Monthly Archives: April 2024

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Iron Fist

by

22

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Iron Fist

Slightly longer than a little while ago, I read the post over on Argentbadger’s blog, The Bovine Overlord featuring his completed Crisis Protocol model of Iron Fist. In much the same way as I followed Argentbadger after seeing his Luke Cage with my own, I’ve also followed his Iron Fist with my version of the model – with of course the requisite several months to get my model painted. (Yes, this model was started in 2023!)

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Iron Fist

I’m honestly not a huge fan of this model. It has that typical overdesigned look that so many of the Crisis Protocol models have, with a convoluted pose flipping over things while in this case connected to the bases with a flimsy and thin piece of weak HIPS plastic “spell effect”.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Iron Fist

Because of this – and the fact that I decided to magnetise the bases of my Crisis Protocol models – because what foam figure case could store these things? – I embedded some debris into his base which serves as a handy-dandy handle to pick the figure up with.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Iron Fist

It’s a little unseemly – and it definitely messes up his cool “Dragon Punch” profile – but with a model this ridiculously fragile, I felt I needed a solution to not have the magnets that save the figure from disintegrating in a foam case just end up causing him to snap in half instead… oh, and I know that fire doesn’t work in the way that the Dragon Punch is painted – it’s magic, okay?

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Iron Fist

Fun Factoid! Until very recently, (basically, when the Netflix show and publicity articles came out) I had always assumed that Iron Fist/Danny Rand was of Asian descent. I mean, Bruce Lee and all, right? Power Man and Iron Fist – A black guy and an Asian guy teaming up to kick arse – it all made sense to me as a kid, and since I never followed the comic and it made sense to me then, I never questioned it after that.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Luke Cage, Power Man and Iron Fist

To be honest, I was a little disappointed to see Iron Fist as just another white guy – probably because I’d always assumed the opposite.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Luke Cage, Power Man and Iron Fist

Anyway – here they are – completed! Together again for the first time in my own collection.

Zombicide Black Plague: Murder of Crowz – Part 2.

by

22

Zombicide Black Plague: Murder of Crowz

As I noted in my last Zombicide Crowz-related post a couple of weeks ago, right after finising the photos of them, I found another box of the same models – the Black Plague versions with the appropriate cards for that game.

Zombicide Black Plague: Murder of Crowz

The next thing to do at that point was to knuckle down and grind through this second box of the models. The thing was, that I was retrospectively not that satisfied with the original “fantasy” Crowz I’d painted a year ago in January 2023 – or more precisely with the basing. You see, Zombicide Black Plague takes place in streets and buildings, much like the modern incanation of the game. 

Zombicide Black Plague: Murder of Crowz

Sure, they’re medieval fantasy buildings and streets, but streets nonetheless. But how could I reflect this while still leaving the models looking approriate for other fantasy gaming and more importantly, be reasonably doable? By adding some cracked and broken tiles, with a bit of dry grass to tie them in with the original five of these.

The idea being to give the bases a feel that works for decaying fantasy streets as well as for a “Fantasy Battles” setting. So I used some plastruct tiled card along with some AK Interactive mud to experiment with them, and it seems to have worked out okay. The tiles are WAY too thick for this strategy to work on the human zombies, so I’ll have to figure something else out for them down the road. But for the Crowz at least (and probably, the Wolfz) this solution works.

Zombicide 1st Edition: Murder of Crowz

Since I (think?) I “stole” 5 “Modern” Crowz from another box of them to paint as those first five fantasy-themed ones, I painted five of these as “modern zombicide” ones. I even briefly considered adding road line markings to the bases of these – and it would have made them look better for the modern genre, but then with some reflection I decided that the gritty, dirty grey still works pretty well for a fantasy setting – so these will work just fine for Fantasy Zombicide in the event that we need extras in a game of Black Plague/Green Horde/White Death/Pink Marshmallow.

Zombicide 1st Edition Balck Plague: Murder of Crowz

I also thought that now with 35 painted Crowz between the two sets of models, I should get a couple of group shots in tribute the the Master of Suspense himself, P̶a̶u̶l̶ H̶e̶y̶m̶a̶n̶ Alfred Hitchcock and that film he made…

I finished this second batch of 15 Crow models early in the month, despite only getting to post them now. On the weekend, Marouda and I were in the shed, playing some Marvel Zombicide and discussing our boardgame collection (and what I need to paint!) afterwards, and what did I find on the shelf, unopened?

Oh no…. another set?