Anybody building figures lately? Thought I'd post this WIP - it is a Track-48 Russian, painted with Humbrol enamels for the flesh and some shading, and the rest is Tamiya acrylics with some Liquitex retarder to make them more brushable (the pants were airbrushed though to save a little time and get a better flat look). Haven't applied a flat coat - but wonered what folks thought (apologies the image is not better - working on getting a nicer camera).



Konrad

Too much thinner?

Konrad

First thing...need to spray it with flat first(now). The reflectance will change a lot. The next thing is to realize that the shading and highlighting need to stronger than in 1/35th. Look at Lu's figures....he usually uses a base coat, shadow, and highlight in most cases. You can modify that, but in general, that will do it. Shiny things look REALLY shiny when they are smaller. Try to use a satin coat on things like boots and belts.
The other thing sealing it allows, is for you to use washes, especially acrylics...and be able to wash them off if you are not happy, and redo them.
HTH, Dave

Konrad,

here is a figure I have been working on. It will be a commander for a Stug III B. Note I use old bottle caps for bases for painting figures - good size for holding and allows for a good grip. Any suggestions for improvements are welcome.

Phil

That is great job Phillip - the shading on the face wonderful.

The bottle cap trick is really clever - I ended up using the wood blocks beacuse I had the material but a bottle cap is a cool trick. What kind of paints are you using?

Konrad

Konrad,

thanks for the feedback. This is the third AFV figure I have painted - the first 2 I used artist oils for the face, but found that in 1/48 scale it was too hard to control for my skill level. This is all done with acrylics (Vallejo and a little touch of Gamesworshop - Red for the cheeks). Since I am trying to still develop my style I kind of experimented with this figure using highly diluted paint with water and applied several layers. I found that you have to unload most of the paint off the brush before you put it on the face. I have heard others say this so I tried to be a little more deliberate with the results. You can see on I used the bottle cap as a paint unloading spot.

I can provide the exact paint names if that is your question.

Phil

Hi Phil,

That's a really nice paint job, and it's hard to believe that it's only your third figure in 1/48!

Isamu

because he's not pretty. I'm working on the face and hands, and in retrospect, would attach the head last after painting. The details on the hands of this guy are rough. I'm having a hard time getting a good picture too. You guys did very well. What Vallejo colors are you using for the face Philip?

I see where you are going with this figure from the picture and I like it - how are you planning to make the flag?

On the hand issue, have you considers painting the hands as 'gloves' rather than as 'flesh' - I have found that a good way to deal with clunky hand sculpts in the past. Not sure the Russians issued gloves, so they probably should look 'liberated.'

Konrad

Isamu,

thank you for your comments. I am working hard at getting figures to look good and experimenting to develop my own reproducible style. I think figures really add to the overall models and brings the human element into the story and not just machines. Its really hard and I admire the works of others who do this well. I will be working to get better to achieve the same levels you can get in 1/35 and have a long way to go.

Greg and Konrad,

When I get home from work I will post what paints I used and in what order, but mind you I am no expert. In fact am just beginning and what I posted was a practice model to help develop my own technique. I have found that what works for one painter will not work for me because I don't have their steady hand or their artistic eye. I know one of the best gamming figure painter in the world and a very skilled 1/35 figure painter here in Chicago and I can't do what they can do. So I have to adapt their advice to my skill level. Using good quality figures with good definition is what I have to start with because of the lack of ability. This guy was from the Jaguar Tiger Reloading Crew set and obviously I have changed him around using different arms and hands. The second guy to go along with this has just had his head repositioned and completely new arms sculpted using wire and magic sculpt. It did not turn out that well, but I am going to forge ahead and chalk it up as experience.

I'll post some more pictures of the one above. There are some flaws hidden by the camera angle I used.

Phil

This is a great thread, Konrad. Thanks for starting it. I got the figure painting bug back in the late 70's when 1/35 scale was the new kid on the block. Most figures were 54mm or 1/32 scale. (Anyone remember "improving" their Britains or Johillco toy soldiers to make them more realistic? Of course, "original condition" had little meaning back then.) All of the "how to" articles Ive read state the basic figure painting technique is: base coat, wash and highlight, in that order. Figures were supposed to be painted from the inside out (i.e., skin, clothes and then gear.) However, it does not matter how great the painting is on the uniforms or gear. It is how the face is painted that counts. In this scale, it is so difficult to get the faces just right. I've read discussions on the pros and cons of painting the pupils and whites of the eyes in 1/48 scale; and each modeller has to decide for himself/herself on how to paint them. I finally tried artists oils (Windsor & Newton in the squeeze tubes from Aaron Brothers) for faces on a set of Russian infantry, and thought they were decent until I photographed them. As posted in another thread, how terrible they look once magnified by the camera lens! I realized that I must paint all detail work under a magnifying glass for this scale. I attempted to fix them up, and if I can figure out how to use the photobucket here, I will try to post them.
Jim Spellmire

Konrad and Greg,

Here is another pic of the figure from a different angle. Not the best picture. It looks better in person. Also, the second picture is the second figure I was working on who will sit inside a Stug III B with his hand on a MG34. My theory is that since this AFV did not have a machine gun, that the crew of this AFV improvised and took matters into their own hands (pun intended). The third picture is what paints I used.

Initial base coat - Brown Sand

Wash with Mahogany Brown to produce a "ruddy" appearance

Medium Fleshtown covers the rest of the face highly diluted being careful to leave some of the base coat and wash in the recesses

Mix of Medium Fleshtone and Flat Flesh to go over cheeks, nose, highponts

Mix more Flat Flesh into Medium Fleshtone several times gradually adding a little more Flat Flesh to highlight the highpoints

Wash deepest recesses - ears, nostrils, eye sockets with very diluted flat brown. Carefully control how much you allow to "pool". You can do this more then once and build up

For everything but the washes and the base coat I added Liquitex Slo-Dri medium to the highly water deluted paint to allow a feathering from one layer to the next (picked this up from a Steve Zaloga book. I am not sure if this realy helped, but it helped my confidence - safety blanket if you will.

For lips added orange and red GW paint to Medium Fleshtown and painted (tried to)lower lip only


For cheeks added a little red to the Medium Fleshtown with the Slo-Dri and it was very diluted and just a dab on the cheeks and feathered it out

For Five o'clock shadow I used very diluted black-grey and feathered out into

Eyes I am not real good at, but just some white mixed with a little Fleshtone and then put a black dot in the middle. Need to get better at this part.


Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong please let me know.

Phil

Hi Philip, That helps a lot. What do you do for the eyebrows? Just match the haircolor or a brown/black or brown/flesh color? I think you've blended everything great so I'll look for that liquitex one of these days I'm near the hobby store. Thanks, Greg

Here are a few Russians I did. The camera still picks up some unwanted gloss, and you can see the faces are still not really great.



Here is my Afrika Corp diorama work in progress. I still need to add rows of jerry cans and a kettenrad near the well, a panzer on the right, a Krupp truck on the top, and more DAK on maneuvers (including a German Chaplain). I also hope to do some conversions resulting in a few Italians to add to the scene before completion. Again, I still need to add a coat or two of dullcote to get rid of the gloss that is still present.




Any constructive comments or tips are welcome.

Jim Spellmire

PS Thank you George Bradford for the Photobucket tips.

While not armour related it is the right ascale. This is a 1/48 figure of Werner Voss. I have got a couple of other figures on the go.





Ross

Konrad,

Good to see you are into figgys again for your models because you knwo well how much I appreciate people adds figures to theirs works.

As for figure painting I must repeat the advice I gave you some time ago. Try Vallejo Acrylics because I am sure you will not regret it. Yes, those tiny bottles must be very expensive at your end, but will last very long as well, so I think it is one good value for money in that meaning.

Anyway. regarding your russian commander, I would paint leather jacket brown or black and uniform kaki to make stronger contrast (I would discard green shade and would go for a lighter one). Tank helmet must be matt black because is made by cloth and not leather, and leave boots and belt to your discretion.

Once you paint base color, I would add lights and shadows following natural light effect and NOT the sculpture relief. Over light shades just one light and one shadow is enough. Dark shades may need more. I would outline all small details with a dark mix and one pointed fine brush too.

Greg,

Same as above. Dark uniforms are harder to paint convincingly but you can make it.

I would have not put head looking down and think head up helps a lot to give character to one figure most of the times.

Phillip,

Again you amazed me with your improving skills not only with your tanks but also with your figure painting. That Stug crewnman looks very good to me and it is hard to believe you have little practice on this.

The way you are painting the figs (overlapping very thin layers) is the correct way to paint with acrylics and I would avoid washes because are hard to control (actually I never use washes with my figures).

I see you are receiving advice from true figure painters and you are trying to use same techniques and colours they use. My only advice is that some things can be simpler in 1/48 scale and one of those is flesh colour. I only use three colours for flesh in the practice and work well to me (Mahogany Brown + Flat Fesh + Light Flesh) and think everything can be done by blending and mixing those shades.

One more thing. I think you can go beyond still and no fear to add stronger light and shadow to your figure to highlight/enhance both shapes and detail more. The trick is to NOT make it on the whole figure. Just put your figure under a direct light source and see what is lighter and darker then. After a couple of figures you will realize instantly where those lighter and darker shades are without doing that anymore , and treatment is exactly same as bigger scales. No difference in that meaning.

Jim,

Good work on your troop there. Can you post some bigger images please. I like those natives you made. Cool idea!

HTH
Lu

Lu,

Thank you for your directing comments. As you know I am experimenting and exploring techniques and I understand your 2 main points:

I may be over complicating with washes etc.

In 1/48 you can be a little bolder in the highlights and shadows to produce contrast.

Exactly the kind of comments I need. Thank you again.


Phil

Looks pretty good, alittle glossy though. Is this a resin figure?

Bob

Bob and Steve
Top Gun Military/IRON DIVISON Resins
www.topgunmilitary.com

Lu –

Again, thanks for your suggestions – I definitely will change the color of the coat for more interest. Looking a some references it could be brown or black leather – I am thinking brown is more interesting than the current boring olive, and I will change the shirt to kaki – the green really was artistic license -

Hope it does not disappoint, but I will leave the tanker’s hat in leather (it came out better than the pictures show) - it is a good representation of the pre-war version that actually was brown leather per my references. The cloth ones are apparently the cheaper wartime version. You are not the only one to take issue with the boots – I will distress them but they should be black according to my references, and the belt should be brown leather – I think it will stand out more when the shirt is lighter.

I hear you point about the lighting effects, and will see if I can find a moment to order some Vallejo – I think you can get them in sets for a better deal. Most importantly, I have my eye on a better camera, and if I get that I think you will see a marked improvement (at least in the images – my figure painting skills are still what they are ).

Bob –

The Track48 figures are resin. But it is not the medium that gives the paint on the figure that glossy look - that happens when you add Liquitex Slo-Dri to Tamiya acrylics for brush painting - for some reason it makes them get glossy. Unfortunately, you cannot really brush them at all without it - they brush drags and pulls up partially dried paint in hideous clumps – Ack !

I find that if I can airbrush the base coat on using Tamiya paint and thinner it dries dead flat, and that I can go over it with brushed on retarded colors with far less gloss effect, but it is always a problem, as you can’t airbrush an entire figure without making it lifeless. When the figure is done the flat coat brings things back to where they need to be though. I think one of the reasons Lu is urging me to move to Vallejo is that they dry flat regardless of the use of retarders or extenders.

Konrad

Konrad,

Yes, you are right, tanker helmet can be black/brown leather eventually as the one in the illustration on Gregs figure image. I also painted one in that way for my old T-34 crewman. As for boots and belts, almost any combination is possible.

The green jacket is okay to me because russians wore green jackets in some cases. In fact every mass produced uniforms have variations in shade logically, so everything is up to your taste. I think black helmet/jacket/boots and kaki uniform makes a very nice combination. No concern for the fig. I know that chap well and remember Gar painted one of these for his KV-1 too, and as for your camera no problem because your figure looks 1/16 scale in my screen.

I will not list the goodness of Vallejo paints here. The only thing I can say in advance is you will wonder how could you live without Vallejo after you start using them. Time to time... and you also can ask Phill opinion if you do not trust me....

That ICM russian couple are the latest figures I painted and you can note there some of the things I mentioned above. I am painting more figures (Desert Rats) soon for my current model, so I will post my progress then.

HTH
Lu

Lu,

I saw these figures with the GAZ, but in the picture you just posted I am more stunned then before. This picture really brings your points to life about more contrast and not over complicating. One thing about your style that I would be looking to incorporate is the "lining" you do. Haven't focused on that yet.

Spectacular!

Phil

Phill,

Happy to help if I can and it is a good thing you can get by one image what I cannot express correctly by words often.

There is nothing exclusive here so take whatever you consider usefull for your own style with the only condition to not forget I am NOT one true figure painter indeed so others will help much more than me, but that also proves that -in my opinion- you do not need to be one true figure painter to get decent results, right?.

The dark outlining gives depth and extra definition alike and that is something really helpfull particularly on this scale because most 1/48 figures are poor compared with bigger scales to say true.

Ask here if you have more questions and feel you free to drop me one line to my mail directly whenever you feel like, okay?

HTH
Lu

by the way!

But a little better I think -



Phillip, Greg, Jim - how are your's coming along?

Anybody else geting inspired - if you have one on the go and want to, jump on in -

Konrad

Konrad,

I think whatever you did to change it made a big difference. Its very clean. To Lu's points earlier and something I will be incorporating when I have time is to make the shading and highlights much bolder for 1/48 scale.

I also realize that when you take pictures like this of small figures what it looks like in person does not translate into the picture. Looks like you have some deep shadows, but I would be tempted to add more bold highlights. One slight layer at a time and then you can better judge when to stop without over doing it.

I would be happy with this figure on my work table.

I have not been able to work much on mine due to work, but maybe later.

Great thread. Very helpful to me in trying to get better.

Phil

Hi Konrad,

I agree with Phil, the figure looks much better than it originally did. I think it not being nearly as glossy has a lot to do with it, but I'm sure that's not all.

Isamu

Send him into action! Eliminating the gloss was the key. I started on my T34 and BT7 again, so I'll start new and try some more figures for them.
Greg

He did some pretty amazing work with Gasoline Figures and a Bandai tank in the Gallery.

First, Lu - thanks so much for all the help - followed your suggestions and added kaki to the shirt, brown to the jacket, shadows and highlights with highly diluted paint and fine lining to bring out the detail. Had to make do with paints on hand - still have to get a set of those Vallejo paints

Phillip - you are right about photographs - he actually looks more dramatic in person - need a better camera to capture the true look of such small subjects(looking at a 10.2mxpl Cannon Rebel XTi - any views on that out there ??). I am a little leery of going further with highlights on this fellow as I am afraid he will look cartoonish in person (so to speak ) – if I get the aforementioned camera I will re-shoot him and look at the images to see if I think he is done or not. BTW, we are all eagerly awaiting more pictures of your progress on those figures and that Stug

Dave - took your comments on gloss to heart and added mud to the boots to kill the gloss using nutmeg brown craft paint thinned with a drop of Tamiya thinner - makes it get clumpy and awful, and it looks just like mud when it dries – you can remove any excess with the tiniest dab of diluted Windex as it dries and it leaves behind a dirty blotchy film – perfect for this king of thing. Tried adding some Tamiya flat agent in the additional brown coats that I put on the jacket to flat it, but that tended to chalk out the paint (less is probably more here, but there is probably a weathering effect in there somewhere). Ended up airbrushing the jacket with a thin brown filter after all that to get the final flat look needed, followed by lining.

Isamu - thanks - you can see from the comments above all that did have to happen to bring this guy up to somewhere near snuff. I have lots more figures on the bench, so stay tuned.

Greg – thanks, - I issued him orders but he said he was on break How is your little Comrade coming? Look forward to your next post updating us on him too

Dirk – hope you can weigh in too

Konrad