ModelingMetalResinMiniatures02

Modeling & Painting 3D Miniatures: Prelude

The Build:

Whether you're working with metal, resin, or plastic, the building and smoothing and painting methods are very similar. This is a pair of prints lifted from How to Paint Fantasy Miniatures by Andrea Press that I have in stock at the time of this writing. Shown here- using a standard #11 blade to defrag any flashing on the parts, filing smooth the areas to be joined, burnishing for the best finish painting later, drilling to run a wire through the heavier joints because we don't trust glue alone. Then apply putty to the glued joint and texture the putty to match the surrounding area.

The thing with drilling & pinning is not needed on plastic moulded kits, as the parts weigh very little, but on metal figures, and the larger resin figures, I think it's a real good idea. Resin or metal- use the CA type glues, I like Zap-a-Gap green label, but some modelers swear by epoxy instead because it deosn't get so crystalline hard, so it allows for temperature and humidity shift. On plastic moulded, the orange tube or liquid Testors is great, but many use Zap there too:

Having done the rough work, it's time to prime and paint. The artist here has used a white primer and then his darkest color for a base, adding highlights & details in steps:

Here in a print from Painting Girls in Miniature by Andrea Press, also in stock at this moment, is the same idea done in fleshtones, again starting dark and adding, smoothing in highlights:

I found a wonderful fleshtone & greyscale palette in
The Portrait Painter's Pocket Palette by Ian Sidaway:

What we're doing really is similar to the Old Masters style painting. They did a greyscale or earth-tone or some used verde (a dull green) as a base painting, complete with shadows and highlights, and then glazed rich thinned colour over to finish. Here in a page from How to Paint Like the Old Masters by Joseph Sheppard, is an illustration of this method, the original was done by Titian.

We need remember though, that our work shouldn't be near as intensely dark or light as what we see in this print, because he is working a flat canvas, and has to create every detail with his brush- we are painting 3D models that will show natural light & light fall-off or shadow, the same as our own bodies do.

With a medium sized well made 3D miniature, even if we only did one flat basic tone it would look okay. But we want better than okay, so we learn, and push on:

Here are 2 pages from another book by Joseph Sheppard- Bringing Textures to Life, the first shows how to model lace. As before, we don't use as intense of color tones as shown, and yes it is a cabbage, but the method is right on for lace & tapestry & embroidery:

In closing, I want to comment on the air-brush- a wonderful tool. I studied the first master of this fun tool, the great Vargas- some say he pretty much invented the Pin-up Girl. Well, the poster painters for the Moulin Rouge would argue that,
but he certainly did perfect the airbrush.

So when I was learning my art, I was told that certain things just couldn't be done without the airbrush. Bunk. Sheer fabrics and the flesh underneath have been hand brush painted for hundreds of years. But I'm not putting the airbrush down. No, I like these toys, I like them a lot. I just wanted to mention

And this one, although of flowers, shows well how to accomplish folds and frills, like in the hem of the dress of the Spanish Dancer following:

that we all have our own methods, as it should be, no 2 artists alike. One thing where the airbrush really makes it's own way- silk stockings. More on sheer fabrics and translucent painting in the next page.

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