1/72 Airfix Bf109E-3 (WiP)

Greg

Mike, interesting to hear you  wondered about the first 1:48 109 box you opened too. I didn't think anyone else would ever think that too.  

And you don't have to try to continue to be entertaining, it just comes naturally for you.

 

 

M. Brindos

Okay, for you new guys that are paying attention, I've got a small painting lesson for ya.

 

 

I'm not tenured, but not quite new either and I'm definitely paying attention. Extrememly happy you are doing a step by step on the pilot.

I had to kick myself to remember you are blocking a 1:72 figure here. Egads. 

 

Oh yeah, there is nothing easy about 1/72 figures and I really should be showing you guys in 1/48, but the same processes apply, no matter the scale.

Greg

 

 

M. Brindos

When painting with acrylics you should always keep them thin. The consistency of milk is a good analogy for how thin the paint should be. It will take more time to lay your colors down, but the results are just simply better. :)

 

 

Ok, learning already. I get impatient and lay the acryl down too thick, thought I should be able to do it in one coat. Thank you.

I'm noticing I seem to have patience with many things modeling, but not so much with brush painting. We'll be working on that.

 

Patience is tantamount to figure painting. There is far more than just slapping some colors on and giving it an overall dark wash. That's good to start with, but if you want to give your figures some life, which adds overall to the model itself, then you have to get more involved.

For instance, we don't tear the model pieces off the sprues and haphazardly fling glue all over them just so we can paint and decal before we have to go to bed anymore lol.

Its time we all take figures as serious as the rest of the build. Am I wrong? Lol

M. Brindos

 

For instance, we don't tear the model pieces off the sprues and haphazardly fling glue all over them just so we can paint and decal before we have to go to bed anymore lol.

 

Wait..what?!? 

Glad you're covering figures. I'm thinking my next build is an Airfix 1/72 Wildcat. I think they look ungainly on the ground, but pretty cool flying. So it will need a pilot.

lol thanks, UP lol.

Well continuing on with the figure lessons, I will begin where I left off with the wash phase.

I'll start with an enamel based Black Wash on the insides of the figures arms.

It took several applications to get the shade dark enough to contrast the Blue of the uniform.

I chose my 10/0 brush so I wouldn't overload the area. This way I had more control over how much of the wash settled into the area.

In this final picture you can't see much of a difference. The idea of using a Black Wash in this area was to separate the figures arms from his torso visually.

I chose to use the Brown Wash from the Weathering for Green Vehicles set from Vallejo.

I watered down the wash so it wasn't at full strength. 

You want the wash to separate the shapes. This will help give you a visual for separating the objects later.

You can see how the wash has separated the shapes. Now that I can see the different objects I can paint them all individually as you will see in my next segment.

The next step I took was to paint the two parachute straps between the figures legs. I chose to go with a muted version of German Field Grey by adding some white to the color.

^ Base color

^ White added for mid-tone

^ Hilights (3rd addition of white) mixed and added

^ You have to look closely. I'm stuck using an iPhone and there is no Macro mode. 

Looks like we all have to wait for the rest of this inane tutorial as the pictures are "processing" on Use.com.

I hate waiting. >:?

O KAY. So This process is tedious and I took pictures of most of it until I got to the face. I kinda rolled through that because by that time I had pictures to describe every item I painted.

So instead, because the pictures won't stop "processing", I will just have to go forward with this verbally. LAWL.

***************

I basically used the three tone method I described above with the other items on the figure. When it came to the face however, I did get more involved, but I have a link for how I painted the face. The only difference was that I did the eyes with a really sharp graphite pencil. For the scale it works.

From the basic three tone method I went up to five shades for the face. That is the most important part and where your focus naturally goes to. Make sure you add eyebrows! no matter how well you paint the face, if the figure doesn't have eyebrows it will look off and honestly, a bit creepy lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eHjZwQDSro

Another video that opened my eyes to painting skin tones in general is this one;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rsH9wdaVg

That's another channel that has a ton of great info for figure painting.

I've used these methods personally, and they obviously have not failed me. I will admit this is the first time I've used them in 1/72, but the techniques still prove more than adequate in even this smaller scale.

If there are any specific questions about how I painted my figure, please don't hesitate to ask me. I will provide some daylight picture tomorrow. I really wish I had my old camera again. It at least had a Macro function.

The little guy is looking great! I enlarged the picture and even at 1/72 there appears to be enough room between his nose and lip for a nice handlebar mustache. Something I would do now that you have me painting little guys. Hey, just an idea! LOL!

Max  

Thanks for posting this tutorial, I'm sure getting the pictures to load and writing the description takes much longer than actually painting the figure. I'm looking forward to trying this approach.

Hodakamax

The little guy is looking great! I enlarged the picture and even at 1/72 there appears to be enough room between his nose and lip for a nice handlebar mustache. Something I would do now that you have me painting little guys. Hey, just an idea! LOL!

Max  

 

I have a picture where the Shadow color under his nose looks like a Hitler stash lol. 

UnwaryPaladin

Thanks for posting this tutorial, I'm sure getting the pictures to load and writing the description takes much longer than actually painting the figure. I'm looking forward to trying this approach.

 

I have to apologize for the really horrible pictures with this tutorial. I had such high hopes that I could describe what I do, but most of the pictures are still "processing" and they are horrible anyways. 

I'm going to have to try again with a larger figure. Good thing I have plenty more in the stash to work with.

This little tutorial fell flat on its face. I'm sorry fellas.

Fantastic!  I just decided that my next build will include the pilot figure (my first), so I will be following closely on this.  Do you ever use primer on figures before you start blocking, or just go straight to paint?

Cheers, Mark

Wow, that little guy looks great!

MrStecks

Fantastic!  I just decided that my next build will include the pilot figure (my first), so I will be following closely on this.  Do you ever use primer on figures before you start blocking, or just go straight to paint?

Cheers, Mark

 

Normally I primer first. This one odd time I did not. I dont know why. The paint stuck, so i guess I'm good this time. That Humbrol paint just stuck to the plastic when normally acrylic just rubs off. [/shrug]

Thanks for your intrerest in my crap tutorial. I really need to work on it.  :/

Mopar Madness

Wow, that little guy looks great!

 

Thanks Mopar! As I said above, I really need to work on my tutorial. The painting comes easy to me now, but getting the ideas out where they can be understood kinda got away from me again. 

I've got another idea, but its going to take some serious time to make it work.

Nice step by step tutorial. Like MrSteck I now might try my hand at painting a pilot. WTH if I muck it up I'll just blame the teacher like in HS. And thanks for the shopping tip....Didn't even no HL had a clearance section....

Oh Heck yeah!! I didn't either lol!

DasBeav

Nice step by step tutorial. Like MrSteck I now might try my hand at painting a pilot. WTH if I muck it up I'll just blame the teacher like in HS. And thanks for the shopping tip....Didn't even no HL had a clearance section....

 

I built this kit and it is super nice. BEWARE the canopy instructions will get you in trouble. Assemble the canopy cafefully on the bench and THEN put it on the fuselage. Doing it the way the kit wants will not end well.

Mike, your painting of this little guy is stunning. I am no steady enough anymore to do the small kits like that so I am totally in envy of what you can do here. It is looking very nice.

BK

Hey Mike.  The tutorial is fine for folks like me who have not done figures.  Gives me a place to start.  I have done some gaming figures, but not nearly as detailed as yours. Will check out the links as well.  Your figures are all incredible, so any info you give on your methods is most appreciated.

D

BrandonK

 

 

DasBeav

Nice step by step tutorial. Like MrSteck I now might try my hand at painting a pilot. WTH if I muck it up I'll just blame the teacher like in HS. And thanks for the shopping tip....Didn't even no HL had a clearance section....

 

 

 

 

I built this kit and it is super nice. BEWARE the canopy instructions will get you in trouble. Assemble the canopy cafefully on the bench and THEN put it on the fuselage. Doing it the way the kit wants will not end well.

 

Mike, your painting of this little guy is stunning. I am no steady enough anymore to do the small kits like that so I am totally in envy of what you can do here. It is looking very nice.

BK

 

Thanks for the head's up Brandon. That will probably save me some greif.  :)

ManCityFan

Hey Mike.  The tutorial is fine for folks like me who have not done figures.  Gives me a place to start.  I have done some gaming figures, but not nearly as detailed as yours. Will check out the links as well.  Your figures are all incredible, so any info you give on your methods is most appreciated.

D

 

I've done a few gaming figures as well. Here are some of my favorites;

Nothing major to report. Just found some time this afternoon to thow down some primer.

One more small step forward.

Thank you. It's not a complete coverage though. My can of Rustoleum primer isn't spraying very well and i think the nozzle is slightly plugged. I'll try cleaning it out before I use that can again.

Thanks for reminding me about that. I need to rewrite that again since it was a day where uploading was problematic. I can never seem to get my ideas out properly when it comes to tutorials these days.

I need to make up some diagrams to illustrate my ideas. That always worked better for me in the past. :)

Interesting, Rustoleum for primer?  How well does it work and why do use it?    

It works very well. It lays down flat and doesn't obscure details at all. I have two reasons for using it; 

One is that I can find it almost anywhere, and two , it has the "bonds with plastic" feature which makes it pretty tough when handling because it adheres very well.

You can sand it and treat it like any other primer. You just get a lot more of it to work with in one can lol. I also use it as a base coat for "Black Basing" because it is still technically a paint as well as a primer. Sort of a short cut lol. Hey, less layers are better, right?

Besides the Rustoleum, Krylon makes the Ultra Flat Camouflage series that does the same thing but has a more flat finish, which my acrylics just love to adhere to like stink on ****.

Now this doesn't mean you should just stop using whatever primer already works best for you, but it does mean you have more readily available alternatives should you feel the need to try something different.

Rustoleum, Krylon, and Tamiya are my favorites to work with. All three work beautifully.

I still need a lot more practice with the black base.  That's still something I need to work on.  Excellent job as always!

Toshi

M. Brindos

 

 

ManCityFan

Hey Mike.  The tutorial is fine for folks like me who have not done figures.  Gives me a place to start.  I have done some gaming figures, but not nearly as detailed as yours. Will check out the links as well.  Your figures are all incredible, so any info you give on your methods is most appreciated.

D

 

 

 

 

I've done a few gaming figures as well. Here are some of my favorites;

 

 

 This is intense!

 

Thank you, Toshi!  :D

I do enjoy my figures lol. My wife took those pictures and did the editing. I think she did a fabulous job. :)

Well... It's been a while since I worked on this one, but it was calling to me from the shelf as it sat beside its 1/48 big brother I'm also working on.

I finished up a bit of body work and some few small parts attached that I hope I won't break off later. 

After a round of primer touch ups I sprayed my first color. I decided to use neutral grey as a base and lighten it down to the #31 Humbrol color suggested in the instructions. I'll be doing this with all the colors- starting off too dark on purpose and lightening until I get the proper shade. That will give me my preshading effect with the subtlety I generally prefer.

so here's the first color;

This is a really simple scheme and aside from waiting for paint to cure, should go fairly quick.