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WIP Chinese General, Han Dynasty - 54mm Pegaso

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by phil_h, Jul 12, 2016.

  1. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Hey Guys,

    So for my next project, I'm starting this guy from Pegaso - their fairly well known 54mm Chinese General (just in case you didn't catch that in the title ;)). He's been sitting in my Grey Army for far, far too long

    I'm looking forward to this because despite the fact that he is 54mm, there is a TON of detail, and there are also plenty of areas for freehanding embroidery, brocade, and other patterns on all the robes, garments, under-garments, under-under garments and so on (I plan on doing all of that).

    I'm thinking he might be a perfect subject for a comprehensive, detailed step by step - what do you guys think? (As opposed to the usual random updates).

    Here is the figure cleaned, prepped and ready for assembly. The casting was very high quality and only required minimal prep work.

    2016-07-11 21.37.03.jpg




    Here he is primed and ready for paint. He was sprayed with black primer, and then lightly dusted with a coat of white primer. I find in addition to help show where the lights fall, it also helps pick out the details too. His arms are not glued in either, because they'll just get in the way. They where just held in place with blue-tac for the priming.

    IMG_20160711_225841.jpg

    The first part to tackle will be the face - fleshtones, eyes, hair, and so on...

    Regards,
    Phil
    Huw63, stoffy01, Dan Morton and 7 others like this.
  2. Oda A Fixture

    This very serious looking general has been sitting in my GA for far too long too.An absolutely awesome subject,perfectly sculpted and cast by Pegaso back in the glorious 54mm producing days (yes,still very bitter about the whole scale shifting affair).An awesome choice of subject,Phil and very glad that you are going for a step by step thread with this one.Will be following you closely on this one mate.

    Oda.
    phil_h and anstontyke like this.
  3. anstontyke A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    this looks a lovely piece, will follow your progress on this one. love the idea of a step by step guide(y)

    tony
    phil_h likes this.
  4. DaddyO A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Nice one - I've got the Chinese chappie that was issued to subscribers of Figure International c/w flags and swirling robes that I picked up a while back for a fiver. Hope this will provide some inspiration to dust him off and slap a bit of paint on him

    Paul
    phil_h likes this.
  5. peedee A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Looking good so far !

    Paul
    phil_h likes this.
  6. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Thanks Oda! I hope I can keep this interesting enough for you!

    On a completely different note, I too love to the classic 54mm scale. As a matter of fact, look what arrived in the mail yesterday:

    2016-07-12 13.01.24.jpg 2016-07-12 13.01.53.jpg

    Have you seen these yet? I can't tell you how beautiful these things are... and they each come with plinths! These are as good as they get for 54mm!

    Cheers,
    Phil
    Huw63, stoffy01, Babelfish and 3 others like this.
  7. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States

    Thanks Tony - I'm going to try to be as comprehensive as I can, hopefully somebody, somewhere may get something from it!
    anstontyke likes this.
  8. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States

    Thanks Paul. I don't think I've seen that figure... you got a pic somewhere?


    Ha - Thanks Paul!
    If only I could get away with calling him finished just after priming! Unfortunately as soon as paint touches him, it could all go down hill from there!
    anstontyke likes this.
  9. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Alright so we'll start with the face. If we can get that nailed down, we'll be in business. With the face being the focal point for most miniatures, if the face looks dynamite and the rest of the figure is pretty crappy, from an overall standpoint, it can still look pretty good! (Not that we want to paint the rest of this guy pretty crappy though :D).

    We're going to create a base coat for his face using a combination of the following paints:

    2016-07-13 19.25.35.jpg

    We'll be using acrylics, and if you're not familiar with Golden, it's worth your while to check them out. They are a very high quality artists acrylic paint, with a very high pigment load (Much higher than you see in "craft" of "modeling" paint lines). Most artists acrylics come in tubes - these are usually referred to as "heavy-body" acrylics, and have a consistency and finish similar to an oil paint. However, several years ago Golden released a "fluid" or "soft-body" acrylic paint line. These have the same pigment load and finish as their heavy-body paints, but have a much, much thinner viscosity. Their viscosity level is similar to either Andrea or Scale 75. (Vallejo is a little thinner).

    We're looking to get an unassuming neutral, medium, Asian skin tone - nothing too dark or light, and just a tinge of a reddish hue. We don't want too much red, or we'll move from Asian into North/Central/South American Indian skin tones, but just enough to give it some life. Also, despite the fact that the base coat will be almost entirely completely covered up with subsequent work, the subtle red in it will hopefully contribute to the overall look.

    Here is the palette, with the Raw Sienna up top, then the Napthol Red, and the Naples Yellow Hue at the bottom. In the middle of the palette, you can see the mix between the three that is the base tone:

    2016-07-13 19.25.02.jpg

    I can't tell you the exact percentages of each used, but it was a lot of Raw Sienna, a little bit less of Naples Yellow, and just a tiny drop of the Napthol Red.


    Here is the face base coated:

    2016-07-13 19.23.56.jpg

    A couple of things of note:
    • We're deliberately not being completely opaque with our base coating. On a 54mm scale figure, it's very difficult to achieve the kind textured look to our skin that you may see on a larger figure or bust. By letting the black/white primer show though a little bit, this can help add a little bit of texture to our skin.
    • Another reason why we don't need to be perfect in our coverage with the base coat is that subsequent layers will cover up any prior inconsistencies in coverage.
    Next up are the eyes! (Always a scary proposition on a figure this size!!)
    Regards,
    Phil
  10. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    The Eyes...

    In general regardless of scale (figure or bust), I like to paint the eyes right after the face has been base coated. If I go and do the entire face with all the shading, highlighting, blending, etc... and then do the eyes - I think there is just too much of a chance to spoil all the hard work you just put in. By doing them earlier in the process, if you mess them up, all you need to do is just reapply some base coat and you're all set. Also, I just like to get them out of the way. A nicely done set of eyes goes a LONG way towards imbuing your figure with life, creating expression, and setting tone and mood.

    Specifically regarding this figure, his eyes are small. There is not a lot of wiggle room and almost no room to maneuver. Even at 54mm, you can usually get away with iris, pupil, and light reflex - if you're careful ;). For this specific figure, I'm not so sure - his eyes are actually closer to something you'd see at 28mm. Essentially, for this sculpt, the eye sockets are made up of just the tiniest slits - we'll need to be careful!

    On to the painting...
    Here are the colors that will be used:

    2016-07-14 19.24.49.jpg



    The first step for me is to block in the eyeball. For this, we'll be mixing the Naples Yellow Hue and Titanium white, for an off white color, and then just a little, tiny, tiny, tiny, bit of the Naphthol Red to hint at all the blood vessels and capillaries that are in the eyeballs. (If you can see it, you've put too much red in :ROFLMAO:).

    Here are the eyeballs:
    2016-07-13 19.47.19.jpg

    Despite the fact that there are not perfectly sized and there is a little sloppiness, we can clean that all up in the subsequent steps.

    Next step is to outline the top of the eyeball with a solid black line. This helps offset the eye sockets, and also helps give the semblance of eyelashes. This was done with just straight-up Carbon Black.

    Here's what it looks like:
    2016-07-13 19.53.31.jpg

    Again, it doesn't need to be perfect, we can always clean it up - with either the base coat above it or the eyeball color below it.


    Next are the pupils - this is where it can get a little tricky. We want both the size and the orientation of both to be exactly the same, otherwise it'll just throw everything off and look weird. I want the general to be looking ever so slightly to the left with his eyes. I also want them to help give the impression that he is weary and that he's seen it all - and he is not amused. He is getting ready to fight yet another battle in a campaign that has been going on for far too long now. (At least in my own mind...). Raw Umber has been used for the iris, and Carbon Black for the pupils. Due to the darkness of the colors, I couldn't really get this to show in the photos. Due to size, there is no light reflex painted in. (As a reference, I have a pretty high definition photo Cartacci's box art, and his version is lacking them as well - so good enough for him, good enough for me!!)

    Here are the pupils:
    2016-07-13 20.01.04.jpg

    We'll clean these up a little bit too. At this point, just adding in the pupils adds a lot of character to the face (at least to me).


    The last step for the eyes (aside from any needed clean up), is to paint a thin subtle pinkish line delineating the bottom of the eyeballs. Because of his ethnicity, the pink color needs to be really, really, subtle. A line too thick, or a color more red than pink can give him bloodshot eyes, which I do not want. We'll use Titanium White with just a tiny speck of Naphthol Red, and get a very subtle light pinkish hue. We want the effect to look more like a "suggestion" than an actual line painted on.

    Here is what it looks like:
    2016-07-13 20.10.07.jpg




    See? They're there, but it's a pretty subtle effect. As we do the face proper, they'll get thinner as well, which is what we want. We want these to be just on the inside of the bottom eyelids. So as we do the face, we'll cover up the excess on the outer surface of the eyelids. The pupils were also cleaned up here as well.


    Aside from a little cleanup, we're finished! Here is the palette:
    2016-07-13 20.11.09.jpg


    Here are the brushes used for all this work:
    2016-07-13 20.13.02.jpg

    The one on the left is the a Raphael 8404 size 0. The one on the right is a Winsor & Newton Series 7 size 000. These are the only two brushes I'll be using for the course of the project.


    For the hell of it, here is a blurry pic just quickly taken of the eyes from the other side of his face (As I got to the end of this I realized that I didn't have one from this side)...
    blurry.jpg

    Even when blurry, if you can get the sizes and orientation correct, they'll still look OK!

    I'm enjoying putting together this SBS and getting my thoughts down as I progress - I hope you guys are enjoying it too! Next will be the face proper.

    Regards,
    Phil
  11. Oda A Fixture

    Absolutely great SBS.Informative,artistic and very well presented.Textbook quality for beginers and advanced modellers alike.Keep'em coming Phil.Totally love it.

    Oda.
    phil_h and anstontyke like this.
  12. anstontyke A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    really loving the tutorial, its a great help for newbies like myself.
    cheers phil

    tony
    phil_h likes this.
  13. rossbach PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    Netherlands
    A nice figure(y)
    anstontyke and phil_h like this.
  14. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    Phil

    Following this , yes I know it's got legs but hey I live life on the edge !

    Great SBS like the way you are writing it as though you are actually talking and doing the work with us

    Keep at it

    Nap
    anstontyke and phil_h like this.
  15. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Thanks so much Oda, I'm really glad you're enjoying it and I can't wait to get on with the next couple of steps! However, I'll be taking my son to the beach for the next couple of days so I'll be short for time until next week...


    Thanks Tony, I'm glad I can provide even a little bit of help!


    Thanks!


    Thanks so much Nap! Glad to see you out on the edge, glad you can join us!


    The next installment will be face and hair (and the little crown he has). I plan on taking a different approach than what I normally do. We'll have to see how well it turns out... Stay tuned :)


    Regards,
    Phil
    anstontyke likes this.
  16. Viking Bob PlanetFigure Supporter

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Following this, I want to start painting faces in acrylics as I use oils at the moment.
    Oda likes this.
  17. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Hello everybody...

    I will apologize in advance right off - this is going to be long and fairly picture heavy - you've been warned :)! (Also due to the length, I'm going to break this up into several postings...)


    So after spending some time on the beach with the kid, I've finally found some time to knock this guy's face out, so without further ado...

    The face - preliminary thoughts

    When painting the face, I think the most important question we can ask is, "what kind of face do I want to paint?" Old and tired? Strong and imposing? Young or dynamic? When trying to answer this, we're usually informed most by either the box art or the sculpt itself, followed usually by looking at what others have done either online or up close and personal. Hopefully at some point we decide, "Hey, I want my little person to look like this!" For this particular sculpt, as I mentioned in a prior post on painting his eyes, I mentioned I wanted our guy to look a little older, a little worn out, and a little sick and tired of it all. I arrived at that conclusion by looking at the sculpt. The face on this sculpt has softer features and a less angular jaw and cheek bones then what I might see on a younger face - to me he just looked wearied and not amused as opposed to younger and more menacing. (This process took all of about 5 minutes as I looked at the figure while I was unboxing it - no need to be long and drawn out about it ;) .)

    Having squared all that away, a fairly obvious follow up question is, "what kind of techniques or past experience can I bring to bear to help me realize this?" Here is where we really get into the nuts and bolts of it all. Blending, texturing, contrasts, skin tones, lighting schemes, etc... are all things we want to bring in to help us get this thing painted in a way that (hopefully) matches what we had in mind. For us to make our General's face the way we wanted, here are some examples of this:
    • While a really good rule of thumb is that the smaller the scale, the larger the contrast - to get an older, worn feel, I deliberately decided I actually wanted a much softer, lower contrast then would normally be seen on a 54mm. I had to make a judgement call, and I decided that going this route would contribute more to the results that I had in mind. This will make our job harder, because our blends will have to be that much smoother, and making smooth blends on 54mm face with acrylics can sometimes be a pain in the ass.
    • Crows feet around the eyes, furrowed brows, forehead creases, wrinkles, etc... By painting on details like this (that aren't necessarily part of the sculpt), we reinforce our notion of a tired, weary General.
    • Greying hair. Not only is this obvious, it's ridiculously easy, and goes a long way towards getting us the look we want.
    With that out of the way, before we get into the actual steps taken, let's have a look at the end result, so we know what we're working towards:
    P1000071.JPG P1000073.JPG
    Here are some close ups:
    P1000077.JPG P1000085.JPG P1000087.JPG
    To be honest, there is still just a tad more cleanup work to do, but I thought we were complete enough to get this out. Hopefully you guys agree with me that I managed to get a more wearied, "been there done that" look to him.
    Also, in full disclosure, it was very, very, very scary for me to post pictures this blown up of a 54mm face - where you can see all the blemishes, brush strokes, and mistakes!! To be honest, though, taking hi-def pics of your figures as you paint is the best tool in the world to help show you where you may need to make corrections, smooth things over, or tidy up - so it's definitely worth it.
    Next will be the skin tones...
    NickM, anstontyke, Oda and 1 other person like this.
  18. phil_h A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    The face - palette and skin tones.

    Here are the paints we're using for the face:

    2016-07-25 18.45.00.jpg


    There is an incredible amount of tonal variation among Asian skin tones - they can range from a very pale, porcelain-like tone, to a yellowish, golden tone, or even darker more coppery-like tones. For our General here, I wanted something medium neutral, tending towards the lighter side. If we are unhappy with our original choices, we can always move the skin tone up or down through using glazes. I think the colors above should give us all we need to get a decent base tone (mid tone), shadows, highlights and other tones we can glaze in to give the skin some interest.

    When it comes to making the actual mixes/tones, it's not a very scientific process. I look for something that is close enough to the final tone I'm looking for, and start with that. In this case it was the combination of Raw Sienna and Naples Yellow. I almost swapped out Naples Yellow for Yellow Ochre, but I though the resultant tones would be a little to dark for what I wanted. I then add other colors in very small portions at a time until I get the tone I want or "close enough" It's important not to add too much of one color, as it's always easier to add more of a color than to take a color away ;). Also, as blood flows through us, and skin is translucent, I always have a couple of different reds handy to mix into our tones as we see fit.


    With that being said, here are our mixes:
    1. Base tone - A lot of Naples Yellow, a little less of Raw Sienna, a small amount of Hansa Yellow Medium, and just a very, very small speck of Primary Magenta.
    2. Highlight 1 - The base tone with a little bit of Titanium White added to it. The base tone should comprise a little more than half of the mixture.
    3. Highlight 2 - Highlight 1 with a little more Titanium White added
    4. Highlight 3 - Titanium White with a little tiny bit of the base tone added to it.
    5. Shadow 3 - A lot of Burnt Umber Light, about a drop of Alizarin Crimson Hue, a little bit less of Titanium White, Burnt Sienna and Permanent Violet Dark.
    6. Shadow 2 - Shadow 3 with some of the base tone mixed into it.
    7. Shadow 1 - A lot of base tone with a little bit of Shadow 3 mixed into it.
    8. Tones for glazing into shadows and mid-tone areas: Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Violet Dark.
    You may have noticed that I listed the shadows backwards in the above list. It's done that way to reflect how I actually mixed them on the palette. I started with the darkest shadow first, and then used that to help me make the intermediary shadow tones (along with the base tone).
    Here is what the palette looks like at this point:
    2016-07-25 18.55.19.jpg
    One important point - we all know acrylics dry fast. I don't use a wet palette, and I don't like having to go back and mix more paints or tones into my palette once I'm in the thick of it, so in each of the above wells in the picture above, I add a drop or two of this:
    2016-07-27 17.20.12.jpg
    This is Liquitex Slow-Dri Fluid Retarder. Using this allows me to pretty much paint for entire mornings or afternoons without having to worry about my paint drying out. It also helps out tremendously if you like to use wet-blending techniques. It's awesome - go and get some. It may take a little getting used to, but it's soooooo worth it!
    That about covers it for our skin tones and palette. Now that we have our colors laid out and ready to go, we can get painting!
    anstontyke, arj, Dan Morton and 2 others like this.
  19. Oda A Fixture

    Very infotmative and a pleasure to read and watch,absolutely top class Phil.

    Oda.
    anstontyke and phil_h like this.
  20. arj A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    A very informative S.B.S.
    I'll be following this with interest.

    Cheers,
    Andrew
    phil_h likes this.

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