
- Painting the Figures
Gents…The work has finally begun.
Upon taking on the painting of the fourteen(14) figures for this Dio, I picked them all up and considered them all again(CLOSELY) to ensure I’d removed any offending parting lines, rough spots, or pits, ect…and as soon as I began adding basecoats, many of those imperfections made themselves known ! And so since have attempted to quadrupal-check everything…none-the-less, no doubt something will squeek by 

Way back when I completed each figure it was carefully and completely primed using Tamiya Dark Yellow. Several days ago(prior to really sitting down to begin painting) I used a number of washes, made of Windser&Newton Burnt Sienna and Van Dyke Brown Oil paint in white spirit----over all the flesh areas, to bring out every little nuance of the features.

~One application does a fairly nice job of it if you’ve mixed the wash right, but several selective applications can be an easy way to set off features. Afterward, I lets these areas dry several days–(likely much more than needed) to play it safe, {as oil and I are still at odds}
Although I tend to mainly work in acrylics, this is a tremendously excellent way to begin, which many painters use, but I credit Mark Bannerman’s superb tutorials on Missing Lynx with showing me.
So much has been written on the subject of figure painting, and in the interests of having so much ground to cover with this figure painting job–I do not intend to do a blow by blow with each mini-man, but since I’ve tried to log a very complete build here, I hope to present this phase in a thorough enough way that the subject is not glossed-over, and I can show my way of doing things, both the common and unique.

After treating the flesh areas of all 14 figures in this same way, I began with the Brits, blocking in the base colours of thier fatigues. I like to have base colours on everything before I complete the heads, as there’s just too much paint being flicked-around for my liking during that. I also have found it’s better to have the base colours everywhere before attaching personnal equipment, or I’ve found there’s always missed spots. For these uniform colours I’ve made varied mixes of Vallejo 004 Off White, 116 Middllesone, & 304 Track Primer(from Panzer Aces series) The standard battle-dress trousers that two of the Desert Rats are wearing, we’re based with 141 English Uniform, lightened with 120 Buff. The Lee Enfield rifles got two thin coats of Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red to start–

Plenty left to do, but it’s starting to get fun !
More to come…Indy