Oil Slick

While you have seen me using the oil paints on vehicles, and a few larger figures as well, this is the first time I have tried to use them entirely on 'regular' infantry sized figures.

The whole idea behind the oils is to be able to paint much larger batches at once, as in 50-100, where I can rotate through the hordes and still be able to work the wet paint.

These will all begin with glazes using the Mig AMMO oils, which set up the subsequent painting with the Windsor Newton oil paints.  In effect, this mimics what I used to do when painting in 2D... taking some thinned down burnt sienna and 'priming' the canvas with it.

I put out a few basic wash colors, some which were more reddish and others more tan.

I did various glazes over the primer, which had been given some pre-shading, as you could see in the earlier image.  The Dark Wash is a very deep blueish brown, so that makes a nice dark glaze for the deepest shadows.

Just as I would on a vehicle, I can use the makeup sponges to remove some of the washes, revealing the lighter shading underneath.  Since the drying time is measured in days rather than minutes, I will be able to work my way through large batches of figures without having to worry about the paint being unworkable. 

Here's the final view of the glazed figures, all set for adding the actual oil paints!

Using the original glazes as a starting point, the thicker oil paints are placed on top, and then mixed together.  The thin layer of glazing helps to move the much thicker oil paints around.

I can also use the glaze colors on the palette to thin the oil paint if I need to.

The ability to continuously blend the oil paints together means that I can introduce something like light green, or a color that is quite different than the one already on the surface, and blend that together quite easily.

While I can do all this with the acrylic paints, it is not feasible to do so with the amount of figures that I will be working on.  Again, the idea is to expand the number that I can work on in one sitting.

I can continue to add more light colors, blending the new additions into what's already there.  If I don't like it, I can easily wipe it all away, which is yet another huge advantage!

Color unity is very easy to maintain when working like this.  All of the colors come from the same root beginning, which means that even figures that have different color coats or uniforms will still seem as if they all are in the same "environment".

It is also possible to go back in with darker colors, but they will have to be thinned down.  Remember that thick paint will stick to thinner paint (and vice/versa), but thick on thick will not work.  One paint must be a different consistency than the other, which is going to be very different for someone who has never worked in oils before.

I spent many years painting oils in 2D, so that is a lesson I learned decades ago. :-)

To work in the grays and greenish tones, I put some blue and yellow ocher out on the palette, and started to blend those into the existing shades.

The backpacks and straps were more of a yellowish tan, so you can see in the bottom image the various shades that I was able to get with just a few simple colors on the palette.  Mixing your own colors is what oils are all about!

Here's the batch of figures with some additional darks applied to the bases... and even a German MMG team that I tossed some paint on while I had it on the palette. Again, I was able to take advantage of the extended drying time.  Everything was still nice and wet the next day!

I wasn't actually in my home studio doing this, so the pictures were a little farther away than usual.  Also, this was just an experiment, to see what might happen!  I'm sure that I will rapidly develop new ways of doing this, which I will try to show you in subsequent posts and in facebook live sessions.

These are not actually finished yet, with mostly details on the faces to be painted, and the snow effects added too.... stay tuned!!