OK, i do have some interesting issues. Like spending lots of time caving in my eyesight by bending over some teeeennnssy tiny figures in dull lighting condx. Does anyone out there have issues like these?
And really… [banghead]
what other reason could there be but WE LIKE IT!!! hee hee hee…[:-,]
Painting HO people isn’t too bad, but even so I use an Optivisor and a decent IKEA extension arm light, and generally keep the paint schemes rather simple (e.g. paint a shirt rust-red, swipe a bit of dry-brushed black on it, and there’s yer plaid flannel). I can’t image getting good results without good light or magnification (and to guage it…I looked at some figures I did when I was 20 and had better eyesight than my early-40s now self…and they looked terrible! I didn’t stay within the lines is wot! [V] ).
I wonder if fast-painting is even more suited to N-scale than for war-gaming figures?
And keep it flat finish dangit!..except for a glossy finish on the lenses of the few figures w/ glasses or cameras.
I do use a fair 2 diopter lens with the light on it but…
Late nights on the computer tends to give with orange casts to the light. Makes for interesting times…[swg]
I used to paint flesh colors onto faces of tankers and pilots in models. That was when eyes were sharp and nerves rock steady.
Now I just buy em ready painted. It might cost more however it usually much better than what I can produce on the bench with one busted eye, a shaky system and a 10 year old paint brush under a flickering light that ought to be upped in wattage from 40 to 1000.
I dont know about N scale but some of the military models I attempted were nuts. The worse it gets is when the models get big enough and I spend two weeks painting little indicator needles on the instrument dails of the pilot’s airplane cockpit.
But today I admire N scale products and know enough not to attempt to handle them, the items would simply not survive the tensile force applied to them.
The only problem with that, is that pre-painted figures sometimes leave a lot to be desired - I recently purchased some Preiser figures (workshop tradesmen) and the paint job on these (expensive and fairly well detailed) had gaps, overruns, blurs here and there…and those are the good figures - some other sets (to remain nameless) I got were terribly painted, but stripping the paint, clean off flash and burrs, prime and simple painting, and they looked a whole lot better (I definitely fall into the don’t paint facial features such as eyes or lips (a beard or mustache is OK, of course), just do a light black wash on the figure and let that highlight the features - I think you can get away up to O scale with that. And flat paint, people.
OK, I do realize this is a unserious thread, but still…
Flat paint is such a wonderful concept. I don’t like the idea of doing the strip,wash & redo on top of all that. But I see a lot of it…[sigh]
Granted I’m in HO but one of the things I remember reading about in an old MR article that really helps me is painting the figures while they’re still on the sprues and doing all the figures I’m going to paint in one particular color at the same time assembly line style. Like for example I paint a bunch of them in a flesh color all at the same time after that dries I paint all the figures I’m going to paint say a blue color on next and so. After the figures are done I detach a figure from the sprue and touch up the top of the head and place the figure where I need it.
Doing it that way has really saved me a lot of aggravation. [banghead]
Flat paint is a wonderful concept, but I was thinking more of a simple black wash, and then spray some Dullcoat - no repainting necessary, and the resulting figure is nice & flat (like real humans & other animals are from a distance - even iguanas) - touch up the few actually shiny areas (usually eyeglasses, although these seem fairly rare on model figures - pain in the butt to mold realistically, I suppose).
The catch is when you look closer at the figure, you generally will see molding flash, or maybe a divot, or a scratch, or some poorly painted areas…and you try to touch up after scraping or sanding or priming…and in the end you just end up stripping and painting again. Of course, I’m probably just too picky anyway…
I’ve been somewhat unlucky here, as I have purchased several of the big unpainted Presier sets (which are still on the sprue…mostly, although several drop off), and there is so much flash (and some divots) to fix and file, that it turns out to be easier to cut the figures off the sprues, sand and fix them
I’ve done it on a few occasions, as well as adjusting a Preiser figure’s yellow uniform hat to look like a baseball cap with a jeweler’s file.
No…I painted few but,for sanity reasons I prefer figures already painted.[(-D]
I think I saw an electron microscope on e-bay, that may help with your microscopic painting.
Sorry, I just couldn’t help it!!!
SEE ! SEE ! Just the thing for those wee people eh? And- - -and- - - - not a bad price either ( $79,000.00) lets not hear any more problems with small time painting.
I put my bid in - do you think they’ll include shipping for the $25 I bid?[:-^]
I’m also in HO, and used to paint figures - but now I can’t see what I painted without a magnifying glass!![|(]
Then comes the fun of trying to procure that piece of equipment through ElasticBay. Where things find their way to Nigeria… or your money.Heeeheeeheee… …and some people think we run a small time operation here.
Hi!
Well, you sure have my admiration and respect! I am a long term HO MR, but did a stint in N gauge in the late '80s. I had to give it up due to the small size and the difficulty (for me) to work with it. And soon after that I bought an Optivisor at the LHS, and that was a hard purchase to make - another concession to getting old.
ENJOY!
Mobilman44