How to Paint Everything: Marvel Crisis Protocol - Spectrum

Hey everybody, I'm back again with another How to Paint Everything: Marvel Crisis Protocol and this time we are taking a look at the Leader of the all new Might Avengers affiliation, Spectrum!

Monica Rambeau is a character that I honestly don't know a whole lot about. I wasn't introduced to her until the Captain Marvel film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and didn't even know she was a superhero. When she first got her powers in Wandavision, I was like "oh, that's interesting" but I had no idea that she was a long established character until much later.

I took me a minute to land on a color scheme that I was happy with. Spectrum has a few different suits and a couple of them include the jacket. I decided to go with the white suit, instead of her black suit. I felt that it looked better against the dark colored jacket too. We'll be using Pastel Violet again as a base for the white, its basically my not-so-secret weapon for painting white now-a-days.

As usual you'll find a handy paint reference chart below. Let's go over it!

credit - Brushwizard

White Suit

Basecoat - AK Interactive Pastel Violet Shadows - AK Interactive Pastel Violet: AK Interactive Dark Sea Blue Layer - AK Interactive Pastel Violet: AK Interactive Ivory Highlight - AK Interactive Ivory Highlight - AK Interactive White

To start, we'll paint all of the white areas with a nice and smooth basecoat of Pastel Violet. We'll be using this as the basis of the white, allowing the actual bright white to act as the final highlight. Next all of the shadowed areas and recesses were painted with a mix of Pastel Violet and a tiny amount of Dark Sea Blue. This adds a nice bluish tint to it and works well in the shadows.

Once we're happy, mix Pastel Violet with Ivory for our first layer. Apply this to all of the raised areas, leaving some Pastel Violet showing from the basecoat. Next we will start highlighting by applying straight Ivory on those same areas and defining some the muscles with other highlights. Finally the highest points get a highlight of White to finish it all off.

Black Coat and Symbol

Basecoat - Vallejo Model Color Black Layer - Vallejo Model Color Black: Citadel Dark Reaper Layer - Previous Mix: Citadel Dark Reaper Layer - Citadel Dark Reaper Highlight - Citadel Dark Reaper: AK Interactive Ivory Highlight - Previous Mix: AK Interactive White Wash - Citadel Nuln Oil

Spectrum's coat was given a Black basecoat to start. I then began highlighting it with a mix of Dark Reaper and Black painted on all of the raised areas and other places that would catch light. I added a bit more Dark Reaper to the mix and added another layer on top of the previous layer. To push highlights more, she was given another layer of Dark Reaper on its own.

Ivory was then mixed into Dark Reaper to create the next highlight and it was painted on all of the edges and peaks of the folds in the jacket. Using this same mix, I added in a bit of White to push the highlight brighter. To tie it all together the whole coat was given a wash with Nuln Oil.

Skin Tone

Basecoat - Citadel Mournfang Brown Warm Areas - Citadel Mournfang Brown: Army Painter Warlock Magenta Cool Areas - Citadel Mournfang Brown: Army Painter Angel Green Layer - Citadel Mournfang Brown Highlight - Citadel Mournfang Brown: Citadel Bugman's Glow Highlight - Citadel Bugman's Glow Highlight - Citadel Bugman's Glow: AK Interactive Ivory

Her skin started with a basecoat of Mournfang Brown. The warm areas of her face were painted with a mix of Mournfang Brown and Warlock Magenta, while the cool areas were painted with a mix of Mournfang Brown and Angel Green. Once I was happy with that I thinned Mournfang Brown and painted a layer of that on all of the raised areas, such as her forehead, nose, cheeks and chin.

Highlights were done by mixing Bugman's Glow into Mournfang Brown and painted it on those same areas again. Followed by a highlight of Bugman's Glow and a final highlight of Bugman's Glow and Ivory.

Hair

Basecoat - Citadel Rhinox Hide: Vallejo Model Color Black Layer - Citadel Rhinox Hide Highlight - Citadel Rhinox Hide: Citadel Gorthor Brown

To keep things easy, her hair started with a mix of Rhinox Hide and Black. I gave it a simple layer of Rhinox Hide and finally a highlight of Rhinox Hide mixed with Gorthor Brown.

Eyes

Eye Sockets - Army Painter Flickering Flame Highlight - Army Painter Warped Yellow Highlight - AK Interactive White

All of my energy wielding characters get glowing eyes. Spectrum is no different. Since her power is yellow, I gave her orange/yellow eyes. This was done by painting the eye sockets with Flickering Flame, Warped Yellow and a small slice of White in the middle to make them look a bit glowy.

Energy Effect

Basecoat - Army Painter Warped Yellow Highlight - Army Painter Warped Yellow: AK Interactive White Highlight - AK Interactive White

Speaking of energy effects, Spectrum's effect started with Warped Yellow. It was then highlighted using a mix of Warped Yellow and White and finally an edge highlight of White.

Dirt Basing

Basecoat - Citadel Gorthor Brown Wash - Citadel Agrax Earthshade

The dirt on her base is painted using Gorthor Brown with a simple wash of Agrax Earthshade over top of it.

Concrete Basing

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

Once again, we have my usual concrete recipe. It starts with a basecoat of Stormvermin Fur. The base is the stippled with Ash Grey and Brigade Grey to create surface texture and then given a wash of Nuln Oil to shade the recesses and tie everything together.

credit - Brushwizard

Monica is ready to lead the Mighty Avengers to victory! Overall I like her paint job, but I'm not super happy with her face/skin tone. I feel like it needs something different or better highlights. Maybe I'll revisit it later, once I'm all caught up on my MCP backlog...

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 Spectrum and Blue Marvel 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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