In our How to Paint Everything series, we take a look at how to paint well, everything, with a look at different methods from different artists. In this article we’re looking at Black Widow from Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

The Black Widow was first created in 1964, appearing in Tales of Suspense #64 initially as an antagonist to Iron Man. Fittingly her introduction to the MCU was in Iron Man 2 where she was already a member of S.H.I.E.L.D tasked by Nick Fury to help Tony get his life back together after he goes on a dangerous bender and nearly blows his house up with his big Iron Man hands. She had her own movie which was definitely released at the right time in the MCU’s release orders.

Covered in this Article

• Techniques for painting The Black Widow.

Painting The Black Widow

Rocco’s Method

I started with a black prime followed by a white zenithal coat. I do this with most of my models. It helps accentuate shadows and highlights when using Citadel Contrast and Army Painter Speed Paints, and it also just helps my eyes not get lost in details being all the same color. Of course this runs of the risk of white patches being left behind if I miss a spot, but I prefer to have my mistakes be glaring so they’re easier to fix. I then used Army Painter Polished Silver Speed Paint on her batons, Widow’s Bites (her wrists), and the Ultron Drone. I know I don’t have the sewer grate and drone army painted in this image, but they also received Polished Silver as a base coat.

Next, I worked on the Ultron Drone and painted the glowing parts with Khorne Red. I then hit those parts with Iyanden Yellow to add orange to the glow and followed up with highlights using 1:1 Screaming Skull and Khorne Red then went over them again with White Scar.

Next I painted a 2:1 mixture of XV-88 and Corvus Black onto the dirt and added a first coat of Dawnstone to the concrete. I painted her belt with Army Painter Hoplite Gold Speed Paint and painted her whole body suit with Abbadon Black. (as you can see here the sewer grate and drone arm are painted now!).

I painted her hair with a 1:1 mixture of Rhinox Hide and Mephiston Red and absecoated her skin with Bugman’s Glow. I like Bugman’s as a warm basecoat for skin. I can build up from it with lighter skin tones keeping that warm tone underneath.

To layer up from Bugman’s Glow to an actual skin tone, I glazed with Cadian Fleshtone and added a glaze off Flayed One’s Flesh on top of that. I touched up the skin with more Flayed One’s Flesh to make it not look so splotchy and finished with thinned down Reikland Fleshhade to she didn’t look TOO pale. I also highlighted her suit with Dawnstone at this step.

The last steps was to shade the abse with Agrax Earthshade and finally take a picture that shows that I painted the wires on the drone arm Khorne Red and highlighted with Mephiston Red. The picture doesn’t show it too well, but I promise I did. Also, please ignore that one of her batons is missing. Something definitely didn’t get dropped at any point in the process and snap off extremely easily. Finally, I highlighted the concrete with Administratum Grey and painted the base rim with Abaddon Black.

Final Thoughts

The Black Widow kind of came on to the MCU scene as a side-kick kind of character in Iron Man 2, but good writing managed to turn her into a beloved member of the Avengers who nothing bad would ever happen to.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.