Hello - I'm considering purchasing Shep Paine's "Bldg & Painting Scale Figures" book since it covers the topic of painting with oils. I'd like to know if there are any opinions on this book, or anyone who has read it in the past.

Thank you for your feedback!

Ronnie

It's one of the figure enthusiasts bible, get a copy while you can!

Buy it. It's a great book. It's old, but I still refer to it.

The Bible. Buy it.

As everyone said, I strongly recommend to buy it. Not only about oil, but also philosophy of modelling figure in it.

Ronnie,this is the best book on painting figures i've ever brought,i still look at it now,he also wrote another book called Building Dioramas and this book also has excellent chapters on Figure Painting / Boxed Dioramas / Scratch Building / Displaying Models,i would really recomend these books to anyone starting out in the hobby or for the intermidiate / advanced modelers as well,as Tony said its the bible.

Brian

Good luck mate

This is great to know, as I already purchased the book! The copy I purchased is used, in "good" condition, $42 (w/ delivery). New copies of this book are around $200!!!! I'm a bit surprised that they don't re-issue. I will definitely get his book on dioramas at some point - this is something I want to get into once I've got the figure painting down a little better.

I greatly appreciate all of the feedback, thank you! Glad to know I made a good purchase on this one and very anxious to read it! I've also got another book on the way by Mike Blank called "Blank and White".

Thanks again!

Ronnie you wont be dissapointed in mike's book either,there are some excellent chapters and some very nice photo's of mike's work

Brian

Ronnie,

Been at this for almost 2 decades and it's still a go to for me. It's even better for those beginning with or switching to oils (come over to the dark side my pretty!) - completely de-mystifies the process as any good philosophical work should, and Shep's work is still inspirational.

I like it so much, that I have 2 copies, one of which Shep was gracious enough to sign for me way back when - closest I'll get to hero worship :lol:

Cheers,

Brian

Nice catch, Ronnie, you won't be disappointed.

Probably all of us were inspired by Shep's works in one form or another. For me, it was the "Tips on Building Diorama" brochures that he wrote for Monogram back in the '70s.

It's a great book Ronnie and that's a good price for it, delivered.

One thing I would say though is to be careful of taking it as gospel, especially the hands-on practical stuff; it's very easy to do this reading any author that inspires us, all the more with someone of Shep's stature and reputation. So it's worth bearing in mind how far things have moved on in the past few decades.

Einion

I do agree with Enion on a few points. Not taking any author as the gospel (I'm a firm believer in devoloping your own style) and you need to be careful with books authored or written decades ago as the hobby as moved forward in light years.

I will say this however. Shep Paine's book is as close to being the "bible" for painting figures as you can get. Shep, very smartly, decades ago wrote his book dealing mainly with the BASICS which, have not changed over the decades. Everything a painter needs to know is right there in the book. I bought this book years ago myself (after it went out of publishing) and use it constantly since then. You will not be dissapointed with this book.

Also, as has already been mentioned, get his other books as well. Both the diorama and the armor book. They deal with the basics of modeling as no other has explained since then.

Jim Patrick

Yep, me too. Then came Historex and Airfix figures, purchased at The Hobby Horse in WI - Shep's explanations demystified the hobby.