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Hi I’m wondering if anyone can give advice on painting figures. Scales will be 1/72 + 1/35.

I apologise it’s a list, any help/advice gratefully received.

Looking at trying to make uniforms look more realistic and faded rather than brand new. So I’m guessing pre-shade folds with black or very dark grey to give the impression of shadows; mix uniform colours with white to give the impression of fading?

Any tips for giving Mediterranean/Oriental skintones (and Northern Europeans with suntan)?

Finally I have some 1/72 figures for a desert scene, I want to give the impression of the uniforms being dusty/sandy with use – or am I being too ambitious?

Thanks for any help.

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Well I don't paint many 1/35th scale figures but I have done quite a few 28mm which is similar to 1/72 scale. The approach I have taken is to paint them is as follows:-

1 paint as neat as possible without any shading or weathering (no metallic colours at this stage).

2 slap on a coat of Army Painter Dark tone varnish (this is like a yacht varnish and flows into all of the creases etc to give some shading to the figure.

3 Once the varnish is dry dry-brush some highlights on with a lighter shade of the main colours.

4 spray on a coat of matt varnish

5 add any metallic colours to buttons, guns etc.

This approach is fairly quick and gives a good finish for 28mm figures where typically the number being painted can be fairly large.

I have also used this approach in 1/35th scale with reasonable results.

Vallejo have a good range of acrylic paints with various shades of skintone that can be used for different skin colours.

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I've done a lot of 28mm minis. Weathering is a bit of a curious thing. Soldiers are expected to be smart and tidy, even under wartime conditions. Looking at photos, you see strange, incongrous things like highly bulled buttons and muddy boots on the same man.

Ancients are easier, as a lack of soap and rustproofing mean that you can take a look at the nearest tramp or the local crustie and use that as an example.

That said, as a general thing, you can go with a tiny drybrush of dust/dirt on boots and trouser bottoms and not go too far wrong.

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Hi I’m wondering if anyone can give advice on painting figures. Scales will be 1/72 + 1/35.

I apologise it’s a list, any help/advice gratefully received.

Looking at trying to make uniforms look more realistic and faded rather than brand new. So I’m guessing pre-shade folds with black or very dark grey to give the impression of shadows; mix uniform colours with white to give the impression of fading?

Any tips for giving Mediterranean/Oriental skintones (and Northern Europeans with suntan)?

Finally I have some 1/72 figures for a desert scene, I want to give the impression of the uniforms being dusty/sandy with use – or am I being too ambitious?

Thanks for any help.

Sorry, probably easier if I do this!

Fading of uniforms generally isn't that extreme. Anything post about 1900 will be using fairly strong, colour-fast synthetic dyes, and if you look at the photos, fading is quite limited. There are exceptions: apparently members of the Afrika Korps went out of their way to fade articles of their uniforms (especially caps), to give the impression that the wearer was an "old hand", and I would think there might be others.

Older uniforms (e.g. Napoleonics, ECW etc) did fade much more rapidly, and considerable variation even within units would have been common.

My preference for painting folds and shadows is to mix a dark version of the base colour and paint it in, then (if necessary) repeat with an ultra-dark version of the colour. If you use black, it can look very odd. Black "kills" some colours and looks very un-natural.

The "traditional" way of painting faces was to mix yellow ochre, Mars red, burnt sienna and white with touches of yellow, alizarin and cobalt. This allows you to get very close. Vallejo do a range of flesh tones which can be quite useful. Find the one you want as a main colour, then paint that over a base layer of something like beige red, leaving the shadows in the base colour. Highlight with one or more lighter tones.

If you like the styles, there are some pretty handy reference books out there that you can crib from: Verlinden, Games Workshop and Osprey are easy to find. My faves in the old days were Shep Paine and Bill Horan, which are still worth looking out but pre-date the acrylic revolution.

In 1/35th or 54mm oil paints can give you fantastic depth and infinite blending capability, if you have the patience...

Edited by Mitch K
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  • 3 weeks later...

Absolutely no need to pre-shade 1/35th scale figures. Not in my book anyway. But then, my book is older than the Old Testament.

Paint the figures as per instructions, to look pristine. I've only just started using acrylics, but they spray well. Then seal with acrylic satin or acrylic semi-gloss varnish. Then 'lowlight' shadows, creases, nooks and crannies by applying small precise washes of ENAMEL paints, mixed to be darker than whichever underlying acrylic you are coating. I think this is called 'pin-washing' Then coat the whole lot with acrylic matt varnish. Personally, I like a BIT of dry brushing with enamels at this stage (mixed lighter than the underlying colour) Only then do you paint your shiny buttons/badges/buckles.

As for faces, I am still learning. I am a lot better than I was when I was 15, and I've had a 35yr gap in modelling, with no practice! I just learned from topics on this site and a few youtube vids.

I paint the heads matt white, then dry brush with varying flesh tones starting with dark then finishing with light. I try to miss the eyeballs and teeth... but this depends on how well the faces are molded. Some have awful eyes and really you wouldn't want them to be seen too clearly! Then I coat with acrylic satin varnish before applying pin-washes of brown and brown/red to the neck, the 'inner ear', mouth and nostril area. A coat of matt varnish follows, and IF the face looks okay, I'll leave it at that. Sometimes though another dry brushing with light flesh tone might be required.

Finally, I have a 0.18mm diameter technical drawing pen with which I add the pupils to the eyes. This uses water soluble ink though, so I can't use it until the very last as any washes will remove it, or cause it to run.... and again, some faces just aren't molded well enough to use this method... they end up looking cross-eyed or malformed.

Edited by Badder
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Im new to modelling, and i love doing armour and AFVs mainly because my screw ups are easily hidden!

However, inevitably, ive had to begin the figures, and im not even going to show you the first attempts!! So dire, they cause my little boy nightmares!

But im an info and technique hog, and will happily spend hours watching and rewatching techniques to get better.

Now my figures arent so horrid, but theyre far from being anywhere close to good. But theyre a lot lot better.

My technique is:

If head attached, then youll do the face first and then mask up, if unattached then better!

I apply some ivory with a 10/0 brush to the eye sockets, doesnt matter if you go outside the lines like!

Next i use some dark brown, never black, as thats too stark, and place the iris in, use a cocktail stick sharpened for this, as its pinpoint then.

Now i switch to a deep mahogany red, and paint the skin, leaving the eyes, and try to get up close to shape the eye.

Leave this to dry, and now you need to use thin coats watered down to acheive the right shading.

Next is europe sand colour, as this is great for shadowed skintone.

I apply this in four or five coats, missing out the sides of the nose on the last three, and under the chin as well.

Next comes skintone, which is lighter, again watered down or use glaze medium.

Apply this to the more raised areas, the glaze medium will help,it to blend in with the previous colours.

Try to do three coats to acheive the right shade, rather than one coat.

Lastlly i use a drop of highlight skintone in the previous mix, and apply this to the cheekbone rea, bridge of nose, brow.

Hope this helps.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As a matter of interest, you might like to know that Boris Vallejo - the fantasy artist famous for his paintings of 'monsters' and muscular male and female protagonists - often uses shades of pale to mid-green for the undercoat of his human figures; the reason being that if you look at a person's veins, they appear to have a greenish tint rather than red, and this is even more pronounced in persons with pale skin.

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As a matter of interest, you might like to know that Boris Vallejo - the fantasy artist famous for his paintings of 'monsters' and muscular male and female protagonists - often uses shades of pale%

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