The head that came with the kit
is the ugly Superman head that replaced the Aurora original.
That head is so ugly that they even used a different head for the photos
on the box. Fortunately,  I had a Diceman Creations Chris Reeve replacement head on hand and it
was perfect for this project.

The head was painted
entirely in oils.


Superman wasn’t the only figure in this project that got the repositioning treatment.
To make it look like the Scorpion was being hurled with great force, I wanted to straighten
out his tail.  I marked sections for removal on the underside and using a piece of
Plastruct tubing, I reassembled the separated pieces in a straight line instead of a curve.
The tubing extended out of the tail and into the body for support.
Once I had Superman mostly assembled and test fitted him on the base, the whole scene looked a little unbalanced. The angle of the Scorpion, Superman’s arms and his cape all blended well together, but there was an empty space that needed filling just below the Scorpion. I decided to raid my Gigantics Tarantula kit and add one more arachnid to the diorama. To put the spider in attack mode, with his two front legs raised I had to straighten them and adjust the back legs and body so he would look like he was rearing back to strike. The legs on this kit were made to snap in place with an attaching pin, but when I removed those pins, the legs worked more like a ball and socket. I was able to position the legs any way I wanted before freezing them in place with superglue. The two attack legs were straightened in the same manner as the Scorpion’s tail.

The painting of this project was a straightforward affair. After he was primed in white, Superman was masked and painted with spray cans. His skin was all done in oils as was the shading and detailing on his super suit. The Scorpion was also sprayed red with shading and detailing done in both acrylics and oils. The Tarantula was based in flat black and then given lots and lots of drybrushing in various shades of brown and tan. I even considered putting some actual hair on the spider, but decided against it because the detailing on the kit and the drybrushing were enough to give it a realistic look.
With all my players in the positions I wanted and everything painted, it was time to turn my attention to the base. I was going to use a small 6x8 inch base, but with the addition of the Tarantula, I needed to step up to an 8x12. It was a much better fit.