well, here's a very stupid question....

well jim, guess i'll be the first reply. everyone has their own way of painting flesh but its all "pretty much" the same. i found a book at my local hobby shop by francois verlinden called "the system" vol. 1 figure painting. i cant tell you how much this book has helped me in my figure painting especially the flesh tones. so i scanned my copy...i hope this works and i hope this works 4 ya. its invaluable to me!

but like i said, you'll probably get 6 different answers. hope that helps!

Howdy Jim ...

First off, it's not a stupid question ... anyone that tells you that they never asked it is a liar!

Check out my OIF Figure thread about my 120mm figure. The first post will walk you through the painting of the face. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the FSM book, "how to paint realistic military figures" ... osprey also has a good book, "modelling and painting figures". However, any good figure/ modeling book should walk you through the steps.

I like the FSM book, b/c it takes it a step further. It takes you through the steps using enamels, acrylics (my preferred), and oils. It talks about the advantages and dis advantages to all.

But, to try and sum up your question (per how I do it) .... First, I would apply a couple of coats of you base color, at least two coats. Then, I go back over it with a darker version of the base color using a wash. Then, I darken the base color again, and using a fine 000 brush, I purposefully pic out the "dark" spots. Best way to do this I've found is to take a black and white picture of the item you're painting and go from there. Then, I go back with a lightened version of the base color for the highlights. Of course, making sure that all these shades are blended as we go. I typically do the eyes (120mm only) after the highlights. The steps are pretty similiar for all scales. Just in the larger scales you have to be more careful of blending and detail work.

One thing to keep in mind is that a 120mm represents a real person at about 10'. A 1/35 figure represents a real person at about 20'. Keep this in mind when you start thinking about how detailed you want to get. How much detail can you REALLY see at 10' ... at 20'.... Just think about it.

Also keep in mind that everyone here has there different tricks. I like to learn by the book, and then test new ideas out branching off those methods.

Best way to learn is to just get to it. Go buy a GI JOE figure if you don't want to test on your actually build. It's cheap, and you can use it as a test-bed for other things as well.

Just my thoughts....