Marvel Crisis Protocol: "Alt-Comic" Defenders

The New Defenders Box is retailing at about $70 USD and is an awesome deal for that price. Five models, all of whom range from solid to best-in-class.

The Defenders are a strange beast in MCP as far as theme goes, a combination of two separate teams: One, Marvel’s precursor to the Avengers; the other, the street-level badasses that would be more familiar to modern fans of the MCU. Plus a bunch of characters that seem to have never been a member of either. Something that can give the team a little more cohesion is a distinct color scheme.

Overview

I have been a fan of comics since I was a youth. Much like a lot of kids as I got older I went looking for things that appeal to the little edgelord I was in my teen years. I dropped Lee and Bendis for Jhonen Vasquez and Alan Martin. This series of techniques is meant to emulate a dark, gritty “alt comic” style probably most exemplified by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

Stark, Black and White with a single color, heavy shadows. Very Punk Rock. We will be holding that Punk Rock spirit throughout the article. This is not a HTPE. I’m not going to give you a detailed recipe on how I made my models. I’ll tell you what I did, and give you some ideas about how you could do it, but you’re gonna have to find your own way.

Step One: Assembly

You can pretty much assemble by the instructions. The only recommendation I make is to put Stephen on a separate base from the Pentagram/portal thing, and leave his cape off.

Step Two: Priming

Prime in your preferred method. Black or grey is best, but it’s kind of irrelevant cause we’re going to turn the whole thing black in the next step.

Step Three: Blackout

Crucial step! We coat our models in the mattest black we can find. I use Golden Soflat Carbon Black. If you're the kind of person who experimented with black 3.0/vantablack/blackest black, this is a good use of it. Barring any supernaturally black paint, you can just coat it in your favorite black and hit it with a matte varnish.

Step Four: Drybrush

Get your favorite white (mine’s Pale Sand by Vallejo) and drybrush onto the lighted areas of the model. You can airbrush this step if you desire a cleaner look, but since we are going for grit…I think the random scratches of a drybrush help sell that effect. There’s no exact science to this. Put them where they make sense, but don’t force anything. If something doesn’t want to get highlighted, it probably shouldn’t be.

Now if you want this to be more “color scheming a 3d object” and less focus on the deep black, you can drybrush a dark grey into the shadows. I only did that on the tombstone that Daredevil is kicking off of.

Step Five: Liquid Talent

Choose your favorite flavor of Liquid Talent. Nuln Oil, Oil wash, gauche, Marine Juice. Coat the models in it. That will give us those stark lines and deepen the shadows. Once they’ve dried, you can attach Dr. Strange’s cape to him.

From here, we move into specific instructions for specific models.

Generally, color something fairly close to the center of mass. You could darken out Cage’s Beard. You could also use a mid grey before the Liquid Talent to indicate Power Man’s darker skin tones. I elected to do neither.

The trick with coloring Wong is the center of mass would be his outfit, which is too much color for what we're doing. So the magic fire thing he’s standing on will have to do. I debated the color, and decided on a magenta. No wrong answers on this one I think.

I went back in with Army Painter Grim Black to fill in Danny’s tattoo. The obvious place to put color is his cool dragon-fist. A fair debate is whether or not to highlight the colored parts of the model. While I saw good points on either side, I elected to go with the flat of a single color.

For Daredevil, as much as it’s a pain in the butt, I recommend painting up the Baton. Grab the open end, and lightly work up the chain. It’ll move a smidge under your brush but it’ll get there.

Stephen, being our high-threat leader, gets two colors. We do the Pentagram of Frallah in orange.

And given the in-universe significance, we do the Eye of Agamotto in Green. In this case, it’s Tamiya clear green, which gives us the right amount of shiny while keeping things flat.

From here, gray up your bases (I used Army Painter Gravelord Gray), black up your rims (more of the Golden SoFlat), and you’re good to go.

This is a rad, simple color scheme. Genuinely I would love to do a whole roster up this way. Gives you the sense of grit and darkness as you hit the streets and defend the block.

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Tags: Painting | hobby | Marvel Crisis Protocol | Defenders