SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

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Shawn Ramsey
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SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Shawn Ramsey »

I have been asked in the past to do a Figure painting SBS, so I guess I will give it a go.

Since this is just a painting SBS I have not taken any in progress build pics.

Even though this is an older set the detail is really good. I did alittle rescribing to sharpen up the detail but not much.

Hornet came to the rescue for a head, and thanks to John Everett for pointing out that a 1/8 drill bit is a perfect size to drill a hole for the head. :D
I used lead foil for the MP 40 sling, Breadbag and map case straps.
A PE Helmet strap was added.
I cut the hands off to hollow out the sleaves.
The ammo pouches were cut into three sections to get a better fit.

The figure comes from Dragon 6131 and will be the guy holding the map. So yes a camo smock
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What I started with.
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Hopefully tomorrow I will get to clean a few things up and get some primer on. After that who knows. :oops:

Shawn
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Steve Hutchinson
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Steve Hutchinson »

Very Nice one and DEFINITELY one to follow,

Well done Shawn, your face and figure painting is top notch :D

Take your time and plenty of photos with explanations, this is what I (we) want 8-)

Just in time for my current GB with too many figures and another frustrating weekend of head painting and back into the alcohol to strip :evil:

I have learned one thing though, don't leave alpine heads in alcohol for too long ,they dissolve :oops:

Waiting impatiently :lol:

Thanks for sharing this one Shawn :D

Steve H
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Raoul Kunz
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Raoul Kunz »

Ohhhh! This will be awesome, this will be awesome, this will be awesome *hopping up and down in excitement* :lol: .

Seriously though: this comes just at the right moment, I'll be doing a ton of figures for my 251/7 C diorama and I'm only halfway happy about my current figure skills ;) .

I'll be following this with the utmost interest :mrgreen: !



Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz
Last edited by Raoul Kunz on 13 Apr 2015, 10:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Rob Matthews
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Rob Matthews »

Sitting back and waiting eagerly.

Rob
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Dario Risso
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Dario Risso »

Raoul Kunz wrote:Ohhhh! This will be awesome, this will be awesome, this will be awesome *hoping up and down in excitement* :lol:
Yup. Jumping up and down right next to Raul :)

Darío

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John Everett
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by John Everett »

Following!
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Shawn Ramsey
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Shawn Ramsey »

Well its time to start. Lets seen how bad I confuse everyone. Trying to explain things is really hard sometimes. That why I love How to DVD's. :D

Lets start with a few things. First I paint with Vallejo acrylics. That's is all I have ever painted with so it is all I know. I also only paint 1/35 scale figures. (so far anyways)

We all know acrylics dry really fast. That's why I love them.

With acrylics you really do not blend colors together. You achieve this by using very thin layers of paint incorporating Highlights and Shadow colors. More to come on this. Confused yet. Don't worry Steve I have taken lots of pictures like you asked. ;)

Lets start with some basic equipment.

1) You really need good paint brushes. I use Winsor and Newton Series 7. The only sizes I use are 2,1,0, and 000. I only use these brushes to paint figures. Every once and awhile I will use them to paint small detail on armour but not very often. I keep a crappy paint brush to mix my paints. Don't use your good paint brushes for mixing the paints.

2) Still talking about paint brushes smaller is not better. I seldom use the size 000. I don't even think I used it so far on this figure. Since acrylics dry so fast you really can't keep enough paint on this small brush. If you don't believe me just give it ago. I have read about this before but until I really started painting figures I did not believe it. The majority of painting I did on this figure so far was with a size 2 and I did use a size 0 on a few of the small Shadow colors. Again this is why we invest in good brushes with a fine point.

3) You need a good brush cleaner to keep these brushed in good shape. I have only been modeling for a little over 5 years now but these brushes are the original ones I bought.

4) Use distilled water to mix your paint. Why- Well I don't really know but that is what all the great figure painter use :oops: . A gallon only cost around $1.00. :D

5) I don't use a wet palette. It just does not work for me. I have a problem with the wax paper tearing. Instead I use small paint by number containers(pic to follow). The benefit to this is I have keep the paint in them for over two months and it was still good to use.

Though out this tutorial I will make reference to Highlights HL and Shadows SH.

Here are some reference pics I have.

If you don't have the Oliver Kovacs DVD IMHO it is really good. Shows you how the blending works with acrylics. It does get a little boring at times but it is still great.

The Paint Guide figures is really good although editing was kind of poor. A Lot of the paint numbers and colors don't match up. I have included two pics out of this book

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Here is a pics if the supplies I used. I have already mentioned some of them above.

Beside paint and water the only other things I use are Tamiya X-21 Flat base. You just mix a little in with your paint then it will dry matt instead of glossy that you sometimes get with Vallejo paints.

I use Vallejo 596 Glaze Medium in my shadow colors.

Last but not least the wooden handle is a Jewelers Vise. This is what I use to hold my figures when painting.

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Here are a couple of pics for discussion only out of the figure book.

The first one shows you were the HL and SH should be painted. The shadow is the red color. :roll:

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The second pic shows you how Highlights and shadow colors are supposed to come together. You will see later on how each of my colors change very little as I paint(sorry for the poor pic) :roll:

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Last edited by Shawn Ramsey on 15 Apr 2015, 13:35, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Shawn Ramsey »

Lets talk about mixing paint. For my base I start with 50% paint to 50% water. As I progress with the HL I use about 40%paint to 60% water. Here is an example of the consistency of the paint. Should have done this on plastic card instead of paper. What I am trying to show you is how thin the paint really is when I paint the HL and SH.

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A couple more Items then we can get started with the painting. I only use the paint containers for the paint colors that I need to use through out the whole project. Items I only need a small amount of paint for will just be mixed on a paint palette or if I am being lazy just a plastic paint. In this example I used the plate just for the painting of the eyes.

Another trick I have learned we all know once you dip your brush in the paint there is excess paint that has to come of. I don't like to use a paper towel for this because generally to much paint is removed. Instead I use a piece of paper or index card. I brush the paint brush against the index card to remove the excess paint plus this gives me a fine point on the brush to start painting.

I also like to use a hair dryer to speed up the drying time.

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I think we can start now. I know some of you are saying its about time :D

Black ammo primer applied. It really does not matter what color primer you use. I use Gray or black but choose black this time because of the next step I'm going to show you.

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Next up Steve H. Reminded me of something Calvin Tans does. The head was dry brushed using White 951. I have never tried this before but I liked how it really shows the eye detail. Plus it gives you a good idea on where the HL will be even though this will all be covered up soon.

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More soon. Its taking longer to blog this than the painting itself. :lol:

Shawn
Last edited by Shawn Ramsey on 15 Apr 2015, 04:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Shawn Ramsey »

lets talk the eyes. You really don't need to paint eyes in 1/35 scale but I do. If you choose to do so make sure they are small and don't have the Deer in the head light stare.

The eyes are 951 with just a small amount of red mixed in. You don't have to be real careful at this point. apply 3 to 4 coats. Then using 822 paint I line the upper eyelid and paint the pupil. I just paint a straight line down the middle of the eye. Just make sure it is centered if your figure is looking forward. In another pic you will see where I applied a small dot of blue paint over the pupil.

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Base color 20 drops 876 8 drops 804. A small amount of X-21 was added and this was all mixed 50% paint to 50% water.

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This pic just shows what the face looks like after one coat of the base color.

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Finally after 4-5 coats the base color is applied.

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The next step to to start the HL. I transfer some base color paint to the right and add just 1-2 drop of 955 and about 2-3 drops of water. This is your first HL. See what a small color change I want to happen.

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First HL are applied to the face. I apply 4-5 coats of each HL color. At this point there is not much change.

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Next HL is mixed the same way. Each time taking paint from the last HL color you used another 1-2 drops 955 and 1-2 drops water this time.

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Again applying 4-5 layers working in a smaller area as your last HL.

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For the 3rd HL I now add 815 instead of 944. 1-2 drops of paint and water.

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4-5 coats of paint over a smaller area.

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Shawn
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Re: SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

Post by Shawn Ramsey »

After about three HL I like to move into the shadows. After the shadows are done I will go back to the HL to blend everything together and add lighter shades.

Again just like the HL I transfer some of the base color to a new cup on the left. This will be the start of the SH. Here I add 1- 1 1/2 drops of 814 and 4-5 drops of Vallejo Glaze medium along with a few drops of water. I want the shadow colors to be even more thin than the highlights. For the armour modelers here this step is like adding filters to your model.

Again you want very subtle changes in the color. another 4-5 coats are added to each SH color. The darkest SH will cover the least amount of space.

Remember as you progress to mixing the color each time I move from one cup to the next I am transferring the paint from the most recent HL or SH color.

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2nd SH color using another 1 to 1 1/2 drops of 814 with 1 - 2 drops of the glaze medium 596. Again the pics show gradual changes in the color.

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I also forgot to mention HL and SH are being added to the neck.

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SH number 4 1- 1 1/2 drops of 814 and the same for 596. I really hope by now you all see a pattern here. :roll:

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For the next SH since I will be using such a small amount for the next SH colors I just take some of the darkest SH color and put some on my paint pallet. There I mix the smallest amount of 822 to get a dark brown color. This is placed in the deepest shadows such as under the mouth, eyes, chin , around the hair line extra. The next pics shows the darkest shadows so far along with some small amount of the HL to start blending everything together.

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That's as far as I have got.

I'm sure your all lost by now. Sorry if you are. 8-)

Shawn
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