First Figure WIP-8/8Update, First figures DONE, TAKE A LOOK!

Thanks, Andy, I used your toot on the Third figure, it's on another thread, but I am pretty happy with that third guy.

Bill 

maffen wrote:

thank god it's your first one.... don't try another ok

Great work on your first fig! You're doing some great figure work. Don't forget, you have to start somewhere. (They're better than mine, I don't even post my 1/35th figs. ) Don't give up! 

psstoff995 wrote:

I like the look of these night fighters- very interesting infrared set up- I really like your attention to detail and your flesh tone is getting better and better!

   Oh yeah, that is some great work, and just ignore the dumb troll......

   Thanks, Jim

Bill it was a pleasure watching you stretch yourself and having the courage to try something out of of your comfort zone.  You put a lot of effort into this and it is paying off.

Keep it up!! 

I finish what I start, and here they are:  Disco Hans and Boxer Franz, enjoying the sunny SouKal Sun, although they are jealous of Herr Whoever, their rich resin cousin in my other WIP

So my first two figures, actually I finished the third one today, I think, are DONE!!

Thanks for all the help and tips

Bill   

I've seen JAWS so many times that I could put on a one-man play.

Mic wrote:

Your figs do look good for your first outing, BTW. I hope that point wasn't lost in my comments earlier. Steve

Thanks, Steve, they look better than I thought, and I didn't think I could just start cranking out well-painted figures.  I do appreciate the input, it's a learning experience, and this place is the place to learn.

Jaws is one of my favorite movies, BTW.

Bill  

... here ya go:

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/

Select Miniature & Model Colors > Model Color

Hope this helps you out.

I use oils, so the feathering can be done fairly easily, with plently of drying time. Shading with acrylics is another beast... one that I have yet to wrap my pea-brain around (not that I'm that great with oils, either). However, there are guys on here that are downright masters at the process. I know a lot of them use Vallejos. Try searching for tutorials within this forum, using search words such as "shading" "vallejo", or "how to".

Or, just simply create a new post and title it "Dear ajlafleche..." He is one of the aftermentioned masters of the Vallejo shading technique, checks in here very often, always seems tirelessly happy to help, and shoots off a link to the Vallejo website, where I believe they have tips.

If you wanna try oils for shading, then I could offer some tips with that medium. However, I might be considered a dinosaur for using oils, and learning the Vallejo method might point you in the better direction for your figure-painting future.

Your figs do look good for your first outing, BTW. I hope that point wasn't lost in my comments earlier.

Steve

Mic wrote:

Hey Bill, I think you are off to a real good start with figures. They look like you know what you are trying to achive, and they are coming along. Keep goin, always have another ready to work on. I know people that have been painting figures constantly for over 20 years, who still consider each figure "practice" for the next one. Perhaps, I might offer shooting for "feathering" the highlights and shadows, blending them into the succeeding shades. Also, Bodge just posted a fantastic tutotrial for acrylic skin tones. Worth all of us checking out, before we begin our next figure. Steve

THanks for the input, Steve, I see lots of reference to "feathering" on the tutorials, but I never see any instruction as to how to do it.  Any tips?

Thanks,

Bill 

Mic wrote:

I know people that have been painting figures constantly for over 20 years, who still consider each figure "practice" for the next one. Steve

im one of those people steve. never feel completely satisfied with my painting and always feel like the next one will be better and so on and so on...!

Hi Bill,

Your first figures turned out great!!!  The equipment detail and outling really came out nice as well.  No coffeecup heads here!!

As we discussed the largest thing you conquored here is your own self doubt about them.  I get that I felt the same way.  I really enjoy them now and can't wait to get back to painting some!

Excellent!!!

Hey Bill,

I think you are off to a real good start with figures. They look like you know what you are trying to achive, and they are coming along. Keep goin, always have another ready to work on. I know people that have been painting figures constantly for over 20 years, who still consider each figure "practice" for the next one.

Perhaps, I might offer shooting for "feathering" the highlights and shadows, blending them into the succeeding shades. Also, Bodge just posted a fantastic tutotrial for acrylic skin tones. Worth all of us checking out, before we begin our next figure.

Steve

I appear to be in the home stretch with these two guys, here they are after about an hour of cerefully outlining every pocket, seam, edge, etc in black to make it pop.  I also tried some camo on the helmet cover, not really shooting for a real pattern based on anything, I do not yet have all the colors I need.  Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think, I'm pretty happy for a first effort

Then I turned my attention to boxer Hans, he really surprised me, some parts of him came out great, like his belt buckle.

Please let me know what you think, these are my first two figures.  I wish I had started painting figures a year ago!

Bill

Hey Bill that's what I am talking about!  They look more finished and eyes fill in the details when they have headgear and your not staring at a coffeecup for a head!

Yes I learned the hard way to focus on one guy at a time it is much more easy to stay focused and enjoy it.  It's supposed to be fun remember!

That's ALL i need, Edmund, Mrs. Schnobs after my hide, first for the Vallejo run of '09, then for stealing her man, with a pair of worn boots!

Always one to heed sage advice, I slapped his cap on, and put some equipment on Hans, he's not complete, but I have the battery and that musette type bag in place, and of course those gigantic MP44 mag pouches, going prone in that gig would likely bruise ribs, and I also tossed on his steel pot.

Here's where they stand:

He looks mysterious from this angle.

Above, he's pointing to where he wants me to put all the Vallejo bottles littering the benchtop.

On to Hans

Sorry, Edmund, no boot shots for the boxer, I am not finished doing my thing with them yet.  The trouble with doing multiple figures, for me, is that I get going on one and mess up the shading and highlight, or in this case, the boots, on the other, as I stay with one figure and the paint goes bad by the time I remember the other guy.

Well, as always, learning experience for me, I think I like painting figures, although these guys are not yet done, comments and tips welcome.

Thanks for looking,

Bill

Citadelgrad87 wrote:

I made some progress, I think he's pretty much done.  I haven't put his cap on because I am not sure his face is done, I re highlighted it withg a darker flesh, now he doesn't look like he's wearing pancake makeup. Comments welcome! Bill

Hey Bill that's what I am talking about!  The canteen and weapon are awesome!  Put his headgear on it will provde shadows and framing for the face.  Persaonlly I would not paint without headgear on becuase the headgear helps me graph where the shadows and highlights woudl be.  JMHO as always!!!  Oh and I woudl have a seroious fling with your boots!

Dang, that shure is some good painting there! Is that a radio on his back?

     Looking forward to an update on boxer Hans, Jim.

I made some progress, I think he's pretty much done.  I haven't put his cap on because I am not sure his face is done, I re highlighted it withg a darker flesh, now he doesn't look like he's wearing pancake makeup.

Comments welcome!

Bill 

No worries, Edmund, per our offline conversations, you and I are on the same page.  Bring home the bacon, fry it up when you get the time.  I'm having a light week and getting some weeknight modeling in, you're buried.  It may be September before I can touch it again, by then, you will have a triceratops medal from that competition under your belt.

I'm not totally happy with the detail painting, but I am having a ball, and this is far less frustrating than I though it would be.  I think my strap/detail trouble is the muddy molding, it's tough to gt a straight line when you can't see the line.

I scored some 000, 0000, and 10x0 brushes today, red sable Winsor and Newton series 7, at least 2 of them are, at 50% off.

No progress on the severed head, but the whole men made some steps toward completion.

Bill

Hey Bill!

Sorry work was hectic today and I was unable to get to your email.  Keep up the good work Bill.  Perhaps you cold darken the face with an umber wash or another redbrown wash and then re-highlight.  Just a thought. 

I wish my camera had a passport and could travel unescorted.  It would be more efficient and save on travel costs.

Thanks, Agentg, he is pale by my eyes, too.  I think I jumped too far down the spectrum.  My initial coats were a mix of dark and flat flesh.  The firsts highlight was straight flat flesh, and it looked ok.  Then I think I messed up, I jumped straight to lighgt flesh.  I beleive I should have mixed light and flat, and then, if necessary, gone to light for final highlights.

Is there a fix, maybe a tan wash?

For primer, I used Tamiya rattle can fine surface primer.  I think I will switch to a different primer with the next builds.

Tonight, there was some progress.  First, I started using black on Disco Franz to trace his pockets, the collar, seams, buttons, shoelaces and the sole seam on the boots, etc.  I also painted his beltS, yes, this cretin decided to wear two belts, one is for the Wampir battery backpack.  Here's where we stand now.

EDIT-the page sized blow up looks pretty rough.  That right pack strap was pretty muddy in the molding department, I will go back and see if I can clean it up with some gray.  It's funny, these figures are very well molded, but when they fall flat, they fall very flat.

And a full length shot

And a boot close up

I also painted up the magazine pouches, and applied an unber wash to pick up some detail, they are nicely done for injection molded

And yes, I worked on boxer Hans, too

He is not as far along as Disco boy, I still need to give hime some detail attention.  I did finally manage to get him to stick to, well, a stick, so his paint should take less of a beating.

Sorry about the pictures, still playing with lighting and a borrowed camera, mine is returning from Greece this weekend.

Thanks for looking and commenting, everybody, this is a constructive exercise for me.  Please feel free to post any tips, tricks, or criticism.

Thanks\

Bill  

I

Thanks, Edmund and Modelchasm,

I did prime them, and the vallejo paint goes on fine at first, giving good coverage, it just seems to refuse to stick.

I forgot to wash them, normally I pull the whole project out of the box the night before, soak and gently scrub in warm water with dishwashing soap, and then air dry. 

I suspect that another factor is the Disco guy is properly mounted on an old pencil, but I couldn't get the other guy to stick, so I have been handling him a lot.

I'll remember to wash the next guys, and I will pick up some dowel and mount the guys for painting.

Thanks for the insight,

Bill

These are looking good. The faces are definitely coming along. I too use VA paints and love them. Flesh areas always look iffy until the very end when that last coat just makes them pop.

If you searcht the threads, look for "Flash Out" and "SF Quick Build". These are two of my most recent figures (in 120mm), painted w/ VA paints. There's a few pics I posted of the face-in-progress. They should give you a good glimpse of what you might be seeing in your progress. Probably the best thing I figured out btwn these two figs, was that on the SF fig, I went back at the end and added a highly thinned coat or two of a pinkish-flesh color. This made the "life" pop out.

The one thing that I learned thoughout the process of building figures has already been touched on ... You're never going to get any better if you don't practice on things that you're not good at. Even just "going for it" makes you better at it.

Give it a shot .... the worst that can happen is that you have to respray it w/ primer ...

GOOD LUCK!!! ... and have fun!!!

Oh yeah, almost forgot to ask .... for your fig that the paint doesn't want to stick .... 1) Are you washing your figs in luke warm water w/ a drop of soap? 2) Are you applying primer? 3) Get religious about washing your hands. I know that you've been building armor, but for some reason, when you get to building figs .... your fingers just want to run all over them!

It has been my pleasure Bill.  The only thing that comes to mind is that your oils from your hands has prevented the primer or base coat from adhering to the figure.  I am very religous about all my plastic and resin pieces having a dawn dish soap bath before painting.  All the horror stores I heard about not cleaning before paint stuck with me I guess.

Resin is cool!