What is the best technique for painting hemet straps on 1/35 figures as all i do now, is get a mess and end up getting more and more frustated. Do you dry brush or just try and keep your hand as steady as possible ? neither of which is working for me right now.

Do you use a brush with 4 hairs on it? seriously 3-0 5-0 ?

I am using vallejo acrylics what paint to water ratio do you use for fine detail work ? and what colour for straps German ww2 .

thanks

Very carefully.

Sorry, but that is about it. Use a very small brush (10-O is what I use for fine details) and a steady hand. I don't use any specific paint / thinner mixes. I only use Testors Model Master enamel paints straight out of the bottle. It just takes a steady hand and practice to paint fine, steady lines.

Gino,

You took the words right outa my mouth.
Martin,you could try painting the strap first and then adding the flesh color to the face carefully to cover anywhere you may have slipped up on the strap.

Tom

Martin, I have plastic tooth picks that are shaped like a hockey stick, just dip it in the paint and use it like a brush

"very carefully" with a fine line brush. I usually have on my optivisor, as well. If you want to send me the heads, I can paint them for you. Wouldn't mind paying the return shipping.

On thinning Vallejo acrylics, I've found the paints tend to vary a bit in thickness so there's really no exact thinning ratios.
Experiment a bit and you'll find the approximate thickness that's good for fine details. A good rule of thumb is that it's good when it covers well enough in one or two coats (though some light colors can require more) without wanting to flow all over the place.

Hi Martin. You dont say what figures you are painting. If it is older Tamiya, Academy and Italeri figures (and I suppose Dragon could be included in many cases as well), this is quite hard for the best of modellers as the definition of the straps is so poor due to molding constraints. Its gotten better as the years go by, but you generally find that better figures have better definition and are actually much easier to paint.
If you are a beginner figure painter ... I really suggest getting a good quality resin figur to practise on .... those I mentioned previously are demoralising to start with. You´ll advance your skills much faster with a good figure .... you can always strip it and start it again, so it wont be expensive.

Something else you may want to consider is to replace the straps with heavy paper or foil. Carefully remove the molded on strap with a no.11 blade and fine grit sand paper. Cut a suitable strap out of brown bag paper or foil, paint and apply.

Try bracing your wrists against the table edge, but like the others said, it's mostly care and practice. The more you do it the better you'll get.

Steadying your hands while using the fine motor skills in your fingers instead of the gross motor skills of the larger muscles in your arms and forearms will help, though.




I use a 10-0 liner brush for most of my acrylic painting. These brushes have longer bristles than rounds or brights and hold more paint while still having fine points.




I generally thin Vallejos about 50:50 (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less). I use Vallejo thinner mixed with ordinary water as a thinner. I add a little drying retarder and flow enhancer to the mix.

Thinning ratios for acrylic paints are very much a personal preference based on your painting style, though. You should experiment some to find what works best for you.

You want the paint to flow easily from the brush. You should also rinse your brush often while painting with acrylics. They have a tendancy to start setting or drying in the brush which keeps the bristles clumped together and prevents the paint from flowing.




German WWII "straps" covers a lot of ground...

German helmet straps were made of leather, black on the outside and brown on the inside. The buckles were bare metal.

Their leather web gear was the same, although the hardware was painted either a light gray or light olive color when it was new from the factory. Same for the standard Kar 98k ammo pouches (except some early war Luftwaffe issue pouches which were brown).

Belt buckles were also painted a light or (late war) dark olive color when new, but the paint wore off quickly leaving bare metal behind. This was the same for the uniform buttons on the regular issue Fieldgray wool tunics. (Some other types of uniforms had blue, black or brown glass or Bakelite buttons in addition to metal buttons - you need to do your research on those.)

The German canvas web gear was made in a khaki color that was slightly "greenish" when new and faded to a tannish color. There were variations of some canvas straps on some equipment items (canteens, grenade launcher pouches, etc) that was a medium-dark gray color instead of the khaki, but the regular canvas shoulder straps and waist belts were khaki. Gas mask carrier straps were a medium olive to khaki color, though. Bino straps were black leather.

Don't get too discouraged with your first painting efforts. It does take some time and practice. Just keep at it.

HTH,

I would like to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to give me the benefit of your wisdom. Some great ideas that I will try

Things can only get better now.

Be hard to get worse hahahaha

Thanks once again.

Thanks for the offer Ned,but my goal is each one better than the last one I am keeping everything thing so in 10 years ( if i hsven't been planted buy then) I can see how much I have improved.

My biggest issue is my bad eyes , It is hard to paint when you can.t see it.I looked into optivisors but my reading glasses are 3.0 same same

maybeit is time to spring spring for laser surgery.

Try wearing the optivisor over the glasses.

You could paint a piece of paper, cut to size and glue it in places with some white pva.

Hi Martin, like Matt said, wear the opti-visor over your glasses, or you can purchase the attachment eye piece wich doubles the magnification of the opti-visors lens. Also you can click on the link and look at these lenses that attach to your own glasses. Micro-Mark

- ralph

Ralph thank you very much for the link , I will give them a go and see what happens terrible pun.

I'm pretty new to the figure painting genre & my first effort was pretty poor when compared with the standard set here on Armorama. Then I got me one of those "daylight" lamps with built in magnifying lense & the end result came on in leaps & bounds. A tool that was really worth the investment.
Having said that, I've only painted resin figures so far as I find them really good to work with: there is so much detail you can highlight & shadow.
Good luck!

Joe.

This is a bit late, but I actually use the tip of an x act knife to get the fine details (including helmet straps) done. The small tip of the blade works great, and it's easy to get off any excess with it too

Martin the guys have given ya some very nice handy hints and i hope they all work out great for ya ..one thing tho you mentioned is the curse of the unsteady hand .
Here's what i do cause i suffer from it too .. hold your breath , i learned this doing long range shooting and when you do your body its nearly perfectly still ,thought what the hell and tried it with painting ..works a treat and now i can use 3-0 to paint very small details with ease .
5-0 or 10-0 is to easy now i use 3-0 for most things now ..give it a try .

Phill

Hi--I use a small needle (sewing) superglued to a small handle, and just put the smallest of dips for something like this. Then clean the needle and use it for flesh color to clean up the strap. Good luck.