Hi,

I'm painting my crew-figures (1:35) and am trying to paint the faces. I've read a few articles about the subject and I think I know what to do. The only thing that is unclear is the way the blending should be done. Can anybody help me? Currently I'm using enamels(Humbrol) can the facepainting be done whith enamels or would you recommend oil-paint?

Thanks

Marcel

Oils are better because they take longer to dry.
Think that you have a dark base colour. Then you dip a tiny bit of light colour on that. You have a light contrasting spot on dark background.
Take a dry, clean brush and start smudging the edge of these colours. If the light spot becomes too big, take another dry clean brush and start spreading the dark area towards the light.
This is more difficult with enamels and acrylics as they dry very fast!
Hope this is any help!



Toni

Toni has a point on oils being the medium that takes longest to dry... Some say that is the advantage of oils, some say that is not such a good thing. I wouldn't like to comment on that cause I have never used them. Acrylics are almost impossible to blend. They dry almost instantly and they are tough to "lift" once they have set... If you are working with acrylics layering is the better solution than blending.

As for the enamels; I work with them exclusively and I find them ideal for blending. They set in about 20-30 minutes and in my oppinion that is more than enough time to do what you want... After all the face in 1/35 figure is smaller than your thumbnail. So this is what I do: after your base coat is dry, do the shadows. Leave it to dry for 15-20 minutes and then dip your brush into thinner (so that the brush is wet, but not soaked). With the tip of the brush start touching the edge of the two colors and smudge the shadows into the base color. Be carefull not to overdo the smudging as you can easily turn your entire face into one big shadow blob. After these two colors are fully blended, leave it to dry completely... Follow the same procedure with the highlights and voila.. you have blended the face.

This could sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo to you. It would be best to get some separate heads (I would suggest Hornet as they are top quality, with crisp facial lines that facilitates painting) and practice until you find a technique that works best for you.

Mario M.

I use the same method as Mario when working with enamels. You just want to make sure there's not too much thinner on the brush when you're blending, or it will run all over the face....
Recently, I have been trying oils and I really like them. Much easier to blend, as no thinner is required. They do take a long time to dry, though, so you just have to be patient and leave them alone for a few days. I recommend oil paint, but it does take practice to get used to and it is possible to get very good results using enamels.

Nic

Thanks guys, I'll try the oil's and the enamels and see which method I prefer.

My $.02 would be get a couple tubes of oils and try them out. You can also use them on armor but I won't get into that here. If your not in a hurry check out E-by. I got some there for less than half what a store was selling for the same thing, and they where brand new. Winsor Newton oils are suppose to be the best and thats what I got, but others would probably work fine.