Fabulous Muscles

It's a really good Xiu Xiu song, but it's also a horde of toys one of my clients sent me not too long ago. Recently a client asked if I'd be down to paint some of his favorite M.U.S.C.L.E. figures, and given my proclivity towards small cool dudes I said yes immediately. 

While I am no expert in this field of collectable miniatures, the quick history of this line is thus: Kinnikuman was a manga that hit Shonen Jump in the late 70's about intergalactic professional wrestling, later spawning and anime and several toy lines, one of which being these keshi. They're about 2 inches tall and are cast in rubbery single color plastics, making them durable and characterful, as their sculpts often include a great amount of detail. I'm poorly paraphrasing this article from Mentalfloss but the gist is that they were fun collectable miniatures from the 80's, and as a wargaming enthusiast I find that super relatable.

Some masterfully painted treasures from Mike's Painted Miniatures

Not long ago, I stumbled across Mike's Painted Miniatures, an awesome blog that has a backlog of really fascinating M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. In the posts there I learned about the usual hurdles in painting these figures, namely the curse of mold lines and their resistance to taking paint. I recommend you read his blog, since I doubt my paraphrasing will do it justice, and the tips therein are pretty helpful!

That said, I did my darnedest to trim excess plastic, and gave each model a few coats of Krylon before breaking out the acrylics. These models have a few soft details that proved challenging, but overall I really liked the experience of trying my hand at models that weren't designed to be hand-painted. I took a special shine to the pig guy, and decided to give him a tank top from one of my favorite bad movies. Bonus points to the reader who can tell me where it comes from!

A pair of cheeky chums as ready to throw down in wrestling rings as they are in the rings of Jupiter!

I hope they don't tag me in!