Painting a 1:10 scale Bust
!
by
Stephen Mallia
 
Hauptsturmführer
(1:10 scale resin bust)
courtesy of El Viejo Dragon Miniaturas

 

Following the series of tutorials, particularly aimed at the novice painter, I’m glad to present you another topic: the preparation and painting of a bust. For this purpose, we chose a large scale bust, namely the Hauptsturmfuhrer (CB17) by El Viejo Dragon in 1:10 scale. The size is slightly larger than normal but this will be to our advantage as we can see better what’s going on, thus leading to better understanding.

 

Instead of boring you with a lot of words, I chose to take as many pictures as possible. In this way, I can add a clear description with every picture, making it a lot easier to understand.

 

Preparation

 

In all painting projects where stock figures are used, the basic preparation is somewhat similar. The only difference would depend on the way the figure is cast and divided. This bust consisted of four parts: the main body, head, left arm (including hat) and pedestal. Due to the good quality of the casting, cleaning was minimal and was done in the normal manner using needle files, sandpaper and some fine steel wool. Excess resin left from the casting process was first removed with a side cutter and then sanded down. This was only done because these were a bit large considering the size of the bust.

 

A metal pin was inserted at the neck centre and a corresponding hole drilled at the base of the head. Try to make the receiving holes slightly larger in diameter than the pins.

 

  
Another hole was drilled at the left shoulder and a brass rod inserted. Again a corresponding hole was drilled in the left arm. The pedestal and wooden base were centred at this stage. The pedestal was drilled right through so the steel rod would go from the bust, through the pedestal and down to the wooden base.

 

 

At this stage all the parts were glued with 2 part epoxy and left to dry. A little putty was needed at the left shoulder joint. This was applied after the glue had set and smoothened with isopropyl alcohol and brush along the shoulder contours. The bust was then primed with Citadel’s skull white primer in spray can.

 

 

 

The Eyes

 

With full figures I think that the prime focal point is always the face. With busts, where the face is more prominent, the eyes take that primary role. I will try to explain the way I paint the eyes. One of my rules of thumb is to never use pure white for the white of the eyes. It will make them look unnatural, in a stare.

 

 The first step I take is to paint the eyes with a light grey colour (AC60). Next I paint the pupils with black, trying to get them as even and the same size as possible. Note that the upper and lower edges of the pupil will not be visible.

 

 

Next I chose the actual colour of the eyes, in this case brown, and repaint the pupils. Only this time I leave a thin outer line of the black colour visible. So now we have a brown pupil with a black outline. At this stage I highlight the brown. I mix a lighter brown and apply an area about a quarter of the pupil. In this case it’s the left upper side.

 

Next comes the black smaller centre of the pupil. Try to make these as centred as possible. Now the real fun begins because the next steps will give life to the eyes. A catchlight is applied in pure white. It is applied in the same area as the brown highlight (direction of light), only this time it’s smaller and goes both from the black centre to the brown. You will now notice the eyes looking a lot better.

For the next step, some red paint is diluted in such a way that it looks like dirty water. Very carefully, apply some of this with just the brush tip at the inner corners of the eyes. You may have to repeat this step because the paint is so diluted that it won’t show at the first attempt. Now it’s time for all the outlining. I use black to outline the upper eyelid and dark brown for the lower. Look at the eyes to check if everything is correct and when happy apply a coat or two of gloss varnish.

 

 

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