Friday 11 February 2011

Painting with oils

I found this old 120mm fig while cleaning out a box yesterday, I think it is a Poste Militaire brand figurine not sure on that one. A billman prolly around Henry/Tudor-ish times. I remember thinking to myself I would give the big stuff a try as the local hobby store was selling off excess stock cheap, it was around early 90's maybe, if  it was earlier than that I'm not owning up


Taking into account my shit memory this one sticks because I went out and bought some cheap oil paints to smear over it. How it has survived all the house moves beats me.............


What is more it wasn't all that difficult, in fact it made blending and so on with acrylics tedious by comparison. The learning curve wasnt that steep and if you made a bit of a mistake it was easy to clean up and try again.


My eye for the skin tones wasnt that great and it hasnt improved much since!  95% of my painting in those days was 15mm armies, oils dont work down to that size and my budget back then was pretty restrictive so a life of figurine painting was not on the radar for long.


One very interesting thing of note is that this figure has literally travelled 2500km in a cardboard box and besides losing a hand from the figurine itself the paint is undamaged! There is not a chip or rub through, the painting was never finished so it didnt get lacquered, I guess oil paint has the advantage of being pretty tough when cured.

Anyone got a spare hand?

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6 comments:

  1. The Angry Lurker11 February 2011 at 01:17

    Wonderful painting on it aswell, oils are great for big painting but a pain in the arse because of the cleaning and waiting process but as tough as anybody from before the 90's, no spare hand I'm afraid.Sorry.

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  2. Steve-the-Wargamer11 February 2011 at 02:41

    Very nice... if I could paint that well I'd have had it on a little plinth on the mantle piece above the fire!

    Re. the hand - sculpt one from green stuff???

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  3. Ray Rousell11 February 2011 at 03:20

    Great paint work, the face is just brilliant, well done!!

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  4. DC11 February 2011 at 05:40

    Yep, lovely piece of work - now do the same with your 25s.....8-)

    Verlinden (available from Historex Agents, amongst others) do a set of hands for 120mm figures, it'll cost you about 12 quid but worth it i think to finish such a fine figure.

    Cheers.

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  5. PaintPig11 February 2011 at 10:48

    DC your a cheeky monkey!

    You may be pleased to note that shiney is definitely on my agenda with a practice piece sitting on the bench as I tap the key board, another Dixon ACW.

    pp

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  6. PaintPig11 February 2011 at 14:48

    Ray
    Thanks for the comments. I see from your blog that you have an acquaintance with Mal Wright, I knew and gamed with him many many years ago lots of fun, send him a big cheery helloo and raspberry from me next time

    PP

    ReplyDelete

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