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Recommendations for a beginner figure?


Wizball

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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?

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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.

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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

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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.

35280290713_acd813afb7.jpg

 

Edited by Niall
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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.

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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 by Troy Smith
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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

 

 

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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

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