More of that Sweet, Sweet Marvel

After a through tidy of my hobby space, including putting down squishy floor tiles so it’s easier to find dropped pieces than on carpet, I found the proper head for Toad and Mel’s noggin is once again a free agent (though his mouth is a bit bigger than it was before).

So I couldn’t get the Saturday morning theme song out of my head and I ordered the X-Men. Figured it’ll be a nice treat for finishing out teaching the semester—once we get there. However, when I went to put Toad together I couldn’t find his head. Not to be deterred I said “Self, what extra heads do you have kicking about?” I replied “The first thing that comes to mind is the that the Terrain Tutor Mel mini that came with his book had two alternate heads.” So that’s what I went with.

I feel a bit awkward about it since it’s not the most glamorous model for Mel to portray. However, now I’m in a bind because if/when I do a proper tidy and find Toad’s head I’d have to decapitate Mel if I go back to the original head. Meanwhile, it gave me a smile so that’s something.

Once i saw that the wings were clear acrylic I decided not to paint them. I figured the texture and color difference would be nice and that clear wings would be perfect. I guess I’m in the minority since it looks like everyone else is painting them. I really like my final result. I just left them on the sprue (so they didn’t wander off) until everything else was painted up. This, of course, had the added benefit of making painting the rest considerably easier. Then, after a layer of matte varnish, I glued them in and brush primed, painted, and varnished the nubbin in the center.
This concludes the current batch that I have. I do have Miles Morales and Spider Gwen coming sometime in January. That may be the extent of my CP purchases for a bit. I will get the X-Men at some point, of course. Who could resist? However, I have a bunch of other things to paint (I’m looking at you Relic Blades, Rising Sun, Guildball, Infinity…) and I really do have A) many of my favorite characters, B) more than enough minis to field a wide variety of squads.
Side note about painting yellow: it used to be a real bugbear until I tried some Montana paints. They’re meant for ink pens but you can get the refills and they are full of pigment, work great in an airbrush and work well with a brush, though you have to avoid using them on large flat surfaces as they crack. There are four colors (an orangish brown, an orange, a bright yellow, and a pale yellow) that I use for yellow and there’s not of the need for multiple coats that so many yellows exhibit.

He was pretty straight forward to paint once I decided on what sections should be red. He was, however, a beast to assemble. You’ll notice his regular size form is missing a belt. That’s because the instructions tell you to put it on after you’ve stuck his legs to his torso. There’s a small gap, made smaller by my not getting his pose quite right (see his fist off the ground?) that the belt piece has to slot into and mine wouldn’t fit. In the process of trying to force it in it went flying, never to be seen again.
Long story short: I’d recommend putting the belt on before you glue his torso and legs together.

If I was any good with an airbrush the smoke plume would have been quick work. Instead I made an evening out of it with a brush.

I also made the purple a lot harder than it needed to be. My brain processes highlights much more easily than shadows so I started with a very dark purple and worked to highlight it up and it took forever to see any noticeable progress. Eventually, I pretty much threw a new basecoat of a bright/pale purple on and then darkened down the shadows and that was much quicker. I guess shadows are the new technique I get to work on for the near future.

Overall, a really neat sculpt. Definitely captures the essence of Green Goblin. He went together quite quickly once I figured out that one of his pumpkins had already been thrown.

These were really fun to paint. I was particularly pleased with how Wong came out. He went from someone I wasn’t too interested in to someone I’m looking forward to seeing on the table.
I spent a stupid amount of time faffing about with Strange’s rings. Taught me I’m rubbish at detail work with the airbrush so I pretty much started from scratch and did them up with a brush.

Next on the docket: Strange, Wong, Goblin, AntMan, and Wasp. I’ve had them for a hot minute but I’ve been busy elsewhere.
Figured I ought to get these done before I dive into the X-Men.
PSA: for normal sized AntMan do not follow the instructions. Put his belt on before you attach his torso to his legs.

So…I’m not sure how metallic this looks. I’m probably too chicken to make the highlights as extreme as they should be. I think it looks decent in this cartoony setting but any suggestions for future improvement on this or other NMM projects are welcome. If he wasn’t so pricey I’d get a second, paint that one up with metallics and use it as a reference.

All Vallejo (excepting Agrax)

1. base with  72.153 Heavy Brown
2. wash with Agrax Earthsade
3. highlight back up with 72.153
4. highlight with 50% 72.153, 50% 72.151 Heavy Gold Brown
5. highlight with 72.151
6. highlight 50% 72.151 and 50% 72.001 Dead White
7. final edges with 72.001

After it all I ended up putting a thin wash of 72.151 over much of it, particularly the pure white. You can see the progression from 3-7 here. Step two is shown in the previous (in process) post.

This concludes what I have on hand so it’s time to take a break from painting CP for a bit. Maybe I’ll get stuck back in to Infinity. I certainly have plenty more to do there.