A Golden Age Hero: Doctor Jill Trent, Science Detective

From Sam’s Journal: “There’s this smart dame with legs that go up to her shoulders. I’ve got it on good authority not to call her a dame to her face - plus she’s some kind of scientist with weird gadgets and big words - and don’t get me started with her smart ass sidekick Daisey . . . anyway the the police think she interferes too much and the goons hate her so I guess she is okay in my book. Plus she's a looker. Did I mention her gams?”

Doctor Jill Trent is a genius with a number of Doctorates in physics, chemistry, optics and other disciplines. Her true passion, however is justice; but, because she is a women she could not get a position she wanted the FBI, the police, or any of the large detective agencies. As a result, where college friend Daisy Smythe, she opened her own unique business calling it Science Sleuths. 

"Hello Nazi scum."

Business has been good. Combined with her scientific knowledge and natural detective skills, and Daisy’s expertise in judo and firearms, has provided a quick and impressive record for the team.

Some of Jill’s inventions include a device that can monitor the atmosphere in the city were they worked making it possible to tell when and where dangerous gases are being used, a pair of glasses that work as a super magnifier and even low level X-ray, a fountain pen that fired a concentrated beam of electromagnetism that looked and acted suspiciously like a laser. 

As Sam has recorded, she is no-nonsense person. Dr. Trent is pragmatic and inventive, a true lateral thinker. She is able to synthesize data from multiple sources and use them to develop solutions to abstruse problems. She is adept at ‘on the fly’ thinking and problem solving. Somewhat sarcastic, she isn’t afraid to stand up for herself, even against super-villains, though, as a pragmatic person, she knows when to back down.

The Dr. Jill Trent figure is from Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze board game based on the Unmatched series of games. I will do some posts later on Tales to Amaze and other Unmatched games but for now I'm just going to focus on the Dr. Jill Trent Figure. The Unmatched games have some great, 28mm hard plastic figures that are compatible with most figure ranges for Pulp or other genres of gaming.

Dr. Trent compared with "Sam" from Copplestone Castings.

The Jill Trent figure is not the first Unmatched figures I have painted (more posts to come, I promise!); but, honestly, I found the figure intimidating to paint. It was the legs - and not in a sexist way. As I analyzed the figure, I quickly realized why Sam mentioned her legs - if I messed up the legs, it would ruin the impact of the figure. 

A picture from the original comic that I used as the basis for my interpretation of Dr. Trent.

I usually prime my figures black, but this time I used a white primer as I wanted a brighter, overall look. I took my time with the legs - and I ended using GW Tallarn Base Flesh as the, well, base, followed by Vallejo Dark Flesh and highlighted with Vallejo Pale Flesh. I was very pleased with the way the overall figure turned out.

Dr. Jill Trent will be showing up in upcoming adventures but first she has to survive the solo/cooperative game Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze.