Painting help for 28mm figure...

[Andy in Germany]

I posted this in my Workbench thread on the Pulp alley thread, but I figure this may be a more appropriate place:

Okay, I need a little help with this figure...

I'm working on this figure of "Betsy Miller" for a Pulp Alley League. For various reasons she should have red hair, which is causing me headaches in itself, but also in the colours of he clothes. I try and paint figures with complementary colours on the bottom and top, but so many possible colours clash with the hair, or they vanish next to it. The jacket has been brown and blue and is currently transitioning to green. This then causes more trouble with the sweater/t-shirt underneath which I'd like to be visible but not too obvious.

Finally, I can't get the face to work at all. I simply don't understand how I'm supposed to make those details come out. I've tried washes with dark orange, brown, black, and ink, but they always go muddy as seen above, and the orange made it look like her hair is over her face. The face is from this set (Top row middle) but however I try I can't bring the features out.

If I could work out how to do it, I'd love to make the eyes more detailed and pull out the details on the clothes et c but it doesn't seem to work for me. What am I missing?

I've looked online for youtube tutorials etc, but they seem to be mainly for larger figures. If anyone can post links to tutorials for this scale I'd appreciate it...

[Charlie_]

For what its worth I think the colour scheme looks great as it is - the jacket and legs both work well as they are, and the red hair looks like a good natural colour to me. Perhaps it's a case of overthinking it, and you need a fresh set of eyes to say it works fine as it is?

[FifteensAway]

Paint job is acceptable if not great.  I have a much bigger problem with the proportions of the figure - appears the legs don't match the upper torso very well and that might be the real challenge.  Also, if you 've been applying layers of paint over layers of paint on this figure, that too will create a lot of challenges in getting to a 'great' paint job.   There are other painters here on LAF with vastly more skill than I who ought to be along to offer additional assistance.

[Andy in Germany]

For what its worth I think the colour scheme looks great as it is - the jacket and legs both work well as they are, and the red hair looks like a good natural colour to me. Perhaps it's a case of overthinking it, and you need a fresh set of eyes to say it works fine as it is?

Thanks Charlie. I tried that overnight and I'm still not happy...

Paint job is acceptable if not great.  I have a much bigger problem with the proportions of the figure - appears the legs don't match the upper torso very well and that might be the real challenge.  Also, if you 've been applying layers of paint over layers of paint on this figure, that too will create a lot of challenges in getting to a 'great' paint job.   There are other painters here on LAF with vastly more skill than I who ought to be along to offer additional assistance.

FifteensAway: That's my own feeling:The figure is usable, but I'm not satisfied with the face and the jacket is pretty rough. I appreciate there's such a thing as being content with what I can achieve but I think I can do better if I know how.

I see the trouble with proportions but I think it may be that the head is a bit small: I used 'pulp' scaled heads and maybe I should have gone for 'heroic' scale, but it's firmly glued down now...

[Charles92027]

I watch the War Ganer videos: https://youtu.be/bEQvO2Uy_SQ
WarHammer TV is good too, but the War Gamer covers a lot more stuff like faces

[Mindenbrush]

I have Kevin Dallimore's 2 books plus I look at a lot of tutorials but you have to decide on the style you want to achieve.
One lesson I have learnt is that you need a clean area to work in with good lighting.
A good smooth primer and layers that are not thick will give you a better finish, plus a thin wash of the intermediate colour's after each layer helps blend in the layers.
Practice
Practice
Practice