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!

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!