Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Uncanny X-Men

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m experimenting with speed/contrast/Xpress paints, call them what you will, in order to try and increase my output of minis, and I thought this would be a good point to show you two of the main methods I’ve been using.

Speed paints are designed to be used over a coat of white or light coloured primer but, of course, there are a lot more ways to use them than that, and the ‘Slapchop method’ is something that has become popular with the emergence of these paints.

In ‘Slapchop’ you prime black and then drybrush in grey and then white, building up the contrast from shadows to highlights. This can also be done by Zenithal highlighting using an airbrush but that’s not the technique I used here.

Yasmin bought the Uncanny X-Men affiliation pack at last year’s UK Games Expo and I’ve finally gotten around to painting them – I know, it’s nearly been a year, my bad! Cyclops and Wolverine I painted from a white prime and Storm and Beast I started from black.

Cyclops and Wolverine shared the same colour base and were wrapped up pretty quickly. A single coat of Mystic Blue and Imperial Yellow Xpress paints took care of the majority, with the details painted in using more conventional methods – layering and glazing for the flesh.

They turned out nice and bright due to the white prime and whilst there is some definite contrast there, it isn’t always where or how I’d like it to be. From game distance, they look good and for the time they took I couldn’t ask for more.

Cyclops took no time at all, as other than lining in, I had hardly any other areas to paint.

Wolverine took a bit longer, as I had a bit more flesh to work on. I could have used speed paints here too but I find I still have to do more work afterwards to get them looking satisfactory, especially when covering larger areas.

Moving on to Beast and, after priming black, I drybrushed the whole figure with Pale Grey Blue followed by white. I then used Mystic Blue for his flesh, Imperial Yellow for his belt, and Lotus Black for his shorts, all Vallejo Xpress. Painted in the other details, like the book and metal structure, finished the base and called him done.

As you can see, he hasn’t got the vibrancy of the previous two but the contrast of the shadows is much better and controlled. The highlights, though, don’t stand out enough. In the right light he looks really good, better I think, than both the other two.

For drybrushing, I used the same colours on Storm as I did for Beast, as I painted them at the same time, and the results are pretty similar.

The Xpress paint over the grey and black has worked really well, providing a rich coloured mid-tone and some lovely deep shadow. However, the highlights leave something to be desired.

For her hair, I used Templar White Xpress but I then quickly highlighted it further in white whilst I was painting the ‘lightening’ effects.

I definitely prefer the overall look of the latter two, and next time I take that approach I will add in an extra step or two. After applying the Xpress paint I’d then go back and drybrush again. I’d experiment with both the grey and white and just white, then apply another coat of Xpress. Hopefully, this would enhance the highlights and increase the contrast.

Of course, I could add further highlights by painting them in but the idea here is to cut down the number of steps to speed up the whole process. Maintaining a ‘battle’ ready finish is the balancing act.

I’ve got two more Marvel figures currently primed – Iron Fist in white, and Valkyrie in Black. I’m undecided as yet as to whether to use Xpress on Iron Fist or not but I certainly will on parts of Valkyrie so I’ll experiment further on her – we shall see…