HOBBY SHOWCASE – X-MEN, SENTINELS, & ONSLAUGHT BY JOHNATHAN HO

There are plenty of ways to approach a collection for Marvel: Crisis Protocol, but few things are as satisfying as seeing an entire group of miniatures come together around a shared theme. For today’s Hobby Showcase, our friend Johnathan Ho is back with a collection that does exactly that, bringing together the X-Men, Sentinels, and a few other familiar faces for one seriously impressive display.

Johnathan’s X-Men immediately feel like a team. He leans heavily into the classic blue and yellow associated with the X-Men, carrying those colors across the roster, even onto characters like Gambit, who are usually seen sporting something completely different. That repeated palette helps connect the entire group while still leaving plenty of room for each character to feel like themselves.

And then there’s Phoenix! Her fiery oranges and yellows quite literally explode against the colder environment, making her an instant focal point without feeling disconnected from the rest of the collection. It really shows off the miniature as the centerpiece it was designed to be.

The basing helps sell that idea across the rest of the roster too. Johnathan’s snowy tundra gives every miniature the same environment, which becomes especially important for characters like Phoenix and Storm who aren’t wearing that iconic blue and yellow. Even when the colors shift dramatically, the collection still feels like it belongs together.

Of course, the X-Men aren’t alone.

Johnathan also brought along an imposing collection of Sentinels, giving the opposing side some equally fantastic paint jobs. Here, the focus shifts toward the deep blues and magentas the villains are known for, creating a very different look from the X-Men without feeling out of place beside them.

And with miniatures this big, there’s a lot of room to have fun. Those massive armor panels become a great canvas for playing with highlights and surface texture, and Johnathan takes full advantage of that scale.

The same winter basing carries across to the Sentinels as well. It’s a simple choice, but an effective one, putting both sides on the same battlefield and making the entire collection feel like part of one larger project.

And then there’s Onslaught…

Johnathan’s take on the imposing villain brings another bold mix of purple and magenta into the collection. Crucially, while he fits naturally alongside the Sentinels, his palette is just different enough to give him a well deserved presence all his own. The icy blue energy beneath him pulls the miniature back toward the colder tones used throughout the rest of the project. Just like Phoenix, he makes for one heck of a centerpiece!

But Johnathan wasn’t finished yet. And really, did we expect anything less?

Once the miniatures were painted, he took the whole project one step further by staging them across a sprawling city battlefield. Sentinels tower over the streets while heroes and villains clash below them, turning the collection into a series of action shots that make everything feel like it has suddenly come to life.

That’s part of what makes these images so much fun. Miniature photography opens up a completely different side of the hobby. Finding an interesting angle and arranging the models so the shot tells a story asks for a different kind of creativity than painting does, and Johnathan clearly had a great time exploring it.

The results almost feel like panels pulled straight from a comic book!

When you step back and look at the collection as a whole, that’s really what makes it work. Johnathan didn’t just paint a group of X-Men and Sentinels, he gave them a shared world to inhabit. It’s really, really cool.

Fantastic work, Johnathan!

Have a collection of your own that you’re particularly proud of? Keep sharing your hobby projects with us. We always love seeing the different ways players bring the characters of Marvel: Crisis Protocol to life.

Until next time,
Atomic Mass Games