New guy here...

[Butters]

Hi All,

I am a totally beginner in miniatures and hope you can help me.
I was searching through the net when I found this great site with a friendly atmosphere.

So I am planning to paint my first mini. I found a volunteer, a German machine gunner from WW2.

It is not too expensive, not too cheap. Has all kind of surfaces a painter encounters: cloth (the greatcoat provides a large area), leather, skin (just a wee bit),
and metal (MG 42 if I'm correct). I dont know if it is plastic, or resin. Probably not metal for it is rather cheap.

I was told to use Vallejo model colours for they are fine for a beginner like me. Later I can repaint as (if?) my skills improve.
I need your help which colors I should use. I will of course do my homework on research later on...but right now I am just trying myself.
I will try to take pictures of my progress, so you can comment it where I messed up something big time.

To prime the metal, I still have a GW white can primer. I think it will do the job just fine. I need some practice though.

I will use these colours as per the tutorial for faces - made by Jaume Ortiz - told me:
Brown sand 876
Basic skintone 815
Burnt Cadmium Red 814
Cadmium Maroon 859

With the rest, I have no idea, base colour, highlights, shadows.
I saw some Vallejo paint sets (with 16 colours each) for WW2 Germans and even one for skin tones (with 6? or 8? colours). Should I get one of them?

Thank you for your help!

Csongor

 

[Bad91Fellow]

Hello,
you picked a Tamiya plastic figure. I think its just right for a beginner because it's not too small. I think you should pick the 16 colours vallejo set when you have to more experience with highlights and shadows. But if you want to spend so much money on colours, you can do it. It would not be amiss and they will help you when you paint more german figures in the future.
yours
Lennart

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Vallejo for newbies

G'day Butters,
Good first figure selection.Right balance of size, area, textures.

Undercoating with GW white is very ok. Makes it easier to capture figures light and shade.

Vallejo is very good, and I use it myself. As for colour mixing, etc, Search this Discussion Group, as these uestions have likely been asked, and answered before. However, feel free to ask, 'cause they are really freindly here, and darn helpful.

as for messing up, I like to think of my goofs as "next time, I'll do better".

Just a thought; a question really; how familiar are you with construction & preperation needed for a figure? A good foundation will minimise (or even eliminate) frustrations later?

Cheers
Jamie

 

[vergilius]

Hello newbie !

I'm not into acryllics but there's a master I can recommend; Gino Poppe. I don't know where you're from but he lives in Belgium and can be contacted by e-mail.

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Butters,

Welcome to the Planet mate. As others have said, you've chosen a good figure to start with.

Jamie is absolutely right; take your time with the construction and preparation of the figure before priming and painting. It's much harder to correct a badly joined arm or leg, smooth out rough surface, or scrape away seam lines after you've primed your figure.

The more time and care you take with the construction and surface preparation before priming, the better your paint job will be.

Don't expect perfection first time out. All of us have had our fair share of disasters and we learn more from our failures than from our successes. The important thing is to continue to experiment, ask questions and have fun.

As for paints, I think Vallejo acrylics are fantastic. I use them myself and they are easy to use and provide good coverage. Just remember that the secret to painting with acrylics is to keep your paint thin and build up your colour in multiple thin layers rather than try to cover the area with one thick coat. A ratio of 1 part paint to 2 parts water will keep your paint nice and thin (and make it last longer too).

Good luck and show us some pictures of your Tamiya figure as you go, so we can see your progress and give you some encouragement and tips along the way.

Cheers

 

[Butters]

Hi Guys,

Thank your for your kind words!

Lennart: I was thinkng about buying the set with the grey colours cause maybe later I would have to buy it anyway.

Vergilius: do you have an e-mail address for Gino Poppe? I will try to contact him.

Janus: Here is my plan.
For preparation, I will get a fine sandpaper(?) a sharp hobbyknife to cut the mould lines. I think some putty (and a first aid kit) will come handy if the knife cuts too deep. I will also get a pin vice and get some needles from my mom's cabinet. I should not forget to get an eye dropper too.
I will cut the mould lines and use the sandpapers to erase the remains, then get some putty if I was too eager in the work. Then check if the parts fit to each other.
Next, I was told to wash the parts with soaped warm water to wash off the moisture and fat what my fingers put on them.
Then priming with GW white spray can from a distance of 25-30 cm. I will have to keep my fingers light, because last time (and first time) I primed a figure too much.
This is the last step I went with my first mini yet.

Tony: I'm not sure if it will be good if I use tap water to thin the paint. It contains a lot of stuff that are not needed in painting. Not even worth drinking. Maybe I will just borrow some distilled water from my mom's steam ironer.

Thank you for the advice!
Yours
Csongor

 

[vergilius]

should be
[email protected]

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Construction tips.....

Hello Butters,
with the knife work, check the attached photos in the next reply.....
Jamie

 

[Jamie Stokes]

Knife work, withpics.....

Hello Again,
with your hobby knife, when you go to remove mould lines, put the knife at about 90degrees to the surface,(pic 1) and then angle the blade so the blunt, back edge of the blade is leading the direction of scraping....pic 2.

Hope the pics explain it better then my words.

The reason for this is that you remove small, controlled amounts, less likely to cut your self, and wont leave cutsin your figure.....

It is a sign a of a good craftsman if he does a bit, checks, does a bit more, checks again, closing in steadily on fitting, smooting and prepping all his parts.

As for priming, well, several light coats better then one heavy one, seems you have already discovered that.

Tony is right about the paint set up.

Imperfect practice gets us closer to perfect practice.....

Have fun, and smile when things go not quite so good!!!

cheers

 

[Butters]

Thanks Janus for the pics and tips. Last time I cut the mold lines and almost my thumb too... Scraping with small, controlled amount, it looks like the keyword for me is patience. I wanted to do everything with one move.
I will try priming on spare minis, I don't want to ruin my first serious work on the very beginning.
Now I'm waiting for my mini and paints to arrive to the hobby shop.

cheers,
Cs.

 

[tonydawe]

G'day Butter,

Actually distilled water is perfect to ensure you don't contaminate your paint with crap from the tap. Here in Perth we get quite a lot of iron in the water, which tends to make everything slightly brown and gritty, so I use distilled water when mixing and thinning acrylics.

Cheers