SMJmodeler wrote: |
O.K. lets talk about those figures at 1:35. I'm sucking wind in that department, how the heck do you detail a face? I've seen some amazing work and cannot seem to get anywhere close. I feel lucky to get a nice flat flesh and a hair color right...forget shadows, beards etc...any ideas/resources? I do pretty well on the clothing with lightening and darkening the main colors and drybrushing. Do you use oil washes/ pastels on them? -SMJmodeler- |
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Hey SMJ--it's a couple days since your last post, and in that time I've seen your photo's in your latest "check these out" post--really, your figures are not at all bad to be honest!! At least you put the effort into attempting them; I think they're vital to give a proper sense of scale, but I KNOW how intimidating they can be, and are to a lot of guys! I have to admit myself that every single time--without fail--that I sit down to start a batch of figures, I have a moment of sheer panic and doubt, and worry that I'll never get this or that one to look "real"!
I really have to have a stiff shot, and get out some of my better figures for inspiration and confidence.One thing: the QUALITY of figures is really important--the older Tamiya figures are the hardest, because the features are so soft and ill-defined. Resin faces with sharp details are naturally the best. DML's are pretty workable though, and I must STRONGLY recommend a thingy called an "Optivisor"--a magnifying set of glasses that you wear on your head available thru SQUADRON or MICROMARK. This is so helpful!!!--it effectively "blows up" the face; I really believe that it really helps be able to see the details in a larger scale in order for them to translate in scale.
Then I just dig in. I used to use oils to paint them, and this is really the best way, as the oils enable a degree of subtlety that's hard to achieve with acrylics. But the problem is that the pigments of white oil paint tend to re-absorb into the coats beneath them; I once dismissed this as a myth, until I reexamined my collection and noticed that the figures which were older than say, 6 months(?) seemed too dark, and lacked the vibrant highlights. Other modelers may debate this--fair enough, but to me it seems to be true.
I now use fine artist's acrylics; the kind ya get in a tube. I mix only two colors--white and raw sienna as a base, and might dab in a gnat's poop of ochre yellow for warmth. Recently i've started to use oils--raw umber, raw sienna, etc--for shadows and shading, but the acrylics work too. When everything is dry for a few days, I'll add highlights in acrylic white/ochre yellow. I then do eyes(the hardest part) and lips. I will occasionally use pastel black t simulate a grizzled beard on someone that I want to portray as grizzled, a vet, or particularly aggressive (like an "Ivan") There's been a thread on this latel; a lot of guys will aver that this is generally inaccurate; I come down on the side of artistic expression. I think it conveys to the observer that sense of "saltiness" or fierceness that may enhance the model itself, and modeling to me is an artistic passion, not necessarily a technical pursuit--but to each his own! You gotta be real subtle with the pastel though; I usually apply it, and then wipe most of it off,( it comes off the high points) so that it almost looks like yu drybrushed with face color.
I've tried using washes--depending on the quality of the molding, it can give you "lowlights", and I'd say "try it", you may like it's results; I haven't really embraced it. (I HAVE used washes on some nude figures I did and it worked great as a starting point; with a little bit of tweaking and "erasing", they look great!(almost TOO good! )The bottom line is YOU HAVE TO PRACTICE!! I use the smallest brushes I can find, and even then will modify them by cutting the bristles out until literally only 4-5 remain. The Optivisor is a big help, and I do a lot of research with other high-quality armor modeling mags like FSM (of course!), ARMOR, STEEL MASTERS and MMIR. The works of the masters in those pages can teach you a LOT! Well, good luck on your next figure! Hope this helped ya, and here's two guys you might recognize?