Supervillains: Flameskull Gang and Drones

The Flameskulls are a gang of high-tech criminals that wear glowing, holographic skull masks. Among their many gadgets---and definitely the most famous---are their skull drones. These drones also project a hologram to appear like flying skulls, and they have built in weapons and electronic warfare capabilities. The mastermind of the gang is Gray Matter, seen here in her flying technochair, surrounded by a swarm of skull drones.

The five gangers are built primarily from Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder, except for the heads. Their skulls are from the Citadel Skulls box while the four Drone skulls are Wargames Atlantic (which are a little larger). I once again removed the front parts from the Cannon Fodder rifles to make them a reasonable size and remove the "bayoneted lasgun" vibe.

Gray Matter is another figure from the "Sentinels Tactics Miniatures: Minions" box; the character is listed as The Broker. Once again, it's soft PVC, and the sculpt isn't great. I stuck a giant's skull from the Citadel Skulls box onto the front to tie it into the gang's aesthetic. Then, I just drybrushed and washed most of the figure in greys to hide the doughy sculpt and imply that she's hidden in the shadows. It works well enough, but I'm not entirely pleased with the finished product. A series of mistakes led her to be placed on a tall spaceship stand, which I installed into a custom-designed 3D-printed base; it was a lot of very unnecessary frustration, but it did lead to the idea for the drone swarm surrounding her.

• Skull and hands base: Vallejo Game Color Bonewhite (72.034)
• Skull and hands glow: Citadel Technical Tesseract Glow 
• Main basecoat: DecoArt Lamp (Ebony) Black (DAO67)
• Drybrush: Vallejo Basalt Grey (70.869)
• Light drybrush: Vallejo Stonewall Grey (72.049)
• Wash on everything but the skull and hands: Vallejo Game Color Wash Black (73.201)
  

The bases, either flat or textured, had a base layer of Vallejo Heavy Violet (72.142), then a drybrush or stipple of FolkArt Imperial Red (4669).

The "drones" can also be used in D&D as undead Flameskulls, the namesake for the gang, or as floaty magic skulls in anything that uses my skeleton horde.

Supervillain: Master Mountain

The gigantic martial artist known as Master Mountain is another recurring foe of Tempest. He's super-strong, nigh-invulnerable, and his tremendous bulk make him nigh-impervious to Tempest's wind powers. I guess martial artist supervillains naturally gravitate into Tempest's rogues gallery.

This figure comes from the "Sentinels Tactics Miniatures: Minions" box from Greater Than Games (publishers of the Sentinels of the Multiverse games). Interestingly, they released both painted and unpainted sets; I got the unpainted set for a grand total of six bucks. These PVC miniatures are doughy and cartoony, but they're not too bad. It's hard to find superhero miniatures.

This figure is "The Muscle," meant to represent one of the Chairman's lieutenants in the Sentinels Tactics game. I painted him up in a different style and popped him onto a 40mm poker chip base. The picture doesn't give a great sense of scale, but he's taller than most other heroic 28mm minis, and he's obviously wider.

Supervillain: Armory

Have you ever wondered where the supervillain gangs get all their wonderful toys? Armory is an arms dealer specializing in kitting out the supercriminal population with guns. Seen here, she's carrying two assault rifles to show off, and she's got an RPG and two SMGs on display with her. I may have pointed out before, but I enjoy the concept of supervillain logistics. Themed costuming, gadgets, weapons, vehicles, and bases exist, so the behind-the-scenes contractors providing these things must also exist. While I don't have a super-realtor yet, I'm slowly filling in this support network.

This figure is built from the Project Z Female Survivors sprues, combining the arm options to carry the two guns, and clipping off some of the "extra" weapons to put on display. The color choices are basically greens with either a black wash (jacket and hat) or sepia wash (shirt and pants).

After being fully painted and while still attached to the painting handle (actually just a craft paint container), Armory fell off my desk and snapped off in three pieces. Emergency superglue surgery has gotten her back into fighting form, and the fracture lines are basically invisible if you don't know where to look.

Aka-Oni Irregulars: Hunchback, Wolfhound, Maxim, Savannah Masters

The "BattleTech: Mercenaries" box from the Kickstarter campaign included a few vehicles, so the Aka-Oni Irregulars are finally starting their own little motor pool. In addition to the Wolfhound and the Hunchback (one of my personal favorite mechs), this force now includes three hovercraft: one Maxim Hover Transport and two Savannah Master scouts.

• Wolfhound (35 tons, BV 1,061)
• Hunchback (50 tons, BV 1,041)
• Maxim Hover Transport (50 tons, BV 764)
• Savannah Master (5 tons, BV 215) x2 

I've decided to count the vehicles separately, so the below stats are just mechs.

Total mechs: 30
Total tons: 1,700
Total battle value: 33,578

Supervillain: Momento Murray and her Mercenaries

Memento Murray, born Morgan Murray, is a feared mercenary commander known for carrying out attacks and heists across six continents. She is styled as La Condottiera of a famous PMC, the Free Company, which traces its lineage all the way back to an Italian mercenary band of the 1300s. Her subordinates, often identified by their purple balaclavas, are top-tier operators.

Memento's figure comes from the Project Z Female Survivors, though the head is swapped out for one from a Stargrave sprue. Even in grey plastic, this one looked like someone out of a comic book, and I think the end result turned out very well. The purple is Vallejo Game Color Extra Opaque Heavy Violet (72.142) with a wash of (possibly unnecessary) Vallejo Violet Wash (73.209). Basalt Grey (70.869) and a smidge of Stonewall Grey (72.049) set off some of the black. The two henchmercenaries are entirely from the Project Z Modern Military sprue, and are painted black, drybrushed with Heavy Charcoal and a few spots of Luftwaffe Uniform WWII. Otherwise, the colors carry over from Memento.

The road texture is Heavy Charcoal, then stippled Luftwaffe Uniform WWII, then stippled Basalt Grey. It gives it a more varied and interesting look than the flat color I've been using lately. I found that by painting the street lines first, then laying down a very thin strip of painting tape (then painting one more layer of the street line color), I could paint the rest of the road while maintaining a really smooth line.