Masters of the Cretaceous

As He-Month 2 enters its final few days, whilst I was easily going to complete my three Masters of the Universe figures by the end of the month, a lapse of judgement led me to believe that I could also complete a conversion based on the Nextwave version of Devil Dinosaur, as noted in my blog entry entitled “I Hate Monkeys”…

And as my co-conspirator in this month’s project, the talented Mr Roger Webb, had posted his final week’s post for this over at his blog Rantings from Under the Wargames Table, showcasing all the figures he’d completed from both of our rounds of He-Month, I felt even more dejected. Especially as his actually look like the characters, rather than the cheap Mexican knock-offs I’ve cobbled together…

However, as I have been given an unexpected day off on Monday, and I’ve managed to complete the majority of the home maintenance tasks required of me by my wife, I may still be in the running…

Anyway, not a huge amount of additional work has been done on my Masters of the Universe conversions – read on to find out why.

We’ll first revisit Beast Man, who has had a little bit of tidying up done, where colour from one section had bled into another and he’s received several washes, to enhance the detail of the sculpt. However, it appears that the colours I chose weren’t strong enough, bar the blue for his loincloth, so it actually looks like I’ve done nothing.

Orko has also had some washes applied, which were more successful, but it appears I’m a bit wary of painting his eyes and ‘O’, so he’s had a little work done on him, but not a great deal.

Fisto, on the other hand, I have been more successful with, although he did cause me a few issues. Fisto’s tunic has horizontal stripes of silver and purple, with a central vertical silver stripe running down the centre of his chest. Pretty simple to paint, yes? Well, that depends on the figure’s pose, as the DC Heroclix Mammoth figure I’d chosen as my proxy is hunched forward, which means very little of his chest and abdomen is showing. Having initially painted his torso purple, I tried painting silver stripes on. This did not go so well, so I painted his torso silver, then painted the purple bits on. This went better. I then went back and repainted his right leg where I’d managed to get both purple and silver paint on his upper thigh. And now you can understand why the other two didn’t receive as much attention.

Anyway, bar his base and possibly his eyes if I’m feeling brave enough to attempt it, he’s done;

And here’s a picture of his back and those, accursed lines:

Seeing him on the screen like this, makes me think that this figure would also make a good proxy for this character and toy from my youth:

So Roger, if you want a suitable foe for your Bullet Man, the Mammoth figure might just work…

Now, whilst Fisto caused me some time issues, he wasn’t the main reason why I’m a little further behind than what I’d hoped. That’s right, I’m blaming Devil Dinosaur…

So, when we last saw this model, I’d repositioned his arms, added his accessories, sculpted his cravat and begun work on his robe. Well, the putty and tools were out again and I have now finished his robe, including overlapping it at the front, the belt suitable tied at the front, flappy sleeves (which caused a certain amount of swearing) and some attempts at creases/pleats where they would naturally form.

To be honest, I’m really pleased with the results and did the standard tour of the house, showing it to members of my family, with responses ranging from “Cool!” to “whatever…”. I even received an unprecedented compliment from my wife, whose usual comments regarding my hobby are along the lines of “why are you wasting your time on that crap…”

So, without further ado, here are some stills from Devil Dinosaur’s photo shoot – he’s such a diva…

So, as the sculpting is now done, come Monday I should be able to get some paint on him. My intentions are to complete all three Masters of the Universe figures and finish off Devil Dinosaur as well and post on my blog about it. By the end of the month.

Seems fitting that I’m painting a Devil, when I appear to be paving the road to Hell…

Comments and feedback appreciated, as always.