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 Ultron from Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

Ultron first appeared in 1968’s The Avengers #54 as an unnamed character, with his full introduction being made in The Avengers #55. He is one of the Avengers most recurring villains and, contrary to his origins in the MCU, was created by Hank Pym. Ultron wants to destroy all of humanity in order to create world peace, a motivation adapted in the MCU. James Spader portrays Ultron in the movies, and while some people knew him from The Blacklist, I only knew of James Spader from his portrayal of Robert California in season 7 of The Office and advertisements for The Blacklist. I thought his portrayal of Ultron was pretty good, he is pretty good at sounding sinister and making you uncomfortable making it very easy to imagine Robert California inside Ultron’s head as one of many possible programs.

Ultron also creates an army of drones that look exactly like him. Something I imagine Robert California would do if he could.

Covered in this Article

• Techniques for painting Ultron, Metal Tyrant.
• Techniques for painting Ultron Drones.

Painting Ultron, Metal Tyrant

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 coated Ultron’s body in Army Painter Polished Silver Speed Paint over their bodies as well as the sewer grate and manhole cover on his base.

Next I painted all of his glowy crevices and his cape with Mephiston Red and added a basecoat of Dawnstone to the concrete. I then painted the flames and explosion under his feet with Iyanden Yellow as well as putting a thin coat of his over the glowy parts as well to give it all some extra glow and more depth.

Next I drybrushed the explosion and flame jets Corvus Black to give the effect of dark smoke on the edges of the flames. I also smoothed out the Dawnstone base coat in preparation for highlighting and shades.

Next, I painted his cape rings connected to his back and the filigree with Army Painter Hoplite Gold Speed Paint.

For all of the highlighting I did an edge highlight for the concrete with Administratum Grey. I then, highlighted the cape with 1:1 Screaming Skull and Khorne Red. Highlight the glowy bits with this same mixture and went over the glowy bits again with White Scar to emulate the brightest spots of his glow. I slathered the base in Agrax Earthshade and I finished up painting his base rim Abaddon Black.

Painting Ultron Drones

I followed a lot of the same steps with these as I did with Ultron. The difference being the dirt and concrete. The step by step can be seen below.

In the above image I also painted the concrete and little stones in the sandy dirt area with Dawnstone.

To get sort of a soil that hasn’t seen daylight in decades kind of look I painted the dirt under the concrete with a mix of 2:1 XV-88 and Corvus Black. Then I highlighted the dirt with Zandri Dust and the concrete with Administratum Grey. Finally, I slathered the whole base with Agrax Earthshade.

The final step was to give the glowing parts a final white spot with White Scar as the brightest spot in those sections of their body. Cleaning it all up with Abbadon Black for the base rim.

Final Thoughts

Robert California was a weird character to add to the final seasons of The Office, but he was kind of a hail Mary throw in order to make up for the lack of Steve Carrell. In my opinion, he worked really well and kind of filled in as an aggressive weirdo acting sort of as an antagonist for the whole office where as Michael Scott was just a lovable oaf.

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