| A FEW WORDS ABOUT TECHNIQUE |
There are dozens and dozens of articles already out there on 'HOW TO" when it comes to
figure painting. I'm not going to bore anyone with a blow by blow of how these were painted.
But if you are totally new to this endeavor then a little background so we are on common
ground. All the figures shown here are from kits I've purchased over the years. The main
material that they are made from is resin, a liquid plastic material that is poured into rubber
molds. It then hardens and the resulting parts are pulled out , cleaned up a bit and packaged.
The quality of what's available now is staggering, compared to what was available 12 years
ago when I started in the hobby. The other main material for the kits is vinyl, again a plastic
but it's much more malleable. Its drawback is that it can be tricky to assemble the kits. The
plus is that a manufacturer can usually charge less for the kits as more parts can be pulled
from the molds compared to resin kits.If you need an explanation more detailed that that , e-
mail me and I'll help you out.
All my kits are painted with acrylic for major undercoating, and a few have some oil paint
washes for details, or full on oil coats for areas like realistic flesh. I've experimented with just
about every technique for painting skin and I still come back to oil paints. They are still
incredibly cheap in terms of how long a set will last you - I'm still using the same tubes I
bought over 15 years ago- and very forgiving with their slow drying time. This allows you to
both blend your work, and if unhappy with it, to wipe it away. I use an airbrish for specific
affects and shadings. Again the paint used is acrylics, thinned for airbrushing. I use an Aztek
470 now. Its terrifically easy to use and maintain. There are a lot of airbrushes to choose
from, but buy best you can and then TAKE CARE OF IT. 99.99% of complaints about
airbrushing come from a person just not cleaning the darn thing. Try and take good care of
this one piece of your toolchest and you will not regret it. I have not mentioned what brand of
acrylics I use since basically, I use some from just about every brand out there.I will put a
pitch in for Vallejo acrylics. They come in small bottle with an eyedroper dispenser system
that keeps 'em from oxidizing much better than many brands, and they blend beautifully. But
again, experiment. Every brand out there has its strengths and weaknesses. For brushes, no
matter who you ask, or who you read, they will tell you the same thing, BUY THE BEST.
Generally this means sable. You cannot paint the Mona Lisa with a butter knife, and the
quality of brush you use WILL make a difference. AND cheap brushes will be crap after just a
few sessions, meaning you have to buy new ones again. Pretty soon you'll wish you had just
spend the money up front.
For a few lessons, I HIGHLY recommend you buy the video series on painting and
construction that you can buy from Amazing Figure Modeler hosted by David Fisher. They
cover every aspect of getting started to converting, displaying and finishing your kit. There
are also great articles in Amazing Figure Modeler magazine, Modelers Resource, and Fine
Scale Modeler. Sheperd Paine has a series of books on figure painting and diorama building,
as does Francois Verlinden.Andrea press has also been publishing some great books. Spend
a little time reading, but more than that, spend a lot of time building. You will do great, you
will screw up. It doesn't matter. Have fun trying and learning and it will all work out. Just
relax, breathe, and start painting.....NOW.....stop looking at your computer...GO...build
something.
figure painting. I'm not going to bore anyone with a blow by blow of how these were painted.
But if you are totally new to this endeavor then a little background so we are on common
ground. All the figures shown here are from kits I've purchased over the years. The main
material that they are made from is resin, a liquid plastic material that is poured into rubber
molds. It then hardens and the resulting parts are pulled out , cleaned up a bit and packaged.
The quality of what's available now is staggering, compared to what was available 12 years
ago when I started in the hobby. The other main material for the kits is vinyl, again a plastic
but it's much more malleable. Its drawback is that it can be tricky to assemble the kits. The
plus is that a manufacturer can usually charge less for the kits as more parts can be pulled
from the molds compared to resin kits.If you need an explanation more detailed that that , e-
mail me and I'll help you out.
All my kits are painted with acrylic for major undercoating, and a few have some oil paint
washes for details, or full on oil coats for areas like realistic flesh. I've experimented with just
about every technique for painting skin and I still come back to oil paints. They are still
incredibly cheap in terms of how long a set will last you - I'm still using the same tubes I
bought over 15 years ago- and very forgiving with their slow drying time. This allows you to
both blend your work, and if unhappy with it, to wipe it away. I use an airbrish for specific
affects and shadings. Again the paint used is acrylics, thinned for airbrushing. I use an Aztek
470 now. Its terrifically easy to use and maintain. There are a lot of airbrushes to choose
from, but buy best you can and then TAKE CARE OF IT. 99.99% of complaints about
airbrushing come from a person just not cleaning the darn thing. Try and take good care of
this one piece of your toolchest and you will not regret it. I have not mentioned what brand of
acrylics I use since basically, I use some from just about every brand out there.I will put a
pitch in for Vallejo acrylics. They come in small bottle with an eyedroper dispenser system
that keeps 'em from oxidizing much better than many brands, and they blend beautifully. But
again, experiment. Every brand out there has its strengths and weaknesses. For brushes, no
matter who you ask, or who you read, they will tell you the same thing, BUY THE BEST.
Generally this means sable. You cannot paint the Mona Lisa with a butter knife, and the
quality of brush you use WILL make a difference. AND cheap brushes will be crap after just a
few sessions, meaning you have to buy new ones again. Pretty soon you'll wish you had just
spend the money up front.
For a few lessons, I HIGHLY recommend you buy the video series on painting and
construction that you can buy from Amazing Figure Modeler hosted by David Fisher. They
cover every aspect of getting started to converting, displaying and finishing your kit. There
are also great articles in Amazing Figure Modeler magazine, Modelers Resource, and Fine
Scale Modeler. Sheperd Paine has a series of books on figure painting and diorama building,
as does Francois Verlinden.Andrea press has also been publishing some great books. Spend
a little time reading, but more than that, spend a lot of time building. You will do great, you
will screw up. It doesn't matter. Have fun trying and learning and it will all work out. Just
relax, breathe, and start painting.....NOW.....stop looking at your computer...GO...build
something.
