It's been said already, Tim, these are really lovely. Smooth blends, consistent style, beautifully finished.
And not only have you painted eyes, I'm sure I can see a painted sparkle in the King's eye - most impressive.
Re. technique - do you use oil wash, e.g. on the drum, or is that acrylic wash, or just (really good!) shading?
And how long do these take to finish?
Hi Paul
Thanks for the comments, they are really valued.
There is no sparkle I’m afraid……I can see what you mean though. I think it’s an artefact caused by the white of the eye.
I don’t use oil washes any longer. I did use them a little back in my Humbrol days, but oils and acrylics aren’t great bedfellows. Acrylic paint doesn’t cover oils very well because of the oil/water immiscibility issue.
I use Vallejo washes for some things, faces, furs, and sometimes hair, but not on that drum. If you mean the red on the drum it’s just shading. I started at the darkest, black red I think, and worked up to the core red, which I think was dark red. Black red and hull red are great under layers for red finishes, and cavalry red makes a good mid shadow tone.
As to time, I spent a little longer on these than I do on the rank and flank guys. I don’t record it, but I would think thirty minutes to clean, wash, and zenital prime. After that, probably a maximum of three sessions of around an hour to paint, then another quarter of an hour or so for varnishing and basing. Obviously some of the stages, priming, basing, varnishing for example overlap so save some time. I would say three to four hours per figure for these is a reasonable guess. Rank and flank of this period are probably two hours each. Plain uniforms, such as basic British WW2 infantry would cut this down to about an hour plus cleaning, priming, varnishing, and basing. Mind you, if they were Napoleonics I’d probably still be painting them LOL…..