Painting 1:48 scale figures....

Practice is all it takes, I think, Jeeves. Prime them, then just go for it. Some people tend to do 'skin out', i.e. painting the skin then the various layers of clothing, some do the other way. Fine brushes should do the trick for most of the painting. At that scale, lots of details should not be necessary: look out at real people and see if, at equal size, you can see their eyes and much else. Probably not. So paint the skin in fleshy tones, then once dry, apply a wash with a dark redish brown (Burnt Sienna). Then apply a bit of lighter flesh tone with the drybrushing technique to get the 'high' points of the face to stand out some more (forehead, nose, shin, cheeks).

Same technique with the clothing, really.

Good luck.

Hey Jeeves,

I start off painting the whole thing black, usually lacquer. I then use enamels to build up the colors of the face. I'll put in the main colors and add the highlights as very well-defined streaks or lines or whatever is appropriate in a given area, and build it up a bit.

Then I use a technique that's not unlike drybrushing; I dip a good sized round into some enamel thinner and wipe it off, leaving the bristles slightly damp. I then whisk back and forth across the face. The small amount of thinner left on the brush will blend the stark highlights into the main color for a nice smooth graduation of tones. This takes alotta practice!

For the uniform, I'll start by drybrushing the appropriate colors (I use the old Polly-S paints for clothing as it's a bit more matte than most paints) and I build up the main color of the garments, leaving the areas of natural shadow black. Then I'll go in with a few lighter shades of the base color for highlights and touch up shadows with black pastel.

Finally, I go back in with earth tones (pastels) in the appropriate areas. (Boots, lower trousers or wherever it'll look good.)

This is a 35th figure, but I've used the same techniques on a 48th figure as well.



Sorry for the slight fuzziness on the photo. But I think you can see the results fairly well!


Fade to Black...

Wow!! Nicely done!!! Thanks guys-- you both have given me something to think about!! I have 5 figures coming in my Lanc and I want to make sure they look good :)

Thanks, Jeeves and no prob; we're here to offer any tips we can.

Good luck! (And lets see the results!)


Fade to Black...

It'll be a while...but I will try ;)

Well the only tip I can give you is to eat something before you paint. I know it sounds stupid but you will be alot less shaky when you paint.

to help steady your hands when painting such small areas, have them both braced against the table edge or something solid, including the hand that is holding the figure