Painted Mysterio

Here is Mysterio for Marvel Crisis Protocol. Mysterio is, not surprisingly, all about tricks and evasion. He can make characters move when he attacks them, do damage when they approach with a booby traps kind of ability and can escape their clutches if he does damage in the process. Mysterio has a very thematic ability where he has terrible defences against physical and energy attacks but very good mystic defence and can force enemies to attack his mystic defence unless they pay more power. This makes him quite hard to deal with in the early game where power is at a premium but by the late game when everyone is fully revved up he gets kicked in rather easily. In his last outing with me his game ended, as has been the case for some many of my characters, with Thor putting his hammer into the fishbowl.

Painting Mysterio was a joy. His sculpt is just perfect and he really embodies that age of the comics where it was perfectly normal for characters to fly about the place with capes and truly ridiculous costumes. I deliberately left brush marks going around his fishbowl to give the impression of the swirly gas that’s usually depicted in there. In retrospect I think I could have gone even heavier on there and it would have looked OK but I’m happy with the result as it stands.

Next on the painting table: Primaris Chaplain on Bike.

Painted Bullseye

This is Bullseye for Marvel Crisis Protocol, perhaps one of the characters who benefitted most from the recent balance pass through the rules. Bullseye started out being one of the most maligned three-cost characters, got a bit worse defensively but reduced cost to two threat which makes him much more palatable. He also got a slight change to his power generation which means that he might actually have enough to use his superpowers now. Apart from only costing two threat, which has uses at the team-building stage, Bullseye’s main draw is his long range which allows him to park on a back point and stay relatively safe and his superpower to just automatically plink a point of damage off enemies if his regular attacks bounce off (which is quite often). This reliability is great as there are many times when a character survives on just one hit point and goes on to wreak havoc in my team.

It was very satisfying to paint Bullseye; his sculpt is beautifully understated and he has a great facial expression. I love the way he’s hiding his throwing knives behind his back while grinning at his next victim. I’ve seen various modern takes on the costume but for me blue and white lycra was always going to be the classic look.

Next on the painting table: Mysterio.

Painted Plague Marines

This is a squad of Plague Marines for my Death Guard army in Warhammer 40,000. The Plague Marines can be equipped in a truly bewildering number of different ways with various squad members able to swap out their bolters for all sorts of other toys. I tend to be more of a believer in having more bodies on the table in 40K so I generally just field the squad at minimum size (which is five strong) and with no special equipment; they’re generally used to sit on an objective and die slow enough to score me some VPs while the rest of my army does the flashy stuff. It would be more fitting to field them in squads of seven since that is Nurgle’s sacred number in the lore, but in fact it’s just a coincidence that I own seven of them.

I thought that painting the Plague Marines would be quite a long and tedious process as each miniature is quite busy with little details such as tentacles escaping their armour, badges hanging off their weapons and sigils on their pauldrons. But actually the opposite was the case – I really enjoyed picking out all the different characterful parts of each miniature and making them individuals in a team. I kept the colour matching the rest of my Death Guard, with mainly dark red, black and bronze for each and then brightened each one up with some light green where it worked well. These sculpts are all single pose (I assume that they’re from some old box set as I got them second hand) and I didn’t convert any of them. However, I think that at least for some of these it wouldn’t be too hard to do a few weapons swaps or similar if I got another set at some point.

Next on the painting table: Bullseye.

Painted Hood

This is Hood for Marvel Crisis Protocol, though I find it hard not to refer to him as ‘The Hood’. He’s a very interesting character on the tabletop as he start off in his ‘normal’ form as a sort of support gunslinger but can change into a dangerous demon monster who is all about close up fighting. I’ve really enjoyed playing him so far and I feel that knowing when to change between the two forms is going to be the key to getting good results out of him. Hood is affiliated with both Criminal Syndicate (who I’m playing now) and Cabal (who I think I’ll play next) so I ought to get plenty of practice in with him.

I’d never heard of Hood until his release for MCP so I didn’t have any preconceptions of how he should look other than the card art. I mostly stuck with that, especially in terms of the signature red cloak and the grey skin in his monstrous form. The main place I deviated was with his trousers; the card art has them grey but I felt that didn’t work well with the rest of the miniature so after a little trial and error I gave him nice blue jeans. I went to a bit of effort with the basing to keep the bases for both forms as similar as possible to make it look more like he had just changed form on the spot. But when I came to paint him I noticed that for some reason the two forms are wearing completely different waistcoats. Perhaps the change of attire is something that also occurs in the comics and there is some explanation for it?

Next on the painting table: Plague Marines.

Painted Mister Sinister

This is Mister Sinister, very much a villain in Marvel Crisis Protocol. He’s a very tough four threat model with a nice beam so he’s got a home in Cabal (where he’s affiliated anyway) under Red Skull. Mister Sinister’s main gimmick is being able to collect genetic tokens off other characters in various ways and then use them to summon in an extra hero. In practice, I’ve never seen this done as he needs two tactics cards and a fair bit of luck to do it, plus he can more effectively use those genetic tokens to shrug off incoming damage. I theorise that he might be quite a good splash to try this out in Asgard or X-Men where the amount of healing can be quite abundant and especially the former would really appreciate a bit of mid-game reinforcements. More testing is definitely needed, but for now I’m planning to play him a bit in Cabal and see if it’s worth the bother of even trying for the summon.

I’m very pleased with the results of painting Mister Sinister; I can’t recall a time where I thought that a miniature’s face had come out quite so clearly the way I intended it. On the other hand, I made a big mistake in assembling both layers of the cape before painting – getting in between all the various strands of his (admittedly very cool looking) cape was highly frustrating. Overall, Mister Sinister has a great sculpt that really captures the essence of his character, has some thematic tactical rubbish for him to stand on and was fantastic to paint. I am a fan.

Next on the painting table: Hood.

Marvel Crisis Protocol tournament report: Be My Vibranium Valentine 12Feb2022

Marvel Crisis Protocol is back on at Common Ground Games in Stirling so I went out to try my luck again at Allan’s event. Previous MCP tournaments locally have tended to be around a dozen players so it was a wonderful surprise to us all that we had 26 attendees for this one hailing from across Scotland and the North East of England.

I played Criminal Syndicate again, swapping out Ant-Man and Beast for some new acquisitions in the form of Mysterio and Hood. My game plan remains simply sitting on Secure points while not letting the Extract game get too far away from me. I’ve found that I play a more aggressive Criminal Syndicate game plan than some others; mainly this is because I find it more fun to interact with the game rather than just gently push the other team around while never attacking them.

[Characters]
– Black Cat: 3
– Black Dwarf: 4
– Bullseye: 2
– Crossbones: 3
– Hood: 3
– Kingpin: 4
– M.O.D.O.K.: 5
– Mysterio: 3
– Okoye: 2
– Omega Red: 4

[Team Tactics]
– Advanced R&D
– All According to Plan
– Brace for Impact
– Carbonadium Synthesizer
– Climbing Gear
– Hood’s Gang
– Medpack
– Mission Objective
– Shadow Organization
– The Grand Illusion

[Extract Crises]
– Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? [C]: 19
– Research Station Attacked! [E]: 16
– Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17

[Secure Crises]
– Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
– Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses [C]: 16
– Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17

Game 1 – Alastair playing Spider Foes

Alastair is an old friend and we’ve been trying to arrange a game anyway so it was very pleasant to be drawn into him in the first round. He wins priority and picks Extracts; I think that my game at lower threat is a bit stronger than his so I pick the lower option.

Extraction: Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan
Secure: Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses
Threat: 16
My team: Kingpin, Omega Red, Black Dwarf, Okoye, Bullseye
My cards: All According To Plan, Brace For Impact, Carbonadium Synthesiser, Climbing Gear, Medpack
Alastair’s team: Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Lizard, Kraven
Alastair’s cards: Grand Illusion, Medpack, Monkey Brain is Lizard Home, Sinister Traps, Well Laid Plans

Criminal Syndicate really hate Spider-Infected as the random pushes are as good as a stagger for them most times. On the other hand, Missing Witnesses can be quite fast scoring and I think I can probably rack up 4 points a turn, so if I can just keep the extracts under control then I can probably survive into a round 3 win.

Round 1: Alastair plays sinister traps on my left Spider-Infected. Okoye gets us going by picking up the central marker but Green Goblin drops her in a single shot despite the cover to pick it up himself. Black Dwarf triggers the traps on the left (better him than Bullseye) so Bullseye has to stand on the left Witness. Luckily, Mysterio is too slow to contest it so I still score thanks to Kingpin’s leadership. I take a 6 – 3 lead but forgot to take a photo until partway through the next round – Alastair is the kind of gentleman who would probably be happy to rewind the game state so I could take one but I didn’t ask since it’s a Serious Business event.

Round 2: I do get pretty lucky with the Spider-Infected pushing Green Goblin back a bit but not affecting Black Dwarf or Kingpin. Mysterio gets going with his trickery to move both Bullseye and Black Dwarf around and use traps to hurt them. Bullseye survives on a single hit point so I throw some knives into Mysterio. Doctor Octopus really hurts Omega Red so he uses Carbondium Synthesiser and Medpack then slaps him right back in a tentacle-on-tentacle fight. Kraven stabs Okoye and Kingpin hurts him before throwing him away. Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus play the least effective Well Laid Plans ever, getting no damage on Black Dwarf and only one on Kingpin which he pays power to ignore. In a rage, Green Goblin lands some tasty damage onto Kingpin. Okoye dazes Kraven and Lizard gets stuck into Black Dwarf with minimal effect, though I do play Brace For Impact to avoid the damage from a rather cheeky throw. In return, Black Dwarf smacks Lizard around, then throws him off toward my corner. The scoring continues at the same rate; 12 – 6 to me.

Round 3: The Spider-Infected shuffle us around a bit but crucially allow me to move Lizard right into the corner away from the action. Kraven uses Expert Hunter on Black Dwarf and Kingpin, adding Corner the Beast to the latter before getting stuck in with his spear. Black Dwarf dazes Mysterio, to my great relief. Doctor Octopus daze Kingpin and Medpacks the damage he took last turn, then Okoye sticks a bit of damage into Kraven. Omega Red pulls Doctor Octopus off the right Witness and stands on it himself. Lizard can only double walk back to the left Witness and I’m just resigned to going another round when we both remember that Bullseye is still on his healthy side. So he strolls over and scores that Witness too. I get the win at 17 – 9.

That was a really fun game that I think was closer than the scoreline suggest. Alastair is a really great chap to play and could have won if the dice had favoured him in a few key places; notably the Well-Laid Plans being completely ineffective was a big blow to his chances. I’m not sure if I would perhaps have been better off just letting Green Goblin take the central Spider Infected and sending Okoye out to the left side to shore up the mess that Mysterio was making of my positioning over there; on the other hand it wasn’t particularly likely that he could drop her in a single shot so maybe it was worth the risk.

Game 2 – Stephen playing Guardians of the Galaxy

Stephen is a new face to our tournaments and it was great to see him and his own isolated gaming group coming out to join in the wider Scotland scene. I win priority and pick Secures as he had a couple of ‘pay to flip’ cards that I don’t really want to play with for Criminal Syndicate.  We end up playing the basic teaching scenario from the core rule book.

Extraction: Struggle for the Cube Continues
Secure: Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0
Threat: 17
My team: Kingpin, MODOK, Crossbones, Hood, Bullseye
My cards: All According To Plan, Brace For Impact, Climbing Gear, Hood’s Gang Medpack
Stephen’s team: Star Lord, Angela, Ronan, Rocket, Groot
Stephen’s cards: Deadly Duo, Field Dressing, I Am Groot, Lovable Misfits, Medpack

Crossbones and Kingpin really love Cubes as they can choose whether to take the damage or not. I picked MODOK as he’s great on D maps where he can just sit on the back point and zap fools around the board with his huge range as required. I often find that the action is drawn away from one or other of the edge points so I thought if I tried to keep the action away from the right spot it might be a good place for Hood to stand and plink away at people.

Round 1: Not much happens as we mostly just position ourselves around the edges. Stephen makes a mistake (in my opinion) by taking the central cube with Ronan rather than Angela so he’s left hanging about in the middle for MODOK to shoot with mind bullets. We go to 4 – 4 on the score.

Round 2: Winging It tokens are given to Angela, Rocket and Ronan. MODOK rolls like a champion, dazing Angela and Ronan; he didn’t even need to throw any terrain! Rocket uses Deadly Duo to hurt Bullseye and Kingpin, so Kingpin throws Groot away but annoyingly can’t drop Rocket – I guess I used up my luck with MODOK. Groot strolls back to the point and uses We Are Groot to heal Rocket back to full. Star Lord shoots MODOK and then uses Field Dressing on Ronan; I do explain about Bullseye’s superpower but he’s happy to do it anyway. So Bullseye of course just drops Ronan again and gets thrown away after a smiting from Ronan’s The Accuser superpower. He uses Climbing Gear to get onto the left console and somewhere in here Crossbones collects Angela’s cube. The score moves to 11 – 5 to me.

Round 3: The same three characters get Winging It tokens, and I play All According To Plan. MODOK continues his rampage, KOing Angela and dazing Star Lord, then Bows Ronan to walk away from the action. Rocket dazes both Kingpin and Bullseye with an application of his Hadron Enforcer, then Hood and Crossbones move to cover the back and right Secures. Ronan hits MODOK after a long slog back to relevance and Groot picks up Kingpin’s cube, but it’s too little too late for the Guardians and I win 17 – 9. However, it seems that I forgot to take a photo.

I really enjoyed that and I hope that I didn’t put Stephen off tournaments! It’s hard to learn much from a game where everything goes so nicely in my favour, and especially because MODOK just did so much attrition work in the centre that Stephen was going to have a really uphill fight to stay in the game.

Game 3 – Jay playing Wakanda

I’ve never met Jay before but he seems highly experienced mainly through playing in the TTS leagues. He had a really cool dual-affiliation Asgard and Wakanda roster but I think that I was expecting him to lean more into the control side of Wakanda against my Criminal Syndicate. He wins priority and picks Extracts, which I suspect is to avoid the risk that I draw Research Station or Deadly Legacy Virus. I again pick the slightly lower threat as I don’t really want to see Thor getting rerolls from Shuri.

Extraction: The Montesi Formula Found
Secure: Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses
Threat: 16
My team: Kingpin, Omega Red, Black Dwarf, Okoye, Bullseye
My cards: All According To Plan, Brace For Impact, Carbonadium Synthesiser, Climbing Gear, Medpack
Jay’s team: Black Panther, Shuri, Okoye, Lizard, Enchantress
Jay’s cards: Bitter Rivals, Blind Obsession, Indomitable, Medpack, Wakanda Forever

I picked the same team that I used again Alastair in round 1 as I figured that it worked well enough. Black Dwarf is now big enough that Black Panther and Shuri can’t push him around which is a very nice advantage. On Jay’s side, he is clearly looking to enjoy the brief window before Indomitable gets added to the Restricted list by taking it in his cards.

Round 1: Lizard walks up and takes the central book. Enchantress Bows Bullseye off the left point to take it and Shuri pushes Omega Red on the right, forcing me to commit Black Dwarf over there. The score is 3 – 3 as for some reason Jay never took the time to collect the book at his end; Okoye has mine.

Round 2: Shuri picks up the last book, and Kingpin rolls really well to daze Enchantress; he also throws Okoye away. Lizard hurts Bullseye then throws Kingpin at him, forcing me to play Brace For Impact to keep him in the game. Bullseye dazes Okoye and Omega Red walks back to the right point. My Okoye walks onto the Witness and zaps Shuri and Black Panther with her spellbook before Black Panther pounces, pushes her away and applies Medpack. Black Dwarf begins a very slow trudge across the board to become relevant and Kingpin uses Climbing Gear to get back onto the Witness. The score moves to 8 – 5 in my favour.

Round 3: To no-one’s surprise, I use All According To Plan. Black Dwarf throws Lizard into Shuri, dazing her, then collects the fallen book and beams Black Planther and Lizard. Lizard moves back into the mix. Kingpin moves onto the point, headbutts Black Panther (but Okoye Bodyguards it) and tries to throw Lizard but he pays for Indomitable this time. Enchantress moves over and uses Spurned Affection to beam Kingpin and Bullseye and Okoye dazes Kingpin. Black Panther dazes my Okoye and collects her fallen book. The score is now 11 – 9 to me.

Round 4: Kingpin throws Lizard for the daze, but can’t finish off the Enchantress with a headbutt. I made a mistake here; I should have had him pick up the book and beam Enchantress and Okoye; the extra die might have been enough to push through one last point on Enchantress to finish her off. Shuri pays for Bitter Rivals on Bullseye, then Enchantress Bows Okoye into line for a beam and tags her (for the KO), Bullseye and Kingpin twice each. I made a huge misplay here; I should have used Parting Shot on the first attack to drop her and save myself all the damage from the second beam. Wakanda Forever gets played to drop Kingpin too, and Okoye puts a bit of damage onto Black Dwarf. He throws Okoye into Black Panther to KO her but can’t polish off the Wakandan king so he uses Medpack. Black Panther pounces to finish off Bullseye but doesn’t hurt Black Dwarf. The score is now 14 – 12 in my favour, but I’m going to lose.

Round 5: Lizard uses Blind Obsession on Black Dwarf but it’s not needed and Black Panther dazes him and collects the book. The final score moves to 17 – 16 in Jay’s favour and he takes the well-earned win.

What a game! That was nail-biting right down to the end of round 4 and could have gone either way very easily. I made two big misplays in round 4 which I think was probably enough to swing this tight game in Jay’s favour. Thinking over the game in more detail, I wondered if I might have been better placed to move Okoye over to the right so that Omega Red could have come across to get involved in the scrum on the left, where he would have been more useful. But the mobility advantage was very much on Jay’s side so I suspect that I would have just had Okoye getting beaten up by Black Panther for a couple of turns instead. Jay was a really fun opponent and I very much hope to see him across the table again so I can try my luck against his formidable skills once more.

Game 4 – Martin playing Midnight Sons

I was really glad to get matched up in the final round against Martin as we’ve played before and he’s a really nice guy with a very strong understanding of the game. I won priority here and picked Secures as I didn’t fancy Martin’s (and he knew it); I was quite surprised that he picked the lower threat value though.

Extraction: Alien Ship Crashes in Downtown!
Secure: Mayor Fisk Vows to Find Missing Witnesses
Threat: 16
My team: Kingpin, Omega Red, MODOK, Black Cat
My cards: All According To Plan, Brace For Impact, Carbonadium Synthesiser, Climbing Gear, Medpack
Martin’s team: Blade, Black Dwarf, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight
Martin’s cards: Blind Obsession, Highway to Hell, Medpack, Patch Up, Siege of Darkness

Since this was the final game and with nothing in particular riding on it (we were both out of contention for an outright win) I decided to try MODOK in this split scenario and see if his control would be enough despite having to spend his first turn walking. I wanted Black Cat to give me an option on stealing the Core if needed, and I just like Omega Red. When I saw Martin’s team I realised that part of Martin’s game plan would be using Highway to Hell to get MODOK way out of the action.

Round 1: Black Cat, Blade and Kingpin move directly up to their respective piles of rubble and all fail to find the Kree Core. Moon Knight starts throwing attacks into Kingpin. Black Dwarf and MODOK move into the right scrum and also don’t find the Core, but Black Dwarf crucial blocks off Omega Red from getting near the Witness. So Omega Red has to content himself with giving Black Dwarf and Blade some Poison. The score is 2 – 2.

Round 2: MODOK bounces frustratingly off Ghost Rider and Bows Black Dwarf to move away. Ghost Rider, by contrast, rolls like a hero against Omega Red, Medpacks a little damage away and then finds the Core. Omega Red gets a similar turn of luck, dazing Ghost Rider and collecting the Core (I didn’t note it but I think that I must have also used Medpack here). Moon Knight dazes Kingpin, forcing me to send Black Cat that way rather than heading right to help out MODOK and Omega Red; in retrospect I wonder if this was a mistake. Black Dwarf puts a bit more damage onto Omega Red but can’t drop him so the score is now 6 – 4 in my favour.

Round 3: Moon Knight puts Blind Obsession on Kingpin. Omega Red hurts Ghost Rider, then Blade hits back. Martin plays Siege of Darkness so Moon Knight pays to stick some damage into Kingpin and Ghost Rider dazes Omega Red. Blade picks up the Core. MODOK lets fly but leaves Ghost Rider and Blade on a single hit point each which is a really annoying outcome. Moon Knight has no such trouble, finishing off Kingpin before Black Cat dazes him. Ghost Rider plays Highway to Hell with all the power that MODOK kindly gave him to get my big headed one way away from the action near my board edge. The score moves to 8 – 8, though at least the Witness moving over dazes Blade and KOs Ghost Rider.

Round 4: Omega Red lets loose on Blade and again leaves him on just a single wound, so Blade just moves away from the witness. Black Cat Staggers Moon Knight, but he dazes her anyway. MODOK uses Climbing Gear to get back in the action but can’t finish Blade; in the end I can either Bow Black Dwarf away or take my chances throwing something at Blade and decide to go for the former. Black Dwarf moves back in and throws MODOK off the Witness. The score goes to 12 – 10 to Martin, but at least the Witness finishes Blade off. The Witnesses are doing better than my villains!

Round 5: Omega Red is not able to deal with Black Dwarf but MODOK dazes him. On the other side of the board, Moon Knight continues his rampage by KOing Black Cat. I didn’t actually note what happened to the Core here but presumably neither of us picked it up. The score is 14 – 12 to Martin, and I guess I also forgot to take a photo.

Round 6: Black Dwarf finally polishes off Omega Red and picks up the Core. MODOK would have to get staggeringly lucky to take it off him (which is what is needed now) and doesn’t manage it; he does at least Bow him off the Witness so I can score it. We finish at 18 – 14 with a win for Martin.

This was a really fun way to end the event, and I’ve very much enjoyed playing with Martin. Strategically, I think that I would probably play the game largely the same again if I’m honest. Moon Knight dropping Kingpin as fast as he did is pretty improbable and hanging on for another turn would have allowed me to use Black Cat on the right. There were also an frustrating number of times where I left Blade or Ghost Rider on a single wound and if any of them come up with a daze of KO instead I think that the momentum is back with me. Still, it’s no good blaming the dice – Martin played his team and cards very well, making the moves he needed to very cleverly to keep me on the back foot for most of the game. Martin is the host of the Tales Of Crisis podcast so I’ll look forward to hearing about how this looked from his side later on.

So when all the dust settles I’m still in a fairly creditable 9th place, top of the 2 – 2 players. More importantly, I had a great time and got to play four very fun games of MCP against four very nice gentlemen. That’s probably it for my Criminal Syndicate for now as I have a hankering to play Red Skull Cabal for a bit; if they’re fun to play I’ll aim to take them out to the next event. Many thanks to Alastair, Stephen, Jay and Martin for the highly enjoyable games, and of course to Allan for running the whole thing. I’ll be back!

Painted Jean Grey

Here is the famous Jean Grey of the X-Men painted up and ready to field in Marvel Crisis Protocol. One of the many good things about Crisis Protocol is that the characters tend to play much like I expect that they should based on their appearances in comics and films, so it will come as no surprise to find that Jean Grey is a really dangerous character who is all offence and not much defence. She has probably the most fun spender attack in the game, doing tons of damage then throwing the hapless victim away and doing damage to all nearby. For added fun, she also has the ‘Jean!’ card which allows either Wolverine or Cyclops to make a free attack if someone manages to down her; I slightly doubt how effective that is (it’s too easy for the other player to work around) but it really thematic and I’m delighted that this kind of thing gets into the game.

Painting Jean Grey was a lot of fun, despite having so much yellow on her suit. I started it out with a very light brown, then layered many thin coats of yellow over it until it looked smooth. Her hair actually got a highlight of bright orange to make it stand out a bit more before I toned it back to a more normal colour with brown ink. Jean’s tactical magical thingy is quite cool as it forms an ‘x’ from the front which felt was quite clever. I was quite close to just gluing her directly to the base but her pose works better if she’s off the ground a bit and the magical ‘x’ enables that look to work. It occurs to me that if I’d painted her suit in green and yellow and given her a white shock at the front of her hair this could have been Rogue instead.

Next on the painting table: Mister Sinister.

Painted Primaris Reivers

Here is the second combat squad of Primaris Reivers for my Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines) army in Warhammer 40,000. I haven’t really been playing much with my Space Marines lately as I’ve used mainly Death Guard with some outing for both Orks and Chaos Knights. The latter two have been shelved again as they’re both pretty much skew lists and therefore not actually as much fun to face. As for the Reivers, I haven’t had any more success finding a use for these ladies on the table so they’re just stuck waiting for me to stop being rubbish at 40K or for an update to the rules to shake things up.

The Reivers are painted the same as the rest of my Space Marines. Getting the white to look even slightly smooth still takes quite a few coats and I find that stage interminable. Then once the white is ready for the magic of Nuln Oil, the painting becomes a joy and I can bash through the rest of the process without delay. These heads are from the first batch I bought from Statuesque minis; when I was assembling the Reivers I felt that they were noticeably too big but now that I’ve become used to it I don’t think it makes much of a difference. I will note that the simple act of using alternative heads on the Space Marines has really made a difference to my motivation to paint them – they just feel like they’re specifically my Space Marines rather than just another army of what I suspect is the single most common miniature range in the hobby.

Next on the painting table: Jean Grey.

Painted Cassandra Nova

This is Cassandra Nova, another hero (or more accurately, unmitigated villain) for Marvel Crisis Protocol. She is a consummate control piece having various ways to displace enemies including a very nice attack that costs only a single power but allows her to move her victims on resolution. I suspect that Cabal or A-Force will probably be her most effective home as she has a lot of cool superpowers but not a lot of ways to get enough power to actually use them. Her main issue is that she’s a five threat character and so she has to compete against MODOK in that bracket; not an impossible ask but certainly a high bar to clear.

Cassandra Nova is meant to have a sort of tactical magical thingy to stand on but even in a game of superheroes it looked silly so I just left it off and stuck her directly to the base. I think that her pose (including said magical thingy) is meant to be a reference to a specific piece of comic art – a cool reference, but one that I was nonetheless happy to dispense with. Painting her was fun and I really liked that she’s actually dressed like a normal person instead of wearing yellow spandex like most of the characters; she could stand in as a character in a modern-setting RPG. The orange scarf was a bit painful as I’d forgotten that orange paint is like yellow in that it needs a lot of layers to look even slightly smooth.

I’d never heard of Cassandra Nova before I bought her and, in another great marketing move by Atomic Mass Games, I picked her up only because she shared a box with Jean Grey. It turns out that she’s more-or-less Professor X’s evil twin, only with a bit more comic book drama / silliness mixed in. The art makes it clear that she’s meant to be quite an old lady, but the scale of the miniature combined with my lack of detail painting skills means that she looks rather fresh-faced here.

I don’t think that anyone is running a Fem-bruary challenge this year but anyway here is a contribution from me to ‘what would have been’.

Next on the painting table: Primaris Reivers.