Atomic Mass Games – Grimmleigh's Lab

Star Wars Legion: Moff Gideon

Star Wars and I are old friends. I was seven years old when the first movie came out, and I really, really wanted to see The Rescuers. My dad really, really wanted to see Star Wars. Since it was his birthday, we saw Star Wars, and I was in a funk until that opening scene on the Tantiv IV hit my impressionable little brain, and my poor dad has probably wished we went to se The Rescuers ever since.

In all of the Star Wars media I’ve consumed, I’ve really only hated one installment, which I will leave out because if it’s your favorite I have no intention of harshing that enjoyment for you. But everything else I’ve watched had something in it that I genuinely enjoyed, whether it’s Baylon Skoll in Ahsoka or Boba Fett riding a Rancor in Book of Boba Fett.

My rule for Star Wars is a simple one: What would that kid in 1977 think of this? Generally, that kid would have been shrieking like a radioactive gibbon rampaging through a jungle gym.

The Mandalorian brough out one of my favorite villains in all of Star Wars, with Giancarlo Esposito bringing a fantastic level of mustache twirling to his portrayal of Moff Gideon. When he showed up with a squad of Death Troopers and his modified TIE fighter, that internal seven year old was speechless. TIE fighters can do that with their wings??? HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT?

Moff Gideon also shit his pants when Luke showed up to take Grogu on a playdate to the Lil’ Jedi Temple of Doom. I would have done the same. What a cool, calculating, and cowardly when needed villain! Of course a Jedi would freak that dude out!

The old miniature that Atomic Mass Games produced for Star Wars: Legion was one of the first hard plastic kits they put out, and the likeness on the 35mm model is actually better than the Shatterpoint version. Plus, you get the option of pistol OR Darksaber, and since I like to have some general utility in my models, he’s packing his pistol.

I really took my time with him. Darker flesh tones have been a struggle for me, since in reality we’re not just talking about brown tones. There’s some cool purples and warm ochres in the skin, and I really wanted to do this sculpt justice.

He also has very pronounced eyelids, which this sculpt does a good job capturing. I wanted to make sure to show Gideon with that “bored but still going to kill you” look that made him so cool in the first place.

And, of course, I had to take some pics with him leading a couple of riot control troopers, I can’t wait to get some Deathtroopers together for him!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Frankenstein

Way back in the 1970’s, there was something of a horror renaissance going on in the comic book world. First, you had legends like Bernie Wrightson creating things like Swamp Thing for DC, and second, you had a veritable gold mine of public domain critters ripe for plunder, like Dracula and Frankenstein.

This stuff was also heavily influenced by the early heavy metal and rock scenes that were taking hold in popular culture, so you get guys like Frankenstein rocking the blue jeans and furry vests!

I was a little too young to read a lot of this stuff, and preferred my comics soundly focused on peeps in tights punching each other and worrying about their aged relatives. But, as I got older, I fell in love with all of it, from the EC black and white anthologies to the pure schlock of Marvel’s monsters.

I really love the look of this Frankenstein from Marvel Crisis Protocol, and he’s a solid kick-off to my Midnight Sons faction!

I also got to spend some time reading up on improving my photography skills while in the hospital, so I’m excited to share some improved pics! I was never happy with how my pictures turned out, so seeing them nice and vibrant like this is making me happy for sure!

Progress Log: Total MCP Minis in Collection: 107 Total Painted: 44

Star Wars Legion

Star Wars Legion: Empire Riot Control Squad, part two

Getting back to the Empire Riot Control Squad from Atomic Mass Games, we’re taking on the energy mace troopers today! Once again, I’m a huge fan of this entire box set.

These dudes remind me a lot of the electro mace trooper from The Force Awakens, so having two of them for this squad is pretty cool.

Painting them up wasn’t too bad, either. I went with a straight white undercoat, then used an oil wash to add the shading. The oil wash was two parts Payne’s Grey to one part burnt umber, then a liberal amount of white spirits to dilute.

Energy effects were a blue speed paint over silver, then general white highlights over the whole model after picking out the eyes and helmet rim in black. Some light damage effects on the shields, and I think I’ll call them done!

These guys look pretty cool with the KX Droids!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Beta Ray Bill

When I was in my early teens, Walt Simonson was working on the Thor comics for Marvel. He went really hard into the whole Cosmic Fantasy aspect of the character, and somehow managed to stay incredibly close to the design aesthetic established by Jack Kirby. As a comics smitten kid with a penchant for doodling, I was smitten.

Somewhere along the line, Thor did something dumb, and Odin, being Odin, decided that Meow-meow needed to go to someone else, someone more worthy. So, the hammer made its way to Beta Ray Bill, a Korbonite warrior who was, as it turned out, pretty worthy. Look at this cover… it’s still metal as hell four decades later!

Atomic Mass Games released Beta Ray Bill for their Marvel Crisis Protocol game a couple of years back, and the box has been sitting neglected by me since then. I did paint up Ulik recently, and Bill was my reward for being a good boy and posting consistently through January and February.

Gaze upon the freaking MAJESTY of this sculpt! When you have something this amazing to work with, the miniature pretty much paints itself.

I still sometimes forget that this miniature line is part of a game and not a series of DIY collectible figurines. I guess it’s all in your mindset, right? Nightcrawler from the X-Men is up next!

Miniatures

Star Wars Legion: Empire Riot Control Squad

Did Star Wars: Legion just win the coveted prime spot in the what Star Wars minis will this dork settle on debate? It may just have. While I really, really enjoy painting the Shatterpoint minis I have, the 40mm scale makes them stand out against the rest of my minis, and I really don’t want to double-dip on characters. Plus, I like squads, vehicles, and terrain, especially if I can use that terrain with other games.

The Empire Riot Control Squad is a fun one, since it comes with droids AND stormtroopers, and they’re a rare case of Atomic Mass Games making units that don’t appear in movies. I figured I would start off with the KX Droids, and apologies in advance: my lighting setup over-saturated things a little, I promise they look less gray in person, hahaha!

I’ve been keen to get some paint on these guys since I bought the box, but watching a bunch of them smacking innocent protestors on Andor really made me want to get them to the table! I’m not a fan of fascist governments, but I like having miniatures of them to shoot at in my games. Once again, everyone wins when the fascists lose, right?

Love the sculpts on these. Can’t wait to get the rest of the squad painted up!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Ulik the Rock Troll

I have to be honest here, I hardly remember Ulik from the Thor comics. Sure, he was there as hammer bait a lot if I remember correctly, but under normal circumstances I’m not sure I would have picked up this model.

But he came with Beta Ray Bill…

Also, the model is just plain bad-ass. Yeah, he’s a giant beat-stick looking for a good solid smack, but isn’t that what trolls are for? He looks amazing!

I am really happy with the metalic green armor scales, I used diluted green ink over silver and it did exactly what I was hoping! This was a really fun model to paint!

Marvel Crisis Protocol

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Web Warriors, Part One

Looks like we’re having a double dip week for Marvel Crisis Protocol, as I have a huge backlog of these minis and we’ll probably see a lot more as the month progresses!

Ghost Spider is a great character, I really enjoy reading the comics and she’s one of the highlights of the Spiderverse movies that Sony put out.

MCP’s take on the character came pretty early on, which is great. The pose is still pretty good, but I would love to see a fresh take on the character now that the team at Atomic Mass Games has really hit their stride on the sculpts.

Ben Reilly, star of the much-aligned Clone Saga from the ’90s, is another great mini from the MCP crew, I especially enjoy the Reilly Drive signpost on the base!

More to come soon, thanks for stopping by!

Star Wars Shatterpoint, Workbench

Star Wars: Shatterpoint- Lord Maul

I have such a love/hate/love relationship with Atomic Mass Games‘ Star Wars miniature offerings. Legion hit in the mid two-thousand-teens and I loved the idea, but couldn’t stand the soft plastic miniatures. Then, Shatterpoint took the lead in the early 2020’s with some really dynamic sculpts and a fun game system.

But damn, buying the same characters again wasn’t something I wanted to do. Those soft plastics for Legion made my initial plunge into Shatterpoint an easy one, but then Legion ended up with some pretty good hard plastic sculpts as well.

Now it’s coming down to scale preference. At 35mm, Legion is already pushing the envelope of how big I want to get with a miniature. The 40mm figures for Shatterpoint look amazing, but with bases even bigger than Marvel Crisis Protocol, they get challenging to store, let alone display.

So, once again, I find myself debating going to one game at the exclusion of the other. Sure, I could keep both, but again, space is an issue. And Shatterpoint doesn’t have vehicles! AGH!

Still, Lord Maul for Shatterpoint was a blast to paint. He’s got those freaky spider mech legs from Clone Wars, and the larger minis really are fun to slap paint on.

Decisions, decisions.

Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures, Workbench

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Jean Grey Proxy

I am back after a seven month battle with my pancreas that saw two hospitalizations, a major surgery, and an inability to eat food due to the cessation of my digestive tract. The surgery was undertaken to fix that issue, and I am happily able to eat now! I apologize for the absence, although my pancreas has informed me that it will happen again.

With that out of the way, though, let’s look at some minis! I love the X-Men, and, while I was a fan of the Jim Lee costumes that debuted 33 years ago, I don’t think they’re the end-all, especially when it comes to the original five students of Charles Xavier. Jean’s costume in particular never really gelled for me.

When the Krakoa storyline started a few years ago, I was really happy to see Jean’s first non-school uniform show up again, and spent some time looking for a suitable proxy model to use.

Before anyone rattle a pitchfork too mightily in my direction, I have a staunch take on proxy use! I always strive to own the original model, since I am playing a game that someone spent a lot of time and resources on, I want to support that. I also make sure that my opponent is cool with me using a proxy before we play. This allows cool battles like X-Men VS X-Men, with an obvious time travel element thrown in because of the costume variations!

I found this file of Jean in her Hickman era costume, and here’s how she looks painted up!

While I’m not 100% sold on the pose, I think the sculpt is actually pretty good!

I really do hope that Atomic Mass Games are able to branch out and explore more costume designs in future minis, because there’s a vast and wondrous world of X-Threads beyond Jim Lee, but let’s face it; those costumes were iconic, immortalized in the ’90s cartoon, and nostalgia sells war dollies better than any other marketing tool!

Another proxy is coming next!

Marvel Crisis Protocol, Miniatures

MCP: The Juggernaut

I am blaming my friend Randon for this. I just fell helplessly back in love with Marvel Crisis Protocol. It’s not entirely his fault, the models are incredible, fun to paint, and really easy to collect… but I’m blaming him, primarily because he’s a fun guy to pal around with, but he’s also an incredible painter, which can get the inspiration juices flowing pretty easily!

The first model off the workbench is Cain Marko, half-brother of Charles Xavier and the wielder of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak… but you probably know him as the Juggernaut!

This model is incredible! He’s so dynamic, and the base alone conveys the brutal stompiness of the character in such a huge way! I also love that Cain just grabbed a stoplight to hit someone with on his way to the fight!

Juggernaut is one of those characters that I’ve loved since I was a kid. He’s a bad guy most of the time, but he seems to have some redeemable qualities. There was a run in the early 2000’s when he was a member of the X-Men that I loved, especially his friendship with Sammy the Squidboy. Good stuff, and it still hits me like a ton of bricks 20 years later!

There’s a bunch more MCP on the way, but Juggernaut is a great way to kick off this year’s projects! He also lets me check off a hobby bingo square, since he’s been sitting partially finished on a shelf for almost two years! Woohoo!