Need help painting skin.

[BrotherSargeantDaro]

Hello there my good fellows.

I have been painting miniatures for about 6 years, on and off, and am able to pull of acceptable models most of the time. Yet these models have all been Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k. These models don't have much flesh, usually faces and hands only, and whenever I could i used helmeted or fully covered heads to avoid the hassle of painstakingly painting the details. Yet with 100+ Romans and 20 more on the way (plus some greeks), I have ALOT of flesh to paint. I have always basecoated black, because it is my preference, but for painting skin I have began to slap on a thin layer of white over the arms and legs (which yields a thin, whitish coat that is semi seethrough) and then add the flesh.

My question is, what do you guys do? My flesh at the moment is somewhat pinkish (like a newborn babe) but I know that the girsly men of the ancient world would be weather and sun beaten, yielding a darker tone. Any ideas?

[sas_mike]

Hi,

I undercoat in white, usually with spray paint.

Flesh is then blocked in using GW 'Dwarf Flesh', this gives a bright tanned skin effect.

I then use Army Painter 'Strong Tone' dip, brushed on, not dipped. This mutes the colours and adds shading.

Add Matt varnish and an acceptable job, in my opinion.

Will try to post a couple pictures

[BrotherSargeantDaro]

would be much appreciated! I spray paint the entire model black, because it allows alot of natural shading on the rest of the model.

[redben]

It depends on how quickly I want to get them painted. If I'm speedpainting then I prime them (colour is unimportant for this), then one coat of Tallarn Flesh followed by a wash of either Devlan Mud or Sepia (I usually use the former if I need to pick out more detail). If I'm taking more time over them I'm currently using Bugman's Glow as a base, then a Reikland Flesh wash and building up two layers of highlight (with Foundry Flesh paints at the moment).

Obviously I'd alter this depending on the skin tone I was going for. Tallarn Flesh wouldn't be suitable for NE armies for example.

[westwaller]

@BrotherSargeantDaro,

Over a black undercoat I tend to start with a base of Vallejo Game Colour Dark Fleshtone 72.044 and build up to a lighter flesh colour from there- usually mixing a bit of Dwarf Flesh with the base coat for the next layer and then some almost pure Dwarf Flesh for the highlights. Another way you could do it is to mix Red Leather 70.818 ( Vallejo Model Colour) with a bit of Dark Flesh 70.927 (VMC) ,adding more dark flesh as you progress.
There are many ways of painting flesh as this link shows http://www.sdean-forum.co.uk/walk/blackfly/flesh6.html There is also thishttp://warlordgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3706 previous thread that you may find useful.

[Cubster]

I have colour mixes named 'European' and 'Aztec' flesh, which I used for Western European types and more mediterranean skin respectively (it was labelled Aztec just because that's what I was mixing it up for, but I use it for any Latin or Middle Eastern shades).

Basically the European colours are based more around a pinky peach palette and the Aztec around a brown and yellow palette, and I usually paint them both onto a black undercoat. If I want a more weather-beaten look I simply use the darker notes of the shades and for a more delicate shade the lighter notes. Inks and glazes are a great way to subtly influence a flesh shade without completely changing the colour - like if you want to depict a deep tan, blushing cheeks, ruddy glows, bruising, scars etc..

I've yet to mix up African or Oriental shades so I don't know about those.

[BrotherSargeantDaro]

It seems I have alot to experiment with still. For now I have adopted a GW bronzed flesh with some GW blood red mixed in (1:10 ratio) and then take that mixture and add GW pure white (1:8 ratio) and apply that over a pre painted white arms and legs.

[Augustus_Gaius]

Hey there, for romans i undercoat with army painter black spray

base of tallern flesh
shade in orgyn flesh
highlight the elf flesh
and then highlight with Vallejo white

all the GW paints have changed now though and i don't know the conversions names (it's on gw website)

heres the flesh on a red coat: (done with same method)

]

hope this helps