Saturday, 2 November 2024

Zenith 11. Steel Claw and Fishboy

Half term has allowed me to make some good progress on my Zenith Project, another two completed with two more almost finished ( Metamaid and Captain Miracle)

Fishboy

Fish boy was originally from the comic Buster in the late 1960's, Fishboy Denizen of the Deep.He can breath underwater, swim very fast and communicate with Sharks and other sea creatures. 

A interesting article on the character - Are you my daddy the strange story of fishboy denizen of the deep

In Zenith he is portrayed fairly similarly, dressed only in seaweed underwear. He only has a small background part and as a casualty of the llogor possessed Mr Why. Looking for some colour images to get is hair colour was initially quite hard as the original stories were in black and white and he only appeared in one cover.His stories were repainted in other countries and there are several full colour covers that helped.


Original Buster comic


Covers from the Indonesian reruns

I created the figure using Eldritch Foundry and added his seaweed clothes using Greenstuff



Fish Boy. Denizen of the Deep

Steel Claw

The Steel Claw was from Valiant Comics and for a time was one of its most popular characters. 


For the majority of the Steel Claws stories he is portrayed in a suit, more fitting for his gritty secret agent/detective style adventures.  He had a short run in a costume which was not that well received and he reverted back to his civies.

His Zenith appearance draws from his view brief period as a costumed adventurer when he wore a metal mesh outfit along with his signature Steel Claw. 



The figure was created using Eldritch Foundry and I used paper to add his belt.

I struggled to find any colour images of the costume with descriptions stating it was a metal mesh. The was one forum comment that thought it might have been a copper mesh so went with this.



Update:
A s I completed the Steel Claw I came across an old Portuguese edition that had just been posted on Ebay. I will have to go back and redo him!










Friday, 1 November 2024

Zenith 10. Captain Miracle and Meta-Maid

Still on a Zenith drive, trying to complete all those I have made up and printed over the summer...

Captain Miracle

Captain Miracle was a Silver Age superhero from the 1960's and featured in his own comic. He has super-strength, invulnerability and flight capability


Original Captain Miracle and his sidekick Miracle Junior



Captain Miracle in Zenith, one of the heroes possessed by the Lloigor 


I have had to reprint and paint again as I had originally made him to small, though I might go back and repaint the first as Miracle Junior



Captain Miracle 

Meta-Maid

Meta-maid is an original Zenith character and is a pre-op Transexual superhero.  Her costume reminds me of a mix between Golden Age Lady Phantom and Black Canary


Design sketch taken from the introduction to book 4 ( Titan edition) 


Meta-Maid between the Leopard from Lime Street and Zenith

She is shown to have super-strength and is part of Zeniths group of Superheroes in Book 4. 
The figure was created using Eldritch Foundry and I then added several elements using green stuff to better match her costume. Extending her mask, adding a corset and gloves.



Original digital sculpt



Metamaid only appears in Black and white so I have had to be creative with the colours.I painted the boots, jacket, mask and glove as black leather, echoing Zenith's own jacket and also Black Canary. 

Her hair is shown as light and dark in various panels throughout the story but looks light in one of the original design sketches so I gave her blonde hair, another echo of Black Canary as well. 


For her skirt and top I settled on a light blue with a pink and white stripe which echoes the colours from the  Transgender Pride Flag as a nod to the character.