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| by Atomic Mass Games |
"I've Got No Strings to Hold Me Down..."
Welcome back, True Believers! Since last time we took at look at one of my favorite Marvel heroes, the Hulk, today we're heading across the aisle to take a look at one of the villains: Ultron.
One of the five villains that come in the Marvel: Crisis Protocol Starter Set, Ultron is one of the larger miniatures of the bunch, but just like the Hulk, he's an easier paint job than one would think.
Well, let's get to work on this chrome domed, genocidal automaton!
1. Gameplan, Prep, and Prime
So, we're going to be keeping it pretty traditional with Ultron, basing his look after his classic comic look:
Chrome body with some orange/red lights glowing all over various areas. Here are the paints that I've assembled to help me:
Army Painter
Citadel
Vallejo
Handmade Modern
Slate (standard grey), Elephant (light grey)
Ceramcoat
White
There aren't that many different paints here, and I'll be honest, the greys are just there for the rock that Ultron's standing on, so realistically, you can do whatever you like for that.
I've gone ahead and primed Ultron with Matt Black spray on primer by The Army Painter, though you can prime with whatever color you like. I just use black as metallic paints tend to show up better against a black basecoat.
Once that's all dry, it's time to start with basecoats!
2. Basecoats
Okay, so here's your reminder to thin your basecoats with equal parts water unless I tell you otherwise.
Take your standard grey and paint up the rock. You may have to do multiple coats to evenly cover the black undercoat, just make sure that you wait for each coat to dry before you apply an additional one.
Next, you'll take your plate mail metal and apply it directly. DO NOT THIN THE PLATE MAIL METAL. Just make sure that you apply it in a thin layer over the entire figure. YOu probably won't have to apply multiple coats, but don't be afraid to if you see any of the black showing through.
Once that's dry, it's time start shades!
3. Shading
We're going Highlander style this time, and only using one shade today:
All we're using is Nuln Oil by Citadel. You CAN use Dark Tone by The Army Painter, but I'm going with Nuln Oil because it doesn't tint the basecoats as much as Dark Tone would.
Simply apply the Nuln Oil to the entirety of the miniature, including Ultron's body and the rock. Now, let it dry completely, and we can move onto highlights!
4. Highlights and Finishing Touches
If you're new to painting, we're going to be using a new technique that we didn't use during the Hulk tutorial: Drybrushing.
When you drybrush a figure, you use a wedge/fan brush similar to this:
You load it up with paint, then brush MOST of the paint off of the brush onto a dry cloth or paper towel, leaving only trace amounts on the brush.
You'll then take that brush and brush it "Against the Grain" of the details of the mini, where the details of the mini catch the last remnants of the paint from the brush, popping out the detail and highlights.
We're going to take our Necron Compound, unthinned (DO NOT dilute with water) and do a drybrush all over Ultron's body. You can see this gives the figure a nice chrome sheen, while keeping the darkened details from the wash.
While you've got your wedge brush out, you can also apply a drybrush to the rock using your light grey at this point to give your rock a few highlights before we move onto the other steps.
After that, you'll take some of your bright orange (this time, you'll thin your paint) and paint some of the "Vents" around his body using your smallest detail brush. For me, I painted the vents on his thighs, his calves, his eyes, shoulders, mouth, and I selected a few on his chest as well.
Here's an idea of a few vents that I painted on his hips and back, though I have a feeling that everyone's selection of orange vents will be a little bit different.
After that, you'll add in a drop of white to your bright orange, so that we've got equal parts white and bright orange, and we're going to be using this color to paint a smaller portion of what we just painted orange, usually about the middle 50 percent, though in situations like his thigh vents, you can paint the bands that run vertically up and down his legs.
Once you've done that, you'll take your white, and apply that over what you just painted, again, painting about the center 50 percent of what you just painted, or about 25 percent of what you originally painted bright orange. In some situations like his thigh vents, or those on his ribs, this may end up just being a single dot of white.
After that, you'll want to take your transparent red and thin it down with a good amount of water, about a seven to one ratio (seven parts water to one part transparent red) and apply a very thin layer of this over all of the vents.
Unlike applying a wash, we don't want this to pool up at all, we just want a tiny bit to tint the orange into bright red orange territory.
Here you can see an up close picture of how it would look on his shoulder. Again, don't let it pool up at all, and if the center of the vents turns red or pink, use a dry brush to wick some of that transparent red away, because you still want the look of the white in the center and the orange surrounding it to give it the illusion of an internal glow.
As you can see in the picture above, I also put a VERY thin layer of this watered down transparent red on the metal portions on the very outside of each vent, no more than a millimeter's worth in each direction. This helps with the illusion that the vents are glowing and coloring the metal around it, though it is completely optional.
5. Murder Some Meatbags!
That's it, guys! Base him however you like, spray him with your matt spray and call it a day! Hopefully you guys found this useful, and remember that this, along with all of my Marvel: Crisis Protocol tutorials can be found on my blog for future reference. And if you found this, or any of my blog entries helpful, I humbly ask that you consider becoming a Patron! Every dollar truly helps, and allows me to bring you quality content on a regular basis.
Excelsior!
Excellent write up! Thanks!!
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