From StephenS: Comic Capers (29 points)

 G'day Everyone,

Cyclops, Rhino and Warmachine

My final post of the challenge are three more characters from Marvel: Crisis Protocol. A villain known as 'Rhino', who first appeared as a foe for Spider-Man in 1966. He is a Russian thug who underwent an experimental procedure and emerged with an artificial skin and superhuman strength.

Cyclops and Warmachine, are probably too more well-known characters as they have also been featured more prominently in the cinematic universe. Cyclops made his comic book debut in 1963 and has been a feature of the X-Men ever since. Warmachine didn't grace the pages of comic book stardom until 1992/1993, but the man behind the suit has been in Iron Man comics since 1979.

I got re-invigorated this challenge for the game of Marvel: Crisis Protocol after seeing some fabulous teams and terrain during a trip with my son to Cancon (Australia's biggest tabletop gaming convention) in January.

These are plastic miniatures in 40 mm scale, and I have scored them at 15 points for the big fellow and 7 points apiece for the smaller two. Not sure if large figures are still scored higher, and you will hear no complaints if the points are lowered.

That will be it from me this year. It has been an absolute blast as always, and I have loved seeing each day's releases, even if I have been quieter with the comments this year. I didn't make it to my target either, which I am disappointed by, but the last three months have still been my most productive of the last 12 (since the last challenge...).

Thanks to Curt, Millsy and all the minions for all their work behind the scenes to make this happen. I can't imagine the time and effort it must take to curate all our posts on top of their own painting, commenting and non-painting life commitments.

All the best until next time.

Steve

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A fabulous final post, Stephen. I can't claim much knowledge on the superhero oeuvre. but am always entertained when reading the enthusiastic posts from those who do. Your brushwork is crisp and the colours nicely saturated. I especially like Rhino, but that may be due to nostalgia from him being frequently featured in the animated series when I was a kid. Memory lane aside, I applaud your fine work - bravo! Until next year, Stephen!

- Curt

From StephenS: Marvel... (21 points)

 G'day Everyone,

I have gone completely off script this week and decided to paint up a trio of figures from the Marvel comics/movies for the game Marvel: Crisis Protocol. I believe the mathematical term for the number of these characters I have acquired since the game was released is 'a fair few' and I always enjoy painting them up.

First up are Peter Quill (Star-Lord) and Gamora who both featured in the popular Guardians of the Galaxy films. The lady in green is Viper, a supervillain who has clashed with the X-Men and Avengers for those who are fans of the Marvel Universe.

Viper

Gamora

Star-Lord

They are all 40 mm plastic figures from Atomic Mass Games and I calculate that to be worth a massive 21 points.

Now on to something more empirical in nature.

Cheers,
Steve

From Millsy:

The Marvel and DC universes are something I know next to nothing about but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a sweet paint job!

These are really slick Steve and the basing really takes them to the next level. I think I'd have gone bonkers outlining all the concrete so kudos to you for taking that on.

21 very well earned points it is.

Cheers,
Millsy

From StephenS: The last one (14 Points)

 G'day All,

A quick final post to get me over my modest points target are these Marvel: Crisis Protocol miniatures from Atomic Mass Games.

Plastic 40 mm figures, they are Venom and Mystique. Venom is more of a Spider-Man character, and Mystique appears in more X-Men orientated stories. At least, that is my experience.

They were a nice contrast in painting white and black, and should give me 14 points to finish off the Challenge.

Thank you to all the minions, especially Millsy, for their care over the last 3 months. And of course, a huge thank you also to Curt and Lady Sarah, for devoting so much of their time to ensuring we can come together like this. Cheers as well for all the positive comments, it is the community that makes this such an enjoyable experience each year.

All the best until next time (or at least, until the customary post-challenge post).

Cheers,

Steve

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Excellent work on these Supes, Steve! I quite like the white details on Mystique's costume and Venom's toungue looks, um, very impressive (Gene Simmons would be jealous).

Thank you for joining in again for this year's Challenge, Steve! It's always a pleasure to have you with us and see your work.

- Curt

From StephenS: Luke Cage and Iron Fist [New Acquisitions] (34 Points)

 G'day everyone,

It is great to be back for my ninth challenge, and even better to be slapping paint on miniatures after a hiatus of almost 9 months brought on by selling a house, moving, moving again and finally settling into the new home last week.

My first entry is a new acquisition on two fronts. I present the last miniatures purchased by me, and they have been painted with some of the new paints received from the last Two Thin Coats Kickstarter, which I've finally been able to crack open.

The figures are Luke Cage (aka Power Man) and Iron Fist from the world of Marvel comics (and TV shows).  They are for the game Marvel Crisis: Protocol from Atomic Mass Games, and are 40 mm plastic figures. 

They are not characters that inspire me much, though they were lovely to paint. But my son loves Iron Fist, so the purchase was made without too much arm-twisting.

2 x 40 mm figures = 14 points

1 x Library location = 20 points

It is now Christmas Eve in the land of Oz, and I am off to consume lots of cracking Christmas food, then sink to the bottom of a pool if the weather holds. I hope everyone here has a brilliant Christmas and I look forward to seeing everyone else's new acquisitions over the next few weeks.

Cheers,

Steve

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Steve! Has it been nine of these already? My word. And we just keep getting younger and better looking! Who knew?! ;)

Lovely brushwork here. I really like the yellow on Luke's t-shirt, and the tattoo on Iron Fist is awesome (though his pose seems needlessly over the top and a bit tortured). Your little guy must be pretty stoked by this pair. 

Great supes, indeed. Bravo! Happy Christmas and I hope you get that dip in the pool.

- Curt

From StephenS: Technically they're aliens... [Sci-Fi] (63 points)

 G'day,

After hitching a ride to the Sci-Fi lot we stumble across some aliens that have possibly wondered in from the Super-Hero lot, though Captain America has declared that there is nothing super or heroic about them...

I have Thanos and Groot, most recently well-know for their stints in Marvel movies, and both are from planets that may be in galaxies far, far away if not necessarily a long time ago.

Thanos also came with part of a dead moon/asteroid as a throne, further bolstering his sci-fi credentials. Unfortunately, his face didn't photograph that well, possibly because my 3 year old assistant was offering to take a more hands-on approach with the handling of the mini's whilst also trying to climb onto my head.

I also offer up Captain America: Falcon, or Falcon: Captain America (or some other combo of the two characters). Also, a star of movies and a TV show, he is attempting to qualify through the fact he has a futuristic jet pack. But really, I just didn't think he deserved his own post.

All three miniatures are 40 mm plastics from Atomic Mass Games from their Marvel: Crisis Protocol game. The throne takes up roughly 30% of a 6 inch cube, so I have costed it at 6 points, but am open to higher or lower bids. All up, with the bonus, it should add up to 47 points.

Cheers,

Steve

Friday minion: Aha, more MCP! Nice work on these Stephen, very appropriate for the SciFi room. Thanos looks suitably threatening for a big bad, and Sam Wilson as Cap came out great, his bright, patriotic outfit and tactical explosion in particular. I really should build my Sam, and think about where to put him in the MCP queue. 

Also a whoopsie, I set a precedent of scoring She-Hulk at 15 points for a large 40mm model. As that was as recently as today I can't plead absent-mindedness, so am going to have to apply the same to the equally big Thanos and Groot. Forgive me, fellow Minions (though I am a sucker for MCP). Blame it inflation or something. 

Quids in, Stephen, you have 63 points!

From StephenS: Away She Hulks... [Lady Sarah's Limousine] (35 points)

G'day,

It has been a while between posts, but to speed me on my way I have stuck out a green thumb and hitched a ride in Lady Sarah's limousine. Hulking out plays havoc with the suspension, but it is what the fans on the lot expect.

I have She-Hulk, of comic book fame and the recent star of her own TV show, which I really enjoyed.

The figure is a plastic 40mm model from Atomic Mass Games and was fun to paint up. I stuck to the traditional purple and white costume.

Points are 7 for the model and 20 for the ride in the limo as we skip from 'Under Construction' all the way to the Sci-Fi lot.

Cheers,

Steve

Friday Minion: Nice work on She-Hulk in her purple and white workout gear here. I have amassed a sizeable Marvel Crisis Protocol collection myself, it's a fun game and good to see it appearing in the Challenge. We also quite enjoyed the She-Hulk show last summer, though the ending went a little leftfield, it was a fun Fleabag-esque reflection on superheroes, feminism and fame. 

I'm going to round the points up to a 40mm cavalry figure, as while she is 40mm scale, she's pretty sizeable when hulking out, about 60mm tall plus the girder, right?

Hope we'll see more of these!

From AlexK: Fantasy football and more superheros......and some traffic lights (91 points)

 I have been painting I promise, just not quick enough so it seems! Although it looks like I will fall short of my target this year it feels like it has been a very productive couple of months. My biggest problem has been painting very low points cost miniatures but taking quite a while to get them done (it's almost like I'm my own worst enemy sometimes), but with that said I've found real enjoyment with the figures I have painted and points total aside, this is just what I needed.

The biggest offenders in the low points time sink I find myself in are the Marvel Crisis Protocol miniatures. They are such nice figures it always seems a shame to rush them......so I haven't. For this post I give you some of the more recognisable characters from Marvel in Doctor Strange, Black Widow and Ultron. 

I also found time to do a spot of terrain painting, again for Marvel Crisis Protocol. Hopefully I will never have to paint anymore traffic lights ever again, for anything. Bright yellow can just get in the bin! Points wise I'd say it's a cube or there about.

Finally I have an attempt of mixing 2 of my hobbies, wargames and The NFL. This manifests itself in the form of Blood Bowl. So far I have the first 10 miniatures out of 12 painted. I'm hoping to have the rest done for the end of the challenge along with a few other pieces. These figures were really good fun to paint and it would seem rotten flesh is my ideal painting subject, which is slightly worrying.

So points wise I think I'm good for 10 x 28mm infantry, 3 x 40mm infantry and a couple of hand fulls of 40mm terrain, 71 points plus whatever the terrain is deemed to be worth? (I could do with it being worth about 305 points if that possible, hahaha).

Cheers,

AlexK

Wow! Two Black Widows in one day? And in opposing colour schemes! That's a great set of minis, Alex, and a great set of terrain. I'll go with a cube for the terrain, so that's 91 points for this submission!

Tamsin

From Phil: T’Challa’s Ambush at Caprica (27 Points)

We land at Caprica, where I’m back to my new Marvel Crisis Protocol project with another Avenger: T’Challa aka Black Panther. And one who got a way better film, a fun romp with some great afrofuturist design and in my view one of the best of the MCU.

I tried out a new method on the black, using a ‘chromatic black’ technique from mixing Liquitex artist’s inks to make a heavily pigmented black-purple and airbrushing over a zenithal base. I picked this up from the ‘NotJustMecha’ YouTube channel and wanted to give it a try. I thought the purple as a royal colour would be great for this King of Wakanda.

The detailing on the bodysuit was a bit soft, and something of a pain to pick out. It’s also my first real try at non-metallic metal, a choice I might regret if I keep it up over the range (looking at you, Ironman). 

That’s another 27 Points to my tally and I’ve nearly finished my trip around the Outer Ring. 

That's a great looking super, Phil. The airbrushed inks over zenithal priming is a handy technique and I think you've nailed it with this figure.

Tamsin

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!