1/72 scale figures - first try - I need help

Well, since your an aircraft guy, I'm sure you have some of those Tamiya Acrylics around. Don't use them. If your into figure for the long run, get some good vallejo or Anrea paints and maybe some oils. otherwise, MM Acrylics are OK. 1/72 scales fine I think as long as your not trying to paint colors of eyes.  

Check out this site under features and forums, some really amzazing work there.

http://www.hfmodeling.com/

Other than that, don't expect great results right away. with 16 figures, expect messing up 10 of them. Try something new on every one and add that skill to the next one.

Good Luck,

David

ww2modeler wrote:

Well, since your an aircraft guy, I'm sure you have some of those Tamiya Acrylics around. Don't use them. If your into figure for the long run, get some good vallejo or Anrea paints and maybe some oils. otherwise, MM Acrylics are OK. 1/72 scales fine I think as long as your not trying to paint colors of eyes.   Check out this site under features and forums, some really amzazing work there. http://www.hfmodeling.com/ Other than that, don't expect great results right away. with 16 figures, expect messing up 10 of them. Try something new on every one and add that skill to the next one. Good Luck, David

Thanks David !

This was a reason I got this set: a lot of figures and the price was right too - about $10.

In fact I wish to make a larger figure of such subject but first I need to know the technique involved.

You mentioned Tamiya paints - funny I just thought of using them . I like tamiya acrylics due to nice texture and fine pigment but I am trying to understand wha may be the reason of removing tamiya from the list ? Quick drying time ? Would a retarder do the trick in such case ??

If I need oil paints, where to get them ?? What is a decent brand I should look for ??

I know how you feel about them, exactly the way I felt. The problem is that you can't blend. Its a problem with the formula of the paint. It causes the undried paint to "lift off" when you stroke the brush over it. The only way I've found to use them is too thin them REALLY well. I've been upgrading to Valejo's. It takes me about 10 coats to get the right look with Tamiyas and 3 with vallejos. If you have the $ to get them, get the vallejos, or just get some basic colors and try them out. The Tamiyas are great for airbrushing but figure painting isn't there thing.

For an example, look at my post "1/35 German figure a little bit below this one. The face was painted with vallejos, then look at some of my other stuff painted with Tamiyas and you'll notice the difference.

David

For 1/72 and smaller figures, I like to start with a black undercoat, and then semi-dry-brush the main colours, using acrylics (I like Citadel, but the new Humbrol ones are also surprisingly good). Over the base colours, I try a lighter dry-brush of a couple of lighter versions of these colours. I then paint the detail parts with a small brush - but not smaller than #0. There was an article in FSM a few years ago which outlined this method in greater depth, using, IIRC, crew figurs from a Monogram 1/48 B-25.

Here are some figures in 1/72 and smaller painted using this technique:

But there are lots of valid approaches to small-scale figure painting. You have to experiment and find out what works best for you.

Cheers,

Chris.

http://www.timelinesforum.com/

http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/index.php?

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/

I can't emphasize enough, if you're going to get into figures, go with Vallejo and Andrea. If you're near Boston, The Hobby Bunker in Malden carries the line.

Here are some larger scale winged hussars:

I use Vallejo exclusively now for pretty much all my armour builds and detail painting and that includes figures.

There is a great tutorial for figures painted with Vallejo paints. I think it was done by Hermesminiatures and those techniques that he used can easily be applied with 1:72/76 figures.

Cheers

Mike

Thank you Gentlemen for your help.

Al: it looks you have a quite collection of those hussars :)

I plan to go to Boston within next Week (besides the Airshow at Westover I have to visit :) during the Weekend). I will get some Velejo paint and try it on some figures.

In teh meantime I tried using oil paints and I am pretty pleased with results. The only problem may be with detailing those figures. Oil paint has some limitations and will require carefull planning. Since I tried it, I may be hooked into it; mostly due to the subject :)

 Thanks again for all your help. I will show my first one when done :)

Painting soft plastic is a bit tricky. Especially when it comes to securing a paint job that does noit flack or chip of whenever the model flexes. Here's a useful site with tips

http://www.baueda.com/plastikornar/painting_guide.html