Hi,

I've recently picked up model building again. I've started with some Tamiya 1 35 german WW2 tanks. I'd like some advice on painting the figures, I used tamiya acrylics at first but they look awful, the flesh acrylic is very watery looking on the figures face. I'm reading on here that Vallejo paints are good, if this is the case can you advise me on the following -

*Should I apply a base / prime coat (black maybe for shadowing)
*What are the actual colours I should buy for German tank / infantry?)
*Whats the correct technique to dry brushing ?
*What is best out of Enamel or Acrylic paint? (are Vallejo as 'watery' as the tamiya ones?)
*are Oil paints any use for figures?

Thanks for your help

Chris

You've heard correctly - Vallejo paints are very good. I have a large collection, and use them exclusively for all my detail painting and almost exclusively on figures (most of which are German).

Probably the best for German tankers and infantry are to be found in the Panzer Aces range, which has all the colours you will ever need for German uniforms. The only exception to that is Field Grey, and I have found that No. 70830 is very good.

You definitely need to prime figures before brushing Vallejo paints, and I use ordinary Tamiya spray can grey primer. The first thin coat is then the basic uniform colour, followed by drybrushed highlighting and a wash for shadows in the folds.

Other modellers will undoubtedly have their own techniques - that's just how I do it.

As for drybrushing, let's say for the highlights formed by uniform folds - put a SMALL amount of the highlight colour on your brush, then wipe it on paper towel or similar until the brush is leaving almost no colour on the towel. Having done that, drag it lightly across the folds until the highlight colour starts to appear. Remember - if it doesn't look to be enough, you can always add more, which is a lot easier than trying to take some off.

I would also recommend Vallejo's website, which has a number of very helpful articles.

Have fun.

Regards

Rob

Chris,

+1 on all of Rob's advice. To that, I'd add the following:

For brush painting Vallejo paints, you really need to thin them - considerably. So, get some of their thinner (looks like thinned down PVA, but it isn't). Also, Vallejo makes a "Matt Medium" that comes in the small dropper bottles and also looks like thinned down PVA (but it isn't!).

I use the small plastic paint cups that you can buy in strips with attached lids. These are the same types of cups that you get paint in with a "paint by numbers" arts and crafts picture, but a large crafts store will have the empty strip cups.

In this picture, you can see the cups I'm talking about in the upper right corner:



These are great because you can mix very small amounts of colors and save them as you complete a project. Once you're done, you can wash them out for next time.

To thin the Vallejo's, I mix ordinary water with the Vallejo thinner 50:50. In the small cups, this is 10 drops of water and 10 drops of the thinner for 20 total drops. I add 2 drops of the Vallejo Matt Medium to this. I then add 1 drop of Grumbacher acrylic flow enhancer (Flow Aide). Stir this up well.

I then add 25 drops of the Vallejo paint direct from the dropper bottle. This makes for a thin, fairly watery paint, but the Vallejos should be applied in multiple thin coats, especially for figures. But this is also the thinning ratio that I use for detail painting on my armor, as well.

Andy Evans has an excellent set of recommended Vallejo German figure colors here: Historicus Forma:: How to Paint Splinter Cammo

Keep your brushes clean as you paint. If the paint doesn't want to flow from your brush, or the bristles clump tightly together, stop and clean you brush before painting more.

A jar with ordinary tap water and a "dash" of household glass cleaner (just enough to add a little color to the water is all you need) works pretty well to clean your brushes when using the Vallejos.

I don't use acrylic washes or dry-brushing on my figures, so I can't give any good advice on that. But if you want to develope your figure painting skills, surf over to the Historicus Forma (KIt Maker Network, link on Armorama home page). I use oil paints over acrylic (Vallejo) undercoats. Oils are the "classic" figure painting medium although it seems that most guys are now using an acrylic glazing technique. Hobby enamels are now a very distant third place in figure painting media.

You'll find forums on Historicus Forma for both acrylics and oils, so you can sort of educate your self on the pros and cons. As I'm obviously biased, I'll refrain from telling you that you should paint with oils, but they do work for me and have for many, many years. In the end, it's really all about what works for you.

HTH,

Mike

Mmmm - just goes to show that everybody can always learn something new. Until now I had just thinned my Vallejo with distilled water - I must try your combination, especially as I have some of the matt medium in my stash.

Terrific article on the Panther, by the way - I keep referring to it as I build my Panther G for the Panther campaign. I just wish I was better at soldering, although I admit I have improved since buying a micro torch.

Regards

Rob

LOL! I hav'ta confess, Rob, that I came on that thinning formula by complete accident!

I bought a big bottle of the Vallejo thinner with plans for using it to airbrush their Model Colors. Well, the airbrushing idea didn't work so good. (I'll stick to the Tamiya paints for that!)

But since I had the Vallejo thinner sitting on my work bench, I started adding it to my thinning water (!), mostly to just use it up. But after a few uses and playing around with ratios, I came up with what I now use. The 50:50 mix seems to retard the drying time just enough for my painting style. The Matt Medium really does help the paint dry dead flat. (I've found that a few of their colors tend to dry with a slight sheen - which might be caused by their thinner.) And of course, the flow aide helps, well...,with the flow...

Glad to hear the Panther stuff has been useful. It was a fun build. That soldering stuff takes a little practice, but once you crack the code, you'll wonder how you ever built any PE without it!

Happy Modeling!

Rob, Mike, thanks for your help. That's awesome. I'm off to buy some Vallejo Panzer paints

Firstly let me thank Mike for the plug , also the excellent advice in this thread. If I were to offer any advice at all it would be to persevere and experiment.

When I made the transition from enamel to acrylic, I very nearly gave up because I felt that I just couldn't do it. I wanted to be able to paint on one coat (like enamels) and it cover first time, this doesn't work with acrylic. The key is to get to know the medium by experimenting and trying out the techniques found here and at HF, among others.

And as for trying to brush paint Tamiya "acrylics" - forget it, they spray beautifully but are pants to brush with.

BTW If you need any advice on other colours to use, drop me a PM or ask on the board here. Figure painting takes a lot of practice, keep at it !

HTH,

Andy

Chris, what the others have advised is very good advice and I won't add to any of that especially as I'm a mainly a aircraft and braille scaler.

What I will add is here in the UK there is a very useful source of spray (rattle can) primer that works just as well but is cheaper, and that is Halford's car primer available in grey, white and black.