I hear what they say. They say that Episode III has no hope. That change can’t be good. And that the runaway bride has to pay.

But I say wrong, WRONG, WRONG! If that poor sclub of a fiancé goes through with it now, he’s the one who will be paying the rest of his life!

Welcome back to my ongoing argument with the whole wide world, I’m the Frontman; and this is Activation Click. In this week’s column, I finally have figured out our hatred of the prequels, give some mad props to the powers that be at HCRealms, and will finally put the new computer to the test with a number of photos showing how to paint up the cartoon Supergirl.


FIRST TOPIC!!

A key ingredient missing is

As we now are just a week away from “Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith” (only time I’m typing that out fully.) I’ve started getting very excited to finally see the saga come “full circle.” Trailers and what not have shown that George has progressed further to make this film look more like the classic films, the “used” universe he always talked about in filming the original trilogy. After watching the prequels on DVD and more importantly, episodes 4 and 6, I’ve now realized what is missing from the prequels.

We touched on it just a bit last week, and that’s the “everyman” character. We don’t have Luke or more importantly, Han; who were “normal,” compared to royalty, Jedi, droids, and all the rest of the characters. Luke didn’t go all weird on us until “Return of the Jedi.” But, I think what we were missing all along was the man in black.

Johnny Cash.

Of course I’m joking; we were missing Vader. Darth Vader is an iconic villain. From his first appearance on the blockade runner, we were hooked. The breathing, mechanical and cold, was both frightening and hypnotizing. The booming voice of James Earl Jones made us sit up and take notice. It didn’t matter that David Prowse’s body movement’s didn’t match the voice over. Even in all the armour, Lucas made us believe this character could hold his own in sword fights with a much smaller and quicker Luke Skywalker.

Vader’s presence is the key thing missing in the prequels. Darth Maul, great villain, and obviously was much more of an active threat to the Jedi, but when the hood came off, he was a physical martial artist. He wasn’t a huge image of terror. Maul also died at the end of Episode I, keeping us from a recurring physical threat that Vader was, even though his confrontations with our heroes was very limited. (Only comes face to face with Obi-Wan, Luke, Han and Leia once per film.) The rest of the time, he’s just a threat. It’s like the shark in Jaws. Constant threat gives great tension.

We always wanted to know where Vader came from. We didn’t like the answer to that question though. We didn’t want to know about the 9 year old kid. We didn’t want the obnoxious teenager. We wanted the adult Anakin, just one or two steps away from the edge, and then we wanted Vader. Sadly, I don’t think we could of started the story with Anakin the Jedi; we did need a bit of the backstory. But, with the return of the man in black, I’m thinking Episode III will not only “make up” for I and II, but will finally give us what we wanted all along.

A full course meal of the Dark Side.

When in doubt, hit the homepage

This past weekend, HCRealms underwent a Botox treatment, lyposuction, and a nip/tuck to reveal its latest incarnation. I for one like most of the changes. Sure, the loss of the trade threads wasn’t fun, and while having to wait for the new units feature to kick in, I have to dig through the Wizkids site lists to look up stats on figures; but all in all, I like the look and the feel of the new site. Give the powers that be a chance to have us “shakeout” all the bugs, and I’m betting that HCRealms will be better than ever. (I did notice the completely evil bias in the banner currently on the site. Only one DC character, 3 Marvel, and no Indy. Then again, this can be symbolic of what sets come out each year! J/k!!!)

It will take time to get used to, and I’m sure we’re in for a few down times, but all in all, the site will be better than ever once the upgrades are finished.

A mini skirt and a half-shirt does not make a great looking figure, but it certainly helps!

Ok, I promised a painting guide to painting Supergirl, and now we finally have it (after the loss of the figure, which annoyed me to no end. But let’s not revisit that fiasco!) Jumping back to two weeks ago, I had a step by step guide on how to convert Saturn Girl into Kara. With the site update, I don’t have the link anymore to share, but if anyone is interested, you can contact me and I’ll be more than happy to email a copy of it to you.

Step 1: Primering.

For the record, I tend to use black primer 95% of the time, as most of my painting I use for gaming. Black holds up better for figures that will see game play, and hides accidents/chips better than white. Well, that’s not true, as white NEVER hides a mistake/accident/damage. If you make a mistake on white primer, it is pretty obvious for all the world to see. I recommend it for all beginners, and still use it myself for most of my work.

To primer, I use an spray primer, usually Armoury, but I have used GW’s as well as Poly S (way back in the day.) When you primer, primer outside on a nice day, temperature no lower than 55, and if you have sun that’s all the better. Damp days are not good for primering, as the paint will dry clumpy and will not give an even coat. I take a paper plate out with me, to be used as a turntable. Place the figure on its side, as its easier to get under arms/legs/capes instead of spraying the figure standing up, which makes it difficult to hit those trouble areas. Hold the can 6 to 8 inches from the figure. I start spraying just to the left of the figure, then I sweep across the figure, giving a light coat. I will do this four times, once each 90 degree turn I make with the plate (think North/South/East/West and you get the idea.) I allow the figure to dry, then flip the figure over, and repeat. Some figures, like Kara, take 3 different “flips” (side, side, back) to get all the areas covered, but if you can’t get all the areas covered, allow the figure to dry then touch up those areas with watered down black paint. I recommend watering down all your paints, as they cover more evenly and make the process of painting easier by not clogging details.

Step 1: The base coats.
Paint the flesh areas (leg, arms, face, stomach, and lower back) with a darker flesh tone like Hill Giant Brown (again, all colors I’ll use for these examples are from Reaper Miniatures.)
Paint the skirt with night sky.
All the areas that will be either white or red (boots, gloves, shirt, cape, her “underpants”) paint with Slate.

Allow each area to dry before painting the next.

Step 2: Hightlight 1
The flesh areas I then will paint the cheeks, chin, forehead, and all raised muscle groups with Caucasian. This gives a darker shaded area in the recessed areas under the chin, the groove of the arm, etc.

The hair I now paint chestnut brown (I know, she’s blonde, bear with me.)

The skirt now gets a coat of Bright blue over the raised areas (this will be different on each figure, I can’t say what areas on yours as I didn’t sculpt the skirt) leaving a bit of Night Sky showing in the very deep recessed areas (folds) of the cloth.

The white areas now will get a coat of Ivory, again leaving very little Slate showing in the creases. The red areas will get a coat of an even mix of Ivory/Dragon White. I know this will seem a bit muddy, allow the first coat to dry, then repaint it again with just Dragon White.

Step 3: Highlights 2, electric boogaloo

The flesh now gets a final highlight coat of Fair Maiden. Focus on the nose, cheeks, and jawline with a fine line of Fair Maiden. I didn’t really use FM on her arms and legs, as there isn’t the pronounced “edge” to these areas of the body like there is on the face.

Wash the hair with a watered down Dragon Yellow, allow to dry. Drybrush the hair with Sunlight. You should get a natural looking “dirty blonde.”

The cape now will be covered with watered down Dragon Red. I water my reds down a bit more than my other colors, as they tend to clog up details more than other colors. Allow the cape to fully dry before moving on to the skirt.

The skirts edges and final highlights are done with an even mix of Dragon White and Bright Blue. When doing these highlights, remember the painted areas need to be smaller with each progressive highlight.

The white areas now will be highlighted with Dragon White. If the white isn’t coming out as clean as you’d like, allow the coat to dry and then give the figure another coat of it. I can’t stress enough this is why you use watered down paints instead of straight-from-the-bottle.

Step 3a: Blending.

This would be a good time to mention blending. When applying any of the highlight colors, especially the second level of highlights, try doing this.

Blending is not the mixing of two different colors both wet on the model itself. Rather, it’s the idea of allowing the highlight color to fade into the lower, darker base color.

To blend, first paint a line or area over the base coat, then draw out the paint. Drawing out refers to taking the paint while still wet and “feathering” it out over the raised area, away from the “hard edge” or point that you applied the highlight color.

Details:

Ok, show of hands, who hates the “runaway bride” look of all their heroclix models (aka white eyes with dark pupils surrounded by white in a shocked look?) Here’s a simple way to avoid that. Don’t paint the whites. Rather, paint the eye areas with a dark brown. As these figures are not meant for tournament painting competitions, you don’t need exacting details to the face. Rather, if you give a dark brown to the top area of the eye with a small dot just touching the bottom of that line, you get the impression of eyes. (And I know you all were wondering how I’d work in the runaway bride into a painting guide.)

For female mouths, starting painters try to paint red lips. I would avoid doing that. Rather, take a dark red/brown and give the lips a very tight line. If you would like to highlight that, I would blend red with that dark brown/red, and give it an even tighter line along the top lip only. Otherwise, your figure will look like the Joker who just happens not to be smiling.

Paint a thin line of black at the end of her sleeves and the hem of her shirt.

And of course, the infamous “S.”

Ok, two approaches you can take with this. The easiest is to paint the diamond shape with white. (I used Saturn Girl’s logo as a guide, the top of the circle is the top of the diamond, the top sides go from the circle’s top to the end of the lines, the bottom sides then just meet evenly underneath the circle.) Then paint the diamond yellow, and very carefully, paint the edges red, with a small drop of red on the top right, a swirl to the left, swirl underneath, drop of red on the bottom left.

Or, you can look up John Byrne’s way of doing “two fishes” and try your luck that way.

Good luck on that. Fifteen years later, I still can’t draw Superman’s logo the right way.

There you go, you have a brand spankin’ new Supergirl to throw down with the best of them. I put mine on a rookie base, as I always felt that Kara came across as completely inexperienced with how to use her powers effectively.

Take a look at all the different stages at the following link:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frontm.../ph//my_photos

I left in the “Supergirl ABD” to show that even after getting to the last step, touch ups are always needed.

Just a friendly reminder

We are now just 3 days away from “Clix for the Cure.” Duane/DS-00-0, FSD, the man with the letter combo for a Realms name, has really gone to town getting folks involved. We even have the possibility of press coverage for the event, which will get even more people involved.

Please, if you live within a day’s drive of Bloomington, IL I’m asking all my fellow clixers to make it out to this event. WK is sponsoring an envoy dinner afterward, so envoys, get down/up/over to Bloomington for this one. Bring your friends.

I want to have this be such a success, that it becomes an annual event, and that other game companies, especially those with the “deep” pockets (WotC, GW, and others) loosen up the purse strings and start their own events. You know they don’t want to be outdone by Wizkids and their players; and my hope is to play off of their massive egos and get them to do their own events. If we can show that we can raise money for a tournament at a local venue, imagine what we could do if we did this at a major event! My dream is for a “Play/Clix for the Cure” event to be held at a national event, like GenCon, Wizard World, etc. Imagine how cool it would be to have a friendly competition of two “Clix/Play for the Cure” between a Heroclix tournament and a Rogue Trader/Magic Tournament with the goal to see which event could raise the most money, with all proceeds going to the Komen Foundation.

I went with suggesting this for Heroclix first as I’ve come to not only love this community (HCRealms in particular) and the players, but it’s a game about heroes. As the song goes, “We can be heroes, if just for one day.” That one day with be May 14th, 2005. We’re going to turn the gaming industry on its ear, and with a successful event, we can now “play for the cure” to knock Breast Cancer out.

Play to win, and see you all next week here for “Activation Click!”

The Frontman

I dig your step by step stuff for painting. I have no real idea how to paint myself, so these sorts of guides are helpful.

How come there's so many clix players down in B-town, but I can't find anyone up here in West Lafayette? Its a conspiracy i tell you, Purdue is easily supposed to be the nerdier college.

Thanks Wherle. Sorry about the delay, but between me loosing the freakin' figure and then the site update (which with each day its beginning to operate better.) we had to be patient.

Now, as far as Bloomington being a hotbed of Heroclix, think about it. It's a town located right next to "Normal" Illinois. I went to college in "Normal" and there is absolutely nothing "Normal" about that town.



The Frontman

I posted about it on my blog last week, but that runaway bride chick looks baby-eatingly insane. And her little jaunt... not her first one according to sources... proves it. I hope she never has kids because the post birth depression will without a doubt make her kill someone.

[quote=Frontman]A key ingredient missing is

We touched on it just a bit last week, and that’s the “everyman” character. We don’t have Luke or more importantly, Han; who were “normal,” compared to royalty, Jedi, droids, and all the rest of the characters. Luke didn’t go all weird on us until “Return of the Jedi.”

I just wanted to support this thought...

I didn't read last week's but I have often thought that this is the worst problem with Episode I and II - there is no one to relate to - the Jedi are holier than thou, self righteous, talk in stilted language, always try to sound important and wise. There is never a character who is 'cool', funny, clint eastwood like or even just likeable.

But I am looking forward to Episode III and hope it is entertaining. When you don't expect much, it is easy to be impressed!

300th Post SWEEEET!! (waiting for warning points)



FINALLY THE BIG KAHUNA HAS BACK TO NORMAL!

ok it has only been a week since i was (in) Normal, but i will be there Saturday for the Clix for a Cure. I have formed an un-holy alliance with szude and we will apply a Fighting-Illini sized smack down on any who dare go against us. If i had time i would mod my figs with little Illini jerseys, but i don't and I am not that skilled.

seriously though i look forward to meeting a lot of realmsers and having a good time. I will try to bring my camera so i can document any Junk shots that 'might' take place. if you can, please come and make this event a huge success. if you can't go you can still donate to the cause by contacting Hair10 and letting him know. Also if you have not heard, DS,000-00 FSD will be raffling off a Dark Phoenix for $2 per ticket with a limit of 5 tickets per person. Be There!

we all know what's really been missing:

endlessly long scenes of jedi bloodbath. WE all know they have to die; its their destiny. We've all been holding our breath.. and now its almost time. Time for the Duel between Anakin and Dooku that will mirror the final jedi duel in Return of the Jedi; with the opposite result! Time for Palpatine to take up his saber, defeat pathetic jedi and serve us up the long awaited demise of Mace Windu! Time for Palpatine to also shame Yoda and send him into exile. Time for Anakin to Turn on ObiWan. Time for ObiWan to destroy Anakin. Time For Amidala to Die die DIE! (and let not loose hope that Jar Jar will get it too!) Time For Vader to rise to power and hunt down and destroy the jedi as his master bids! Time in short, for the rise of the Empire.

because we all know that THAT is what was missing. Stromtroopers. Vader. Tie fighters. Large ominous spaceships. Evil.

and this time around, we don't just get to hear about it. we get to WATCH the jedi fall. We get to witness as their light goes of the universe.

And this time around.. no screwing around. No Ewoks. Wookies. you hear what I'm saying? wookies.

This is going to be a HUGE event. My partner in crime is from U of I, so I'll avoid any rips on Illini players choking in the finals......

Just a suggestion to anyone who wants. Wear something pink. A ribbon, a hat, whatever. Hopefully Penny's won't sell out of it, but I saw a perfect shirt for gamers to wear, with the following phrase on the front

"My black T-shirt is dirty."

Seriously, what is it about game companies having to print on black? Don't they know that on the average, gamers are usually overweight, hygenically challenged, or both? Like they need to be wearing black to attract the sun and the heat!



Just having fun guys. Wear some pink and see you all on Saturday!

The Frontman

You know, I wrote my joke last week, prior to her "father's pastor" making what was supposed to be a written apology; which I didn't understand. That whole situation is totally and royally screwy. I don't get it. I just thought it was funny that she looked like 95% of my Heroclix collection with those eyes.....

The Frontman

About Episode III:

I have a few friends that have been fortunate enough to see a screener for the movie, and so far they have only said good things. These were also people that either hated or highly disliked the last two Star Wars movies...

so you can take that for what it's worth.

I have connected with Obi-Wan more than any other character in this prequel trilogy. He is the "Everyman" of the Jedi. Student in the first movie, to man by the end of it. In the second he is a teacher trying to mold a student with unlimited potential. Fighting, like most of us, against something much bigger than he...FATE.

In this third movie he will the stings of betrayal, loss, and eventually find a way to keep hope.

I do say that Obi-Wan is your everyman, and that McGregor has done an excellent job in the role.

I just finished reading the book, and it was very very good. So, as long as they don't mess up the translation from film to book, you can expect it's going to be dark and tragic. Just like it should be.

Yes, Ewan McGregor has done a great job as a younger Obi-Wan, and he's one of the very few elements in the prequels that I've been happy with. Just wish the 2 movies themselves had been much, much better. Maybe this third movie will be the charm.

I'll be disappointed when Lucas doesn't make
Episodes 7, 8, and 9,
like he once had plans on filming.


What would you have liked to see in these Final Three Movies?