Tabletop Review: Arkham Knight Red Hood (Batman Miniature Game)

Arkham Knight Red Hood
Publisher: Knight Models
Cost: 14.88€ (approximately $16.59 USD)
Release Date: 09/11/2015
Get it Here: Knight Models

So, I know a lot of you still have a bad taste in your mouth regarding the video game Batman: Arkham Knight especially if you hate driving video games or purchased the PC version. However the upside to the video game is that it gives Knights Models a whole new set of figures to make. Case in point – the version of Red Hood aka Jason Todd from Arkham Knight. Although once up their with Uncle Ben and Bucky as characters that would/should never be resurrected, Jason Todd first came back in Hush by Loeb/Lee as a fakeout, but then Loeb decided to bring him back to life for real. Since then, The Red Hood has been a huge part of the modern Batman universe, currently headlining his own comic with Red Arrow/Speedy/Arsenal. Likewise, Jason Todd is a MAJOR figure in Batman: Arkham Knight and so it only makes sense that this version gets its time in the sun with the Batman Miniature Game.Let’s take a look at him. and see if he’s worth picking up.

Here is the packaging for Red Hood. Same as every other normal side single figure.

Here is the back of the packaging featuring a picture of the painted figure with a level of quality I will never be capable of. Still, it’s nice to dream!

Here is the Red Hood out of the packaging. You’ll note he is in three parts with his base. You’ll have to superglue the two hands to figure but it’s pretty straightforward. Your only enemy is gravity as the hands will want to drop straight off as you wait for the glue to set. He’s a fairly simple figure to put together and even beginning wargamers should find assembly stress-free.

Here is Red Hood’s stat card. It annoys me to some degree we have a Jason Todd that costs more than Nightwing because let’s be honest – Dick Grayson could kick Jason Todd’s butt with no problem. So my hope is we get a 100 or so point Arkham Knight Nightwing so that Dick gets a much needed upgrade (and a better sculpt).

Arkham Knight Red Hood is fairly straight forward with special emphasis on his movement speed. Wow. Most characters have a 2 or 3 in that category so expect a lot of opponents to be surprised with how quickly Todd can cover the board and get to places. With Acrobat and Batclaw, he is a Riddler gang’s worst nightmare. Other things worth nothing is that he adds lethal damage to a Batman crew (something they are very short on), his guns can’t be stolen (which is a big deal) and Take Down is going to be hugely helpful in ridding the board of your opponents. Red Hood also has a Teamwork power, but currently that only can be paired with Arkham Knight Batman and Robin. So this ability is limited and also narrows the scope of who you can field in order to take advantage of the ability. Fielding all three Teamwork characters together costs 318 points, which means it is not viable in a 300 point game and means you will have a very small force in a 350 point tournament standard game. I guess throw in Alfred to give you a fourth thematic character?

Here is Red Hood all assembled. I love the post and sculpt on this figure. My only quibble with my specific figure is that his bat symbol isn’t really full etched in to the metal. We’ll see that even more in the next picture as I prime him.

Here is Red Hood all nice and primed. You can see a lot of the detailing on the character much better with the primer on, but also how the bat symbol isn’t fully on the chest. This means I would have to draw it in myself and considering I have shaky hands and can’t draw a stick figure very well, this was not something I was looking forward too, which meant I would be doing that first.

For a guy who has the word “red” in his name, Jason Todd actually doesn’t have much red on him in his Arkham Knight incarnation. As such, I decided to tackle that first. The hoodie itself is done in Evil Sunz Scarlet, as is the batsymbol. Yes, it looks like shit here as I tried to draw/paint in what didn’t exist. It would take several tries for me to get it right, but this is how it started. Jason Todd’s helmet is actually a different red – Mephiston Red to be exact. The plan is to ‘Ardcoat the helmet at the end to make it look shiny and metallic and I find Mephiston makes for a better metal red than the Scarlet. Plus it creates some contrast between the hood and helmet and lets you see where one begins and the other ends.

Now we start to fill things in. You can see the bat symbol is taking on a better and more recognizable shape and that’s due to me getting the basecoats on. The helmet’s tiny air vents are done in Leadbelcher, as are the guns and boots. The leather jacket is in Abaddon Black, the shirt is in Dawnstone and the pants are in Mechanicus Standard Gray. In the paint scheme on the back of the box, Red Hood’s shirt is a light grey-white, but I decided to go darker to really make the bat symbol stand out all the more. I wanted a bright vs dark contrast. The gloves and belts are still white at this point because I haven’t decided what to do with them. I want them to be bright to contrast the dark grey of his outfit, but I haven’t decided what to do with them.

Again, this is just base coating, so the figure is a bit messy in some spots and needs touch-ups in others. It’s part of the painting process – at least for me.

Now it’s detailing time. As always I do the base in black and then dry brush the rocks and gravel with a grey. Usually I use Dawnstone, but since I already have Dawnstone on Red Hood’s chest, I wanted to go with something different. I used Eshin Grey, which is a slightly darker Grey-Blue for the rocks. You really can’t tell that much compared to the other bases, but you can certainly see a difference with the chest.

You can also see I’ve started to do other things to the character. I decided to leave Jason’s straps white, but I did paint his gun clips (which are attached to his thighs) in Leadbelcher and Abaddon Black. I decided to paint the gloves in Evil Sunz Scarlet to give Red Hood more red. I also started painting in the raised parts/patches of the leather jacket. I used White Scar for these, but at this point it’s just a very light/rough job to let me see where the pieces are. After all trying to find the patches when it is black on black is a bit hard. So my goal here was to get an idea for where the grooves were in the pieces and also to see how white would look on the black. Again, I really like the contrast of light vs dark, which also really fits Jason Todd metaphorically as well as visually.

Although the figure is nowhere near finished at this point, you can start to see how he is going to shape up and that the end result will be decent, if not superb. It’s my own limited painting skill rather than the sculpt that is to blame.

Here we are now with the nearly finished character. In regards to the jacket, after doing a once over with the white, I used Nuln Oil (a black wash) to further bring out the grooves from the raised areas and then went over all the white parts with more precision and accuracy. You can really see how different (and better) they look from the previous photo. Speaking of Nuln Oil, I’ve also washed the guns and boots with it and then applied some highlights of Runefang Steel to the metal. Now he’s all shiny. I’ve also fleshed out the chest by adding Standard Grey to the non bulletproof vest parts of the chest piece, allowing those to stand out more. I’ve done some highlights and shadowing on the figure as a whole and so at this point, it’s just going over with touch ups and adding some ‘Ardcoat to the mask to make it shiny and metallic.

Here you go – the finished product. Although it’s nowhere as good as a professionally done version of Red Hood, he’s pretty good for me and will be fun to field on the tabletop. Overall, Arkham Knight Red Hood was really easy to assemble and although he was a bit tricky to paint in regards to the bat symbol and leather jacket bits, he was still a lot of fun and he’ll make an excellent addition to your Batman warband. It’s a very striking piece in terms of the sculpt, so if you’re a better painter than myself, you can really make this a conversation piece.