I wish I could paint...

[Hman]

I wish I could have painted these better, the Australian figures are great, my painting isn't.

[martin goddard]

They seem very fine Nobby.
What aspect are you trying to improve.  detail, colour, finish??

Don't forget there purpose in life is to fight wars for you!


Dave does all my painting

[Colonel Kilgore]

I wish I could have painted these better, the Australian figures are great, my painting isn't.

So, what did you try differently this time? And why do you feel it didn't work well? I couldn't immediately see from the photos on your blog what was amiss. Please share those hard-learned lessons!

[Hman]

Well, I used a black undercoat (normally I use white or light grey), which resulted in the main uniform colour being darker than I wanted.  I also tried painting the webbing by dry brushing differing shades - which only worked on some of the figures.  Next time I will use a lighter undercoat, and paint the webbing the chosen colour, with shading/highlighting rather than using that as the main painting method. 

The result is not defined enough for my tastes, it is a 'blurred' if that makes sense?

Lastly I need to find a better flesh colour for the african chaps, any ideas?

[Sean Clark]

First of all they are painted which is a million times better than not painted. Secondly as Martin says, their job is to fight and they will fight just as well as any figure.

As to painting tips.....

1. Basecoat in the main colour. So in this case green.
2. Add bits of detail like flesh the weapon and webbing....though to be honest I don't bother where the webbing can't be seen from table top distances.
3. Wash with either Army Painter dips or Games Workshop washes. I fluctuate between the two.
4. Varnish.

To my eye your figures are perfectly serviceable. For dark flesh tones it depends on if you want realistic or not. Google images is great for reference material. Always go lighter than you think though because from the table top darker colours will be difficult to make out.

The best painting tips I ever heard was paint 1000 figures. Your 1001st maybe close to what you want.!

Well done and keep It up.

[Hman]

Thank you for the encouragement... 

I have never used dips/washes, I will get some and give them a go.

[Stewart 46A]

I use 'army painter' they are quite good

[Colonel Kilgore]

Hman, I agree with (and indeed do) what both Sean and Stewart said.

Perhaps one more thing before the basecoat: i find it important to prime.

I have had good results with Army Painter sprays (you could even use one that is the ultimate base colour, although it's hard to match a paint to them for any touching-up afterwards).

I'm currently using Pasti-kote grey primer e.g.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plasti-kote-400ml-Super-Enamel-Primer/dp/B000TRNADI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1503854212&sr=8-3&keywords=plastikote+grey+primer

which I find covers well (and is in turn easily covered by the top coat: even light colours).

If you want to add another slight level of complexity, you could make your base coat (over the primer) a slightly runny one, which will gather in the crevices and be less prominent on the raised detail. This not only gives a degree of pre-shading (before any washes), but also makes it easier to see the detail on the rest of the figure where you'll be blocking in colour [boots, guns and skin]. If you're going for a green uniform, Vallejo 70924 Russian Uniform is amazingly versatile and thins very well.

And finally, I happily use Coat d'Arms #216 "Negro" for African skin. This can be a bit bland with no washing, but the Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone on top works a treat. I'm sure the Vallejo equivalent would be good too.

Good luck!

Simon

[Sean Clark]

Simon,

The Army Painter coloured sprays are both primer and basecoat in one. Their paints are perfect (their words) matches for the spray paint making touching up easy enough. My experience is that they are a match but I don't know about every colour.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Sean,

Many thanks for this clarification and for pointing out the error in my earlier post!

I had actually meant to cite the Plastic Soldier Company "War Sprays" [equally primer and basecoat in one], which I like but that I've had trouble matching with acrylic paints.

I've not [I know realise...] tried the Army Painter ones, but now that you've educated me (and they have brush-on paints to match) I may well do so!

Apologies for the earlier confusion - we're just spoiled for choice these days!

Simon

[Leslie BT]

For those of you wanting to experiment with washes, rather than buying lots of expensive pots and inks, just try watering down you colour, use a darker shade of the colour being over painted, or just mix a little colour with some varnish. Make sure that the colour and varnish are compatible, i.e don't use oil based varnish with water based colour or visa versa. If you want a warm shadowy finish mix a little Burnt Sienna into the varnish. If you want a colder finish add a little Paynes Grey.
It will take a little trail and error to get the mix right but stick with it.
You will also find that inks, washes and stains work best on a white under coat. Black undercoat is often very difficult to get bright colours to work over with out undercoating the areas for bright colours.

If you haven't seen any of these some are worth a watch this one about under painting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxc9WX2INp4&t=36s

[Sean Clark]

No confusion Simon....i just wasn't sure if you had any experience with Army Painter.

To be honest some of their paint can be a bit thin in pigment. I honestly think you'll do well to find better paints than GW but they are expensive and notoriously bad at drying up on the pot.

I have paints from Vallejo which are generally very good and Coat d'Arms which can be great but again one or two colours have poor coverage.

I do like artists acrylics from time to time but not used any in a long time. In fact in think I painted two 25mm Dixon ACW armies using just artists acrylics over a white undercoat.

[Leslie BT]

Sean moved some of this to a new post on the general discussion page as some viewers may not soee this on the AK47 page as they have no interest in AK47.

Perhaps we should have a modelling and painting page?

[Hman]

Perhaps we should have a modelling and painting page?

Yes great idea. Thanks for all the ideas everyone!