Namor, the Sub-Mariner, Marvel’s “first mutant” and King of Atlantis is the focus of today’s How to Paint Everything. He’ll be seeing release in the Black Panther, Chosen of Bast & Namor, the Sub-Mariner pack for Marvel: Crisis Protocol, releasing on July 12, 2024. This model has a few interesting things for us to paint, he’s hoisted above the play field on a wave of water, he has some gold to paint and if you’re not used to painting skin he has a lot of that to practice on. We’ll be going over all of those this time around.
Painting the Wave
First up, we’ll work on the water element. We’re going to go with a bit of a blue-green for the water and try to sell the idea of the water moving with some paint translucency tricks and stippling. I’ll go over the main body of water first and then follow it up with the foam section.
1. Basecoat: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue
First thing we’ll do is lay down a streaky basecoat of Thousand Sons Blue. Since it’s over white, the streaks will help sell the idea of the water moving vertically.
2. Layer: Vallejo Model Color White: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue
Paint the foam and center of the wave.
3. Shadows: Citadel Stegadon Scale Green
Paint the base, the area under the foam and some recesses in the water Stegadon Scale Green.
4. Highlight: Vallejo Model Color White: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue
Highlight the ridges in the wave with a mix of White and Thousand Sons Blue.
Painting the Foam
1. Shadow: Citadel Stegadon Scale Green
Reinforce the shadows of the foam with a layer of Stegadon Scale Green
2. Stipple: Vallejo Model Color White
Stipple the entire area with white
3. Stipple: Citadel Thousand Sons Blue
Stipple the area again with Thousand Sons Blue to add some color back in
4. Stipple: Vallejo Model Color White
Finally stipple one last time with white to help sell the look of turbulent water.
Painting the Skin
Skin can be really difficult and Namor has a lot of it. We’re going to go with a pale skin tone, since I’m sure he doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight. For most skin tones, my go to colors come from Reaper Miniature’s MSP paint line. We’ll use Fair Skin as the basis and work in some blue and red tones to help give the skin a bit more visual interest.
1. Basecoat: Reaper Fair Skin
Basecoat all of the skin with a nice even coat of Fair Skin. We want this to be as smooth as possible, which might take a few thin coats.
2. Layer: Citadel Aldorf Blue: Reaper Fair Skin
Layer on the cool undertones to the recesses and shadowed areas of the skin and lower half of the face.
3. Layer: Citadel Bugman’s Glow: Reaper Fair Skin
Next we’ll layer the warm undertones on to the muscles, cheekbones and ears.
4. Wash: Citadel Agrax Earthshade: Reaper Fair Skin
Mix a wash of Agrax Earthshade and Fair Skin, wash all of the skin areas with this mix
5. Layer: Fair Skin
I forgot to get a picture of this step. Next up, paint a thin layer of Fair Skin back on to the raised areas of the muscles.
6: Highlight: Reaper Fair Highlight & Dark Lining: Citadel Bugman’s Glow: Reaper Fair Skin
Finally, we are going to highlight the edges of the muscles with Fair Highlight and then we will go along the recesses of the muscles with the warm undertones mix of Bugman’s Glow and Fair Skin to help add definition to the muscles from a distance.
Painting the Speedo
Namor’s glorious fish scale bikini bottom is relatively simple compared to everything else we’ve painted on him so far. We’ll use Warpstone Glow for the basecoat and then use a bit of red and yellow to make the scales pop and make it look more interesting.
1. Basecoat: Citadel Warpstone Glow
Basecoat the entire swimsuit with a solid basecoat of Warpstone Glow.
2. Shadow: Citadel Warpstone Glow: Citadel Mephiston Red
Mix a small amount of Mephiston Red into the Warpstone Glow and paint that into the shadowed areas and along the bottoms of the scales.
3. Highlight: Citadel Warpstone Glow: Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow
Highlight the scales with a mix of Warpstone Glow and Flash Gitz Yellow.
4. Highlight: Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow
Finally, highlight the very bottom tips of the scales with Flash Gitz Yellow.
Painting the NMM Gold
In my quest to make non-metallic metal more accessible to everyone, we’ll be doing some quick and dirty NMM Gold on Namor. For the most part, non-metallic metal is all about the contrast between your darkest color and the lightest color and proper placement of those colors. For this we’ll start with Rhinox Hide and work it up through a few shades of yellow and finally highlight it with white. As you get better with it, you can work on blending and such. But sometimes all you need are chunky highlights and high contrast.
1. Basecoat: Citadel Rhinox Hide
Paint all of the areas that will be gold with a basecoat of Rhinox Hide.
2. Layer: Citadel XV-88
Paint the areas that would catch light, like the tops of the bracers, the skyward side of the shaft of the spear shaft and the curves of the trident with XV-88.
3. Layer: Citadel Yriel Yellow
Reinforce those previous layers with Yriel Yellow.
4. Edge Highlight: Citadel Phalanx Yellow
Edge highlights the raised sections of the bracers, the edges of the trident and the highest points of the spear shaft with Phalanx Yellow.
5. Spot Highlight: Vallejo Model Color White
Finally add spot highlights with white to help sell the look that these surfaces are actually reflecting light.
Painting the Hair
Namor has slicked back dark hair and sometimes that is hard to highlight properly. We’re going to use Black and Kantor Blue for the main colors of the hair and then highlight it with a bit of Teclis Blue. I don’t want to go fully white with it, so we’ll stop short and leave the main highlight color as pure Teclis Blue.
1. Basecoat: Vallejo Model Color Black
Paint the hair black, I also added in some ridges to the edge of the hairline to give it a bit more character.
2. Layer: Vallejo Model Color Black: Kantor Blue
Highlight the crown of his head and the widow’s peak in the front with Kantor Blue mixed with Black.
3. Layer: Previous Mix: Teclis Blue
Reinforce those highlights with with Teclis Blue mixed into your previous mix.
4. Highlight: Teclis Blue
Finally, highlight with Teclis Blue.
That’s pretty much all there is to Namor, the Sub-Mariner. I finished off the water after varnishing with a bit of Citadel ‘ardcoat gloss to help the water feel more wet, I stippled it around the base as well to make it look like it’s being splashed with water as well. But it’s hard to see in photos. If you’re on social media, hit me up on Twitter/X (@brushwizard) or Instagram (@brushwizardry) and share your work, I’m always interested to see what the MCP community has been working on.
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