Getting started on a Tamiya 1/35 German Field Kitchen. This kit includes 2 horses to pull the cart.
Any suggestions on finishing and painting the horses so to get a nice 'hair' effect .

Thanks,

Peter

I have that kit and the academy copy. But I have never painted horses before either! I have been reading quite a few articles in military modelling on the subject. Most of the guys use oils, and the big advntage is that you dont have to be afraid of the brush strokes... in fact you are looking to add them to simulate the hairs. the sheen of the oils gives a perfect finish for the horses as well. The painting methods are usually straight forward ... like painting faces ... the recesses first with dark colours and then the main colour and then highlights all feathered together! For patches or distinguished marks, reference will be needed!

Another method is to preshade the recesses with your airbrush and then lightly spray with the colour of choice, letting the preshade show through! Then fade on the higher areas. Filter to blend together. when dry, using the same colour of oils, add brush strokes using oils to simulate hair. Good luck with this ........I will be watching this thread carefully!

The trick to painting horses is the undercoat.....I use.....bright yellow......bright orange....bright red....and white mostly.....undercoat in those colours....then use a dark brown oil paint......brush it on all over....wait a couple of minutes and then go back with a clean, dry brush and start stroking the paint off in the direction of the hair.......soon you'll start to see your shadows and highlights showing up....what the oils have done is....stained the basecoat......so it's no longer bright red or orange.....and wiping it off in the direction of the hair has done 3 things....left you with shadows in where shadows would be......left you with highlights where highlights would be....and left you with a natural looking coat of "hair"....now...you can add more highlights if you wish to while the oils are still wet........then let it dry and then if you have white blazes or socks put them on at this time.....these don't need to be smoothly blended into the basecoat......as on the real horse these are rough at the edges.....remember.....dark hooves under dark legs.....lighter hooves under white socks.
Hope this helps

Here's an article from Andrea that may help:

http://andrea-miniatures.com/eng/workshop/articles/works01a.htm

If you can find a copy of this book, Building and Painting Scale Figures by Shepard Paine, it has a whole chapter on how to paint horses in it.

Patrick

Also, one of the issues of EURO MODELISMO has a section on painting horses.

I was always told to use a good, bold undercoat, orange, bright brown, etc. then to put on the colour (oils) (loads of paint,use a big brush) using a bit of sponge, up to down, using bold vertical strokes. You know what happened? It worked, get youself a cheap plastic horse (summat that eats very little grass) and try it, you still have to put the socks in( with oils though) , trust me it works...i know it sounds crap but..... Jim

I too find the horses are daunting... but I went after it in the SAME KIT using my airbrush. i first did a base coat of dark umber (brown) on one horse, then came back and added highlights using the drybrush technique to add in lighter shades of Sienna.

The other horse got the same treatment, with Flat Black and then highlights of Charcoal Grey and some white for stockings and mask. Still a work in progress, but photos coming soon!