Using Latex Molds to
Copy Details From Figures
To copy a detail on a figure, you can use latex mold material, which
can be bought at most hobby and craft stores. It comes in a bottle,
and you apply it with a brush as follows:
First, clean the area to be copied thoroughly. Make sure that you get
all dust and other foreign material off of it, then give it a light coat
of mold release agent (also available at most hobby and cratf stores).
Then brush on in several thin layers the latex mold material until you
have a thickness that will retain its shape, but will still be flexible,
as you will have to bend the mold backwards to release the final detail
that you make in it. To make your new detail part, use either liquid metal
or two-part epoxy putty (not the kind that comes in two strips, use the
kind that comes in two cans and is about the consistency of pancake batter
[the type used by model aircraft builders, not the type used for sculpting]).
Make sure that your mold is completely hardened before you remove it from
the figure that you are copying from. To make your new detail(s), first
paint the inside of the mold with mold release agent, then fill it with
either of the materials above, making sure that there are no air bubles,
and that the mold is completely full.
As the material will shrink slightly, you should just overfill the mold
a small amount. When your detail part is hardened, remove it from the mold,
clean it up with hobby knives and jeweler's files, then wash it
very well to get rid of all the mold release agent. Now all you have to
do is affix your new detail to whatever figure you are converting, this
can be done with either superglue or two-part epoxy, depending on the size.
That's all there is to it, it's not really very hard if you are just patient
with it and take your time, some of the steps can be very slow, because
you're waiting on materials to dry, but it's well worth the effort to have
a unique model.
Protective Coating
You should always protective-coat all of your models. To do this,
first
spray with a light coat of gloss lacquer (varnish), then overspray this
with a light coat of dull (matt fininsh) lacquer. Never, I repeat never
use
matt medium as a varnish, it is meant to be used for mixing acrylic
paints, not as a varnish, even though some brands claim that it can be
used for this. Also, never just use a matt varnish alone, as it is not
hard enough to protects your models by itself.
What I use is Krylon Crystal Clear with an overspray of
Testor's Dulcote, always remember when spraying varnishes that the first
coat must be a very, very light one, so that you don't damage all that
nice paintwork you've done, spray several light coats, not one heavy one.
Painting Faces
Method 1
This is the easiest method for painting eyes and faces, I will not be
using specific colors in the description, as colors are race-specific
and also subjective.
First Step: Make sure the
area of the face to be painted is primer
coated white (a black primer coat gives a sickly greyish cast), as this
will give the clearest and best results. Even if the finished face will
be dark (example: Black Orcs), still use white as a primer coat.
Second Step: Choose a medium shade of the skin
color you are using,
(this will be your base color) and paint the full face. Make sure to only
put on a thin coat, so that you don't obscure any detail.
Third Step: Deep Shadowing. Make a very dark
shade of your base
skin color and shadow in the eye sockets, along the edge of the sides of
the nose, under the nose, under the lower lip, around the hairline,
in the deepest hollows of the cheeks, under the chin where the neck and
head comes together, inside the ears, behind and under the ears.
Fourth Step: Take a lighter shading color, make
it into a wash
(make sure to use some matte medium in all your washes), now wash over
the face, blending the shadowed areas with the ligther skin color
(always use small amounts of the wash color on your brush, and don't
allow it to puddle up).
Fifth Step: Take your finest brush, paint in the eyeballs white, try to make sure that both eyes are the same size and shape, and try to make sure that you don't get them too large. Take your finest brush, get just a very small amount of the color you wish to use for the pupils on it, now dot in the pupils, trying to make sure that they are centered in the eye. Now take your deepest shadowing color, paint the eyelid so that it just clips off the top of the pupil so that the eyes do not look pop-eyed.
Sixth Step: (This step can be skipped if you
don't think you have
enough painting experience for it.) Now it is time to start highlighting.
Highlights should go along the top of the nose, the upper lip, the forehead,
and along the jawline and cheekbones. Start with a color just slightly
lighter than your base skin color, and work inward with ever lighter shades
untill you are satisfied with the highlight.
Seventh Step: Paint the eyebrows and hair a
base hair color, wash it
with a darker color, being careful not to get any on the face, now drybrush
the hair with a lighter hair color.
There are many more details that you can add to a face,
such as painting the inside of a mouth with a very dark color and drybrushing
the teeth with Bone White or other appropriate color. The steps above
will give a presentable face without being too hard for a beginning painter.
For the beginners out there, you can always leave out painting the eyeballs
until you have more experience, and just shadow in the eye sockets. One
of the best tips I can give you is to study paintings and photographs of
real faces to understand what light does to a face, this is what we are
trying to recreate on our figures. The method above is called The Wash
and Highlight Method. There is another method called Layer Painting, which
will give spectacular results, but is much harder to do, and only for very
experienced painters. If people wish, I will go into layer painting at
a later date for the more experienced painters.
Airbrush Practise Exercises
Here's some practice exercises for your airbrush that I hope will help:
Take a piece of Ruled paper (notebook paper will do), pin it to a piece
of cardboard, and practice with different air and paint flow settings until
you can paint straight lines inside the rulings with even edges (no feathering).
Make sure that your paint is at a consistency that will flow through your
nozzle without splattering and/or chalking (premature drying before it
hits the surface).
Take a white sheet of posterboard or just plain old cardboard as long as it's white, practice painting circles, and other designs until you can do them consistently, try to make sharp edges on these designs.
For this exercise, use your paint cup, it's much easier, as you will be changing colors often. Try practicing painting a color, and then feathering a contrasting color over it, so that they seem to fade together.
When painting, use your airbrush held like a pen, and always try to keep your speed consistent. Always start your pass before the item you want to paint, and end it after the area, unless you are doing it for a special effect, never start spraying directly on a model (to do camo and designs, you have to start on the model, but otherwise it's best to start off of it).
Practice different effects that you want by manipulating your air and paint flow while painting, but do this on cardboard first, not on your models. This is the basics, from this point on it's just prctice, practice, practice.
One more thing though, if you can use a compressor with a tank, or a tank of CO2 (carbon dioxide), use a pressure regulator set between 20 and 25 psi for most painting, you can play with this for special effects also.
A book that is a good training tool is the one written by Vargus.
Shadowing and Highlighting
When mixing wash coats of paint, add in some matt medium (a good one
is made by Windsor and Newton, and is sold wherever artists' acrylics are
sold, and Graumbacher also makes a good one), this keeps your paint from
breaking up. When painting on the wash, use only small amouts of paint
in your brush at a time, and don't let it puddle up.
When painting highlights, work your way gradually from your base color in ever lighter stages, with each highlight being smaller than the one before, try to make sure that they blend together evenly from one stage to the next. Use yellow for lightening green; use white for blues; orange, then yellow for reds. To darken red, use dark brown, never black. To shadow whites, use either a cream brown or a blue-grey, depending on the effect you want (the cream brown will give a slightly dirty look, the blue-grey will give a very clean look), white can be brightened by adding just a drop of Ultramarine Blue. Try not to use too many different colors when mixing paints, as, if you do, you will get a muddy look.
Always start painting your models with a medium color, halfway between the shadows and the highlights effects you want.
The Care of Paintbrushes For a Long and Useful Life
When you purchase a new paintbrush, get the best
that you can afford, a good paintbrush will outlast ten cheap paintbrushes.
When cleaning your brush, use a mild dish detergent, and wipe it on a pad
of paper towels until it is clean, do not pinch your brush between the
towels to clean it, as you will break the bristles. Instead, put it against
the pad of towels and twirl it, do this over and over until there is no
paint remaining in it. When the brush is clean, before you store it, take
a drop of detergent, wet the bristles of your brush, and if it is a round
brush, shape it into a point, if a flatbrush, reshape it to where all the
bristles are standing together smooth and even. Always make sure to clean
all paint off the ferrel and stem of the brush (handle). Store your brushes
standing bristle end up in a cup or jar so that their tips will not be
damaged.
Knives
Rule Number One: ALWAYS be careful with
hobby knives.
Rule Number Two: Do not try to pry with them, the blades break, and you can be injured by the flying blade.
Rule Number Three: Change the blades when they become dull, dull knife blades are dangerous.
Rule Number Four: Never cut toward yourself or Anyone Else.
When using a hobby knife to score a straight line, take a #11 blade and break off the tip, this will make it go straighter, and always use a metal straight edge. Make several light passes with the knife instead of trying to cut all the way on one cut.
Save your dull blades and use them for scraping off mold lines, just always go back to a sharp blade before doing any cutting. If you have any heavy cutting to do, change to one of the heavier blades. The #11 blade is meant for delicate detail work, and not for heavy cutting, if you put too much pessure on it it will break. Before putting your knife away after using, clean it thouroughly and wipe the blade with a very light oil, this will keep it from rusting.
If you plan to cut figures and models apart to do modifcations, use a razor saw or a jeweler saw, knives are not meant for this kind of work.
When you cut a model into two parts, you will need to get the joint area smooth and flat to be able to glue them together again. to do this, take a thick piece of glass and attach your sandpaper to it, then sand the two pieces by rubbing the area to be sanded back and forth across the sand paper. This will give you a smooth, flave surface. It is always a good idea when gluing two parts of a figure or model together, to drill a hole in each part at the same place just large enough for a piece of brass wire to be fitted into it and glued, pinning the two pieces together.
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