Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Baron Zemo

So far, Baron Zemo has been a bit character within the MCU movies and hasn’t been presented as much of a threat to the mighty Avengers, though this may change if the hints for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier movie are correct, and he’s set to don the purple mask, the one in which we see him here.

Deciding on a colour scheme for Zemo I first thought about the card art, but way too much brown for my liking, so I consulted my Marvel encyclopaedia, but at 2010 it’s a bit out of date and shows Zemo dressed quite differently to this miniature version. So, in the end I decided to base him on the colour scheme used in the rule book.

I used a few different techniques here, still trying things out and experimenting, and so I’ll run through a few of them.

First up was the shirt. Primed in the usual manner with zenithal highlights, for the upper half of his shirt I made a very thin glaze of Warlord Purple (VGC – key at end of post). Painting a thin coat of this tinted the zenithal highlights, providing both shade and highlights without any hassle. Stripes were added with Squid Pink (VGC) and glazed over with the Purple.

The lower part of the shirt and the gloves involved a little more work – Heavy Violet base (VGEO) washed with thinned Heavy Violet with a little German Grey (VMC) added. I then restored the original base colour around the shade and highlighted with Alien Purple (VGA), which I then glazed over with the Warlord Purple I’d used for the upper half – very thin; you can’t really see the effect in the pictures. Finally, a highlight of Alien Purple/Squid Pink mix was added.

The trousers were a bit of concern. I didn’t want them the same colour as the shirt, but I did want to reflect the colours used. So, I base coated in a mix of Heavy Violet and German Grey and washed over with a Blue Wash (VGW) with a little Heavy Violet added. I then began to build up some layers using Heavy Violet mixed with a small amount of Grey Green (VMC – not to be mixed up with Green Grey!), increasing the Grey Green with every layer. This gave the trousers an overall hint of the purple, it also gave them a ‘dirty’ look which I kinda like and the colour works better than the brown used in the card art.

The leather jacket was fun to paint and I’d learnt a few things about blocking in from doing the flesh on Crossbones, which I put to use here. With Crossbones I’d been too precise about where I placed the Highlights and it caused me more work later, as I didn’t do the areas big enough to blend easily. I was a lot bolder here and I think it paid off. The three colours I used are Chocolate Brown (VMC), Snakebite Leather (GWO), and Heavy Ochre (VGEO). Once blocked in I made up glazes and used them to blend things together a little.

I paint white the same way on everything now – Heavy Bluegrey (VGEO) base, then Ghost Grey (VGC), with final highlights in Dead White (VGC) or White (VMA). On Zemo’s fur I drybrushed the Ghost Grey and White.

I thought I’d try out a new technique for the sword – Loaded Brush. Firstly, though, I base coated the lower part of the blade in Gunmetal (VGC) and the upper in Chainmail (VGC).

The loaded Brush technique involved me loading the belly of the brush with a shade colour, in this case black, as if I were going to paint normally with it, maybe a little less paint. Then I dipped the tip in the colour I wanted for the highlight, here I used Silver (VGC). Then, lightly at first, I zig-zagged down the blade of the brush slowly applying more pressure as I went – I say I applied more pressure, but it really isn’t much at all.

This should give a nice transition from light to dark, but it is a difficult technique to master, though I don’t think I’ve done too bad a job for a first attempt. I went from the tip of blade on the upper portion and from the hilt on the lower.

That’s it for Baron Zemo. You may have noticed that I’ve started lining things in a lot more and I think I might finally be getting the hang of it, at least the lines are a lot thinner now!

One last thing, as I look at the images, those eyes just aren’t right, too bright I think, though they do give him a manic kind of stare, which may be appropriate here, lol!

Key

• VGC – Vallejo Game Colour
• VGEO – Vallejo Game Extra Opaque
• VMC – Vallejo Model Colour
• VGA – Vallejo Game Air
• VGW – Vallejo Game Wash
• GWO – Games Workshop Old Range
• VMA – Vallejo Model Air