my first real attempt to add figures to a kit (Tamiya 1/35 StuG IV)... stated with the faces but thinking "too brown" - perhapsthat is against the white and once the unifor is painted it wont be as bad?

well these are the first attempts:







if they are too dark, can i do dot filtering of white to rectify (black in shadows?)...

these were painted wih vallejo (medium skin and sunny skin (think thats the correct names) starting with a mix of burnt umber and medium for the shadow) so perhaps i am just starting from the wrong place

I don't think there's a right or wrong starting approach. Some people work light to dark and vice verse. Others work from midtones up or down. It comes down to preference really. The guy without the hat is looking pretty good skin wise, maybe a translucent light/mid to blend it together a wee bit? You might want to try and tidy up the eyes a little if you can, they're the trickiest to get right and do take some practice, so don't get too down on yourself if they don't turn out as well as you hoped at first. There's tons of helpful tutorials on youtube, and probably some here as well that might be worth having a look at. I'm dreading and looking forward to when I actually do some figures again, it's been over 10 years since my last one, and I used oils back then. Next time will be all acrylics, or at least all water soluble stuff.

Kimmo

thanks kimmo.. i was following a youtube SBS which went dark-to-light... i think to the naked eye they are about 60% ok - going to look at Mark Banermann‘s SBS to see if that helps finish off (and yeah some work on the eyes when viewed at this side woould help)....

Modern cameras are a blessing/curse sometimes with what and how they capture, I'm noticing that more and more with my own builds and looking at other people's work with that in mind. Keep plugging away, have happy accidents (in the words of Bob Ross) and above all, have fun.

Kimmo

ok - redid the flesh (got a shadow flesh from Games workshop as the base) and bit happier. progressed to the clothing... black/flesh mixed for both jackets - slightly more faded for the guy standning up and then "german grey/green" for the guy sitting down. Need to add the shadows on the black/grey but i dont think I have done "too" bad

Pretty good painting Robert

The shadow you added to the flesh in the last set of pics make them look even better and the Black uniform looks the part as well. Maybe a bit more diluted black in the shadows and one additional lighter highlight for the sharper folds and the knees but this is already pretty sterling work.

thanks for that - i havent done the black shadows on the jackets yet - thats this evenings job.. dont want to make the lightest highlight ttoo "Bright" so will be careful on that (maybe with more black in the lights will be ok)

NOTE: further research shows that the guy sitting should have a black forage cap... unless reed green was sometimes used???