Face Frustration

[Brother Mitch]

Greetings Brothers,

 

I have been painting now for a couple of months on and off. Kind of thrown myself into the deep end and wanted to start in the right vein by thinning my paint and learning techniques from the off. Only problem, I do not have the skill base to start with most of these and get totally demoralised when painting.

 

1. Thinning paints: I have a mixture of GW and Vallejo Game Colour, from the start I can tell that the GW paints are a lot thicker and need a good amount of thinning, for the most part I can handle that. The problem arises with the VGC. I have watched endless amounts of youtube tutorials and read anything relating to painting miniatures, but as to be expected there is no two same ways to thin. What I would ideally like some input on is the paint application. I have got my paints to semi-skimmed milk consistancy and try to apply. It tends to pool a lot and I dont think it gives a good coverage, I understand that several layers might be required but is this right?

 

2. Thinning paint mix: This is a horribly general question, I have tried endless formulae for thinning, typically setting for 10 drops water to 1 drop Liquitex Flow-aid, This leads to a really bubbly mixture that doesnt seem entirely right. Also, in my dropper bottle, this mix doesnt look how I imagined it from seeing online tutorials and such. Any help with that is appreciated.

 

3. Faces: I am slowly ripping my hair out over this. I have painted the eye socket area with a darker colour, beasty brown and then I apply the white for the eye leaving a small area around the edges. This part works fine. My painting is a bit ragged being a novice and the brown went a bit far. Now, trying to cover up the brown is the hard bit as this ties in with the first point. The lighter flesh, elf flesh, barely covers the brown, and after about 3 layers, it just looks like the model is really dirty now and not finishing very nicely.

 

Lastly, I know a lot of it is practice, which I have been doing a lot, but it isn't half frustrating. This is only for my second batch of models. First being really shoddy painted marines using straight out the pot, they look lumpy and well, what a first attempt should look like. The models I am on just now are some scouts, so first time painting flesh, verdict is very hard and massively demoralising, I'm thinking on just giving them loads of stubble.

 

Thank you if you take the time to read this and then reply, I needed to vent some rage and hopefully get some new motivation and help.

 

Yours in Zeal

 

Brother Mitch

[IronKobra]

It tends to pool a lot and I dont think it gives a good coverage, I understand that several layers might be required but is this right?

 

Brother Mitch

 

You still have too much paint on the brush this sounds like. If it is quite watered down it will flow off the brush like a wash. You need to take some of the paint off it by drawing it across a paper towel. Then try it on your thumb nail before the mini and see if there isn't too much paint to control.

 

As far as what to use to thin... I usually just mix at least 50/50 with plain water and occasionally a drop or 2 of vallejo glaze medium and I haven't really had any problems with it.

[Brother Mitch]

@IronKobra

Thanks for the advice, I have been using just water recently and I think it is a bit better.

 

The paper towel, always something I forget. I started trying the thumbnail thing last night. I think the felshtones are really hard to gauge though as they are really pale when applied. I take it is really slow going then, as in a lot of layering to get the colour coverage.

 

Brother Mitch

[Hemal]

You should go to dwarf flesh, bronzed flesh then elf flesh, or add bleached bone or maybe one of teh foundations if you want to get a cruder effect

[Hemal]

My faces start off scorched brown, mix to snakebite leather for most recesses, layer really thinly with this mixed with bronzed flesh, wash with thinned red gore for some colour, highlight up through thinned layers of elf flesh with elf flesh + skull white extreme highlights. This is my "pale skin" formula.

 

Tanned skin is just same as above but going through Dwarf flesh, bronzed flesh to elf flesh and adding a couple of additional washes of red gore.....

[MagicMan]

3. Faces: I am slowly ripping my hair out over this. I have painted the eye socket area with a darker colour, beasty brown and then I apply the white for the eye leaving a small area around the edges. This part works fine. My painting is a bit ragged being a novice and the brown went a bit far. Now, trying to cover up the brown is the hard bit as this ties in with the first point. The lighter flesh, elf flesh, barely covers the brown, and after about 3 layers, it just looks like the model is really dirty now and not finishing very nicely.

 

 

 

Faces take a while to get right. Im the opposite, im pretty sucky tbh at painting all the smooth curvy power armour, but since i really started painting with Lotr when they first came out my dudes faces come out pretty nice.

 

 

With the flesh colour not going on well, you need several thin coats, try painting it on while the previous layer is wet or giving it a wash of Devlan Mud after a few layers to bring all the colours together.

 

Another thing im a fan of is simply adding white to Dark Flesh in order to get all the skintones, you'll find it goes on alot smoother than the pre-made skin paints over brown since you get all the transition colours inbetween. Give it a try, its probably my favourite way to paint faces.

 

Just using picture to illustrate point, i don't have any of my marines faces, i know hes not power armoured.

 

Its how i painted this guy, and his face is insanely small. He's about as big as the head in the picture. Lol. Its all just dark flesh, with white slowly added.

 

http://i56.tinypic.com/16bxzld.jpg

[Brother Mitch]

@ Hemal:

 

Nice, i like the formula your using, it seems pretty solid. I'll need to sample with my next lot.

 

@ MagicMan:

 

Again, I like your process, will need to try it as well. I think I am just eing impatient. The layers are generally ok, but I always think that they are too thin and do not cover the colour underneath. For example, your guys nose is a solid par with the rest of the face, my guys look like they have really dirsty noses and the paint tends to run off of the raised area into the eye sockets, it really annoys me. Doing a devlan mud wash after a few coats brings it together, I will need to give this a shot, not heard it before.

 

To both of thanks, I have some experimenting to do tonight,

 

Yours in Zeal

 

Brother Mitch

[Hemal]

The paitn running is a functin of having too much paint on the brush, you need to essentially treat the brush like a swash of colour, so not too damp, and not too much paint. Think paint is better because details are not obsucred. My best faces are on Elves, and on most I can even differentiate bags under the eyes because my coats of paitn are thin enough