So, it’s just typical isn’t it?
I was just getting back into some kind of routine, starting to knock out regular(ish) posts again, when, quite out of the blue, there’s a mass exodus of people at work!
This, ‘rats leaving a sinking ship’, reduced us back down to the two of us and meant a rather large increase in the amount of time we’d be spending at work. I’m talking weekends here.
This knocked on to the amount of available time for life stuff, hence my hobbies suffered and writing posts once again went out the window.
So far, the only light at the end of the tunnel has been someone carrying a lantern bringing us more work to do, that and the gremlins putting the lift out of order for a month!
But, I have managed some painting and, without further ado, here’s Magneto…
I say ‘without further ado’, but there is something I need to address before I plunge into the process, and that’s the colour. More precisely, the colour purple and how it isn’t, at least in the pictures!
Try as I might, I can’t produce the colour purple accurately in the pictures I’ve taken. I’ve tried using my phone, my DSLR, differing lighting right up to my studio lighting, and no matter what I use, purple comes out blue!
I have done a bit of research in to why this is happening (in other words I ‘Googled it’) and it is a common problem (called purple fringing), as purple often lies outside what a camera’s sensor can accurately reproduce. There are things I could have done to try and get around this, such as play around with filters, aperture settings, and using a lens hood, but I didn’t have the time to revisit it. He’s also not been varnished yet, which, I hope, will kill the effect and I’ll be able to get some better, more true to the eye, pictures. Afterall, I’ve never had this issue before.
So, the first step was priming. I did a zenithal for him, as I wanted to use this as a guide for placing shade and highlights. I then painted in his face using paints from the Lifecolor diorama range, and basecoated all the areas that were going to be purple with Heavy Violet.
I had in my head a cloak that looked rich in colour, with hints of blues and reds mixed in with the base of purple. The purple I wanted verging on the edge of violet to give it a warm, deep, luxurious feel. We shall see how it all pans out in the end…
Time to start on his suit and my first step was to paint in the darkest shade with Scale Color’s Deep Red, using the zenithal priming as a rough guide. I then added in the mid-tone areas using Blood Red, and finally the lightest areas with Antares Red.
Building up the final highlights with a mix of Aldebaran Red and Yellow Sol until I was happy, I then glazed over with Blood Red to blend it all together.
I basecoated the metal structures with Metal Color Steel and then started adding the highlights to the purple areas using various mixes of Heavy Violet, Sunset Purple, Dwarf Skin, Elfic Flesh, Light Brown, and Glacier Blue. Quite a mix, but most of these colours were used on areas other than the cloak, as I had something else in mind for that. I put down what looked like quite a harsh area of highlighting on the cloak, as you can see…
Time to start glazing and for this I used two Xpress paints – Gloomy Violet and Deep Purple – one on the Blue side of purple and one on the red.
I used these both neat and diluted, and as a single colour and mixed together. Applying them in different ways and in different areas of the cloak, I hoped to get that rich depth to it that I was looking for.
It’s pretty hard to judge from the images above, especially as the purple is appearing as blue and the glazing over with Xpress has left a gloss appearance (something I find odd about the Xpress paints. Whilst they’re supposed to be matt they occasionally give a gloss finish!).
I painted up the base, weathered the metal structures and then tried taking a few more pictures in different lighting and with my DSLR.
I also tried a different background.
At least against the black background you can start to get an idea of the variation in colour over the cloak. Hopefully, I can grab some better pictures once he’s been varnished. I’ll post ’em up if I do.
On to his constructs and these I kept simple. Basecoating Metal Color Steel, I then added a few details using ink, weathered things in, and completed the base to match Magneto. Job done.
That’s Magneto finished and I’ve already started on Sabretooth, though I haven’t followed the full process with pictures as I have here – Should I have done? We shall see…
The Solo Meeple 
Sorry to hear about the real life situation, hope it improves shortly for you, but great to see a post from you. yes getting purple to show true in photographs is a royal pain, but I can see purple in the pictures rather than blue, just may not be the shade it is in real life. Fantastic work on both the character, and the constructs, very evocative model and extras.
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Thank you Dave.
Interviews should be taking place shortly, so hopefully we’ll be back to fully manned soon.
Yes, not the shade it is in ‘real life’ but hopefully you get the idea.
Really enjoyed painting him and I think it shows. Always put more into a mini that you want to paint rather than one you have to!
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Sorry to hear about work, mate! Its always a pleasure to hear from the Black Country so I hope that things settle down for you soon.
I really enjoyed reading about your painting process and I will pose an idea or two for you to mull over. To my eyes, you started off with colder shades of purple, especially the highlights and then it seems like you glazed warmer purple over it which reduced the nice contrast you were starting to build up. While you can certainly mix warm and cold colors to good effect, I think you might have stuck with cold purple and just smoothed out the highlights from there and you’d have a really nice looking mini. You could also go with warm purple from the get go too, of course and that would look great as well. Its some food for thought for the future, I reckon.
It is a shame how glossy the inks made Magneto. If you get can some ultra matte varnish (I’ve got some from AK Interactive) that should tone it down. I run into that problem sometimes myself because of Lahmian Medium by Citadel. Also, I know you weren’t happy with your camera’s photos but to me, these do indeed look nice and purple-y for what that’s worth 🙂 I also want to mention the red portions of Magneto’s suit which look excellent! You really did well with those and it highlights Magneto’s old man pecs very nicely haha! I always get a chuckle out of Magneto who survived World War II and apparently Father Time because he still looks to be between 40-60 in comics even though he’s got to be 100 years old at this point 🙂
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Thanks Jeff, always good to hear what you have to say when it comes to painting.
I did consider doing what you suggested, sticking with the base colours and building from there. It’s something I’ve done before when painting purple.
Here, though, I had in mind a sort of deep velvet kind of look, which doesn’t so much reflect the light but has a richness to it and hints at different colours, reds, and blues, mixed in with violets and purples. I highlighted as I did knowing that it would more or less disappear when I used the Xpress paint over it and was hoping it would give me a hint of different colours where the light hit but not in a reflective kind of way. I think my imagination is writing cheques that my painting ability can’t cash!
It has partially worked, at least to the naked eye, and I’m quite pleased with him so far. The different colours I was hoping for are there, just not to the degree I was wanting. I am, however, hoping it will improve when varnished – I use Vallejo Mech Matt Varnish (I also have AK’s Ultra Matte but find it isn’t as hard wearing as Vallejo’s).
The Xpress paints do, occasionally, give a gloss finish, especially when a couple of coats are applied or it’s used as a varnish. I don’t mind as I always use a matt varnish.
Thanks for your comment about his suit, I was especially pleased with that bit. I used Scalecolor aints there. I have a red set and they layer up really well.
I don’t know much about Magneto, he’s not one I followed when I was into the comics. It was mostly Iron-Man, Spider-Woman, Ghost Rider, and a few others of similar ilk.
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I appreciate the process you were going for, mate! Its very ambitious and your description helps me better understand why you did what you did. There’s never any shame in trying new things and seeing what happens as well. You might succeed, you might fail, but you will learn from it.
If you find yourself with an abundance of free time, Magneto is a great character to read about. He’s one of the most human and well-rounded villains over at Marvel I reckon. That is what I enjoy about him anyway. You can understand why he does what he does and why he doesn’t trust humanity.
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Thanks Jeff. You’ve intrigued me regarding Magneto and his story, however, what’s this ‘abundance of free time’ thing? 🤣
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If ever find out the secret, I’ll let you know 😉
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Looks really good to me, Justin! 🙂 I like the extra bits of debris flying about!
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Thank you John.
He actually came with more ironmongery to add to the base but I thought less is more!😁
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Magneto is looking so sweet there, excellent painting as always. If you ever find time to actually play the game again you’ll be pleased to know that the current crisis pack is rather favourable to him, in addition to some top predators (mainly Thanos) being toned down. So it’s a good time to be playing Magneto.
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Thanks mate.
I have played with him once (he was grey at the time) and found him quite different to many of the others. You certainly have to plan a little to use him to full effect.
Hoping to get more game time in the summer hols when Yasmin is back from Uni.
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Good luck against your nemesis ;p
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