Flesh tones

I use Vallejo paints for brush painting. There's all sorts of shades but I typically use a bronzed flesh, a regular flesh and a fairer flesh to get the shading. You can use inks to do washes on figures as well.

For eyes, paint the entire eyeball black, then add two dots of white, one on either side of the pupil. That's all you should need. for the scales you're building, you may not even see the eyes though.

Vallejo. Nuf said.

As to colors, my basic group is Beige red, (game colors) dark fleshtone close to burnt cadmium red from their regular line, and pale flesh. I use these with a few other flesh colors for variety. For eyes, I use the pale flesh color with a drop of blue, brown or dark green for the iris.

Here's an excellent article on ethnic skintones from on CoolMiniorNot. The author provides photos of various ethnicities and a list of Vallejo colors he mixes for them.

I use acrylics as a base then use artists oils. The beauty about using oils is the ease of blending and the slow drying time allowing you plenty of time to work. 

I use Testor's Model Master Radome Tan for the basic skin color...

I use burnt sienna acrylic washes for dark shadows, and Radome Tan, lightened with white, for the drybrushing of highlights, and oils for the lips..

 I don't paint the whites..Ever..   At the average viewing distance, the whites are the same color as the skin-color on real people, so don't do it....

For the iris, I paint a narrow stripe of color, either blue or brown, right through the center of the eyeball, letting go past the eyelids top & bottom.. Doesn't matter, cuz I'm gonna paint this area anyway..

Using a sharpened toothpick, I add a black dot in the center.. Then trim the eye-color back to the top and pottom..

Remember that eye are almond-shaped, not round or football shaped... If you paint them as arches top & bottom, it'll give your guys a "pop-eyed" look that ruins the eye.. Also, only the bottom 2/3rds of the eyeball should be visible..

Another thing to remember is that soldiers are outdoors, in the sun, and have a tendency to be squinting..  Goes doulbe for groundcrews on the ramp at the airfield..  Use this to your advantage...

Remember too that soldiers in field also wear camouflage paint on their faces quite often...  Use THAT to your advantage as well.. Light Green and Loam are the colors for Woodland areas, so call it dark green and light green.. Or even black is added too.. Had one guy that used to do his face-cam every morning as Gene Simmons of KISS, lol... Light Green overall and Dark Green "batwings", lol.. 

Actually, it looked kinda cool under a Kevlar...

Vallejo, Andrea, and probably others make "flesh sets". I have  the Vallejo set and it includes a pamphlet on basic flesh painting.

Vallejo works pretty well if you are brush painting areas the size of faces, hands, arms etc. It may require a few coats. Be sure to use a primer.

Tamiya is, in my opinion, the worst for brush painting.

 Check out a great little $10 reference book called  "Color Mixing Recipes". Its kinda like the Ethnic Skintones web site. It goes into detail about how to mix the colors.

Thanks to all who replied,

well it's official, Vallejo is the paint of choice, although I do like Hans Von Hammer's idea of randome tan as I've got that colour in my staff. One last question though, what is the purpose of the red colour?

Cheers - Leo 

I use Model Master wood for the base flesh tone, then white/ black, brown, blue for the eyes. i only do this technique for 1/35 scale figures, 1/48 is only wood. Behind an aircraft canopy, most of the details go away unless you leave it open, so it shouldn't really matter if your going to leave it closed.

zapme

Thanks to all who replied,

well it's official, Vallejo is the paint of choice, although I do like Hans Von Hammer's idea of randome tan as I've got that colour in my staff. One last question though, what is the purpose of the red colour?

Cheers - Leo 

Hi, Leo!

Adding red can add warmth to the base color.

I'm late to the party, but here's my two cents...

Regarding your Tamiya flesh color, are you painting it right from the jar?  It's not really formulated for that use, but for airbrushing, so you might want to try thinning it with something.  I used to use isopropyl or water, but on a recent build, I bought a bottle of Tamiya's own thinner and tried that--makes sense, it's their paint, so I figured the thinner is formulated for it.  It worked pretty well, without the rapid thickening that often occurs with Tamiya paints out of the jar.

I also have an eyedropper bottle of Andrea beige which works as a good base color for Caucasian skin.  I will use it as a base coat, then use oils or acrylics to add shading (each with its own technique).  However, I am also cheap, er, uh, frugal, so I don't like spending a lot of money for tiny little bottles, or worse, sets of tiny little bottles of various, similar shades, when I can put together a collection of basic colors and mix these to get tones/shades inbetween.  I recommend trying that technique, because it'll make you more agile as a painter, over time.  There are many books and articles available, but a good basic technique on painting figures is included in Shep Paine's books, and also, I have one of Bob Knee's books--Bob was a master figure painter, well known on the figure painting circuit, producing award-winning results.

You mentioned 1/48 scale figures.  In that scale, you can get away with less detailing, because it's harder to see.  I paint my aircrew figures by laying in the basic colors--say, flesh on the face--and then using washes to pick up the detail and relief--say, a wash of burnt siena over the face, which will fill the contours.  I'll also use drybrushing to add the lighter color of the highlights.  At the normal distance at which someone views your finished model or diorama, the details will be about the same as if they were stand 30 yards or so from the 1:1 object.

Hope that all helps!

Brad

Gonna echo the Bron on using washes for shadows and drybrushing highlights on 1/48 scale figures..  This is the 1/48 figure from the Monogram TBD-1.. Although at this size (which is ridiculous BTW), you see the flaws in the paint-job, they don't show at normal viewing distances on the diorama..  Everything blends together nicely..

I used all enamels on this TBD-1 pilot ('cept he's not Navy anymore.. He's USAAF circa 1942 at Guadalcanal and has a P-39 now), to include the washes and drybrushing, although I gave it a shot of Dullcoat between colors, to keep the thinners from attacking the previous layer..  But he started out with everything painted a particular Testor's or Tamiya color, Testor's MM khaki for the flightsuit & helmet, Radome tan for the skin, yellow for the Mae West, Tamiya Buff for the pistol belt, etc.. The eyes aren't painted, that's all washes, with charcoal for shading and the "five o'clock shadow".... ( the "booger" on his nose is actually on the picture, not the figure)

Only place I used oils was on the lips..

Thanks Hans Von Hammer,

The pics are very helpful. There is nothing like a good reference to work with. I could of sworn the eyes were painted. What size brush are you using as some of the detail is like wow!! -eyebrows and 5 o'clock shadow?

Cheers-Leo

Glad to help out..

For figure detail-painting, I generally use a "0" or "00" ... The brushes like "0000" hold so little paint that they aren't very useful.. 

It's not the size of the brush so much as the condition of the brush point.. That's what you pay for...

The "5 o'clock shadow" is charcoal, rather than paint, as it's much more controlable.... 

You,be just answered my next question. Charcoal

Thanks Hans

Leo

Anytime.. It's my personal opinion that one doesn't need to have an art degree to be a good figure piainter, and all the talk about using various oils and layers and filters and this and that, is a lotta hooey in the 1/35th/1/48th world.. Maybe "hooey" is a little strong, but you know what I mean..

If you can detail-paint a cockpit and instrument panel, you detail-paint a figure... It's the same thing until we get to face, which is basically the same thing, but has a couple more steps is all.. 

It's one thing to paint a figure that's an inch and half tall well enough that he looks great at normal viewing distances (abut 2-4 feet), and another if you want to paint him so that you can photograph it to appear the size of a 12" scale figure...   That's when you need to bother with shading and mixing oils, etc... But not until then...