Queen Boudicca of the Iceni

[Guest]

Hi all

Harry definately advancing at a snails pace

Ole sorry which blob do you mean and ill have a gander at it cheers

Ian Erm cheers

Francesco thanks mucka other half coming up

So back end started, im going to do it mainly black, he will then have a black mane and a white tail

the shading needs pushing a bit more but its on the right lines

Paul

[monica]

looking good there Paul, very nice start

maybe this is a good time to get some tips on painting black from you

I have notice that you use black as well as a dark gray, to show high lite and low lite, the gray beening the high points ?

this is from were any tips would be useful for me to blend it all together and shown as a high spot dose that make sense ?

[Guest]

Hi Monica, i think black is one of the hardest colours to do, too much grey and it washes the black out, not enough and you dont get the effect. when i mix my pallet for any colour i put the lightest colour and the darkest colour next to each other and then mix them to gether forming various shades so that i can work the colour quickly. You have to imagine that the light is coming from directly overhead so if you get a crease right at the top would be lighter than the bottom, and anything underneath would be even darker. So from top to bottom, light to dark and the shades in between. For this black i mixed a bit of blue with the black for the base coat i could then use straight black for the deepest shadows

Heres a few pics of the finished rear right half

As you can see the very top of each muscle is the lightest shade and the bottom is black. Hope this helps

Paul

[monica]

hi Paul, thank you that is a big help as i was thinking to use a dark gray with a dark blue so it did to some what give the effect, your saying , but that way is quite easy to follow

as i tend to use a off black or flat black/gray in a mat, in the low spots, and a semi glass dark blue back on the higher points

as that last pic of his rump shows what you are saying very cleanly,

[Guest]

Thank you very much for the info Paul!

Will search an "old" figure or similar to try it ops: if I obtain the "half" result as yours will be a happy man

Can I ask...Do you dilute very much the painting? Is like the consistency to use on an airbrush or similar?

Thanks again for showing this amazing step by step build Paul, and respond always all the questions...

Cheers

[Guest]

Excellent result and explanation, as usual.

Francesco

[flyjoe180]

Great work as usual Paul.

[Ian M]

That was a very helpful description.

Loving this build.

Ian M

[Guest]

Thanks for all the comments guys......and gal .

Monica I wouldn't use a semi gloss just stick with matt all the way through, the only place I use a gloss varnish is a coat on the eyes to give them a bit of a shine.

Polux give it go im sure you will do well with it, I mix my paints to about a cream consistency, I don't know about airbrushes cos I havnt got one

Cheers Francesco

Many thanks Joe

Cheers Ian always glad to help

When I get onto the other side of the butt ill put up some pics of my pallet and how I lay the paints down and try to go into the SBS a bit more

Paul

[monica]

thank you very much Paul, for your help and advice gratuity appreciate , and the time you have put into the step by step helps so much

is look mighty fine as well look forward to next update

[Guest]

Hi all

I started on the last quarter of dobbin MKII and ive tried to break down the painting and put it into stages.

So first of all a good base coat that has had 3 or 4 layers and then been left to dry, for the base coat i use a wide flat brush to make sure there are no brush strokes.

You can see from these pics that with a light shone directly overhead it pics out where the shading and highlights should be

The next step is to put in some dark colour, this will be underneath and in the crease where the body meets the hind legs

you dont have to think about blending it at this point just get the colour on and let it dry.

once it has dried thoroughly ill then mix my pallet,

bit messy but as you can see i have white nearest to me and black at the top, the middle one has both colours and then a range of the two colours mixed to give me various shades of grey that i can use quickly.

at this stage ive just started to add a lighter shade of grey to the bottom one, dont worry if the shade is to dark or to light just alter it and go over it again, we are trying to get a graduated difference in tone without a definate line in between

You can see from this pic that i have graduated the shade up to just about white, its not perfect and it wont be on the first run. you can see at one point half way along that the paint wont take because its too wet, ill just have to leave this part and go over it again later. Sometimes it can take several coats to get the right amount of tonal difference. So i moved onto the back leg

A majority of the back leg will be black, but ive started to shade the white areas that willl remain white, so you can see that there is a dark area at the top of the leg which will be faded back to white, the top of the thigh is lighter and there is a long muscle or tendon that is highlighted. This is still the first run at this and there will be several more on the same two areas before ill be happy with it.

Next bit to follow

Paul

[john i am]

Cheers paul for your explanation it's very helpful. knowing what to do is half the battle the other half is applying what as been learnt to your model which is the reason I'm doing a lot of figures at the moment I was thinking of getting a wet pallet and maybe some retarder .i did get a couple of DVDs which are very good[ATTACH]79271.IPB[/ATTACH]

it's all about practice I feel as it seems the more I do the better they are getting . I can only hope that one day my efforts will be half as good as your own.amazing work you are doing regards John

[monica]

thank you for the great step by step once again Paul, and the explanation oh were too, is a great help,i will try to use some of these tips and shows on my next lot off 1.35 horses, i will be doing,

i know you are very busy with this one but have you ever though of doing some think like this with 1.35 heads and figures ?

i do watch a lot off the u tube ones but find they leave bits out maybe your dvd,s john maybe worth a watch as well ,and as you said its all about practice and each time as long as you improve, alittle

is worth it and just be satisfied, with your effete, and see your own mistakes that can be fixed on the next ones and so on , as trying to much to fix some think i think in the end you make it worse

[Guest]

Hi John, glad to be of help,and many thanks for the kind words, i havnt got a wet pallet, something i have been thinking of though, but i do use retarder occasionally, especially on larger areas or if i know ill have a couple of hours at the bench. Ive had a look at your figures and you are definately on the right track, if i was going to comment i would say that perhaps a touch more contrast between the lighter and darker areas to make them pop a bit more

Thanks Monica, i dont normally do 1/35 scale, mainly because its too small and my eyes are crap. Johns right about practice but dont get frustrated with it as it then becomes a chore, try new things everytime you do a figure or a horse or whatever and just experiment, for example i did a Dacian warrior and i wanted to make the helmet look like old bronze so i just gathered loads of pics of old bronze and experimented, it didnt come out perfect first time but ive done it several times now and it gets better each time

Paul

[Guest]

Hi all

So i carried on as before adding to either the highlights or the shading to get a better transition between the white and grey, it takes a while and sometimes its frustrating, especially between colours at the opposite end of the spectrum, but with a bit of patience it comes out well

Ive then painted in the rump with the mix of black and blue

This now is the opposite of what i was doing, for the white i was adding shading now i have to add highlights

So started of with a dark grey and then gradually lightened it the higher up the muscle or joint that i went.

And finally this is Taz to tell me its time for his walk to the pub and a cider or two