FIGURE PAINT GUIDE 101

[HOG]

Hoyhoy`al
Welcome to finger figure painting 101. This figure will actually end up on "Resistance is useless-met hog 2"
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,21410.30.html
if you can remember that far back for two reasons,
1/ I`ve gotta do it at some time.
2/ It`s a simple scheme to show and
3/ I`m sick of kahki and green.

First off some notes. As I`ve mentioned before I usually convert/detail figures using a liquid glue and filler mix. I now use cellulose thinner for this as its a lot cheaper and gives me a bit more working time on the figure. It dries smoother and is softer to sculpt. I use a fine brush and put the thinner directly into the tube and `twiddle` till it thickens up to the consistancy I want. (set up below).
Regards paintbrushes, nothing kills a good sable like drybrushing. For this I usually buy a pack of 15 assorted brushes from my local £1:00 or :99p (GB) store preferably short bristled but at this price I`ll take what I get.






This is my normal arsenal for painting figures and generally you need a soft brush that holds its shape. Shown here are  1/2 and 1/4 inch chisel, and a no,2, 000 and 00000 pointed water colour type brushes. With the paints I normally use the cheap acrylic crafting range in the back row (around £1:00 GB) for the initial blocking in of colour. There available in a wide range of colours and finishes and include mettallics. They dry fairy quickly and grip the plastic well but may need a second coat to fully cover the underlying colour/plastic. To the right are tube acrylics. These are similar to the bottles but thin down with water better. As regards water I use straight from the tap with a drop of liquid detergent to break up the surface tension of the paint, but some people I know swear by (or at) distilled water. The reason for base coats in acrylic is to stop the paint lifting when doing oil based washes as happens with enamel etc. If you have to use enamels as a base coat, when dry, cover with an acrylic clear varnish to seal them and preferably two coats. I have used Tamiya clear in the past and Johnson`s Klear as a sealant, but haven`t tried the new Johnson`s Pledge yet for this. On the left are the oils which I thin with white spirit to do the washes, On the left bottom row are watercolour paints, which thinned down make useful wash for some effects.  All of the tube paints also came from my local £1:00 store in boxes of 12 mixed colours of a type, cheap but useable. As pallettes I use the tops from coffee and milk as there free.
Anyway like Babylon 5  "And so it begins".
This is the basic figure converted from a 1:48 Tamiya panzer crew into a sci-fi castaway,



Try to get any detail on your figure (or vehicle for that matter) with nice defined edges as the drybrush detailing will show up better on an edge than a flat surface.
I mixed some black and grey (incidently called `Rainy Day Grey` I love paint names and recently highlighted a early tiger tank in `Dove of Peace`grey) and sloshed this over the whole figure not worrying to much about boundarys with the no.2 pointed brush.  While this was still wet I added some white to the mix, dipped the 1/2 inch chisel into the paint. Wipeing the bulk of the paint away with a cloth I flicked the bristles over the edges of the wooden figure holder, seen in the pictures, till there was very little left and lightly brushed this onto the figure. Added more white and repeated three times brushing with lighter strokes each time until result as below.




If like my figure moulding seams show they should be removed but this time I CBA`d. as they wont show on the dio. A couple of points I should have mentioned earlier about acrylics, Firstus they will normaly dry a slightly darker colour that when wet, why because they do. Secundus they will shrink when drying around the painted shape, due to the polymer base, so I`ve been told. Anyhoot after the acrylic has dried the first oil wash is applied, this being a blue grey here and suddenly some of that detail comes back.


Now we leave it to dry overnight to continue tommorrow.

G

P.s I`ve noticed these cheap tube paints and brushes reasonably priced on E Bah if your stuck. Of course if you want you obviously can use better quality brands and probably get better results but my budgets tight.

[nev]

Thats some mighty fine work so far - lovin the 80s shoulder pads

[HOG]

Hoyhoy`al
Thanks Nev, those cap shoulders are to give it the broard shoulder look  and spat shoulders increase recruiting poster effiency by 1000% (ops! wrong post  )
Two things I forgot to mention. If you drill a hole into one foot and leg and cyno in a thin rod, this helps in mounting the figure on the dio and gives somthing to hold on when painting. I stick mine into short lengths of dowel, in this case just a drill hole as its a tight fit, but often used to use double sided tape or foam. But with the spirit based washes the glue dissolved and I now have some mini pin vices fixed in the holes. These came off E Bah @ £4:00 GB for 5. Sellers name is `watch-tools`



Any what, after drying it looks like this



Starting to work but lacking deffinition. Putting out some of the original grey crafters acrylic, I lightly drybrushed the whole figure, added a small amount of white acrylic and redid using the 00 brush. Adding more white and a little water and just touched up the high lights, front and botton of the jacket and added the shirt in the `v` of the collar.



Next I started on the collar with a crafters acrylic dark green, painting this around the collar, epaulets, front and bottom of jacket etc. I then added some light green acrylic and drybrushed over the dark green areas using the 00 brush trying not to get to much on the jacket grey.





I then did a very thin wash of black oils over the entire figure and left to dry.




I wasn`t to happy with the finish on the grey areas so added some more paint there nearly repainting most of the grey area. I think the trouble is that the wash is coming through to strong or dark against the grey colour  making it look like a camo` pattern. Any way I finished highlighting the green areas and added the flesh base with Tamiya flesh thinned with cellulose thinner. In an attempt to solve the grey problem I coated this in Johnson`s Klear as a seal and will review tommorow when dry.



Finally, another thing I should have mentioned earlier was that after a paint session I clean all the brushes in cellulose thinner as this will break down all the paints that I use.

Cheers
G

[BlackOps]

Gary, thanks for this, I hope I can absorb some of this into my thick skull for later use 

[HOG]

Hoyhoy`al

Work up this morning and figure was glossy so blew over with a water based matt varnish and heres the result.



The dark creases are bugging the hell outta me. Obviously I didn`t thin the wash down enough so one last try before it goes into cleanup. I`m trying  a wash of black/white mix with just a hint of light blue, hopeing that this will cover over some of the black.





Well this worked. I added a bit more white oil paint and just hit the highlights to shade.



While this was drying I drybrushed some white acrylic into the `V` of the collar with the 00000brush to represent the shirt and when dry added a very thin wash of yellow ochre to cut the brightness of the white. Moving down I gave the boots a coat of black acrylic, mixed in some white to a dark grey and added the laces (do space marines boots have laces?). Yet more white and a touch of brown, mixed and drybrushed onto the toecap and sides to try to look like scuffing and wear. After the grey wash had dried I repaired the green to the front and bottom of the jacket that I had caught with the wash.
Now while doing jobs like these my mind often wanders and I was thinking about `Sharpe` on the telly and Napolionic uniforms and coloured facings and living up to my name (HOG  Head Outta Gesthalt-Hands On Autopilot) suddenly found I had green flaps on the trouser pockets. Well It breaks up the grey. Letting this dry it was of to lunch and onto BARE FLESH    on the return.

Now my method of painting flesh or skin tones is a bit different to what I`ve explained previously. Apart from the acrylic flesh base coat its all done in oils. The colours needed are white, red, yellow ochre, burnt sienna and burnt umber. If you have a flesh colour the this will save a bit of mixing otherwise mix white, red, yellow ochre and burnt sienna together roughly in the ratio of 20:1:3:1 adding as required to get the colour you want. For the painting I use a 000 and a 00000 brush, the 00000 is for applying paint and the 000 for blending of colours. You will also need some clean white spirit and a tissue.

My technique is to dip the 000 into the white spirit and lay this on the tissue, apply paint with the 00000 and blend the colours with the 000. The tissue will absorb most of the thinner leaving just a damp brush for blending and the brush is cleaned and laid on the tissue after each go.

I usually mix the colours on a coffee jar lid as this gives some space for the mixing of tones. So mix up or place some flesh colour in the center and small amounts of all the colours around it as your palette . Also watch the 00000 brush for droplets of thinners on the metal ferule. These will often run down the brush as soon as you put brush onto the object your painting by capillary action putting a dollop of thinner just where you don`t want it so touch the ferule to the tissue to avoid this before apllying paint just in case.
Right, dip the 000 into the white spirit and lay on the tissue, mix some burnt sienna and burnt umber together and thin to a runny mix (but not a wash) and apply around the top of the shirt collar, around the bottom of the hat and visor, under the chin and into the ears. Also where the hand meets the cuff and into the fingers. his will give us a slightly darker skin tone and acts as `lining in` as the old figure modelers called it. Take some of the flesh colour and paint he face and hands, and blend these two colours together. Into a flesh tone add a small amount of white and paint the uppercheeks under the eyes, the bridge of the nose, the chin and edges of the ears. Also apply to the hands where the light would catch and blend in. Now mix some burnt sienna with the flesh and paint the upper eye sockets, the sides of the nose, the creases of the chin line under the ears, and under the chin, also add to the bottom lip and blend. Next place a small dot of pure red on each cheeck and blend into the sides of the face and back to the ears. If it looks to `rosey` add more flesh. Were looking for a warmer colour here not too healthy looking or the Queens Dragoons in full drag.
Now we should have a face that looks like the eyes are closed. EYES ! I can`t do eyes in this scale. Here I cheat and put a line of darker skin tone here so that it looks like the face is in shadow and the cap brim helps. If you must have eyes look in some books or maybe a modelling website as far better painters than me can help here. As my figure is supposed to represent someone stranded I mixed a little black into the flesh paint so as to get a slight greying of the colour and painted this where a beard would grow to represent stubble. Blend the top of this into the rest of the face adding a tiny amount of white to the tip of the chin and darkening under the chin. And thats it for the face. The hands are easier just give a slight shadeing to represent where the lights hitting then, keeping some of the dark colour between the fingers and highlight as required.







The hat was painted in the same way as the collar and the hi-tec bitz were picked out in black. Some ficticious badges etc were painted on and there it was done.







Not totally happy with this one, and blowing him up as big as possible dosn`t help but he looks ok in his 1 1/4 inch real size, but as usual when you try to show something simple it goes awkward and slightly pear shaped. Next time you see Fearless Fred he`ll be attached to the dio in the regular slot and finished.

Judgeing by the numbers quite a few people have visited this and I hope it has been of some help. Let me know what you think and if there is anyway I can improve it. Any questions, please ask and I`ll help where I can.

Cheers 
G

[HOG]

 I don`t no why I bother

[BlackOps]

I don`t no why I bother

Because you love us     

Gary, I found this quite useful and will be copy and pasting it into my archives for future reference! Thanks for taking the time, I for one am greatful    I especially like the tips for the face.

[retro_seventies]

Thanks Gary! 

It's been while since i painted a figure, and a refresher is always welcome!