Airbrushing figures?

There are some really good artists out there that are very adept with the airbrush when it comes to figures. 

For me, the airbrush is used to lay down a base colour, first starting with an overall dark tone, followed with a medium, with a final  light one sprayed from directly up top, like it would mimic a light source.  Then I go in with a no.1 size brush for further detail and refinement.

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This is something I'm currently working on - though kind of tried a different approach by relying on a green as the shadow colour for skin tones.  I used the method described above to create three levels of green tones, and then followed with an application of a skin colour over top. 

... and where she's currently at:

regards,

Jack

Hello!

I'd like to add some technical detail to what has been written above (very nice work, by the way - I especially like the face, to be politically correct ).

To do the preshading - painting the recesses darker colour - one needs a double action airbrush, or at least one where you can control paint flow real time, by moving the needle. Fine nozzle would be good, but I have problems defining "fine". We're trying to paint fine lines here - figs are rather small, I'd say. You do that by retracting the needle == letting the paint flow - just a little bit. The less paint you let through the airbrush, the closer you can approach the painted object and the thinner the line you are painting gets. It's good to thin the paint a little more than usual. If you see runs, you're moving the needle too far back.

Before I had that trick in stock, I painted a couple of Space Marines red to start with, and they turned out just fine - sadly my brother sold them off loong before I bought a camera, so no photos this time.

Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks guys.

I found this article on zenithal airbrushing which is what I believe is the technique I've seen being used - www.dakkadakka.com/.../Zenithal_Airbrushing%2C_OSL_and_Snow_and_Ice_Tutorial%2C_subject_-_Grey_Knight

I think though that I'll stick to using my airbrush for undercoats and base coats, I don't have any spare figures to practice on, the 2 I do have to paint I don't want to keep stripping.  I've already had to try stripping one that I painted some 15-20 years ago, which is metal, with Fairy power spray, because it was badly painted, even by my standards, and it was the wrong colour.  Yet to find out how that's turned out though...

I'm not all that confident with my airbrush either, and I'm not sure it works right in the first place, being an el-cheapo airbrush (probably worth about £5, retails for about £10!).  For one thing I had problems getting the paint to flow properly whilst doing the SEA camo on my Jolly Green, and I was using Vallejo model air paints which are supposed to be made for airbrushing without thinning.  Although I've had to buy a replacement of the same model as I broke the nozzle on the original one I had so perhaps the new one will work better...

Very nice figure by the way jgeratic, I can only hope to ever be that good.  I'm guessing it's a large scale figure, if not that's even more impressive.

Yes, the model of Red Sonja is 1/12 scale, but the principals are still the same.  

I checked the zenithal site you had linked, and an important point illustrated in their diagrams is to be aware that the airbrush does create a cone shape spray area - so always keep in mind the angles you are laying your paint down, otherwise you are libel to obscure the shadow areas quite easily.

Again, I don't know which type of paint you will use for brush work, but no.1 size is ideal for detail.  Anything smaller and the paint tends to dry up before you have a chance to touch the model surface - unless of course you are using oils, which takes days to dry.  Make sure it is a good quality sable, it should form a point whenever it is loaded with paint.

regards,

Jack