More of that Sweet, Sweet Marvel

On the last batch I tried a lot of different things—dry brushing, washes, more dry brushing. In the end I decided that this time I’d keep it simple and quick and I’m pleased with the results.

I airbrushes the bases with Vallejo Dark Grey 70.994 and then, in ever lighter dry brushes hit all the stone and concrete with Neutral Grey 70.992, Light Grey 70.990, and Deck Tan 70.986 (all Vallejo).

Overall, I think these came out at least as well as my first go round and took a lot less time.

Any of you who watch Adam Savage on the Tested YouTube channel (and you all should as it has much content that is perfect viewing while hobbying) will have seen his “One Day Build” videos, almost all of which infamously took more than a day to film/complete. This is just like that.
Of course, for me completing one mini in two days is fast. 36 was amazing. It was an exercise in compromise—I don’t mean this to be a humble brag but rather an example of what you can do if you are intentional about the corners you cut. I’m sure most of you are well aware of the corners but as this is my first time painting terrain I had to learn.
Some high points for me:

• The “glass” effect on the car and shop windows. I was tempted to spend a bunch of time with the airbrush but I cribbed these streaks off the rules manual pictures and I find it sells it quite nicely.
• The color shift paints worked very well and very quickly on the cars. Make sure to throw a coat of matte varnish on them after the color shift dries if you’re going to do any other painting as the next layer of paint will run all over your beautiful paint job and you’ll be starting over after trying to save it by running it under the tap (did this not once but thrice—I’m a slow learner.
• The weathering on the top of dump truck. This was a complete happy accident as i carelessly got some smears of black there and had to save it. A quick dab with a couple of different colors (brown and orange) with a sponge and I’m quite pleased with the result. That’s now something I’m not quite as intimidated by.

All told, a satisfying experience. Not going to do it most of the time as I love getting lost in the detail work and layers of highlights and washes. However, nice to know I can and really nice to have the terrain ready to go for my second game. (BTW this is much more terrain than comes in the base set. I ordered two of the additional scenery packs by mistake and figured that since they were there…)

So from this morning to this evening this project logged roughly 140 likes, tripling the total. Is this a glitch or did something happen today that I don’t know about?

If it’s for real, I’m glad you all are enjoying the project. If any of you know what brought it about let me in on the secret as I’m properly curious.

After last night’s game I was compelled to get the terrain into shape as it was mainly gray or, in some cases zenithal highlighted. Trying to do these quickly and also keep hem a bit drab so the characters pop. Had a good bit of fun with the airbrush—finally starting to get some control. Large open spaces are a really good way to practice.
I discovered that a nice sepia ink works really well to create depth/volume though I had to pump up the brightness on the base colors for it to show.
I also discovered a perfect use for the Vallejo color shift paints that I bought on a whim and was wondering if I was really ever going to use them: they’re perfect for the cars!

I got this to the table tonight for a learning game. Neither of us have played any proper wargaming/tabletop miniatures games before so it took us a very long time to play just two rounds. That wasn’t the game—that was us.

Well, maybe it was a little bit the game. The rulebook that came in the box is a reasonable primer if you read through it in its entirety but we found it pretty useless as a reference. So do yourself a favor and download the rules from Atomic Games website. Still a bit rough but much improved.

Overall impression: it was a lot of fun. As I said, we have limited experience so not a lot to compare it to. The base rules are relatively straight forward (two actions for each character’s activation, alternate until all characters have gone or passed because they’re dazed or KOd). The complexity lies in how unique each character is. And boy are they unique. Definitely not a complaint as that’s where all the theme comes from but I can see it taking me quite awhile to wrap my head around all the characters on the table so that I can make sensible strategic decisions. Add in the 5 tactics each character has and the possibility of changing up the scenario cards and it’ll be a heavy lift for me to play remotely well anytime soon. Not hard to play but hard to play well. That said, I made my life much harder than it needed to be by adding in a bunch of expansions and characters.

Verdict: it was just a load of fun to run around a table with a team of super heroes. Painting up the scenery pieces I have has definitely moved up my to do list.

I mucked around with a bunch of stuff for these and I’m not sure I wouldn’t have been better off with a simple dry brush passes.

Process:

• base coat with Vallejo Neutral Grey 70.992
• Nuln oil
• Agrax Earthshade
• dry brush with neutral grey

Vallejo pigments in order (either just brushed into the cracks or I wet the base with airbrush thinner and then brushed it on). Second time I’ve used pigments  can’t say I’m overwhelmed with how amazing they are but they did add a bit of texture and variegation to the colors.

• 73.114 Dark Slate Grey
• 73.104 Light Sienna
• 73.105 Natural Sienna
• 73.121 Desert Dust
• 73.113 Light Slate Grey

Some Vallejo mud (which I liked but decided was a bit much) then a final dry brush with Neutral Grey. Overall they’re fine bases but probably not worth the time I put in. Then again I did have fun experimenting.

Spring cleaning painting the last 11 characters that I currently own. Going to try and hold off buying more until A) these are painted and B) I’ve played at least one game.

Hela is done (though maybe just a bit too yellow). The other three are up next.