In the interests of getting my Marvel Universe Miniatures Game (MUMG) models painted and on the table, I’ve decided to get each model to a basic tabletop quality to start with. Also, to encourage others, I’ve compiled some notes on my painting as a how-to guide. To the extent you don’t have the specific paints mentioned over the article, I’ve included links for a couple of conversion charts at the end of the article so you can see what you can substitute in from other ranges.
Step One
To start, I primed the model black, using Vallejo black airbrush primer. This is generally how I prefer to prime, however you could definitely use a rattlecan to prime instead. Once the primer had dried, I then airbrushed the model with Vallejo Air Ochre. I chose to use yellow as the base coast, as it’s the lowest pigment colour, so would be harder to brush paint over another colour. To the extent you don’t have an airbrush, you could brush paint in the yellow sections instead, although I highly recommend getting an airbrush set-up as it saves considerable time over the long run and allows you to achieve effects that aren’t possible with brushes alone.
Total time for this step was under 5 minutes (excluding paint dry time and compressor ramp up), I would expect that brush painting the yellow would only take five or ten minutes in addition to this (assuming you used a high pigment yellow like Citadel Iyanden Darksun).
Step Two
Next up I blocked in all the base colours. I used Vallejo Game Colour Sombre Grey for the blue areas for two reasons – it’s a higher pigment colour than the other blues I have and at this stage I hadn’t decided if I was going to make the colour palette for the model more subdued/realistic. If I were to paint the model again, I would use something like Vallejo Game Colour Imperial Blue, which is a rich navy colour.
Outside the blue, I used: Citadel Adeptus Battlegrey for the base insert, P3 Thamar Black for the boot lining and base edge, Vallejo Game Colour Dwar
f Skin for his skin, P3 Cold Steel for the claws and belt buckle and P3 Bootstrap Leather for the belt itself.
This took me about a half hour to do including some touch-ups where I’d over painted. At this point, this meets a ‘three colour minimum’ standard so you could leave it here.
Step Three
This step is applying washes to create depth on the model, I used all Citadel washes here as over my time hobbying I’ve found them to be the most consistent and easiest to use, but have heard good reviews of Secret Weapon and Army Painters ranges as well. I used Drakenhoof Nightshade on the blue areas, Reikland Fleshshade for the skin, Seraphim Sepia for the yellow, and Nuln Oil for the claws and base insert.
This took me about five minutes excluding dry times. A quick note here, I would ordinarily wash the flesh with a purple wash (Citadel Druchii Violet is what I have now) after the fleshshade as it adds a little more depth and realism, but skipped it here as the idea is to get the model painted quickly.
Step Four
I went over the raised areas in each colour block, just to make the final job look a bit cleaner. I started with the flesh areas and went over these with Citadel Cadian Fleshtone (noting you could use Dwarf Flesh here, I had forgotten at the earlier step that I’d bought this the other day for exactly this purpose!), Vallejo Game Colour Magic Blue for the blue areas, Citadel Iyanden Darksun for the yellow, Citadel Adeptus Battlegrey for the base insert.
This was the point I decided to make the colours a little more ‘cartoony’, so went with the magic blue. You could over paint the blue areas with sombre grey again and use something like Citadel Astronomicon Grey for highlights to get a more de-saturated blue.
This step took me about twenty minutes to complete
Step Five (optional)
I decided I wanted a brighter yellow, so went over the yellow areas with Citadel Sunburst Yellow. My feeling is this amps up the ‘cartoony’ feel I’m looking for with the model. This didn’t take me long (under five minutes), so I’d recommend it if this is the look you want.
Conclusion
And there you have it, tabletop ready Wolverine in just over an hour of painting time. I’ll be going back later to add some further highlights – mostly on the blue, metal and base – to make the model pop a little more, but I’m happy with this to get a painted team on the table.
Paint Conversion Links
- Paint conversion chart on Dakka Dakka
- Ultimate Model Paint Conversion Chart
- Collection of charts and guides on International Scale Modeller forums
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