I have been working on this guy for about a week now. Its the fig you get with Tamiyas Sturmtiger. I really needed some practice on my figure work and I was dying to try some oils for the first time. Please let me know how I can improve. Thank you.
SST
A wash and/or drybrushing on the folds of his clothing would make an INCREDIBLE difference, breaking up that monotonous (Notice how that word describes itself…hmmmm something wrong with me to notice stuff like that…[#offtopic] other than that, I’m still learning with figures so I can’t help much. Definately a flat coat when done as well. Good skin tone, too/
Thank you Ian.
I have yet to highlight the uniform and add shadows. Really trying to take my time with this one and actually LEARN something. I find myself getting in a hurry for no reason and that usually leads to disaster.
The uniform was brush painted with Tamiyas XF-65 (Field Gray). While experimenting with my highlighting, I added a touch of XF-49 (Khaki) to the base color. It looked OK but I could’nt get it to drybrush to save my life! The paint wouldn’t leave the brush! When mixed just a hair thinner it would smear. I’d rather use an enamel for this purpose but I have anxieties about trying to match the acrylic field gray to a Humbrol or Model Master enamel. Help?
SST
SST, forget about trying to drybrush Tamiya acrylics; they just won’t go there! You’re better off to try just about any other paint.
Have you tried regular craft store acrylics? They come in a bewildering variety of colors, and with a little bit of practice, you can mix up just about any shade. You don’t need to mix enamels into this…you’ll regret it if and when you want to apply washes.
Your figure looks on-target for the base coat. I wouldnot however, go solely with the “wash” method. Don’t get me wrong, its a valid technique, but the amount of folds in this figure’s clothing begs for individual shading with a darkened shade of the field gray. Just add a touch of black–or you can even try panzer gray–to a small dollop of field gray, and with a tiny brush underline all the folds and anywhere where a shadow would fall. You can THEN try a very thin wash of raw umber, and follow that with DB’ing.
Or, for a different look–more dusty and faded–try a somewhat thicker wash of raw umber+white+a pinprick of yellow oils (yelllow oil is VERY dense!) to get a nice dusty tan shade. Wash that over the figure and then take a paper towel–NOT TISSUE!-LEAVES “HAIRS”!!!–and squeeze it around the figure to get most of it off the high parts, leaving it in the folds. Dont worry about it “destroying” the shading you’d already done; it will provide depth to these.
Good luck! EXPERIMENT!!![8-]