painting 1/48 figures

Much of the expresson comes from the sculptor and that's just there in 1/48.  Most 1/48 figures I've seen have been as adornments for aircraft, rather than stand alone figures. Eyes are very difficult in 54 mm (1/32) and would be extrememly difficult in smaller scales, but I have seen it done. You need top notch artist brushes, good paint (Vallejo or Andrea are the best acrylics) and a very steady hand.

That said, there's only one way to improve on figure painting, Practice.

Why not post what you've done and ask for advice?

thanks for the advise, i really would be ashamed to post any pics of my ugly atempts to make the face of my pilots, why dont you please tell me what would be the best process to paint a 1/48 pilot for example, how do you start painting? first the base color and then the shadows or how should i begin? by the way, i use either gunze zangyo or else tamiya colors. i hope you can help me out

regards

Hector.

First, don't even try this with Tamiya. They don't work with brushes, 20 years ago, yeah, but this formulation is pretty much useless for figures.

I start with a base flesh color, Vallejo beige red works for me. For a darker skin tone, I might add a bit of Andrea Games charred flesh. I then do the eyes with Andrea light flesh for whites and a tiny drop of blue, green or dark brown for the iris. I don't worry too much about the size at theis point, since they will be retouched with flesh at the next step.

I recently learned to look at the face in a mirror to check the iris alignment, and it works.

For 1/48, you might just do an oil wash oif van dyke brown later on, since the eye is so small, just the slit will work.

Next, I do my first shadows with a darker flesh mix, base color with more charred flesh or Andrea leather brown. This goes in the frown lines, under the chin, in the ears, along the hair line, very carefully at the sides of the nose, under the lip, in the hollow of the cheeks,  in the cleft below the nose, in the eye sockets and long the edges of the adam's apple or any musculature in the neck.

Now to a first highlight by mixing the base with either sunny skintone or light flesh. This is along the edge of the chin, along the top of the lips, the ridge of the nose, at the highpoint of the cheekbones, top of the ears, to top of neck musculature and adam's apple and along the ridge above the eyes.

A second, darker shadow in the depeest recesses is next.

Final highlights with straigh light flesh at the tip of the nose, highpoint of the adam's apple, the chin and along the ridge of the forehead.

The lips get a slightly reddish base color.

Using oils, you could get by by mixing titanium swhite with burnt sienna in varyiong degrees to get just about all the tones you need. A wash in the eye sockets will give you adequate results, especially for your scale.

For everything except the base color which might be done in a #1 or #2 brush, I use a #18/0 liner. The iris is usually done with a cocktail style toothpick sharpened to a fine point.

For a tutorial on layering acryilics go to http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/ the choose "Model color" from the drop down menu and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Hi Hector,

There was a great thread not so long back which will give a few good tips for you. I'll try and post the link in.

http://www.finescale.com/FSM/CS/forums/637972/ShowPost.aspx

Rich

I am going to be starting to paint my 1/48 pilot for the Corsair I am building now. I will post some pics when I do

Bud

If you look at the thread entitled 'tips for painting 1/72 figures' below, you'll find a number of techniques which can be usefully applied to 1/48 figures.

Cheers,

Chris.

thank you guys for your help, tomorrow i am gonna pick my set of vallejo paintings that i got, and after that then i can start working on the figures, i have read and learned a lot, lets see how it goes in the practice, until then thanks a lot, will keep you informed. By the way, is really vallejo acrylics the best paint for figures?

thanks in advance

Regards

Hector.

mandrake wrote:

By the way, is really vallejo acrylics the best paint for figures? thanks in advance Regards Hector.

IMHO, yes. They only competition is artist oil. vallejo (and its twin, Andrea) were formulated to do figures, other paints are have different qualities.the pigment is super fine, allowing for better control and a smoother finish.

For a tutorial on their proper use, go to http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com then choose "Model color" from the drop down menu and scroll to the bottom of the page for their excellent, printable tutorial.