Hola!
First a little word about paints and materials. I have about 20 Andrea and Vallejo acrylics on the shelf, I dont use any of them. I found out that Hobby Craft Acrylics such as Apple Barrel, Deco Art, and Folk Art paints are just as good and a whole lot cheaper and easier to get a hold of. They have the same capabilities and the pigments are just about the same in both Andrea and Apple Barrel. For Oils I use Winser Newton's Artist Oils, and for brushes I use Winser Newtons Series 7 brushes, these are about twice as expensive as a normal brush but are very good, and the tip of the brushes lasts for a long time with out spreading out.
What I do with a figure from start to finish is:
Preparing the figure to be painted, Cleaning and Priming:
I clean up all the mold lines with a scalpel and some files, sometimes steel wool and sandpaper is used. Then I pin the figures legs by drilling a small hole and glueing a piece of paper clip in the hole with a 5 minute 2-part epoxy glue. The next step is to find a small wooden block, usually somehting like 2" tall and 1" x 1" top surface, drill corresponding holes to match the ones on the figure, then I insert the paper clips in the holes drilled on the base. Now we have a figure mounted temporarily on a wooden block, almost ready for painting. Assemble as much of the figure as you possibly can with out interfeering with the painting process, again, all parts should be cleaned carefully, a perfectly painted figure can't hind the moldlines. The next step is to wash the figure in warm soapy water, what I use is an old tooth brush, I wet the soap bar, rub the tooth brush a couple of times on it so it has some soap in the bristles, then I wet the tooth brush and 'brush' the figure. After the whole figure is covered in soap I rinse the brush and scrub it down with water to clean off all the soap. I set this to dry, and when dry I spray paint the primer. The primer I use is a light gray and is called : 20010 Equipment Gray Primer made by Color Place, which you can buy at Walmart for little over a dollar a can. Now we are ready to start painting the figure!
Painting the figure
I almost always start with the flesh tones, I base coat the skin areas with a mix of Apple Barrel Terra Cotta and Satin Cream, this is a nice warm skin tone. I paint the eyes first using an off white for the whites and a blue, black or brown for the eye balls. Next I mix up some oils. I use 4 shades for the skin tones, Vandyke Brown, Burnt Sienna, White, and Naples Yellow.First mix about 60% Vandyke brown with Burnt Sienna, then mix 50/50 of White and Naples Yellow. Now we have two 'piles' of paint. Paint only the high lights with the white mixture, and only the shadow areas with Brown mixture, make sure to leave about 1 mm inbetween the two colors. Now take a soft clean brush and feather the edges together, now we have a shadow, mid tone and a highlight. If you want a lighter highlight, add white and blend in, and if you want more shadows, add somemore of the Brown mix and blend in. Do this until you are satisfied with the results.
Set this aside to dry, or do like I do, and put infront of a 100W lightbulb so it dries faster and with out the sheen oils tend to have. Repeat the same process for the hands. After the skin tones are dry I paint the hair and eyebrows and touch up the eyes if nessessary.
Now we are ready for the uniform! I paint a little darker mix of the uniform color with Craft Acrylics, which is pretty much the oonly paints I use. Then I start adding highlights with the same mixture with a lighter color mixed in, making sure each layer is very thin and almost transparent. You want this so the paint dont build up and creates a rough texture. After about 3-4 highlights I go on to the shadows, same base mix with a darker color mixed in. I repeat the same process of the highlights on the shadows and when I am happy with the result I let it set and dry. Now paint all the details such as buckles, belts buttons etc etc.
Finishing the Figure
After everything is painted satisfactory its time to mount the figure to the base and weather it. I use pastels for the wethering process, make sure your figure matches the ground work that you are placing him on so they are 'one' and looks like they 'belong' together. After the first layer of pastels I usually give the whole figure a coat of Testors Dull Coat. After the dull coat is dry I usually go over it again with some more pastels, make sure not to over do this part as it is really easy to do.
