WIP Aquila Bust

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TERRYSOMME1916

A Fixture
Joined
Aug 2, 2016
Messages
1,583
Location
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Next one off the shelf of shame and again this has been left sitting for many years and I have had to go over everything, originally the sleeves where oils over acrylics and had dried out very faded and drab so on this occasion I decided to try using Acrylics over the dried lifeless oils so I am sort of experimenting with this bust as I would like to be able to ditch the oils and start using Acrylics as my main paint, up to now I have ended up with a sheen to on the Red, I have the shadows in place, I will go for the highlights next and then try to do something to gain smoother transitions and perhaps finish off with Matt varnish, anyway it's good watching the tutorials to see how the Acrylics painters do their stuff.
TERRY

ROMANBUST.jpg
 
Looking superb; ditto on the metal effect. Please share how you handled that.

I haven't considered busts, preferring full figure, but I'm getting this one...looks like a brilliant series of castings
 
Sweet! Great start on a beautiful bust. Following with interest.
 
Ok, I'm in,......on the metal works, that is. That metal work looks pretty dang realistic to me.

Giving up oils, may I ask why??:eek: Oilers are becoming a rare bread, sheesh. By way of the dinosaurs we go, I recon, but I'm still in the fight, HA!;)
 
Thanks so much for the kind response to what I consider to be a ram it over the line project, as I mentioned I started this bust maybe 2012 and at that stage I had the Metals looking better than now by using an old technique that I had developed about 40 years ago using Goldfinger (I think it's by Rowney) it's a metalic paste that comes in a tube like oils and the process was to start painting the Metals on the figure first (this is because it involved dry brushing and the sparkles go everywhere) so started off painting the metal sections on the bust with Matt Black Humbrol, then I mixed the Silver from the tube with black oil paint to produce a gunmatal colour, then a small dab of Humbrol satin varnish to act as a binder, once this was mixed I dry brushed it on trying to leave the recesses overlaps of the plate armour free from this so that those remained Matt Black the process was repeated adding more of the silver each time and working away from the darker areas out to the sharp edges in order to leave them almost silver. I then used black and burnt umber oil paints + the small dab of humbrol satin varnish mix applying very small amounts on the tip of a brush into the dark crevasses and dragging this out blending it into the various shades of gunmetal/silver to create subtle transitions, I would have dry brushed Humbrol Silver onto the extreme edges of the armour plates, a similar progess was used for the brass fittings only using Gold goldfinger paste and possibly more burnt umber for the recesses around rivets etc.
Now I just kept working at this until I was happy and when I left it it looked excellent, however I have not got a clue what happened over several years but everything had lost it's effect and the definitions between the dark areas and light areas had disappeared, well let me tell you I used every curse word in the book, made a couple of new ones up and repeated them multiple times over for several hours, but when I eventually accepted what had happened I started to try and revitalise using 3rd Gen AK Metals, Dry brushed and dry dabbed Gunmetal, then natural steel, then silver, went into the recesses with Black and burnt umber oils (no satin varnish in the mix this time) and that's what you see in the picture, if anything it's very grainy now.
Summing up a lot of the guys who paint with oils will tell you not to mess with them as adding this and that can completely change how they preform and react through time and I have experienced this quit a lot with clearing the self of shame and that's why I am going to give learning how to work with Acrylics another go, I don't like deserting the chosen few oils painters society but if I keep throwing tantrums, developing new curse words that even shock me, I will have trouble getting into paradise and more than likely end up in the other place being handed a full set of artists oils by the horned demon.:nailbiting:
TERRY
 
that's why I am going to give learning how to work with Acrylics another go, I don't like deserting the chosen few oils painters society but if I keep throwing tantrums, developing new curse words that even shock me, I will have trouble getting into paradise and more than likely end up in the other place being handed a full set of artists oils by the horned demon.:nailbiting:
TERRY

Hey, Buddy, no worries, do what works best for you, not anybody else. This hobby is supposed to be fun, right? I'll be watching your transition from the sidelines; I'm never going to cross over to that "dark" side, neverrrrrrrrrrrrrr. :eek::ROFLMAO::D

Terry, I may not be understanding you correctly, but you mentioned definition lost over time on prior figures; question being, do you use sealers when finished? I seal all my figures when completely dried. In my curio cabinet every one of them is just a brilliant as the day I finished them. I haven’t experienced what you have described personally.


And hey, once we pass thru the pearly gates you'll be happy with your acrylics and I'll be happy with my oils, simple enough.;)
 
Hi Steve as a matter of interest what sealers do you use and what's your process, Brush or Airbrush, my problem could be all sorts of things just can't get my head round it, I have even considered temperatures, my model room is fairly cold when I am not in it and there is no window to let light in so constantly dark, again unless I am in it, I am putting it down to mixing stuff into the oils that eventually effect there appearance, I only started messing around with new matting agents etc over the last 10 years since coming back to the hobby, before that I only used white spirit and maybe Opal Medium, didn't put the oils onto card to absorb access liquid either and I would say that those old figures are all more or less okay.
TERRY
 
Sorry folks I had set this one to the side to work out how to assemble the head into the hood and fit the face plates either side of the face (all these parts had already been painted years ago) and get all this to fit onto the body, over the years I remember reading posts on PF of others who had completed this bust so it can be problematic, however I just took a flyer at it and had to use a bit of Miliput where the hood meets the rest of the cape etc and touch up some of the parts that got scratched during handing to get them into place with the glue on them but here a a couple of pics, not great quality (my previous Samsung took better pics than this damn IPhone).
I also got sidelined prepping a WW1 German bust and I was away in France and Belgium last week paying my respects to the fallen so hopefully I can get back to my Roman ASAP.
TERRY
aquila1.jpgaquila2.jpg
 
you did a great job Terry, i remember the nightmare it was when i had to fit the head and plates on mine :)
 

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