I’m rewatching the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the Spaghetti Order. The first movie in the MCU is Iron Man (2008). And for this movie I decided to paint Iron Man himself who comes in the starter box for Marvel Crisis Protocol.
The Model
The model from MCP is great. It shows Iron Man holding up his hand about to fire off a repulsor blast.
I wanted to experiment with the new contrast paints from Citadel and I found a tutorial showing just that. And theoretically it’s mostly two steps:
- Spray paint gold (which I already have on hand)
- Paint Flesh Tearers Red (which is a contrast paint).
- Retire early.
I gave it a go but wasn’t too impressed with the results.
I’ve never used Contrast paints before so I think I used too much and made it too thick to not show the highlights.
I decided I would use traditional highlighting techniques and here’s what I came up with:
Overall I’m happy with the paint scheme. I painted the glow effect (called OSL) on his hand which I haven’t done before and it came out pretty great. I have some work to do on the center chest piece.
I copied the Atomic Mass Games paint scheme pretty closely and in hindsight wish I added a little more gold. Partly to have more contrast on the model and partly because Iron Man tends to have more gold.
Paint Scheme
Gold armor
- Spray Retributor Armor
- Wash with Reikland Fleshshade
- Layer Auric Armour Gold
- Edge highlight Liberator Gold
- Edge highlight Stormhost Silver
Red armor
- Base Wazdakka Red
- Layer Evil Sunz Scarlet
- Layer Wild Rider Red
- Highlight Squig Orange
Paints for the base
- Base Dawnstone
- Wash Agrax Earthshade in the cracks
- Dry brush Administratum grey
Paints for repulsors and chest arc
- 50/50 Sotek Green and Evil Sunz Scarlet
- Sotek Green
- 50/50 Sotek Green and Temple Guard Blue
- Temple Guard Blue
- 50/50 Temple Card Blue and White Scar
- White scar
Paints for metal on base
- Runefang steel
- Wash
The Movie
After painting the model I rewatched the movie. It does an amazing job setting up the format of the MCU movies including how funny they are. And Robert Downey Jr is perfect as Iron Man. He’s funny, snarky, intelligent, a womanizer, and has character flaws.
Since he’s the most frequent recurring character throughout the MCU they were able to take advantage of all the setup they did in this movie.
From a story point of view they did a great job convincing us that Tony Stark could actually build this suit. And they leveled up his powers appropriately. At first he could shoot from his hands, then he had self-aiming bullets on his shoulder, then a missile that could blow up a tank. Powerful, but not crazy and gives him lots of opportunity to get more powerful as the MCU movies keep coming out.
A couple other interesting tidbits:
- The villain was pretty generic (I want to make money!)
- They used existing popular music (AC/DC) instead of creating a score
- They had a comic relief robot arm (DUM-E) which they carry through all of the Iron Man movies
Despite all of things they did well, this movie is in the bottom 50% of MCU movies. It was influential and maybe even ground breaking at the time. But in the 12 years after this came out MCU kept getting better and better.
The Comics
I’m not very familiar with the comics so I asked a friend what I should read. He recommend Demon in a Bottle. I read it right after the movie and was struck how Tony Stark’s origin story was almost panel for panel (or scene for scene) the same as this comic.
Demon in a Bottle
He had an assistant, Ho Yinsen, in both who helps him with the suit, he has the same name, and he even runs out early both times sacrificing himself to let Tony Stark live.
The only difference is that in the 2008 Iron Man movie took place in the Middle East and Daemon in a Bottle took place in Vietnam.
Technology
On the more delightful side, I adored how much technology has improved. There was a funny panel where Tony Stark was excited to try his new FM radio! And his eyes slits have plexi-glass that slides into place automatically.
Since Iron Man is such a technologist every time he’s reimagined I think he’ll get cooler and cooler.
Alcoholism
The comic also explored some pretty adult topics. Tony Stark definitely has a problem with alcohol. He drinks a lot in some of the earlier comics in the series and it’s something you could miss. But as the comics progress it becomes a bigger and bigger problem.
I’m impressed comics from the 1979 covered topics like this. They need to be talked about and sneaking them into comics is a great way to to do so.
Wrap Up
I loved learned more about Iron Man. He wasn’t always the most popular Avenger but because of the MCU he’s become one of the favorites.
His background is great and his desire to not take place in the military-industrial complex is admirable. He’s not a boy-scout like Captain America. He can be a jerk or even an asshole. But it somehow just makes him seem like a real human.
The Iron Man movie is fantastic because it sets up the rest of the MCU. If you haven’t seen it recently give it another go and read Demon in a Bottle. It’ll help you understand Iron Man on a deeper level.
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