im working on 1/35 scale 2nd armor division soldiers for a diorama but i cant figure out a method to pain reilistic eyes and faces on such small figures.can any bod help me?
I use a cross method. First, paint a thin white line across the eyes horizontally. Next paint a thin line vertically down each eye in the color you want the iris to be. Lastly, paint flesh back around the orbit to shape the eye. That is all there is to it. Be careful that your vertical lines are in the same general area on both eyes. If not, the two eyes will be looking in different directions and it will look really wierd.
Pretty much what Gino said above. I use Andrea’s light flesh, a pinkish color for the “whites” and blue or brown for the iris/pupil. I often use a sharpened cocktail toothpick, the round kind, to apply the iris. The alternative to this is an extremely fine paint brush such as a sharp 10/0 liner or an 18/0. Remember to keep the eyes a slit, not a circle.
Most plastic figures are not sculpted sharply enough to enable good results without a lot of practice, unfortunately.
Sage advice from the two esteemed gentlemen above, but in my opinion the best way to represent eyes in 1/35 scale is a simple dark brown wash, applied to the whole face of the figure. I never use any shade of white or even attempt to paint the irises. If you look at reference photos taken outdoors in daylight, I doubt you will see any whites of the eyes or irises, as everybody is usually squinting in the daylight.
I’ve yet to see absolutely convincing eyes done in 1/35 that tried to incorporate detailed painting of the sclera and iris. I’ve seen beautiful figures done that way, but to me they look more artistic than realistic. More like paintings than photographs, and to be honest, more like cartoons than anything else in most cases.
With a nice, dark wash, you get amazing realism with minimum effort.
Or you could spend a lot of time and end up with a cartoon!
Just my opinion, of course!
From all that I’ve experienced, everything they’re saying here is true…a good wash is good enough. Back in the 80’s, the accepted standard was “don’t paint eyes period”, but we’ve come a long way since then. There are ways to do it and do it well…and if you’re really sure you want to try it, you can try to follow in the footsteps of Mark Bannerman
with his tutorials. For me, a hint of dark and light works, but only if you’ve got a good sculpt to work with. For most figures, even the middle-of-the-road stuff, a dark wash is probably your best advice (unless you’ve got some incredible small-brush skills!)
I have to agree completely that most figures aren’t sculpted well enough to include any real detail…but I recently got to experience Warriors heads firsthand, and I am impressed. I’ve also heard great things about Hornet.
This was my first real attempt at sitting down with a good magnifier and good light, and I’m pretty pleased. Mostly, though, I’m encouraged that somewhere out there, in very expensive resin, there are heads that can be made fabulous with practice and patience.
thank all of you for your help will try the painted eyes on an old figure if i dosent come out very well i will try the dark wash. thanks.
Now, that figure looks great! Very realistic.
Good point about the sculpt. I’ve only used what comes in the kits, so you can probably guess why I’m a washer, not a painter!
thank you all for your advise
It just occured to me that I should clear this up…this figure is not my work!
This is one of Mark Bannerman’s figures. I nicked the image from his tutorial on painting 1/35 heads here:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/figures/mbheads/mbheads.htm
The other two pics, the much less effective ones, are my attempts !
Credit where it’s due and all that…
No problem! It was quite clear from how you presented it what belonged to who.
Thanks for posting those pix!
I have been following along ,as I am new to this and I have a question.Is it better to use oils or acrylics for this work?
just don’t paint them like this.
This is ultimately a matter of personal preference. Scroll down to my most recent projects, First Virniania Cavalry, and the three Viking threads. Those were all done with acrylics, but you can get just as good results with oils.
Beautifuly done.I hope my work turns out half as well. I think I may try both eventually,though i’ll start with acrylics. thanks for the help.