Minimate Customs: the Secret Six

Continuing to survey the results of my weekend of nerd-shame.

The Secret Six

These guys have been floating around the fringes of the DC Universe for a few years now.  They first appeared in the mini-series Villains United, revolving around the battle between a recently formed super villain army, and six holdouts who said "thanks, but no thanks".  The mini was quite well received, leading to a second under the title Secret Six, and then a regular series of the same name.  The book takes its' name from a short-lived Silver Age DC title; in the original, the six are a group of people "helped" out of a jam by the mysterious Mockingbird.  In exchange, each member of the six agrees to serve as a spy for Mockingbird, with the knowledge that backing out of the agreement will lead to Mockingbird's work being undone.  The twist was that one of the six was lying, and was secretly Mockingbird.  Good stuff.  Anyway, the name made sense in the original series, when the six had a secret benefactor (referred to as Mockingbird) in their feud with the Society.  Now... well, I guess it's a good name.

Anyway, here's what these guys look like:

They've gone through some roster changes, but the guys we're dealing with are all here, and that's a nice picture, so we'll stick with that.  Obviously, there's more characters here then I've made, but these are the ones I like, so these are the ones you're getting.

Deadshot

 
Deadshot's history is pretty interesting; originally a one-off Batman villain in 1950, Deadshot was revamped during the famed Steve Englehart/ Marshall Rogers run on Detective Comics in the late '70s. As explained here, though, that issue of Detective only came about because of some scheduling manuvering.  Deadshot appeared off and on in the Batman books after that, but became a fan favorite when he was prominently featured in the villains-as-reluctant-government-agents comic Suicide Squad in the mid-80s.

And his costume is undeniably great.  I really wanted to do Deadshot, but I didn't have much idea how for the longest time.  There's a nice decal, by the talented Tenime, available at the Minimate Factory, but it was in more of the style of his "Justice League Unlimited" look, and I wanted more of his comics look.  So, using Tenime's decal as a starting point, I whipped up my own, using a decal Luke had created for Union Jack to get those nice shadows on his mask.  As usual, here's the decal:

Even with the decals finished, there was still the problem of his gun arms.  I decided to keep things simple, and ended up cutting the handles off Blackhawk's guns and gluing them to Menace's wrist gauntlets.  While the results aren't perfect (and they pale in comparison to Boyd's efforts from a few years back), I now at least have a serviceable Deadshot to menace my collection.

Oh, I should also mention that the Deadshot photos were taken without a flash, because the light kept reflecting back of the decals and obscuring the details.  So if they look weird, that's why.

Catman

Also a minor Batman villain, Catman had languished in obscurity for several years, finally reaching his nadir when he was turned into a fat, pathetic loser by a guy who knows a little bit about the subject, Kevin Smith.  Secret Six writer Gail Simone decide to reestablish him as a badass, and he's probably been the breakout character from the series.  I'd had him doing him in the back of my mind, but it wasn't until I saw another customizer (can't remember who, sorry!) use Wildcat's mask that I decided to put him together.  Other then the mask, and this Captain America belt, he's basically just brown paint and yellow body parts.  And this decal:

Scandal Savage

Unlike our previous two, Scandal here has no history outside of the Secret Six, though, as the daughter of DC's immortal caveman, Vandal Savage, she's well connected.  I really like the character, and really wanted to make her; however, my attempts to create a decal with her costume's funky armor patterns proved fruitless.  In the end, as I so often do, I decided that having Scandal was more important then having a perfect Scandal, so X-23's torso (with a little black sharpie work) proved a nice fit.  Her hands are also from X-23, with gloves from this Wolverine, painted silver, replicating her forearm armor thingies.  Her collar's from Star Sapphire (with a little black paint); hair's from Goliath; legs are from punk Storm; and her head's actually this terrible one, made useful with a little black paint.