How to Paint Everything: Marvel Crisis Protocol - Quasar

Hey everybody, today I'm back with another How to Paint Everything: Marvel Crisis Protocol and this time we are going to take a look at how I painted Quasar from the new Adam Warlock, Moondragon and Quasar character pack!

If you're unfamiliar with Quasar, I'm likely not going to be much help either. But from what I can gather, she's the daughter of Mar-vell the original Captain Marvel. She's also been Captain Marvel and was also Quasar after the Annihilation event in the comics. She's the romantic partner of the superheroine, and Avenger/Defender/Guardian of the Galaxy, Moondragon. But other than that I'm not really up to speed on her backstory that much.

This was a fun one and I especially had a good time working on her spell effect and utilizing fluorescent paint to make it happen. The red of her suit was also a lot of fun to work on too. So let's get to it, as usual you'll find a handy dandy paint chart below, featuring all of the colors that were used on this model.

credit - Brushwizard

Red Suit

Basecoat - Army Painter Basilisk Red Shadows - Army Painter Basilisk Red: Army Painter Angel Green Layer - Army Painter Basilisk Red Layer - Army Painter Wyvern Fury Highlight - Army Painter Wyvern Fury: Army Painter Dragon Red Highlight - Army Painter Dragon Red Highlight - Army Painter Angelic Red

All of the reference pictures I've found of Quasar have shown a few different reds for the main suit color. So after a bit of debate with myself, I decided to go with a deep red instead of the normal bright red I use on most of my superhero costumes.

For this one, I started with a basecoat of Basilisk Red. a small amount of Angel Green was added to Basilisk Red to create a shade color and then it was painted into all of the shaded areas and recesses. I cleaned up the Basilisk Red main color a bit afterwards, and then started highlights with a layer of Wyvern Fury. The highlights were done using a mix of Dragon Red and Wyvern Fury, followed by pure Dragon Red and finally Angelic Red.

White Sleeves

Basecoat - AK Interactive Pastel Violet Layer - AK Interactive Ivory Highlight - AK Interactive White

As usual, I painted the white in her sleeves starting with Pastel Violet as a basecoat. They were then highlighted with Ivory and White.

Black Cape and Boots

Basecoat - Vallejo Model Color Black Layer - Vallejo Model Color Black: Citadel Incubi Darkness Layer - Citadel Incubi Darkness Highlight - Citadel Incubi Darkness: AK Interactive Ivory Highlight - AK Interactive Ivory Wash - Citadel Nuln Oil

For Quasar's cape and boots, I started with a basecoat of Black. I then mixed together a small amount of Black into Incubi Darkness and used that as the first layer to get the illusion of light reflecting off of the surface. This was followed by another layer of Incubi Darkness on all of the raise points and blended into the previous layer.

The highlights were done using Incubi Darkness mixed with Ivory and a final Ivory highlight, before being washed with Nuln Oil to tie it all together.

Gold Hilt and Trim

Basecoat - AK Interactive Sahara Yellow Shadows - AK Interactive Sahara Yellow: AK Interactive Purple Layer - AK Interactive Sand Yellow Highlight - AK Interactive Ice Yellow Highlight - AK Interactive Ivory Dark Lining - AK Interactive Hull Red

All of the golden trim and the hilt of her sword was painted in NMM Gold style. This started with a basecoat of Sahara Yellow. Shadows and recesses were then painted with a mix of Purple and Sahara Yellow. This was done in any areas that would be in shadow or near a dark surface to act as a reflection.

Next we'll add a layer of Sand Yellow to begin highlights. We want this to contrast against the darker areas to help sell the shine of the gold. Then we'll add our first highlight using Ice Yellow and finally a smaller highlight of Ivory.

The last step is to dark line all of the recesses with Hull Red. This helps break up the gold and pushes the dark tones further down, upping contrast more.

Skin

Basecoat - Reaper Master Series Tanned Skin Cool Tones - Reaper Master Series Tanned Skin: Army Painter Fanatics Phalanx Blue Warm Tones - Reaper Master Series Tanned Skin: Army Painter Fanatics Wyvern Fury Glaze - Reaper Master Series Tanned Skin Highlight -Reaper Master Series Tanned Highlight Highlight - Reaper Master Series Tanned Highlight: Reaper Master Series Rosey Skin Highlight - Reaper Master Series Rosey Skin Lip - Army Painter Fanatics Wyvern Fury

Quasar's skin started much like most of my skin tones, with a basecoat of Tanned Skin. I then mixed Tanned Skin with Phalanx Blue to create a cool skin tone and painted that on the neck and lower half of her face. The upper half of her face was painted with a mix of Tanned Skin and Wyvern Fury to create warm tones.

I then used slightly thin Tanned Skin to glaze the surface and tie the colors together a bit more. Highlights were done by painting on Tanned Highlight, followed by a mix of Tanned Highlight and Rosey Skin, and finally a highlight of Rosey Skin.

Her bottom lip was given a small line of Wyvern Fury.

Hair

Basecoat - AK Interactive Pastel Violet Highlight - AK Interactive White

Since I went with the hooded head there's not really a lot of hair to paint, just some bangs sticking out the front. With that in mind, and since I didn't need to do a ton of detail on them, I painted the hair Pastel Violet and then gave them a simple highlight of Ivory.

Spell Effect

Basecoat - Lethal Shadows Fluor Yellow Layer - Lethal Shadows Fluor Light Orange Edge Highlight - AK Interactive White

I decided to try something new with Quasar's spell effect. I wanted to see how it would look if I painted it yellow and then used orange as a gradient, alternating lights and darks like you would with NMM.

For this, I painted a nice solid basecoat of Fluorescent Yellow over white. I then painted Fluorescent Orange onto the surface blending the two together as best as I could. Then once I was happy with it, I edge highlighted it all with White.

I think it turned out really well and it looks nice on the gaming table.

Concrete Basing

Basecoat - Citadel Stormvermin Fur Stipple - Army Painter Ash Grey Stipple - Army Painter Brigade Grey Wash - Citadel Nuln Oil

As usual, her base was painted with Stormvermin Fur. It was then stippled with Ash Grey and Brigade Grey to give it some texture. Nuln Oil was then applied to tie it all together and shade any recesses.

Rusty Metal Basing

Basecoat - Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey Layer - Citadel Mournfang Brown Drybrush - Army Painter Flickering Flame

My usual go to for quick rusty metal on MCP bases starts with a basecoat of Mechanicus Standard Grey. This is then given a splotchy layer of thinned Mournfang Brown to act as brown rust. Once that's dry it gets a light drybrushing of Flickering Flame in order to give it a bit of orange rust as well.

credit: Brushwizard

Quasar is now ready to go and defend the cosmos alongside Moondragon! I am really excited to get her to the table and see how she plays under both Adam Warlock and Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. But I have yet to fit her into a squad as of the writing of this article. But I did/am taking GotG to Adepticon so maybe she will get/saw some game time there!

A big thanks to Atomic Mass Games for sending these new characters for this tutorial, I very much appreciate it! Have you picked up the new Adam Warlock, Moondragon and Quasar character pack? Let us know in the comments, which of the new characters is your favorite. Hit me up on social media too, you can find me on Bluesky, and Instagram. Also, if you're on the Goonhammer Discord server, be sure to hop into the Marvel Crisis Protocol channel and join the conversation.

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