Thanks Brian but I can't do that and I sure would like to. He has my IP addy blocked because I questioned his expertise and made him mad. Silly Me

He has me and about 100 other labeled  as BOZOs

Tony Lee

~Hi Tony~ Glad your on the warpath to getting this right, Buddy. Looks like  this wasn't the greatest detailed head to begin with--nowhere as good as those killer Hornet heads you sent off for--they are so much better sculpted, it will paint itsef(practically) by comparison--that and /or that Lifecolor basecoat was applied to thickly--I know you know how to paint, but its crritical to apply that base in very thin layers to save every detail completely---that way after its cured up the wash will have some details to flow into. If done right the head with just a wash should look really good--just not have a life-like skin-tone...like :

This is that Custom Dioramics head, with the Tamiya base mix, and  a couple oil washes, 1st a Burnt Sienna wash, then  after an hour or 2 --some gentle downward brushing to remove the excess from the tops of features, then a Vandyke Brown wash(in the deep recesses of the face) and wait, and remove a bit of excess.

P.S. Vinnie banned you!! -lol- well, that proves he has no idea whos cool.

Pvt Mutt

Thanks Brian but I can't do that and I sure would like to. He has my IP addy blocked because I questioned his expertise and made him mad. Silly Me

He has me and about 100 other labeled  as BOZOs

Tony Lee

Ah, ok Tony.  Sorry to hear (and anyone that would call you a bozo probably ain't worth the photons of electricity he has posted anyways. )

If you like to use artist oils you could also try this method in the future:

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/painting/9629-tyz-guide-figure-painting.html

The figure in the above tutorial is 1/16, but the concept can be applied to 1/35...I know because I am trying it out right now on a spare 1/35 figure I had from a Tamiya kit.  So far I like the results I am getting, but because of the dry time invovled with artist oils it is not for everyone.  One thing in the above tutorial I would alter is instead of "painting" on the brown base you can probably get away using a real heavy wash instead.  But either way it is a pretty neat way to approach figure painting.

Brian

~Brian~ That's a pretty good looking way to do it--those would be nice results if  on a 1/35 head.

Happy to hear you're moving forward with your figure skills man, but  Tamiya heads/figures....well... I did it too... practiced on them and I don't think it's doing yourself any favors--the detail is just not there .    I resisted spending $$ on resin replacements for a time...but they are so much more convincing, easier to get good results with, and enjoyable to work with.....by now I have a whole collection and swear by 'em.

Hey Indy,

Yeah, I am not kidding myself about how great the Tamiya figs are.  The only reason I used it was because I thought "Hmm, I want to try that method out".  So for a test bed I figured the Tamiya was good enough since it was already paid for.   It isn't going with a build, and surely not any kind of contest piece.  If all goes well (as so far I think it is) then I have some decent Dragon figures I may do some more practicing on.  There are some larger scale busts I want to pick up and paint at some point.  But I want to fiddle with this method for a bit before I start moving on to the expensive stuff.

Brian

Thanks Brian that guy did a nice job and looks really good to me.

Only thing 1/35th is a whole new ball game I think.

Tony Lee

PS: you mentioned time. I've got plenty of tank work to do while things dry so waiting on a figure is no big deal.

Oh and btw i've got a big bottle of Simple Green that will correct mistakes in short order.

While it is requiring a bit of a steady hand overal it has not proven to be quite as hard as I thought it would to drop it down to the smaller scale.  Since we are talking about it here are some quick photos of the current project (and I apologize if this is a hijack of your thread):

I am not 100% sure I got the eyes right....they seem a bit big.  I also tried a wash on the jacket which I went in with dry brushes to blend down but not quite sure I like how that turned out, but since I just did it I am putting it aside and looking at it tomorrow morning with fresh eyes (I notice that sometimes something that did not think was 100% good when working looked better the next morning.)  Thankfully the oils dry slow enough that tomorrow if still not 100% to my satisfaction I can probably get most of it off with mineral spirits.

Anyways, it is not as difficult as you may think.  A steady hand and a little patience is all that you need (and from what I have seen you have both!)

Brian

The color tones look good. The eyes do look a little large but I think what makes them not so natural looking is the left iris is a little lower than the right making them look that way.

Tony Lee

Heh heh, yeah now you mention it he looks a bit like he has the old lazy eye going.   The tough part seemed to be getting both the right size.  I see Archer transfers makes water slide transfer eyes....I just wonder how crazy a decal that small would be to work with!   I'll fiddel around some more with the eyes and see what I can do.  I think going in with some white/paynes grey and getting the eye smaller then going in with some base brown a the bottom of the eye to reduce it a bit may do the trick.  This is why I was using the spare Tamiya....if it all turns out bad I have no problem chucking it.

Brian

Edmond tried those eyes and said they were to big for 1/35th. Just to let you know.

Tony

Figures are darned hard to paint.  I consider this one to be my best, and merely a happy accident that it turned out so well- It's a 1/8 scale resin sculpture of Wonder Woman-  I am really not interested in trying another similar project, because I don't think I could top this!

WOW CC I don't blame you kinda like quitting while you're ahead so to speak.

Tony Lee

After running around town and buying some figure painting supplies I didn't have, I applied four very thin coats of base flesh on the hands. Not much to show huh?

Tony Lee

Tony, thanks for the heads up on the Archer eyes.  Saved me a little cash there!

As for Little Tony, I think your on the right track so far buddy!  It does not look that bad at all!

Brian

~Yeah Edmund sent those Archer eyeballs to me! He gave up on them pretty quick---I asked him to send me a sample to see what I can do with them--and he sent the whole thing (such a great guy!)  I haven't yet messed with them but I'll give it a shot and update here. The thing is with them...is that they are indeed 'balls'--they have to be precision cut (it's TINY!) to fit into the particular eye-slit sculpted into your figure's face--the one good thing is that silvering will finally look good for once. Maybe it's possible to sort of 'carve 'them into place on the face, but its no magic bullet to good eyes it would seem.   

   Brian--The 'ball-shape' is the problem I see with your head there- (as already noted the eyes aren't quite a match) (His left eye is pretty good) but the thing is we never see a whole round circle of an eye on anyone----the roundness needs to be chopped-off top & bottom to a more 'almond-shape' 

 Cool thing with oils is  after making sure

~~ your eye-area is dark to start,

 ~~you can go placing some off-white in the eye-area,

~Then...you can place about a printed period worth of near-black at the desired position of the pupil and then scrape across the top& bottom with a splintered toothpick to take off the top and bottom(with oils you can even wait til it's dry to avoid ruining the part you want to save) 

This figure is farther along on my near-by thread, but this pic shows the eyes pretty good

~Tony~ Man I think the best thing for that figure is just keep experimenting  with it--it was an experiment from the start--or pick up another and try it--you'll have a better time when those new heads arrive!

That guys looks like the sergeant in Pvt Ryan. Tom Sizemore was it?

Tony Lee

That's the word Tony--that he was sculpted to be "Mike" the Sergeant from S.P.R.

I guess really for that you'd want the 'RANGER" insignia set, huh?(he had the diamond shape moulded onto his shoulder and I killed it)

Tony: he looks good to me so far, you just need to add the highlights to his face.

Chuck: wow, great job on Wonder Woman!

NH: looks good!

I hate doing eyes. Shep Paine says since at the range you're looking at most figures the whites of the eyes will blend into the flesh tones of the face he doesn't paint the whites of the eyes at all. Over time I've noticed that most people expect it so now I do it using ivory rather than white. I don't even try to do the iris just dotting the center with a small tip Micron pen in black.

Sorry Gamera, i've been running around the net finding different peoples techniques and printing them off. Yeah i'm about to start on the shadows and highlights.

Ordered some Hornet heads Wednesday afternoon from Tankrat and they arrived this morning(Friday). Holy smokes,those are really nice,the detail is outstanding.

Tony Lee

Gamera

 I don't even try to do the iris just dotting the center with a small tip Micron pen in black.

Hey, now that is an interesting idea!  Thanks for th idea Gamera!

Brian

Gamera

Paine says since at the range you're looking at most figures the whites of the eyes will blend into the flesh tones of the face he doesn't paint the whites of the eyes at all. Over time I've noticed that most people expect it so now I do it using ivory rather than white. I don't even try to do the iris just dotting the center with a small tip Micron pen in black.

Of course the hobby hasn't gone anywhere since Shep Paine and he's right about everthing-but----The range we are looking at the figures here shows if there are eyes or not or if they look real or goofy, --especially zooming the photos to 3 or 4 or 5 times the original size. What he said is true if your talking about looking down at a table with a 1/35 th scale scene on it but totally doesn't apply to the way we photo figures and dioramas and view  them. Of course, he probably wrote that before there was an internet. I just know a flesh colored blur doesn't cut it for me----you dont need perfectly painted eyes, but  some white in the corners(or even one corner of each eye) goes a long way.

Indy: I'm not going to argue with you and I'm not advising anyone on not painting the whites of the eyes. I apologize for not being clear. What I meant to say is that back when I started modeling in the '80s the Paine book was widely available so I picked up most of his ways of doing things. Modeling has changed a great deal since then and I'm trying to learn new stuff like pre-shading, dot filters, etc. That's one of the major reasons I've been following this thread since I've been hoping to learn new stuff from you as well as others on the FSM forum,

As I said most people these days do paint the whites and I've been doing it for some time now as well. As you said the figure doesn't really look right if you look at it closely or photograph it if you don't paint them in.

In fact Paine's section on painting figures is entirely devoted to oils, I've been using acrylics for years now. So sorry about my rambling about the 'good old days'.

Got my Archer German Panzer uniform decals this morning and all I can say is i'm sure glad i've got an Opti-Visor.

Tony Lee

OK guys and gals am I headed in the right direction with this?????

Thanks for looking

Tony Lee

~~Yeah Tony--

He's coming along. have you got the oils out and tried the highlight blending yet?

I just finished getting the oils I needed Saturday Adam and looking for advice as to what it needs before moving on. Some say go on to highlights others say more shadow in the creases of the face.

I was going to mix the oil flesh and start in but I will wait out the rest of the day before I do anything.

Tony

Tony, he is looking real nice buddy!  Not bad at all for a first go!

Brian

I feel like I made some good progress today and i'm as happy as if I had good sense.

I mixed up an oil flesh formula that I found on the internet and followed the instructions as how to cut it for shading and by gosh it didn't come out half bad to me.

Unless something comes up i'll be starting on the uniform next.

Thanks for the comments and for coming by to check on the project.

Tony Lee

First figure my butt Tony, your a ringer ain't ya!  Been doin this a while already, right?   Seriously buddy, I think you have it nailed!  Good on you and now you have no excuse to not include more figures with your builds!

Brian

SHHHHsssssss don't spread that around man how else can I get all those at-a-boys if people knew?

I'm putting myself through all this just so my SPGs look finished for a change.

Thanks Brian you're one of the nice guys in my book.

Tony Lee