Today we have one of the Core Set models – Black Widow. Widow was one of the models I completed in about mid-January, but with the way my posts worked out I decided last week to post her up out of order, so instead of coming right after the Winter Guard, I’m posting her up as a Fembruary model. Because Cartman’s Rules.
Similarly to Ultron, I started Widow a year ago – she was in fact one of the #Fembruary models that I didn’t get completed in time – and much like Venom shortly afterwards – Widow is a model I completely stalled out on based on the skintight black outfit.
’twasn’t until a few weeks ago when – as I mentioned in Venom’s post – I had some time off work to clear my head and was able to knuckle down and really put the mental effort into getting past the mental block that was in place for a few models – Black Widow, Venom, UR-025 and an upcoming model to be shown next.
I went with a “comic book blue” kind of shading to Widow’s black outfit – different to the greys of how I painted Black Panther’s Zombicide model and the purple tones of Venom. (I’ll be doing the MCP version of Panther in the same greys when I get to him). Basically putting into practise some of the “tones of black” I wrote a little about when painting and then showing the Zombicide VIP Walker Goths.
I’m also trying to get better at painting female faces – especially in terms of that “blush” shading that a lot of painters manage. I’m getting better, though a far way from where I want to be, and Natasha also looks pretty pissed off in my final product here. I mean, that works for an in-combat model, so I wasn’t going to try to strip and redo, especially after starting in February and finishing in the following Jnauary. Lots more models to come, and keep on working on…
Once again – model completed in January = Dave Stone’s Paint what You Got challenge.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Excellent work mate, like the comic style blue highlighting, very fitting for the subject material, I understand what you mean about painting female faces, as if you shade like you normally would for a male face they look old and haggard, likewise if you don’t add any shading they look washed out like a Geisha, a difficult balance indeed, but what you’ve done here works with the subject material
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Thanks Dave! It’s just going to come down to getting the reps in and slowly improving. Luckily there’s a ton of female characters in the MCP series to paint to get that practise on!
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Good stuff mate – I hate painting stuff like that, so well played fella 👍
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Thanks Alex – cheers! 🙂
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Nice job, especially on the suit! She’s another Russian, but I don’t think her and the Soviet Super Soldiers ever got along! The blush effect is something I’ve been struggling with too. I’ve tried some subtle glazing, but it never works right, so I end up painting back over it and going the same way I usually do. I still keep trying on each new model though, Funny, this one just showed up in my Reader too – Joseph McCullough (author of Stargrave) finished painting his Soviet Super Soldier minis as well: http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-winter-guard.html
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Thanks Faust – from my reading up it seems like in the older comics stories Natasha was married to a version of Red Guardian (kinda weird after seeing the movie as an Intro to the character!) I’ve also got a Mutant called Omega Red to paint down the line – another one that was created after I left that seems to have a tagental affiliation with some of these other Soviet/Russian chatacters.
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Oh yea, vaguely recall the Widow/Guardian relationship. The original Black Widow seemed very different than the character we know now. I think they sort of retconned her as ‘the original widow’, making Natasha the second Widow. Which is kind of what they do in the movie. Her ‘Mom’ being the original Widow who was married to the Guardian , and Natasha being the more modern one.
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Omega Red was a pretty popular villain for kids of the 90s. He even showed up in the 90s X-Men cartoon. I thought the character design was sort of interesting, but didn’t totally understand him as they made him so convoluted. I guess all you really know is that he has cables that whip out from his arms and can draw life force from people.
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Yeah, there’s some weird retcons in the comics. I think they’re even worse than 40k retcons! :p
I’ve mentioned it before but all the ones they did with Peter Parker/Spiderman/MJ put me off returning to superhero comics. The comics also have the weird “passage of time” issue to worry about with most of their heroes as well, so it’s often amusing/interesting to see how they squirm around that – when they even try to address it!
Yeah, OR has the cables on his model. Looks like a design crossover between Doc Ock, Colossus & Sabretooth in a red Cable outfit as drawn by Jim Lee…
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Very nice! 🙂 I think the blue highlighting works really well!
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Cheers John – I’ve got a few other colours to try similar effects with as we move through more black-clad heroes and villains!
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Natasha came out really well and I think cold blue (that’s what I would call it anyway) is a great way to handle painting black. I’m glad you were able to figure this one out and I look forward to seeing more MCP as you get around to it!
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Thanks Kuribo! I’ll try a few other methods (and colours) for other heroes and villains as time goes on and see how well it translates.
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You’ve done a great job on her face. I reckon if I tried to paint her with that kind of make-up Natasha would look like she was trying to infiltrate a convention of evil clowns. Well done on getting her off the ‘to do’ pile too; I know that can take a lot of effort.
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Thank you. I’m slowly getting better at female faces and I’m happy enough with Natasha on this one. Kinda a tricky angle to paint as I found out, but then the angle also hides some imperfections so I guess its a wash there. 😄
Hoping I can keep the enthusiasm running and get the last four complete as well as a fair few more in the next few weeks…
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