I have been trying really hard to paint the eye of a 1/35 figure I want to put on my tank. The face is well detailed with strong cheek bones, good nose, eyebrows and the eyes are a bit sunken in as a normal face would be.
I have tried using a “00” or the smallest brush I can find to paint the whites of the eye and a black dot for the eyeball. I have tried various methods such as painting small strips to also using the tip of a pin dipped in paint.
When I look at what I have done it looks either the eyes are to big for the socket or really messed up. Upon looking at other figures, I noticed that some people never painted the eye and eyeball. They used a darker shade but I am not sure what color it is…black ,grey…???
What tools are best to use and do you really need to paint the eyes on 1/35 scale figures?
P.S. I have various sources from books to searches on this site, but I still have a lot of trouble mastering the technique.
The size (00) is only part to the brush equation. It has to have and hold a very fine point. Your best bet is Kolinsky sable, sold by many top brush makers. Check Dick Blick on-line. Note, I always use Vallejo and Andrea paints. Don’t even try to paint a face with Tamiya.
What I do is paint the face the base color. I then approximate the eyeball with Valejo light flesh which is almost white, but not quite. I then add the iris in dark brown or dark blue. It helps to have the eyes looking right or left rather thah straight ahead. I then check the face in a mirror. I don’t know why, but this will show offset irises better than looking at the face straight on. If need be, I rework the eye and repeat until I’m satisfied. Next, I shape the eye with the base color before adding highlights and shadows.
Yeah, I think I can understand your problem. I had same problem when I start paiting figures.
Have you ever tried Windsor and Newton’s series 7 brushes ? If not, you should try it as soon as possible. Especially series 7 “Minituares” 000 is the bet brushe to paint the eye. It will help your paiting strongly.
I usually use Humbrol’s No10 “Gloss service brown” without thinner to draw eyes. This is VERY VERY controlable coulour.
it may sound wierd but i use my exacto knife blade and oils!! i gently dab the point of the blade into some black oil paint…(very very lightly) u dont want alot on the blade. then gently “scribe” the black in the eye socket. then repeat using white/offwhite oil paint. the nice thing about using oils is if u screw it up u can “wipe” it off and try again until its satisfactory to what u want! just my cheap [2c]
To paint eyes, I use Model Master acrylics and a sharpened toothpick or two. I start using a light gray or white, then once dry (10-15 min) later, I use another sharpened toothpick (to a VERY fine point) to dab on a dot of flat black. Then I immediately clean that toothpick off and “shape” the eye as needed.
What’s nice about acylics is that if you make a mistake, you can just wipe off and start over. I use MM enamels for the faces, so there is no mixing of skin tone and eyes, which saves a lot of problems if you make a mistake.
Hope this helps; here are a few of my figures (1/35 scale):
As others state, a brush that holds a fine tip is the start. What I have found works for me is to use Payne’s Grey artist oil. Just get a daub on the verrrrry tip. Make it miniscule. Then slowly lay it into the eye crevices. The beauty of the artist oil is that if it does not turn out to your satisfaction a litle bit of Mineral Spirits will erase your mistake completely. You can now retry.
Also, if the eyes are too stark or you add a tad too much but don’t want to start over you can use a DRY bush (no mineral spirits on it) to blend out excess.
Never paint the whites of the eyes white, if you paint the whites at all and often you wouldnt see it in that scale then you should use a pale skin colour. 1/35 scale is the same as lookin at someone 20 foot away so try this and see how much white you can see. look in the mirror and its still not white its a pale skin colour and in my opinion its why so many figures look urealistic and over painted when they paint a brilliant white colour. In my opinion you should paint the eye dark brown/black and paint the eye lits a paler shade of the face colour and it usually looks right.
…some examples…the secret is to SUGGEST eyes—not paint them…
