The Kids Are Alright

Greetings, fellow young persons!

As I draw ever-closer to painting actual X-Men, I thought I'd begin with the comics that drew me into the X-universe: New Mutants and X-Force!

First up is Magik (younger sister to Colossus), who is currently the only in-game leader of New Mutants (despite the fact that she never was). Nonetheless, she's has an awesome backstory, dynamic pose and very large sword in her favour.

This model was definitely a subassembly, since painting Magik on the end of that swirl of energy didn't appeal. It also made it easier to spray with vortex white and go to town with contrast paint and drybrushes.

Continuing the class tradition of not touching the ground is Sunspot. The only founding member of New Mutants to have a model (so far), he's shown in his X-Force uniform, since his original look was entirely black with crackling 'Kirby dots' energy. I added some dots around his wrists as a nod to this.

And it wouldn't be the 80s if the kids didn't adopt an innocent, kooky alien who wanted to learn our ways of friendship and teamwork. Warlock seems like a great addition on the tabletop, with his powers to poison and regenerate nicely realised (he sustains himself by turning organic matter to techno, then draining it of power).

It's a shame the sculpt didn't do more with his shapeshifting powers, since he's just a scrawny robot (whereas in the comic, he could be absolutely anything). Although they did have a good try at depicting his under-circuitry look. That was going to be a pain to paint whichever way I approached it. 

In the end, I went with a yellow basecoat, drybrushed black to give myself an indicator, then went over the panels properly in black. It took a few sessions, but got done.

Leaping forward a decade or two, we have the clone/daughter of Wolverine: X-23! She has a reputation for being a brutal 3-threat (and having played one game with her, I can see why) and the model's pose is good (once again avoiding solid ground). 

The costume is somewhat bland - in the comics, the character has a proper yellow Wolverine suit, so it's a shame this version is essentially in yoga gear.

And the teenage sidekick to our teenage sidekick: Honey Badger. A tiny model (only Rocket stands in her shadow) with only half as many claws as her big sister. 

They make a good team on the table, which is a nice narrative touch. But her pet honey badger Jonathan is only depicted on a tactics card. I'll give Atomic Mass Games a pass on that, and the fairly dull stance of the model, since both of these seem like very early designs (if it came out this year, we definitely would have had a Jonathan).

The third headmaster of the New Mutants school (who did the natural thing and recruited the survivors for his paramilitary squad) is Mr 90s himself: Cable! 

Muscles, pouches, guns, pouches, cybernetics and pouches - this guy had it all (and a pouch to put it in!). With so much going on, his actual uniform wasn't that distinct, so they've gone for the traditional blue and gold X-uniform, complete with a raggedy cloak that screams 'I'm from the future - but it's horrible!'

A neat touch is to show Cable's telekinetic powers (or maybe some future shielding device) being used to deflect bullets. Naturally, Cable is the leader of X-Force and naturally, they seem absolutely brutal.

The McGonagall to Cable's Dumbledore is Domino - another offspring from the extreme 90s where her character design long preceded her personality or powers.

With a combat catsuit and twin pistols, if you've painted Black Widow, you're on safe ground here. She's also fitting in with the kids by surfing an explosion off the ground.

So that's two new factions added - the New Mutants have already had a run-out. Many of them perished to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory - so entirely suitable for my playstyle.