Hi folks. Just like to say a big thank you to all thoe people who have helped me get started on the site - cheers. I am about to have a go at painting my first 1/35 figures. They're Tamiya's out of a box, 2 tankies and 4 squaddies. I was planing on using enamel, and I'm wondering what would be a good undercoat for this. Any thoughts,
jk

Never tried it myself but they do say that black is a good undercoat for figures.

Cheers

Den

I usually go for black undercoat for uniforms, equipment etc and white for skin areas. I paint my figures with oil colour for flesh and Vallejo for everything else.

I usually use the warhammer white spraycan, but I guess any matt white would do. I don't use black often as I find it difficult getting the faces right over black

Hi JayKay.

I have also used Citadel's spray for undercoating. I used their chaos black, I have used the white (skull white) but found it quite chalky and not so nice in texture.

These days most of my 35 scale figures are resin, so I use Gunze's MR Resin primer from the rattle can. It's similar to Mr Surfacer but is specifcally developed for priming resin kits. This has a light grey colour to it, and I paint over the top of this with Vallejo for fatigues, and oil's for skin tones.

If I have a mixed media figure (resin hornet head, and plastic body) I give the figure a coat of citadel spray to cover the plastic areas (while masking the head) and then give the resin parts a coat of Mr Resin. This is because Mr Resin doesnt like plastic very much, so it's a good idea to protect or mask plastic areas or just use very light dustings of Mr Resin where you have no choice.

A good tip I saw for figure painting came from Mark Bannerman. He first gives skin tones a light basecoat of Tamiya yellow paint (any light yellow or sand would do), then he paints with oil's over this. He also paints heads seperately from torso's, so this is another option.

Oil painting skin tones takes time but gives great results. I remember when I first tried it I was really nervous, but with practice you can get some great and very natural effects. Having said that Calvin Tan works wonders with Acyrillics for skin tones also!

I'd go for Mr Surfacer primer or just brush mr surfacer over when filling the joints. sand basecoat for most skin areas

Most of the wargamers I know use citadel chaos black.
I use the white for kits and the black for alclad.
If the white is polished with soft cloth it is very good.