I'm making my way back into AFV modelling after a looong break. Looking for suggestions on good reference books or DVDs that will help me learn the tricks of the trade for painting realistic figures, mostly 1/35 scale, mostly likely resin. Back in high school when I was a modeler, I don't think resin figures were even available (at least I had never heard of them), so it is uncharted territory for me. Techniques, recommended equipment, etc. - that's what I'm thinking I'll need.

A google search has turned up a couple of possibilities (Kessler's "How to Paint Realistic Military Figures" and some of the Osprey books), but I'd love to hear suggestions from folks like those on these forums, the ones that really know what they're doing.

Thanks for your time!

How about right here on Armorama in the Figures Features section? There are a lot of great articles on figure painting there.

Or on the Kit Maker Network sister site to Armorama dedicated to figures, Historicus Forma?

Gino,

Thanks for the tips. Guess I can fire up the printer and make my own "reference book" from this site.

Thanks again.

I don't know about DVDs but over on Missing Lynx there's a series of articles from Mark Bannerman that you may find helpful.

Cheers
Shane

Depending on your chosen medium, the books by Shep Paine, Bill Horan, Danillo Cartacci (sp?) and Jaume Ortiz are the books your should be looking at.

Hi John,

All the books in the world will only take you so far, and there's no magic wand.

As with anything, the only way to get really proficient is to practice, practice and practice some more. Maybe start off with a couple of decent quality plastic sets (Dragon or Masterbox are good bets) before having at more expensive resin figures - that'll give you four or five plastic figures to hone your basic skills on for the price of one in resin.

Other guys may disagree, but I'd be wary of the Osprey books by the likes of Calvin Tan. Sure, they're good books and the figures in them are stunning, but some of the techniques and recipes in them are a bit on the complex side. In some cases (arguably) overly so - even though you can't argue with the results that these master modellers produce.

In any case, welcome to the site and happy modelling!

- Steve

I got pretty big collection of of different videos, tutorials and books.

Some of these dvds are for miniature painting but same can be apply to historical figures:
This one is pretty good 3 DVDs
http://hot-lead.org/dvd/index.html

This site has a lot of videos (miniatures mostly) 70 $ for everything:
http://www.miniaturementor.com/painting_tutorials.html

I also managed to find Armour Modelling vol.3 DVD which is japanese and explains how to paint faces with different techniques. I couldn't find it in the shop, also I don't have other volumes If someone know anything about that set, please let me know.

http://www.compendiumfilms.com/
Painting & Finishing Millitary Figures DVD - Rob shows how to paint big figure with airbrush. If you don't have black belt in controlling airbrush don't even watch it

There are quite a few books about miniature painting from Verlinder, Osprey and many other but they don't explain how to blend properly! They spend half of the book space explaining different colors and color schemes, but few sentences when it comes to blending. Damn.

I also have a book by D. Cartacci
http://www.worldwartwobooks.com/product.php/6639/painting-miniatures---danilo-cartacci
but this guy doesn't spend much time explaining how to blend two colors together however there are step by step photos which are great quality.

One of the best DVD I got is from Andrea Miniatures. It shows how to paint quite clearly. Especially face. There is one drawback though. They paint fabrik in blue 3 shades of light, 3 shades of shadow and when it comes to blending different layers they say lets take mid tone and they mix blue and green. Not saying a word why the hell they picked green. They didn't use green at all during painting. Couldn't find it from andrea web site, sorry.

However there is no ultimate DVD or book which could explain how to paint. I know how to make such a video, but don't have painting skills (hopefully yet)

hi, if you want figures to go with your afv's or in dioramas try military modelling site theirs a beginers section and theres a nice little tutorial on how to produce good figures without being to complicated.Ive referred to it a lot because im useless at figures.

I'm not sure if someone has mentioned this, but there are some great articles over on the Vallejo site for figure painting and other stuff.
Here is a link to one of the general figure ones, there are others as well.
http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/blog/?cat=10

Jamie

Wow, thanks everyone for all the great advice! I now have lots of resources to check.

I agree that there's nothing like practice to get good at something, but tips and tricks of the trade from others sure can help.

Thanks again!