I have started to get a new bust ready to paint. It is a wonderfully characterful piece from Legion Miniatures.
Here are all the parts cleaned up with the mould plugs removed. They were small plugs and only a few seam lines here and there needed to be attended to. The spade handle, the head of the spade and the pick handle were a bit warped. Immersing them in some boiled water soon had them coaxed back into shape.
The test fit went grand and I must say the parts fit is top notch. Next up is mounting the pieces for painting and getting some primer on.
Thanks for reading.
6 Likes
In painting busts the first thing I tackle is the skin and eyes.
Below you can see the eyes are done and the base flesh paint is on.
I’m using Reaper Miniatures paints, their Bronzed Skin trio set for this. I’ve used quite a few different brands of flesh paint over the years and these are the best I’ve come across- the fact they come in these sets of three (and there are others for lighter skin tones) makes everything just that bit easier to do.
Below you can see the 1st highlight and 1st shadow colors have been added to the skin. For this I thinned the relevant paints 50/50 with the base color.
Below you can see the difference between the unblended side of the face (on the left side of the photo) versus the blended side. Still, this is very far from finished- much more work to do!
Thanks for reading!
6 Likes
Karl that’s a beautiful bust your painting there. The sculpt is very detailed and crisp. Your flesh painting is coming along beautifully.
I have used vallejos for a good 30 years and tried the reaper flesh paints and they worked great, I felt they blended a little easier but that could just be me. I recently tried Life Color flesh set and I really can’t decide which is better of the two. It doesn’t help that I don’t paint figures often at all. Did you use a slow dry medium or something to blend the colors? And do you use a wet palette?
Again great job so far!
3 Likes
Thank you so much Richard!
Over the years I think I have used most of the major paint brands- AK 3rd Gen is the only exception I think- no particular reason, just never bought any. Scale75 Artists range, Reaper and Vallejo are my usual brands. I only use a wet palette for blending in this scale- and I use the glazing technique to do most blends. I will use Vallejo Glaze Medium on smaller areas and in smaller scales- depends on the figure really. Best thing about using the glazing technique (with distilled water) is each coat dries very fast. Other mediums really slow it down a lot meaning you can’t progress quite as quickly- but you do have more control and time to blend.
3 Likes
After smoothing out the transitions in the face I moved on to the arms.
At this stage I take stock of the progress- often when smoothing the transitions between the 1st highlight and shadow you will shrink those areas of light and shade in order to smooth the skin. This is beneficial if you are seeking quite youthful, smooth and unblemished skin. For older skin (or for more contrast) you might need to go back and re-apply some of those shadows or highlights. For this I work cautiously and slowly via glazes of my 1st highlight and 1st shadow colors. I mostly kept the highlights drawn up toward the high points of the face where I felt some contrast was lost. For the shadows I didn’t do too much but I did start to add in the beginnings of wrinkles- most notably on the lower neck and around the sides of the eyes.
Right now I’m doing a similar job as I’ve just described on the hands and arms. I’ve also begun the second highlight color on the face- once again applied quite sparingly with a glaze.
Thanks for reading.
6 Likes
So here we have a bit more progress.
Below you can see how I have deepened the shadows on the left side of his face (on the right of the picture) versus the as yet to be worked on opposite side of the face.
Now you can see both sides have been worked- with some added highlights here and there.
It was then time to add in the areas of high blood flow on the face- which appear more pink or red- typically the cheeks, forehead, parts of the ear and nose. I have also concentrated a little more red around the eyebags to suggest fatigue and around the nose to suggest both sun damage and heavy alcohol use.
I also used the same red color on the hands- mostly around the knuckles and fingers.
I decided to add some moles/age spots to both the arms, hands and face.
In addition to adding the skin blemishes I tried to impart weathered and damaged skin around the knuckles and fingers- Gold prospecting would have been a very hands-on job and would not have been gentle on the skin! I can’t say I’m entirely happy with the effect though.
At this point the skin on the face is more or less finished- the lips and hair will be next. On the arms/hands I have to do the veins and nails before then tackling the arm hair.
Thanks for reading.
5 Likes
That’s some outstanding face painting work you’ve done there Karl. The tones are excellent and the eyes are perfect. Keep up the great work
2 Likes
Thanks Richard, much appreciated 
!
1 Like
