The shading stage of doing figures is the hardest for a beginner like myself. What is the best way to mimic the shading of material and the folds in clothing? A quick look around the web showed me that there are many different techniques and methods, using washes and/or subtle blending.
As usual I decided to muddle my way through picking some techniques I feel are achievable at my level of skill (I will attempt some of the more complex blending techniques when I feel I have improved my brush skills). One of the things I am experimenting with at the moment is inks...
Sometimes the inks can can appear a little glossy, but after the final matt varnish coat this isn't a problem.
The amount and variety of equipment was a bit of a task to paint, but the good thing about using the ink to shade the borders between items is that it hides my wobbly painting! At least the camo turned out OK.
I finished by adding a little highlighting. Just some streaks of lightened colours on the raised folds of material and that's about it really. The one thing I am really unhappy with is my painting of the rifles - I haven't fathomed nicely blended wood shades yet. :(
The faces need some touching up now and there's a bit of neatening up to do, but it's on to the flocking of the bases next.
Very nice. I also struggle with inks and think that you really need to highlight afterwards to avoid them looking muddy. On the rifles, you could try a dry brush on the metallic parts with silver or grey.
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