Painting Update - Cabal & Hydra Reinforcements

Howdy folks,

I hope your winter is going well. I think we may be on the backside of the cold weather here...we did have some fairly cold temperatures in the last month but we did have some above freezing temps in the last few days.

Carrying on with my Marvel Crisis Protocol progress, I just finished up the Arnim Zola and Baron Von Strucker pack. The size of Zola is pretty impressive and the torso of the model presents its own challenge, given it is a clear piece so you can see the face of the robotic beast. I did have a Sorastro painting guide to help me out, but this time I also didn't overly stress on OCD-isms that have plagued me in the past...maybe I'm getting more confident with results, who knows.

The models themselves were really great to paint. Strucker is pretty straight forward and there seems to be a variety of characters in the Marvel world that rock the green jumpsuits with style...so I had plenty of appropriate shades to choose from. The main challenge with Strucker was painting the hydra chest symbol on his jumpsuit - for that I had to pull out the magnifying goggles.

Probably the biggest difference that I did this time came to the bases. Each character has some degree of debris that they are standing on and just having them straight up on the base didn't look right. There really wasn't much transition and the debris looked out of place. This time I took out some of my Citadel texture paints (choosing Astrogranite Debris) and build up some transition around the debris feature. I did this for each model. Painting up Zola also gave me the chance to use Citadel contrast paint on his legs to show some NMM technique - I'm really happy with the results.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

The big man and the Hydra man...

The Arnim Zola fashion shoot - a few angles to see how the big man turned out. He painted up really quickly and the debris was a fairly quick wash and dry brush using VJ Dark Sea Blue and then SC75 Caribbean Blue.

The main Hydra man...I took some similar inspiration for the debris, using the blues on the few bricks that were part of Struckers base. I also added a few chunks of rock and smaller stone to build up along with the Astrogranite Debris.

Inspired by my Asgardian group shot, I thought I would get Red Skull and the Baron for a Cabal affiliated group - of course only realizing now that Crossbones was there in spirit only.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         0    

28mm+       4, +2

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +4

Painting Update - More Asgardians

Howdy everyone,

First painting post of the new year and brings me to the last Asgardian figures that I had waiting to be painted from Marvel Crisis Protocol. I recently finished Skurge and Heimdall in December and I have just finished up Thor and Valkyrie. I was lucky enough to have another excellent Sorastro video to refer to for painting Thor. For Valkyrie, I referred to some google search images and the box art that Atomic Mass Games had drawn up for this expansion.

The most consistent thing that I can say about these Asgardian's is that they have certainly pushed my comfort zone with non metal metallic techniques. Thanos was very challenging for me, but almost each Asgardian is sporting some sort of armour or weapon that screams NMM, and these two were no different. Thor also added an additional opportunity and challenge with object source lighting depending on how one wanted to go with the hammer. 

Sorastro's Painting - Thor

I elected to follow Sorastro's video fairly closely to push myself to try these elements out...and I'm happy with the outcome (although my pics seemed to have blurred or muted the overall effect - another thing to learn more about I guess), and Valkyrie was a lot of fun as well as I went fairly free with the model, not stressing over any specific paint scheme or pattern. In the end, like I said, I followed the box art as I liked that look the most.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Thor and Valkyrie

...as I said, my camera seems to have muted the object source lighting affects of the hammer, I promise, they do look much better in person. I had actually done them with the intention of them popping on the right arm. They are fairly bright in some places.

I had some sort of reaction with my dullcote spray and it left this white film over sections of Thor's cape. I have since gone back and repainted these portions of the cape to cover up the film.

Trying to get the right NMM on her swords proved to be rather challenging and admittedly I think I may have 'whited out' the reflection along the main edge. The swords were rather difficult as there were multiple edges for highlights...took a few tries, in the end I stuck with the version I liked the most. But definitely more to learn for me.

The whole Asgardian crew...looking forward to getting all of them on the table at once.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         0    

28mm+       2

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +2

Painting Update - More Asgardians - Heimdall and Skurge

Howdy folks,

I think this is probably my last post for the year…maybe…and thought I’d post two more Asgardian warriors from Marvel Crisis Protocols. I’ve had this pack on the table for some time, and again I had another great Sorastro video to refer to. His Heimdall video is excellent! Unfortunately, I was left to my own vices for Skurge, lol.

Anywho, the biggest challenge for me has got to be doing this painting with no metallics. I’m enjoying the challenge, and I think it is upping my painting game…but I still have a lot to learn and work on. With that, the non-metal metallic work is fun but boy it sure tested me with these two figures. I think for Heimdall I revisited his armour about 3 times, and Skurge’s axe took me 4 tries to get to a point I could live with.

The bifrost elements that come with Heimdall really set the scene and using Sorastro’s guide, they gave me another opportunity to try out Citadel’s contrast paints. They come in some great colours but can be a little finicky in terms of coverage and wearing off or transfer from the model to skin or back to the brush.

I leaned pretty heavy on the artwork that came with the pack and some comic book shots I was able to find on Google to sort out Skurge. I thought the box art was too bright, so I wanted to see a few other examples. In the end, I settled on a toned down version from the box art and a couple of google images.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          85    

28mm+        38, +2

Terrain           1

  

Bought        42

Progress   +86

Marvel CP - Battle Report

Hello all,

I recently had the chance to get together with Mike and Duncan for some long overdue gaming...and surprise surprise, Marvel Crisis Protocol was the popular choice. We went with our pretty standard layout and scenario for the game...we did switch randomly lay down terrain and what not.

If I remember correctly, Mike was rocking his Sentinel, Colossus, Juggernaut, and a couple of others...I think he had used a few of them at some point before; Duncan hit us again with Malekith and his big kitty, and I think the Russian Doc Octopus (some dude with tentacles), Winter Soldier, and I think Sabretooth. This game gave me the chance to bring in Mr. Reliable...or I should say Doctor "Reliable" Octopus, as well as Hela & Loki, Vision, and Crossbones.

All in all, a fun game was had...

Initial setup...I am at the bottom of the pic, Duncan on my mid-left, and Mike on my upper-right.

Malekith and his big damned kitty. The Winter Soldier is hanging out in their shadow and Sabretooth and Tentacle guy are just south of the yellow taxi car.

Mike and his guys...with a big damned Sentinel looking over everyone.

The "good" guys...or at least partial (okay, maybe only 1 of them) good guys.

The action started to pick up fairly quickly...Doc Octopus squares of against his less-tentacled adversary, and I think he hit him for 4-5 healthpoints with a laser tentacle attack. Crossbones sauntered in and holds one of the portal locations (there are 3 total...I think).

Overview of initial moves...I am moving up slowly with the crew. I have a portal in my control, Vision has a shard or stone, and Hela, Loki, and Doc Oc are in good positions to support next moves.

Doc Oc put the hurt on him, but I think Hela swooped in and knocked down Duncan's tentacle dude. In this case, whenever a figure is KO'd or taken out of the game, Hela would gain a "soul" token that let her add additional dice to attack or defence (she could only have a max of 3 souls at any time). It was a nice touch for this spicy gal.

Duncan moves Malekith in to mess with Mike's Sentinel...some big CGI action went down.

I kept pushing forward with Vision and I may have taken some shots at Juggernaut...Mystere...Mystique...or something like that came out of the right and started to stir up things. Because I had Loki where I did, almost everyone had to pay extra power to make actions take place, he was such a mischievous character.

So I can't remember who did what...but by the end of this turn, we have less-tentacle dude, Juggernaut, Mystique, and Sabretooth KO'ed...Hela was very happy.

Next turn, everyone pops up and we start it all again.

Either Vision or Colossus put the hurt to Winter Soldier...

The chaos continues as Loki KO's Colossus...

...and it starts again...

By the end, we had almost all of Duncan's team were down and out...I think it was a matter of him being stuck between Mike and I, so it was pretty convenient for us to take on his guys. Mike had lost one or maybe two, and I had a couple of characters KO'ed but everyone was still standing at the end.

The crew: Crossbones did a great job of holding the portal, he missed out on all the action; Loki & Hela were very fun...Hela got her soulfood so she was happy, and Doc Frickin Oc was the star of the show. Dr. Reliable struck again.