Finished up some Pulp Figures

Working through some of the stash and I finished up these Pulp Figures.  I believe all of the sculpts are made by Bob Murch.

The figures painted very quickly and are really nice sculpts. Nice detail on all of them.

The Adventurer

The Purple Avenger

Dr. Flictheswitch (the evil scientist) 

Red Shirt

Runt

Posted a Video on using oils to paint flesh on figures.

I posted a short video on a technique I found on using oil paints to paint flesh on figures.  Check it out.

Using Oils to paint flesh

A 10mm Painting Video

Well I had thought about trying to do a painting video and yesterday I did it. Here it is.

Painting 10mm figures

I have a lot to learn about producing videos like this and I need to find a better source other than my iPhone for taking the video. The phone doesn't auto focus and zooming in or out is a pain.

Some test painting on 10mm figures

Hello,

If you have been following along with this blog recently, you'll know that I've been painting my little heart out on 10mm War of Spanish Succession troops. I've been doing pretty well with getting units painted. As I look at other painters who paint 10mm figures and other sizes, I'm always looking for a faster way to get these units painted.  So I decided that while I was painting my most recent units I would also paint three other stands with different methods that I read about around the internet.

Before I jump into the test units I thought I would describe what I normally do to paint the units I've already completed.

1st the usual cleaning of flash etc..

2nd I prime the figures with white gesso.  I use gesso because I can brush it and do it indoors. Living in Oregon the weather can vary and in the winter its usually raining. Having something I can apply indoors is a boon to production.

3rd I use a wash of Citadel Nun Oil over the figures.  The black wash brings out the detail and adds an instant shade to the figures.

4th I start painting. I usually start with the guns, then the flesh and then the uniform.

5th I paint the flag and drum.

Pretty basic.

Now the test strips.

So these two strips where primed with white gesso. I then painted the guns. I skipped over the wash of nun oil.  These two will get washes after they are painted. 

This stand was primed with a light grey spray primer. Most of the French have a light grey almost white uniform. This was the closet I could get in a spray primer to that color also I wanted something different than white.  This stand will get painted and then dipped with army painter dip.

So the three above pictures show the units painted. Not really much difference between them.  Painting the two first units with the pure white gesso primer was difficult only because I had to paint everything.  The grey primed unit was easier as I only had to paint the parts I didn't want grey. :)

This unit was given a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone Ink. You can kind of see that the uniform went from a grey to a light brownish.  I don't like how it changed the color of the uniform.

This stand was given a wash of Citadel Nun Oil. It added a nice shade to the figure but didn't seem to really fill in the folds like I thought it would.

This stand was the grey primed one and then was dipped with army painter soft tone dip. After letting it dry over night I then brushed on a matte varnish.  The uniform did get a slight brownish tint to it but it doesn't seem as bad as the stand with the soft tone ink wash. 

At this point I don't think any of the above methods made the painting any faster. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.  For now I will stick with what I've been doing until the next best method comes along. :)

A new painting strategy.

I'm color blind. Not 100% color blind but enough to where it makes painting figures, the house, choosing clothing that matches etc.. a challenge.  I have also consistently failed the color eye chart they give you when you go to get your eye exam.  I tend to have problems with Blues/Purples, Reds/Browns and usually it happens when the colors start getting really close together in hue.   So I have adapted my ability to paint figures with being very precise about what colors I'm going to use for a uniform. I need to know exactly what bottle of Vallejo I should use in order to paint my AWI figures and so on.  This has led me to purchasing a huge amount of paint.  Also it has led me to having less than dramatic looking figures as I have a really hard time finding colors to highlight what I've already painted.  My daughter has been a big help in picking colors and suggesting how to mix somethings together to get to the color I needed. 

A few weeks ago I was perusing the Historicon PEL and noticed a class called "Color Mixing: Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green".  I was intrigued by the title and the description and promptly went out and bought the book.  The opening chapter turned the light switch on for me on why in the past when I've mixed, lets say, red and blue together to try and get purple, it ended up looking like mud or very dull. The understanding that, for example, the color red could be on either side of the red spectrum. Red with more orange or Red with more violet in it.  If you didn't pick the right spectrum of red or blue for the purple you were going for, it would turn out dull or muddy.  Also the understanding that there is no "real" Primary color as your surroundings and lighting affect what you see the ideal of a pure Red, Blue and Yellow don't really exist.

After reading the book and then rereading certain sections I went to the local Blick Art Supply store and bought the paints I needed to try mixing colors using Mr. Wilcox's technique.   Below you will find my experiment.  

The book in question!

My pallet for this experiment.

The colors I have purchased following the books guidelines and pigment numbers.

Cadmium Red-leans towards the orange spectrum

Alizarin Crimson-faces the violet spectrum

Ultramarine Blue- also faces the violet spectrum. 

Cerulean Blue- faces the green spectrum

Hansa Yellow Pale-Also faces the green spectrum

Cadmium Yellow-leans towards the orange spectrum.

So my first test was to take the Cad. Red and Cad. Yellow and make orange. That's what I got!

Next was Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue to make Violet.

Then Hansa Yellow Pale and Cerulean Blue to make green.

All of them turned out pretty well.  Then I decided to mix different amounts of one color with another to change up the end product.  Below are my results. I also then took the starting colors and mixed Cad. Red with Alizarin Crimson together for a solid red and then did same with the yellows and blues.

I like the results and more importantly I can see the difference in them.  I thought about having another pallet where I show what happens when you mix Cerulean Blue and Cad. Yellow together but I decided to stop where I was at for the moment.  I can do another blog post on that if anyone is interested.

Now comes the leap of faith.  Below are two units of my new War of Spanish Succession project I'm getting ready to start.  Since the uniforms are typically bright colors this system should work for what I need. Also I'm going to try and decide if I like the white primed figures over the black primed ones. It is sometimes hard for me to pick out some of the details on black primed figures.

I primed the above unit with white and then I took agrax earthshade and washed it over the figures.  The detail really pops out now and it adds in a nice shadow to the recesses. 

I'm sure most of this is old hat to most of you but I thought I would share it anyway.

Gesso as a Primer

I have found an alternative to priming my figures with a spray primer.  I have found using Gesso a good alternative to spray priming.  This is not a new idea of course and I read about it on this blog: Priming_With_Acrylic_Gesso by Dakka Dakka.  The first part of his post kind of turned me off to doing this as it was rather labor intensive, with all of the mixing of thinners, colors etc.. that was until I read to the end where he had updated his post based on someone else's suggestion to use the Gesso right out of the bottle.  I have to say that it works really well.

One of the reasons for this change is up here in the Pacific Northwest, the winters are wet and cold and trying to spray prime outside doesn't always work.  This method allows me to prime inside at my work table and there aren't any toxic fumes.   

The liquitex Gesso is a non-toxic product so it is safe to use.  Also it cleans up with water.  It comes in three colors Black, White and Grey.  I bought the black and grey colors.  I will use the grey on my 10mm figures and the black on the 15mm and larger figures.

This bottle cost me about $9.00 at Blick Art Supply.

For this experiment I decided to prime my Pulp figures I purchased from Bob Murch. I want to do a 1930's style noir game.

The above photos show how wet and gloppy the figures look after brushing the Gesso onto the figures.  The bottle says to let it dry for 24 hours.  Most of the detail is obscured by the Gesso. 

Less than 24 hours later the figures are dry.

You can see some places where there is a little bit metal showing through. This can be touched up with the Gesso.

Once the stuff dried the details POP! rather nicely and better, I feel, than the spray primers I've used in the past.

The best part of this was the clean up.  The brush cleaned up with water and once the Gesso dried I was able to peel it out of the tray and throw the piece of Gesso away.