Wizball Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Hello! I'm a aspiring figure painter from a varied modelling background and I want to improve my figure painting. Mainly to be able to inject some life into my usual static tanks and aircraft, but I do appreciate the historic figures as well. Many many years ago I found a excellent tutorial using Vallejo paint and a El Viejo Dragon 18th century 54 mm white metal figure and promptly bought the figure and every paint mentioned in the tutorial. I started the figure, but this summer I finally got round to actually completing it. Far from perfect, but I'm pleased. Now I'm looking for the next project and I'm looking for something similar - a widely available figure where I can find a tutorial that lists paint callouts in some detail. The main thing I liked about the tutorial I followed was that it listed base colour alongside highlight/shadow and did so for every part of the figure. I get that choosing and researching colours is a big part of the hobby for many, but I mainly want to get better at the actual painting and if I can I would like to make a shortcut here and remove a potential obstacle... Has anyone got any tips? I would like to keep to 54mm or 1/35 and perhaps a WWI/II soldier with a mostly monochrome uniform but I welcome any suggestions. I don't think it matters if it's a resin or white metal figure. The softness of the details was a weak point for the EVD figure but I understand that was probably just my particular casting and that resin and white metal should be rather equivalent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's a disease Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 Get something from the games workshop, could be cheap, plastic. You are then free to conjure up your own colour schemes and can concentrate on shading, skin tones etc. They are pretty much 1/35 scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Hi Wizball If you are looking for something with a wide array of colour but something that also needs a good facejob - how about the old Airfix model of King Henry VIII. Or then, there are the beautiful busts from Nuts Planet to consider which I would love to be good enough to paint myself but are far out of my skill set range.. http://www.nutsplanet.com/ - there are some foums that walk you through stage by stage of the painting Just some ideas for you John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niall Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 (edited) I would suggest the Airfix Multipose WW2 figures. They are multipart hard plastic figures with lots of optional parts and the body parts are to some extent interchangeable to produce alternate poses to those provided in the instructions. Here is a photo of my 1st century AD Roman ballista and crew converted from the Afrika Korps and 8th Army sets. Edited October 25, 2017 by Niall replaced photo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizball Posted October 21, 2016 Author Share Posted October 21, 2016 Whoa, I missed that I got replies after a few days! Thank you. There's some good suggestions here. Those busts and figures from Nuts planet look fantastic but I do think they are a bit out of my league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFoolio Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 I've just thought about trying some figures too. I have usually avoided them because of the small fiddly nature and I prefer armour. If you're looking for something cheap to get you going, I can recommend the Airfix 17pdr AT gun. I picked it up for £5 and your get 5 (I think) British WW2 figures with a range of equipment choices. It's an old kit so plenty of seam lines to sand, but could practice and cheap to begin with. I'm not sure about a tutorial, but there is plenty of stuff online regarding "standard" British WW2 uniform colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Smith Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) On 25/10/2017 at 12:50, TheFoolio said: and your get 5 (I think) British WW2 figures with a range of equipment choices. the figures in this set are the Multipose mentioned above, and there are six in the set. On 08/10/2016 at 16:43, Niall said: I would suggest the Airfix Multipose WW2 figures. these have been redone recently, or some have. Great figures, a lot of potential. On 28/09/2016 at 08:38, Wizball said: I would like to keep to 54mm or 1/35 and perhaps a WWI/II soldier with a mostly monochrome uniform but I welcome any suggestions. A quick look at you profile shows you are of an age to have most likely had the 1/32nd Airfix toy soldiers, these were made of polythene which is great for a toy, but you can't sand it and paint doesn't stick, but in the last few years they switched to a flexible styrene, which allows them to be cleaned up and painted like any standard figure. I have picked up a few out of nostalgia, many of the sets are really well sculpted, and even new are pretty cheap, and can be got cheaper if you look. And, if you wish, they can now be cross kitted. I did post some pics of an Australian figure, but it's been photobucketed.... I'll re-up the pic OK, here On 28/09/2016 at 08:38, Wizball said: Now I'm looking for the next project and I'm looking for something similar - a widely available figure where I can find a tutorial that lists paint callouts in some detail. The main thing I liked about the tutorial I followed was that it listed base colour alongside highlight/shadow and did so for every part of the figure. I get that choosing and researching colours is a big part of the hobby for many, but I mainly want to get better at the actual painting and if I can I would like to make a shortcut here and remove a potential obstacle... Vallejo and AK do uniform sets with shadow/highlight colours. Creative often have these sets in their specials eg http://www.creativemodels.co.uk/ak_interactive_set_yellow_uniform_colours-p-46854.html?oscsid=035e2248c10423a4c425d3daa7d7dd02 MJW models also stock many of the sets from the specials after they have gone from Creative. HTH T Edited October 28, 2017 by Troy Smith add link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plasto Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 This link maybe of help. http://www.timelinesforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7514 The guys over on planet Figure May have more ideas. http://www.planetfigure.com/ I do a few figures now and again and if I was wanting to practice I’d go with a more modern offering from Tamiya / Dragon as they are relatively cheap and plentiful and reasonably defined or if I was wanting to spend more perhaps an alpine miniatures figure.. HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stuart Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 Have a dig around the https://www.historexagents.com/# website. If you look under the brands menu option, books are separated from figures and from paints. You may see something to help guide you in either books or in DVDs , You could look at a few copies of Figure International magazine, especially the figure workshop section - that's less about specific figures, but more about learning transferable skills, applicable to many figures. Andrea Miniatures offers a range of books that might help, their How to paint figures with Acrylics might be helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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