Thanks guys,

Will be starting on the flesh today and continue to base coat the colors before blending.

Guy,
This is great.. for someone new like me.. its perfect to see this SBS.
I would eventually like to do a Samuari...
But just for basics on how you start is interesting and why you do things.
I will keep popping in for updates.

Thanks
dee

Thanks Dee. I'll try to keep this sbs updated as often as I can.

Great SBS guy, I don't know how I could have missed this one!

Now I am in to the process of base coating above. Using Humbrol red leather for the red armor.

Using Humbrol pale stone for the undercoat for the flesh.

Above are the base colors for the flesh:
20% burnt sienna
40% yellow ochre
40% raw umber

Mix the above with a popsicle stick on a pallete and add the 3 additional colors:
white
yellow
red

I use a clear plastic page protector with the flesh formula inserted inside which provides me the formula and mixes right underneath the actual mix. This insures me a mix which will be the same each time I use it for flesh. Once I am done I remove the unused portion to a clear bottle for storage (several days to a week) for flesh I am doing later in a couple of days. I clean the page protector off with my paint rag and a little thinner.

Above you see the head and arms pegged onto dowel rods after the flesh has been done. This will go right into my show case to dry for several days.

A closer view of the head fleshed in. Still the hair, bandana, eyes and mouth to do yet after the flesh drys.

I am watching this thread with keen interest Guy, as this figure is next up on my work bench. An excellent and timely sbs...thanks for taking the time to post it.

A promising project and a very helpful sbs-keep us posted!
christos

Excellent work bench.Great idea.Very interesting watching the step by step progress Guy.looking forward to the next step.
Regards John

Glen, Chris & John ~ Thanks guys. The Ronin is an exciting figure to paint with lots of detail to bring out.

I like your mix formula/palette idea,Guy.
This is an excellent guide and I'm looking forward to
the next stage.
I've been wondering if the pics of you working have been taken using the self timer on tripod or do you have an assistant.

Thanks Stiff. My assistant went on strike years ago and now I use a table top tri-pod with the timer on the camera at 10 seconds. I have a focal point on the desk that the hands work in so they are in the picture. I'll take a pic on how it is set up on the next round.

I have begun to give the torso the base coat of Floquil Khaki for the pants and Humbrol red leather for the leather armor. Each gets 2 coats. The sash is floquil Napoleonic Violet.

Above are close-ups of the chest portion of the Samurai and on the right the legs with light blue used for the armor ties.

The next step is to finish base coating the arms and begin the blending and shading for all the colors. Once the upper part of the figure is done the feet will be base coated and finished. I do not do this now as my hands would only wear off the painting as it has already with the primer.

The next step I went into was the enamel wash over the red leather and gun metal armor on the arms. Above are the ingredients of the wash.

1. Soda bottle lid to mix wash in
2. Floquil weathered black enamel
3. Floquil thinner (prefer dirty thinner)
4. eye dropper
5. stirring stick

For my enamel washes I use a ratio of 4 to 1. I start by dropping the eye dropper into the stirred paint (weathered black) and squeezing 3 drops into soda lid. Next I drop the eye dropper into the used thinner and then squeeze 16 drops of thinner into the lid. 1 drop of paint to 4 drops of thinner.

I apply this sparringly over the red leather and the chainmail on the arm and set aside under the 60 watt lamp to dry.

Above left you see the unwashed leg and on the right you see the enamel washed leg after applying the wash.

Above left you see the torso before the wash and on the right you see the torso after the wash. Above center is the back view. When I do a wash I do it quickly and cover the desired area and do not go back and re-work the areas as this may cause the enamel underneath to lift. This is the main reason I give all washed areas 2 good coats of the respective colors.

After the wash has dried thoroughly I use Humbrol Satin Coat (pictured above) and paint it over the washed red leather. This will bring a luster to the finish as well as seal the red leather for the next step of dry-brushing.

Dry-brushing:

Dry-brushing technique is used now to highlight the armor that has been previously washed. I have a drawing above representing the grain in a piece of wood. When you dry-brush you go across the grain with a flat brush (in this case) causing the grain to catch the semi-dry paint on your brush. This will leave the Floquil Old Silver to be applied to just the very top of the chain mail armor.

Throughout the whole sbs you will see me use 4 basic sizes of brushes designed for this very technique. I purchased several sets each year from Micro-Mark
I have found these brushes to be the best for this technique.

Above you see the use of 2 old business cards held down by my water bottle. I dropped 3 to 4 drops of Old Silver onto the cards and wait a little while for the edge to start drying and the oil carrier to soak down to the 2nd card.

Above you see me drawing off the very edge of the paint spot away from the paint. Being careful not to have too much paint on the brush I may wipe it some at the bottom of the card.

Above you see the actual semi-dry paint around the edge of the wet paint. I want the semi dry for the dry-brushing and draw off this edge as shown above.

Above on the left you see the arm before the dry-brushing and on the right, after the dry-brushing.

Above is a close up of the arm after being dry-brushed Old Silver over washed gun-metal. After the dry-brushing is done you can take a clean brush with thinner and gently wipe off any Old Silver off the red leather. The Satin coat acts as a sealer and won't harm the red leather when a moderate amount of thinner is used to clean-up these areas.

Below is another example of dry-brushing technique applied over a fur cape. Moving your brush with semi-dry paint across the fur, barely touching the fur, highlights the fur tips on top, leaving the darker colors to add depth in the deeper recesses of the fur cape.

Excellent,
Learning every day. Thanks Guy, It is such a good SBS specially for the new guys. Even for me, i learn something.

marc

Great SBS, I'm following it closely!

Nice work,Guy.
Clear and concise descriptions and instruction
at every stage.

Nice work Guy. The purple sash is a perfect compliment to the ochre of the pants. Keep 'em comin'!

Jay H.
OKC

Great sbs Guy, the technique on the dry brush is very useful, thanks for posting
ER

Guy
This is wonderful. I want to eventually try armour, chain mail...etc.
So this is very helpful. I know its very time consuming to do a SBS
but it is just so valuable to learn all this.
Thank you for taking the time.

Dee