CLASSIFIED - Covert Mission Specialist

I'm not sure if Larry Hama or any later writers ever explained exactly why Snake Eyes' name is kept secret. Knowing Hama, there's some obscure reason that he's still building up to.

This is another "Hey, what can I make with this leftover Zerboz?" miniature. I tried to keep the shadow effect going under the hat...with limited success.

I'm kind of surprised that they ever made a figure of CLASSIFIED. But even more surprised at the specialty. Covert Mission Specialist? Shouldn't that be L.R.R.P.?

Or am I asking too much?

-c

Grunt - Glider Pilot

I have a couple of unofficial rules when it comes to painting up these mini Joes.

1) I won't reuse that same miniature for different characters (at least in the same toy line.)
2) If a character gets a totally new costume, I'll use a different mini for it.
3) If a character has an alternate look that's just a repaint of the original (for example, Tan Grunt), I'll use the same mini.

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules.

Anyways, here's Tan Grunt:

I'm not sure why Grunt was selected as the pilot of the Falcon Glider, but it gave him something to do other than just be a bullet-stopper. I'm pretty sure I played with Tan Grunt way more than original Grunt.

I wasn't originally going to do alternate costumes, but after doing original Hawk (and since I had the extra Zerboz Military lying around) I went ahead and did it.

If I start to run out of Joes to paint (hah!), I may delve into the repaint teams like Tiger Force and Slaughter's Marauders, but I'd probably hit the odd foreign characters first.

-c

Hawk - Missile Commander

I've done Hawk before, in his G.I.Joe Commander attire, but not his original outfit. Time to rectify that.

Hawk was the original commander of the G.I.Joe team...something I didn't realize when I first got into G.I.Joe. I didn't know anything about the chain of command and didn't pay much attention to the filecard ranks.

For me, I think my chain of command was the order in which I got the figures. So Clutch was the leader, and probably Flash or Rock and Roll was second in command. Hawk was probably near the bottom, next to Grunt.

A pretty simple repaint of a Heroclix S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. I didn't give him the helmet and visor since he rarely wore them in the comic.

-c

Iron Grenadiers - Destro's Elite Troopers

When the Iron Grenadiers sub-team was introduce, it made perfect sense. Why wouldn't Destro have his own personal army?

The Iron Grenadier is the basic foot soldier of Destro's army and let's face it: they look pretty cool. Even compared to some of the better Joe and Cobra uniform designs, these guys know how to dress. I bet the uniform alone was enough to get some people to sign up for Destro's army.

I'm not that familiar with Star-lord, but when I saw his Heroclix figure, I knew I had my Iron Grenadier.

I add a little detail with green stuff, like the shoulder pad and leg pouch. Unfortunately, the gold paint I used doesn't show look as gold as I would have liked.

Maybe he's been out in the field for a while and it's tarnished a bit...

-c

Roadblock - Heavy Machine Gunner

Roadblock is one of the most iconic G.I.Joes there is, after Snake Eyes, Scarlett, and Duke. He's been in almost every version of the team I think.

And yet, he was not on my list of minis to paint initially.

I think it was the cartoon that kind of soured me on Roadblock. All the rhyming combined with the fact that he seemed to get a lot more screen time than some of the others, made me kind of tired of him. Since then, some of the other interpretations of the character, like in Renegades and Future Noir, have changed my mind a little about him.

We won't speak about the Retaliation version of him though...

Anyway, I got the Heroclix Blade figure in a lot from eBay and I really tried to think of who to use him for *other* than Roadblock, but finally decide to use him that way. It was just too good of a fit.


-c

Beach Head - Ranger

I don't know why, but when I was a kid, I liked the idea of each Joe having a Cobra that they were matched up against. (Much like Snake Eyes was to Storm Shadow.)

And for some reason, I decided that Firefly's counterpart was Beach Head. I think I just liked that they were both masked bad-asses.

I spent a long time trying to find a mini with a mask that looked right for Beach Head, until the Heroclix Bane Thug came out. It had everything I needed except the mask which, I suddenly realized, I could just paint it on.

And it worked...and quite well I must say.

-c

Steelheart - SilverHawks Sergeant

More wings of silver, more nerves of steel...

It occurs to me, now that I compare my paint job to the original cartoon and figure, that maybe I shouldn't have used Deviant Art images of Steelheart as my reference.

Oh well, at least she is slightly darker silver than Quicksilver, which is the main thing.

I trimmed Blackbat's wings a little and filled in around the arms with some green stuff.

Since the SilverHawks are almost always either flying in space or standing on a chunk of space rock, I opted to make their bases look like...a chunk of space rock.

I think I may have done a better job on the base than on the mini, in this case. :(

-c

Quicksilver - SilverHawks Lieutenant

Wings of silver, nerves of steel...Silverhawks!

Another digression from the world of G.I. Joe and into the world of SilverHawks.

I think SilverHawks came after ThunderCats, but I found SilverHawks more watchable...at least back in the 80's. I might change my mind if I saw them now.

I'm pretty sure the SilverHawks came before this version of Darkhawk though, so I think somebody owes them an explanation. When i saw this mini, I knew immediately who I would use it for.

My light silver paint is not as shiny as the Quicksilver toy, but I think it works.

Tally Hawk!

-c

Arashikage Ninja - Cobra Red Ninja

Another figure I wished I had as a kid but was not made until the 2000's...

It's hard to know how to categorize these guys. The Arashikage Clan was separate from Cobra, but affiliated through Storm Shadow and later through Zartan. So, they are definitely bad guys on Cobra's payroll. I guess that's good enough to call them Cobras.

Just a simple repaint of a Heroclix Hand Ninja. I could have just got the already Red Hand Ninja, but that wouldn't be any fun, would it?

-c