Skinners Horse in the mess

[Briggsy]

Another Chota Sahib figure done on the back burner. I have struggled with the yellow, I even resorted to the new Vallejo Xpress Color, the tone has changed several times with tints and reworking the highlights. Fairly pleased with it. So 54mm metal figure painted in acrylics and mounted on a simple resin column base.

The new Vallejo paint is interesting, apparently it is their answer to Citadels contrast range of inks/tints designed for speed painting. It is rather translucent and is designed to pool in creases etc to give instant shading and highlighting. Well that's what the fella who sold it said, aimed more at gamers want to field a painted Army quickly.



Cheers Simon

 

[MalcC]

Nice work Simon.

Malc

 

[Briggsy]

Nice work Simon.

Malc

Cheers Malc, he's not so bad. The yellow was hard work but enjoyable.

Cheers Simon

 

[Nap]

Cheers Malc, he's not so bad. The yellow was hard work but enjoyable.

Cheers Simon

Looks good mate , the yellow is always difficult...you've done a nice result here

Thanks for sharing

Nap

 

[Briggsy]

No probs Kev, it's good to share, thanks for your comments.

Cheers Simon

 

[MoboSchreuder]

Very nice work

Mobo

 

[Briggsy]

Very nice work

Mobo

Many thanks Mobo, more credit to the late Sid Horton though.

Cheers Simon

 

[Rob]

He looks good Simon, the yellow changes a lot between those pictures but seems to have the correct "mustard" rather than "lemon" tone, so well done there. Yellow is a bugger to work with.

I would be interested to hear more about your experience with the Vallejo Contrast paint, how well does it thin out?

 

[Briggsy]

Hi Rob, thanks for the kind words. I used the Chris Rothero book for reference and I have read that the actual shade of yellow changed from time to time. A deeper yellow though looks better I think.

The Vellajo Xpress Color, I bought three, one was predominantly red, the other blue, these I haven't used yet. The paint is very liquid to start with, more akin to air brush paint. The idea is to load the brush and liberally covered the area to be painted. It then pools in the recesses and dries darker where it is thicker. This I imagine is ok for quick painting lots of gaming pieces as opposed to individual RPG Heroes.

I used it more as a tint than anything, used sparingly it dries matt, so long as the paint underneath is dry, build it up too much and it will dry with a sheen. Thinned it is still a strong vibrant colour that allows the underpinning to show through, successive coats will become more opaque as they build up. I also used it to brighten some of the gold lace and bring back a yellow colour. I also mixed it effectively with Liquitex Matte Medium (thanks for that invaluable tip). It is a useful addition to the paint box IMO, but is only another tool in the box as it were for detail painting. For me it's best quality is a strong tone that is still translucent allowing you to add tone over blending that may become chalky or dull or indeed may need toning down in intensity such as shading that has gotten too dark.

Hope this gives you a better idea of the paints, any further questions just ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Cheers Simon

 

[Steve headley]

Very nice the yellow looks good always a hard colour to get right but looking good.

Steve

TFB Miniatures Team

 

[húsar14]

I like the both the figure and how you've painted it. Interesting uniform and era, well executed. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Briggsy]

Very nice the yellow looks good always a hard colour to get right but looking good.

Steve

TFB Miniatures Team

I like the both the figure and how you've painted it. Interesting uniform and era, well executed. Thanks for sharing.

Steve and Husar, many thanks for your comments, yes yellow can be a pain, this one was. The uniform or mess dress is always elegant but I can assure you having worn the same style of mess dress (in red) it's not the most comfortable stuff to wear for long periods. Many thanks again.

Cheers Simon

 

[DaddyO]

Lovely to see this old figure again (I'm a big fan of Sid Horton's work and have several in the collection and a couple yet to be painted up)

Nice job on the yellow which isn't the easiest colour to shade. FWIW I tend to use complimentary colours for shading so adding purple (yes really) gives a nice lively shade without deadening the hue

Paul

 

[Briggsy]

Lovely to see this old figure again (I'm a big fan of Sid Horton's work and have several in the collection and a couple yet to be painted up)

Nice job on the yellow which isn't the easiest colour to shade. FWIW I tend to use complimentary colours for shading so adding purple (yes really) gives a nice lively shade without deadening the hue

Paul

Yes purple sits opposite yellow on the wheel, I think I used the wrong shade of purple to start with but just about managed to recover it. Back in oil painting days I would have used Senelier Neutral Tint, a purple so dark as to be black until thinned down. It really was shadow in a tube, haven't been able to find anything close in acrylics, though if I'd painted it in oils I'd still be building up the saturation in the yellow.

Agree whole heartedly about Sids creations, they are pretty much timeless and thanks for looking in.

Cheers Simon

 

[Nap]

Lovely to see this old figure again (I'm a big fan of Sid Horton's work and have several in the collection and a couple yet to be painted up)

Nice job on the yellow which isn't the easiest colour to shade. FWIW I tend to use complimentary colours for shading so adding purple (yes really) gives a nice lively shade without deadening the hue

Paul

Wise words there Paul ...do share those you painted

Still wished I'd got all of the mess dress figures

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[snik]

Very nice work Simon! The yellow uniform jacket looks very nice!! always yellow is difficult color!!

 

[Rob]

Thanks for the lowdown on the Vallejo paints, the way I paint any glaze or translucent products are of interest. The key issue is how finely ground the pigments are. The citadel contrasts tend to granulate at a disappointingly low dilution, I will have to pick up a couple of these and see how they go.

 

[Briggsy]

Rob, I did dilute them but not I suspect to the degree do, I have only ever used one Citadel contrast colour so my comparison is limited but I would choose the Vellajo paint over Citadel any time.

Cheers Simon

 

[DaddyO]

Wise words there Paul ...do share those you painted

Still wished I'd got all of the mess dress figures

Happy benchtime

Nap

Here are a couple of yellow 'uns for you Kev to show what I mean (Think there's some more detailed threads on here about how they were painted
Paul

 

[NigelR]

Nice work on a classic Chota Sahib figure. I have some of the Xpress pants as well, thanks for the insights on using them.

And nice to see some of Paul's work as well, lovely stuff!