Stupidcow Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Hiya, Recently painted my 1st historical model vignette featuring a Russian officer. The sculpt is by Alpine Miniatures. Its very high quality resin model with good details and almost no mold lines and flash. I did a short writeup on my blog on this project if anyone wants to read. Also posted it on CMON if anyone cares to vote as well. Appreciate all critics from you guys. Many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritual Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Good stuff! I don't use white much for highlighting even on fantasy minis as I think it makes the minis look sterile and unnatural. If you don't have it allready, invest in a bottle of VMC Ivory! It's the best highlighting colour ever! I think the biggest problem with this mini is the blue trousers. They look VERY blue! When painting historicals (assuming you want them to look as real as possible) you need to use more muted colours. There's a scale effect on colours (I read an article about it on a historical mini forum once) that forces you to use a more dull colour than the "real" colour to accurately portray the colour in question. For example, if I wanted to paint a tank of a specific type and I found the exact colour that was used to paint the tank in real life and use it to paint my scale model it would look wrong. The colour would look too intense. I need to dull it down to make the scale model look like the real thing. So, if you use an intense blue colour, like on those trousers, it makes the soldier's trousers look EVEN MORE intense than the paint you've used on them. Hope this makes sense... Other than that I think you've done a great Oh, another thing to think about (I don't know if you have or not, but I mention it anyway)... You should think about desaturating the shadows. When painting 28-32 mm minis it's not that necessary since the shaded areas are so small. But on bigger miniatures you need to consider this to make it look real. You know the saying that "in the dark all cats are grey"? It's because lack of light means you see less of the colour. Less colour means it will look more greyish. A good method of obtaining this is to use complementary colours when mixing the paint you use to shade with. You can also mix grey instead of black into the paint (similar to not using white for highlights). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stupidcow Posted February 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Thanks for the valuable feedbacks Ritual. What you say does make alot of sense. I did add some grey into the blue I used but I think my photo editing program makes the blue more vibrant. I'll like to know more about desaturating the shadows. You mentioned about adding complimentary colours to shade. Can you eleborate or give examples how this is done. Sounds very interesting. I'm thinking like shading blue with brown, which I did on the blue trousers but I'll like to know more about this. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritual Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 In theory if you mix two compementary colours of equal tone and everything you would get a completely colourless result, i.e. a grey. In real life this is very hard to achieve but, by adding a bit of the complementary colour (or something close to it) to the colour you use to shade with will desaturate it but still makes it look like the colour you want... hard to explain. The danger with using grey to desaturate is that the grey you use might not be a "perfect" grey. It might look like grey but it can contain pigments that does not work well with the paint you want to mix the grey with. Also, the grey will not neutralise the colour you mix it with, only add grey to it. This can in effect shift the colour so that it doesn't look the way you want it to in the end. A complimentary colour desaturates by neutralising the other colour. But if you try out different combinations with different colours and different greys you will learn what works and what doesn't. But I suggest you experiment with using complementary colours. For instance, when I paint caucasian skin (even on 28 mm minis) I mix a bit of green (VMC German Uniform) into the paint I use to shade with (VMC Cadmium Maroon). It works really well and the shades look a lot more natural than if I used Cadmium Maroon on its own. But, colour theory is a bit of a jungle and there's no definitive truth. But it pays off to read about it and have it in mind when painting. You shouldn't let it control you, but it doesn't hurt to think about it and try out a few ideas here and there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skya Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 One of the best basic color theory books I've seen out there is Yellow and Green Dont Make Blue. I highly recommend it for learning good color mixing, (I've nicknamed it How Not To Mix Mud) although at this point you probably have that down and are looking more for techniches on using the colors you have more dynamicly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stupidcow Posted February 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 Well thanks again Ritual & Skya for your in depth explanation of the colour theory. When it come to this area, I think theres really no limit to what you can learn. I agree on the point knowledge is essential but we should let our imagination go wild sometimes to achieve something new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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