starring Rainn Wilson as Frank Darbo, who after a weird semi-religious vision decides to become a “superhero” to fight crime and to ultimately rescue his drug addict girlfriend from the local crime lord.

This was waaaay before James Gunn was put in charge of DC studios, so it’s just as fucked up as you’d expect. It’s also very funny and quite violent.

So rather than just Captain Carter, I thought I’d have a crack at the Crimson Bolt too, as I can guarantee you won’t see a figure of him any time soon elsewhere.

So, whilst I was basing Captain Carter, I used some of the putty to fill in his chest cavity and to also create the odd pouches/thigh armour he has on his legs. I also tried and failed to make a belt with said putty, but this wasn’t to be.

A short length of paperclip wire was bent into an L shape and inserted into his right hand, then additional putty added to this in the rough shape of his signature weapon, a pipe wrench.

I reasoned that as long as it was roughly the right shape, I could file it down once it had set.

That was Sunday. Today, saw the paints come out and both figures were given an undercoat of white, but not before the Crimson Bolt received a belt, courtesy of a strip of very thin card.

Captain Carter then had her bodysuit painted in a Revell mid-blue, her gloves and boots in Revell Khaki and her shield painted inside and out with GW Chainmail.

As usual, I also painted my fingers, a hazard that all hobbyists experience. Top tip – do not accidentally lick your fingers when the paint is still wet. It tastes bloody awful.

The Crimson Bolt was given a couple of coats of Revell red, as Hawk’s costume has various insets in it and I kept spotting white bits. His wrench was given a base coat of Chainmail too.

Currently he looks a bit like Daredevil… with a wrench.

Which I believe is what the next season on Disney+ will be called.

Not a huge amount of progress, but as assembly is done, a couple of sessions of painting should hopefully see them finished.

Of course, looking at Captain Carter’s uniform, I’m now kind of regretting I chose something with so many stripes and the shield is going to be a nightmare…

But if this wasn’t a challenge, what would be the point?

Anyway, refer to my previous post for the almost full roll call, as we have been joined by James from spoontastic_minis over on Instagram (link) who is creating the Golden Age Sandman from his vast pile of plastic sprues.

Until next time…

A Box of Scraps…

So, I started off with the below…

And after spending several hours on Sunday cutting and gluing and dry-fitting and partially assembling things, I ended up with… a big pile of crap.

It seems I am no Tony Stark and giant robotic suits are not my forté.

Slightly disillusioned, mojo dented, I decided that Monday night would be better spent drinking beer in the pub, rather than trying to cobble something together from my “box of scraps.”

When I got home this evening, I scoured all my storage boxes and pulled out every Heroclix figure that I own that has not been earmarked for something else, and dumped them on my dining table.

Plus a transparent plastic butterfly and two pigs.

No, I don’t know what I was thinking there either…

Separating them into male and female piles, I looked at each figure and prayed for inspiration.

And then it struck me – if I removed the ‘invisible’ shield from the Invisible Woman, replaced her outstretched open-handed arm for one from a female Hydra Medic, then cut off the tab on the inside of the shield, add this back onto the new arm, then I could end up with something like this…

And with a suitable paint job we get…

Captain Carter, as portrayed (briefly) by the yummy Hayley Atwell in Multiverse of Madness.

The rest of the Heroclix will remain out, as I can’t really just do one, seeing as it’s the anniversary and everything…

Anyway, roll call time for those who are taking part:

Roger on Rantings from Under The Wargames Table will be recreating a character called Radon, who’s so obscure that no-one remembered him (and Keith may have accused him of making him up).

Michael over on 28mm Victorian Warfare has begun work on his Captain Caveman figure, the initial build of which saw him playing with his nuts…

Grodds n Sods has started showcasing ten conversions he’s already done over on his Instagram account. Yeah, he’s already knocked out ten… someone’s a bit keen.

Dave over on Wargamesculptors Blog has naturally sculpted his entry himself and it’s not actually a Star Wars characters… but IS from 2000AD. I’m just waiting for him to Nemesis the Warlock…

Simon from Fantorical has delved into the world of Ricky and Morty, to bring us Rick Sanchez, which he butchered some Crooked Dice figures to create… which seems in keeping with the character himself.

Keith at Dead Dick’s Tavern has already finished Dark Horse’s X and in planning on doing another character, so we shall which obscure one he picks.

The Wargaming Erratic is concentrating on true Forgotten Heroes from history  rather than all this comic book malarkey, which is a pretty cool idea, like Wargames Illustrated line of historical figure.

I think that’s everyone, but if I’ve missed you off, please do let me know and for those of you who I haven’t got addresses for, send an email to jeremy@allmain.co.uk with these details.

Then I can sneak into your house and steal all your toys when you’re not there… um… I mean send you your exclusive pin badge at the end of the challenge.

Until next time…

Forgotten Heroes 2026 – 10th Anniversary

Yes, you read that correctly – it is exactly ten years since Roger and I started Forgotten Heroes, which is a slightly terrifying thought, but also warrants a celebration!

As I previously advised, anyone who takes part in this year’s Forgotten Heroes will get a limited edition pin badge sent to them at my expense (except Michael, who picked his up at Salute earlier in the year – which means he DOES have to take part, because I know where he lives…)

And it looks like this:

A thing of beauty, no?

So, most of you are old hands at this, but for all those taking part this year for the first time, here are the rules.

During the month of June, you must create a figure of a character who has been unfairly overlooked by the companies who produce miniatures. This can be as simple as repainting an existing Heroclix character – such as Blue Beetle into Goldbug, converting an existing figure by judicious pruning and sculpting, Frankensteining the figure form various plastic figures or, if you are that way included building the figure from scratch, either through using whatever junk you have about or, if you’re Messrs Stone and Moore, sculpting it from armature up.

It can be any character at any scale, but your first post should provide an illustration of the character, so we know what you’re trying to achieve.

If you wish to take part, all you need do is drop a comment on this post and provide a link to your blog or other social media platform, so I can provide a roll call and so others can marvel at your work. Simple, no?

So, as it’s the tenth anniversary, I decided that I should go big. Sadly, for those of you who have been following this blog, this unfortunately isn’t the year that I finally complete Big Wheel.

No, no, no. Big Wheel may be big (the clue is in the name), but I’m going bigger. Much bigger…

So, the challenge I have set myself for this year is to complete a figure that can still be used on the table-top, because if I had completed this character to scale, I might as well just cosplay him. And that character is… Red Ronin!

That’s right, I’m doing a giant Kaiju-fighting samurai robot, because… well, why the Hell not?

Red Ronin was introduced in Godzilla #6, published my Marvel Comics in October 1977, and was specifically created for this title as a foil for the big G himself. Obviously, Marvel lost the licensing rights to publish any further adventures of Godzilla, but this left a big-ass robot knocking about and Marvel Comics does not like to waste anything they’ve created, so he resurfaced in a 3- issue run of the Avengers, running from #197 to #199 in 1980, which was (in my opinion) one of the best periods of this particular title, as we had David Michelinie writing and pencils were by the great George Perez. I mean look at those visuals…

So, I am not entirely sure how big my version of Red Ronin will end, up, but we’re looking at at least a 30cm/12″ tall, possibly taller. And like Tony Stark, this will be made “from a box of scraps!”

Let the fun begin!

Something a Little… Cheesy

Yes, I know, it’s been a while…

I could go into great detail about the lack of content on here over the last couple of months, but frankly and if you’re honest with yourselves, you don’t actually care, so why waste my time?

Anyway, as Keith has been (not so subtlety) encouraging me to take part in Monster (May)hem, I decided to get out my paints and actually DO something.

When I was at Colours last year, I picked up a resin model of a Cheese Golem, because… well, it’s a golem made of cheese. I don’t think I need any other reason than that.

As we’re already halfway through May, I needed something that should be relatively easy to complete – i.e. not much detail – and as I’d already assembled this model, it will hopefully not take too long.

First order of the day was an undercoat of Matt White spray paint, as the original resin model was grey. No-one will eat grey cheese, so as we were predominantly going to paint this yellow, we needed a base coat that would make this easier.

Due to the pse of the model, not every part of him (her/it?) got adequate coverage, but as these areas were not viewable from above, I just went with it.

The yellow paints I have are significantly brighter in hue than what I wanted as my base, so a mix of Docrafts Canary Yellow and Blanc were mixed until I had a colour I was happy with – the sort of pale yellow you associate with the kind of scrambled egg you get in hotels in the UK. Because in the U.S. they add butter to everything, meaning U.S. scrambled eggs tend to be more golden.

Initial ‘UK scrambled eggs’ colour was liberally plastered all over the model, resulting in the above. Still a little grey showing through, but if we continue with the UK scrambled eggs analogy, this would be expected.

Next a wash of Revell yellow (probably has a proper name, but Revell identify their paint by number, so not sure what specific name they assigned to this one).

So, the model is now looking more cartoon cheese colour than before. Given that this is obviously some kind of hole-y cheese, it strictly should be a paler yellow, but it’s a Cheese Golem… I don’t think there’s any specific, official colour scheme. I mean, if it were a Games Workshop Cheese Golem, we’d probably have an article or two detailing the correct way to paint this…

I still need to detail the cheese knives sticking out of it, plus sort the base out  but after a long dry spell  at least I’ve painted something.

And, unless you lactose intolerant, who doesn’t like cheese?

Until next time…