Monday 21 April 2014

Finnish infantry v.2 - base coats

Back to my Finnish infantry experiment. To recap, I am practising basic figure painting techniques on my 1/72 Strelet's Finnish 1944 infantry as - to be honest - that's about all they are really good for!


I started by trying out a white primer coat, I'm unsure whether starting with a light or dark primer is best so let's see. One things for sure, spraying on a coat of paint doesn't improve these figures any.

I'm working 'inwards out', starting with the bottom layer and working out to the top most layer of the figure. So let's begin with the face and hands...


Painting the faces of these Strelet's figures is painful, the faces aren't so much faces as misshapen potatoes. I can't imagine how I will be able to paint any sort of realistic features (even if I as an experienced painter), it's just as well this is just a practice exercise.


I continued working outwards, but while I was doing that I thought it would be interesting to paint one of my Plastic Soldier Company Germans at the same time to see how a nicely sculpted figure would paint up compared to the Strelet's ones.

The paint swatches are the colours I am testing out for my Germans - I did some research and it turns out that German 'Field Grey' wasn't quite as grey as I thought! But I digress...


I didn't take any more care painting the PSC German than I did over the Strelet's Finn, but I think you will agree that the two paint jobs look completely different levels of quality. I'm not saying that starting with a good quality figure will make a bad paint job look good, but starting with a bad figure definately won't do you any favours either.

Anyway, I'll carry on with these test Finns - as I definitely need the practise - because I have no idea how I will handle the detailing of clothing textures. It will be interesting to see what I can do to shade the clothing and equipment.

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