Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
During several of the coach builds I’ve documented on WT I’ve included images of some of the passenger figures. I’ve not detailed how I went about painting them, and I was asked a while ago if I wouldn’t mind outlining my techniques for painting figures.
I want to stress these are my techniques. They are based on techniques used by other modellers, and I duly acknowledge their input into my creative process. I don’t expect anyone to follow my processes to the letter. Think of them as a springboard from which to develop your own techniques.
Usually I choose to use Humbrol enamels. I have never been truly comfortable with acrylics, but that is more down to my lack of experience with the medium than any fault of the paints themselves. I have a selection of colours from the Tamiya range, and recently supplemented them with a couple of sets of the LifeColor range, including a set of flesh colours.
Some figure painters spend a long time blending shades to give depth to the model, highlighting features and so on. If the sculptor has done their job well, the figure will have plenty of detail which will only need mild enhancement with paint effects. I want a natural appearance, not a badly made-up clown. I only enhance shadows if I think they need it, preferring the sculpted folds and so on to do their own thing.
I should apologise for some gaps in the pictorial record. Painting a figure is a free-flowing process, and not easy to document at each stage. In some ways, a video would be easier to show blending and painting, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.
The victims for this tutorial are cast metal figures. The shunter hails from the Omen Miniatures range, while the signalman with the mug is from Pete Armstrong’s Border Miniatures range.
Preparation
Spend a while cleaning off mould lines and flash from the castings. It’s one of my pet peeves if an otherwise well-finished figure has mould lines in prominent places. If figures need assembling, now is the time to do so. In this case, the arm with the mug needed fixing to the torso of the signalman. I used a cyanoacrylate glue. Should a joint need filler, so be it, but tidy it up when dry, blending into the casting as necessary.
For ease of handling, and for ‘planting’ later on a layout, I drill into the heel of one foot to take a reasonable length of 0.9mm brass wire. Glue the wire in place.
It is often advised to clean new castings with a mild detergent and to let them dry before painting begins. I do this once I’ve finished fixing and fettling things.
Stick the figures into something convenient to hold them while painting. I use an offcut of softwood, but I also have a hand vice which makes it easier to turn the figure round as you work.
An undercoat is advisable. I have used rattle can acrylic primer in the past. For preference I will use a red oxide, though some advise using a black undercoat. It should ideally be a dark base colour, rather than white or grey, because it won’t show through if areas miss paint later on.
For this pair I brush painted a Tamiya dark brown acrylic all over. I wanted to try this as an alternative, and suffering from a cold at the time I didn’t want to go through the rigmarole of face masks and heaters in the paint shop just to squirt some primer about.
Let the base coat dry thoroughly. If you have a warm place to place the figures, such as an airing cupboard or on a radiator, so much the better. Let them cure for at least 24 hours. Mine managed a couple of months, because “proper” work got in the way!
Tools
A method of holding the figures while working on them has been discussed already.
If you are really serious about this, a selection of good quality sable brushes of sizes 1 down to 000 is worth acquiring. Set them aside for use with acrylic paint only. It is possible to use sable brushes with a variety of paint mediums, but you have to be very careful to clean thoroughly after each use. Easier, then, to keep a set for each kind of paint.
A palette for mixing and blending paints, and a couple of sheets of clean kitchen paper for cleaning the brushes.
A good magnifier, preferably with built in lighting.
Hands and faces
It’s commonly accepted that faces and hands should be painted before clothing and other details. I usually begin with a darker base colour, with the intention of adding lighter shades as needed.
I started with an overall coat of LifeColor Flesh No 1 Shadow, applied with the No 1 brush. (I found most of the work could be done using the one brush, even though I had selected smaller sizes for detail work. Your mileage may vary.)
While the Flesh Paint Set includes six shades, two each of shadow, mid-tones and highlights, I find I only need two or possibly three shades to paint a figure. Blending colours as you go - I use plain tap water - gives a fair variety of shades.
Being acrylic it dries very quickly. The next shade I selected was the mid-tone Flesh No 2 Base. I didn’t load the brush with a lot of paint, wiped some of the excess off onto the kitchen towel, and gently applied it over the base coat. I painted the forehead, cheekbones and nose, front of the chin, rims of the ears and along the jaw line. I left the eye sockets and mouth with the original base coat. I mixed a slightly darker shade of the two colours so far, and applied this around the neck and hands. With the hands, depending on the skill of the sculptor, I try to leave darker paint in between the fingers, and areas that are in shadow such as the bottom of sleeves.
The final shade selected was Flesh No 1 Light. Again, using the palette, I blended this pale shade with the other colours. Again, I highlighted the same areas as before, but mixing the shades to give a little variation. It’s around this time you realise the little person has a moustache! A nice trick to try is to highlight knuckles and finger joints on the hands.
To finalise, I repeat the process as I feel necessary. I usually need to reapply some darker shades into the eye sockets, along the sides of the nose and down to the corners of the mouth.
The secret is to know when to stop. If you think you’ve gone too far, let it dry and assess the damage. In the worst case, simply recoat with a base layer and start over - just be careful not to let paint build up too heavily or it loses the fine details of the casting.
Personally, I don’t bother with painting the whites of the eyes. From normal viewing distances, such details are not visible. You don't often see the whites of eyes in real humans, which you can test next time you wander down your local high street. From across a road, you won't see more than some shadows and perhaps the line of the lashes.
When I begin the process of painting the clothing, I shall paint hair and facial hair. That will be the next part of this tutorial, and it may be a while coming!
I want to stress these are my techniques. They are based on techniques used by other modellers, and I duly acknowledge their input into my creative process. I don’t expect anyone to follow my processes to the letter. Think of them as a springboard from which to develop your own techniques.
Usually I choose to use Humbrol enamels. I have never been truly comfortable with acrylics, but that is more down to my lack of experience with the medium than any fault of the paints themselves. I have a selection of colours from the Tamiya range, and recently supplemented them with a couple of sets of the LifeColor range, including a set of flesh colours.
Some figure painters spend a long time blending shades to give depth to the model, highlighting features and so on. If the sculptor has done their job well, the figure will have plenty of detail which will only need mild enhancement with paint effects. I want a natural appearance, not a badly made-up clown. I only enhance shadows if I think they need it, preferring the sculpted folds and so on to do their own thing.
I should apologise for some gaps in the pictorial record. Painting a figure is a free-flowing process, and not easy to document at each stage. In some ways, a video would be easier to show blending and painting, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.
The victims for this tutorial are cast metal figures. The shunter hails from the Omen Miniatures range, while the signalman with the mug is from Pete Armstrong’s Border Miniatures range.
Preparation
Spend a while cleaning off mould lines and flash from the castings. It’s one of my pet peeves if an otherwise well-finished figure has mould lines in prominent places. If figures need assembling, now is the time to do so. In this case, the arm with the mug needed fixing to the torso of the signalman. I used a cyanoacrylate glue. Should a joint need filler, so be it, but tidy it up when dry, blending into the casting as necessary.
For ease of handling, and for ‘planting’ later on a layout, I drill into the heel of one foot to take a reasonable length of 0.9mm brass wire. Glue the wire in place.
It is often advised to clean new castings with a mild detergent and to let them dry before painting begins. I do this once I’ve finished fixing and fettling things.
Stick the figures into something convenient to hold them while painting. I use an offcut of softwood, but I also have a hand vice which makes it easier to turn the figure round as you work.
An undercoat is advisable. I have used rattle can acrylic primer in the past. For preference I will use a red oxide, though some advise using a black undercoat. It should ideally be a dark base colour, rather than white or grey, because it won’t show through if areas miss paint later on.
For this pair I brush painted a Tamiya dark brown acrylic all over. I wanted to try this as an alternative, and suffering from a cold at the time I didn’t want to go through the rigmarole of face masks and heaters in the paint shop just to squirt some primer about.
Let the base coat dry thoroughly. If you have a warm place to place the figures, such as an airing cupboard or on a radiator, so much the better. Let them cure for at least 24 hours. Mine managed a couple of months, because “proper” work got in the way!
Tools
A method of holding the figures while working on them has been discussed already.
If you are really serious about this, a selection of good quality sable brushes of sizes 1 down to 000 is worth acquiring. Set them aside for use with acrylic paint only. It is possible to use sable brushes with a variety of paint mediums, but you have to be very careful to clean thoroughly after each use. Easier, then, to keep a set for each kind of paint.
A palette for mixing and blending paints, and a couple of sheets of clean kitchen paper for cleaning the brushes.
A good magnifier, preferably with built in lighting.
Hands and faces
It’s commonly accepted that faces and hands should be painted before clothing and other details. I usually begin with a darker base colour, with the intention of adding lighter shades as needed.
I started with an overall coat of LifeColor Flesh No 1 Shadow, applied with the No 1 brush. (I found most of the work could be done using the one brush, even though I had selected smaller sizes for detail work. Your mileage may vary.)
While the Flesh Paint Set includes six shades, two each of shadow, mid-tones and highlights, I find I only need two or possibly three shades to paint a figure. Blending colours as you go - I use plain tap water - gives a fair variety of shades.
Being acrylic it dries very quickly. The next shade I selected was the mid-tone Flesh No 2 Base. I didn’t load the brush with a lot of paint, wiped some of the excess off onto the kitchen towel, and gently applied it over the base coat. I painted the forehead, cheekbones and nose, front of the chin, rims of the ears and along the jaw line. I left the eye sockets and mouth with the original base coat. I mixed a slightly darker shade of the two colours so far, and applied this around the neck and hands. With the hands, depending on the skill of the sculptor, I try to leave darker paint in between the fingers, and areas that are in shadow such as the bottom of sleeves.
The final shade selected was Flesh No 1 Light. Again, using the palette, I blended this pale shade with the other colours. Again, I highlighted the same areas as before, but mixing the shades to give a little variation. It’s around this time you realise the little person has a moustache! A nice trick to try is to highlight knuckles and finger joints on the hands.
To finalise, I repeat the process as I feel necessary. I usually need to reapply some darker shades into the eye sockets, along the sides of the nose and down to the corners of the mouth.
The secret is to know when to stop. If you think you’ve gone too far, let it dry and assess the damage. In the worst case, simply recoat with a base layer and start over - just be careful not to let paint build up too heavily or it loses the fine details of the casting.
Personally, I don’t bother with painting the whites of the eyes. From normal viewing distances, such details are not visible. You don't often see the whites of eyes in real humans, which you can test next time you wander down your local high street. From across a road, you won't see more than some shadows and perhaps the line of the lashes.
When I begin the process of painting the clothing, I shall paint hair and facial hair. That will be the next part of this tutorial, and it may be a while coming!