Military Modelling - July 2013

Figures2 3HeadTo begin with the whole head was introduced tomy airbrush. I use an Iwata Revolution CR. I use theairbrush to get an even coverage of paint withoutany brush marks. The first colour used was theSecondary Base colour from the Lifecolor (LC) FleshSet. This was sprayed on in a similar way to themethod used for pre-shading AFVs. To this wasadded some of the Primary Base colour from theLC Flesh Set, which was then sprayed on as thebase colour. The Primary Highlight colour from theLC Flesh Set was then added to the pot with theremains of the paint not yet sprayed. This was thensprayed on from above at an angle of 45 degrees.The Secondary Highlight from the LC Flesh Set wasthan added to the mix and sprayed from an evenhigher angle. The result of this extensive layingdown of base colours can be seen in Photo 2. Atthis point everything looked extremely light, but thiswould all be darkened up with the addition of theshadows and tones.EyesIf the eyes do not look right on a bust, then thewhole thing will look wrong. The eyeballs werefirstly blocked in with the 2nd highlight of theflesh set. The corners and lower portions of theeyeballs were then shaded using the base colourwith Andrea Color (AC) Wood. These were thenshaded further by adding a minute amount of LCBlack to the previous shadow colour. A wash of LCTerracotta was then added to the lower portions ofthe eyeball. This wash was then repeated, buildingup the intensity of the colour towards the lowereyelid and towards the nose.The irises were painted by firstly painting avery dark blue circle in his eye, missing out theupper portion of the circle which is hidden underthe upper eyelid. Being right-handed I always findit easier to start with the his right eye as when Ipaint his left eye, my hand then does not get in theway of matching up the two eyes. This is an easymethod of ensuring that both eyes are looking inthe same direction. I also usually start with a dot inhis right eye, then a dot on his left. I then graduallybuild up the size of these dots until the right size isobtained. I use AC Prussian Blue for this phase. Ihave made him look slightly to his right as his headis also rotated in that direction. Therefore, there ismore white of his eyeball on show to the left-handside of his eye. I have painted a white highlight ontohis eyeball on the left side to accentuate this. Thiswhite highlight, Vallejo (AV) Off White, is little morethan a white line following the contour of the circleof the iris which is blended into the eyeball towardsthe left-hand side of the eye.The colour intensity of the iris was then increasedby adding AV Napoleonic Blue to the Prussian Bluein increasing stages, but adding it to the circle ofthe iris in a decreasing area, gradually working theintensity to the right-hand side of the iris, but notright to the edge, which leaves a dark blue ringaround the iris. Examining Photo 3 closely you cansee that the irises have more of the Sky Blue colouron the right-hand side. The final area of the iris waspainted with AV Napoleonic Blue neat from the poton the right-hand side of the iris only.A pupil was then added with LC Black, againstarting on his right eye with a dot, then moving tothe left one, then back to the right again, and so onuntil the right shape had been formed and the twoeyes looked symmetrical. A catch light was nowadded with AV White in the 2-o’clock position, i.e.on the opposite side of the iris to where the lightestcolour of the iris is situated. The catch light is righton the boundary between the pupil and the iris.Lastly a thin dark brown line from AV Burnt Umberand LC Black was painted on the lower part of theupper eyelid to represent eyelashes.‘‘If the eyes”do notlook right on a bust,then the whole thingwill look wrong.www.militarymodelling.com51