Hey everybody, here I am once again with a new How to Paint Everything: Crisis Protocol. This time we are covering how I painted Star-Lord’s Daddy, and Mary Poppins himself, Yondu!
Aside from Michael Rooker’s loveable pirate anti-hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are two main versions of Yondu in Marvel Comics. The first Yondu originally made his debut in 1969, as a futuristic member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy from the year 3006 A.D. as they fought the Badoon and went on adventures with other time displaced heroes. Meanwhile, the modern Yondu is more in line with the MCU character and has been established as a distant ancestor of future Yondu, and leader of the Ravagers. The Marvel: Crisis Protocol character seems to be a mixture of them all.
Yondu was a lot of fun to paint, though I would definitely suggest that you start painting him before attaching his base. As there are some tricky spots to reach under his coat and around the arrow trail. Its always nice getting to play with different skin tones, and for this one I used Thousand Sons Blue as a basecoat and played with purple and green tones for the cool and warm tones of the skin. I think it worked out really well, but it doesn’t really translate in the pictures.
So let’s get to it! Below you’ll find a handy color chart showing all of the colors used on this model.
Painting the Skin
Yondu’s skin was painted with a basecoat of Thousand Sons Blue. I then mixed Khorne Red into Thousand Sons Blue to make a purple tone and used this as my cool tone for the recesses and shaded areas. For the areas that would normally be warm tones, I mixed Moot Green into Thousand Sons Blue and painted that on the nose, cheeks, ears and some spots on his bald head. From there I used thin layers of Thousand Sons Blue to tie everything together a bit. For highlights I started by mixing Thousand Sons Blue and Lothern Blue and highlighting the raised areas. I finished it off with straight Lothern Blue. Occasionally, I would go back a step and glaze the area and re-highlight as needed.
Basecoat: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue
Shadows: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue: Citadel Khorne Red
Nose, Cheek and Ear “Warm Tones”: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue: Citadel Moot Green
Layer: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue
Highlight: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue: Citadel Lothern Blue
Highlight: Citadel Lothern Blue
Painting the Mohawk and Arrow Fletchings
Yondu’s and the arrow fletchings were painted Evil Sunz Scarlet. I then edge highlighted them with Wild Rider Red and Fire Dragon Bright. After those were dry I glazed them with Fluorescent Orange to make it them pop more.
Basecoat: Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet
Highlight: Citadel Wild Rider Red
Highlight: Citadel Fire Dragon Bright
Glaze: AK Interactive Fluorescent Orange
Painting the Arm Wraps
The wrappings on his arms started with a smooth basecoat of Zandri Dust. I then highlighted them with Ushabti Bone followed by highlights and edge highlights of Screaming Skull and White.
Basecoat: Citadel Zandri Dust
Layer: Citadel Ushabti Bone
Highlight: Citadel Screaming Skull
Highlight: Vallejo Model Color White
Painting the Arrow Streak
Spell effects on Crisis Protocol models can be some of the most fun. I try to color code my spell effects, and anything that is telekinetic/telepathic are painted with Doomfire Magenta. I start by doing any touch up needed to cover any accidental paint splotches and lay down a basecoat of White. I then washed the entire streak with Doomfire Magenta. Once the Contrast paint was dry, I edge highlighted the entire thing with White and followed it up with a glaze of Fluorescent Magenta to make it pop.
Basecoat: Vallejo Model Color White
Wash: Citadel Contrast Doomfire Magenta
Highlight: Vallejo Model Color White
Glaze: AK Interactive Fluorescent Magenta
Painting the Brown Leathers
I wish I had written down how I painted Star-Lord’s coat, so I could paint Yondu’s coat in the exact same colors. But alas, I did not so I took a guess at color matching them. For Yondu’s coat I started with a basecoat of Doombull Brown. I mixed some Caliban Green into it to paint the underside of the coat and the recesses of the folds and did a bit of touch up work with Doombull Brown. I then mixed Doombull Brown and Mournfang Brown together to begin highlighting all the raised areas. I continued highlighting with straight Mournfang Brown and finally XV-88 as a edge highlight and highlight on the highest points.
Basecoat: Citadel Doombull Brown
Shadows: Citadel Doombull Brown: Citadel Caliban Green
Clean-Up: Citadel Doombull Brown
Layer: Citadel Doombull Brown: Citadel Mournfang Brown
Layer: Citadel Mournfang Brown
Highlight: Citadel XV-88
Black Leather Chaps and Gloves
His black leather chaps and fingerless gloves all started with a basecoat of Black Grey. I painted Black into the recesses and shaded areas and then began highlighting them with a mix of Black Grey and Mechanicus Standard Grey. They were further highlighted with Mechanicus Standard Grey and Neutral Grey.
Basecoat: Vallejo Model Color Black Grey
Shadows: Vallejo Model Color Black
Layer: Vallejo Model Color Black Grey: Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey
Layer: Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey
Highlight: Vallejo Model Color Neutral Grey
Painting the Red Pants Sections
Underneath his chaps, he is wearing some sort of striped red pants, which I began with a basecoat of Evil Sunz Scarlet. For the recesses I mixed Warpstone Glow and Evil Sunz Scarlet and painted the undersides of his lefts and the lines in the pants. From there it was a few easy highlights of Wild Rider Red and Fire Dragon Bright.
Basecoat: Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet
Shadows: Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet: Citadel Warpstone Glow
Highlight: Citadel Wild Rider Red
Highlight: Citadel Fire Dragon Bright
Painting the NMM Gold
The gold of his bow, and necklaces were painted using AK Interactive’s NMM Gold kit. I started with a basecoat of Sahara Yellow, which was then mixed with Purple to add depth and shading to it. I then highlighted everything with Sand Yellow, followed by Ice Yellow, finishing it off with a spot highlight of White. Finally, I added a bit more contrast to it by painting Rhinox Hide in the recesses and adding a horizon line to the center of his medallion.
Basecoat: AK Interactive Sahara Yellow
Shadows: AK Interactive Sahara: AK Interactive Purple
Highlight: AK Interactive Sand Yellow
Highlight: AK Interactive Ice Yellow
Highlight: Vallejo Model Color White
Darklining: Citadel Rhinox Hide
Painting the NMM Silver
This time around I decided to try out a few AK Interactive colors for NMM Silver. This time using a smaller 4 color kit they sell. Like the gold kit, I swapped their white highlight color with Vallejo Model Color White, since I like the brightness of it more.
To start I painted all the would be silver areas with a smooth basecoat of Dark Sea Blue. I then mixed Dark Sea Blue with French Blue for my first layer, and then used straight French Blue for the next layer. French Blue was mixed with Snow Blue to begin doing highlights and edge highlights, followed by straight Snow Blue edge highlights. I finished it off with spot highlights of White and darklining the recesses with Black to give it a bit more contrast.
Basecoat: AK Interactive Dark Sea Blue
Layer: AK Interactive Dark Sea Blue: AK Interactive French Blue
Layer: AK Interactive French Blue
Highlight: AK Interactive French Blue: AK Interactive Snow Blue
Highlight: AK Interactive Snow Blue
Highlight: Vallejo Model Color White
Darklining: Vallejo Model Color Black
Painting the Metal Box
To give the illusion of different metals, the metal box he has his foot propped on started with a basecoat of Mechanicus Standard Grey. I then stippled it with Black, Dark Sea Blue and Snow Blue to give it a pitted and weathered look.
Basecoat: Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey
Stipple: Vallejo Model Color Black
Stipple: AK Interactive Dark Sea Blue
Stipple: AK Interactive Snow Blue
Yondu is now ready to steal your hearts and your loots! This is the pirate’s way. But if you hear a whistle, it probably would be best to duck for cover… Have you painted the Yondu and Nova kit? If so, hit me up on the socials! You can find me over on Bluesky and Instagram, I love seeing what the community is working on and try to share what I see whenever possible. If you’re a member of the Goonhammer Discord server, be sure to share them in the Marvel: Crisis Protocol channel there as well.
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