Painting Tips…

We don’t provide painting instructions with our figures.  For the first release (sets GM72-001 to 008) we suggest the Osprey “Men At Arms” book “The Royal Navy in World War Two”.  This provides colour plates and uniform details.  We have found this to be a useful resource in making our figures.

Preparation

Any mould lines should be removed and cleaned up with a fine file and/or wet and dry paper.  In order to avoid handling the figure during the painting process we recommend that it is cemented to a temporary base to ease handling.  Figures should be washed in warm soapy water and thoroughly dry prior to undercoating/priming.  Our preference is to spray the figures with Halfords grey acrylic primer.

Brushes and Paint

We suggest that no compromises are made in the quality of brushes and paint used to paint figures.  All of the figures painted in the photographs in the gallery (hyper link) have been painted using Windsor and Newton series 7 sable brushes and Vallejo paints.  Windsor and Newton series 7 brushes are expensive.  However, if cared for properly they will hold their point much longer than cheaper brushes.  The figures in the photographs within the gallery are painted using an 0, 00 and 000 size brush although we suggest an 0 and 000 should be sufficient.

Paint is a matter of personal choice.  Vallejo paints were chosen for painting the figures in the gallery to enable the figures to be painted speedily.  Vallejo paints have wide range of colours available but more importantly, generally they have a high density of colour pigment. 

Alternative paints that we use from time to time are Pelican Plaka and Artist's Oil paints (not student oil paints).

We suggest that the figures are finished with a coat of clear varnish.

Painting Techniques

Painting technique is a matter of personal preference. In 1/72 scale we suggest that neatness is more important than other techniques.  Don’t attempt too much detail (for example don’t attempt to paint eyes in 1/72 scale – it’s unnecessary).

We usually paint a figure starting from the flesh (face and hands), working outwards so that top clothes are painted last.  In shading and highlighting figures, our usual method is to paint the darkest colour first (the area of the figure in shade) followed by the main colour and then add the highlights.

Military modelling magazines regularly have articles on painting figures.

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