Figure Painting for Beginners
By Chris Parkin
Part 3: Uniforms and Equipment
Other articles in this series:
(Articles originally published in the BMSS Bulletin magazine)
A superb example of Chris Parkin's painting is this Napoleonic drummer
If you followed the procedures outlined in Part 2 of this series, your figure will have a perfectly (!) painted head and hands, and the remainder primed and ready for final painting. The general principles for painting and shading uniforms are the same as previously described, so we'll take them as read. The easiest way for me to describe the process is to follow the sequence of painting an actual figure, for example a British Foot Guard of the Napoleonic Wars.
As the face and hair are finished, the headdress will be first on the agenda. The shako was of black felt, so will be primed matt black, with the exception of plume, badge and cords. Mix a very dark grey from Lamp Black and Titanium White and apply a thin, even coat to the body of the shako, leaving the binding, peak, cords and badge. Separate two blobs of the basic grey on the palette and add white to both to make mid and light grey. These will be your highlighting tones. Your shading colour will be pure black. With a fine brush, paint narrow black lines around edges of binding, badge and underneath cords, plus the rear part of the raised front above the crown of the shako (see fig. 1.) Blend into the basic grey. Into the centre of each area of basic grey apply a small amount of mid grey and brush well in to leave the centre of each area lighter than the base colour, but fading into it towards the edges of the area. This is far more difficult to describe than it is to actually do it, but done correctly it is extremely effective as it gives the impression of raised detail "sinking-in" the surrounding area. This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it works!
Paint the peak with black and gently brush some into the binding to make it slightly darker than the body. With the absolute minimum of light grey on the brush, gently stroke the uppermost edges of the shako, the top of the false front, around the crown, the edge of the peak and if your hand is steady enough, the upper edges of the binding. Allow to dry thoroughly and then apply a thinned coat of man varnish.
Paint the cords and the white portion of the plume with mid-grey and then pick out the raised areas e. tassel strands, plain cord, knots and plaiting with pure white. The wool plume can be treated in the same way as the hair, dab on a sparing amount of the light grey, followed by a light application of pure white. Note that fur and feathers can also be painted using this method, giving a satisfactory "depth" to the finished item The badge will not yet be painted, as I prefer to leave all metalwork till last.
Now for the rest of the uniform. Painting will be much easier if you use the "inside out" method. Imagine that you are putting on the uniform. First the shirt and neck stock, then shoes, trousers, gaiters, jacket and finally the equipment. That is the order in which to paint the various articles of the clothing (If the trousers are to be worn outside the gaiters, paint the gaiters first). Some modellers prefer, particularly with plastic figures, to add the equipment after the basic figure has been painted. This way, the equipment can be painted before assembly.
Paint the shoes dark grey with black shading around gaiter bottoms, welts and in folds. Highlight toecaps and tops of folds with light grey brushed in. Do not blend the colours as much as for cloth; the more abrupt contrast between light and dark will give the appearance of shiny leather. If scuffed shoes are required, use less light grey and brush in Burnt Sienna colour on worn areas. Gaiters are mid-grey with dark grey shading and light grey highlights; paint buttons light grey to make them stand out.
My own preference is to completely assemble the model; although this makes painting rather more awkward, it facilitates shading around bells, pouches, etceteras. The shirt, if showing, and the stock should now be painted. Use white for the shirt and dark grey for the stock. There is usually very little stock showing and some paint will inevitably stray onto the neck It is now that you will be glad that you matt varnished the flesh areas as the excess paint can be removed with a brush moistened with turps, without staining the flesh colour.
The trousers are light grey. Use the mid and dark-gray for shading With the dark shade, paint around the coat skirt, under the crutch and about halfway down the thigh, tapering down towards the knee (see fig. 2). With the mid grey, paint in all other folds and creases and the inside of the leg; joining the dark shade and tapering down to finish about halfway between knee and ankle. (I am assuming that the figure is posed standing in an at ease position. For more extreme animations, areas of light and shade, as well as the positions of folds and creases will obviously change). The rest of the trousers are painted light grey. To ensure that the correct areas are shaded view the figure from the direction of the light, in our case directly above. No areas of shading should be visible. Now blend the colours together. When blending is complete, brush in a very little white to the highlight areas, although there will not be many of these with the figure in this pose. See fig. 3 for an example of strong highlights and shadows.
The figure could be wearing white "dress" trousers. White garments are notoriously difficult to paint effectively, as no matter how well painted they may be they can all too easily finish up looking dirty. As a general rule, avoid white uniforms like the plague, but if you have to paint them, the shading must be very pale grey, almost off-white with a tiny amount of blue added. Obviously, no highlighting will be necessary!
For the jacket you can use colours straight from the tube. The basic colour is either Cadmium Red or Scarlet Lake, shading is Geranium Lake and highlight Camden Orange. Start by shading the armpits, small of the back and around collar, shoulder straps, cuffs, turnbacks, buttons, lace, equipment and of course, folds and creases. Paint the remainder with basic colour and blend highlight with orange on the shoulders and skirts. A little orange carefully brushed between the buttons will help them to "sink-in". On an officer's coatee, which would be a brighter scarlet I would use less shading colour and Cadmium Lemon for highlighting.
The small areas of blue on the collar, cuffs and shoulder straps would be painted Cobalt or Oxford Blue with a little white brushed in for highlight. Allow all the paint to dry thoroughly. At this stage of the proceedings I like to matt varnish the finished paintwork before progressing to the lace, equipment and metal. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, the seams in the clothing can be painted on in very thin lines of darkest grey on the trousers and Burnt Umber on the jacket. If this doesn't look right it can be wiped off again with a moist brush, without staining the rest of the uniform.
The lace is painted white with mid - grey blended in on the shaded parts. Cross belts are white with very little mid-grey shading; a mere suggestion of shadow being required or they will, like white clothing, look dirty. Cartridge pouch, knapsack and bayonet scabbard receive the same treatment as the shoes with sharp contrasts between light and shade. At this stage the remainder of the figure can be matt varnished, with satin varnish (not gloss) used on the leather, including the peak and binding on the shako.
The stock of the musket should have been primed with Humbrol Natural Wood and the steel and brass parts with mid grey and yellow enamel respectively. A most effective way of depicting wood is to paint with Burnt Umber oil colour, well brushed in one direction, so that the priming colour shows through as grain. A fairly stiff-bristled brush with the excess paint wiped off after each light stroke works best for me.
Now for the metalwork. Iron, steel, silver, pewter and white metal (buttons) should be primed mid grey; brass, gold and copper with yellow. Steel, iron and pewter are best represented by carefully rubbing over the grey primer with a soft lead pencil, HB or B grade; this will produce a beautiful metallic sheen which can, if desired be gently buffed with a cotton bud. (This technique can also be used on A.F.V.s when worn areas of paintwork with the hull metal showing through are required). For highlighting this and for representing silver and white metal scoop a little sediment from the bottom of a tin of Humbrol Airframe Silver and mix with Rose Medium to a thin consistency. Care is needed when applying, as it will now freely off an overloaded brush and onto adjacent areas, from which it is impossible to completely remove. The best technique is to gently stroke the brush over the parts to be highlighted. It is better to understate the highlights; all that is needed is just enough to catch the light. A slightly different technique is required for larger areas of silver buttons and badges for instance. In this case dip just the tip of the brush into the silver paint and touch gently onto the part. The paint will flow off the brush and can be "guided" more than stroked to where you want it. The paint will flow into engraved detail and will dry to a smooth, shiny finish.
For brass and gold I use Rose "Light Antique" and Rich Gold" respectively. These are metallic powders which, when mixed with Rose Medium produce a super smooth shiny finish. Light Andque can be highlighted with Rich Gold and Rich Gold with silver (but sparingly!). Copper is mixed in much the same way as silver, using the sediment from Humbrol Copper with Rose Medium although this tends to be rather "grainy" in appearance.
(Incidentally, my colleagues of the Mediaeval persuasion recommend that on large areas of plate armour or chain mail on metal models, an extremely effective method is to burnish the metal with a knitting needle or brass wire brush, and when this is thoroughly dry, coat with gloss varnish. Silver may be used sparingly to pick out highlights).
Returning to our example, shading can be applied to metal with the use of dark grey or Burnt Umber oil colour, depending on whichever metal you are depicting. With the oil paint sparingly applied and well brushed out the metal will shine through, but distinctly darker in tone. It now only remains to "line in". This process will help to separate details and make them stand out from the rest of the figure. For this you need a steady hand and a very fine brush (for the former I recommend clean living and pure thoughts and the latter a 00 or 000 brush reserved solely for this task!). For example, the buttons would have dark grey painted in the thinnest of thin lines around them, and the buckle on the pouch belt likewise in Burnt Sienna. The extent of lining-in is solely to individual taste. but beware of overdoing it or your figure will look like a 'toy' soldier. Details of regimental badges on belt and shoulder plates will also benefit from lining-in.
Our model is now complete. I would now put it away out of sight for a few days and then re-examine it closely with a fresh eye. Any mistakes (?) will be more readily apparent and should be remedied if possible. You must be prepared to be your own harshest critic and totally ruthless. If you are not satisfied and the errors cannot be rectified, start again. (Yes, I have used "Modelstrip" on more than one occasion!). If you are happy, all well and good. Don't worry about ''will the judges like it?": the name of the game is to please only yourself. If your model DOES win competitions, look on it as a bonus: pot-hunting can be a soul destroying business.
Now is the time to start thinking about groundwork, basing and displaying your masterpiece: but that subject is another article in itself. I would like to conclude this diatribe with some subjects connected with but not covered by the foregoing. First, a few thoughts on mixing oils. For lightening and darkening colours, use their complementary hues; for instance, brown will darken and yellow will lighten red. Blue will darken and yellow will lighten green and brown. I only use white to lighten blue and black; with any other colour it will produce a pastel effect. Mind you, this can be useful if you are painting a woman's dress, but is hardly de rigeur for uniforms! Never use black to darken; it immediately makes colours dirty. A very useful and informative article on mixing and using oil paints appeared in the March '85 edition of "Military Modelling" magazine, written by "Stan Catchpol" in his "Modelling Workshop" series.
Harking back to ladies' clothes, I once had to paint two female Phoenix figures for a Napoleonic vignette. The flesh tones posed the first problem; womens' features are generally more bland and skin much paler than mens', with consequently less contrast between light and shade. I wanted to portray them wearing silk and satin and I found that the best way was to treat them as leather, that is to use a greater than normal contrast between light and shade with very little blending.
Braiding. How often have you seen figures displayed with gold and silver braid painted like metal? Too often! It is simplicity itself to make a realistic job of it. Prime silver braid with mid- grey and gold with yellow. Apply a blob of Yellow Ochre and a blob of white to your palette and into the yellow, mix Rose Fine Gold powder until the paint is "filled" with it (try it and you'll see what I mean). You will need to thin the mix with turps fairly liberally as it tends to "stiffen-up" quickly. It also sets like concrete so use fairly sparingly. When dry it can be speckled with the normal Fine Gold and Medium mix to produce a sparkle. Line-in and shade with Burnt Umber. Silver braid is produced by scooping some sediment from Airframe Silver and mixing with the white oil paint. Speckle with normal silver mix, line-in and shade with dark grey.
A most satisfactory way of representing brown leather is to first prime with Humbrol Leather, then paint on Burnt Sienna for the main colour. Shade with Burnt Umber and highlight with Yellow Ochre. A very pleasing reddish brown leather effect is the result.
I will conclude this series by reiterating that which I have stressed before. Practice and experiment constantly. "Students" tubes of oil paint are cheap enough to buy fairly frequently, either for specific use or simply because the colour takes your fancy. Explore different colour combinations and if one looks interesting and possibly useful, note it down.
