STS model painting month: WIP photos and discussion here

Hi everyone!
Dear STS friends, here we are it's May and the STS model painting month has started! You can share your work in progress pictures here in this topic
You can read more about this event here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
You can sign up with your before photo here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
And soon I will also share a link to the topic for all your finished projects!

So exciting, I can't wait to begin!

Yes, me too! Although, I can only start after the 10th of May. But I'm super excited to see everyone's works in progress Good luck, friends!

Burgerenby inspired me to try adding more a proper ruff to my dog, though I have nowhere near their talent. I finished the extra fur last night, so that's May 1 hah. Wonder if I should add a little more feathering to the tail and/or legs? I also cut off the ear tips and added new folded ones.
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Planning on making it sable, but if I don't like the results tri would be easier.

Folded ears are a great improvement - I admit I did wonder if you'd be doing something like that when I saw the 'before' pic, cos those original ears were rather blobby!

I'll be starting mine later, just seam and logo removal today so it'll be ready for painting next weekend - I don't like to paint after a working day, in winter my fingers hurt too much to handle a brush, in summer my hands and back just need a rest!

Already a progress of photo of your collie- so exciting!
I just love this dog, yours is definitely one of the models I am most excited to watch! And sable is a wonderful choice- just like Bonnie! I love how you have sculpted the face and ruff- you have got that expression they have just right, very proud and intelligent!

Here's today's progress update...

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With the unaltered zebra to compare to, you can see the most visible change in my quagga-to-be isn't the simple rubbing down of seams, which weren't bad at all on this model, nor the removal of logo and text, which was hidden underneath the belly, but adjusting the stance of all four limbs.

The zebra is quite wide-set anyway, with a larger space between the forelegs than it really needs, but made a lot worse-looking by the way all the legs were quite splayed out at an angle, with crooked pasterns and toes turned in on both front feet.
To sort out this issue, I held her in a glass of boiled water to soften the plastic, then repositioned the legs just by pushing with my fingers, holding them in place while the plastic cooled in the new position. It takes about thirty seconds per pair of legs, definitely effort well spent at the prepping stage, so I'm not forever annoyed by a wonky stance in the finished animal!

What an improvement just fixing the stance makes, George!

I didn't alter the face of my model, Bonnie, beyond the earset. My sculpting skills are quite nonexistent!
Since the photo, I've added more feathering to the underline and pantaloons. I think that exhausts my talents.

That is so clever, you have so many amazing tips and ideas when it comes to repainting/ re-sculpting animals!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Wow, from the way that you had re-sculpted the ears and ruff so that it all blended into the original model with the same colour of grey I thought that you had re-sculpted the whole dog! You have really matched the original style of the model so well!

Feel free to ask if you want any advice or tips on specific things, or just in general - I'm happy to share what I've picked up over the years from trial and error, other collectors' tips, and improvisation to make the most of materials on a budget! I think that's one of the nicest things about a forum, and especially a painting event like this - we can discuss techniques and ideas and share the ways we like to work, incase it helps other people, especially anyone just getting started.
But equally, it's important to emphasise that I'm never going to say MY way is better or right. It's just how things work best for me to get the results I want.

One of the reasons I wanted to take part in this is painting month is cos it seems such a friendly, appreciative, and supportive forum, with no snobbishness about what people want to collect or how they customise or repaint.
Before I found my happy niche in the hobby, with like-minded collectors, I used to be a bit put off showing or posting about my custom work. In the model horse hobby there used to be a lot of This Is The Only Right Way To Do It attitudes, and you could feel looked down on if you were just painting cheap models with a brush.
But thankfully attitudes have shifted a LOT in the last decade or so, and now it's way more about being inclusive and supportive and having fun, which is a much better atmosphere for new customisers to join in with. And that's exactly how it feels round here - no matter our taste in models or our experience level, we won't be judged or ignored or written off as a newbie dabbler, or an amateur who doesn't count cos they don't do things the 'proper' or 'professional' way.
It's the ideal place to try, learn, practise, experiment, take the tips which you feel you can work with and adapt them to your style, and never feel pressured into doing things anyone else's way

Well, I forgot today was a bank holiday here when planning my painting time, and found myself with a whole rainy afternoon and nothing better to do - so I've started colouring in my quagga already!
I'm taking progress photos as I go, so I'll be able to show how she develops, but I don't want to stop while it's working well, so I'll come back to add them later

Apologies for taking over the Work In Progress thread all afternoon, but it looks like I may be the earliest person to get started on painting, and someone has to go first...

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A brief look at the toolkit before I get going with the progress shots. These are my beloved Games Workshop Citadel paints. I've tried other paint brands and always ended up with a rough frustrating mess, these just suit me so well it's not worth trying anything else now. I use the Layer paints rather than the base ones or any of the new technical supposedly-better ones, these just blend so nicely with each other on the model, and leave a nice finish somewhere between matte and semi-gloss, just like the sheen on a healthy animal's coat.
The brushes are synthetic bristle multi-packs sold for nail art, they're reasonably cheap on ebay and I haven't found any others, no matter how pricey or specialised, which are a better firm-but-silky texture for my smudgey brush-painting technique. I like the fat brushes with ugly handles for body colours, then the finer ones with different shaped tips for detailing markings, patterns, spots, and faces.

Ok, on we go quaggawards!

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First paint on! And first point of discussion : you can see I don't use primer.
Shock, horror!
Back when I started painting, I was told I HAD to use it, so I bought a can from my favourite paint brand. Used it. I only really appreciated the stuff when painting white-greys or pintos when it did save time on getting the white base coat on! Eventually, the can ran out, and I couldn't afford a new one (they're nearly £10 each), so I decided to risk painting a horse without any.
Nothing bad happened.
It wasn't any more difficult to paint onto plastic than primer. The paint seems just as well-stuck-down without it. It doesn't get sticky, or crack, or discolour, or fall off, or whatever it is that's meant to happen if you break The Rules and paint with no primer.
Fifteen years on, I've done hundreds of customs without primer, and none of them have ever had issues with the paint finish either during painting or in the years afterwards. And I must've saved a small fortune in buying new cans of the stuff (well, not really 'saved', cos I just spent that money on more models instead )

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Second layer of paint down, and the stripes have disappeared into the off-white belly and sandy shading for the lighter parts.

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And now, some real colour coming in.
As I said in the other thread, the only photographs of a living quagga are in black and white, so I had to rely on taxidermy collections in museums to find the true colour.
They seem a varied sort of creature, with different specimens showing different shades of beige and brown, but I picked a middling example with good photographs available from different angles (the Berlin quagga, for those who know these well!)

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Filling in more of the brown colours with the next layers, luckily I have every shade of brown the paint brand makes, so I was able to mix them carefully for a nice match!

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And finally, some darkening along the top line, especially on the shoulders and the roots of the mane, and getting the face shading in.

Next time : Stripes!

Very exciting
It's a lot of fun watching someone painting something that I have recently painted myself too and seeing their approach. I recognize that there seem to be quite some variation in the brown hues and intensities of this species.

It's looking great so far

The collie also seems to be coming along nicely. And I think the ears are a great improvement! But most of all I think it is really nice that you are trying something challenging and that we can inspire each other to try something new

I think that variation is a great thing, though, cos it means none of our mini quaggas will be inaccurate, just copying different references (or possibly, painting one of the millions of individuals we don't have record of - so any paintjob can be imagined correct!)

Interesting to see your technique. Is your paint very thin? When I paint, I can barely see anything through it and I only need one layer. Perhaps I should thin it so that it blends in better and the transition between the colours is smoother.

When you put the legs into hot water to bend them, don't they bend back later? That's what always happens when I do this, unless I keep the legs in place for weeks/months. Perhaps the water I use isn't hot enough or perhaps the plastic is different (I mostly have Britains vintage figures).

The paint is about the texture of double cream, but I spread it very thinly by dipping just the tip of the brush in the colour and smudging it, rather than brushing it on thicker. Then you don't get brush strokes showing, and can build up the shading with layers.
I don't find thinning it down to be all that helpful, cos then it's just clearer, spreads further, and can look streaky or blotchy. Thick sticky paint applied in smudgey thin layers is my ideal. The only time I thin is for detailing, like marking edges or spots or pinking of noses (and I do that by licking the brush before touching the paint, but there's probably less disgusting methods too )

It does vary by plastic - Breyer Stablemate legs don't seem to warp back again, CollectA do if the models are in action poses with one leg supporting more weight at a tricky angle, but not if they're standing square on four feet like this zebra, so I think I'll get away with it for her. I've corrected Britains shires by putting something solid like a stone between their feet then abandoning them for months or years, by the time I get them out again and remove the stone, the legs have learnt the new position!

This is so interesting to read, and a beautiful start!

I've started working on mine too and I thought it would be nice to show a WIP picture too.

My little fennec got some experiment buddies that will be painted too and I'm going to use different techniques. Those two other two were printed with with some adjusted settings to try and get more detail and are prepped differently to remove the print lines and have some fur details.

But my official model for this challenge is still my first print that can be seen in the front of this trio :)

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Oh, so nice! I was intrigued about the word printed there, so I rummaged back through the forum and read about his creation as a one-off, and then how he gained little brothers - how brilliant to be able to duplicate your work and get to paint him more than once! I look forward to seeing what colours they all end up :)

So beautiful so far- I love all the different shades!

Adorable foxes!

George wrote:

The paint is about the texture of double cream, but I spread it very thinly by dipping just the tip of the brush in the colour and smudging it, rather than brushing it on thicker.

It does vary by plastic - Breyer Stablemate legs don't seem to warp back again, CollectA do if the models are in action poses with one leg supporting more weight at a tricky angle, but not if they're standing square on four feet like this zebra, so I think I'll get away with it for her. I've corrected Britains shires by putting something solid like a stone between their feet then abandoning them for months or years, by the time I get them out again and remove the stone, the legs have learnt the new position!

Thank you, it's good to learn about painting technique.

I didn't realise you could bend Breyers when they are hot, useful to know. I do the same with my Britains. The problem is when I want to bend them in a more complex shape; I'd need to put a fitting mould around it or so, but I haven't found a good way of doing this.

Seeing what other people are doing, my work is a bit of a joke. Today I started with the preparations. Actually, this is the hardest part, because I had to cut the tiny rat out of its frame. Because it is minuscule, it’s dangerous work, easy to cut off a finger.

It immediately went wrong, as my knife slipped and I cut off part of the rat’s tail! (Fortunately, I still have my fingers.) Well, perhaps it still has an acceptable tail left. The information paper that I got with these rats says that they are made to be black rats, but you can turn them into brown rats by shortening their tail and making their ears smaller. Cutting the tail is easily done, but their ears are trickier. They are less than 1 mm and if I used a knife, then I’d probably cut the whole ear off. So I decided to use sanding paper and I took perhaps 0.2 mm off. I don’t know whether you can see it. I am getting far-sighted, so I can hardly see the rat.
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I decided to paint a brown rat rather than a black one because black rats are smaller and would be too large for 1:32 scale. The head and body length of the rat is 8.2 mm, and the remaining part of the tail is 4.2 mm. In 1:32 scale, that is 26.2 and 13.4 cm. According to Wikipedia, brown rats have a head and body length of 15-28 cm and their tail is 10.5-24 cm.

Taking into account how small it is, the rat is very detailed.
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I think am just going to paint it in a single brown colour, except that I’ll try to give it black eyes. A paintbrush is too large, so I’ll use a needle and poke it into the rat’s eyes.

Wow- for something so tiny, you have done an amazing job!
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been working with pieces that are only a couple of millimetres or so- but already your rat is looking fantastic!

I've been trying to work on my little guy around work. My method is different from George's in that I do use very thin, watered layers of an already thin bodied paint (Golden Fluid brand acrylics), building from a lighter base on up. For that reason, I do find a light/white primer helpful- my paints can't cover.
Here is my guy with his body double, showing some of the added floof, and between paint layers so far.
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Beautiful work so far, it's a joy to see all those fantastic shades coming through in the Sable collie coat- all those goldens, reds, oranges and browns!