The eyes!

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Finally finished with the faces on my plastic German conversions. 20 of them. That's the nasty part out of the way - always hate doing faces.

Eyes next. Usually ends up with several attempt son each miniature to stop them looking bug-eyed or have the pupils half way down their cheek!

I shall be glad when this batch are finished - feel ever so rusty after not having time to paint for ages. Happy with some parts of the models and not so with others. Hopefully will be smoother for the next additions to the army. Actually I suppose I ought to think about what to add next...

[grant]

you could give us all a photo-tutorial!

I haven't paid eyes since GW days. I am going to start again though. I want my FJ to be the envy of the jumping-out-of-airplane world.

[mikeland]

I don't always bother to paint the eyes in on all minis, sometimes it just ruins them. I have tried various methods but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

But that is probably more due to my inefficiencies.

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Eyes done now. Not as bad as I expected. Phew.

Time for a session on the cross trainer before doing the chinstraps and helmets.

Not far to go now - it's about this point in a project that I get really excited and spend as much time as I can painting. The start of a project is always a struggle to keep motivated for me. The trick is to get something else underway about halfway through a unit so I'm always nearly finishing something. In this case I have 4 AWI Hessian Jagers and 4 riders for my 17th Dragoons to go at.

[westwaller]

Paul, don't you paint your eyes before the rest of the face? I believe it is a bit easier that way, as you can more easily correct the mistakes. Still difficult though...

[Cubster]

I put the eyes in after the flesh basecoat. Then the shaping and corrections can be done with more flesh basecoat before the highlight layers go in.

[Big Al]

I never paint the eyes! It would drive me mad. Take a look at a person who is far enough away that he/she looks about the size of a 28mm figure and see if you can see the eyes without the aid of a pair of bins. You can't, so I don't paint them in. I think that I got that from a Stan Catchpole article in Military Modelling a very long time ago and it's very true.

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

I never paint the eyes! It would drive me mad. Take a look at a person who is far enough away that he/she looks about the size of a 28mm figure and see if you can see the eyes without the aid of a pair of bins. You can't, so I don't paint them in. I think that I got that from a Stan Catchpole article in Military Modelling a very long time ago and it's very true.

But, but, but - I know they're there...

I've tried not doing them but I'm too stubborn not to try.

Believe me I'll be trying Cubster's method after all the faff I've been through today.

Chinstraps done - now for helmets and insignia. Hoping England don;t go to extra time as I really want to get the helmets and foliage sorted this evening.

[garth]

I just use a wash of Windsor and Newton Pate Brown, and if you do it correctly the ink falls naturally into the eyes.

[Cubster]

I never paint the eyes! It would drive me mad. Take a look at a person who is far enough away that he/she looks about the size of a 28mm figure ...

On a sunny day a person's eyes are hidden in shadow, on a dimmer day they are easier to see. It also depends at what distance you want to appreciate your lovely toys. Hold up a 28mm model to look at it, lean in to a model on the shelf or take a photo of some models and put them on the screen and you can see the difference between a figure with eyes and a figure without. On the table, who cares? Badly painted eyes just look nasty of course and can ruin the whole thing, but then badly painted anything looks nasty too. As a compromise you can just put the dark iris and top of the eye in over a pale flesh colour. It doesn't take as long as doing the eyes the traditional way and doesn't look half bad.

I would always encourage someone to practice painting eyes on display models, because improvement only comes through trying to push yourself somewhere new (ordinarily I would be all over that double entendre, but I need to go for a bath now).