Wait.. haven’t we seen this model before? Why yes, yes we have.
While the model looks fine in hand, it looks pretty rough in these photos – expecially blown up this much. The issue seems to be that varnishing the model simply messed up the finish of the metallic paint, as it looked quite a bit better beforehand – especually in hand. I’m not sure what the solution is whne painting high-shine metal, as neither gloss spray varnish nor Vallejo’s paint-on Metal Varnish really worked. Ultron suffered from the same issue some time ago – and now I know for sure that the problem with these shiny metal models isn’t varnishing when it’s too hot.
Given that the primary point of this model isn’t to get likes in social media nor win painting accolades – but to be used on a tabletop in games, simply not varnishing the thing isn’t really an option. Models like my Iron Warriors or Minotaurs don’t have the same sort of issue as their metallics are much more muted, and there’s a lot of other stuff happening on those models that draws the eye. On those models, metallic armour is the background – on these MCP models, a shiny metallic armour is the main event.
But – you might ask – why would you do this? Well, it simply came down to wanting more dice and another set of rulers (for 2 players) as well as additional set of the NYC terrain. Through the magic of maths, I worked out that it would only cost me AU$20 more to get a second core set with the tradeoff of not having an additional bodega building but instead getting an extra set of the 10 core characters. This meant I could then paint ’em in alt colours and give us both a chance to use, say, Iron Man or Red Skull (once I actually paint ’em).
Anyway, I decided to have some fun with the final shots of these using a ZC Toys Iron Man MKII that I picked up recently.
If you like this sort of thing, the ZC Toys Iron Man figures are miles ahead of the Marvel Legends, and don’t cost a lot more, being more like Hot Toys Junior.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Throws me a bit off that they call this “MK II” I’m the MCU. The first two Iron Man armors were large, bulky things (like MCU’s MK I). The main difference being one was lead colored and one was gold.
From there he went to red and yellow with a few minor changes, but essentially the same armor for a good decade or so. Ok, back to the mini! I think it looks good,
and I’ve ran into a few varnish mishaps with the paint on stuff myself. It definitely sucks when that finishing coat is what botches everything! Still, if you haven’t painted Ultron, this would be a great looking metallic effect for him.
A kind of murky dark aluminum. Kudos on getting MK2 done and I’m sure he looks perfect on the table!
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No – AMG didn’t call it the MkII – that’s the MCU scheme I painted this model in so I’ve titled the post that way to differentiate from the other scheme of the same model since I have a bunch of duplicate models now – the figure itself is the same as the bog-standard “Iron Man” model from the core set – you can see the two of them mirror-posed against the lens flare.
In the MCU the MKII and MKIII are essentially identical. As you’d know, MKIII has more weapons, and upgrades “under the hood” – but on the outside, they’re near-identical except for rivets and paint – and the MKII ends up being the first War Machine suit – so that’s why I called this model the “MKII” (dunno if they’ll ever make an official one – I’d rather see the Silver Centurion, myself….)
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We kind of got the Silver Centurion in the second movie, at least color wise. Though the armor looked much different in the comics. It might have also appeared in 3, because there are the scenes with multiple suits.
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Yeah, I know that the suitcase had that small element of SC in the colour scheme (shame it looked like arse), and we’ve seen the triangular ARC reactor in many other suits in the films. I’ll do a quick google and see if there was one in the House Party Protocol.
Yep – here it is. Doesn’t look too bad at least.
https://ironman.fandom.com/wiki/Mark_XXXIII_-_Silver_Centurion
I’m hoping for a SC in Crisis protocol, with the slightly heavier look but without the human musculature that the IM suits of the day had. I doubt we’ll get it, though – a STL/3D print might be my only source for that someday!
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Oh – and the link to my painted Ultron is in the text above! 🙂
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Ah ok, I forgot they used a newer version of Ultron (makes total sense),
that I’m not familiar with. Still looks like the effect turned out pretty decent for him.
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Yeah, between some of the classic comic looks for characters looking pretty dated in a lot of ways, there’s a huge number of current Marvel fans who know the franchise best (or only) via the MCU.
That even decribes me for a lot of the current newer popular characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy or characters that I never read in the day…
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I get what you mean on the varnishing metal side of things, it seems that metallics have a way of visually blending themselves (as opposed to actually being blended) that gets affected by varnish and results in a separated look. I use mig ultra matte varnish a lot and that completely kills the shine of metallics, which means the separation is super obvious. The only way around this effect I’ve found is to highlight metallics a bit patchily as if I was doing battle damage. That’s great for “evil” models, but a bit iffy for clean cut good guys. Luckily I don’t paint too many of the latter.
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Yeah, you’ve described the problem pretty much spot on – and even when I’ve made an effort to blend the paint they just look like separated arse once they’re varnished. Shiny siver seems to be the worst of it for some reason…
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Looks cool to me dude, though I never varnish so not really aware of the phenomenon 🫤
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Thanks Alex – Maybe I don’t need to quite as much these days with the plastic models, but those metals do seem to love to have a chip whenever they can! (especially when other people touch them!)
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Great use of your second Iron man suit, overall I think it turned out well, for varnish I always use Windsor newton especially for gloss, it’s the best varnish I’ve found, and doesn’t dull over time, and being brush applied, it can normally reach any where you applied paint.
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Thanks Dave! How does the W&N work on shiny silver and highlights of same? I’ve managed pretty well on most other things with my existing sprays.
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works well on all surfaces, can turn flat colours glossy (it’s what I use to add the sheen to my Dark Eldar) and doesn’t wash away any shade from metallic paints either, which is great as it is spirit based not acryllic.
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Do you have a link to it? I’ll see if/where/how I can source it here and give it a try..
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here you go mate, hope you can find it from a local source https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/winsor-newton-gloss-varnish-75ml/6348671000.html?glCountry=GB&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlumhBhClARIsABO6p-zZNOmF6kdgp1gNRXkTNZjG0_BUhNmYZJ4hSMJMN0Vaew5tcwxnXpwaAnMOEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
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Thanks to Azazel for raising the issue with his Silver Iron Man, and everyone else for sharing their experiences. Metallic colours (we use Vallejo GC) are our nightmare, even before we put varnish on them! The problem is that they are extremely dense, and even with the specific thinner it is difficult to spread a thin layer. Some advice?
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I’d change the metallic paint – Vallejo Model Air (with a brush) is amazing for everything silver from Metal Black through to Chrome. The VMA gold/copper are ok as well, but very yellow-white. Citadel’s Retributor Armour and Canoptek Alloy. I do like Vallejo Game Colour Copper, though – but a tiny drop of Lahmian Medium is often useful.
The varnish side doesn’t seem to be an issue with the gold/copper/brass side.. I’m probably going to have to try to find Dave’s W&N varnish and try that..
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That’s a shame on the varnish! Hopefully you can avoid that problem in the future now that you know its weather related. I really like the two Iron Mans facing off and you’re right about that ZC Toys figure as well. It looks pretty darn awesome! Excellent photography in this update as always, mate 🙂
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That’s the problem! It’s *not* weather related! I thought it was with Ultron, but the same thing happened in much cooler weather on this IM model.
If you’re an IM fan you could do a lot worse than picking up a few of the ZC for the shelf…
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My apologies, I think this is a case of me reading to fast and misinterpreting what was going! It sounds like this is a real conundrum then. I HATE losing progress or paint job quality to varnish so I sympathize with you, mate. And I may just have to browse ZC’s product line and see what tickles my fancy… 🙂
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All good. In a way this model as a “spare” that’s meant for the tabletop is a good(!?) learning opportunity to keep working on my metallics and how they intersect with varnish…
And it’s Zd, not ZC – my mistake! 😮
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I can just simply say that I quite like this version! Looks good to me! 🙂
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Thank you, John!
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I think that he still looks fine, and probably you’ll spend more time putting (this version of) Iron Man on the table than you will spend looking at him in super magnified detail. As a matter of interest, how long do you spend on a paint job like this? I assume, considering your prodigious output, that it doesn’t take too much time?
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A simpler one like this doesn’t take too long – I can get it done in a day or an afternoon as a “side project” while painting other models or bouncing back and forth between my PC or a video game or whatever. This one looked a lot better before the varnish, though sadly…
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