Painting Update - More Asgardians

Howdy everyone,

First painting post of the new year and brings me to the last Asgardian figures that I had waiting to be painted from Marvel Crisis Protocol. I recently finished Skurge and Heimdall in December and I have just finished up Thor and Valkyrie. I was lucky enough to have another excellent Sorastro video to refer to for painting Thor. For Valkyrie, I referred to some google search images and the box art that Atomic Mass Games had drawn up for this expansion.

The most consistent thing that I can say about these Asgardian's is that they have certainly pushed my comfort zone with non metal metallic techniques. Thanos was very challenging for me, but almost each Asgardian is sporting some sort of armour or weapon that screams NMM, and these two were no different. Thor also added an additional opportunity and challenge with object source lighting depending on how one wanted to go with the hammer. 

Sorastro's Painting - Thor

I elected to follow Sorastro's video fairly closely to push myself to try these elements out...and I'm happy with the outcome (although my pics seemed to have blurred or muted the overall effect - another thing to learn more about I guess), and Valkyrie was a lot of fun as well as I went fairly free with the model, not stressing over any specific paint scheme or pattern. In the end, like I said, I followed the box art as I liked that look the most.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Thor and Valkyrie

...as I said, my camera seems to have muted the object source lighting affects of the hammer, I promise, they do look much better in person. I had actually done them with the intention of them popping on the right arm. They are fairly bright in some places.

I had some sort of reaction with my dullcote spray and it left this white film over sections of Thor's cape. I have since gone back and repainted these portions of the cape to cover up the film.

Trying to get the right NMM on her swords proved to be rather challenging and admittedly I think I may have 'whited out' the reflection along the main edge. The swords were rather difficult as there were multiple edges for highlights...took a few tries, in the end I stuck with the version I liked the most. But definitely more to learn for me.

The whole Asgardian crew...looking forward to getting all of them on the table at once.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         0    

28mm+       2

Terrain        1

  

Bought        0

Progress   +2

New Year, new Game[ing] Plan

Hello folks,

Yup, it is a little belated but here goes, Happy New Year to one and all, I hope that everyone is having a great start to the year. I’m guessing that most are managing some cold temps and pending snow storms. Good luck all around!

So as seems rather obligatory, January is the time to take stock and plan forward. 

My plan for the year started out fairly robust…suffered some impact from real life items and slightly derailed as the year went by and focus changed. Some of the derailment was certainly not unwelcome, and led me in a few different directions and towards some unanticipated gaming areas. So, here we go, the plan versus the result (in red)…and how the next year looks right now (in blue):

1. I want to get moving…somewhat slowly with Afropia. I have the bones of a mash up between Petoriastan and Aponwana. And it gives me the chance to try a few different game types, as well as some game mechanics that I’ve been checking out. So I am actually getting exciting with the idea…again. This has been a very slow burn. I have some initial milestones for the framework of a proper campaign, but I’m missing some strategic nuances and am trying to translate some concepts into game process. I toyed around with Chat to help me out or at least give me some initial thoughts. Much more to come, I did take time this past year to paint up some Petoriastan military circa 1940’s/1950’s using some Battlefront WW2 US boxes, they will let me bring in my US paras and I can square them off against some Soviet equipped Aponwana’s - inspired by post-WW2 Soviet foreign policies.

2. Stemming from my 15mm US Parachute Company painting…I want to get a similar number of German infantry on the table, mix of basing for FoW and FoF, so that I can run a game at CanGames this year. I think it will be a FoF game, with Market Garden as the inspiration. More to follow on that. So, this was 50%+ successful. I was able to paint up 2 understrength Grenadier platoons electing to base them for Force on Force instead of FoW. I was not able to get a table running at CanGames this year, real life got in the way, but was happy with the progress. I have a scenario in mind for when I revisit this and am thinking that it might be time to revisit Operation Market Garden and the Firestorm campaign. 

3. Recycle some of the ideas about Red/Northern Dawn and get some Cdn Abn painted, as well as the framework of some scenarios and some small town Alberta terrain done. I was not able to get any progress on this stream. But I have a scenario in mind potentially for CanGames that would let me get some of these models on the table and help me get back into Red Dawn and Team Yankee - so thinking of a platoon level scenario using FoF. I’m still thinking of some Northern Dawn terrain and campaign, so more to follow and hopefully progress with.

4. Misc…SW Legion of course, MCP as well…and whatever floats the ole boat. Of course, I think it’s time I did a big clean of the basement area and get an appreciation for what I actually have and thin some of the not so achievable. More to follow on that one, lol. Okay, so this was a bit of a general shotgun goal, touching a few elements. I did a big clean of my miniatures area, got rid of some excess build up, aligned what I kept to themes of interest and potential scenarios in mind. My storage is definitely in order. I got some Marvel games in this year, did not look at Star Wars at all, but managed to also get some Marvel characters painted up…I have a few more to get through before I finish all of the Marvel that I have. So they will be part of this years painting goals.

Part of the plan for the next year: I am working on getting the 02 Hundred start box finished, as well as make up some terrain that will work and allow me to get table or 2 for the game.

So, here is to the next year.

Take care folk.

Last Painting Update of 2025 - horde of Battlefront Minis

Happy pending New Year everyone,

I wasn't sure that I would get this last post of the year in or not...I don't really have a posting plan or anything like that so it is very much "take it as it goes". With that in mind, I did want to throw a few more pics into the internets. These are a smattering of boxes that I picked up some time ago at an excellent discount and thought they would be perfect for my future Afropian campaign in the role of Petoriastan Defence Force (PDF) ala 1950’s and 60’s.

The jeeps, I elected to paint them up as local police and/or military police. I ended up hand painting some tactical symbols and recognition markings (bit more in those later). Overall, I figure that if I keep up with the PDF theme and get enough units I could then set them up even earlier…maybe mid ww2 or somesuch.

Anyhow, a quick post for your end-year. Take care all!

Painted

1/200               4 

15mm          130, +45    

28mm+          38

Terrain           1

  

Bought        42

Progress   +131

Painting Update - More Asgardians - Heimdall and Skurge

Howdy folks,

I think this is probably my last post for the year…maybe…and thought I’d post two more Asgardian warriors from Marvel Crisis Protocols. I’ve had this pack on the table for some time, and again I had another great Sorastro video to refer to. His Heimdall video is excellent! Unfortunately, I was left to my own vices for Skurge, lol.

Anywho, the biggest challenge for me has got to be doing this painting with no metallics. I’m enjoying the challenge, and I think it is upping my painting game…but I still have a lot to learn and work on. With that, the non-metal metallic work is fun but boy it sure tested me with these two figures. I think for Heimdall I revisited his armour about 3 times, and Skurge’s axe took me 4 tries to get to a point I could live with.

The bifrost elements that come with Heimdall really set the scene and using Sorastro’s guide, they gave me another opportunity to try out Citadel’s contrast paints. They come in some great colours but can be a little finicky in terms of coverage and wearing off or transfer from the model to skin or back to the brush.

I leaned pretty heavy on the artwork that came with the pack and some comic book shots I was able to find on Google to sort out Skurge. I thought the box art was too bright, so I wanted to see a few other examples. In the end, I settled on a toned down version from the box art and a couple of google images.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          85    

28mm+        38, +2

Terrain           1

  

Bought        42

Progress   +86

Painting Update - US Airborne Artillery

Howdy everyone,

Here's hoping that the Winter season is finding you warm and well. We have a fairly decent amount of snow on the ground...not the most we've ever had, but certainly the best start to a Winter in some time. In this case, we had some wild temperature variations leading into November, but once Winter decided to show up it has been here to stay. We even had some -20 and more temps that we don't normally see until late-December or mid-January.

Anywho, I recently finished up the Battlefront US Parachute 75mm Artillery Battery. To be honest, I had started this box last year when I was pushing through my US paras, and I finished one of the guns and left the other 3 on the table. Well, a bunch of months later and I got around to finishing this battery in its entirety.

I think they'll find a home in WW2 and some post settings...maybe the Afropian frontier beckons?

I hope you enjoy the pics (only a few this time).

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          85, +20    

28mm+        36

Terrain           1

  

Bought        42

Progress   +84

Marvel CP - Battle Report

Hello all,

I recently had the chance to get together with Mike and Duncan for some long overdue gaming...and surprise surprise, Marvel Crisis Protocol was the popular choice. We went with our pretty standard layout and scenario for the game...we did switch randomly lay down terrain and what not.

If I remember correctly, Mike was rocking his Sentinel, Colossus, Juggernaut, and a couple of others...I think he had used a few of them at some point before; Duncan hit us again with Malekith and his big kitty, and I think the Russian Doc Octopus (some dude with tentacles), Winter Soldier, and I think Sabretooth. This game gave me the chance to bring in Mr. Reliable...or I should say Doctor "Reliable" Octopus, as well as Hela & Loki, Vision, and Crossbones.

All in all, a fun game was had...

Initial setup...I am at the bottom of the pic, Duncan on my mid-left, and Mike on my upper-right.

Malekith and his big damned kitty. The Winter Soldier is hanging out in their shadow and Sabretooth and Tentacle guy are just south of the yellow taxi car.

Mike and his guys...with a big damned Sentinel looking over everyone.

The "good" guys...or at least partial (okay, maybe only 1 of them) good guys.

The action started to pick up fairly quickly...Doc Octopus squares of against his less-tentacled adversary, and I think he hit him for 4-5 healthpoints with a laser tentacle attack. Crossbones sauntered in and holds one of the portal locations (there are 3 total...I think).

Overview of initial moves...I am moving up slowly with the crew. I have a portal in my control, Vision has a shard or stone, and Hela, Loki, and Doc Oc are in good positions to support next moves.

Doc Oc put the hurt on him, but I think Hela swooped in and knocked down Duncan's tentacle dude. In this case, whenever a figure is KO'd or taken out of the game, Hela would gain a "soul" token that let her add additional dice to attack or defence (she could only have a max of 3 souls at any time). It was a nice touch for this spicy gal.

Duncan moves Malekith in to mess with Mike's Sentinel...some big CGI action went down.

I kept pushing forward with Vision and I may have taken some shots at Juggernaut...Mystere...Mystique...or something like that came out of the right and started to stir up things. Because I had Loki where I did, almost everyone had to pay extra power to make actions take place, he was such a mischievous character.

So I can't remember who did what...but by the end of this turn, we have less-tentacle dude, Juggernaut, Mystique, and Sabretooth KO'ed...Hela was very happy.

Next turn, everyone pops up and we start it all again.

Either Vision or Colossus put the hurt to Winter Soldier...

The chaos continues as Loki KO's Colossus...

...and it starts again...

By the end, we had almost all of Duncan's team were down and out...I think it was a matter of him being stuck between Mike and I, so it was pretty convenient for us to take on his guys. Mike had lost one or maybe two, and I had a couple of characters KO'ed but everyone was still standing at the end.

The crew: Crossbones did a great job of holding the portal, he missed out on all the action; Loki & Hela were very fun...Hela got her soulfood so she was happy, and Doc Frickin Oc was the star of the show. Dr. Reliable struck again.