Cheaphammer!!!: Marvel

Showing posts with label Marvel. Show all posts

Sunday, 5 February 2023

The Occult & Science Reserve

In the Lurkers from the Deep feature pack for 7TV Pulp, the forces of law and order are led by agents from the Occult and Science Reserve. They operate in in a strategic way to shield the public from the eldritch marvels that have been unearthed in the New England town of Marshport.

I know what you are thinking. Some of those agents look familiar. Well it's true. One or two of them were created prior to the release of Lurkers from the Deep and were part of the earlier pulp heroes Kickstarter from 7TV.

The others are all totally original characters...

First up we have the more generic characters in the group who might grace any occult themed pulp game in the vein of Call of Cthulhu: an Occult Investigator, a News Hound and Professor Jemima Whitwood.

The Occult Investigator is a character from the original Pulp Heroes and Villains Kickstarter. I only picked up the villains at the time (two of which still remain unpainted) and therefore was pleased to get my hands on this chap as a stretch goal with Lurkers from the Deep.

As it happens, I've actually picked up three of the six heroes since then, so I probably should have just bought them at the time.

This chap is destined to feature as one of the OSR Agents in the final scenario of the feature pack, and then after that, I'm not sure. I am musing on doing some more Lovecraft themed stuff, so he'll more than likely pop up then.

Professor Jemima Whitwood is the leader of the OSR raid on Marshport, and so this dynamic pose is more than suitable. I am slightly concerned that she seems to be expecting vampires rather than fish-demon hybrids, but I'm pretty sure a stake through the heart works on most things.

The News Hound is probably the most versatile of the miniatures in this batch and could conceivably pop up in all sorts of scenarios, especially superhero themed stuff with a pulp vibe like Freedom Force or Pulp City. I feel like she'd really benefit from a street base, and so that might be a change I make when I get my hands on more resin bases.

She will also feature in Lurkers from the Deep as an OSR Agent.

The four Esoteric Agents models are a marvellous bunch who add variety and character to the OSR's ranks. I am slightly concerned that these models might not get used in scenarios outside of Lurkers from the Deep given that I can't imagine what else they might be used as.

If there's something strange going on, this OSR Agent is who you'd call. As a master of the mystic arts he'll cure whatever ails the town of Marshport...sort of like a doctor.

I've given him a ~~cape~~ cloak from a Heroclix Robin model because...well...he looked cold. That's the only reason.

Howard Ashton, a Gadgeteer, is a stark contrast to the occult investigators, providing a cutting edge technological response to the problems faced by the OSR. Obviously, not everything he creates is perfect and he will often need to iron out some issues.

Of all the models in this group, I'm probably most pleased with this one, not because it's particularly amazing, but simply because I did the pale grey suit first, and managed to do the rest of the model without having to go back and redo any sections where I'd messed up.

I also like the contrast of the blue with the coppery-brass.

Agent Maggie Stone is a British Agent assigned the OSR and uses the Rugged Veteran profile card. She will fit well with the American Soldiers that I painted to accompany Captain America a few years ago, although I can't see a situation where I'd put him and her together. Not without going back in time, anyway.

Finally we have Colonel Julius Roth. When you absolutely have to kill every brother cultist in the room, accept no substitutes. Colonel Roth leads the military arm of the secret invasion of Marshport and appears in scenario three: the Battle of Marshport.

I will probably have to paint some more US soldiers before I get to that one, as it's a big scrap.

So that's seven more miniatures painted (and one broken Heroclix miniature disposed of), making for a bit more progress.

However, a trip to Vapnartak in York today saw me in an unusually spendy mood. From Wargames Foundry I picked up some more Victorian Police to complete that unit and some Home Guard to fill out my numbers for when I play the Vlad's Army feature pack, although they will also add to my Operation Sea Lion/VBCW force.

I also grabbed a few paints and a 2'x2' gaming mat from Crooked Dice simply because I wanted it, and not pictured above is a second hand dreadnought that is destined for my 40k/Horus Heresy army, which I grabbed for a fiver. Bargain.

Therefore today has actually been a little bit of a step backwards in terms of the Lead Mountain, but I'm quite keen to get the new models done and I have no plans to buy anything else in the near future, and so things should be moving in the right direction again fairly quickly.

Acquired: -12
Painted: 47
Lead Mountain: 525

Saturday, 8 May 2021

Unboxing: Lurkers From The Deep

Yesterday I took delivery of my 7TV: Lurkers From The Deep Kickstarter from Crooked Dice.

The Kickstarter was run at the beginning of the year and once again has shown that Crooked Dice deliver quickly and efficiently on the Kickstarter campaigns. As of writing, the smaller and miniature focused pledges have been delivered and the larger, MDF heavy (literally), pledges will start shipping shortly.

Lurkers From The Deep is the first 'feature pack' for 7TV. Feature packs promise to be narrative campaigns for the different iterations of 7TV (this one focuses on Pulp) and seem to be a natural development of the broader in scope Programme Guides.

This feature pack takes 7TV: Pulp in the direction of Lovecraftian horror, with more than a few intertextual references to 'The Shadow Over Innesmouth'. However, the Cthulhu Mythos isn't the only influence at play, as you'll see later.

The box itself, an old VHS video case, is a beautiful homage to the budget movies we'd rent fron the local video store in the 1980s because somebody else had rented Clash of the Titans.

The artwork not only evokes the (soon to be dashed on the rocks of disappointment) excitement and potential of obscure film rental, but has been designed with the same sense of wear and overuse the boxes in the store alway had.

The box is packed with rules, profile and other game cards, MDF tokens and the stretch goal miniatures from the Kickstarter campaign (these won't be in the standard release, but have clearly been popped in here for convenience during the dispatch process.

The 84 page Episode Guide contains background, not only to the story of the campaign, which focuses on the forces of law and order tackling the somewhat amphibious denizens of Marshport in the attempts to raise something Eldritch from the deeps, but also for the production of fictional film serial, along with five scenarios, character bios and some really nice maps.

The maps tie directly to the buildings that were part of the campaign, and so I'm going to need to improvise an reinterpret elements because I simply don't have the space in my house for that much MDF.

As seems to be traditional no with the 7TV: Pulp releases, there's also a movie poster postcard to add to my collection.

As expected with 7TV there are cards galore. There is a stack of Profile cards for the specific characters involved in the action - although you do also need cards from 7TV: Pulp. Cliffhanger Cards, Gadget Cards and Macguffin Cards are included to allow you to tailor the generic decks to some specific genre features of LurkersFrom The Deep.

MDF counters and widgets add a bit of thematic flair to proceedings. The yellow and brown bits seem to combine to create an on/off switch for one of the scenarios, whereas I think the cardboard ritual tracker is used in the final fight.

And then we move onto the miniatures, which include the stretch goal freebies: Professor Jemima Wittwood, Newshound, Doctor Fiske, Occult Investigator, two themed macguffins and a set of historically accurate heads for US Rangers (the Rangers miniatures released by CD assume that WW2 surplus was used for the costumes).

Wittwood and Fiske are specific characters for Lurkers From The Deep, whilst the others are generic Pulp miniatures. After playing his scenario, Fiske is destined to join my Mad Science cast: the University of Salem's Lost Faculty of Cryptobiology and Pseudoscience, he'll fit right in.

I opted for the Heroes pledge, which comes with 8 heroic miniatures, four of which are federal agents. These will probably end up pulling double duty as gangsters at times.

They are clean casts which have the characteristic Crooked Dice lack of clutter and needless detail. Something which I've commented before makes CD miniature fast and enjoyable to paint. It's also worth noting that one of the agents is a woman - it's always welcome to see good quality female miniatures which avoid the unnecessary objectification that litters the hobby.

If you look closely at the other half of the Heroes pledge, regular readers of the blog might recognise why I went for this option.

From left to right you have: Howard Ashton (gadgeteer), a technical genius who is a 'stark' contrast to the military he works with; Colonel Julius Roth, armed with a Thompson, for when you have to kill every m**********r in the room; a 'strange' spiritual custodian, I'll probably add a cape to him; Agent Maggie Stone, I've got her 'pegged' to work with a certain star-spangled super soldier.

Yes. They're adding to my Marvel project.

Finally we have the Dangerous Dames, which aren't actually anything to do with Lurkers From The Deep, but I added them to my pledge for other projects.

The Jungle Lord (Lady) is destined to be converted into Eve from my Freedom Force team, whereas I'm not sure about the Renegade Royal, but I'm sure there is something sci-fi I can do with her (they came as a two pack and I wanted the other model).

So that's it for Lurker of the Deep. I like the format of specific scenarios, although I will be adjusting layouts and casts as my miniature collection dictates. Having pre-prepared stories which are different from the standard missions offers narrative potential that I sometimes am to lazy to create for 7TV for myself.

I'm looking forward to playing.

Admittedly, the tally takes a bit of a hit, but Crooked Dice miniatures don't really worry me, as they never take long to paint. I'm planning to paint what I need for each scenario in turn.

Acquired: 97

Painted: 83

Sunday, 21 March 2021

New Avengers: Breakout, Issue #4

Having recently painted up some Velociraptors, I now had everything I needed to continue my ongoing New Avengers campaign, based on the Breakout event from Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

I made the decision to continue with the characters as they appear in the comics, and so Daredevil would leave the team to deal with his personal issues - Kingpin attacking everybody he cared about (I might explore this in a future adventure).

The other decision I made was to switch gaming systems. Not because I have any issues with Super Mission Force, but more because I have been putting together my own fast play superhero rules and wanted to give them a proper test.

The game makes use of Dicemasters dice and the core concept that the game is a single issue of a comic book. I had to make an adjustment to the rules in play, but otherwise the game worked out well and only took about an hour to play. Here's an example of the game cards.

There will be more about these rules in the future, but for now, let's get on with the game.

...

Following the mass escape from the Raft super prison, the newly reformed Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman and Spider-Man, determine that the breakout was perpetrated by Electro to free Karl Lykos, Sauron. Therefore, in order to recapture the escapee, the team head to Antarctica and the Savage Land...

Although they had driven off their assailants, two of the Avengers had been severely injured and the quintet had been wrecked. The only thing for it was to continue the search for Karl Lykos, and then hope to find a way to get him back to prison.

Needless to say, there is more action to come and the Avengers are walking into trouble. I will need to source a few Savage Land Mutates to throw at them before that can happen.

Sunday, 7 March 2021

Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey

I hadn't intended to veer away from Superheroes towards Doctor Who, but it's happened. I can't do anything to change it, as buying those Weeping Angels is now a fixed point in time.

This is still sort of a Superhero post, as I'll explain later.

Anyway, here's the Doctor, some companions and some Velociraptors...which makes perfect sense.

Contrary to appearances, I'm not actually a massive Doctor Who fan, or 'Whovian', as those who take these things too seriously have it.

I do watch, and like, the show, and in recent years Cheaphammer Junior has got herself into it in a big way. Therefore, I've probably ended up paying it more attention than I otherwise would have.

However, Doctor Who is a fantastic fit for 7TV (it's clearly one of the key influences in the original game) and my collection of Doctor Who related miniatures has steadily grown, often accidentally, which is true of some of today's offerings.

The period when I did watch the show fairly intently was when David Tennant played the 10th Doctor. Without putting it too bluntly, his performances were brilliant.

Therefore, I was delighted when a certain gentleman, who goes by the name Wayne, kindly offered to send several people who asked nicely spare copies of some not-Doctor Who miniatures he'd found in one of his many sheds.

Despite already having a Matt Smith Doctor, I requested the model above and duly recieved it around Christmas. The miniature is an OOP model from Heresy Miniatures. It was removed from sale around the time that Warlord released their Exterminate game, which is sad, because this unofficial not-Doctor looks far more like David Tennant than the official model.

There is really nothing special about how I've painted it, but I am really pleased about how he's turned out.

Another model that disappeared in the 'extermination' of the not-Doctor Who models, is this definitely not Rose Tyler from Crooked Dice, which is a shame as it's really just a civilian miniature (of which there are too few of in the world) with nothing overtly Billie Piper about it to upset the lawyers.

I was very kindly sent this by Karl from Crooked Dice for taking part in the 7TV Facebook group Secret Santa. It came with the coolest Christmas Card ever (done in the art style of 7TV first edition, which I love). Having a Rose is what prompted me to take up Wayne's kind offer about the Doctor.

The face was a bit of a struggle to paint, as the features are quite soft and less cartoony than the Heresy Doctor. The rest of the paint job was very straightforward.

K-9 isn't officially a companion for the tenth Doctor, although he does show up in the episode 'School Reunion', which is enough for him to count in my book.

Also from Heresy Miniatures, and still on sale (if you look closely), I actually bought this model on purpose during a sale a few years back. It comes with optional heads, tails and buttons (not all of which are shown on the webstore) which allow you to put together a close approximation of the infamous tin dog.

Again, the paint job is extremely simple, but I am quite pleased with the free hand lettering. It's not quite central, but I'm not redoing it at the risk of it ending up worse.

The Velociraptors are not actually for my Doctor Who games, although they could be, which is one of the reasons Doctor Who works so well for 7TV. You can explain anything.

In fact, they are covering a lot of bases for different project I have on the go. They were bought for a Marvel Savage Land scenario, easily fit with 7TV Pulp and have been painted to match some of the Raptors in the Freedom Force game.

See, I told you this was a Superhero post.

The models are from Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures, an as such are cheap, cheerful and made of bendy plastic. They're not great miniatures, and I probably should have spent more time cleaning them up. However, this wouldn't have altered the fact that they're not great, especially around the claws. This is the reason I've not done anything fancy with painting them.

Personally, I consider Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures in the same category as Reaper Bones (although slightly better). They are kind to the wallet and get better as the miniatures get larger, but I'd avoid them for anything on the smaller side with anything detailed about it. I only use them for monsters and creatures, and these Velociraptors are the smallest models I'll buy from them.

It's nice to be picking up pace and clearing some models that have been in my queue for a while (the dinosaurs). I do have a few more Doctor Who miniatures to paint, and I'm in the zone, but who knows (see what I did there?) where my moods will take me.

Acquired: 34

Painted: 48

Friday, 26 February 2021

Angel Delight

In a somewhat angelic post, I've been adding to my Doctor Who and Marvel projects with some Weeping Angels and, well, Angel...from the X-Men.

Angel is, curiously, one of my favourite X-Men, despite never really reading the comics he was in and the movie and cartoon versions of the character being somewhat lacklustre.

I think it comes from owning only two sections of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, 'Abomination to Circus of Crime' and 'Galactus to Kang'. Angel was the first big hero entry in the book, and so I probably read his entry more than others.

This lack of completeness in my collection of Handbooks might explain why I only get some of the obscure references in the MCU (like the original Guardians of the Galaxy) and not others (obviously, I can't give an example here, but think of something beginning with R or Q).

The miniature is from Reaper and came in two parts. I painted the wings and did the red on the body before attaching the two parts. This was a wise move as I'm really pleased with the wings and would have been incredibly annoyed if I'd got red on them.

I have to say, I was slightly disappointed with the quality of the cast, as there looked to be some mould slipping on the back of the legs and the left side of the face is a bit deformed. Fortunately, the pose of the model disguises most of the problem.

The pose is actually an interesting one, aiming for the idea of the character lifting off with a massive beat of the wings, rather than the more typical spread-wing flying pose you see.

I don't know if it's the angle I've posed him at, or the miniature itself, but it's not quite right. I think the head possibly needed to be looking upwards more.

However, the amount of white I was dealing with did concern me, but after my recent escapades with Kingpin and Emma Frost, I think I've learned how to tackle this sort of issue to a reasonable standard.

Also from Reaper, this time the Bones range, are these two Weeping Angels. These horrors are probably the best addition to the bad guy canon from all the 'New Who' series, and the episode 'Blink' is brilliant.

I've not done anything clever with them, just a drybrush of light grey over dark grey. Simple but effective. The Weeping Angels don't have any defining feature like glowing red eyes.

I hadn't planned to buy these, but I was placing a Reaper order and they were cheap. I'm normally not a massive fan of the Bones range for smaller miniatures. However, given that these are meant to look like worn stone, the relatively soft detail isn't a massive problem. I shall probably get more at some point.

These three are unlikely to see the table in the same games, but it seemed fitting to paint them at the same time.

Acquired: 34

Painted: 37

Thursday, 25 February 2021

Spider-Man's Amazingly Derivative Friends

As I continue to plough through my range of comics (and movie) inaccurate for Earth: 21476, I come to Black Cat (who is definitely not Catwoman) and Firestar (who is definitely not Starfire).

To be fair to Marvel, they actually acknowledge that Firestar was created for the 'Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends' cartoon in the 80s as a direct analog for the Human Torch (who in a shocking twist for Marvel, was caught in a rights issue). However, I cannot, for one second, imagine that she wasn't named in relation to DC's Starfire.

The model is from Reaper Miniatures and also has more than a nod towards Starfire itself, with the flaming hair which is something Firestar doesn't actually have.

She's mainly painted with Cassandora Yellow wash over white, which comes put a touch patchy, but is more effective than my other methods of painting large sections of bright yellow. Apparently, the yellow contrast paint is really good, but I don't own it.

The face is a bit oddly shaped (a bit like a Gelfling from the Dark Crystal). Sadly there was also a bit of a mould line across it which fortunately the mask obscures.

With the base, I've tried to mix in some dead grass radiating out from the flames. Not actually burned as Firestar's 'flames' are apparently 'microwaves'. I've never microwaved grass, so this is my approximation of it.

Amusingly, I've read a couple of articles that try to argue that Black Cat is in no way a copy of Catwoman, despite being a cat-themed burglar with an on-off flirtatious relationship with an urban hero.

They claimed that Catwoman's comics costume in 1976 (when Black Cat was created) wasn't a black catsuit and that the Lee Meriwether/Ertha Kitt/Julie Newmar TV version (which did wear the catsuit) was 10 years earlier and so Marvel artists couldn't possibly have been influenced by that.

Hmmm...

The miniature is also from Reaper and was done rather simply. The costume isn't exact (as you'd expect). It clearly draws from both Black Cat and Catwoman, but refrains from the outright sexualisation (despite having comic book proportions) the two characters endure in its pose, which is something I like.

These did come in a delivery of several miniatures from different sources that you should be seeing soon, so the numbers have taken a bit of a hit.

Acquired: 34

Painted: 34

Thursday, 18 February 2021

Big Bad Guys?

I've decided to refer to my Marvel project as Earth 21476; my own branch of the multiverse where I can pick an choose what characters, costumes and story elements I want. An environment where I can never be wrong and where I can revisit classic stories with my own twist.

As such, I need some nefarious threats to my ever-growing legion of superheroes.

Introducing Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, and Emma Frost, the White Queen. Both of these two have been sat in my unpainted pile for quite some time as they were each, in their own way, problematic.

They also both needed me to get a handle on painting white, which I think I have. I actually learned quite a bit about painting white with these two, including using thin outline of Nuln Oil to heighten contrast.

The Kingpin is from Hasslefree Miniatures. I really like the sculpts from Hasslefree but they have a tendency to be on the small side. Usually this can be explained away as 'people aren't all the same size'. However, Kingpin is supposed to be much bigger than other characters and it was this that prompted the enormous tactical rock.

Despite the fact that the sculpt is based on Vincent D'Onofrio's excellent take on the character from the Netflix Daredevil series, I've go with the more recognisable comic book colours for him to further reinforce that this is Kingpin and not just a bald bloke in a suit.

Emma Frost is an amalgamation of several different models. The body is a Crooked Dice Femdroid, the cape is from a Hydra Miniatures Valkeeri and the head (which has the side effect of making it look like she's being played by Joan Rivers) is from Crossover.

I hadn't got round to her for so long, despite buying the Femdroid for this purpose as I didn't have the right head and I didn't fancy sculpting a cape. It was only this week that I realised I had the right bits lying around. The cape looks a little stuck on at the back, but Emma Frost's wildly inappropriate costumes generally defy gravity, and so I'm not to worried about it - it's probably held on by see-through straps and boob tape.

Both characters will need some help before unleashing their villainous plots. I have a few models amonst my zombie survivors which can be repurposed as henchmen for Kingpin, and he is always willing to hire help.

In recent times, Emma Frost is actually one of the X-Men, but if I want to use her as a villain, she can be joined by Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) as a nascent inner circle of the Hellfire Club.

I've also done as Deadpool asked and repainted the yellow shoulders on my Wolverine (this doesn't count as painting a model). He now looks more like the leather-clad movie version. I'll save taking photos until I've solved the claws issue.

Acquired: 28

Painted: 31