How to Paint Everything – Marvel: Crisis Protocol Gladiator

Welcome back true believers! Big thanks to Atomic Mass Games for sending a copy for review. If you want to know more about his rules, other authors (who actually know what they’re doing in MCP) will cover that. And of course, we have plenty of coverage of the new crisis cards and associated major  competitive shake-up that came with Gladiator. This article will show you how I approached painting this portentious new model for Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

If you’ve read one of my previous hobby articles, you’ll know that I’m all about white primer.  White primer is great, and is honestly an important part of my painting style. (More on that in a second.) So naturally, Gladiator here was primed white. If you’ve read or used any of my previous tutorials, you’ll notice I have a standard approach to most paintjobs, that really relies on that white primer. I like to start with a mid-tone color, shade it down with washes, then highlight back up. Sometimes I start highlighting back up with the base color, and sometimes I immediately mix in a brighter color with the base. It depends on how big a contrast the wash itself provides. I always finish by blacklining my models, meaning different areas of the model get a thin line of black between them. The end goal is for my models to have a bright, colorful comic or cartoon feel to them. If you prefer black primer that’s totally cool, but following this guide will lead to very different results. With all that out of the way, let’s move into the details with Gladiator. 

• I typically start with the most dominant color on the model. So here, that meant basecoating red areas with GW Mephiston Red. Once I had a solid basecoat down, I washed all of that with GW Carroburg Crimson. When that dried, I first did large highlights with the Mephiston Red. I then mixed P3 Khador Red Highlight into that red for smaller edge highlights. Lastly, I did some spot highlights with pure Khador Red Highlight.
  
• I basecoated the blue areas of the costume with GW Caledor Sky, then washed it all with GW Drakenhof Nightshade. When that dried, I followed the same pattern as with the red above: highlighting with Caledor, then Caledor + GW Lothern Blue, then pure Lothern.
• With white primer, it’s often helpful to undercoat metals with another color. For golds, you want to go with a shade of brown to red typically. So here I just painted all the gold areas with Mephiston Red in that first step. For the actual gold color, I basecoated with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. I washed this with GW Reikland Fleshshade. Agrax Earthshade is often the default used in this situation, but I like the red to give the gold more warmth. It ties in nicely with all the red on the model. When that dried, I skipped the base color and did edge and spot highlights with Scale75 Elven Gold.
  
• I basecoated the skin with Army Painter Alien Purple,  then washed with GW Druchii Violet. Highlights started with a mix of the Alien Purple and GW Daemonette Hide. I then moved to pure Daemonette Hide for smaller highlights, then spot highlights with a 1:1 mix of the Daemonette Hide and P3 Menoth White Highlight.
  
• Gladiator appears to have a deep dark purple hair color, so I basecoated it here with Vallejo Royal Purple. I washed that with GW Nuln Oil. I then did highlights first with the Royal Purple, then a 1:1 mix of that and Alien Purple.
  

Normally I save the base for last, because I’m not a sociopath. But here I knew I would have some OSL elements that needed done after the base was finished. I also wanted something more cosmic and colorful, but still somewhat similar to my standard MCP basing scheme. 

• I started by basecoating the flat portion with Vallejo Dark Sea Grey. I then drybrushed first with GW Administratum Grey. That wasn’t contrasting much though, so I switched to Vallejo Stonewall Grey. That is the final color I use in my standard basing scheme, so that was a nice way to provide some similarity. Lastly, I did final sparing drybrushing with a 1:1 mix of the Stonewall Grey and Menoth White Highlight.
  
• The detail bits on the base were just various colors I thought would look cool. I’ve been experimenting more with vaporwave inspired color schemes, so no surprise I did so again here. I encourage you to just go wild here and introduce some classic Marvel cosmic/weird vibes. Do some glowing stuff, use colors you wouldn’t normally use, just go nuts. 
• Once the base was done, I was able to move to the lightning/energy bolt. I based that with AK Clear Yellow. (Standard caveat: I bought the AK clear set without knowing the company has made some poor taste choices.) I then covered that with thinned Pro Acryl Bright Yellow Green. After that dried, I drybrushed succeedingly lighter highlights by mixing Menoth White Highlight into the green. I kept doing that until I liked the end result. I also went back and cleaned up some spots, particularly the underside of the energy bits, with the original green color.
  
• For the explosion effect, I started by using some leftover Clear Yellow all over. I followed that with a coat of P3 Sulfuric Yellow. After that, it was about mixing in more and more of the next darker color until I was using just that color. In this case, I mixed in first P3 Ember Orange, then near the tips of the fire I used a bit of Khador Red Highlight. Remember that fire works in opposite to most mini painting: the brightest parts are in the center, then darker as you move outward. I did not do the orange colors on areas that would eventually be smoke.
  
• For the smoke, I started by basecoating Administratum Grey. Here it’s okay if some of the original color from the fire shows through. I then mixed that grey with P3 Bastion Grey, applying that darker color further from the combustion source. The trail of smoke I left lighter, with some Bastion in recesses, but mostly Administratum throughout. Closer to the tip of the column of smoke, I drybrushed with a mix of Administratum and Vallejo Offwhite.
  
• With the base and other effects done, I finished by doing any last-minute cleanup, a little OSL here and there (it just takes a little drybrushing for a decent OSL) and my usual blacklining, and Gladiator was complete!

I hope this tutorial helps you with getting this excellent sculpt ready for battle! He was surprisingly fun to paint, and wasn’t particularly challenging either. If you get your Gladiator painted, share it with us over on the Goonhammer Discord! Thanks as always for reading! And once again thanks to Atomic Mass Games for providing a copy to us at Goonhammer.

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