From Phil: Super Spying at Solaris (27 Points)

Here we are at the final Challenge run-in. I’ve been abysmal at keeping up to date with everyone’s antics, too much doomscrolling distracting me from my painting desk. Apologies to Tamsin and the Tuesday crew for my absence. But I picked up the brushes again for the last few weeks, so have a few planets to tour to close out my challenge, despite my target being well out of reach.

In the middle of a self-imposed ‘minis drought’ where I intended to be working down lead mountain rather than buying new projects, I got offered a bundle of Marvel Crisis Protocol second hand. I’d had half an eye on the game since release but had resisted, long-time challengers might remember I’ve also a Marvel supers project for a now long-dead game. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, in the end. After a quick demo and inquiring about the local scene, it turns out the game is super good fun, they’ve really captured the superhero theme, and the minis are excellent quality hard plastics. Which is one of the reasons my challenge plans have got knocked awry: enthusiasm for this unexpected project, and getting games in pretty much every week.

So, the 1750s French still languish unpainted and I join Stephen and Alex painting some fun superhero silliness.

For deception at Solaris, here’s Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow, Agent of SHIELD. Spy, assassin, saboteur, femme fatale but ultimately one of the Avengers/SHIELD heroes. She has deceived you all into expecting her traditional black outfit, whereas I’ve gone for the alternate white that briefly features in the Black Widow MCU movie. n.b. The movie is complete tosh, not recommended.   

She’s a nice dynamic sculpt, leaping forward firing her wrist-mounted weapons. I want to use this range to stretch my painting abilities and try some new methods and techniques, so these have been taking me a long time to finish, further limiting my Challenge output. Still, bumbling away at them has been a welcome distraction.

I’m not the biggest fan of the widespread use of tactical rocks in the range, which is clearly a design choice to have avoid connection points to the nice sculpted bases and avoid having to have slots or tabs to mount the minis. I’ve changed some and done some work to blend others into the basing better

One 40mm mini, plus our Solaris bonus makes 27 for my tally. Next for another new dalliance at Arda…

That's a cool mini, Phil. You've done a fab job on the white armour for this model.

Tamsin

ps - I added the "Sarah's Choice" label that you'd forgotten!