My family has had a lot of fun playing the tabletop role playing game collaboration from CMON and Spinmaster Games called MARVEL UNITED. There are a variety of box sets for this game system ranging from an Avengers themed core box to expansion sets focused on Spider-Man, Black Panther, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men. We've had family game nights recreating battles from television shows like Netflix's "Defenders", Disney+ "She-Hulk", Disney+ "Ms. Marvel" and Marvel Cinematic Universe movies including Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with the Marvel United gaming system. Now CMON and Spinmaster Games are expanding on the format by launching a DC SUPER HEROES UNITED variation of the game.
From now through July 31, 2024 they are crowdfunding the publishing of the game via Gamefound. Those who purchase the game through the crowdfunding campaign will have access to obtaining exclusive characters and game play accessories that won't be available when DC SUPER HEROES UNITED eventually becomes available from retail stores. Purchasing the game from retail will be slightly less expensive than the crowdsourcing route but doesn't include the extras, like a bonus box full of playable heroes and villains, that are going to be only available through investing in the Gamefound campaign. Most of the customized game scenarios I've played have involved characters obtained as rewards in crowdfunding campaigns; so I'll probably be making a pledge to get DC SUPER HEROES UNITED during this current Gamefound campaign.
In DC SUPER HEROES UNITED, one to five players team up to take on the roles of Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Superman to tackle the master plan of a villain. Villains included with these heroes in the core set that can be the super heroes adversaries include Lex Luther, the Joker, Darkseid and Cheetah. A comic book story is played out by utilizing decks of cards to complete goals and engage in combat.
Villains and heroes alternate adding their cards to the storyline. Heroes work together to coordinate strategies and attacks while villains are managed by an AI system of rules to compete with players. In the spirit of cooperation and teamwork that is necessary for players to win the game, a player not only can use the designated action moves on a card they played but also those posted on the card a teammate used just before them.
The game isn't just a fight with the big bad guy though. Your team must overcome challenges before you can confront the primary villain of a game head on. Rescue civilians, defeat thugs, and eliminate threats. Then the battle really heats up! Fighting the boss villain is no push over but if it was the game wouldn't be that fun to play would it.
The game is recommended for ages 14+ but I've played it with my kids when they were twelve. It is a nice family game because parents and kids can equally enjoy the game and have fun playing together. An average game doesn't take all night either but can be played in around a half hour with minimal setup time. From my experiences with the Marvel United games, I absolutely recommend you check out DC SUPER HEROES UNITED either via the Gamefound campaign or when the game hits retail store shelves.
If you haven't participated in a tabletop gaming crowdfunding campaign, heed this word of warning. They will be heavily marketing the campaign using awesome looking images of the game pieces painted by very talented professional artists. The game pieces come unpainted. While there are numerous disclaimers about the game pieces not being painted it is impossible not to become captivated by their marketing images. In reality you will either be playing the game with unpainted pieces or paint them yourself with results that will be nowhere as nice as what you see promoted in the campaign. Be careful not to get hooked in to making purchases based upon awesome imagery that you most likely won't be able to replicate. Just saying!
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Before 2022 fades into 2023, we're taking a look back at the most popular posts on ageekdaddy.com based upon our blog stats during this year. Entertainment, lifestyle and travels were favorite topics that this Geek Daddy will look to continue delving into for 2023. Drum roll please! The top 22 blog posts of 2022:
This comedic spoof of the Indiana Jones / Alan Quartermain style adventure movies of the 1980s, is a popular franchise in Spain but the family-friendly animated films are not widely known in the United States. We shared a movie night experience watching the digital release of the newest film in the TAD THE LOST EXPLORER franchise. Following publishing this post, I received a lot of tweets on our @Geekdad248 Twitter account thanking me for introducing this movie to our audience. Many had never heard of this franchise before and were thrilled to discover it. Are you following us on Twitter? A lot of people are geeked when they see through their Twitter feed we've added a new post to the blog.
My family had to solve a treasure hunt to unlock the digital code for an UNCHARTED movie night. Another treasure hunter movie post that was popular on the blog in 2022. There are a lot of people who grew up dreaming of being adventurous explorers after watching the 1980s flicks Raiders of the Lost Ark and King Solomon's Mines. UNCHARTED also generated a lot of interest from it being a movie adaption of a popular video game series. And then there were some like my daughter who wanted to see Tom Holland and my wife wanting to see Mark Wahlberg star in the film. There was a lot of interest in this film; do you think it lived up to expectations?
Posts about family movie nights and home video releases of motion pictures are always hot topics when it comes to a Geek Daddy's blog posts. Scooby Dooby Doo! There are a lot of people who love Scooby Doo and were geeked about this announcement that a new animated movie featuring the scaredy cat dog and his mystery solving teenager friends was being released for Halloween.
Our announcement that Gibson Guitars YouTube channel was producing a series focused on heavy metal music and horror movies struck a lot of cords. This free to view video series highlights artists that have made a lot of people scream. The first episode featured actor Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger, and the band Dokken that performed songs for the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. I've really enjoyed the METAL & MONSTERS shows on Gibson TV!
The popularity of this post shows there is a lot of nostalgia for classic arcade-style video games. I bought a playable sixth scale reproduction of one of my favorite games to play at the arcade by my house as a middle school tween. Here is my review of New Wave Toys 1943 Replicade.
What sci-fi geek hasn't dreamed of flying the Millenium Falcon on a space adventure? We made that dream come true for this Geek Daddy with a visit to Walt Disney World to ride the Star Wars Smugglers Run attraction and share the experience in this post. Hit it Chewie!
In the last year I've transitioned from maintaining my own law practice to becoming a city attorney. One of the most interesting things I did on the job this year was had an opportunity to spend a day training with the fire department to get a better understanding of their operations.
I've always wanted to go whitewater rafting and finally checked that off my travel bucket list by going on a Father's Day road trip with my son to West Virginia's New River Gorge. It was a wet, wild adventure on the gorge!
2022 was a year when I jumped into the tabletop gaming hobby and with that came learning how to start painting the game pieces to enhance the playing experiences. I shared some tips learned from trial and error from someone who lacks good hand-eye coordination and artistic abilities yet still finds painting miniatures a fun and relaxing activity.
Marvel United a tabletop game, which is a co-production of CMON and Spinmaster Games, is a family favorite for game nights in our household. In anticipation of the theatrical release of DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS we played a game of Marvel United themed around what we thought at the time the movie might be about. We were wrong about the movie plot; but it was still a fantastic game night! We also played a Marvel United game themed around the Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk Disney+ shows that was a popular post but just narrowly missed out on making the Top 22 list.
We must have a lot of Harry Potter fans reading the blog because this review of the Noble Collection's prop replica of the wand utilized by Jude Law in filming Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore generated lots of attention. While the movie may have been a flop plenty of people were interested in getting their hands on Albus Dumbledore's wand.
Appreciate so many people were interested in my advice on gifts that special women in their lives would be geeked to get for Mothers Day. This collection of replica jewelry featured in Harry Potter movies featured some magical pieces that would be sure to delight fans of the books and films.
A discussion about Kit Harington's role in Eternals and future Marvel Cinematic Universe movies generated a lot of buzz. Always enjoy chatting about comic books and superhero themed movies on the blog, Instagram and Twitter.
What is better than a movie studio hosting a movie night for my family to enjoy by providing us a free copy of a new home video release to watch? When they give us free movies to give away to our ageekdaddy.com audience as well. We had a lot of interest in the free digital movie codes this Geek Daddy had to give out!
My kids love Pepperidge Farms Goldfish Snacks and the Disney+ Mandalorian television show. So, they were geeked when we discovered Star Wars: Mandalorian Goldfish Snacks! The Force was with this blog post!
DR SQUATCH produces soaps made with natural ingredients and excludes harsh chemicals and artificial ingredients in making its products. To help market their products they often partner with popular entertainment brands to create cool custom soaps. My review of their Star Wars themed soaps must have created a disturbance in the Force because it was in the Top 10 of most viewed ageekdaddy.com posts in 2022.
Baby Yoda was HOT when it comes to our ageekdaddy.com audience! Grogu cracked the Top 10 of most popular blog posts in 2022 three times! Hot Toys is known for creating awesome replica creations of Star Wars characters and this review of their life-sized figure of this hit character from the Mandalorian tv show was a standout post.
I was so geeked to review this diecast replica of the Batmobile from THE BATMAN movie! Jada Toys did an outstanding job producing this 1:18 scale replica of the car from the film. It was like there was a Bat Signal directing Caped Crusader fans to the blog to read this post.
There must be a lot of pent-up demand for more Muppets shows because my announcement that Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band were getting their own Disney+ show was one of the blog's most viewed posts of the year. Rock on Electric Mayhem!
I have to admit this was a surprise when viewing the annual stats; but our overview of the new skateboards released by LOADED BOARDS in 2022 had double the unique visitors and reader views of almost any other blog post we published this year. Wow! I really wasn't expecting that.
Wish they had provided some product for my kids to show off for them and they would have really rocked it this year! They earned their free media on this post though because there obviously was an interest in their products! Yes, we do writeups on products that I buy with my own money or we are just sent press releases on; not everything is provided free to us or has a sponsorship fee connected to it that is published on ageekdaddy.com. This blog is all about sharing experiences and interesting news with our readers that I am geeked about and believe you will be too.
Our top blog post of 2022 is my review of DODOS RIDING DINOS. A game that I spent my own money on to buy through a Kickstarter campaign. This is a family favorite for playing on game nights! Who doesn't love board games and dinosaurs?! This is a product we promoted just from the pure joy I had from playing it with my kids and the honest review obviously captured attention. Congrats Draco Studios and Detestable Games for having our most viewed blog post of 2022!
I just bought an expansion pack that should be arriving in 2023. Do you think they may be able to repeat this feat again next year? Good luck!
THANK YOU!
Thank you to everyone who has visited ageekdaddy.com this year. I appreciate you and hope you enjoy the content we share. We'll be back in 2023 with more content focused on entertainment news, family experiences, travel features, men's lifestyle and more. Happy New Year!
Excelsior! The MARVEL UNITED games is such a blast to play and I am so geeked that now you can expand upon the gameplay by adding mutant heroes and villains into the action. Up to now the focus has been on Avengers-based characters but with new expansion packs Alpha Flight, Deadpool, the Fantastic Four, X-Men and more can join in the action.
I arrived home to find my dog guarding a crate of MARVEL UNITED expansion packs I ordered through a pledge in a Kickstarter campaign for the game. The artwork on these game box covers is super! I need to figure out a nice way to display this amazing art as part of storing these games when they aren't being played. If you have some suggestions tweet them out to me at @Geekdad248!
The elements of these expansion packs to MARVEL UNITED are similar to its original gameplay. A cooperative game where players team up to defeat a villain's master plan. Players must manage their own deck of action cards while moving around a gameboard to complete missions and combat evildoers. It is essential to work together to achieve victory because when players unite in combining actions it can result in some spectacular outcomes.
While a lot has stayed the same, these X-Men themed expansions also have some upgrades to the game. Now you can have a player control the villain in manipulating their master plan rather than just have everyone in the role of heroes. Also, some of the included miniature figures included for gameplay, anti-heroes, can be utilized as heroes or villains. Additionally, heroes now have more special effect cards available to add more comic book style action to the game and each hero has a trigger that when a certain scenario occurs unlocks a unique ability. These changes should make the game more exciting to play!
CORE X-MEN BOX
There is a core X-Men themed game box that is required to play the game unless you have the original Avengers themed core box for MARVEL UNITED. You need to have one or the other or both to play the game or utilize any of the expansion packs that are available for the game. The X-Men core box includes deck building cards, board locations, gameplay dashboards, and miniatures of heroes Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Beast, and Professor X; anti-heroes Magneto and Mystique; and villains Sabretooth and Juggernaut. MARVEL UNITED: X-MEN is available on Amazon.com.
In addition to the core X-Men MARVEL UNITED box, through pledging on Kickstarter I received a huge box filled with additional bonus characters from Alpha Flight, Excalibur, New Mutants and more.
Plus, Oldman Login and '80s era Storm were bonus characters that I received for going all in and purchasing all of the available expansion packs through the CMON MARVEL UNITED Kickstarter campaign for the game's X-Men focused adventures.
FIRST CLASS
One of the new expansion modes available through the Kickstarter campaign allows you to play as the original X-Men. Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Iceman team up against Magneto's twin children, from the 1960s comic book stories not more recent Marvel Cinematic Universe tv shows and movies, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. In addition to adding playable characters this expansion also includes four more locations to add to your game board.
GOLD VS BLUE EXPANSIONS
Two other expansion packs add future generations of X-men characters that followed the First Class. My goal was to be able to put together the X-Men team from the mid-1980s when I was a diehard reader of the comic books for several years in elementary and middle school. Yes, I'm an '80s kid! With these two expansion packs I was able to add Colossus and Rogue to go along with Cyclops and Wolverine from the X-Men core box as well as Nightcrawler, Storm, Kitty Pryde and Lockheed in my Kickstarter bonus box. Now I have the team back together time for some nostalgic fun!
THE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
How will my '80s X-Men fare against Famine, War, Pestilence and Death? The Horseman of the Apocalypse lets you battle against the world's oldest and one of the mightiest mutants along with his four henchmen in a multi-stage scenario that provides for challenging and intense gameplay. If they can't beat Apocalypse and stop his master plan than there are numerous other characters from these new MARVEL UNITED expansions to incorporate into the game. How do you think Alpha Flight, New Mutants or X-Force would do? Or how about the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy from the first MARVEL UNITED release would stand up against Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen?
SENTINALS
When it comes to X-men battles you really need to be able to have a fight against Sentinals. And MARVEL UNITED: X-MEN doesn't let us down! The Days of Future Past expansion provides a number of these gigantic mutant hunter robots for players to engage with. Players are really going to have to work together and give it their all to defeat these techno terrors!
DEADPOOL
The Merc with a Mouth makes an appearance in the X-Men MARVEL UNITED expansions too. Deadpool has his own expansion pack. It really is a zany scenario that fits in with the madcap exploits of this character known for breaking the fourth wall of media and being a goofy smart aleck. This expansion will provide a zany time!
FANTASTIC FOUR
Now that the movie rights for the Fantastic Four have returned to Marvel the first family of comic books is once again in the publisher's good graces which means we are starting to see more of them including inclusion in MARVEL UNITED. This expansion pack lets you try to spoil the plot of my favorite Marvel comic books villains ... Doctor Doom! A master of both the mystic arts and mechanical technology, it will be no easy task to defeat Doctor Doom.
THOR
I didn't get the THOR expansion in the original MARVEL UNITED Kickstarter and regretted it. With the new Thor movie coming out this summer, I wanted to add the character to my Avengers roster for MARVEL UNITED games. So, was glad to get a second chance to get my hands on it though this X-Men MARVEL UNITED Kickstarter campaign.
I'll be sharing more information about these and other MARVEL UNITED expansions as have the opportunity to dig into all these boxes and enjoy playing game sessions. Stay tuned to ageekdaddy.com for more updates as I get the chance to play MARVEL UNITED with family and friends. Note the game pieces come unpainted so keep an eye on my Instagram and Twitter feeds for occasional pictures of this amateur painter adding some color to them.
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Inspired by Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, my family had a MARVEL UNITED game night featuring the heroes from the movie. In Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Marvel Cinematic Universe unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. The film journeys into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images, and some language by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbach (Dr. Strange), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Xochitl Gomez (America Chavez). The villain of the movie is still somewhat shrouded and secrecy, but could it be Kang the Conqueror who has already been connected to the Loki tv series and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania movie setting up the time traveling and dimension jumping bad guy as the next major Thanos-level nemesis for the MCU?
So, we set up a Marvel United battle pitting Kang versus America Chavez, Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch. In the Marvel United tabletop game, 2 to 4 players take on the role of a team of heroes working together to thwart the master plan of a villain. This is a cooperative game produced by a partnership between CMON and Spin Master Games, in which the players either all win or lose together so instead of competing against one another to come out on top, Marvel United is about teamwork. Have a super time roleplaying as your favorite Marvel superheroes tackling the villainous plots of dangerous foes.
From Sanctum Sanctorum, Dr. Strange senses that something odd is going on in New York City. Temporal anomalies are appearing at locations ranging from the Daily Bugle to Stark Industries. Futuristic warriors are creating chaos in the city! Kang the Conqueror who has mastered traveling through time and space is up to some sort of scheme attempting to implement a master plan.
KANG THE CONQUEROR
Heralding from the far distant future of an alternate dimension, his quest to rule all universes has him crossing timelines brining him to our reality as Kang attempts to accomplish his master plan. He commands a time army of henchman consisting of warriors from across the galaxy of his future, multiverse origins. Both he and his thugs are equipped with advance technology and weaponry. Our team of heroes must defeat Kang's henchmen, rescue civilians, and eliminate threats at New York City locations around the gameboard before being able to directly attack the villain.
What heroes will team up to stop Kang's master plan in our game of Marvel United? We brought together the heroes from Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness! Can America Chavez, Dr. Strange, and Wanda Maximoff defeat the master plan of Kang the Conqueror?
Players utilize cards from a deck that each has to take actions and use special abilities within the game. Each turn, a player adds a card to the game's storyline that allows characters to complete tasks and battle enemies. Players also pass on some of their card actions to be used by teammates in super combo moves. Teamwork is so important in Marvel United!
HEROES WIN if they eliminate all of a villain's health points. To do this though they must first accomplish 2 of 3 tasks (rescue civilians, defeat thugs or eliminate threats) before they can attack a villain head on. Beware that there is no such restriction on the villain directly attacking your heroes with a BAM! while they are unlocking tasks!
HEROES LOSE if the villain completes the master plan. This happens if any of the following occurs:
The conditions of the Villainous Plot on the villain's dashboard are completed;
the villain places all of the Master Plan cards within the storyline;
any hero starts their turn with no cards in both their deck and hand.
DR STRANGE
Formerly a renowned surgeon, Doctor Stephen Strange now serves as the Sorcerer Supreme—Earth's foremost protector against magical and mystical threats.
SCARLET WITCH
Superhuman genes allow the Scarlet Witch to utilize energy and reality manipulation and provides powerful access to magical energies, such as chaos magic.
AMERICA CHAVEZ
Possesses superhuman strength, durability and the power of flight. America Chavez also has the power to kick open holes in reality, allowing her and her teammates to travel through the multiverse and into other dimensions.
GAME TIP
Each hero character normally has one or two cards that bestow an extraordinary ability. You will want to make sure to strategically play these cards to maximize the benefit. Be alert that if the villain knocks out your character all cards in your hand are reshuffled into the down-sided deck so no assurance when the hero may be able to access that card into you up hand as a playable ability. While a KO doesn't end the game for a character it does throw your card use into chaos!
ORB OF AGAMOTTO
Placing this Dr. Strange card into the storyline provides the team an advance look at all of the villain's Master Plan cards before they are put into play. This ability to see into the future is invaluable for positioning characters around the game board and determining what actions to take during a turn. An invaluable ability to give your heroes and edge over the game's artificial intelligence controlling the villain's moves against you.
INVULNERABILITY
When the game is nearing its end and there isn't much room for error, the invulnerability card of America Chavez avoids a KO at an inopportune time.
CHAOS MAGIC
Have bad card options in your hand and wish you could replay one that is already in the storyline? With the Scarlett Witch's Chaos Magic she enables a teammate to swap one card from their hand with a faceup card in the storyline.
The game started out with a fairly quick KO of the Scarlet Witch by Kang. But after that the heroes held their own and knocked out two of the three missions they needed to accomplish to be able to allow them to try and KO Kang themselves. Yet Kang avoided a head-on confrontation with the heroes with his Time Master card coming into play within the storyline. This allowed the villain to phase out of our reality and avoid losing health points to hero attacks.
With only three cards left in Kang's Master Plan deck, there was no guarantee another Time Master card would appear allowing the villain to phase back into gameplay. Without that happening there was no way the heroes could inflict damage to eliminate his health points. That would leave them with no way to win the game!
Dr. Strange came to the rescue as he was able to add his Eye of Agamotto card into the storyline. This allowed him to pull out one of the previously drawn Time Master cards from Kang's Master Plan deck from the storyline. The heroes were able to replace that card in a reshuffled Kang Master Plan deck thanks to the Eye of Agamotto!
Yet the heroes were running out of time with Kang only having four cards left to play now. If he plays all his Master Plan cards before the heroes eliminate his health points, the villain wins. Two turns later, the Time Master card returned to the storyline setting up a Kang showdown with Dr. Strange, America Chavez and the Scarlet Witch in Central Park. With only two turns left before Kang could play his last Master Plan card to win the game it came down to one last battle.
Being able to play Dr. Strange's Orb of Agamotto card in the closing moments of the game, the heroes were able to know exactly where to position themselves to quickly inflict the most damage on Kang. Scarlet Witch utilized a powerful attack from an adjoining location cutting Kang's health in half. America Chavez then used some combo effects passed on from cards in the storyline to provide the final body blows to take out the rest of the villain's health points.
With no time left, the heroes make a last second comeback to tackle the Master Plan and defeat Kang. Whew! That was too close for comfort! America Chavez, Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch save the day and stopped Kang's Master Plan. We achieved a Marvel United family game night victory!
One last note. Playing pieces come unpainted with the Marvel United game. The characters shown in this post were decorated with my own amateurish skills. Be nice!
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During the pandemic, I dipped my toes into the hobby of tabletop gaming. The wargaming and roleplaying that people were sharing on social media of Warhammer 40,000, Star Wars Legion, and Zombicide among other games captured my attention. Plus, the images of the miniature playing pieces for these games were amazing!
So, I started off my involvement with the hobby last year by buying a brand new game called Marvel United that was being introduced through a Kickstarter campaign. I've had such an entertaining experience with Marvel United that I've also bought some Zombicide games and am going back and forth about maybe investing in some Blood Bowl teams. Here are a few lessons learned from my beginner experience in tabletop gaming and miniature painting that I hope may be helpful to other people just getting into the hobby who may stumble upon this.
LESSON 1 -- MINIATURES ARE UNPAINTED
Miniature figures, game pieces, and scenery for tabletop game are unpainted. Those stellar images you see of incredible looking miniatures that are posted online didn't look like that coming out of the box. Someone put effort into decorating the miniature to look that way! When you get that same miniature it will be a one color piece of plastic that looks just like it did when coming out of the production mold.
Also be prepared that the miniatures for many games don't come assembled. That means you need to snap out parts from panels and put together pieces with crazy glue. Then you may need to sand out rough spots and imperfections. Finally, it is time to paint!
If you don't want to deal with the assembly aspect of miniatures, the figures and game pieces from CMON tend not to need to be put together. There was no assembly required for the Chibi style figures that come with the Marvel United game. Understanding what you are getting before making a purchase is important because the miniatures used in wargaming and roleplay games can be a considerable investment. You don't want to buy boxes of miniatures then be too overwhelmed to prepare them for actually playing with.
LESSON 2 -- PAINTING MINIATURES TAKES TIME AND TALENT
The miniatures you paint right off the bat are going to look nothing like the jaw-dropping displays of awesomeness that are posted on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Still, anyone who puts some time and effort will still be able to do a decent job painting miniatures. You don't need to impress the world if you are happy with decorating your own miniatures for your own gameplay. It is about having fun when it comes down to it. Remember that!
It isn't just about picking up a paint brush and slapping some paint on a miniature. There are different techniques for coloring, shading, washing, glossing and more that make a huge difference in making miniatures stand out. Take some time to watch YouTube video tutorials to get great tips and suggestions for miniature painting. Do a search with "the name of your game + miniature painting" and you are sure to find some great videos to watch. I've learned quite a bit about improving the look of my miniatures through watching these types of videos.
I'm not very artistically gifted or talented, but the more I've painted I keep find myself getting a little bit better every time. Stick with it and keep going and over time you are sure to continually improve. Don't give up! Remember too as long as you are satisfied that is good enough. If at some point you just aren't satisfied with how your miniatures are looking, you can always check around with local hobby shops for skilled painters who will decorate your figures for you on commission.
LESSON 3 -- PRIME BEFORE PAINTING
Don't just start painting your miniatures! The paint won't bind to the plastic and will easily flake off as it dries. Spray a coating of primer on the miniatures before you paint.
A lot of paint supply companies offer some expensive primer options. I've found a can of flat coat grey Rust-oleum from the hardware store works just fine. With as expensive as this hobby can be that is a nice way to do some cost-cutting without sacrificing quality.
Varnishing is also recommended to avoid the paint chipping from your finished miniatures. I just keep my miniatures around the house for family game nights and haven't notice a need for that extra protection. If you are taking your miniatures places to play games at friends' homes or game conventions and tournaments it may be wise to safeguard them with a coat of varnish. Note varnish will dull the overall brightness of the color of your miniature so be prepared for that before giving a coating.
LESSON 4 -- PAINT CAN BE EXPENSIVE
Wow! Paint is expensive! And it is hard to know what you actually need when just starting out.
I purchased a starter kit from Army Painter to have myself a base set to work with. The paint does a decent job but if you want to kick your details up a notch it would be wise to buy some more expensive Citadel paints for highlights. Citadel Colour is pricey but if you use it to provide contrasts to your base coat it can compliment Army Painter while keeping your paint budget reasonable.
Just be prepared for sticker shock when it comes to buying paint. For glazing or creating colors you can also water down paints or mix them together so you can get what you need without buying a bottle for every color under the rainbow. You can find online guides that will help you create a spectrum of colors from combing a few basic ones. Whether you are just creative or are trying to save money there are a variety of ways that being a mixologist can benefit you.
I've found good paint selection and prices at gamenerdz.com. This online hobby store has discounted pricing, free shipping on orders over $75, doesn't charge sales tax and has a loyalty rewards program that can provide additional savings. Well worth checking out!
LESSON 5 -- BRUSH SIZE MATTERS
When I bought my first tabletop games, I just picked up a bundle of #1 sized brushes for painting miniatures. Figured a basic brush size should do just fine. That was a mistake! The brush was too big for highlights all the different aspects that I wanted to stand out in the miniature.
Brushes actually go down from sizes 0 to 00000. 0x5 is actually my preferred size for miniature painting now. When you want to have intricate details stand out with different colors and shading these 0-sized brushes really let you pinpoint aspects of the miniature.
Size matters! For larger models of big creatures, buildings and vehicles you can go all the way up to a 6-size brush. For miniatures that don't have bigger expanses of space to cover a 1-size brush can be just fine too. You don't want to overload 0-size brushes with paints so if you can mix in some larger brushes too that extends the life of your more delicate brushes.
The main point of this lesson is to keep in mind there is a variety of brush sizes and make sure you have an understanding of that before you start painting. I was seeing other people working on details that I just couldn't do with a 1-size brush and realized that going to a smaller size would improve on what could be done.
LESSON 6 -- DON'T WORRY ABOUT LOOKING SILLY
A big problem I had with painting miniatures was that my eyes weren't focusing in well enough to see all the details of a figure. I bought a set of wearable VISION AID magnifying glasses and it has done wonders on the quality of my work. It has done wonders with my hand-eye coordination and has been a wonderful purchase. It has a number of lenses ranging from 1.0x magnification to 3.5x. Plus, it has a light built-in that is directed at what I am looking at and is rechargeable with a usb cord.
My wife and kids laugh at me when I wear my VISION AID; but I don't care because it is so helpful when I'm using it. The difference in my miniature painting from before and after using VISON AID is like night and day. I don't care if I look silly wearing these magnifying glasses. This has been a great purchase and I am so glad I bought one. It earns a Geek Daddy nod of approval because I love using them!
LESSON 7 -- CREATE A DEDICATED WORK SPACE
At first, I would bring my games, miniatures and paints out and then pack everything up and put it back in the closet. Large gaps of time would go by between my paint sessions because it was such a pain to set up and take down everything every time. Once I designated a dedicated space in a corner of my basement as a hobby studio my time spent miniature painting became much more consistent.
It wasn't complicated to make a space. I just set up a card table and purchased a brush/paint stand on Etsy. The items I bought from SnarkySayings have worked out great. Check them out if you are looking for some miniature painting storage solutions. They earned a Geek Daddy nod of approval for quality products and customer service!
SHARE YOUR HOBBY TIPS
There you have it! Some lessons a beginner in the tabletop gaming and miniature painting hobby learned through trial and error. If you are just getting into the hobby, I hope you found these tips useful. Have tips and lessons learned of your own to share? Please let the rest of us know about your experiences by leaving a comment here at ageekdaddy.com so we can all get better with help from each other.
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