There is unrest in the forest...

...there is trouble with the trees

Well, although its been another post-a-day month here in July, I haven't been very productive on actually doing stuff. I rectified that very recently with this troupe of nature-themed superheroes intended to be used for SuperSystem.

In addition to boxing away many figs and projects that I knew I wouldn't get to during the latest cleanup action, I also pulled some stuff out and stuck in the center of my painting desk...just because they were way overdue. I've done a fair number of official SuperSystem minis, but I wanted something a little more 'found' in origin. Although Superfigs are cheap, and a very good value, you can't beat free, which is what this 'forest team' is. Three of them were Mage Knight figs laying around, the Wasp was in the same boat. The big treeman was a WHFB model I used as my big guy on a Wood Elf Blood Bowl team long ago.

So here's my latest team; I've painted them but I don't have any fluff for them. Heck, I don't even know if they'll be good guys or bad guys. I'm thinking they're super protective of nature, forests, etc. and they'll fight pretty much anyone who spoils said nature. How aggressive they'll be remains to be seen. Will they sit in the forest, waiting to pounce, or seek out nearby cities that could one day encroach upon them, or might be polluting the air and/or water? Lots of good scenarios could emerge from their background.


Intentional or not, this Mage Knight fig is in the exact same pose as my old Warhammer treeman. I like the fig a lot, he's got very long, spiky claws, and his (its?) face has a lot of character. All I did here before painting it was pop him off his adjustable, clicker base and superglue him onto a metal washer.


I just had to use the Heroclix unique Wasp. I have a couple of regular Wasps too, which were the same pose as above, but in 28mm, this one was pretty cool in what I would guess is about 15-20mm. She adds a bit of a mystical element to the team, and really anchors it a little bit as being the only hero closely resembling a human to boot.

Part of doing painting projects with your six year old girl is you have to yield to their relentless suggestions from time to time. It should come as no surprise as to where I got this hero's costume color scheme from, ahem. This fig's a tad on the hefty side, but I like to think of her build as 'powerful', like a 1984 Mary Lou Retton...with wings.


I used the same hover stand that was on the clicker base originally. Again, all I did was pop it off and superglue it to a washer. I did prime the washer and figure separately, by the way. Her wings were done in a variety of odd-colored metallics I have on hand.


Man, I really like this little guy. Look back up at the group pic, he is little! I envision him as a little flyer, darting in and out with fly-by attacks, harassing the enemy. I like how he's been sculpted, most unceremoniously sitting on a stump, as if his low points and zero profile/table presence didn't warrant a stand or anything fancy. He's a hero now!


If you read my blog at all, you know I like puns, and this is no different. I don't have names for any of these guys but him. He'll be from the Canadian wilds of Quebec, so a suitably French-sounding name is in order. We'll just simply go with "le Bat" (as in "the bat"). He's also blue. Get it? Le Bat...blue? As in Labatt Blue?


Ugh, that was a bad pun indeed, but I'm keeping the name! Here's another tree guy. I have three trees on the team, but all three sculpts are different enough to give them their own identities. Well, the treeman and the other guy have the same pose, but there's a huge size difference. To further differentiate the tree guys I applied three separate brown schemes. This guys got the mid-tone. I envision him as a speedster type.


And last is our big guy, the brick of the team. Ironically enough, he was already painted (see below), and not too horribly either! Since the whole team was getting a paint makeover, ole 'woody' here was not spared. He was a nightmare to paint though. I washed, I drybrushed, I added highlight, I inked, I did it all. I over-complicated the process, there's only so much you can do to make something look like wood.


Here's the full team, prior to primer and painting. As you can see, there was another hero who did not make the cut. This troll character was going to be the leader of the team, but I felt he was a little too 'fantasy' and not 'superhero' enough.


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