With Dave Stone’s current challenge providing some extra motivation to get back and finish models what got started some time ago, I finally took aim at Red Skull, whom I’d assembled, sprayed black and then based shortly after completing Crossbones, back in April last year, followed by him sitting around taking up space for 9 months…
In painting him, he was another example of me playing with “different shades of black”. I kept the OSL from The Tessaract to a bare minimum, with just a tint on his right shoulder and arm with a hint of it seeping through his fingers.
Things like the colour and type of Red Skull’s uniform/costume and the Hydra logos have changed across the many depictions of him over the decades, so I went with a Hydra logo palette which offers just a hint of his early origins without outright just overpainting the Hydra logo with a Swastika on my MCU/Comic-Book-Punchy-Toy-Soldier-Game model. This isn’t Flames of War or Bolt Action after all!
I did try to paint Oberst-Gruppenführer collar badges on him, though you really can’t see much more than an impression. After that, Red Skull’s skull was painted red because Red Skull. Sadly, the spray varnish I used (which is normally fine) kinda roughened the final texture from my smooth paint – I may have sprayed when it was too hot. Luckily it’s only really noticable when you’re looking reeeeealy close, but bloody annoying, nonetheless.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Lovely work mate, and a great rendition of the Red Skull, your colour choices really suit the model, shame about the varnish, but as you say, only noticeable when you get really close.
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Thanks Dave – and yeah it’s annoying – moreso in these photos. I think it was the act of spraying in (possibly) a bit too much humidity and (almost definitely) a lot too much heat. Lesson learned, I guess!
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Excellent! 🙂 When I saw the title of the post I had a picture in my mind’s eye of how he should look and he fits that image perfectly!
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Thanks John – really glad you like him! 😀
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Looks brill mate, lovely job on the Tessaract!!
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Thank you Alex! 🙂
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Fantastic! I think it was a good choice to step lightly on the OSL; too many models have it way over done.
Have you tried him on the table yet? I never really got to grips with Cabal when I first picked up MCP but I have a bit of a hankering to get Red Skull et al back out and play with them.
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Cheers, AB – not had a chance to play with him yet – just finished the paint the other day and it’s been hideously hot here for a few weeks so tabletop gaming has been… erm… off the table for some time. Working on a shiny silver bloke next – assembly done, just need to spray prime him when I’m next home during the day (in reasonable weather!)
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Very nice- love the shading on the cube.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete! It was a bit annoying working out how to paint it, actually!
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Great work here, I have to echo Pete’s comment and say your work on the cube came out great!
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Thanks Dave! I’m happy with how it came out in the end as well. 🙂
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Fortunately, the varnish didn’t show up much in the photos anyway. I couldn’t really spot it! I think the modest OSL works really well and you did a great job on Red Skull. He’s a great Marvel villain and there’s certainly no mistaking that big, red dome he’s got either 😀
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Thanks Kuribo. I have to say I’m in two minds on how to proceed once I get to the more recent MCP models. They’re constantly replacing tactical rocks with tactical explosions and all kinds of silly looking things. (Domino is riding a tactical rock with a tactical explosion underneath it!)
I could go with the models as-is, or just start completely rebasing them when they’re too high on the silly-o-meter. Not sure yet, but I’ve got a few more to go before I have to worry about it at least….
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I can see where you might not like the outlandish bases. I think it fits superheroes but they do stick out compared to other minis at the same time. I look forward to seeing your rebased versions of famous Marvel heroes 🙂
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This might sound silly, but I like my superheroes a little more grounded. Just a little, mind. Like MCU-level grounded as opposed to silly-cartoony, even though I read and collected many a hero book through the 80’s and 90’s!
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The Tesseract looks great, so does the black coat. While you had a varnish accident, the red skin came out well nevertheless. He looks suitably evil.
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Thank you. I’m glad at leasty that it’s much more subtle in hand than blown up by a blog photo!
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Like what you’ve done here Azazel, especially his coat, and the lighting effect of the Tessaract is spot on – great work!
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Thanks – I appreciate it especially given how good (and inspiraitonal) your MCP work has been!
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Very kind of you to say so Azazel, thanks.
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I think you have done a great job on the black. It definitely has the leather coat look.
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Cheers, Anthony. I’m (mostly) enjoying working with “different” blacks and slowly getting better at doing them, and especially including more than one on the same model…
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Very nice indeed, the red and blue really pops against the black uniform.
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Cheers Wudu! I didn’t even need to make those colour choices myself! 😉
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