Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Ultron

Ultron. I’ve finally reached the end of the core box and was I saving the best till last?

Well, no not really!

I’d put Ultron to one side because I wasn’t sure exactly how to paint him. I didn’t want to go the same road as I’d seen many others go, basically approaching chainmail or silver in colour, and wanted something more in line with the comic Ultron.

Originally I considered using a zenithal approach. Spraying Gunmetal, then Chainmail, then Silver, increasing the angle of spray each time, and I was about to do a trial run when something else caught my eye.

That something was Vallejo’s Metal Colour range. This is a range of metallic paint that is for use with an airbrush, and is sprayable directly from the bottle.

There’s quite a range of colours to choose from, but after flipping through my Marvel encyclopaedia, I’d decided I wanted to replicate the Ultron from the comics, so I opted for Steel.

On advice from their website, I primed in gloss black; apparently it enhances the finish.

The paint went on beautifully with the airbrush, lovely and smooth, and it dries very quickly. I was going to edge highlight with Chainmail or Silver, but I was impressed with how the paint replicated metal and decided not to bother. I have since painted a few other minis using this paint, and actually Chainmail (Vallejo) highlights it really well, in fact you don’t even have to blend it in, as the way the paint reflects it’s almost impossible to see where the Steel ends and the Chainmail begins. I was almost tempted to revisit Ultron and highlight him up, but again, I couldn’t be bothered – what’s done is done!

So, after spraying I just had to add the glow.

For this I started with a base of Citadel’s Blood Red (from it’s old range) and then glazed up using a variety of glazes. These were made by adding glaze medium and a dash of water until I had the consistency I wanted

Here are the colours I used to do it:

• Blood Red + Orange Fire (Vallejo’s Game Colour)
• Orange Fire
• Orange Fire + Medium Yellow (Vallejo’s Model Air)
• Medium Yellow
• Medium Yellow + Dead White (Vallejo’s Game Colour)

It sounds a lot of work, but I only actually made three glazes – Blood Red, Orange Fire, Medium Yellow – it was then just a case of mixing them into each other as required, and it was a quick process.

So, that was Ultron. Really quite simple in the end and now I have a new favourite paint; I’m looking forward to trying some of the other colours in the range.

It isn’t the last of Marvel: Crisis Protocol, though. I’ll do a brief post with all the characters together, including the scenery (everything from the core set, bar the cars, I’ve had a few issues with them!). I’ve also managed to get a few games under my belt now, so I’ll be posting my first thoughts – MARVELlous!