Oil paints, anyone?

[LadyEyes]

Ok, so I have a few larger figures to do now, and on one in particular I want to do something that really stands out.

Who all here has experience doing minis in oils? The smaller two figures I could use for practice, and they are 72mm. The third is the one that counts more, and its about 90mm.

On the third one there's a large piece that I would love to do to look like black velvet, but I'm really uncertain how to do this. I'm thinking oils would make it different and definitely stand out, but could I get it to look more like velvet?

Any ideas and experiences would be a help at this point. I know we're talking an initial cost, extra drying time. I've been considering the water-based oils (yeah, I know it sounds weird).

Any thoughts, etc? Please?

[Skrit]

I'll follow this one closely as I would be interested in using oil based techniques also. Sorry I can't help you out though...

[DeadMilkman]

Didn't one of the brusthralls do an article on using oil paints? Let me take a look.

Edit: Indeed. Found two things on it.

Nomad w/ oil paints.

Vanguard w/ oil paints.

[Grenadier]

/me peeks in

Being a former oil painter before crossing to the dark side of acrylics (looks round for the inquistion, they ahven't found out I changed yet hehe) I may be able to help.

which figures are they so we can get an idea what they look liek etc, it may help us decide whats best.

There is marked differences in technique but in the end it all comes down to a transition in colour from highlight to shade.

Any specific questions?

Robin(grenadier)

[LadyEyes]

Well, my two possible trial pieces are the 2003 Holiday Sophie and the 2005 Holiday Sophie.

So, for instance, I really would like to make her outfit look like velvet. Would using oils accomplish this? Would it not, but it would then really stand out? What all would oils do, really?

It always seems I can pick out oil painted figures in historical stuff even in pictures. There's just a different quality to the look...

[fatgoblin]

the main difference between oils and acrylics is the drying time. This allows you to more easily blend the paint. This is esp useful for larger scales as the surface area is much larger. Also I feel that oil colours are much richer. Although acrylics has narrowed the gap tremendously in the last decade.

The oils tend to be rather gunky though so you will need to thin them down significantly with some sort of medium, I think most people use Liquin (sp?) of similiar.

I used to paint with oils for painting on canvas and found them to be lovely to work with. Too much effort for miniatures though as I want to get them done quickly. That said, you can get lovely results for show pieces, esp in larger scales as is your plan.

Anyway, what I use to do was to block in the major colours first in acrylic and get a rough picture down before I go over it with layers and layers of oils. Dunno if its any use to do something like that for a miniature though. But do remember that you can paint oils over acrylic but never paint acrylic over oils. Also keep the brushes for acrylics seperate from those you use with oils. I'm largely a self taught painter and I remember I was quite shocked when I first used oils and found out that you cannot wash your brushes with water... haha! You need to use turpentine or white spirit or similiar.

Do remember to allow proper time for it to dry, and restart another session larger on when you finish one part and go to the next. Would be irritating as all hell if you disturb and muck up and previously done part when it is still wet.

Good luck!

[Hosea]

I did use oil based (Tamaya, japanese double star) paint to paint Gundam models (Jap. animed rebots) and my feeling for that is ... it is relatively quite thick and sticky. If use it on mini, even a bigger scale, I think will have a hard time in doing blending, smooth color transitioning, and stuffs like that.

[fatgoblin]

thats why you need to thin it down