AMMO Encyclopaedia of Figures Volume 0 (A.MIG-6220)

[Mike]

Encyclopaedia of Figures Volume 0 (A.MIG-6220)

AMMO of Mig Jiménez

 

 

The mere mention of figure painting causes a great many modellers from other genres to break out in a cold sweat, because replicating a realistic human face, fabric and other details at small scale is a terrifying prospect to us.  Figure painters obviously like a challenge, but I'm sure even those brave souls would appreciate some hints and tips to improve the finish on their models.

 

 

This is a Quick Guide to figure painting, which is the precursor to the full series, and it may be all you need or want to enable you to raise your game in the figure department. It also coincides with the release by AMMO of a number of figure related products, such as paint sets, oilbrushers and other books.  As already mentioned, this isn't meant to be a full, detailed instruction on how to paint figures from A to Z, which is only fair as it extends to 48 pages within its magazine binding, so much is covered, but not in massive detail.  It's a great way to determine whether that's enough to get you going, or whether you want to hear more and would be interested in the full volumes when they arrive, and I suspect that is its goal.

 

The pages are broken down as follows:

 

1.0 Original Concept and Sculpting

1.1 Legends of the Jade Sea

2.0 Workbench

2.1 Lighting and organising the workbench

2.2 Brushes

2.3 Mixing palette (Wet palette)

3.0 Assembly and Preparation

3.1 Cutting tools

3.2 Sanding and filing tools

3.3 Drilling tools

3.4 Fastening devices

3.5 Glues and cements

3.6 Putties

3.7 Final assembly

4.0 Primer

4.1 Cleaning

4.2 Priming

4.3 Preshading

4.4 Lighting

5.0 Painting with Acrylics

5.1 Acrylics

5.2 Techniques

5.3 Airbrush

5.4 Painting metals.  Non-metallic metals technique

5.5 Textures

5.6 Varnishes

 

Looking down that list of subjects, you might think that there's an element of "teaching your grandmother to suck eggs", which of course there is bound to be with any modelling book if you've already taken up the hobby.  Where it differs from books on armour of aircraft however, is how these subjects apply specifically to figure painting, with the theme of a particularly handsome Orc used throughout to guide us.  It doesn't matter if you're a WWII or mounted cavalry figure painter though, as the techniques can be applied to pretty much any figure, or anything organic, and even some things inorganic.  I learned a few things whilst reading it, and most people probably will too, unless they only read books to confirm their already encyclopaedic knowledge!

 

 

 

There is a fair quantity of text, interspersed with picture driven step-by-step "how-to" methods with copious captions, and the pictures are of exceptional quality as we've come to expect from AMMO publications.  There's some pretty obvious product placement at times, but as it's an AMMO book, you can't really blame them, and everyone knows that "other brands are available" anyway, but it was nice to see "Swann Morton – England" on the pictures featuring scalpel blade as an Englishman, reminding us we still have a little industry left in our sceptred  isle.  There are also a number of instances where the author tells us that larger subjects such as airbrushing figures will be covered in greater detail in the full volumes, which is fair enough, and you couldn't really expect it all to be crushed down to singularity proportions to fit within these relatively few pages.

 

Conclusion

It's a great taster of what's to come in the series, or you could use it as a refresher to reignite your desire to paint figures, or even to improve your existing skillset a little without committing yourself to a long quest to become a master of the art… yet.  An enjoyable read and a feast for the eyes and braincells that should appeal to anyone with an interest in figure painting, and is considering trying to "git gud".

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of