Detailing figures, the easy way.

[yb281]

I can`t take any credit for this idea, I read it in Garden Railways magazine about 5 years ago. It was an article by a guy who had won prizes for his detailed figures. These were absolute works of art with incredibly fine painted details like the iris in the figures eyes etc. To be honest, it was stuff that was really out of my league (and eyesight!!). However, he did suggest a quick and easy (if a little bit messy) way of detailing figures with a basic colour scheme.

When I was at the G scale show at Stafford, I found this set of Preiser rural figures on the Back2Bay6 stand at a very decent price and thought they might go nicely in the new farm area I`m developing on my railway. It`s very difficult to beat Preiser on the standards of their modelling, but the way their figures are painted comes in two categories. Some are deluxe models and are pretty detailed. These are also pretty expensive often over £10 per figure. This farm set comes in a fair bit cheaper, but there is no painted detail, just two or three different colours to each person. The standard of the mouldings though is still excellent.

 

[yb281]

So here is what you will need. A tube of burnt umber oil paint, some kitchen towel and a fairly big paint brush (doesn`t have to be a really good one, but it does need to be nice and soft).

 

[yb281]

This seems to be a bit drastic, but bear with .......

Daub the paint on to the figure (I do half at a time to give you something to hold on to). No need to be subtle, just whack it on. Just make sure that you really work the paint into all the "lowlights" like the eye sockets, the sides of the nose, creases in the clothes etc.

 

[yb281]

Then, wipe the paint off with the kitchen towel. Give it a really good wipe around the highlights like the tip of the nose, cheek bones etc., but the paint that`s worked into the lowlights should stay there.



Here`s the finished thing. Notice how the detail is really bought out and the figure becomes a lot more three dimensional, lifting the colours and making them much less flat.



By leaving plenty of paint in the shaded areas (like under the armpits and between the fingers), you get some really nice shadows. Obviously, it also "weathers" the clothing - after all, this bloke is going to be shoveling sh ...... cow muck. Just take more paint off if you want them to have really bright clothing. The oil paint does stain light colours, but you could bring them back by dry brushing them over the highlights.

It wasn`t until I`d painted this bloke that I noticed he was wearing braces (suspenders to our US cousins - suspenders mean something MUCH different to us Brits - and MUCH more interesting    ). I can always paint them in sometime, the oil paint will take literally weeks to dry on plastic, so you can still work with it if you`re not happy.

 

[supagav]

Really nice effect Mel, nicely done!

I use them same kind of thing all the time to get the feel of depth to the detail, just with a wash of thinned paint. It's amazing how a little touch can make such a difference and really bring these things to life.

Great work

 

[yb281]

Really nice effect Mel, nicely done!

I use them same kind of thing all the time to get the feel of depth to the detail, just with a wash of thinned paint. It's amazing how a little touch can make such a difference and really bring these things to life.

Great work

Cheers, like I say, not my idea originally.

I often use the thinned paint method too, but the beauty of this way is that you can continue working the paint for such a long time if you're not happy with it.

If you really want to go for detailing in a big way, there are many military modelling books that provide great inspiration (Francois Verlinden has always been my favourite), but this way is really quick and easy. I did all 6 figures and the barrow in less than an hour.

 

[supagav]

Cool, next time I'm going to try that as we have quite a lot of figures that could use the same treatment!

Just out of interest, what are the military books you suggest? Francois Verlinden? What are the titles if you don't mind?

I'm always looking for sources of ideas and inspiration and would happily welcome any suggestions!

Many thanks

 

[yb281]

Cool, next time I'm going to try that as we have quite a lot of figures that could use the same treatment!

Just out of interest, what are the military books you suggest? Francois Verlinden? What are the titles if you don't mind?

I'm always looking for sources of ideas and inspiration and would happily welcome any suggestions!

Many thanks

Loads of them on Amazon mate. The Verlinden way or Showcase series are particularly good.

Blimey, just noticed the price of some of them!! Don't remember paying THAT much? ???

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=francois%20verlinden

 

[railwayman198]

Thanks for this Mel, it looks very effective. I must give it a try

 

[ge_rik]

Really useful info, Mel - thanks - I can already visualise a few of my figures which will benefit from this treatment.

(suspenders to our US cousins - suspenders mean something MUCH different to us Brits - and MUCH more interesting ).

These you mean.....?

Rik

 

[yb281]

Really useful info, Mel - thanks - I can already visualise a few of my figures which will benefit from this treatment.

These you mean.....?

Rik

DEFFINITELY not what I had in mind mate.

 

[beavercreek]

By `eck Rik that is an image that once seen will never be washed from the brain.......

I think we need to redress (?) the balance here



By the way, the figures are 100% better with that treatment, Mel.
I have used a tube of acrylic paint but it does dry quicker!

 

[Richie]

Fantastic Mel I have several figures that have faded and need re painting might give this ago first .

 

[Zerogee]

Nice pic, Mike.....

The "wash" technique is a staple of model soldier painting, especially for quick bulk jobs to get an acceptable-looking wargame army on the table if you're not an expert painter. The oil paint works great, and your results look excellent, Mel. Some alternatives are a very thin acrylic paint solution (one part paint to several parts water), a pre-formulated wash such as those sold by Games Workshop, brown or black india inks from an art shop, or the excellent "Quickshade" from the Army Painter range (the same guys who do the very useful matt spray paints) - which is designed to actually "dip" smaller scale figures straight into the tin and then leave them to drain off the excess....

The wash, when completely dry, can then be followed by a light drybrush of suitable tone(s) to bring up the highlights if you need to - though seeing Mel's work here I really don't think they need anything else.

Jon.

 

[tramcar trev]

That's a ripper of an idea!!!! I had some instruction from the local wargamer shop and I did the wash over a basic flesh for exposed arms, faces etc and it looks good. I'll try an all over wash on my next batch of passengers....

 

[dunnyrail]

Superb job yb, lots of other great idea's too. Have saved this on my Home Page to come back to when I get around to mass painting of figures.

Quick question, would the Oils dry quicker if left in the Airing Cupboard overnight, or is this not a good thing to do with oils!
JonD

 

[JRinTawa]

I'm in suspenders suspense to see some more work, such and easy way to lift the detail

 

[Gizzy]

suspenders mean something MUCH different to us Brits - and MUCH more interesting

Often known as 'webbing' to us ex-forces chaps!

Nice work btw Mel....

 

[PhilP]

Problem with artists paints (oils) , the figure turns out shiny.
Artists acrylics will give an authentic flatter finish IMHO.
(The wife agrees..she's an artist..I am always corrected when painting!!) :-\

If the wife is the artist, why are YOU doing the painting??
???

 

[yb281]

Superb job yb, lots of other great idea's too. Have saved this on my Home Page to come back to when I get around to mass painting of figures.

Quick question, would the Oils dry quicker if left in the Airing Cupboard overnight, or is this not a good thing to do with oils!
JonD

Not sure Jon, but the whole idea is that you can still work the paint for some time after you've applied it. You can still pick the figures up, the amount of paint left on most surfaces is so little that it makes no difference.