This 40mm scale model of the Red Skull is made by "CoolMiniOrNot” and can be found inside the Marvel United Core Box. Designed by Edouard Guiton, the figure is one of three super-villains found inside the “fast-paced cooperative” board game, along with five costumed crime-fighters. Produced in a red hard plastic, the miniature was initially primed with a double-helping of “Citadel” Abaddon Black, before receiving an enthusiastic dry-brush of “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII.
Johann Shmidt was then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil and had his long leather trench-coat heavily dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. The Nazi officer’s buttons were ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Brass and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. However, I really struggled to find the edges on a few of these details, so ended up fudging them with an application of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and a further highlight of “Vallejo” Brass.
The Red Skull’s face was treated to a couple of coats of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and shaded using plenty of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. Later I dry-brushed this area with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Red before picking out his evil eyes with a few spots of “Vallejo” White. Finally, his trousers were given a lick of "Vallejo" Luftwaffe Uniform WWII and a splash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil.
Despite having not yet finished painting enough of the game’s miniatures to play a game or two of Marvel United, I have managed to squeeze in a couple of run-throughs of the rules to Marvel United: X-Men using some of the bare plastic figures taken straight out of that set’s core box. These early battles saw us each take a single mutant hero, in my case Cyclops, and face-off against Victor Creed’s formidably fanged alter-ego, Sabretooth.
Perhaps unsurprisingly neither of the fights went particularly well for us, courtesy of the X-Men’s “recurring antagonist” repeatedly mowing us down with his all-powerful “Bam!” attack, Special Rules, Overflow instructions and Villainous Plot (victory) conditions.
Indeed, in the end we had to pay a repeated visits to “Reddit” to finally ascertain how all the deadly villain’s various protocols worked within the game. Quite why "CoolMiniOrNot” recommend starting with Sabretooth is beyond me, especially as seasoned players seemingly feel the professional killer is one of the hardest bosses to overcome.
Having said all that, we at least became reasonably familiar with the rules, and managed to get a couple of hits on Sabretooth from time to time before ‘the hunted heroes’ finally fell for the fourth time in a single game. Furthermore, it became clear that we could easily utilise two characters each in order to play a four-player game, if we remembered the turn order for the various colourfully costumed crime-fighters…