Monday, 21 July 2025

"Being Discovered By Spider-Man During The Secret Wars..."

"...It bonded to him and assimilated his powers into its own genome."

This 40mm scale model of "the symbiotic being known as Venom" was produced by "CoolMiniOrNot", and unlocked during the company's highly successful February 2020 Kickstarter for "Marvel United" when it achieved a whopping $2,866,168 in funding. Based upon Randy Schueller, Jim Shooter, and Mike Zeck's extra-terrestrial for "Marvel Comics", the figure (and his twelve cards) can be found inside the boardgame's Season One Promo Box.

"Spawned at some point during the reign of the dark elder god Knull", Eddie Brock's 'partner-in-crime' was initially primed using a couple of layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and had his intricate spider-symbol and eyes 'picked out' with White Star by "Two Thin Coats". These areas were then treated to some watered-down "Citadel" Nuln Oil, before being tidied up with some additional lines of "Citadel" Abaddon Black.

"CoolMiniOrNot" WIPs - Luke Cage's jeans have been base-layered and shaded

Venom's sharp teeth were carefully given a lick of "Two Thin Coats" White Star, and later dirtied down with some "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. This (hopefully) gave the anti-hero's fangs a distinctly different look to his aforementioned eyes and spider-symbol. I also applied some "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson" to the alien tentacle-like tongue, and subsequently highlighted it with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red.

Originally, I had been planning on dry-brushing the bulk of Venom with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal or maybe even Heavy Blue, and then shading him with plenty of "Citadel" Nuln Oil to dampen the colour down. However, in the end I settled on just having the symbiote appear as a monotone black mass, and tried to give the entity a slick, oily look by protecting my paint-job with an application of "Vallejo" Gloss Varnish.

"Big Head Chibis" WIPs - The bases of these three Hydra Soldiers are almost finished

Sticking with "Marvel United" miniatures by "CoolMiniOrNot", I have also made some progress on the boardgame's Luke Cage figure. I wasn't planning on getting Power Man painted any time soon until very recently, when I figured my games of the "Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game" (MMRPG) might prove more manageable if I predominantly stuck to the rule system's 'street level' crime-fighters for my scenarios. The New Avenger fits this bill rather nicely, and despite his famous yellow silk shirt, is proving reasonably straightforward a project.

Likewise, I've been 'chipping away' at a trio of Hydra Soldiers sculpted by "Big Head Chibis". These 40mm minions of the Red Skull will inevitably prove a much tougher challenge than Luke Cage - especially as I want to be able to field at least ten fully-finished terrorists in the near future. But I'm hoping that I'll soon figure out a way to efficiently work through their difficult yellow and green uniforms before my enthusiasm for playing MMRPG 'peters out'...

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