In the Flesh. . .

 

The materials and brushes used to apply fleshtone and flesh wash to the unit currently under the brush. Both brushes are  synthetic 'rounds,' a new #4 used to apply the fleshtone itself, and an older #3 to apply the less precise wash.

Good Saturday morning everyone!  A New Zealand visitor to the Grand Duchy of Stollen has asked about how I paint the faces (and hands) on my figures.  Thank you for your question Paul, and here's how I do it in three steps:

1) Start by applying Winsor & Newton alkyd oil flesh tone, which dries in less than 24 hours [although any good acrylic, suitably peachy flesh tone will do].    

2) Give faces and hands a quick wash of Army Painter Flesh Wash during the next session.  

3) A day of two later, and using a very small brush with a good point, retouch the cheeks, bridges of noses, the occasional brow and chin, and the more exposed knuckles or backs of hands with a dot or dash of the original flesh tone.  Call it done and move on to other parts of the figures.

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For 40+ years, I used to apply basic flesh tone (always oil or alkyd oil) and leave it at that, adding mustaches wherever and whenever necessary.  I have consciously avoided attempts to paint in eyes or other similar details.  Many painters/gamers/collectors do so, but my own view is that, while those sorts of facial details work on large single display figures, they are overkill on 30mm or below.  And difficult to pull off convincingly.

But then I paint horse hooves using various browns on large regiments of cavalry, so what do I know?  You pick your poison I suppose.

In any case, that quick and dirty approach is how, until recently, I've always handled flesh areas on my miniatures, ranging from true 15mm to 30mm, D&D to historical.  And while the mass effect is what we are after as wargamers, I have nevertheless always felt like there was more I could do bring them to life.  After considerable thought on the matter, I concluded that it is really through the faces that we can achieve that.

Like many of you, my ongoing efforts with the brush have been spurred on by the many wonderful photographs in first Miniature Wargames and Wargames Illustrated way back in those heady days of the 1980s and very early 90s, and later the wonderful and much missed Battlegames.  Since about 2005, the various blogs I follow and two or three web fora I frequent have also provided much inspiration and continuing education in the fascinating (to me) journey that is the painting of historical miniatures.

Painterly improvement is an ongoing process, and there is always more to learn.  The internet, for all of its flaws and frustrations, has been very helpful when it comes to learning about how others around the world approach the preparation of their own armies for the table.  It eventually occurred to me to try something a bit different when it comes to faces and hands, which seems to yield pleasing results without a whole lot of extra time or effort.

Discovering ready made flesh wash and borrowing from the approach of painters/gamers like Aly Morrison (his 'magical brown liquid' washed over everything followed by retouching in the original colors) has led us to this point.  So, that's the short answer.  To recap, apply basic flesh tone.  Follow with a quick flesh wash.  Retouch sparingly with basic flesh tone.  Done.  And it seems to work pretty well.

Hope that might help, but keep in mind that are many, many different ways to achieve the painting results we are after.  Practice and experimentation are the most important parts of how we get 'em colored, based, and to the table or display cabinet.

As an added bonus, here's a progress photo of the current unit over on my painting table here in Zum Stollenkeller, 15 generic jaegers, based on those who fought for the various German principalities that contributed troops to the American War of Independence.  Still much left to do, of course, but the basic colors are just about blocked in, and I am enjoying the process of painting discovery that goes brush in hand with each new batch of figures.

-- Stokes

Still much painting ground to cover, but these wonderfully sculpted and cast Fife & Drum miniatures are shaping up rather nicely I think.  Wife ad child are away this afternoon, so the plan is to apply browns to the musket stocks and various sacks, pouches, bags, and possibly shoulder belts of the 15 figures.  Tow of the three steps in the flesh process described above have been completed here.  I might just leave it at that and press on since they look pretty good already.  The green coats and breeches have also undergone a two-step process: Citadel Dark Angels Green then a wash of Army Painter Green Tone on top, which seems to yield a very rich dark green.  The usual sparing highlights (shoulders, upper backs, arms, and/or chests (depending on the figure and pose) will follow in a day or three.

  

Sunday P.S.

Managed to get quite a bit painted on these during several painting session Saturday.  I ended up returning to the figures yesterday evening and carefully touched up the raised areas of their facial features and, depending on location, hands with the original alkyd oil flesh tone.  More work anticipated today, after some lesson planning for Monday morning, and then a few more progress photos for a later post.  Huzzah!