Category Archives: Board Games

Marvel United: Groot

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CMON, Spin Master Games, Marvel United: Groot Miniature

Something a bit different today – The Groot model from the CMoN/Spin Master Games Card/Board Game “Marvel United”. I skipped the first Kickstarter for this entirely since the game didn’t look very appealing, and I’m not especially a fan of Chibis or things like Funko Pops. Fast forward a couple of years and I saw people on a bargain forum’s game section discussing the original core game being on Amazon for a sing, and discussing how the second Kickstarter still had a pladge manager open that also allowed new backsers to get ALL of the previous stuff. I picked up the cheap game, we played it a few times and really enjoyed it – to the extent of going all-in on that second KS campaign including the first campaign’s stuff as well.

CMON, Spin Master Games, Marvel United: Groot Miniature

Unlike all too many of my (and probably your) gaming purchases, we ended up playing the game pretty frequently since then, as it’s an easy but tactical little game that I would recommend to others. Since I keep trying to encourage Marouda to do some painting, she eventually agreed to paint some of these as she felt that they looked easier to do. With some coaching, Marouda ended up painting a bunch of the basic parts of this model before I went over it for the final touches and details and effects. The plan was to also paint Rocket and post them up together, but it didn’t work out like that in April, so now we have a late-coming Groot for today’s post instead!

Cthulhu: Death May Die – Mary Diaz & Elizabeth Ives

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Cthulhu: Death May Die Miniatures - Mary Diaz, Elizabeth Ives, Cthulhu Investigators

Today we have May’s (first?) pair of Death May Die investigators. First up, hailing from Caracas, Venezuela, Mary Diaz. (Think about that name for a moment or two… there’s something about it…)

Our second investigator comes from London, England, the Flapper, Elizabeth Ives. I wonder why Flappers haven’t made a comeback in the 2020’s? With piercings and tattoos and plugs, of course – I guess there’s still time… Speaking of time, I have no particular artwork or sculpt complaints about Mary, though Elizabeth is a different story…

Cthulhu: Death May Die Miniatures - Mary Diaz, Elizabeth Ives, Cthulhu Investigators

For Mary I wanted to try a “light olive” complexion, as befitting both the artwork and her Latina heritage as well as the link to her clear inspiration making me go lighter. Along with that, the art suggested dark blonde hair, so I started from a darker base than usual. Her red dress has orangey highlights in the art, so again I tried to emulate those on the model.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Miniatures - Mary Diaz, Elizabeth Ives, Cthulhu Investigators

Elizabeth’s art is generally fine, though the colour choices (bright yellow with blue and green!) aren’t exactly what I’d have chosen. Still, with all but one of these models (to come sometime later) I do intend to stick with the artwork reasonably closely. No, the problem with Elizabeth was with the digital sculpting – her pearl necklace & bracelet as well as her facial details were clearly sculpted with an artists’ PC screen and large renders in mind rather than an end-painter – so they suffer from being very fine and shallow. I mean – I like to do a good job on these, but I’m no Angel Giraldez, nor am I willing to invest hours into detailing the pearls on this model.

Still, I’m happy enough with the end result – not sure what that dot on Elizabeth’s dress is – I’m just seeing it for the first time now, so I’ll go and check it out a bit later – hopefully it’s just a bit of fluff stuck to the model (along with that hair!) 😮