"Washing" the pewter figurines before final painting of details

Wipe them with alcohol and try to avoid touching them as best as humanly possible, and  paint away,….

Pat

I know, the traditional advice is to wash cast figures to remove the mold release chemicals. Easy enough if you are patient.

A good friend who is a recognized painter of military figures gave me different advice... just spray prime the figures with a light coat from a black  rattle can of spray paint. The black color gives you a base for facial details, shadows, etc. Use acrylics to then add colors, almost but not quite dry brushing. Let the underlying primer highlight details.

It works for me.

Well, once again, I have not been clear. My fault.

Yes, I washed the  figures with soap and water to remove all chemical residues, before I primed  them.

What I am asking about is the "washing" after application of major colors, using a thin wash coat of brown or gray paint, to create and highlight shadows in the major color areas, before painting on the final fine details.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

@Mannyrock posted:

Well, once again, I have not been clear. My fault.

Yes, I washed the  figures with soap and water to remove all chemical residues, before I primed  them.

What I am asking about is the "washing" after application of major colors, using a thin wash coat of brown or gray paint, to create and highlight shadows in the major color areas, before painting on the final fine details.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

That’s to what suits you,….I use a super thin wash of brown to highlight crevices, folds in their clothing, etc……try gray, brown or black, test on one dude until you’re happy,…volunteer one fella to be the test dummy,….doubt he’ll mind,..😉

Pat

Thanks Pat, but how do I create a thin wash of brown or black out of Testor's enamel paint?  (If I thin the enamel paint with lots of mineral spirits, wouldn't the wash dissolve the enamel paint I am painting it over.)

Or, alternatively, what other type of brown or black wash would stick to Testor's enamel paint?

Any conventional wisdom on this?

Thx,

Mannyrock

India ink or acrylics?

Scotie hit it n the head,…if you painted the folks with testors oil based enamel, you can then turn around and create a wash of thinned acrylic with water,….basically making dirty water,….very very thin,…you’re just using it as a highlight, not painting,…

Pat

I second the use of water based paints over the enamel, or even other water based finish coats, as long as they’re dry.

Artie

You really need to try different techniques on a test figure or two and see what works for you. I use a wash to tone down everything, create a weathered look. Dry brushing is also important in painting figures...  using acrylics, wipe your brush on a paper towel until very little pigment is on the brush. You can then add subtle colors to the figure with the brush. Another technique...  if you have painted with brash primary colors, consider a light dull coat from the spray can. That gives you 'tooth' for subsequent dry brushing or other techniques.

When I took down an earlier layout I took up painting miniatures.  I mostly use acrylics and there are a number of washes that are available for those.  Vallejo and Citadel make the ones I use, but there are others.  You could try them on enamels but I am not sure that enamel paint has enough tooth for the wash to catch on to.  My concern about making a wash out of enamels is that the base for your wash would likely be a solvent that would break down your underlying paint.

Thanks for all advice.

I have seen some folks say that the put a final sealant coat on their paint jobs, to seal in everything, and they use a spray on polyurethane that has just a little bit of brown color in it.  This also serves as a final darkening wash.   I wonder if this would stick to enamel paint?   Or, if it would just flake off?

I really love enamel paints.  If use any paint that is water soluble, then I am sure to somehow someway get the final product damp or wet somehow, and have the paint come off.  :-(

Mannyrock

Let your newly painted people completely dry up, then use an acrylic wash with a brush that you can control the outcome, I’d think a spray would be hard to get the coloring right,….I use the cheaper acrylics in tubes that artists use, I can thin it down a lot or a little as I see fit,….plus, for just a few bucks, I can get a variety of browns, earth tones, and blacks to make the wash I want for the specific dude I’m detailing,…..a mail man won’t be near as filthy as the dude crawling all over a nasty dirty oily steam locomotive,….😉

Pat

@Mannyrock I would recommend searching online for "figure painting tutorials - Aspen Modeling Company" they have posted a detailed .pdf document on how to paint O Scale figures after they have been primed with a base coat.

In their tutorial they do a base color, shadow color and then highlight color.

You could also experiment with brush on powders or dry brushing (dipping a paint brush in (black or brown), then wiping most of the paint off and then lightly brushing the figure to accent or highlight the areas you are working on). 

That technique also works in reverse, i.e., you can dry brush with grey or off-white paint to highlight certain areas, like clothing.

T.Albers - Thanks for the suggestion to search for the Aspen Modeling Company painting tutorial.  It is an excellent reference document.  Not sure I have the patience to follow it step by step but I’ll give it a try.

John