The Amazing Scuplter Ben!

Recently while taking a break from our normal D&D game session I had the chance to interview Ben Misenar about his work, life, and passion. It was tricky to gain his attention and trust. I’m sure the amount of candy and soda that we ingested in between dice rolls did not help the situation.

Do you go by Ben or Benjamin?

“Ben typically, or Ms. Jackson ... if you’re nasty.”

Have you lived in Washington your whole life?

“I’ve lived outside of Washington on two occasions, when I was a kid my family moved to Durango Colorado where it was hot and generally unpleasant. We lived on my Grandparents farm which was fun but a bit of a weird change for me. I went from a big public school in the suburbs of Washington to a one room school in Durango that had maybe 20 students ranging from 1st to 12th grade. And there were ticks in Colorado which I’m not a big fan of. I can deal with snakes and spiders but I really don’t like the idea of something burrowing into my skin with a drill/needle head thing. That gives me a bad case of the heebee geebees! More recently I lived in Nottingham England for two years while I worked for Games Workshop doing print production for the card games produced by Sabertooth Games.”

What did you want to do when you grew up?

“Grow a beard. Success!!!”

What qualifies you as a nerd?

“I’m awkward around pretty people...
I still collect GI joes.
I quote Star Wars and Star Trek regularly.
Roger Moore is my favorite James Bond.
My idea of “dressing up “ involves a bowler hat and spats.
My coffee table in my first apartment was the USS FLAGG.
I’ve recently watched all of the episodes of the old Visionaries cartoons.
I can go on if you wish...”

(No that’s fine)

It's been rumored that you can be spotted as Lobster Johnson just about every year at ECCC. Is that true?

“While I can neither confirm nor deny my association with the Red Claw of Justice I can say that I have seen Lobster Johnson at ECCC and can only assume that like Santa and the Easter Bunny he will be making a yearly appearance.”

What are your favorite heroes?

“Humans for the most part.”

Have you worked with other famous sculpters?

“Brian Dugas, formerly of Wizkids. But he’s only really famous when people mistake him for Jack Black.”

What has been the best complement so far?

“Brian told me once that one of my sculptures didn’t totally suck... I plan on stabbing him with a fork at some point in the future.”

What have you worked on in the past?

“In the past I’ve worked on a lot of card games; WarCry, Horus Heresy, 40K Dark Millennium, UFS. I also did some type setting for the Lord of the Rings Combat Hex game. The first product line that I sculpted anything for was heroclix in the Crisis set.”

What are you most proud of?

“Black Manta from the Arkham Asylum heroclix set. The figure was originally set to be down on the common end of the set which means that the sculpt would be cool, but not quite as cool as the stuff on the rare end of the set. However after I finished sculpting the figure it was decided that he would be moved up to a super rare slot.”

(WERD!)

“I though that was a pretty good accomplishment considering how much crap Black Manta gets as a character. Fortunately I watched a lot of Super Friends cartoons when I was a kid so I understood how bad ass Black Manta needed to be.”

Hammer of Thor is out can you tell us what you did.

“I did many things in Hammer of Thor. My favorites are: The Warriors Three, Star Lord, Penance and Venom. Altogether I believe I have 20 sculptures in the set.”

Where are you working for now?

“Currently I’m working for Privateer Press in Bellevue WA.”

Can you give us some inside info on what you might be working on? Just not something that will get you in trouble.

“I just finished sculpting all of the figures for the Monsterpocalypse Voltron set and I’m very happy with the results! I can’t say much more than that as the folks at Privateer are mondo stricto about keeping things quiet. They have a paralegal who would likely shiv me in the parking lot were I to spill any beans. In my free time at home I’ve been working on a bust of Black Adam that may turn into a set of bookends.”


What are you working on now now?

“Things that would literally melt your brain. I could tell you but you would indeed perish and I am a very sensitive person. There is no possible way that I could carry on sculpting were I to be burdened with the guilt of causing even one of my loyal followers to perish by way of uncontrollable nerdgasim!”

Have you ever thought of doing sculpts besides minis?

“Yes indeed! I’ve always wanted to make 3 3/4” action figures. GI Joes were my main toy group as a kid, so to work on those or something similar would be a dream come true for me.”

Would you ever do some kind of awesome Breakdancing Robot of sorts or would that be too epic?

(In my best Brando voice. Godfather music in the background.)
I could do that for you. But if I do,“Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.”

Sounds good to me!