Psyber's Marvel United Thread

[psyberwyche]

In a dazzling display of "I'm getting old", I thought I'd already started a thread of my Marvel United minis, but apparently not! 

So, like many folks, I got a bit carried away with the Marvel United kickstarter from CMON a couple of years ago. Then I... erm... got carried away again last year with the X-Men edition. And now I have more chibi Marvel miniatures in the loft than I know what to do with.

I was on the fence about whether to paint them or not, simply because I'm not a fan of chibi-style models at all, and there are soooo many of them! But after a few games I decided it's actually really fun, and these little guys started to grow on me. and so I embarked on what has become a slow, sloooowwww painting adventure.

Why? Because I couldn't bring myself to paint these models in the traditional way. I was determined to master the cartoon style that the Big Child painting studio use on the packaging photos. So I spent hours watching their videos on YouTube, and studying the photos super-zoomed-in, and finally had a crack at Captain America.



This was my first mini in this style, and it took me hours upon hours. My airbrush skills are poor, so I relied wholly on brushed glazes and blends. I'd never used non-metallic metal before (although granted this is deliberately a simplified 'comic art' version), nor had I ever used a wet palette, or really used wet blending and soft-shade glazing, so the whole thing was really an exercise in pushing my painting skills. Bearing in mind I've been painting the same way for about 27 years, and my eyes aren't what they used to be, this was quite the challenge!

Here's the shield. Fun fact: I've now painted three Captain America shiny shields (Knight Models, Atomic Mass, and now CMON), and hated it every time    This is my favourite of the three though. Practive makes perfect I guess!



Anyway, I'll sort out my photographs, and keep this thread as a project log if people are interested. Anyone who's seen my epic Warhammer Quest thread https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=80100.0 will know that I don't do anything fast, but I persevere! 

[psyberwyche]

Sam and Bucky (I appear to have started with a Winter Soldier movie theme...)



Falcon close-up:



Winter Soldier close-up:

[aircav]

Superb work 
I look forward to seeing the rest 

[psyberwyche]

Continuing the theme, my Civil War guys need a baddie. Here's Zemo!

[Agis]

Great job on these!

I am totally with you, not a chibi style fan, but the game is rather nice...

[psyberwyche]

I am totally with you, not a chibi style fan, but the game is rather nice...

Yeah, it's a really clever bit of game design. So simple and easy to learn, but with huge amounts of variety in play built in. Amazing the difference it makes by swapping out the villain, or a couple of heroes, or even changing up the locations. I also totally caved and bought in the new kickstarter, so that'll be another hundred or so figures to add to the plastic pile 

Anyhow, here's Black Widow to continue my loose Civil War theme.

[psyberwyche]

The first heavy hitter I painted. Annoyingly, Hulk is a bit underwhelming in gameplay terms, but I quite like his cutesy model. HULK NO SMASH. HULK CUDDLE! 

[Bloggard]

well I dunno, if these figures are supposed to show you 'learning' new painting skills (and tricky ones at that, to say the least) - I'd have to say that you're a very good study indeed.

they look fantastic to me.

[psyberwyche]

well I dunno, if these figures are supposed to show you 'learning' new painting skills (and tricky ones at that, to say the least) - I'd have to say that you're a very good study indeed.

they look fantastic to me.

Cheers, I'm pretty pleased with them. I knew my way around a brush to start with, but I spent almost thirty years painting the traditional "Base/Shade/Layer" way. This is the first time I've ever tried true wet blending, glazed highlights, painted-on light and shadows, and non-metallic metal. I didn't even own a wet palette before I started this project, and now I wouldn't be without it. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks 

[psyberwyche]

My favourite of the bunch so far: Kingpin!



On the flipside, this model does show the limitations of this painting style. Those strong shadows painted over white means there's only one good angle for the model. One side and most of the back is actually a dark blue-grey. I find that tricky to get my head around tbh

[psyberwyche]

Next up: Red Skull.

[leonmallett]

They all look awesome! Kudos.

[Bloggard]

[ok: 'necro-thread' warning.
I'll delete my 'rant' about that, but this thread doesn't seem so old that commenting is really upsetting the cosmic balance in any significant way]

looking through this thread again - wonderful painting.