How to paint a miniature's face

I want to point out that I am only a amateur wargamers and, as a lot of other lovers of our hobby, I like to share miniatures photos with my friends. Some persons asked me how to paint miniature’ faces so I thought to write this short article. I have to premise that without Aurelian Leclerc's expert guidance and his painting tricks I was not able to write these post … so many thanks to him. If you don't know his works here there is his Instagram link >> https://www.instagram.com/aurelianpaintingstudio/

In recent times I have painted miniatures related to the WW2 and the Franco-Indian Wars for some articles that appeared on the Italian magazine: “Dadi e Piombo” but to create a kind of guide I took some old Warhammer miniatures too.

Now a couple of pics to make you understand what we are talking about ... the miniature in the center is a historical figure who really existed: General Louis Joseph de Montcalm. Warlord Games 28mm miniature.

These are some British paratroopers from the English 6th Airborne Division near Hamminkeln during Operation Varsity. Warlord Games 28mm miniatures

These are some 20mm Canadians from Valiant

In all the three examples, the color combination I used is always the same: 

Vallejo Beige Red 70804; 

Vallejo Dark Fleshtone 72.044;

Vallejo White 72.002 (or any other white of any brand) 

I have tried to break down the various steps and create a series of images that can help.

First step: paint the base with a mixture of Beige Red (80%) and Dark Fleshton (20%) Second step: highlight the base with pure Beige Red. After paint some points (as the nose, cheeks and so on) with beige red adding a little quantity of white

Third step: after waiting for a Reikland Flesh wash to dry, to proceed with further highlights. Starting from the same points highlighted in the previous phase, paint again a new coat of Red Beige on them. After this action to highlight all the face points that you want to stand out with a mix of Red Beige plus White increasing the second color quantity in every passage. At this point you have not to surprise if the last step will be practically a white.

As you can see, it is possible to paint a miniature’s face with 3 colors and a wash.

The effects of this color scheme allows good results for a not professional wargamer. Finally, I want to offer you my preliminary study for a USCM miniature for Viet Nam theatre on which I am working on these days. Miniature in 20mm Italeri

I hope I was helpful.

If you need you can contact us through the facebook page of the Piccola Armata

 

 

 

December 2020 part 2: Our works

Another post to report all the activities my friends are making to continue with our hobby

First of all ... some pics of SAGA units prepared by one of our best friends: Santi

It seems that fantasy is popular in this period ... I painted some old Warhammer Miniatures ...

Riccardo is preparing new supports for his German army in 28mm and ... 

While Ezio is dedicating his energies on 20mm English troops

World Word II ... Is 20mm (1/72) a good scale?

My club is close in this period for Covid-19 emergency so I decided to write this post using some old photos

Sometimes I received messages from other wargame lover about the scale to use to play WWII… 15mm, 20mm or 28mm? Thanks to rules set as Bolt Action, Cross fire and so on … the most used scales is the 28 mm. This scale allows you to create great miniatures with high details level ... but also a 20mm miniature is not to discard.

In your opinion, what scale are the miniatures in these photos?

Obviously they are all 20mm

My idea in this post is to try to create a kind of guide for those who approach 20mm (1/72) for the first time.

Let's start with a list of advances:
They have a low cost (generally 9 - 15 euro per box)
They are easily to find (amazon, ebay are just some of the commercial sites ... in addition to the manufacturers’ ones  ... where you can find them)
They are faster to paint than a classic 28mm
You can re-create large scenarios (in particular if yuo want to use tanks, jeeps and so on)

… But there are also some disadvantages:

Poor level of detail
They are difficult to modify
The poses are sometimes a bit "absurd" ... many of the molds still used are a bit "old style"

In our association we play with many World War II rule sets: Bolt Action, Cross Fire, Rapid Fire… … for all these systems we use both 28mm and 20mm without problems.

One of the first problems to start playing with 20mm is: but what are 20mm miniatures like?One of the sites I use is: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/PeriodList.aspx?period=1

It allows you to have a quick review of most of the 1/72 miniature boxes on the market. The site is not designed only for the Second World War but, thanks to the menu, it is possible to view the boxes of this period.

The second problem is… are we sure that the scale of the various manufacturers is "correct"?
This is also a problem for the 28mm but, to try and answer, I took this photo

It allows you to view the miniatures of five of the manufacturers that I usually paint. The miniatures are both in plastic (Caesar, Zvezda) and in lead (AB) and as you can see the scales are compatible. At least among these manufacturers.

I must admit that, the same manufacturer, sometimes builts sets that have not the perfect "dimensions" ... but the beauty of the miniatures overcomes this problem

For example, the Italeri winter Germans (miniature in the center) are a bit larger than the Zvezda miniatures or other Italeri sprues but can easily be combined

Third aspect to consider… they have few details and can hardly be changed.
This is not exactly the truth
This is the original image of a Zvezda frame

As you can see, with a few modifications, you can modify the pose

Without considering the awesome conversions of my friend Maurizio

A lot of wargamers tell me that 20mm miniatures have few details. As an amateur painter I admit that I prefer 28mm for painting but also 20mm… with the right scenario are not bad. The same miniatures out of the table...

And in action

I hope to help someone with this post

December 2020: Our works

We were forced to close again our club to respect the new Covid-19 rules in the region but our love for this hobby cannot be stopped so ... waiting best times ... we continues to paint. 

In this post and in other ones I'll insert some pics of our latest works

Ivano is working on his new army for SAGA Age of Hannibal ... His Repubblic army is growing

Luca continues with his German army in 20mm

Flavio made some new ruined buildings to increase our scenario's "store"

Aurelian continues to paint and show his amazing miniatures

General test ... How to play ww2 scenarios with different rule sets - October 2020 Part two

As I explained in a similar post time ago, some months ago we played a lot of ww2 scenarios using different rule sets. 

It was a of general test for our idea to play Stalingrad battle but with different miniature scales and manuals. Unfortunately the Covid forced us to close the club but I decided to share these pics of my 20mm miniatures I took in the last period used for: Iron Cross, Rapid Fire, Bolt Action and so on.

Some Panther (Panzer V) before the action

German HQ

Two sniper teams

Saving private Fritz

A column of Tiger I (Panzer VI)

A panzer crew meeting

Aurelian's Punic Army - SAGA

 SAGA - Age of Hannibal is just published by Studio Tomahawk and our club is prepared.

Considering the good result of the dark age version in my club ... a group of my club mates are preparing miniatures for the future battles. But this time I have to admit that our news herald is Aurelian.

He prepared many miniatures and is still working on ... unfortunately the new Covid measures forced us to close again the club. Below there some pics I took before the temporary closing of our activities.

He painted two war elephants. This is one of them ... on the battle field

He prepared also some Punic troops and ...

... and the command group