He's A Big 'Un

This is the largest thing I've printed in resin, and also the largest figure I've painted. Obviously I was trying to capture the look of the cinematic version. I wanted to capture the feel of that moment where his face starts to light up, and you just know there's a big energy blast coming. The Destroyer
I airbrushed a primer coat of Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black. I then sprayed Vallejo 71.073 Model Air Metallic Black from around 45 degrees above, Vallejo 71.072 Model Air Metallic Gunmetal from around 10 degrees above, and Vallejo 71.065 Model Air Metallic Steel from directly above, pretty much just on the head and shoulders. This left some black visible on the downwards-facing surfaces.

I painted Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black thinned with a lot of Vallejo 73.596 Glaze Medium directly into grooves. I actually went over the spikes with a light drybrush of Steel, as I felt they were not standing out enough and I wanted them to pop a little more.

I built up the glow by painting layers into the grooves, then drybrushing the same colour around them. I started with Vallejo 72.711 Game Air Gory Red thinned with a bit of Glaze Medium for most of the grooves of the face, then drybrushed Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red onto most of the face. This was followed with Vallejo 72.106 Game Color Scarlett Blood painted then drybrushed over a smaller area (again thinned with Glaze Medium for the grooves). In the same way I worked through Vallejo 72.008 Game Color Orange Fire, Vallejo 72.007 Game Color Gold Yellow, and Vallejo 72.005 Game Color Moon Yellow thinned and painted into face grooves and eyes.

I had been applying the layering at a small scale on the eyes to create a transition, taking it all the way up to white by painting Formula P3 Morrow White thinned with glaze medium into centers of eyes, drybrushing Gold Yellow around the eyes and surroundings, touching up a smaller area of the center with the white, drybrushing Moon Yellow over the eyes and immediate surroundings, and then a final tiny spot of white in the very centers of the eyes.

I had a lot of difficulty with the base. I thought of warm desert tones, to match the Earth terrain the Destroyer walks across at the end of Thor, but with how dark the model is I was afraid even darker warm tones might distract slightly from the glowing face, which I really wanted to be the center of attention. So I went for cold tones, representing the vault on Asgard where we first see the Destroyer. I initially basecoated with a roughly 2:1 mix of Vallejo 70.899 Model Color Dark Prussian Blue to Vallejo 70.862 Model Color Black Grey. I then drybrushed on The Army Painter Warpaints Viking Blue, then a very very light drybrush with The Army Painter Warpaints Ice Storm. This created a much brighter and more saturated look than I had hoped for. I was able to darked and desaturate it somewhat with a drybrush of grey (I don't remember the exact shade); it was still far from perfect but I didn't know what else to do.

I applied an airbrushed layer of Vallejo 26.517 Gloss Acrylic Varnish, then I brushed Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish directly onto the base to matt it down.


Overall it's a fairly simple model with a fairly simple colour scheme, but a surprising amount went wrong. I left supports to the software, and they were not as well placed as they could have been; cleanup was quite a pain. Some of the grooves, especially around the head, needed to be deepened a little. I didn't want the spikes to be too sharp as I felt this would leave them more vulnerable, so I used a rotary tool with a very soft fiber buffing wheel to take off the tips and leave them more rounded.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that I actually printed some smaller test pieces, and got results that I liked for the metallic effect, with a shiny metallic effect that seemed to add depth and highlighted the model's contours. But when I attempted to apply the same method of zenithal basecoat to the actual model it looked a fair bit more dull and flat, and just less metallic. I tried to take a picture to illustrate the effect; it's not obvious in the photo but you can still see the model in front is shinier and more metallic, and the difference was clearer in real life: I was having a lot of issues with my airbrushes when I went to paint the actual model, so that was probably part of the issue. I suspect I might not have been heavy enough with the Vallejo Steel, or perhaps I had the airbrush too far away so the paint dried too much before landing and didn't form a smooth shiny layer?

I dunno. I guess he looks good enough overall. Hopefully future statues will come out better.