Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Gamora and Nebula

My daughter and I are putting together our own team rosters for this game and so I’m ordering and trying to paint a set for each of us per month. These two are for my roster, which will bring my total of Guardians of the Galaxy to four including Rocket and Groot.

So, after assembly, here’s a quick rundown of the how I painted ’em up…

All paints Vallejo unless otherwise stated.

Gamora

After a bit of research through various on-line images of her comics, I went with the standard white all-over armour. Some images show flecks of red here and there, but from what I could ascertain, all-over white was the standard.

I was in two minds – prime black and paint the raised sections white, or prime white and paint in the black between the armour plates. I went with the former, as I use Heavy Blue Grey as a base for white, I knew it would cover the black no problems. In hindsight, I could have primed grey and built up to white using graduated shading (basically similar to Zenithal priming but with more gradients) and the painted in the black; it would have been quicker.

After priming I painted in the face and hair. I based both with Citadel’s Snot Green (from their old range) and for the face I built up the highlights using Goblin Green (again from Citadel’s old range) and a glaze of Escorpena Green – One of my favourite greens, nice and vibrant.

For the hair I added some shading using Heavy Green, then Heavy Blackgreen, and highlighted with the Goblin. I revisited it later, as I felt there wasn’t enough contrast, and added some further highlights of Escorpena. I didn’t want to go too far though, as I needed the hair to appear darker than the face to make her features stand out.

The rest was easy but turned out to be rather time consuming. The armour plates were coated with Heavy Bluegrey, and then built up by adding Ghost Grey and then white to the mix, with a final highlight of pure white.

I ventured into the realms of Non-Metallic Metal (NMM) for her sword – my first real attempt – as it was something that has interested me, and I thought I’d give it a go. The hilt was a base of Heavy Ochre, then Light Rust and Smokey Ink to create the ‘shadows’ and Gold Yellow for the highlights. I pushed these further by adding White to the Yellow and finally gave it an all-over glaze of the Gold Yellow to bring it together.

I used a combination of colours on the blade, all in various mixes, as I experimented – Heavy Bluegrey, Sombre Grey, German Grey, Light Grey, White, and a touch of Snot Green as a reflection from her hair/face.

On the whole, I was quite pleased with the result and went on to try again on Nebula, as we shall see.

Final details were added – her lips were painted in and the highlights applied to the black areas – and then the base was completed as per the rest of the Marvel characters. Talking of bases; Azazel posted his Rocket and Groot, and his bases look amazing, making me seriously think about going back over mine and adding the few extras that make his really stand out. – bases have never been my forte, I’m just not creative in that way!

Nebula

I really enjoyed painting Nebula; I think it was the colours. Sometimes, when you paint a figure, everything just falls into place without having to think about it too much, and with each little bit you add it comes to life and brings a smile to the face – that’s how it was here.

I didn’t have a lot of joy when researching colours for her. In each comic appearance I could find, she was wearing something different, or she was drawn in a totally different style, anyway, I couldn’t pin anything down that I wanted to represent, so I went with the version on the box!

Staring from a Zenithal Prime, her suit was based with Heavy Violet, then shaded by adding Dark Blue to it. The highs were built up by mixing increasing amounts of Glacier Blue to the Violet. A final glaze over of the Heavy Violet diluted with glaze medium and water brought the colours together. I spent a lot of time her suit, building up the layers, glazing them in, then adding some more; Time just went and I was enjoying myself!

Warlord Purple was used for her belts and suit edging, adding a small quantity of Heavy Violet to it to create some shading.

I used the same colours as I did on Gamora’s blade to paint all the metal parts – the bit on her head and her blades – but I chickened out at painting the engine nacelle she was perched on. I just couldn’t visualise it to paint using NMM, so I coated it with Metal Colour Steel. I didn’t like the look that created, because I wasn’t happy with the blend of NMM and real metallic paint on the same figure. I resorted to mixing some Deck Tan into the steel and re-coating it, then added some weathering and called it done!

Back to Nebula. For her face I used two inks, Violet and blue, just a single coat allowing the Zenithal priming to show through. I then went over everything lining in with Black Ink. I’ve just discovered Inks and I can’t believe how I’ve done without them until now; they’re so versatile!

Using ink to line in is so much easier than using watered down paint or a black was, which is how I’ve been doing it in the past. Add a little water to the ink and it flows beautifully off the brush, creating very fine lines and takes to crevices just like a wash; they’re also great for glazing.

So, that’s Gamora and Nebula, and I’m looking forward to putting them to use on the table – I just need Star Lord now, as he’s the team leader!