Painting Marvel Crisis Protocol With 144Artist

Sticking with my X-Men theme, I finished working on Rogue.  A great character in the comics and movies as well as a great pose in the mini.  Easy assembly and painting was straight forward.  I am very fond of these base covers that are showing up more and more with the newer kits.  I love the theme of Sentinel wreckage and parts with this team.

The third possible leader of the X-Men affiliation is Storm, Ororo Munroe, and she seems amazing.  Giving every team member in range a cover bonus is awesome.  She is also one of those wonderful poses that looks great but is fiddly to assemble (oh so fiddly) and a challenge to paint.  Yes, I know I could decrease the painting challenge by working in sub-assemblies but I just love building the kits first.

Cyclops, also known as Scott Summers, goes all the way back to the creation of the team by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and was the Field Commander for the team.  I like the 90s version with his hair exposed and love that AMG includes both heads so players can choose their preference.

Professor Charles Xavier, founder of Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters and a leader of the X-Men Affiliation is painted and ready to float onto the scene.  I did make sure to use the base with a wheelchair accessible curb even though he uses a hover chair.  Charles, here, represents the beginning of a number of X-Men posts as I have been painting a lot of them lately.  I’m even onto X-Force now.

The leader and only current existing member of the Hellfire Club, Emma Frost is ready to wreck havoc in both her organic and diamond form.  Of course she is also a member of the X-Men Affiliation so of flexible loyalties.  As much as 14 year old me loved her original costume, it really was just lingerie and a cape.  Glad they kept the cape as it adds movement to the sculpt but her updated costume is much better for action or even just going outside.

A pair of great poses for one character funl fun to paint.

Another X-Men villain is finished and ready to lead the Brotherhood of Mutants.  In the comics and movies she is the shapeshifting, tactically gifted mother of Nightcrawler.  Obviously I have no idea what she does in game or how shapeshifting is represented by the rules but I am guessing it will be fun.  I’ve seen some wonderful paint jobs online where she appears to be changing shape but decided to keep with her standard color scheme.

…Comes the Shadow King.  For a character that began as a one shot villain in a flashback issue to illuminate some of Professor Xavier’s early history this guy is scary.  A malignant being of psychic force that takes over the minds of lesser beings. Yikes.  Obviously I have no idea of what he does in the game but he is super cool model, basically two in one, that was fun to paint.  I can’t ask for much more from a hobby.

What a great sculpt.  I love how fluid he looks, how he is “appearing” out of the mist, and AMG really nailed the look of the comic book character.  For a guy who wasn’t one of Spiderman’s regular foes he was always cool, if more in concept than execution.  He was on the old cartoons a lot more than in the comics and his big screen version was a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed painting this fellow with the helmet being a source of my sense of accomplishment.

I finished painting the 1st Edition Doc Ock and I have to say it is a nice little sculpt.  It is easy to dismiss the first sculpts for their simplicity or static poses but they are full of detail and represent the Marvel characters in 3D beautifully.  While not as fluid and lacking the movement of the later sculpts, this one looks unmovable with his arms crossed and his tentacles waving menacingly around him.

I won’t lie, I find Carnage to be incredibly creepy, I mean beyond the serial killer thing.  He is one of Spidy’s more terrifying enemies, like a living weapon that killed Gwen Stacy in an alternate reality of the multi-verse.  He is just a horrible creature but oh so perfect for a miniatures skirmish game and look at that sculpt.  Great movement, alternative pieces, solid detail and despite being held aloft by tendrils of Carnage-goo, a stable pose.  I did find some of those details a little fiddly during assembly but nowhere near as frustrating as Agent Venom was.

What a pair these two make both in comics and on the tabletop.  No idea how they play but really like the juxtaposition between the two characters’ poses.  It really illustrates the difference in their abilities and temperaments.

Despite only being supported by the flames of his Iron Fist, Danny is a fairly easy model to assemble.  Fun to paint as well with the clean muscle tone and flaming power effect.  The dragon on his chest is delicate and shallow in casting so I recommend thin paints when priming and painting though, truth be told, that is my go to regardless.  I am finding that Atomic Mass Games’ minis are more like scale model kits than gaming pieces in that regard.

What a great character and what pose.  I suppose one could make the same complaints I’ve heard about the Kingpin miniature but just like that figure, I’d say the static pose makes it clear Luke Cage isn’t going anywhere he doesn’t want to.  I’m really looking forward to learning wha he does in the game as he is such a brawler in the comics and TV show for that matter.

Bulls Eye is a simple sculpt but fun none the less.  The figure has a cocky confidence that might come in part from the throwing blades hidden behind his back.  Talk about a simple paint job.

Another character from the first edition boxed set is painted and battle ready.  I picked up the boxed set with the first four Avengers AMG released.  I am such a completest that I want everything they release and having another Captain America or Iron Man to paint is always a good thing.  I really like this pose and think it one of the better earlier sculpts bonus that she was fun to paint.

While I’m on the subject of spider folk, Spiderman from the first core set is complete and ready to spin a web at any size.   He’s one of the nicer sculpts as well though I would have loved to see him on top of some terrain.  As I had neither an immediate idea nor bits inspiring, I chose to avoid the analysis paralysis I could see waiting down that route and just painted him.  I think he came out rather well, if I do say so myself.

With Agent Venom came Spider Woman, who, truth be told, was the reason I bought the set.  I have always loved her visual design and color scheme.  I hadn’t really thought about running a Shield Affiliation but I’ve noticed it is a very mixed affiliation with a broad range of character.  Agent Venom and Spider Woman are just two of them.

Hmmm, might be time to assemble Nick Fury and his Shield Agents…

While I’m showing some work on older sculpts here is the Black Widow from the first core set.  As I have two already painted in black I decided to go with here winter wear look from the Black Widow movie.  With three versions of the character it is nice to have little variety.

With Vision was the first version of the Winter Soldier.  A simple sculpt but clearly from the early days of Atomic Mass Games plastic work.  In just a few years their stuff has evolved such movement and detail it is amazing.  This is a fine mini, nothing great or fancy, but a solid pose with good detail that is fun to paint.  Being a completest I was going to need him in the collection regardless.

…well, maybe but I did finish painting the model.  Had some fiddly bits I found frustrating during assembly but I got there in the end.  My default, so far, has really been stick to the box art when in doubt but here I think I should have leaned more toward the comic book art but that is how lessons are learned.  No, I’m not repainting this model.  I have a bunch of kits waiting and I’m sure there will be either a new model in the future or I will find another in my hands.  If that is the case I would actually want to paint him as the White Vision as it is so striking and easy to do.

So, neither my favorite model nor paint job but he is table ready and Wanda loves him no matter what.

Punisher seems like a natural choice for this game.  He’s tough, fights dirty, and is completely unaffiliated.  Sure he takes out bad guys but he did start out hunting Spiderman let’s remember.  I really like his static pose.  Something about it just feels lethal and Punisher is nothing if not lethal.