Painting 3D Figures

[MartinJQuinn]

Getting close to the end of my most recent project, a 1/350 USS Texas:

Once I finish weathering and rigging her, she'll be ready for her little people. To that end, I picked up some NorthStar figures to crew her. I've used them before, on Z-17, but wasn't entirely happy with how they came out.

Anyone have any good tips for successfully painting these little f**kers?

[drasticplastic]

I've cut them off their wafer and glued them to a length of plastic sprue, about 1/2" apart. North Star figures are packed way too close together to paint them on the wafer. Prime and airbrush them whatever main color their uniforms are, and brush paint details, faces and hands. No really easy way to paint them.

[marijn van gils]

By far the best tip I can give to make life easier on any detail painting, is to use high quality brushes. Not the best you can find in the hobby shop, but the best you can find anywhere. The brush doesn't have to simply have a small tip, but most importantly the hairs should stay together to keep the tip sharp. Only top quality brushes provide this.

I paint with Winsor & Newton series 7 (long hair type) brushes (000 for this kind of work). At around 9 euro's per brush they are not cheap, but boy do they make a difference... Proper cleaning and storing will make sure they will live long.
Very gladly I buy fewer kits but instead better quality brushes, because the latter give me much more pleasure when actually at the bench.

Also: make sure to thin the paint to a consistence which allows it to flow nicely from the brush while still covering well. If it doens't cover enough: let dry and apply a second coat.
And at the same time make sure you don't have too much paint on the brush, so it doens't run all over the figure like a wash. Unloading the brush a bit on a paper towel just before touching the figure can take care of that.

Happy painting!

Marijn

[MartinJQuinn]

Thanks gents. Appreciate the input.