i just got in the vallejo skintone paint set, and i painted my first figure. well needless to say the figure looked horrible. the vallejo paint is wonderful, i am just having many troubles with the shadows and the different skintones. i have a few questions about painting the face

1. Should i thin the vallejo paint when brush painting
2. what is the best way to accomplish the shadows. when i tried shadows.
3. with blending, it looked like a guy who just had different colors on his skin. nothing blended

anyone have any tips or links to tips on this. i went to the store to buy a figure painting book, but it wasnt really good. i have only found one tutorial, but it dealt with oil paints

thanks guys

Go to the Vallejo web site , you'll find plenty of info on how to use their paint.

Take a look here at Amorama under the features section, sub section figures.

You may want to try Missing Lynx, planet figure and Timelines to seek out tutorials they have.

Book wise you could get hold of Calvin Tan's or Jaume Ortiz's books on figure painting. Both published by Osprey.

Finally, if you think figure painting can be learnt or done in a day you are in for a big surprise. It's not like painting tanks or vehicles.

I'm only getting to grips with it after weeks of practise and effort. No quick fix if you want good looking figures.

Alan

i have a lot of trouble painting faces. all i do is darken skin tone a little for shadows, and lighten for higlights. just lake uniform colour, the only oil i use is a very thin wash afterwards.
this got my best results.
check him out. dunno if he is to crap as im not brilliant at fighures
hope it helps
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/115607&page=1
he is somwhere down the page

Mike,

Though this a long process it is well worth trying.

http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/figures/mbheads/mbheads.htm

Hope this helps out some.

thanks for the help guys. i knew this place was filled with tons of information.

i know i cant learn painting faces in a day, i just didnt think my guy would be as bad as he was.

one more question, how do you guys practice, do you guys strip the paint off of a single head and do it again, or do you buy more figures?

I did/do both.

Stripping off what you are not happy with is fairly easy with oven cleaner, windex, various cleaners etc. Again see threads on this.

But be aware that with the figures each time you scrub away to remove paint you run the risk of softening the sharp detail present originally.

I got frustrated with 1/35 and not getting the results I'd hoped for so I purchased a couple of 1/16th sized figures to get my methods and techniques sorted. Still working on it !!

Read those links, especially the Vallejo one which explains how the paint "works".

Alan

Mike,

I did this TC 6 times before I finally said "good enough" and left him alone. Still not the greatest and I had big problems with the eyes, but it is an old '1973' kit and Tamiya figs were not the greatest to begin with.

Mike, click here and go to Model Color. Go to the bottom of the page and download the tutorial on using Vallejo paints. It really is a different way of painting.

What I do with a face is this:

Lay down a base of beige red for caucasian skin. For my Indians, I add varying amounts of dark fleshtone to get a more sun burned effect.

Paint the eyes with pale flesh. Add an iris of dark blue or brown. Check the alignment in a mirror. Redo as needed.

Retouch the edge of the eyes with the base color to rduce them to a more realistic effect.

Add dark fleshtone to the base color and lay in the first shadows in the frown lines, along the edge of the nose, at the hairline, above the yeyes, under the chin and in the cleft of the chin

Add pale flesh, sunny skin tone or dark flesh to the base and add the first highlight on the cheeks, along the jaw line, above the lip, in any raised neck musculature, the ridge of the nose, the brow and top of the forehead

Add a more dark flesh to the base and add a second shadow in a smaller along in the middle of the first shadows

Thin pale flesh very thin and add another highllight to the top of the cheeks, along the highest ridge of the nose and the tip of the chin

the vallejo instructions are great. i read half of it and it is up to the point where you have to do a practice exersize.

i am going to go through it again at home, but i feel much better. thanks for the help guys

i spent a few hours last night practicing what was on the vallejo page. Actually just the first exersise. i learned so much on the thinning of this brand of paint. i am going to practice on the 2nd exersise tonight and hopefully i will remember what i learned when starting the figure.

i have the figure all primed and waiting for some paint. i am very excited now as i have learned so much about the paint

Hi Mike,

Check out Calvin Tan's blog 'Perspective in Miniature':

http://zyclyon.blogspot.com/

He and Jaume paint the figure's found on Alpine's cover art (Jaume's blog can be found linked on Calvin's page). In IMO they are the best figure painters about who regularly do subjects in 1/35 and both inspire me to constantly try to improve. As others have mentioned their Osprey books are well worth getting. Also try to find Bill Horan's 'Military Modelling Masterclass' which is a classic for figure modellers.

As for practising, I find resin/white metal figures good for stripping and starting again. They are unlikely to degrade. I usually strip them with an old toothbrush dipped in cellulose thinners which takes the paint off very quickly (don't use cellulouse on plastic though!).

Good luck with your figure modelling.

Owen