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___________BUILDING
A BETTER MODEL IN TEN EASY STEPS |
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 STEP
ONE: First off, you’ve got to glue the thing together.
But not all of it, just groups of parts that make sense. After all,
you're gonna have to paint the thing, so don't pre-build more than you
can get a brush around without difficulty. Think ahead, as my dear ol'
Daddy is fond of saying: "plan your work, and then work your plan".
Ah, Dad's, what would we do without 'em! Once you have this accomplished,
you can look for seams that need to be puttied. Believe it or not, some
of these kits don't fit together perfect. Go figure. I have been using
Testor's Contour Putty, but I'll be honest with you,
it's not so good. Putty up your seams, sand them down and then prime
the major sections that you have glued, and let them sit for at least
24 hours. |
| STEP
TWO: Next, I usually start with some incidental parts.
Bases, scenery, extra character pieces, stuff like that. Why? Because
it gives me that all important “warm up” time. Especially
if some time has elapsed since my last build up, starting with these
peripheral parts gives me a gradual ramp up back into the building and
painting mindset. Practice at dry brushing and detail prior to hitting
the main object of the kit. So here I have painted the sand base for
our Surfer Girl, and her trusty pet sea gull. Notice, I took some time
to add detail and techniques to the bird and the sand base. Again, this
is practice for the skilled painting I want to do on the main character,
AND it gives visual interest to the kit as a whole once it is all put
together. Ya’ Dig? |
| STEP
THREE: Now, all the little things are done and lookin’
good. Notice the detail on the radio, the dry brushing on the base,
the feather outlines on the bird, etc. Unnecessary? Yes, but don’t
they make the final kit look great? We’ll see. Now on to the main
figure!! |
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FOUR: Okay, so we base coat the main figure with a nice
Caucasian tan (made from Mr. Fisher’s recommended blend of
Raw Sienna & Burnt Sienna
& White). Now don’t be impatient
here, acrylics don’t always cover that well with the first coat.
Just paint the entire surface, in my case I started with her feet and
worked up, and once you get to the end, start over again with another
light coat. This method will minimize brush strokes and give you a great,
deep, coverage of the color. We can let that set and get ready for some
details! (dry brush and pastels!) Notice the surfboard has a piece of
her arm attached to it. So I masked off the arm portion with blue latex
masking enabling me to spray paint the surfboard and get a nice, high
gloss, smooth painted surface. Brush painting large areas like surfboards
and car bodies, etc., is a drag and doesn’t end up looking that
authentic. |
| STEP
FIVE: Now some details to the face and head of our model.
The hair is a build up of burnt sienna as a base, and then I drew in
some hairline details on the kit with a brown Le Plume
marker. From there, I simply dry brushed layers of progressively lighter
shades of yellow. (Remember our color mix for the sand base? Came in
handy here as the first layer of dry brush hair color.) Also our marker
is good for the eye brow, the lash line at the eye and the beauty mark
that I added. The gums are a simple pink mix of red and white, and I
highlight the teeth separations with a black gel pen. |
| STEP
SIX: Oh, yeah. Remember the masked off hand on the surfboard?
Check out how clean the lines are when we remove the mask and paint
the arm. Ain’t technique a wonderful thing?! |
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SEVEN: Move on now to the body of the figure and lets
give her a hootin’ red polka dot bikini. First, layer up your
acrylic white on the suit shooting for a smooth solid finish. Then,
get your red Le Plume marker (I tend to by the dual
tipped kind, one tip is extra fine, and the other is like a medium thick
paint brush) and polka dot to your hearts content. |
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EIGHT: Alrighty then! Let’s get to those pastels.
I have a set of Alpha Color Soft Pastels in 24 colors.
For us laymen, pastels are…….chalk, duh!! Some modelers
will take the chalk and grind it with some fine sand paper to form a
pile of chalk dust, and then dip the brush into it. I tend to cut out
the middleman and just get a firm, sharp tipped brush, a 3 size works
well, and literally rub the brush tip along the chalk stick several
times to absorb the dust into the brush, then I proceed to “paint”.
Remember, we are using the pastels for a detail effect, or a soft color
wash or highlight. It can, when done right, closely approximate the
work of an airbrush. On this kit I highlighted the eyelid with a soft
blue pastel; put a light dusting of red onto the nose and lower lip.
Then with brown pastel, I highlighted the natural muscles of the stomach
and the belly button. It takes a few passes to begin to see the pastel
build up on the kit, BUT DON’T BE FOOLED! You are going to seal
the pastel work with a spray on clear matte sealer or Testor’s
Spray Dull-Cote. This will darken the pastels substantially,
so be careful. I have found on two kits so far, that when you can just
begin to detect the pastel work on the kit, that’s the time to
stop applying it and seal it. But experiment on your own and you’ll
be amazed and delighted at the subtle effect that using pastels gives
to your model. |
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NINE: Here’s a pretty good shot of what pastels
can add to your build up. |
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TEN: And Voila!! The finished product. So now we can
sit, delirious and a tad out of touch with reality, and reflect on another
job well done in the wonderful world of figure modeling. |
Anybody try this stuff out? Got any better ideas? Email me and let me know!