Six Appeal

 We've waited long enough for these Spider-villains, so let's give them a big hand!

Of all the affiliations in Marvel Crisis Protocol, the Spider-Foes have to be my favourite (the evidence is they consistently destroy my teams, and still I love them). They're just such a varied and colourful bunch of characters - I think in terms of a lone hero's villains gallery, only Batman can compare.

Until now, they can only be led by Green Goblin. But with an inevitable nod to the comics, a new affiliation has arrived: the Sinister Six!

This was a villain supergroup, usually led by Doctor Octopus, with rotating membership for Spidey to defeat. And now all the original members have miniatures, so a full team-up is possible!

One of the coolest designs in the spiderverse, Electro was a joy to paint - lots of layering greens and yellow to get a comic book style. I guess electricity should properly be blue, but I'm not messing with the aesthetic.

While Electro had a costume downgrade in the movies, the Vulture certainly stepped up from his original design: Montgomery Burns in a leotard and flight suit. I went for a subtle effect on the wings (since there seems to be no agreed-upon look for them) and kept the liver spots on his head to a respectful minimum.

Shocker is something of an outlier among the spider-villains, in that he tries to avoid confrontation with Spider-Man and would rather be left in peace to rob banks, thank you very much. This entirely sane and pragmatic approach to villainy may be why he hasn't broken out into greater notoriety yet.

Painting his quilted suit was fun though (starting with a darker yellow and adding dots of brighter colour), and I also educated myself that his powers are shockwaves, not electro-shocks, so he's not quite the budget Electro I took him for.

One odd detail with Shocker (and a few of the other Spider-Foes) is their bases. They're almost all mounted on 'medium' MCP bases, rather than 'small' ones (which seems to be the default for regular-sized humans).

This confers in-game advantages, such as movement and objective control, but it does seem weird that human-sized characters like Shocker and Vulture get larger bases than Iron Man, Thor or Luke Cage. 

I suspect it's just rule-of-cool, and that the sculptors are just putting them on the bases that best fit their design (Shocker is ripping up the pavement in a cool way), but it would have been useful if he'd also been a low-level Threat 2 character, like Bullseye, to add some options to list-building.

To say nothing of the fact that space on my shelves is at a premium, and I don't want bases taking up more space than they need to!

Finally, a character who has entirely earned his base footprint: Sandman! Flint Marko is not only a towering presence in himself, but he comes with two 'Sand Constructs' who operate like Grunts in the game - except that Sandman can both create and absorb them (with corresponding consequences for his hit points). It sounds like great fun, and I can't wait to see it in action.

The sand effect itself began with a prime of Zandri Dust, a contrast wash of Nazdreg Yellow, and a lot of drybrushing. There is also some controversy around Sandman's t-shirt - depictions divide between showing it as a green shirt with very thin stripes or one with green/dark green hoops.

I went with the latter, since it looks better, although the stripes are moulded onto the sculpt and, as I discovered with painting them as hoops - they don't match up! (there's some creative artistry just under his armpit).

And that's it for the Spider-Foes! With all the boxes checked, I don't need any more. Aside from Scorpion. And Prowler. I wouldn't say no to Tombstone either, or Olivia Octavius.

We'll meet again, Spider-Man!