Favorite Recipes for Fleshtone

Well, for Humbrols, which I use, though I do all my flesh tones with oils, try 94German Pale Yellow as a base. You can add a touch of red, though it has to be a touch. Red is a color I call "coruptive", as in it can easily corrupt a mix if you're not careful, so a little goes a really long way. As it is, 94 is a pretty good base flesh tone though.

I still use it as my base for which to lay my oil mix onto, but before I got into oils, it was my primary flesh color. I don't know if you want to add shade and highlight (you did say that you didn't want to experiment too much), but if you do, a good red/brown will work. Try 160 German Camouflaged Red Brown, with maybe a touch of black or dark blue to kill some of the red. White to the base will work for highlights, though you may want to add a minute amount of red to pinken it a tad.

If all else fails. Red, white, yellow and black will make a passable flesh tone. Mix the white and the red first, then add the yellow to make a yellow-tan, and finally a touch of black to gray it a touch and also to kill the orange hue. Just add any of the colors you deem neccessary to adjust until it's where you want it, though too much black will screw it up and make it too gray. Shadow and highlight as I described above. Blue and/or green can kill red, as can black, so keep that in mind if your shade color seems too red.

Mess around on a card or something to see where you need to take it.

QUOTE: Originally posted by sulo Anybody got a foolproof recipe for fleshtone please ? I mostly use Humbrol enamels. Thanks,Jeff

Can't guarantee foolproof, but I keep it simple...Titanium white tinted with Burnt Sienna. This 54 mm Andrea Barabarian was done this way

The deepest shadows in ths 200 mm bust got a touch of Van Dyke Brown and the cheeks got just a whiff of Alizarin Crimson to warm them up.

Thanks guys.I'll try em out.

I'm experimenting with acrylics for flesh right now. The Vallejo flesh color paints are really great except I can't get a good shadow color out of the medium flesh. Too yellow and not brown enough for my taste.

For enamel I try not to mix the base flesh and just find the color that is a close match. Then I would do a wash and highlight. For the lips a little bit of a dark red into the base flesh color.

After decades of mixing my own skin tones from oil paints, I've tossed them back into the drawer and bought the 5 Model Master skin tone acrylics and mix them with a little acrylic Retarder. No more struggling to get just the right shade, no more trying to match old paint when I convert an old figure. The retarder allows blending just like oil paints, without all the hassle, and it is a lot quicker than mixing custom paint shades too.

Using enamels or acrylics, I mix white with a bit of red and a bit of yellow. I change the 'mix' with each face to give a different look. That's for the base coat. I then use oils to give highlights and shadows.

hmm, I'm not one for modelling paints when it comes to painting figs. I actually use citadel colours (from Warhammer and Warhammer 40k fame) for flesh. Their water-based paints are just great. There are a variety of pre-mixed colours. Elf flesh is one I use most often as a basecoat, as I find it just perfect. Try them out. I also extensively use their flesh-wash ink (mix 1 part ink to 4 parts clean water) and the results are very very nice after a drybrush.

Bravo guys ! Lots of helpful advice, and particularly using methods I'd not thought of. They sell warhammer stuff at my small local hobbyshop so Zokissima I'll try to find those citadel paints you mentioned.
The main reason I use Humbrol enamels is simply because " my small local hobbyshop " is actually just a corner set aside at our local Toyworld ,and they don't have a really extensive range, as far as paints go,just Tamiya acrylics and Humbrol enamels.Oh and hopefully now Citadel in the Warhammer section which up to now I haven't looked at.
I buy other brands of paint from time to time via mailorder when buying kits and always spend way too much so maybe not for awhile since my last big spendup last month.I'll look for the other brands mentioned next time though.
Thanks again guys,
Jeff

Very nice figures ajlafleche.
mark956

Hi:

I use oils, and the colors I use are burnt sienna, naples yellow and white. I also add a touch a very small touch of green. For the highlights I ues my base flesh color, add white and then add Jeaun Brilant. For the shadows I use a mixture of Brown Madder Alizarlin, with purple madder. I hope this helps and I use this mixture on the figure below. Have fun painting


Dick Wood
[url="http://img16.photobucket.com/albums/v48/dickeywood/CROP_69NY.jpg"]

Hey Ajlafleche and Dickeywood, Thanks for going to the trouble of posting the images. Very good figures which put anything I do to shame.Whatever you're doing ,keep doing it.
Jeff

Hi
I have developed my flesh technique from Verlinden's guide (way Back in the 1980's).

I use burnt sienna oil paint mixed with white humbrol enamel, more sienna than white and fill all the nooks and crannies (eye sockets,nostrils ears etc.) then wipe away the excess. Then add a little more white and start building up the flesh. Then I add Humbrol matt brown wood (Can't remember the number but it is a teak colour) this is my basic flesh and add white to lighten. for a ruddy highlight of cold cheeks original sienna/white mix from the begining drybrushed over. Final touch a wash of raw umber to define lines etc. The depth of umber will depend on how weary/dirty the igure has to be.

I find the enamel helps the oil paints dry quicker as opposed to waiting for days so oil paint will dry.

Acrylics I use a different approach, but Burnt Sienna is available in an acylic form as well.

The Citadel colours are good but because humans vary so much I feel a custom flesh tone is best. But then scale plays a big part 25mm or 1/48th requires less attention that 1/4 and that you will find out accordingly.

The main thing in the end is to enjoy it. And it looks like you are.

Adrian

I use a combination of techniques - later morphing in my own touches. To date I've used oils, but just picked up a set of Vallejo acrylics and am reading up on using those now. Regardless of all that, all the techniques that I've read above seem quite good, but the bottom line is: practice, practice, practice. When I started out, I took a figure painting class taught by Larry Munne. He gave us all some plain old stock heads - about 90mm in size. All I did was paint those faces over and over again - stripping old paint in-between 'attempts' - but you really can't get around this important step of constant practice and experimentation. Once you get good at say 90 or 120mm sized heads, you can move on to 54mm. There's lots of head sets out there now which are not too expensive ( I use resin). I have a number of them on my desk right now to begin my journey into using acrylics.

I hope that helps.

Bart Cusumano

Hey Peridexion,

Was that your Sturmtiger at the Seattle show?

Guday!
Just stumbled into this thread by accident but is proving very usefull.
I am painting a 1/12 scale Bengal Lancer figure by Airfix and was going through a list of basic mixes in a pamphlet put out by Winsor and Newton and it has the following mixes.
Indian red and Raw Sienna
Vermillion and Yellow Ochre
Indian red and Raw Sienna for darker shades.
Some white would need to be added to these mixes to make them right for use.
I lighten with a bit of Flake or Titanium White and darken with one of the browns. I don't like darkening with black.
Dai

The oil mix I use is:
Base - Mars Orange+dab of Mars Yellow+Titanium White
Shade - Mars Orange+Mars Brown
Deep Shade - Brown Madder Alizarin+dab of Purple Madder Alizarin
High - Base+Jaune Brilliant+Titanium White
Light Highlight - High+More Titanium White

I get a really nice caucasian skin tone from this mix.

Verlinden has an easy method. He uses a desert tan Humbrol undercoat (which I also use) and then covers the entire face with a liberal coating of a mix of Burnt Umber and Burnt Seinna. Next, he wipes it off the face with a wide, clean brush until all that remains is a residue and thin acculmulation in the creases. After that he lays in Cadmium Yellow over the main highlight areas. After about 45 minutes, he blends the residue into the Yellow with a stippling motion of the brush. A quick jabbing up and down over the border between the two colors (which is how most of us correctly blend oils). Next is pure Flake White over the extreme highlight areas, which is then blended in the same manner as before. Cadmium Red is used to pinken the lips, checks and tip of the nose. I used this method for a long time. It's easy, only requires a few paints, and doesn't take long to get the hang of.

I have done a lot of large scale female figures that require airbrushing to get the skin right. The "formula" I use is Acrylic.......Titanium white, raw sienna, burnt sienna. simple mix of the three with water or "windshield washer" yes I said windshield fluid for car. This is the same stuff sold as "thinner" by Polly-s, Model Master, Mr. Gunze. You can add some yellow ochre for a "tan effect", red oxide for "sunburn" and alter the three base colors for shadowing. I can paint a golden tan to white skin tones just by altering the mix of the three base colors. I use Liquidtex or Golden acrylics. Small scale miniatures I use oils, Once again I use the three base colors and go with Windsor-Newton oils. The Andrea and Vallejo acrylics are FANTASTIC! especially for airbrushing. Smooth, even, excellent coverage, and the pigment ratio is high! They are top quality paints. R

Bloody hell,you go away for a few days and come back and find that people are still coming up with flesh formulas. All well appreciated.Continuing thanks guys. Now I've just gotta try em all.
Jeff