Bat Report - The Brave and the Bold vs Jack's Legion of Doom.

Bat Rep 2 - The Brave and the Bold vs Jack's Legion of Doom.

Here we are for the second in our series of Battle Reports. This time its my Legion of Doom vs Andy's The Brave and The Bold crew, a rematch for us after our last game in which I scraped a narrow victory. This time Andy and I were actually at my tournament at Dark Sphere Waterloo in London, having intended to take part. Unfortunately we were both still recovering from different illnesses and couldn't handle 3 consecutive games and I was having to TO so instead we decided to sit down and have ourselves a rematch while we had the chance. 

The board was setup for our Joker Funland and is one of my favourites. The terrain is almost entirely Knights of Dice (which i purchased in a bundle deal from Shiny Games here in the UK) with some scatter terrain from Multiverse Gaming Terrain and Impudent Mortal on there too. The game mat is the Gotham Game Mat from Deep Cut Studios.

The Crews.

The scenario for our game was a straight up skirmish to keep things simple (and it was what the other tournament players were doing). I had my Legion of Doom with me which I was in fact using the Society of Super Villains team to create. I took Reverse Flash as my team Boss and with him Black Manta, Captain Cold and Heatwave. For objectives I took Medical Supplies, Ammunition and Titan for maximum points potential and for my strategies I took Change of Plans, Misinformation, and lastly Fake Objective. 

Andy's crew was comprised of: Batman with an Upgraded Batsuit and Kevlar Cowl, Gordon with Heliport, Arkham Guard 1, Arkham Guard 3 with Sergeant Training, Foxtrot, Lerida with Extra Magazine, and Sierra. For his Strategies Andy took; Patrol, Rapid Response Training and I Am the Night with the Bat-signal, Ammunition and Medical Supplies as his objectives.

                                                                      

The Setup.
We quickly began with the Sewers, Lampposts, crew placement and the objectives. I setup Thawn and Captain Cold on the far left under the Ferris Wheel ready to move up to my objectives (with Snart covering Thawn with his cold gun). I then placed Manta and Heatwave on the right behind the Whiplash Bumper Cars ready to counter Batman.

Andy set up his crew similarly, presumably to counter my push for the objectives. He placed Gordon and three men on his right by the duck hunt and then Batman and the other two by the carousel on his left. 

The Game.
In Turn 1 I took the lead, but before we started the turn it was time for the Speed Force phase in which I used some Super Speed to move up to the objectives and then used Kinetic Tornado to do 2 stun damage and a push on Foxtrot and Arkham Guard 3. When it came to my first activation I passed to Andy who used it to move Arkham Guard 1 down the flank towards his objectives.

I then moved Manta and took a shot at Batman with his Death Ray and missed. Foxtrot then moved up to contest my objectives so I responded by moving Thawn onto the nearby Titan. Andy then shot at Thawn (missed) and moved Arkham Guard 3 to contest the Titan. Heatwave re-positioned behind cover to await the Batman and Sierra moved in and attacked Thawn but was blocked.

I moved Captain Cold and took a lucky shot at Arkham Guard 3 doing 2 much needed blood damage before Andy finally moved Batman and throw some Batarangs Manta's way both of which missed their mark. Lerida opened up on Thawn but between misses and dodges they hit nothing but air, finally this left Gordon who throw a Heliport Shot at Manta for 2 blood and then fired his pistol at Thawn for good measure but missed. This brought turn 1 to a close meaning I could use my Misinformation strategy to move and objective and I chose to move Andy's Bat-Signal.   

Turn 2 kicked off with Andy using his I am the Night strategy to move Batman and then he grabbed the lead for the turn as well. I used the Speed Force to move Thawn and throw another Kinetic Tornado at Andy's guys KO'ing Arkham Guard 3. Andy didn't waste any time and went straight in with Batman and rained down punches on Heatwave, but suffered from a little Batwhiff and only managed to get 2 on him for 4 stun. I then sent Manta in and made 4 attacks on the Bat, but I also whiffed my dice managing a grand total of 1 blood and 1 stun damage.

Andy then activated one of my least favourite models to see on the other side of the table, Commissioner Gordon. Gordon let loose with both his Heliport and Hidden Sniper shots on Captain Cold but somehow my luck held and I took no damage. This was followed by Captain Cold hitting Foxrot with both shots and KO'ing him to which Andy responded by laying 4 blood on Manta with Lerida. Heatwave then took a few steps back and put some fire on the Batman. End of round 2 and it was still anybodies game.

I took the lead for Turn 3, yet again on the Speed Force I used Thawn's Kinetic Tornado but this time I gave him Muscle Growth and Fast Combo so I could fight if needed.  For my first activation I used the very nearly dead Manta to Death Ray and leg it into a Sewer hoping to stop him from getting killed for a turn. Andy then went with the injured Batman and again only did minimal damage on Heatwave getting in only a single wounding hit for 2 more stun. I then backed Heatwave up and let rip with the Flamethrower which Knocked him out. 

Andy hit back laying down fire on Captain Cold with Gordon's Heliport and Hidden Sniper again, and this time doing some damage but not enough to KO him. I was getting amazing luck these last 2 turns I was becoming increasingly anxious it was going to turn after this. Captain Cold then let rip on Sierra and knocked him out while Andy's Arkham Guard 1 moved onto his Medical Supplies objective. Thawn moved over to Sierra and finished what Cold had started by taking him out with a Coup De Grace spped punch to the face. Andy ended the round by taking the Ammunition objective.  

Turn 4 kicked off with Andy taking the lead. In the Speed Force phase Thawn moved over to Gordon with a Super Speed and got fight ready again with Fast Combo. Andy went straight in with Gordon and hit Captain Cold with his Heliport shot which finally KO'ed him, he then fired his Hidden Sniper at Black Manta killing him. Good round for Andy so far, I feared my luck had finally turned. I tried to get back on track by Fast Combing Gordon with Thawn which resulted in a Knock Down but not a Knock Out unfortunately leaving the issue undecided for now. Lerida then opened up on Heatwave but missed, (my luck was not entirely gone it seemed), and Heatwave finished off the Batman with a final spray of his Flamethrower. 

Turn 5, Andy gets the lead, not good for me so far. Speed Force phase and I went for Muscle Growth and Fast Combo again so I could try and finish off Gordon. Yet again the constant thorn in my side strikes and Gordon orders a shot from his ever present helicopter support KO'ing Heatwave. What had been good for me was that Captain Cold had recovered from his KO and was back in the fight this turn. I activated him and took a shot at Sierra which hit and killed him finally, leaving my objectives open. Andy finally got to his Bat-signal and turned it on with Lerida and Arkham Guard 1 stayed on the Medical Supplies. I ended the turn by finally KO'ing Commissioner Gordon with Thawn, (and it was sweet). 

We quickly kicked off turn 6, (so quick in fact we forget to take any pictures of turn 5), and I got the lead for the final round. For the final Speed Force phase I did the same as last round hoping to dish out a little more damage with Thawn. The round was a quick one, Heatwave having recovered moved up towards the objectives as I couldn't think of much else to do with him but try and keep him out of Lerida's sights as the game was going to be close on points. I moved Captain Cold onto the Ammunition and Medical Supplies objectives, Andy kept his guys on their objectives and I got the ultimate revenge on Gordon by beating him to death with Thawn who then moved onto the Titan objective where the game ended. 

End of the game and final score without the scenario points was 41 points to my Society crew and 42 points to Andy's Brave and the Bold. But, with the scenario I got an additional 5 victory points which gave me another very narrow victory. It was a damn close one and each game we play Andy is closing the gap. I will need to keep improving my own game or soon enough im going to be looking at some serious ass kickings coming my way. Yet again Andy's poor luck was to my advantage not that mine was that much better at times. Next time me and Andy clash will be while demo'ing the game at Salute so as always.... 

- The Wizard shall return with more Bat reps in the near future.

Painting Bane Step-By-Step

Super Hero sculpts often have exaggerated musculature so the way I approach painting them is by breaking down each muscle into a separate area with its own highlight, mid tone and shadow. I’ll start off with a full coverage of the mid tone. I’ll apply the shadows by placing the brush around the middle of the muscle mass and pull the pigment downwards to the bottom of the muscle. For highlights it will be in the opposite direction i.e. towards the top of the muscle mass. The thigh muscles are slightly different as the raised areas are towards the centre of the muscle and you’ll also have to bear in mind zenithal lighting so the top part of each muscle mass should be lighter too.

1.  I started off with the zenithal priming method, for those that don’t know it basically priming with black to the underneath of the miniature. Grey primer is then applied at an angle of around forty-five degrees and finally primed with white from directly above the miniature. For me it gives me clear guidance on where to place the highlights and shadows and if you apply your paint in thin coats the highlights and shadows should still show through.

2.  Base coat for the skin is Citadel’s Cadian Flesh mixed with equal parts of water.

3.  A second coat of Cadian Flesh is applied but just keeping to the top two thirds of each muscle.

4.  Remembering that you already have shadows and highlights from the zenithal priming, it will save time if your paint is applied in thin layers. My method involves mixing paint with water and flow improver in a 1:1:1 ratio. This keeps the layers quite thin and you are able to keep the good work of the priming. I started off with the trousers with a thin coat of Vallejo’s German Grey to the deeper areas of the muscles of the leg. I used the same colour for the gloves, boots and mask in stage 5.

5.  A second coat of the thinned German Grey. There’s no need to be particularly careful here as you’ll be going over the previous layer too, and the previous coat below will end up a much darker colour. Once dried you should still be able to see the lighter raised areas in the musculature.

6.  The green pipes were given a couple of coats of Scale 75’s Irati Green

7.  The flesh areas were then given a wash with Citadel’s Reikland Fleshshade.

  

8.  In order to get a smooth transition of colour I layered on Cadian Flesh staying away from the shadow areas and staying up in the top areas of each muscle.

 9.  This shows the beginnings of the transition

10. For the highlights I started with a few coats of Citadel’s Cadian Flesh and Kislev Flesh mixed about 50:50 and added the same amount of water to paint, placing the brush towards the halfway point of the muscle mass and stroking the brush towards the highlight areas, the lighter pigment should then begins to show after a few strokes.

 11. This shows the lighter pigment towards the top of the muscle area.

12. Continuing the highlights I used a few coats of Citadel’s Kislev Flesh and water mixed about 50:50 and placing the brush towards the top third of the muscle mass and stroking the brush towards the highlight areas, the lighter pigment should then begins to show after a few strokes.

13. This shows the lighter pigment towards the top of the muscle area.

 14. I carefully picked out the veins with Scale 75’s Sherwood Green

15. I carefully applied a wash to either side of the veins with a 50:50 mix of Citadel’s Biel Tan Green and Lahmian Medium

16. I used a very thin coat of Citadel’s Flayed One Flesh for the final highlight of the skin. This layer is almost a glaze consistency and keeping the paint to the absolute top of each muscle. This will intensify the highlight area nicely. If you need to, feather out the border with a wet brush.

17. For the trousers I’m using an old technique I was taught by Marc Masclans, if you are unfamiliar with his stuff, look him up, he’s a genius. It uses a process of laying down multiple lines in an area and then applying the next colour (usually lighter) in a smaller area to create volume and texture. It’s difficult to see with black and grey so I’ve included a pic of Darkseid where I used the same technique for the blues on the legs.
 For Bane I picked out quite a few greys to build up a gradient, the first being German Grey mixed with a little Vallejo Game Colour Heavy Blue Grey. Keep the paint very thin, one part paint to two parts water. The thin lines are applied to individual muscles just like we did with the skin previously. Start and finish each line within the border of the muscle so that you leave a small area darker at the edge surrounding the muscle.

18. For this stage I added more Blue Grey to the mix and a little more water. Same process again, adding thin lines across the muscle staying away from the edge of the last layer so that you begin to build up volume i.e. the raised parts of the muscle are lighter than the recesses.

19. Apply another coat using the same mix of paint. If you can add the lines to a slightly smaller area than the last coat, that would be better but isn’t essential. The second coat will build up the opacity of this colour. After a couple of strokes the top area should have a nice highlight and have a gradient into shadow. I’ll wet my brush and feather out the border.

20-21. Going lighter again I used thin coats of the previous mix but added a little white to the mix to build up the highlights of the leg muscles, concentrating on the raised areas. With these areas I started slightly above the area I wanted to highlight and pulled the pigment up into the area to be highlighted.

To counter act the light I used a thin black wash and started the stroke about a third from the bottom of each muscle and pulled the pigment down into the shadow area.

22. A final highlight with a little more white added to the previous mix, it should be close to a light grey now. This is applied to the centre line of the muscle mass. Don’t worry if you go too light as you can always glaze back over with black to tone it down again.

23. I wanted to add a splash of interest to the shin guards and decided on some rust. The base coat here was Citadel’s Warplock Bronze as I wanted a slight shine at the edges. If you wanted a more matt appearance you can use any dark brown for this stage.

24. Citadel’s Skrag Brown was applied with a small piece of sponge. If you haven’t used sponge before you will need a small piece from the sponge in your blister pack, dab it into the paint then dab off the excess of paint onto a paper towel and the dab on the paint to the model. It’s a bit like drybrushing technique. Always test the sponge on paper first though to get an idea how much paint is still on the sponge.

25. For this stage I used a stipple brush but if you don’t have one, sponge will work just as well but you will need to control where the paint goes. I used Citadel’s Troll Slayer Orange for this stage

26. A final highlight of Citadel’s Fire Dragon Bright is dotted in a random pattern with a normal brush.

27. The belt was given a base coat of Citadel’s Ironbreaker.

28. Moving on to the vest now, I use a particular paint mix if I want to keep the shadows and highlights from the zenithal priming. Here I’m using Citadel’s Steel Legion Drab, water and Flow Improver in a 1:1:1 ratio. Unfortunately this will take a bit of practice to get a nice consistency, everyone’s judgement of a ‘drop’ is different. Leave to dry completely before adding a second coat.

29. Same process as before treat each muscle as a separate area e.g. left pec, right pec and each abdominal muscle. Shade the bottom area of the chest and abdominal with Steel Legion Drab mixed with a little German Grey. Keep it thin and start the stroke from the bottom third of the area and pull the pigment down into the shadow area. Feather off the border at the beginning of the brush stroke if needed.

The bat signal was coated with Vallejo’s Burnt Iron or any dark metal will do. The belt was shaded with a black wash.

30. First highlight to the vest is with Citadel’s Zandri Dust. The brush stroke can start about half way or the middle of the area and push the pigment up into the highlight area. You should now start to see a bit of gradient.

31. Another highlight using a 50:50 mix of Zandri Dust and Ushabti Bone. Use about 1:1 ratio of paint to water and apply an edge highlight to the vest. Once you are happy with that add more water and add another highlight to each muscle by starting the stroke from the top third of the muscle up into the highlight area.

32. The bat signal and base were given a liberal wash with Agrax Eathshade and left for a while to dry.

33. I forgot to do the flesh of the fingers so applied some Cadian Flesh there. I also started to edge highlight the bat signal with Blue Grey.

34. I lined the outer eye area and the inside of the belt buckle with German Grey mixed with some black. When dry I painted a thin line across the eye with white and then over the top of that with red. Highlight then with an orange dot.

35. I added a little bit of Vallejo’s Burnt Red to the bottom part of the buckle circle just to get a bit of contrast in there and then added a bit of yellow and white to the top of the circle. The mask was then defined with Light Grey. I lined the edges of the vest against the flesh using a thinned down German Grey. Fingers were highlighted using the same method as the rest of the flesh above.

36. I washed the veins with Biel Tan Green again as I wasn’t happy with them, same wash was applied to the pipes at the back. The mask was highlighted with white.

37. I highlighted the veins and pipes with Irati Green mixed with a golden yellow just to gain a bit of definition.

All in all a very nice mini to paint, I quite enjoyed going outside the normal box art paint job. It was great practice for getting contrast on the musculature too. Just remember when you are painting miniatures with big muscles keep your paint thin and be patient to build up the gradient.

Here's the finished mini under decent lighting.

  

 

I’d love to hear from you if you give this a go, just get in touch in the comments below or look me up on Facebook.

Hope you enjoyed it and hopefully see you again soon.

Cheers,

DB