Tutorials

Painting faces in 28mm

Posted by Kekso on 26 Jun 2020, 16:26

Some people asked me how I paint faces on my 28mm figures. I bring you small tutorial how I do it. I'm sorry I was too lazy to set colors to look more realistic but I think you will get it. With good brush and some patience you can use this technique on 1/72 figures as well.

Firstly (after priming of course) I paint base color. Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Flat Flesh (70.955).
You would need at least two coats (depends on primer color). Paint should be thick enough because it is base color but not to thick so details remain visible and brush strokes not visible

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After that I give generous coat of Games Workshop Reikland Fleshshade. I'm much more happy with this one than Vallejo flesh wash. Be careful with pooling but some pooling where eyes are supposed to be is desirable - I don't paint eyes in this scale in most of cases.

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In 3rd step I take VMC Flat Flesh again but a bit thinned down this time. Let's say 2 drops of paint, 1 drop of water and 1 drop of matt medium. Then I paint 1st highlights as shown bellow:

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2h higlight is mix of VMC Flat Flesh and VMC Light Flesh (70.928) in 50/50 ratio. I add water and mat meduim to the mixture. 2nd highlights are placed over 1st highlights but cover smaller area.

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Then I use VMC Flat Flesh with a dash of red (be careful when adding red) and I thin it down more than paint for highlights with water and mat medium. You don't need paint that is too thin, you need paint that is very transparent. You can control thicker paint more easily. That's why I use mat medium.
With that paint (midtone) make glaze under the cheeks. Between highlights and shadows.

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Finally. Use your base paint (Flat Flesh) with a dash of blue (use even less blue than you use red in previous step) and make it very transparent. Then paint lowest part of the face (5 o'clock shadow).

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Remember that it is better to paint many thinner layers of glazes than one thick - this is about last two steps which aren't that important but add very much to overall impression.

And when I apply this technique to figures it looks like this:

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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by santifernandez on 26 Jun 2020, 17:22

Nice post Dali.
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santifernandez  Spain
 
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Posted by Peter on 26 Jun 2020, 20:31

Thanks for sharing! :thumbup:
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by Ben90 on 27 Jun 2020, 01:51

Great results!
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Ben90  Germany
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Posted by MABO on 27 Jun 2020, 05:40

Top notch, Dalibor! Do you have another modified technique to paint darker skin colours?
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Posted by Peter on 13 Jul 2020, 12:21

Kekso wrote:In 3rd step I take VMC Flat Flesh again but a bit thinned down this time. Let's say 2 drops of paint, 1 drop of water and 1 drop of matt medium.


With Matt Medium do you mean Vallejo "Medium Fleshtone" (70.860)?
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Posted by lobo on 05 Oct 2020, 06:03

Great and useful post.
Thank you very much Dali.
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Posted by Kekso on 12 Oct 2020, 17:23

Peter wrote:


I'm sorry, I thought I answered this one. :oops:
No, medium is transparent liquid without any pigments.
The purpose of medium is to thin down paint but to remain viscosity at the same time.
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by Peter on 12 Oct 2020, 20:06

Kekso wrote:
I'm sorry, I thought I answered this one. :oops:
No, medium is transparent liquid without any pigments.
The purpose of medium is to thin down paint but to remain viscosity at the same time.

Thank you Dali! :thumbup:
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