75mm Aradia Miniatures, The Green Knight

[PaulinKendal]

That base looks great, Paul. I must admit the only thing I use oils for is skin. Undercoat with appropriate acrylic and then oils over the top. You can then blend without worrying too much about base colour showing.
John.

That's interesting, John. Do you start with a pale acrylic undercoat and tone down with oils, or vice versa? What colours do you use?

[john hutton]

Paul,
Very nice model, a great canvas to work on some extremes of colour, weather you stick to the Green/Emerald boxart or go with your own scheme. i would say this figure will be a great choice for Oil paints especially the horse. Really looking forward to seeing how you decide to paint. excellent work on the scratchbuilt base too.

[JayCee]

Hi, Paul. I undercoat flesh areas with Vallejo Dark Flesh. The oils are a mix of White, Gold Ochre and Burnt Sienna. I mix approx 2 parts of Burnt Sienna to 1 part Gold Ochre. This gives the basic flesh colour. Trust your eye if it's right for you. Split this mix into 3. Add white to one part, this is for highlights. Add more Burnt Sienna to another third. This is for the shadows. Oils blend so easily they are perfect for flesh work. Make sure you use Gold Ochre and not Yellow Ochre otherwise the colour will go muddy.
Hope this is of use.
John.
P.S this is shamelessly cribbed from Shep Paine, the master himself.

[wotan]

Paul

Very nice progress. BTW you may not know that this figure comes from the 14th century poem called "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". You may want to check out the Wikipedia entry since the story is quite interesting and comes from the tradition of King Arthur and the Knights of the rouond table.

John

[PaulinKendal]

Ok, I'm back at this after a lovely long holiday.

I won't pretend I'm not struggling. Oils are completely different from acrylics, that's for sure.

As JayCee mentioned, there can be an issue with the primer showing through, and I've certainly suffered with that. As a result, darker colours (especially the black parts of the horse) have been slapped on impasto style - I'm not at all sure it's going to work, as they're likely to stay wet for a very long time! I've also struggled to brace my brush hand. With acrylics I can brace against the figure itself, but with wet oil paint everywhere that's not possible.

Never mind, I'll persevere...

I've used an oil pre-shade (slap oil paint on, wipe most off), but not blocked in colours in acrylic, which makes it a lot harder to get a smooth finish.

Oil on:
Oil off:
Lots of wet paint everywhere:

For the rider, I've pre-shaded his head and beard, and I'll be blocking in main colours in acrylics, to see if that makes life easier.

[PaulinKendal]

Well I put some images in my previous post, but they seem to have disappeared. I'll try again.

Oil on:


Oil off:


Lots of wet paint everywhere:



For the rider, I've pre-shaded his head and beard, and I'll be blocking in main colours in acrylics, to see if that makes life easier.

[Jim R]

That is going to be a stunner. Smaller than I imagined.

[Richard48]

Wow looking great so far.
Richard

[Steven000]

Nice paintwork so far Paul, interesting figures ??

[PaulinKendal]

Rider with main colours blocked in with acrylic paint. The black parts (actually very dark grey) will be metals.

[Tim Marlow]

Looking interesting Paul. Steep learning curve with oils, but the colours are always really vibrant so should suit this subject. They are really nice to handle, mixing smoothly like butter. Not done that much with them myself apart from a lot of experimentation and a few hundred ACW gaming figures back in the nineties, but I did discover liquin, and found it a useful tool to have in the armoury. It is an additive that is useful for fine detail as it increases the fluidity of the paint and makes it easier to put on thin coats and make glazes. My favourite was the fine stuff. Using it I found that oils handled much more like the paints I was used to, but retained the easy blending for which they are renowned. It also reduces drying times. It is essential to put the work under cover while it dries as well. It is a veritable dust and fluff magnet otherwise….

[PaulinKendal]

Thanks for the helpful comments, Tim Marlow . It's certainly a steep learning curve - where I'm at now I'm not sure I'll be inclined to continue using oils after this figure is completed. I'm missing the clean, quick-drying nature of acrylics, and the confidence in handling them that's not there with oils - I'm all at sea!

I'm currently thinking of reverting to acrylics for the final detailing - I just can't see myself achieving a precise finish with the slippery, shape-shifting qualities that clearly make oils so good for smooth blends.

And my choice of pinto markings for the horse was definitely a mistake - the filigree of patterns on the horse's coat, coupled with those black and white markings make for a really confused look.

I'll plug on with this and decide on whether it's worth trying again with oils once I've finished - his cloak could be an interesting test of the smooth blending potential of oils. Perhaps I'll introduce elements of oil painting together with acrylics, playing to their distinctive strengths? ?♂️

[Tim Marlow]

Not sure acrylics over oils would work that well Paul. Oil and water really don’t mix. Might need a barrier varnish coat between them? Worth a try on the liquin, by the way….

[PaulinKendal]

Not sure acrylics over oils would work that well Paul. Oil and water really don’t mix. Might need a barrier varnish coat between them? Worth a try on the liquin, by the way….

I'm intending to varnish before doing any acrylic detailing. We'll see how it goes.

[PaulinKendal]

This is nearing completion. I've struggled a lot with it, but learnt absolutely tons, so I'm well-happy over all. I'm going to put some snow on that base and call it done, I think.