Help...painting 1:35 figures...

There are as many different methods, as there are stars in the sky. The only correct method, is the one that works best for *you*. And determining this is all about trial-and-error. There are a bazillion web sites with info; so many, that you may suffer from the old "sensory overload".

Seek out some of the books on the subject. My recommendations are:

Shep Paine's books, published by Kalmbach, one on "dioramas", and the other on "figures". (The latter is, sadly, currently out-of-print.)

Bill Horan's book, published by Windrow & Greene. It is part of their fantastic "Military Modelling Masterclass" series.

Although these two artists may not always work in your preferred genre, their techniques are applicable to any genre; and you will get a thorough primer in painting in both oils, and enamels (and with your own intelligence, talent, and creativity, you can easily transpose this to acrylics, if so desired.)

My quick and dirty way. Its very easy to do and gives random variations to make them look realistically unalike from each other. The result is to give an impression and the mind will fill in the details. That's what the artist does - to stimulate the mind. The technician tries to make everything too accurate and any inaccuracies pop up immediately to disturb the sense of correctness (rivet counting.)

Tamiya flesh color for the skin. Use the Tamiya Red Brown (XF-64) as a wash over the flesh. If the wash flows too freely add a little acrylic extender, a clear gel from the artists' arts supplies store. Let capillary action pull the red brown wash to highlight the facial lines and other skin crevices. The wash will also redden the flesh paint a little to give it a more flesh like tone. The acrylic extender dries to just the correct reflectance, neither too matte nor too glossy. Painting the whites and irises of a 1/35 figure actually make the figure look grotesque. Just this red brown wash is a lot more effective and realistic.

For the uniforms. Colours as recommended in the instructions. Use artists' tube acrylics White to lightly drywash the clothing. This will make the clothing look slightly worn and the raised clothing folds look as if it is reflecting light. Dilute some earth color paint to give a misting over the shoes and pant legs to simulate dusty shoes.

I also lighly white drywash the rest of the model. Just try it and see if it suits your artistic taste. Also mist the near ground parts of your model with the "dust" spray paint.

In article , Klm writes

I haven't painted 1:35/54mm stuff for quite some time, but I use a similar technique to this for 15mm and smaller wargame figures. For bigger wargames figures I usually put a drybrush of a lightened base flesh colour on before washing, and a very dry brush of the same lightened colour after.

If you use pure white, this is true. I used to put a narrow line of very light grey where the eye was, and use a drawing pen to put a fine line of black along the top of this. I'd then use the pen to put a dot just under, and touching, the black line to give a very squashed "T" shape. I use the same technique (but omit the grey line) with 28mm wargame figures.

Regards,