Painting styles/methods

[Buddha]

I'm new to this site but not to the world of miniature figure painting. I started over 40 years ago with historical 54mm minis, then about 25 years ago gravitated to 25-28mm fantasy minis. I now wish to broaden my base to reinclude 54mm-plus miniatures.

During my long experience I started with enamels then graduated to oils over a white matt enamel primer. When I moved into fantasy I started with acrylics but quickly graduated to oils over acrylic base coat over a black acrylic primer. For the bigger figures I've lost touch with current/best practice, but from a quick recce it seems that many of you prime in white, base coat in acrylic colors then use oils for finishing and detailing. Is that about right? Do any of you use a black primer? What do you consider is the method/style of painting which gets the best results today?

I don't want to start a flood of replies but if a few of you would bring me up to speed I would be grateful. The results you achieve today far exceed those we achieved in the '60s and '70s. It must be these new styles, materials or techniques which have brought about the improvement.

If you can guide me I thank you.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Buddha+Nov 18 2005, 04:11 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Buddha @ Nov 18 2005, 04:11 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>...from a quick recce it seems that many of you prime in white, base coat in acrylic colors then use oils for finishing and detailing. [/b]

Hi Brian, welcome. For those that paint in oils this would seem to be most common method, yes, although the colour of the primer varies.

Originally posted by Buddha@Nov 18 2005, 04:11 AM
Do any of you use a black primer?

I've used it once or twice for fantasy minis, not for historical subjects. I wouldn't use it for anything larger than about 1/32 scale as an overall base colour for a historical subject unless I was going for a particular 'look' that this seems suited to. Quite frankly I think the effort to cover black overall is more trouble than extensive heavy shading would be, as a rule, but it depends on style.

I think it's true to say that it's quite commonplace to apply very dark or black basecoats in specific areas - inside an open tunic or on undersurfaces for example - to ensure there are no distracting light spots when finished. It's usually best to apply this before the painting proper as it can be very difficult to get a brush to deep recesses without accidentally getting paint on adjacent surfaces.

Originally posted by Buddha@Nov 18 2005, 04:11 AM
For the bigger figures I've lost touch with current/best practice.... What do you consider is the method/style of painting which gets the best results today?

The one that works best for the individual. There's top-notch work being produced today in enamels, oils, acrylics and vinyl paints (hobby acrylics); it's very much a matter of personal preference as well as the results you want which to choose.

Some people use a multi-media approach too of course, using the strengths of a number of different paint types for a single subject - e.g. most of a figure in enamels, horses and skintones in oils - as well as to pick the medium based on the scale of the model.

<!--QuoteBegin-Buddha@Nov 18 2005, 04:11 AM
I don't want to start a flood of replies [/quote]That's what we're here for

Einion

 

[megroot]

Brian,

All i can say is that Einion is right. You paint with the medium you where comfort with. So in your case oils.
I also use white primer (Citadel) and an underpaint of acrylic (Vallejo) and finish with oilpaint. And that is because i can manage this paint with hightlighting and shading. Very thinny crispy details where painted with acrylic.

Marc

 

[Kisifer]

Hello Brian,

I will echo what Einion and Marc said. I also use oils over enamel undercoating. I try to undercoat close to the oil color that I will paint. Regarding the primer I use grey primer of enamel, specifically Humbrol No 1. That's what i'm using for 54mm figures. For larger scale figures I use Andrea's spray primer. It works well for me.
So as you can understand everything is up to everyone's preference.

Xenofon

 

[Buddha]

I am grateful to you guys for bringing me up to date so quickly and succinctly, especially to Einion for his comprehensive response. For the record I have decided to adopt the following method for my return to the 54mm+ scene. Grey primer, acrylic basecoating in a mid-tone of the final colour and oils to shade, finish, highlight and detail. I had considered NMM but decided in favour of metallic oil colours as I can blend these just as well with other colours and the results look more convincing.

I hope a few more members send me their views as I am fascinated by styles in painting, whether two- or three-dimensional.

 

[Cicero]

Hi Brian,

Welcome on the Planet.
I too paint oils over acrylics and I'm glad you decided to use metallic oils to reproduce metal parts, because that's also what I do. But I always mix the metallic oils with other oils to get a better opacity and to degrade the metallic pigments a bit. I.e. I mix bronze from W&N with raw umber and yellow ochre in different ratios to paint bronze cuirasses.

Kind regards

Johan

 

[Einion]

Hi Brian, glad it was of some help. There are a couple of miniaturists who use NMM on historical subjects but generally speaking I think it works better in photographs than in the flesh, where the illusion fails when you change your viewpoint.

There's a combination method you can use for oxidised metals (brass and bronze in particular) that I think works better seen in the round, mostly done using normal paints with the final highlight and/or wear spots done in metallics. But like with straight NMM this works best on small areas like buckles.

Einion