Jump to content

Drying time for enamel blending?


Kent

Recommended Posts

How long should I allow enamels to dry before blending on a face? I'm using Vallejo acrylics as an undercoat with Model Master Enamels for the top coats as show in the Master Class Figure video. There's no discussion on how long to allow the base coat of enamel or enamel shading to dry before blending.

Thanks!

Kent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

May I ask why? Vallejo Acrylics are perfectly suited right out of the dropper tube for figure skin, blending is really an oil-painting tecnique adapted to the wonderful technology of acrylic paints and the plethora of pigments they can bring to your painting bench. In my experience, enamels are best left for things that had enamel in real life.....57 Chevys and bathtubs ;) Enamels can take days to harden, oils can take a week, collecting every bit of dust that lands in the wet paint whle acrylics dry quickly, and so give you the perfect amount of time to blend one wet layer into the previous wet layer. May I suggest experimenting with just the acrylics and either a chestnut or appropriately-colored ink or wash (for caucasian skin) ? It will run into the recesses where human skin has it's rosy bits. Then you can apply lighter shades of your base color as extreme highlights (bridge of nose, ears, etc.).

 

How long should I allow enamels to dry before blending on a face? I'm using Vallejo acrylics as an undercoat with Model Master Enamels for the top coats as show in the Master Class Figure video. There's no discussion on how long to allow the base coat of enamel or enamel shading to dry before blending.

Thanks!

Kent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because I was using the Master Class video as a tutorial and the builder uses enamels. I've tried acrylics and like them but the technique for faces escapes me. No online tutorial or video makes sense to me. The pilot figure I'm working on was first painted with Andrea and Vallejo. Turned out looking like Tammy Faye Baker had joined the Luftwaffe! Thanks for the response!

Kent

May I ask why? Vallejo Acrylics are perfectly suited right out of the dropper tube for figure skin, blending is really an oil-painting technique adapted to the wonderful technology of acrylic paints and the plethora of pigments they can bring to your painting bench. In my experience, enamels are best left for things that had enamel in real life.....57 Chevys and bathtubs ;) Enamels can take days to harden, oils can take a week, collecting every bit of dust that lands in the wet paint whle acrylics dry quickly, and so give you the perfect amount of time to blend one wet layer into the previous wet layer. May I suggest experimenting with just the acrylics and either a chestnut or appropriately-colored ink or wash (for caucasian skin) ? It will run into the recesses where human skin has it's rosy bits. Then you can apply lighter shades of your base color as extreme highlights (bridge of nose, ears, etc.).

 

How long should I allow enamels to dry before blending on a face? I'm using Vallejo acrylics as an undercoat with Model Master Enamels for the top coats as show in the Master Class Figure video. There's no discussion on how long to allow the base coat of enamel or enamel shading to dry before blending.

Thanks!

Kent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Enamels are queer beasts. Flats take only a few hours to dry while enamels dry overnight. By dry I mean dry to the touch and you can handle them with care. However, they are not SET. By set I mean most if not all of the solvent has evaporated. That leaves behind a harder surface. While "dry", both can be overcoated provided the paint used is not of the same solvent. If the same solvent is used, on flats you will raise the finish and "wet" it all over. For glosses, you will create a real mess, to turn a phrase. Flats take several days (2-3) to really set. Enamels can take up to a week. A good test is the sniff test. If you can still smell the paint, it's not set. Also check the surface. On flats it should feel dry and firm. For gloss, there should be no tacky feeling and the surface should be hard and smooth. Once set, there is no chance of blending. All of these times vary with humidity and temperature, of course.

 

So, if your base coat is a flat enamel, you can paint/blend over it with a different base paint the next day safely. You won't be blending in the enamel, but you won't be harming it either.

 

One exception, never apply a lacquer based paint over anything except another lacquer or you'll have a right mess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HAHA...Seriously, I can help here...what scale figure are you using?

 

 

Because I was using the Master Class video as a tutorial and the builder uses enamels. I've tried acrylics and like them but the technique for faces escapes me. No online tutorial or video makes sense to me. The pilot figure I'm working on was first painted with Andrea and Vallejo. Turned out looking like Tammy Faye Baker had joined the Luftwaffe! Thanks for the response!

Kent

May I ask why? Vallejo Acrylics are perfectly suited right out of the dropper tube for figure skin, blending is really an oil-painting technique adapted to the wonderful technology of acrylic paints and the plethora of pigments they can bring to your painting bench. In my experience, enamels are best left for things that had enamel in real life.....57 Chevys and bathtubs ;) Enamels can take days to harden, oils can take a week, collecting every bit of dust that lands in the wet paint whle acrylics dry quickly, and so give you the perfect amount of time to blend one wet layer into the previous wet layer. May I suggest experimenting with just the acrylics and either a chestnut or appropriately-colored ink or wash (for caucasian skin) ? It will run into the recesses where human skin has it's rosy bits. Then you can apply lighter shades of your base color as extreme highlights (bridge of nose, ears, etc.).

 

How long should I allow enamels to dry before blending on a face? I'm using Vallejo acrylics as an undercoat with Model Master Enamels for the top coats as show in the Master Class Figure video. There's no discussion on how long to allow the base coat of enamel or enamel shading to dry before blending.

Thanks!

Kent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It''s the Ultracast figure in 1/32 er 54mm scale. Link

HAHA...Seriously, I can help here...what scale figure are you using?

 

 

Because I was using the Master Class video as a tutorial and the builder uses enamels. I've tried acrylics and like them but the technique for faces escapes me. No online tutorial or video makes sense to me. The pilot figure I'm working on was first painted with Andrea and Vallejo. Turned out looking like Tammy Faye Baker had joined the Luftwaffe! Thanks for the response!

Kent

May I ask why? Vallejo Acrylics are perfectly suited right out of the dropper tube for figure skin, blending is really an oil-painting technique adapted to the wonderful technology of acrylic paints and the plethora of pigments they can bring to your painting bench. In my experience, enamels are best left for things that had enamel in real life.....57 Chevys and bathtubs ;) Enamels can take days to harden, oils can take a week, collecting every bit of dust that lands in the wet paint whle acrylics dry quickly, and so give you the perfect amount of time to blend one wet layer into the previous wet layer. May I suggest experimenting with just the acrylics and either a chestnut or appropriately-colored ink or wash (for caucasian skin) ? It will run into the recesses where human skin has it's rosy bits. Then you can apply lighter shades of your base color as extreme highlights (bridge of nose, ears, etc.).

 

How long should I allow enamels to dry before blending on a face? I'm using Vallejo acrylics as an undercoat with Model Master Enamels for the top coats as show in the Master Class Figure video. There's no discussion on how long to allow the base coat of enamel or enamel shading to dry before blending.

Thanks!

Kent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I often see fantastically painted Armor kits accompanied by plain, featureless, faceless figures. This breaks my heart, since figure painting (especially faces) is very easy to do, but it can understandably be scary. With smaller scale figures features such as eyes can be painted, but arent necessary, because you really wouldnt see the whites of their eyes at the altitude you are looking at it on a tabletop. Sometimes with 1/72 scale soft plastic figures the mold is the enemy, casting a featureless or malformed face. With 1/35 you have a little more real estate, and your figure, being cast in resin is even better.

 

CLEAR DEFINITION is more important than neatness here, being able to clearly differentiate shadows and highlights are important, just like when painting clothing.

 

1. free your mind- don't get settled on one face-painting technique until you are comfortable with it. The Internet is chock-full of face-painting articles,but I will show you my method for 28mm and please just take it for what it is, take parts, some, all or none, just practice. practice makes perfect, like all things.- Pick up a cheap set of Tamiya 1/35 figs to practice on before committing to your expensive resin model.

color twice, and clean-up is easy. Acrylics in the 21st century come in sooo many pre-mixed, high-pigment colors, that you can save yourself a lot of time buying pre-mixed shades.

3. understand light: When you airbrush a car-body with a metallic color, light will reflect and shine realistically, causing highlights and shadows when you paint a face a *generic flesh color* it will not do this, you need to create the illusion of shadows and highlights. Look at a real face, the color appears lighter where the light plays: bridge of nose, ears, eyelids, cheek bones.

4. Choose 3 flesh shades to start with a darker shadow color, a base color, and a highlight color. These will all be based on the same base color. Alternatively, you can mix a tiny bit of white or brown with a base color but as previously mentioned, this is a pain.

5. If using pre-mixed Vallejo Game color, I would use Dark Flesh (or rosy flesh for that red tint white skin has), as the shadow, Bronze Flesh or Dwarf flesh as the base color, and Pale Flesh or Elf Flesh as the highlight. You can of course, substitute any brand you wish, but at first, limit yourself to three.

6. Prime/Basecoat: priming white or priming black: you can find many articles arguing the finer points of either white or black basecoats, suit yourself. White basecoat will give you brighter colors, black basecoat will give you darker colors, since most acrylic paints are not truly opaque but more translucent. Exceptions of course are high-pigment paints (or as the Home Depot calls them HD paint), Games Worksho's Foundation paints are high-pigment, so they cover even over black.

7 I find layering easier than blending. to layer: start with the shadow color, paint all the skin solidly the shadow color, then paint the base color, leaving the shadow color in the recesses, then paint the highlight color only on the raised parts.

Don't get FRUSTRATED: when you paint the shadow color, the face WON'T look right. When you paint the base color, the face WON'T look right...PERSERVERE, when you add the highlight, the face WILL start to look right. your mind will start to recognize the human face once the highlight is added.

8. you can then wet you brush and blend the layers together if you wish , but make sure you leave CLEAR DEFINITION lines.

7. Use a Wash: Flesh washes are amazing, you can wash a highlighted face with a chestut or other red-tinted wash to give the face it's deep skin rosy color it gets from human blood beneath the skin. Once the wash is dry- re-apply your highlights on the prominent features of the face. your face will now pop out, and you will smile :smiley17:

 

I would always recommend rading through Dr. Faust's painting clinic here

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
×
×
  • Create New...