Best Paints and Brushes for 1/72nd Figures

[sjsald]

Hey guys, I know next to nothing about painting figures. I am currently working on a 1/72nd scale aircraft that has figures molded in and have no idea where to start. 
 

Do people have recommendations on good brushes and paints to start with? 
 

Super appreciate the help!  
 

I want to get into diorama building as well so it will be a necessary skill to learn. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by sjsald
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[spruecutter96]

Hi, sjsald. 

 

You are a brave person, getting started on figure-painting! As I remember reading years ago, if you can paint figures well, you can paint ANYTHING. They are arguably the most difficult thing to paint convincingly. 

 

First thing.... buy the best paint-brushes you can afford. Anything using red-sable bristles is usually a good start. Synthetic-bristle brushes might not be completely suitable (others might not agree on this one!).  

 

As for paint, a lot of modellers swear by traditional, artist's oil-paints. I have seen a couple of modellers who produce incredible figures using Humbrol's enamels. I guess it a case of "whatever works for you". One thing about oil paints.... squeeze them out on to piece of cardboard and let the excess "solvent" soak into the cardboard - you don't want that excess on your model. I think this takes about 20 minutes or so (just from memory). Use the maker's paint-thinner to make them easier to work with. 

 

There are numerous videos on youtube about this subject. There are also a number of books - I would recommend Francois Verlinden's "The System - Painting Model Figures", if you can find it on E-Bay or Amazon. 

 

The real skill to master is "blending" colours, which is one reason many modellers favour oil-paints for use on figures. This is something which can take years to truly master. The most valuable thing here is experience and practice. Buy yourself large, cheap figure kits (Airfix?) and build your experience up. No-one gets it right from the first attempt, whatever they might claim.

 

Best of luck, my friend.

 

Chris.    

[Troy Smith]

On 21/05/2020 at 06:19, sjsald said:

Do people have recommendations on good brushes and paints to start with? 
 

Chris has given you the traditional answer, for doing high grade figure work in 35th/32nd 54 mm scale

 

In 72nd, unless you are looking at things from 6 inches, or using a macro lens, it's overkill.

 

basic uniform colours, dark wash, add some highlights, assuming a well moulded figure, which will let a wash work.  

 

this is a 32nd figure,  I find vallejo acrylics very good for this, and a oil wash of brunt umber thinned with zippo type light fuel.

My brushes are nothing special, certainly not high grade sable. 

You need to get the paint consistency right, I use deionised or distilled water and a tiny amount of flow improver, i get a very small syringe, 1ml, and suck up 95% water, and 5% flow improver,  and add this a drop at a time to a paint in a pallete.  Vallejo are good as you can squeeze out a drop at a time.

 

here's one I just did.  Mounting the figure helps, I just used blu tack on a paint pot... 

I did paint a lot of figures in my youth, just basic paint jobs, but I think it developed certain painting reflexes...

 

HTH

[sjsald]

@spruecutter96 Thank you! This is all super helpful!  

 

@Troy Smith Thank you as well! Very helpful!  

 

I'll keep this thread updated with how my journey goes 

[spruecutter96]

Once again, good luck with your journey, my friend. You might find it a frustrating one in places, but it will be well worth it in the end.

 

Chris

[rockpopandchips]

So I'm no expert and haven't been doing it that long but, I came from airbrushing robot kita to painting figures and most of the paints I use are the same, vallejo air and vallejo game with a few GW washes. I really like the Vallejo air paint to hand paint as they are just about the right consistency and stay wet for blending right out the bottle. My best brushs are Rosemary & Co Pure Kolinsky Pointed Brush Series 33, but have a load of cheep brushes for when painting diorama base's. 

 

YT is my go to for tutorials. 

 

Have fun Brian. 

 

Ps Try not to directy copy the experts it's not going to happen and you will only get disheartened. I have a 75mm finger that I'm on my 3rd attempt at painting by copying the cover art and it's gone back on the shelf of shame......

[sjsald]

19 hours ago, spruecutter96 said:

Once again, good luck with your journey, my friend. You might find it a frustrating one in places, but it will be well worth it in the end.

 

Chris

Thank you!

 

@rockpopandchips Thank you! 

Looking forward to making some progress on the figures 

[Noel Smith]

Paints you will have to experiment with to find a medium that suits you best.             Brushes.....go to a good art shop for the best.

[Crayons]

Mr. Black publications has an excellent series of figure painting books spanning some 24 volumes and as I own all of them and they are well thumbed, I can highly recommend them from a technical point of view. For whatever my recommendation is worth to you.

 

Brushes, as has been said before, the best you can afford. I will add though, things like 10/0 brushes from a paint holding point of view are in my opinion are a total waste of money. Might as well use a Copic fine liner. But then I work on mostly 1/10 right through to 1/4 scale figures.

 

Paints are very much a personal choice based on experience and situation. Lacquers I suggest you stay away from as they don't, again my opinion, brush very well even when loaded up with retarding agent. I'd take enamels over acrylics as they are far more durable when dry, but that is a moot point if the figure is going to sit on shelf and only get touched by the feathers of a duster. Acrylics however I find blend much easier than enamels do.

 

Oils, wouldn't use them on such a small scale as their opacity tends to take many layers to build up by which time on such a small scale, what details you had, have disappeared under layers of paint. Good for subtle shading and highlighting though.

 

Trial and error for what works in the scale you happen to find yourself dealing with. And as final note, nothing stops you from using a blend of the paint types i.e. some parts in acrylic, others enamels so on and so forth.

 

Keep in mind, some paint types DON'T play nice with others and undesirable outcomes happen.

[oileanach]

Hi Sjsald- how did you get on?

 

My advice would have been get a decent brush, use whatever type of paint you're using on the 'plane and give washing and highlighting a go.

 

With paint- any paint- the most important thing is consistency. I paint 28mm minis in the main. I prefer thin paint and have a lot of airbrush paints because they come in the consistency I like right out of the bottle. Mileage varies, a lot of very good painters prefer much thicker paints and tend to paint more than one colour at a time, blending them together as they go. Have a play around, see what you like using, have some fun with it!

 

A word on style. I'm a very neat and precise painter- I can't bring myself to paint outside the lines. It holds me back, because real life is messy. I could get much better results with much less effort if I could just let myself go! More advanced weathering techniques need a random element, which I find very difficult to use. My point being that your first efforts are likely to be messy, but that isn't a bad thing! They'll probably look better than mine, in spite of me having decades of practice.

 

My final point- the number one rule in any hobby is have fun. If you enjoy doing it, you're doing it right! 😃

[spruecutter96]

One other tip for yourself..... Never use the paint straight from the bottle. Place it on a piece of plastic-card or similar, mix it with the right thinner, another colour, flow retarder, what-have-you and get it to the consistency you want. If you use it straight out of the bottle, there's bound to be something not quite right about it. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Chris.