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A few newbie questions

C

caireparavel

Member
Can you tell me the way you guys " hold" small pieces like grenades , packs, knives etc while you paint them ?

A lot of dioramas I see,have small brass plaques on them showing the name of the diorama , which look very professional
and add something to the finished diorama are these self made or do they have to be ordered ?

I have all kinds of troule with small helmet and uniform decals , is there a simple way to get them off the paper and
on to a 1/35 scale figure ? without attaching themt to my finger the dog,
a cotton swab or the tweezers from which they refuse to part ?

Painting eyes for me is a matter of complete and utter humiliation and frustration, has anyone tried the " eye decals " that archer sell
I have tried a lot of guides techniques etc but still end up painting the cheek instead of the eye. Pathetic I know.

sorry for all the basic questions , but any help whatsoever is greatly appreciated
 
Okay, for decals that are tiny, I cut close to the decal, use fine tweezers to dip it in some warm water. Then when ready to apply I hold the paper to the general area and use a round tooth pick to position it. Sometimes if I get the decal on me or it falls off I use the tweezers carefuly to place it.
For painting small pieces I usually attach them first then paint. Alternately you could try a tooth pick with a small dab of crazy glue or white glue to temporarily hold it. Just a touch of glue and somewhere that will be hidden later.

Eye, I have no luck. I have the archer decals but no luck there either, eyes are too tiny. Some people use a round tooth pick to paint the eyes.

Plaques, I have had mine made at a trophy shop when I use them. I know of some who print them on a shiny paper in a Laser Printer. I'm sure you'll get a lot of answers here.

Dont worry about questions, there is always someone else somewhere else wanting to know the same thing but too scared to ask. So please ask away so we all learn new tricks.
James
 
Good questions.
I was curious about the plaques as well ( but was too scared to ask.) :blush: :laugh:

On the small stuff I sometimes just lightly tack glue them on a piece of sprue or stretched sprue. If you just tack it lightly, it will usually snap off clean. Or drill a hole in the back of the piece that corresponds to a piece of small (1/32" or 1/64" diameter) music wire and put it on the wire as a handle.. I usually just use a piece of masking tape sticky side up to hold multiple parts for spraying.

Cheers,

Bill

Parts on tape.
"yes, you will have to flip some of them over, but the Tamiya acrylics that I use to spray dry very fast"
It's easier than trying to hold them or put them on a stick.

 
caireparavel said:
Can you tell me the way you guys " hold" small pieces like grenades , packs, knives etc while you paint them ?
Click to expand...

My fat fingers, course my painting sucks. Depending on the item I'll drill a hole in a hidden spot and glue brass rod or wood or whatever up in there and have a head on a stick, or whatever the item is.

caireparavel said:
A lot of dioramas I see,have small brass plaques on them showing the name of the diorama , which look very professional
and add something to the finished diorama are these self made or do they have to be ordered ?
Click to expand...

Never built something worthy of that but I would hit a local trophy shop, I'm sure there are some engraving folks out on the internet.
 
caireparavel said:
sorry for all the basic questions , but any help whatsoever is greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

Ask away, that's what you joined up for and what we're here for. :drinks

The questions you have about the figure painting may get results by asking in our Fettes Figure Forum where our Figure Painting experts hang out.

https://www.modelersalliance.com/forum/fettes-figure-forum
 
A good source for plagues is also Ebay. I ordered one off there and it cost about 4 bucks and I got it in about a week. Here is the guy I bought mine from http://www.ebay.com/itm/Engraved-Brass-Plate-Engraving-Picture-Plaque-Name-ID-Tag-Trophy-Flag-Box-case-/160995670305?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257c16f921
 
caireparavel said:
Can you tell me the way you guys " hold" small pieces like grenades , packs, knives etc while you paint them ?

A lot of dioramas I see,have small brass plaques on them showing the name of the diorama , which look very professional
and add something to the finished diorama are these self made or do they have to be ordered ?

I have all kinds of troule with small helmet and uniform decals , is there a simple way to get them off the paper and
on to a 1/35 scale figure ? without attaching themt to my finger the dog,
a cotton swab or the tweezers from which they refuse to part ?

Painting eyes for me is a matter of complete and utter humiliation and frustration, has anyone tried the " eye decals " that archer sell
I have tried a lot of guides techniques etc but still end up painting the cheek instead of the eye. Pathetic I know.

sorry for all the basic questions , but any help whatsoever is greatly appreciated
Click to expand...

Hello mate lots of good questions there,...

I often paint small details on a thin slab of blutac paint one side black or dark brown turn it over then paint all the details,..its then ready to attatched to your figure.

Nameplates or plaques can be gained from any engraving shop although I have not done this myself

I mostly use Archer and alliance modelworks decals on my figures,...Archer decals are dry print and you can burnish them off just like letraset especially on helmets you can also use them wet,..I believe theres an SBS section on the Archer website,..please ask for more details on this

As a rule I do not paint eyes on a 1/35 figure I put a dark line on the upper eyelid and then a small dot of black underneath that, It is ok to do that if you do not paint the eyeball as white colour but a basic fleshtone it looks much better that way. Eyes are a right pain to paint and I have yet to master them myself.

I would say that to paint small details then get yourself a No 5 lens Optivisor, hobbytownusa sell them

As for getting paint on the cheek,..well we have all done that mate a touch of fleshtone gets rid as long as you paint the eyes first

Well I hope I have helped somewhat with some of these answers and if not please please shout out

Andy
 
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