"Look! X-Men"

Well, now I've established I'm also a model railroader it's time to relate the story for which I brought that up in the first place.

Of course I've been a big X-Men fan since that fateful June 1994 day in Scranton, PA, and I've always had plans of painting up HO gauge figures in X-Men uniforms for my modular piece which joins fellow club members' pieces at local train show displays. Following the eight or so year hiatus I took from regularly reading X-Men I became quite interested again in early 2009 (this is all recap).

Back in my college days my friends all convinced me I should paint up the game piece figures which went along with Pressman's game X-Men Xavier Institute for Higher Learning Under Siege. Well, I started soon after graduating college, but then other interests came before finishing painting. In early Spring of 2009 I dug the game out of the closet and finished painting the pieces, even making good on painting up tiny HO gauge figures as I'd wanted to all those years ago.


The first four were finished in time for our April showing. I chose Jean Grey and Rogue as they're favorites of mine, Cyclops because he's one of the most recognizable and Iceman because he didn't require any paint! (though a couple young attendees thought Mr. Drake was supposed to be some kind of statue, hrumph!) It was a challenge I gave myself to see how many train shows it would take before somebody recognized my X-people. As it turned out the answer is two:

In July 2009 the modular model train club I'm a member of was honored with an invitation to participate in the National Model Railroad Association's National Convention, held close to home that year in Hartford, CT, (the NMRA National Convention is held in different cities every year).


While, ironically, reading "X-Men The Return" by Chris Roberson (which I finally got my hands on a few years after printing) a young man and woman walk up to our layout together and are looking over each four foot wide module. As they came upon the module I created the young woman says, "Look! X-Men" It was a great feeling, until one of my fellow club members asked where Wolverine was. Hmm...

Of course, what's the use of having a team of X-Men if the cigar store Indian isn't ever going to be possesed? No, they needed a few villains to battle. So by the club's next show in October, I added the Blob and Mystique.

As you can see, Wolvie's part of the team now, with Shadowcat (in her two-tone blue. This dates the time period but was done because in that size she needed to be different than Cyclops lest they look identical, and I like her two-tone outfit).

Wolvie needed a bit of modifications to achieve. I started with a night watchman's figure (the flashlight in his hand when painted could resemble an adamantium claw) so I filed down the center of the guard's cap so I could get the head piece points. The bowed stance also lends to the credibility of the character. He took a bit of work and foul language to complete but the more I kept at it, the more it was worth it.

But six against two (and a circus's knife thrower which I guess makes three if I'm desperate -- he did have to stand in for Mystique in November when the shapeshifter's base broke off) are unfair odds for the villains. Future additions in the shop now are Psylocke (as previously mentioned -- because she's simple to do and it was a middle of the night inspiration last week), Magneto -- for the same reason I did Cyke...you can't have X-Men without him, really. Juggernaut, again because a construction figure easily becomes one, and probably Avalanche, for the same reason as Juggy. I'd like to try and do a Mr. Sinister and a Sabretooth in the future.