1/35 German Soldier

Looks great from here, nice job!

Looks great lots of life in the face too.

Very nice painting. How do you like the Vallejo acrylics ?

Regards, Rick

I actually like them alot, very easy to work with, they paint without brush lines and once you learn how to thin them they can make some pretty good shading. I have Tamiya and model master and the andrea paints just brush on better, at least they do for me
Plus the bottles they come in are great, you dont have paint drying out on you.

Looks great miller41. I love the pose on this figure. And his face has lots of character.
Brown jack boots?
How are you going to mount the finished fig? He has enough flair to be a stand alone.

I've been painting with the vallejo paints and have really enoyed the results. If you go to vallejo's website, they have a great tutorial on painting with their model color acrylic paints. (they mfr the andrea line so I'm sure the same principles work)

Used brown on the boots to practice my shading, black is so hard to shade

I am so not sure what to do about mounting him yet, I dont have any bases (doh) so i have to go get one. Any ideas are welcomed:-) I am learning to shade with acrylics and like the fact they clean up easily and dry quickly. I notice that when you magnify something it looks alot worse than it does when you have it at normal vision. I use an optivisor with a 7 and 10 lens, depending on what I am doing and when I finish and put the figure down, it looks alot better than when I have it up close, go figure. I know I won't ever be able to blend as well as with oils, but its a trade off I think is worth it. I will be doing a larger 120 mm figure of a confederate soldier next, so I may use oils on the face.

Ill take any advice or guidence you people have. This forum is how I learn so much.

I think you'll like the acrylics.
Try painting your boots a very dark grey/blue. (For color refereence Tamiya's field blue or Sea blue) as a base coat. Then you can use a lighter grey/blue to highlight and black to shadow or shade. Same works well on black panzer uniforms or leather jackets.

There are some nice premade bases out there and several manufaturers making various sizes and shapes to go with what you'd think show off your figure best. Or you can make your own. I've made them from aerosal can caps, mdf, craft bases, poured plaster or resin into a lid and then after it hardened, cut away the plastic lit and had a nice base. Whatever you think will do the job.

Paint your highlights like you were painting a topographical map with each successive lighter shade being a little smaller in area than the preceeding one. The more "layers" the smoother the transition. Some like to do it in 2 or three layers each way. (highlights and shades) I do it in 4 or 5 for smoother transitions. More work but the payoff is worth it I think.

I've done larger scale figures (120mm) in both oil and acrylic, and the oils make for smoother transitions and blends. The acrylics are harder at that size and you can see the layering easier. A friend of mine that has helped me immensely with my figure work has often said that for bigger figures, oils are better and for smaller stuff the acrylics are the way to go. I'm still bouncing the two off each other and still can't make up my mind. I'm happy with the results of both. Though, I must admit I do prefer oils for faces, regardles of the size. There is just something about the depth you get with oils and the slight sheen works for skin tones. I've been playing with different techniques for doing faces in acrylics and each new experiment is giving me better results, so I may switch soon.

Good luck with this.

I like your reference to doing shading like a topographical map but I have never tried to do one of those on a penny:-) Which is about how large a face is at 1/35 scale. It is fascinating how colors work though, I had never painted before doing this and it is alot of fun. Painting figures seems alot more fun than painting tanks, dont quite know why!

looks good from my house friend!!

I agree with that last comment, painting figures seems a lot more satisfying. I guess because the figure comes to life as you paint it. Tanks at the end of the day are still just inanimate objects. I think because initially painting figures well, is very hard whereas tanks are much less complex in terms of technique particulary fo the novice.

Fantastic job...miller41!

Holy smokes.
I can hardly believe this is 1/35.
Outstanding work.
How long did it take you?

Great work!

Nice work my friend.

I would like to know, what is used to thin your paint?
What are the ratios involved in the thinning?

I too have been using the vallejo line x clusivly but am having trouble getting a realistic look to the skin tones.Are there any tutorials on using this great line of paint for 1/35 faces and hands???

thanks in advance Pat-man

miller41,

Faces can be done (along with alot of other details) as a series of washes. THese can be built up using varying ratios to achieve different values of paint.
My first job after primer, is to lay in the base coats. These start out as 3:1 (water to paint) and are laid on in several coats till I get a nice even base. This may be 2 or 3 coats to achieve what I'm looking for. This covers skin, clothing, accessories. Once done I work my highlights. This starts as a 4or 5:1 then 3:1using successive layers to build up values and tone. Then I do the same for shadows working in the other direction (starting with lightest dark value working to darkest shadow). Its easier to paint dark over light.
I then use a mid tone wash (5:1) to even out the layers and reduce drastic contrast levels between light and dark. A dry brushing of a highlight (4:1-3:1) to give my final hifhlights and I'm done. Washes, if done correctly will bring out an amazing amount of detail on smaller figures and dry brushing can add simple highlights. The target is to give the impression of detail without having to go blind or develop a case of the shakes to achieve it. i.e. a very thinned blue wash on the cheeks and chin will give the impression of a 5 o'clock shadow when in reality we know that its beard stubble. The impression works in smaller scales. Same with dark washes on facial detail. You can get away with alot by using a dark wash. Look at someone standing outside from about 20-25 feet away. How much facial detail can you see? From that distance, outside, with the person squinting in the sun can you see the whites, corneas and pupils of his or her eyes? or do you see dark slits?

This is a 1/35 figure I did using vallejo acrylics and using the above techniques to achieve my results.




Above all, you are off to a great start and with practice, perciverance and yes, some failures you will eventaully achieve great results. Learn from your mistakes and early projects and you'll find that each one gets easier and a little better. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Those look good,keep it up

Great work

Dave