painting detail lines and details in general

[wilber]

Hi Folks, this is my first post here, as I was sent over from the finescale forum.

I am a military modeler with 30 years experience, and have also been a half decent artist in oil paints in my life. My problem is that when I build a beautiful model, I dread painting the figures. I feel figures are necessary to give scale and add to the overall look in 1/35th scale mostly, and when done right look great

How do you for instance paint the red line on a German officers cap along with the silver details. I find that I have to constantly go back and forth because my cut ins keep going over the other color (its maddening), and I'm quite patient.

I always use good red sable w&n artists brushes and oils.

I recently completed Trumpeters 1/35 BR 52 Locomotive and its spectacular. I'm doing a set of about 8 figures for it, including two German officers.

Any tips on detail painting without going over what you already painted are greatly appreciated. Oddly enough I have little trouble with faces or flesh tones. I've also done a couple of 120mm Verlinden figures that were much easier for me. So my questions are for 1/35th scale figure detail

Thanks Guys

 

[Sambaman]

Wilber, first of all welcome! Good to see you over here.

Secondly, those pesky little detail lines. I'm an oils man myself, so I hope I can be of some help. For fine detail, I first start with one of my smallest and sharpest brushes. (Maybe that goes without saying!) I always use oils for work like this and this is why, the slow drying time means I never really make a mistake! I work on a small area at a time, not using too much paint on the brush (most of the paint is worked out of the bristles before I move to the piece, I usually let this be the time I "twirl" my bush on my palette right before moving over to paint to get a nice point on the bristles). I keep my thinner close and as I move forward I constantly go back and touch-up my line with the brush cleaned and just slightly damp with thinner (be careful, too much thinner and it will drop into the nooks and crannies like a wash and take some of your new paint with it, a reall mess as I can imagine you know). I NEVER thin my oils while I'm working, so they remain "tube" thick and plyable. This allows me to keep the amount of paint I'm picking up to a minimum and helps me work small stretches at a time. Paint - clean-up, paint - clean-up.....you ge the picture. Patience and more patience, it's not an issue of time, but quality! Keep it up, you'll ge the hang of it! Let us know if you have any other questions. I hope my little rant is of some help.....

Oh, and one more thing, that's just the base coat/midtone, don't forget to go back and do it again with your highlihgt color!!!!! HA!

Jay H.
OKC

 

[wilber]

Thanks Jay,

Although I use oils for skin tones I have never used them for details like the red line I mentioned (for instance). I will try the details with oils.

I have always used Testors MM enamels and less frequently Tamiya acrylics for uniforms etc..

Appreciate the tip,

Wilber

 

[jjgurk]

Wilber, Welcome to the planet. So you are also a glutton for punishment like myself and built the BR-52! I'd really like to see how you made out with it. There are some photos of mine on the v-bench. That said, and unlike Jay, I thin my oil paints when painting the fine lines. Not heavily thinned, mind you. I lay the oil paints on my pallette and dip the brush into the thinner then gently dab it into the paint so that the consistency is almost like that of an acrylic paint. I use the 000 W&N series 7 exclusively for this. Like Jay, I Use the same procedure for cleaning up the line by going back and forth over it with the brush cleaned. It can be a slow process, but well worth it. HTH.

John

 

[Kevin D.]

WELL Jay,

I finally know your secret to great figures!! LOL

Seriously... I may be asking you some questions in the near future... am finally doing a bust.

Wilber, You've come to the right place! This planet is full of excellent people who will bend over backwards to help!

Welcome to the planet!

Kevin D.

 

[John Bowery]

Jay and John,
Thank you for the tips. I find it very usefull and look forward to trying them out.
Cheers
John

 

[wilber]

br 52

Wilber, Welcome to the planet. So you are also a glutton for punishment like myself and built the BR-52! I'd really like to see how you made out with it. There are some photos of mine on the v-bench. That said, and unlike Jay, I thin my oil paints when painting the fine lines. Not heavily thinned, mind you. I lay the oil paints on my pallette and dip the brush into the thinner then gently dab it into the paint so that the consistency is almost like that of an acrylic paint. I use the 000 W&N series 7 exclusively for this. Like Jay, I Use the same procedure for cleaning up the line by going back and forth over it with the brush cleaned. It can be a slow process, but well worth it. HTH.

John

Thanks to all, and John my BR-52 took 6-7 months. Its done in the white stripe winter camo over black (which one exists in a museum)which was the hardest mask job I have ever done, but like everything else in modeling well worth the effort. Unfortunately there are few options for figures for this great model so I'm using Trumpeters Karl Moser set, kind of converted. I'll try to get some photos up, have had a maddening time trying to get photos on the finescale forum for some reason. I'll try again to figure it out. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Steve]

Wilber-If you are already comfortable with enamels and acrylic, perhaps a little research into their use on figures would give you some ideas without starting from scratch with a new medium. Oils are not rocket science but they are different in application than either enamels or acrylic. The v-benches on this site will probably answer every question you can imagine about all three mediums. As Jay said, the big thing is to stick with it and improvement is inevitable.--