Learn to Paint: Spider-Ham and Silk — Marvel Crisis Protocol

When Atomic Mass Games released their new packs detailing characters across the Spiderverse, I was thrilled to see Spider-Ham, Noir, 2099, and a host of other characters that I’ve always wanted to paint, so for the next few “Learn to Paint” posts, we’re going to dive into these characters and provide you with some tutorials so you can get these new models to the table quickly.

For this tutorial, I took on both Spider-Ham and Silk, both of which presented unique challenges to my normal painting process, but the result still leaves me satisfied.

Silk, Spider-Ham, & Spider-Man Noir - atomicmassgames

Atomic Mass Games

atomicmassgames

Priming

For both of these models (and a few more), I opted to prime with White Scar. The reason for this is simple…I want bright colors at the end of the painting process, and for Silk, I thought this would be a bit of a hack, although that went completely wrong, more on that later. I also figured that I could take advantage of speedpaints in order to get some ideas down quickly.

Base Tones

Speedpaints or Contrast paints can do wonders over white. These paints, with a similar flow to inks, can quickly fill gaps and create dynamic contrast on a model. On Silk, I used Bloodmoon Red and Turnbull Turquoise to achieve the reds and blues, at the expense of realizing that I would need to repaint all of the white squares on Silk’s costume. 

On Spider-Ham, I used the same colors along with the AK Quick Gen Wood to make quick work on the hammer. 

Back to Silk, Citadel Pylar Glacier on the webs, and AP Broadsword Silver on the metallic part of the base. For the white parts of her suit, I used Augur Blue with a small brush and painted each individual part of the webbing. This was the most time I spent on the model, and the most frustrating, but to make it work correctly, I had to do that.

Mid Tones

Getting into the mid-tones for both models was a bit more fun. On Spider-Ham, I focused on keeping it simple. The blue tones contained The Darkness working it’s way up to Royal Blue, which is a solid blue tone. This mix gave me good shadow coverage and an almost comic-like feel for the blues of the costume. Using a stippling technique, I was able to create some nice transitions vs. straight lines. For the reds in his costume, I used Fiery Vermillion and added a small part of Moonbeam Yellow and Lava Orange to build up those tones.

At the same time, I hit the eyes and snout details with The Darkness.

On Silk, I took a mix of The Darkness and Augur Blue to build the costume details. Since her outfit is mostly dark, I wanted to keep it in the gray-green-blue tones that those paints create.  I also used this mixture on her hair. Her skin got a pass with Dorado Skin, which is a light yellowish brown, good for deep tones. 

Highlights

Highlights were simple on Spider-Ham. More yellow with a touch of Ivory White is my go-to for warm, bright tones on the red. For the blue, I used Ivory White with Runic Cobalt, which is a pale bluish grey. I added this mixture to his eyes, and then some Golden So Flat White provided specular highlights in the form of tiny dots on specific areas of the model.

For Silk, mostly the same process on the white parts of the costume, her hair, and the gray buildup of highlights on the darker parts of the costume. For the reds, the Vermillon up to Yellow trick worked again for her…this is a repeatable pattern you can use across many red models. For her skin, just lightening it up gradually with Ivory White is really all I need. The white primer really does the trick here. 

Special Effects and Basing

Now for some fun. AK Interactive Black Panel Liner was perfect for getting the lines of Spider-Ham’s suit, and for cleanup work on Silk’s costume lines as well. 

For the bases, I stuck with a mixture working up from The Darkness into Thunderous Blue into Great Hall Grey, with the Grey being focused on the edges of all of the cracks across the concrete. 

AK Interactive enamels helped out with Panel Liner, first providing darkness in the cracks, then liquid enamel pigment to leave a dusty finish. On Silk, specifically, I also pulled out Light Soil Pigment because I wanted some contrast. These all clean up with white spirits or thinner.

For the star of the show on Spider-Ham, both the cartoon explosion and “WHACK!”, I focused on using fluorescents. Yellow, Orange, and Red from Lethal Shadows have a thicker mix to them, which allowed me to blend and thin down to various consistencies. Sorastro, a very good Marvel Crisis Protocol painter, has an excellent process for explosions. I highly recommend checking out their tutorials for that. 

The edges of the onomatopoeia got the Darkness and little hints of White in order to nail that comic book appearance. 

Finals

After all of that, a quick pass with an AK Interactive Black marker for the rim, and some Ultra Matte Varnish, and both of these models are ready for the table!  Total paint and assembly time took a few days; don’t sweat it or rush it. Looking back, I probably should have chosen the shorter hair on Silk and taken a hobby knight to the costume to ensure all of the costume lines were easy to pick out, because it definitely wasn’t the easiest time I’ve had with a model.

But they’re done, and that’s what’s important. Have you painted up some of the Spider-Verse yet? Follow Gaming Trend for more Learn to Paint and Marvel Crisis Protocol articles, and show us how you’re painting up your pieces in the comments or find us on Instagram and Bluesky!