And finally another update! This time it's my one and only plastic Malifaux model: Ryle. And for this model I decided to use an interesting color: Citadel Bronzed Flesh. Yes, the good ol' Bronzed Flesh. I started the hobby back in '94 and Bronzed Flesh was among the first five paints I bought.
Why? Because Mike McVey told us so!
Yes, back in the day the White Dwarf and all hobby magazines told to paint your skin tones with Bronzed Flesh, wash them with Flesh Wash and highlight them with Elf Flesh. And no matter how hard I tried, I NEVER EVER got the result from the images. Not even close. And then I'm not talking about quality, but about colour hues (no way I was thinking I could top McVey ;)). The result was always a orangy flesh tone which was kind of odd. And it turned out I wasn't the only one. In the late nineties and early zeroes there were a lot of people fed up with Bronzed Flesh and new players were always told not to buy Bronzed Flesh! And so people switched (mainly to Vallejo Model Color in these times). And Bronzed Flesh slowly disappeared into nothingness...
Then cue the French painters. Yes, the maestros which massively changed painting: color use, NMM, emotion in painting...it was huge back then. And they used Bronzed Flesh. Yes, these guys took Bronzed Flesh and painted skin tones in the greatest lush colors which baffled me.
I remembered reading lots of tutorials and one of them by Cyril Abati is still online: http://neomodel.free.fr/tuto/tuto-visage-sm.html
So when I started painting Ryle, I was pondering skin tones. I first went for a sickly purplish tone to simulate the artwork. But when searching through my paints I found an old (but good!) pot of Bronzed Flesh. BAM, I was hit by nostalgia and years of hobby time flashed through my head. And YES, I then wanted to use it. I wanted to do Bronzed Flesh the way these French guys used them.
And hot damn, that was fun! I used Bronzed Flesh, Vallejo Model Color Cavalry Brown (which was used on other parts and on the previous models too) and Foundry Flesh Tone 5C. I'm happy with the results and I will surely use Bronzed Flesh again someday! Thank you Mike McVey for getting us Bronzed Flesh. I will cherish it forever.