Marvel Zombies: Heroes’ Resistance – Painted Core Set

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Core Set

Following up on the post I made last week about the core set of Marvel United that I painted up for a good cause (I’m so nice!) – here’s the other board game set that I painted during the same period of a couple of weekends for the same group of young people.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk

As you’d no doubt be able to discern from the post’s title, this one is Marvel Zombies: Heroes’ Resistance. The game is essentially a cut-down version of the Semi-released Marvel Zombies (the first core set is out, the rest of the Kickstarter including the second core set is still in production and apparently heading to transit for fulfilment shortly).

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk

In Heroes’ Resistance, the game comes with 4 of the double-sided Zombicide street tiles rather than the 9 that the core box(es) release with. It also comes with 6 Heroes and 4 Zombie Heroes in pre-assembled miniature form compared to the 6 and 6 that the core sets come with.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Zombie Captain America and Zombie Iron Man

And of course the plastic Zombies are replaced with cardboard standees. All this allows the game to be sold at a much cheaper price point in more retail outlets. The other thing that helps a lot with that is that in this version of the game you play as the living Heroes, fighting zombies as well as the zombified Heroes – so essentially using the “Hero Mode” rules that will be featured in the X-Men Core box whenever it arrives from the KS fulfilment.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Zombie Captain America and Zombie Iron Man

As a nice little final touch, the game is fully compatable with the “big boy” versions of both Core Sets, and the models in Heroes’ Resistance are alternative sculpts. I’m not sure if they have alternate rules cards as well. I’ll have to check, since Spidey and Black Panther are both doubled-up from the Heroes Resistance box and the first, more Avengers/MCU-themed Core Set.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted T'Challa Black Panther and The Wasp

Once again, in order to get all of these models painted in a reasonable amount of time I used a bunch of time-saving techniques – zenithal sprays, contrast paints, washes and drybrushing as seen on T’Challa here (and purple highlights – thanks Faust!)

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted T'Challa Black Panther and The Wasp

I still picked out many of the small details – those are what draw the eye after all.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Zombie Doctor Stephen Strange and Zombie Wanda Scarlet Witch

As with the Marvel United models, if we were to ask if the models are perfect, the answer would still be – No. No, they’re not. Are there small “errors” – or at least places where I “could have done better”? of course – again, they’re all covered in them. But they’re minor, and things that bother me a little – like Zombicide Hulk’s skin not turning out as well as the Marvel United Hulk’s skin (I painted this one first) aren’t going to bother other people, let alone the young people that will be playing with these.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Zombie Doctor Stephen Strange and Zombie Wanda Scarlet Witch

And once again… are they finished? Do they look better than my own sets which are still unpainted plastic? Well, clearly the answer is still a resounding yes to both. D’oh! I need to work on getting a few more games finished

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Winter Soldier and Vision

Much more importantly – are the kids going to like them? Well, yeah – when I brought the models in last week and they had a look at the figures they were quite happy and impressed. Details I’d picked out or emphasised like character eyes and Wanda’s exposed ribcage were noticed, as was the mess on Cap’s shield.

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Winter Soldier and Vision

After that, I ran a game of Marvel United which went down pretty well. We might go with Zombies in the next session, bit it depends on who’s there on the day and what they prefer…

Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance - Painted Core Set

And another set complete! Now to work on some more of my own…

Marvel United: Painted Core Set

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, Red Skull, Ultron, Taskmaster, Ant-Man, The Wasp, Captain Marvel, Iron Man

I typically don’t overshare on this blog. At least I try not to. A big part of my job is managing the IT for a medium sized workplace but (almost) every week I also spend some time working with some young people at a local school. This group of young people all have an ID, many with ASD as well as various other diagnoses. One of the things I do when I’m there is run a boardgame session with one of the teachers there one afternoon each week. The idea is to encourage other kinds of gaming and social interaction to the usual ones of holding a game controller or a football. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things, but there arre also a lot of other worthwhile ways to interact socially.

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man

As part of this, I’ve facilitated the purchase of a small stack of engaging and accessable boardgames & tabletop games to supplement some of the usual, typical stuff that they have there. (Monopoly, Uno, Snakes & Ladders, etc). Things like Top Trumps, Zombicide, Zombie Dice, Risk.. a few others – and, as you can see here – Marvel United. A little more interesting than Monopoly…

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man

Over time, I’ve noticed a few of the students taking a long look at the details in some of the models. One of them really taking a long look at the individual Zombie Walkers from Zombicide and noting “oh, this guy’s a firefighter – cool” and another really looking carefully at the different Marvel United characters during a game I was running.

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Black Widow, Captain Marvel

And then a couple of weeks ago, I had a close look at my own Marvel Zombies Hulk. I usually give plastic models a light spray of white primer before cleaning the mold lines since it makes them stand out a little more, and so cleanup becomes a touch easier. I noticed how the particular spray I’d given my Hulk really made his well-sculpted musculature stand out..

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Black Widow, Captain Marvel

Over about a week, an idea seeped into my brain. Now, you guys know that while I do get a lot of stuff painted, it also can take me forever to get sets of models painted. I’ve barely touched my own Marvel United set. But what if… I relaxed my own standards a little in order to get them painted fast and then utilised Zenithal Spraying and Contrast-Style Paints to give a “Slap Chop”-ish  style a go?

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Ant-Man, The Wasp

I mean, the kids aren’t going to be super harsh critics. Not nearly what I would be to myself for my own models. (outside of trash like those D&D models!) And of course, I knew I could learn something about these techniques that I’ve never really used beyond lip service as well.

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Ant-Man, The Wasp

So… I did just that. I took two sets of models home with me, and over the course of the past two weekends I’ve (somehow) managed to paint everything from two of the (smaller model count) boardgames. In the end I also ended up drybrushing and washing and doing the odd bit of blending and fine detail as well where the models needed it… but I still got them done on a pretty tight timeline – even if it did take up most of my time on these two weekends(!)

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Red Skull, Ultron, Taskmaster

Are the models perfect? No. No, they’re not. Are there small “errors” – or at least places where I “could have done better”? of course – they’re all covered in them.

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Red Skull, Ultron, Taskmaster

But… are they finished? Do they look better than my own sets which are still unpainted plastic? Well, clearly the answer is a resounding yes to both.

Marvel United Painted Core Set. Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, Red Skull, Ultron, Taskmaster, Ant-Man, The Wasp, Captain Marvel, Iron Man

Much more importantly – are the kids going to like them?

Well, they haven’t actually seen them yet. But I think they’ll go down pretty well…