Drop The Hammer

 Totally Thorsome!

One thing I'm learning through my many (many) Marvel Crisis Protocol defeats is that base size is very important. 

Rather than just being something that stops your model from falling over, in a game of pushes, throws, leaps and action economy, how big a model's footprint can be makes a lot of difference to their effectiveness. Especially when the range to making attacks and getting onto scoring objectives can be measured in millimetres.

Which is a long way of saying that, when it comes to model base size, you have to be exact.

First up was Abomination, who I painted last year - before the model existed - and used it to proxy a medium-base monster. Then the actual model got released (I'm ahead of the curve!) on a large base (I'm back behind the curve), so Emil Blonsky needed an upgrade.

Snapping him off his base was a problem, as I was fearful that the resin would break (it would never have happened to the Hulk), so I just cut around the base and built him up higher. Adding some cork debris and scatter rocks around his feet, and Abomination is now legal and more imposing than ever!

It was a similar story when I manged to find an original Thor & Valkyrie box. I already had a Thor (in full 1960s glory), but a new upgraded version has recently been released that comes on a medium base.

So I painted this new (technically, old) Thor as intended - a halfway point between the comics and the movies - and then transferred my old (now new) Thor to a bigger base to represent the new (actually new) rules. Lots of cork to hide the original base, as before, and I added some lightning bolts for extra zap. These bolts actually came from this Thor's hammer, which I'd snipped off because I didn't like them. It turns out, I did like them, just in a different place.

The real motivation for getting the boxset (in addition to all the useful tokens and tactics cards) was Valkyrie. I'd originally bypassed her because the boxart for her was so dull, but with her traditional blue, she cuts an impressive dash.

As well as filling out my every-expanding Asgard roster (look out, Beta Ray Bill), Valkyrie has a history with the Defenders - which is fast becoming one of my favourite affiliates. And as a supremely aggressive 3 Threat character, I can see her finding a place in either roster (or indeed A-Force).

That's all for now (but not, I think we've now established, for ever).