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So I guess this is a Hobby Streak post, but it’s about an entire game–a game that I’ve become obsessed with lately. Marvel Crisis Protocol.
There are a lot of reasons why I love this game, and the first is that the gameplay is really good. This isn’t the biggest reason why I love Marvel Crisis Protocol, but it’s a big selling point. The game feels very true to Marvel and superheroes with superpowers, in a way that Heroclix never did for me. (Heroclix suffered, I think, from trying to unify all the powers, making them generic instead of specific. I do not deny that Heroclix did a lot of things right, and that they get extra points for just having an ENORMOUS cast of characters, but the game never clicked for me, pun intended.)
Honestly? The reason that I’m gravitating toward Marvel Crisis Protocol is because my hands are getting too shaky to paint anything too incredibly detailed, and I like the 40mm figures. This is also a reason why I have recently picked up and will soon be talking about Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings. I like the bigger models. (In Warhammer this plays out with me painting a lot of Space Marines because they’re just bigger with fewer details.)
That said, I didn’t get the hang of painting Marvel Crisis Protocol characters at first. These models below are all from the Starter Set–a great set–and you can tell that I struggled a lot with some of them. Doctor Octopus in particular is really bad. I hadn’t figured out how to paint in a comic book style.
As you can see, there’s a big lack of definition everywhere on him. He was my first Marvel Crisis Protocol character I didn’t have any idea how to paint him with my standard basecoat, wash, highlight method.
Black Widow went a little better because I wasn’t really trying to do any texture. It was all basic and straightforward. Hardly a masterpiece, but better than Doc Ock.
Now Steve Rogers actually got a dose of a wash (I can’t remember which one) because I was thinking that his costume lends itself toward kind of a dirty look, and I didn’t really achieve that. Still pleased with him, but meh.
And honestly? Captain Marven is where I gave up on painting these guys and they went unpainted for a very long time. In fact, the rest of the Starter Set I let my 12 year old paint because I just wasn’t feeling it.
Now, I’m not saying that I’m suddenly amazing at painting Marvel Crisis Protocol characters. I’m not. I still have shaky hands and I struggle with painting details. And, truthfully, I still have to beat the Agrax Earthshade mentality out of me. Marvel Crisis Protocol characters do not take to a wash very well. I did attempt using Tamiya Panel Liner on one model, but the details are not crisp enough for the panel lining to work.
You can see the evidence of the Tamiya Panel Liner. His crevices just aren’t deep enough for that. I very nearly gave up a second time.
But that’s what’s needed on Marvel characters: black lines that outline every surface. I found the solution with basecoating everything in black and then drybrushing the colors up. I did this on virtually every character, everywhere I could try it.
Now the Hulkbiuster is the first one I painted that I am genuinely proud of. And, to be fair, a lot of that is probably because he’s big and my shaky hands have an easier time with big. But I like him. And the drybrushing worked.
Hot off the heels of the Hulkbuster, I jumped into another red Marvel Crisis Protocol character and painted him in the exact same way, except I think used a fine-tipped brush to trace all his little gray veiny things. I like him.
But then Mysterio was the one who sold me. I did the same drybrushing with first dark green then light green then barely a wisp of yellow. I did use some Casandora Yellow wash on the smoke, but the rest of him was drybrushed and I REALLY love him.
In a similar vein, I did Doctor Strange, and I like him too, though now that I have a big picture of him what is wrong with his face? Anyway, pretty happy, especially with the portal in the ground.
This is Clea, a character I do not know but she came with Doctor Strange. I didn’t spend a ton of time on her, but still mostly happy.
This is Omega Red, a villain I also didn’t know, but I like him a lot. I especially like that you can see he has obvious similarities with Doctor Octopus, but I actually really love this one and hate that one. Redemption!
The drybrushing really worked in my favor here–not perfectly, but partly. I wanted the web pattern on the suit to stand out, so a gentle build up of red onto the suit left black in the creases. Pretty pleased.
One of the nice things about painting armor is that it’s pretty easy to make it look good. It’s worth noting that there’s not a drop of Nuln Oil on War Machine–it’s all the drybrush up from black.
This is one that I’m NOT happy about. Shaky hands were once again in full force, and he just didn’t come together.
I’m not even sure if Rescue is available from Marvel Crisis Protocol, but this is the Iron Man suit that came with the Hulkbuster, and I already had one Iron Man. So I painted her purple.
And finally pretty happy with Storm. I could do more on her face now that I look at it. We’ll see if I do.
And that’s my current Marvel Crisis Protocol characters collection. I am antsy to get more. One thing that you may notice from looking at this roster is that I didn’t pay the least amount of attention to the Marvel Crisis Protocol Affiliates List. None of these guys make up much of an allied team, except maybe Avengers. I want to start building some Affiliations.
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