Skip to main content

July Painting Challenge: Day #12. . .

Little by little, the figures take shape.  Still lots to do though.  Next up?  Shoulder belts and straps.


Another two or three fairly brief session in the painting chair yesterday afternoon and evening (Thursday), working primarily on adding some highlights to coats, breeches, the tips of toes, insteps, and the upper half of the right rear calves on all of the figures.  Areas that would catch the light on a a typical sunny day in this particular pose.  This part of the painting process is, for me at least, slow work as I take care not to get any errant splotches of paint where they should not be.  It's better to minimize later touch-up work whenever possible. 

At the same time, I must make sure to let enough of the darker undercoat show through, in this case a very dark Ral Partha blue, a midnight navy really, to give some depth to everything.  It looks weird up close under the painting lights during the actual painting, but once everything is dry at arm's length, or so -- standard wargaming distance -- the end effect doesn't look too far off the mark. 

The trick here, I have found, is using a rather inexact combination of damp-brushing, washes, and then pure pigment on high areas like shoulders, upper arms, and/or upper backs (where visible).  All of which seems to yield nicer blending rather than cartoonish, stark color pops more worthy of fantasy or sci-fi figures.  It's not really easy to explain, and is something I have sort of stumbled on, in at least a few senses, over the year.  But if everything works right, you end up with a group of figures that each have a very slight, even subtle difference between them though their overall appearance is nevertheless still uniform.  

And of course, a brush with a good point helps immeasurably in the application.

 ------------

 Today is filled with errands of one kind, or another.  These include a haircut for The Young Master, mowing the front and back (if it does not rain), weeding part of a flower bed, and talking to gutter installer this evening after dinner.  Sadly, it will be evening before I can get back to these to wrap up basing highlights and move on to the shoulder belts.  If I'm not too tired from the day.  Summertime is not all fun and games!

 -- Stokes

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Here's an RSM Painting Update

Here's a picture illustrating my (S-L-O-W) progress with the second company of Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers. You can see I'm doing things a bit differently this time, altering the painting process to keep it interesting basically. This evening, I'll do the white gaiters and, if that goes reasonably quickly, and time allows, the red breeches. Still lots to do, but I like the way these fine fellows are shaping up along side the completed 1st company that's standing in formation just off camera, to the left here. Until tonight then!
3 comments
Read more

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!
14 comments
Read more

Having a "No Day". . .

  F or the almost 20 years that she lived in Mexico, one of my late mother's Irish friends frequently mentioned having a "No Day."  A day with no social obligations, chores, tasks, or other work that interfered with whatever personal interests took one's fancy on the day in question. Since today -- a gray and chilly Saturday -- is Mom's birthday, the Grand Duchess is out with friends, and the Young Master is ensconced on the sofa in the TV room with a cold, yours truly is taking his own such No Day.  I think Mom would approve of my decision to make the world go away, as the old Eddie Arnold song intoned, even if only for a little while. So, I will spend Saturday afternoon focused on that first squadron and small regimental staff of Eureka Saxon cuirassiers.  These have stood waiting  untouched over on the painting table for almost three weeks while we skied and otherwise gadded about with snowy, winter outdoor activities. I hope to share a painting update Sunday...
3 comments
Read more