Hi Jan
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Care to share the secret about what kind of washes you use? Any and all information would be greatly appreciated. As I state earlier, figures are brand new to me and I'm kind of lost as to where to begin.
happy to share what I do, no secrets, and its quite easy to get the effects I get, though I am not laying any claims to being a great figure painter.
In my opinion its about impossible to paint realistic eyes on a 1/72 or 1/76 scale figure. An eye is fractions of a millimetre in braille scale and if in real light conditions eyes are often squinted, variously shaped, and rarely completely round in appearance or 'popping' out, so to try to paint eyes can result in a cartoonish look (to me anyway). Similar problems apply to other parts of these small figures where light conditions can create lighter and darker areas on people in 1/1 scale in real light conditions, but is very hard to replicate in this scale.
First up I simply painted the flesh, clothing, footwear (and where no head gear), the hair. Sometimes I paint with enamels sometimes acrylics, sometimes both types of paint on the same figure. Main thing is to paint neatly 'within the lines'. No shading occurs at this stage.
I have found a wash works well, as the pigment is extremely fine and makes its way naturally into the recessed areas such as around eyes, between fingers, into creases in clothing etc.
I sometimes use artists oil paint, diluted in thinners, but this can lift the paint, so have more of less stopped using this method..
I find that acrylic washes work best, whether used over enamel or acrylics. I've found Citadel brand to be very good (sold by Warhammer shops). Agrax Earthshade works best for me, its a kind of dark brown, & is what I used on the figures with the H-39 tanks. Devlan Mud is roughly equivalent but is discontinued.
Another good colour for highlighting washes is black 'Nuln Oil' works well, as does its rough equivalent 'Badab Black' which may be harder to find as seems to be discontinued.
I simply get a large soft brush, moisten it with water first, then run it all over the figure. If the wash seems to be a bit heavy, dip the brush in fresh water, & run it over the figure again to remove where it looks too heavy, usually the face. After its dried if the face is still a bit dark I use a very fine brush with flesh colour on it to highlight the areas that naturally catch the light - brow,nose, cheekbones, tip of chin. Thats it.
I later seal the whole figure with Dullcote Lacquer applied with a very soft brush over the whole figure, this also matts any shiny areas, and protects the finish.
The above method is how I painted the figures in the below post. When you have figures with very nicely sculpted faces the wash literally does all the work. With poorly sculpted figures the result will be lesser.
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/203959&page=1For info, I have no connection with any manufacturers or suppliers, everything I model and use is paid for by me, at full advertised price.
(NOTE - if washing armour slightly different rules apply, brush the whole vehicle with clear clean water first, and work quickly to spread the wash how you want it, as it dries fairly quickly).
cheers
Neil
As I mention, each of these first two will be experiments using two different methods. Based on that outcome, I'll then decide how to do the others or any future figured.
